Sparkle is an award-winning author, blogger, advice columnist and supermodel. She is also a cat – a ruddy Somali of champion lineage, in fact, whose father, GC Tajhara’s Miles Davis, was twice on the cover of Cat Fancy. Sparkle’s first book, Dear Sparkle: Advice from One Cat to Another, won the Wild Card category at the 2007 Hollywood Book Festival and honorable mentions in several other contests. She also recently came home with the Pettie Award — the pet blogging equivalent of an Oscar — for Best Cat Blog. Sparkle lives in Los Angeles with two humans, two feline roommates (both rescue cats), and (unfortunately) a dog.
Dear Sparkle: Cat-to-Cat Advice from the World’s Foremost Feline Columnist (Adams Media) is her second book.
You can visit Sparkle’s blog at http://www.sparklecat.com.
Thank you for this interview, Sparkle. Can we start out by having you tell us briefly what your new book is about?
It’s about helping cats better cope with the problems they have in their day to day lives. You know how humans write to Dear Abby? Well, I’m sort of like Dear Abby with claws, and cats write to me about their issues. Whether it’s a human who calls a cat annoying nicknames, an unsatisfactory new litter box, or a puppy that’s eaten the catnip stash, I have the answers to just about everything that has been thrown my way. The book is also full of color photographs of me illustrating the problems. It just won the USA Book News “Best Books 2010” award for Best Interior Design AND for the Animals/Pets: Novelty category.
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 am an indoor-only cat, so doing a physical book tour would be kind of difficult. Also, I don’t speak English (although I write it and understand it pretty well when it is spoken to me), so that also makes personal appearances difficult. Doing a virtual book tour makes all those issues mute.
Is this the first time you have heard of them? If not, where did you hear of them?
I’ve seen other human authors do them, and thought it would work even better for a kitty.
As you know, a virtual book tour involves – among other things – interviews and guest posts. Do you prefer one over the other?
No preference, really. I like interviews if the questions are good (not all humans come up with great interview questions, I’ve discovered!), and guest posts are easy as long as I can come up with a topic or a good one is given to me. I do have a lot to say, since humans seem to be fairly clueless about what goes on in a cat’s mind (which is why I started giving advice to other cats in the first place).
Some authors prefer an all review tour. Can you tell us if you are one of them and why or why not?
I like getting reviews (well, good ones, of course), but I don’t think an all review tour is much fun. You don’t get to know the author, and I think that in this day and age, both humans and cats want to know the personality behind the book.
What do you hope to achieve through promoting your book through a virtual book tour?
Lots of book sales! My human has promised that if my book goes into royalties, then I can get a new cat tree. So I am pretty anxious for that to happen.
Do you promote online through other means? Website? Blog?
I have a blog, http://www.sparklecat.com, and of course I talk a lot about my books there. The cat blogging community is very family-like. We are all very close, and we always try to help other cats in need. So my blog is really much more than just a tool to promote my book. It’s like my home online that my pals can visit. But yes, I do occasionally have promotion for my books there.
Who maintains your website/blog?
I let my human take care of all the behind-the-scenes work – finding a webmaster to do the major upgrades, adding apps and plugins, messing around with the layout and design, etc. I do the writing and pose for the photographs… and I oversee everything. Nothing goes live without my paw of approval. I have been known to jump on the desk and whap my human if I think she is not on top of things (or if she is late getting me dinner). I guess this means I am not easy to work for, but things do get done around here!
What are your experiences with offline booksignings? Do you have much luck selling your book through that method?
Since my human is credited as photographer on the book, I allow her to make occasional appearances and do book readings. When she does readings, it almost always results in books selling right away! And I usually send her off with some PAWtographed bookplates to put into the books purchased. If anyone who buys a book wants a PAWtographed bookplate, they can contact me through my blog for my mailing address and send me a self-addressed stamped envelope, and I will send them one back.
Here’s a fun question. If money were no object, how would you promote your book?
Oh, that’s easy! Since I am an indoor-only cat who does not like to travel, I would do a book tour in reverse and fly cats (and humans) to my house and make appearances at home.
Thank you for this interview, Sparkle. Do you have any final words?
PLEASE buy my book! I really, really want that new cat tree!
To visit Sparkle’s official virtual book tour page, click here!