Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Book Clubs




The Dillonvale Library





Last week and this week I had the privilege of speaking at two book club meetings. The first was at the Dillonvale Library (above photo) in Dillonvale, Ohio, and the second was at the Calvary Presbyterian Church in St. Clairsville, Ohio. The book clubs had chosen my novel, The Healing Place, as their book of the month. I'd written The Healing Place in 1999 and published it in 2001. The first edition sold out a couple of years ago, but there are 22 copies available at various libraries in Ohio.

This summer I'm working on a rewrite of The Healing Place. After writing four novels, I can more easily see the weaknesses, POV problems, grammar mistakes, and stilted dialogue of that first novel. Yet the readers have really enjoyed the characters and plot of The Healing Place despite all the problems usually associated with a self-published, rookie novel. Its popularity testifies to the importance of storytelling--readers are willing to forgive an imperfect manuscript if they find the story compelling.

Hopefully this second edition will be available through Upper Ohio Valley Books this September. Many people have already expressed a desire to get a copy of the new edition.

Another neat thing about speaking at book clubs is the opportunity it gives an author to promote his or her latest novel. Most of the club members wanted signed copies of Murder at Whalehead. Word-of-mouth publicity can make a huge difference as readers spread the good word. Besides that, I enjoy speaking at book clubs because it's fun to talk about my own book. It's like talking about one of my kids.

Talk to you later,

Joe C. Ellis

CLICK HERE to view video trailer
Link to front cover: CLICK HERE (Click on cover to enlarge)
Link to back cover: CLICK HERE (Click on cover to enlarge)
Link to first eleven chapters:CLICK HERE
Visit my website at http://www.joecellis.com/

3 comments:

urstrulysje said...

i feel the same way about talking about my parents ;)

luv you lots papa!!

talk to you soon :)

Joe C. Ellis said...

Okay, Dr. Sarah. Have a good day healing the sick!

Love you too!

Dad

Jessica Marshall said...

Hi, Mr. Ellis!

Glad to see both you AND Sarah have a Blogspot account!

Have a great day & see you guys soon!