by Alvin Ramirez July 25, 2013
In this post, we review Dr. Angela Lauria’s Book Journeys interview with author Christine Brown-Quinn, author of Step Aside Super Woman: Career and Family Is for Any Woman.
Christine and her husband were a working couple, both of whom are in high-powered jobs, with Christine working in the finance industry for twenty years, who have also raised children. During this time, Christine realized that the lessons she learned in her professional life, such as delegating, helped her out in her personal life, and the things she learned in her personal life, such as communicating, helped her out in her professional life.
The idea for the book came about when she was asked to give a talk at the launch of a womens’ network at the bank she was working at. Christine wondered why she would be a speaker and was told that people would be interested to know how she could be a financial director and still raise a family. From that incident, Christine realized she could serve as a counselor based on her experiences, and then began putting some of her ideas together on Powerpoint while talking to people about some ideas for her book. Christine began writing out her book in November and finished it in March of the following year, after which she then began researching on publishers, finally settling on Bookshaker in June.
Christine found that working on her book proposal was familiar territory, as it was essentially a business proposal, which she was already adept at creating. Some of the questions asked of her by the publisher was if she had a Facebook account, if she had a website and, if so, how many hits it had, and the like. Angela noted that publishers look for an author’s marketing strategy in book proposals, as these would be taking a risk with their time and resources, and would thus want to know what’s in it for them. Christine noted that an author can write a fantastic book, but unless the author knows the book’s target’s audience, it won’t go anywhere, to which Angela added that the burden of marketing the book falls on the author, who is, in any event, the best one to sell the book, as Christine noted.
During the interview, Angela noted that, prior to 2005 or so, book publishing was limited by physical book shelf space in bookstores, and this meant that an author needed to be an expert to get his book published. In the present environment, without the limitations of book shelf space, the number of published books has grown greatly, and an author can become an expert in the process of writing his book.
For Christine, one of the most gratifying parts of being an author is getting feedback, and in this regard gave the example of a woman who contacted her and told her that her book made the woman realize that the latter was a great mother, at a time when the woman was going through a hard time in her life. Thanks to that, and to a LinkedIn connection, the two met up in San Francisco for coffee, during Christine’s book tour.
Listen to the Christine Brown-Quinn Interview on Book Journeys Radio
DOWNLOAD Book Journeys Author Interview – Christine Brown-Quinn – July 25 2013
Watch out for Angela’s interview with another exciting author.