Monday, July 29, 2013

Girl Who Wears Many Hats and a #Giveaway


Please welcome Donna Huber today, the author of  Secrets to a Successful Blog Tour. She's here to discuss the roles she fulfills - not many people can juggle so many things at once!




Hi! I'm Donna, but you might know me as Girl Who Reads. I learned a few years ago at a book event that I was better known by my online persona. I created the persona in 2009 when I joined an online story site. Most members of the group were writing their own stories, but I was adamant that I was not Girl Who Writes.

Over the past four years, though, my role as Girl Who Reads has expanded and most days I wear many hats.

Girl Who Pushes Papers - This is my day job. I've been an administrative associate in a research lab at the local university for over 12 years.

Girl Who Promotes - In late 2010, I heard of a group of women from the writing community who were establishing an independent small press to help new authors get published. I had experience with organizing and promoting events from my years of volunteer work. So, I contacted the publisher about helping their authors set up book signings and media coverage. Over the next 14 months, I got a crash course on the publishing industry. And in the process I obtained a new hat.

Girl Who Blogs - While searching for ways to get our books discovered by readers, I discovered the wonderful community of book bloggers. Not only was I responsible for promoting the books published, I also worked with authors to build their brand. I'm an experiential learner. I have to do something on my own in order to teach others. Blogging is an important component of an author's platform. In 2011, I started Girl Who Reads blog to experiment with blogging techniques as well as better understand the book blogging community I wanted to introduce our books to.


Girl Who, um, Writes? - Last year, I joined a group of bloggers and authors who were doing events to promote indie authors. A couple of the authors encouraged me to write a book based on my blog's Tips on Thursday series. I still was not convinced I could do it. I wrote some articles for The Indie Exchange and received a good response. I then submitted an article to my state's writer association's monthly newsletter and it was published. Over Christmas last year, I started compiling my tips posts into a book. But it was overwhelming and I shelved the project. The idea though continued to nag me and I thought about a smaller project.

At the same time I was freelancing with a several authors and many had the same questions about how to best market their books. In May, I found myself with some time on my hands and one weekend I took one of my moreasked-for posts along with a few others, and wrote Secrets to aSuccessful Blog Tour. 



Like most hats, the writing hat will take some time to feel comfortable on my head. But for fans of Girl Who Reads, don't worry - it's my favorite hat.


Find more about Donna and her books:
On Goodreads
and 

Find Secrets to a Successful Blog Tour

And join the Rafflecopter giveaway here:


a Rafflecopter giveaway

7 comments:

Girl Who Reads said...

Thanks for hosting me today. I've never been good with having a lot of free time.

Alison DeLuca said...

Thanks for kicking off your tour here - so lovely to have you and your hats on the blog. :)

Joan Hazel said...

I purchased Secrets to a Successful Blog Tour a week or so ago and am looking forward to reading it! Blessing.

Catherine Stine said...

Inciteful post! Good luck with your tour.

Ross M Kitson said...

Interesting reading- what a lot of hats!

Girl Who Reads said...

@Joan - I hope you find the book helpful. I'm always willing to answer questions.

@Catherine - Thank you. It's a little odd being on this side of the tour.

@Ross - Thanks for stopping by. I love hats.

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