Author Genre: Mystery & Thrillers
Website: Angela Henry
Author's Blog: The Paris Secret Blog
Twitter: @MystNoir
Goodreads: Check Out Goodreads
Facebook: Check Out Facebook
Pinterest: Check Out Pinterest
Amazon Author Profile
Author Description:
Angela Henry was once told that her past life careers included spy, researcher, and investigator. She stuck with what she knew because today she's a mystery writing library reference specialist, who loves to people watch and eavesdrop on conversations. She's the author of four mysteries featuring equally nosy amateur sleuth Kendra Clayton, and is also the founder of the award-winning MystNoir website, which promotes African-American mystery writers, and was named a "Hot Site" by USA Today.com. When she's not working, writing, or practicing her stealth, she loves to travel, is connoisseur of B horror movies, and an admitted anime addict. She lives in Ohio and is currently hard at work trying to meet her next deadline.
SPOTLIGHT Questions and Answers with the Author
First things first. Let’s start with what’s next. Can you tell us the timeline for its release and give us a little tease?
My next book will be Doing it to Death, the sixth book in my Kendra Clayton mystery series. I hope to have it out sometime this summer.
You have a good following on twitter. Since you started before the social media buzz, what impact has social media relationships had on your current success? How did you build your following in your niche? How much has it changed your book launch process?
Social media has had a positive impact on my building my readership. My first book was published at a time when authors relied solely on their publishers to market and promote their books. Nowadays, whether you're a traditionally published author or self-published, book marketing and promotion is up to you. Social media can have a big impact on getting the word out about your books. And with the rise of ebooks, authors can't afford not to include a big online push when they launch a new book. You have to go where the readers are and for the most part they're online.
Do you do any book signings, interviews, speaking and personal appearances? If so, when and where is the next place where your readers can see you? Where can they keep up with your personal contacts online?
I rarely do book signings these days. But I do online interviews. I'm also one of the hosts of Idobi Radio's Geek Girl Riot where I do book and movie reviews and discuss pop culture and all things geeky with my fellow Geek Girls!
You have a great book trailer. (See link below.) It looks very professional. Do you know how much impact it has had on your book’s success? Tell us about the process that you used to create your trailer? Do you use the trailer in your character development? Are the pictures and background the way you see your characters and scenes?
Thank you! I actually created that book trailer myself using an online service called Animoto and some free stock photography. I have no idea if it's had any effect on my book sales. But I had a lot of fun making it. I view book trailers as just one piece of a bigger picture when it comes to marketing and promoting. I tried not to be too literal when I was making it. The trailer is just supposed to peak interest in the book so maybe readers with go searching for more information to decide it they'd like to buy.
A couple of your novels have been converted into audio books. What has been the impact on your regular sales? Has the audio books gained a new audience for you? Do you recommend new authors going this route to get more exposure?
It's hard to say if my audio books have had an impact on my book sales. But I think it's to an author's advantage to have their books available in as many formats as possible, including foreign editions.
I like the idea of bundling a series of novels. You have put together a set of your novels called Kendra Clayton Mystery Box Set. What was the impact on your other sales? What was your main objective in bundling your novels?
Digital boxed sets are very popular right now and my reason for bundling my first three books is to introduce readers to my Kendra Clayton series at a lower price point than buying the books separately. Typically people who've picked up the boxed set, go on to purchase the next two books, as well as my other, non Kendra books.
What has been your experience in giving your books away free? Have you been involved in any other type of giveaways and how did that work out? What was your main goal in doing this? Did you run into any obstacles?
I've had my books listed the holy grail of all discount newsletters called Bookbub and gave away upwards of 50,000+ books. And, yes, it absolutely had a positive impact on my book sales in the form of increases sales and positive reviews. I've gained so many more readers as a result, which is why I did it.. I've done other giveaways but none have had the same impact as Bookbub.
Do you maintain a reader list? What are the methods you use to find your readers and create the list and the relationship? Do you use social media, forums, newsletters and/or support groups to build your list?
I have a newsletter but beyond the occasional giveaway, I don't do much to grow my list. I do plan on being more proactive with list building in the future.
You have published your books in Spanish and Portuguese. How is your audience abroad? Does marketing online help in this situation?
I've not marketed my foreign translations beyond the occasional price reduction. I've had sales so I know people are reading the books. Since I don't speak Spanish or Portuguese it would be hard to actively market my titles abroad.
What is your method of getting reviews for your novels? Do you seek professional reviews, use social media or do you rely on your reading audience to supply them?
I don't actively seek out reviews like I used to in the past when I first started. I've noticed that when I run a discount or free promotion my reviews increase. I also have a message at the end of my ebooks asking readers to please leave a review.
Author's Book List
Knight's Fall
Xavier Knight was an angel—until Heaven kicked him out. Now he’s a private detective in New Orleans, trying to put his old immortal life behind him while avoiding Lucifer’s bounty hunters. But when his latest case uncovers a plot to end the world with a supernatural drug, he’ll need all the otherworldly help he can get to stop it.
An apprentice mage on the run, a nosy storefront psychic, a vial of angel blood, and a surly cherub are hardly the stuff of legends. But they’re all he’s got.
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Amazon
Sly, Slick & Wicked
- Kendra Clayton Series Book 5Dumped by her boyfriend, stalked by an escaped murderer out for revenge, and ignored by friends and family busy with their own love lives, Kendra Clayton is not having fun. When she stumbles over the dead body of local art dealer Justin Ramey, things get even worse. Kendra's least favorite person, Joy Owens, needs her help to clear her best friend—Justin's estranged daughter, Pia—of his murder. And she won't take no for an answer!
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Amazon
Barnes and Noble
KOBO Store
Audible
Schooled In Lies
- Kendra Clayton Series Book 4GED instructor Kendra Clayton’s high school days were nothing to brag about. So she’s not too thrilled when on top of having to take a class to renew her teaching certificate or be fired, she gets roped into serving on her high school’s reunion committee.
Spending time with her former classmates is even less fun than having a root canal. Then to make matters worse, Kendra and the other committee members start receiving strange messages and having freak accidents. When one of the accidents results in a death, Kendra is convinced it’s murder. Unfortunately, neither the reunion committee nor the police take her seriously.
To try and prevent another death—and to keep from worrying about all the time her sweetie, Carl, has been spending with his scheming ex-wife—Kendra digs into the lives of her fellow committee members and uncovers enough secrets, lies, and betrayal to make her head spin. When a second murder occurs, Kendra realizes she needs to watch her back in her search for the truth before a killer turns her into another buried secret.
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Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Diva's Last Curtain Call
- Kendra Clayton Series Book 3Part-time GED instructor Kendra Clayton's spring break is proving to be anything but relaxing. First her best friend, Lynette, suffers a major panic attack days before her wedding and vanishes. Then her sister, Allegra, who craves attention the way Kendra craves hot fudge cake, arrives in town determined to land an interview with screen legend Vivianne DeArmond for the TV show Hollywood Vibe.
But Allegra's interview plans hit a glitch when she discovers the diva's lifeless body in her dressing room, stabbed in the back with a letter opener. The police peg Allegra as the prime suspect, but Kendra knows her sister is no murderer, even if she is guilty of acting a little too friendly around Kendra's man lately.
As Kendra starts to investigate and whittle down the list of Vivianne's enemies, she uncovers some surprising Hollywood secrets. But she'll need to act fast. Because every step toward the truth puts her in danger of becoming the victim of a ruthless killer's encore performance . .
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Amazon
Tangled Roots
- Kendra Clayton Series Book 2For Kendra Clayton life is good—for about five minutes. Then her sweetie, lawyer Carl Brumfield, leaves town to help out his sister in Cleveland. Her soon-to-be-married best friend picks out a hideous bridesmaid's dress for her to wear (a sequined Smurf-blue nightmare with a bow on the butt). The work she loves as a part-time GED instructor turns into the job from hell when a retired kindergarten teacher with the personality of a piranha becomes her new boss.
And to top it all off, Detective Trish Harmon of the Willow, Ohio, police department shows up at her class looking for Kendra's favorite student, a troubled young man named Timmy who has been straightening out his life.
A pretty local beautician is dead, and Timmy is suspect number one. When he later shows up at Kendra's apartment begging for help, it's only one more step before Kendra's back on the road to trouble again, trying to find the real killer, stepping over the line from a nice safe life into danger…and getting tangled in the deadly roots of desire.
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Amazon
Barnes and Noble
The Company You Keep
- Kendra Clayton Series Book 1Hard as she tried, twenty-eight-year-old Kendra Clayton never quite broke out of her hometown of Willow, Ohio. Now she works part-time as a GED instructor and beefs up her income by hostessing at her uncle’s restaurant, soaking up the local gossip. It’s a quiet life, but Kendra hasn’t given up hope that one day Mr. Right will walk through the door. In the meantime, her sleepy hollow is about to get a rude awakening, and Kendra is about to get some excitement—though it’s not quite what she had in mind.
When her friend Bernie's boyfriend, a notorious womanizer, is brutally murdered, both she and Kendra are implicated in the crime. The only way Kendra can save herself—and the friend she believes is innocent—is by doing some investigating of her own. And the closer she looks, the more suspects she finds.
Jordan was a man that women loved and hated—usually at the same time. Now one of them has crossed that thin line. But between Jordan’s past and present conquests—and a chain of emptied wallets and vengeful hearts—which one could be a killer? As Kendra’s curiosity draws her deeper into the case, she also gets into an unexpected attraction to a man who may hold the missing piece of the puzzle—if she can survive long enough to put it together.
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Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Audible
The Paris Secret
Less than twenty-four hours after fleeing to Paris, Maya Sinclair is the prime suspect in a brutal murder—and targeted by the real killer. When she's viciously attacked in the gardens of Versailles, Maya barely escapes with her life thanks to sexy French journalist Simon Girard.
Simon has been investigating the mysterious death of his brother, an art forger with ties to the woman Maya is suspected of killing. Still healing from heartbreak of his own, Simon reluctantly joins forces with Maya, who has awakened feelings within him he thought long dead.
Their search for answers uncovers the existence of a secret society, and puts them on a quest to find a missing crucifix rumored to hold the key to everlasting life. Together, Maya and Simon race through Paris one step ahead of a killer who will do anything to ensure some secrets remain buried forever…
Book Trailer: The Paris Secret
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Amazon
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KOBO Store
Audible
Author Recommended by: HBSystems Publications
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