Talking Virtual Book Tours with Thriller Author James Hayman

The Cutting by James Hayman

Like the hero of The Cutting, James Hayman is a transplanted New Yorker. Born in Brooklyn and raised in Manhattan, he spent more than twenty years writing TV advertising for clients like The U.S. Army, Lincoln-Mercury and Procter & Gamble. He moved to Portland, Maine in 2001. Four years later he decided to scratch a lifelong itch to write fiction and began work on his first suspense thriller featuring homicide detective Mike McCabe. St. Martin’s/Minotaur bought rights to The Cutting and published it in July 2009. Hayman is currently at work on the second McCabe novel.

James Hayman will be on a virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book Promotion Virtual Book Tours in October and November and is here with us today to give his impression of virtual book tours and online book marketing.

Thank you for this interview, James.  Can we start out by having you tell us briefly what your new book is about?

Certainly. THE CUTTING is the first in a new series featuring Michael McCabe, a top NYPD homicide detective and a single father who decides to leave New York and move to Portland, Maine. He hopes Portland will be a safer place to bring up his young teenage daughter, Casey.

Unfortunately, things don’t quite turn out that way. When the body of a young girl, only a little older than his own daughter, is found in an abandoned Portland scrap-yard with her heart surgically cut from her body, McCabe quickly realizes two things. First, (to quote from the book), “No matter how far he runs, no matter how well he hides, he’ll never leave the violence or his fascination with it behind.”

And second, that he has only a few days to track down a brilliant and vicious psychopathic killer before he strikes again. Perhaps very close to home.

More and more authors are realizing the potential for sales that derives from virtual book tours.  Can you tell us your personal reasons why you chose a virtual book tour to help get the word out about your new book?

I believe the Internet is an amazing tool that allows us to reach to people who love books and reading in a highly targeted way in ways that are simply not possible offline. A virtual book tour can accomplish many of the same goals as a physical book tour but do it faster, easier and at far less expense.

Is this the first time you have heard of them?

Yes.

What do you hope to achieve through promoting your book through a virtual book tour?

I want to convince people to read THE CUTTING, period. I don’t care whether they buy the book, borrow it from a friend or check it out from their local library. I just want them to read it.

I truly believe once they’ve discovered the series they’re going to want to keep on reading about McCabe and the other characters for a long, long time.  At least it’s worked that way so far.

Almost everybody I’ve heard from who’s read THE CUTTING tells me that, once they started the book, they couldn’t put it down. They love the characters. And they can’t wait for the second McCabe thriller to come out.  What more could I ask?

By the way McCabe#2 is scheduled to come out next July. Tentative title: THE CHILL OF NIGHT.

Do you promote online through other means?  Website?  Blog?

I do have a website, www.jameshaymanthrillers.com.  There’s a blog on the site. And over the next month or so I plan to start a new blog about mysteries and thrillers.

Do you promote through Twitter and Facebook?  What are your links there?

Yes. There’s a Facebook Fan Page for THE CUTTING.  The link is http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/thecutting?ref=ts

And FB is connected to my Twitter page.  I invite everybody to take a look.

What are your experiences with offline booksignings?  Which do you prefer – online or offline and can you give us the reasons why?

Like most debut authors, I get the best turnout as a local author. I’ve had a number of excellent book signings in Maine and Massachusetts and also one in northern New Jersey where I used to live.  I also enjoy interactions with readers through my website and on the Facebook fan page.

Here’s a fun question.  If money was no object, how would you promote your book?

I’d send a free copy of THE CUTTING to everybody in America. At least everybody who likes reading good thrillers. If I did that, sales for THE CUTTING would be zero. But that’d be okay. Sales for the next ten McCabe thrillers would go through the roof.

Thank you for this interview, James.  Do you have any final words?

Yes. If you do read THE CUTTING and you like it, please let me hear from you either through my website or through Facebook. In fact, even if you don’t like it, let me hear from you. It’s important for writers to know what readers are thinking.

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