Brain to Books Blog Tour
Just the Facts
Author: Gisela Hausmann
Genre: Non-Fiction books that every author needs!
Books: The Naked Truth series
- NAKED TRUTHS About Getting Book Reviews
- NAKED WORDS The Effective 157-Word Email
- Naked News for Indie Authors How NOT to Invest Your Marketing $$$
- Naked News for Indie Authors: How to Get on TV
- Naked Determination, 41 Stories About Overcoming Fear (Gold at Readers Favorite Award 2014)
- And a few more…
Bio
Gisela Hausmann is a marketing and mass media expert.
The author of seventeen books, she publishes books under her “naked” brand of books, meaning Gisela publishes “no-fluff” books.
Born to be an adventurer, Gisela has also co-piloted single-engine planes, produced movies, and worked in the industries of education, construction, and international transportation. Gisela’s friends and fans know her as a woman who goes out to seek the unusual and rare adventure.
A unique mixture out of wild risk-taker and careful planner, Gisela globe-trotted almost 100,000 kilometers on three continents, including to the locations of her favorite books: Doctor Zhivago’s Russia, Heinrich Harrer’s Tibet, and Genghis Khan’s Mongolia.
Gisela Hausmann graduated with a master’s degree in Film & Mass Media from the University of Vienna. She now lives in Greenville, South Carolina.
Links
Angela B. Chrysler: Tell us a little about yourself. (How did you get started writing? What do you do when you’re not writing?
Gisela H. Actually I started my career in book design. My fiancé and I decided to self publish an aerial photography coffee-table book about Vienna, Austria. I designed the book. This was a bit more complicated than it sounds. I had to design a system which a) explained the location of each picture to an audience which might not be familiar with looking at Vienna from the air, plus each picture got related to all others so readers could really “see all of Vienna” and picture the city as a whole.
ABC: Is this your first book? How many books have you written prior (if any?) List other titles if applicable.
Gisela H. 18 books. My most important books are
- NAKED TRUTHS About Getting Book Reviews
- NAKED WORDS The Effective 157-Word Email
- Naked News for Indie Authors How NOT to Invest Your Marketing $$$
- Naked News for Indie Authors: How to Get on TV
- Naked Determination, 41 Stories About Overcoming Fear (Gold at Readers Favorite Award 2014)
ABC: What genre do you enjoy writing the most and what is this book about?
Gisela H. Nonfiction, I enjoy helping others to find short cuts to solve thei r problems
ABC: What inspired you to write this book?
Gisela H.I am an Amazon top reviewer. Therefore I was informed about the changes Amazon would implicate regarding their book reviews policies. Thus, I decided to step up and write the book that would help indie authors to get best reviews.
ABC: How did you come up with the title of your book or series?
Gisela H.In 2012 I penned “Naked Determination, 41 Stories About Overcoming Fear”, thus I decided to stick with the “naked (meaning no-fluff)” brand.
ABC: Tell us a little bit about your cover art. Who designed it? Why did you go with that particular image/artwork?
Gisela H. I designed it myself. After much back and forth I decided that I should learn Photoshop to be able to design my covers exactly the way I wanted them to look. I should have done this earlier, after all I used to do a lot of designs for marketing campaigns before Photoshop was invented.
ABC: If you could cast your characters in the Hollywood adaptation of your book, who would play your characters?
Gisela H. My books for indie authors cannot be turned into a movie but I could see Natalie Portman playing me in an adaptation of my book “Naked Determination, 41 Stories About Overcoming Fear” .
ABC: Do you have any strange writing habits (like standing on your head or writing in the shower)?
Gisela H. Yep, if I cannot come up with the right words, I begin to clean my house. Since like most people, I do not like cleaning, I usually come up with an idea pretty quickly.
ABC: What book do you wish you could have written?
Gisela H. “Seven Years in Tibet”. I actually met Heinrich Harrer and traveled to Tibet, but of course I would have loved to travel there when the Dalai Lama was still living there and Tibet was still the untouched paradise it was before the Cghinese occupied it.
ABC: How important are names to you in your books? Do you choose the names based on liking the way it sounds or the meaning? Do you have any name choosing resources you recommend?
Gisela H. Since I write nonfiction I either assure myself in writing that I can use the real person’s name or I go through great length to cover my tracks.
ABC: What writing advice do you have for other aspiring authors?
Gisela H. Brand your work. No other advice has done so much for my books’ marketing and sales than that I branded my line of books to the point that readers will recognize my books and know it when they see one of my books.
ABC: Which of your books was the most fun to write and why?
Gisela H. I like all my books and I had fun writing them because I know that my books help readers with practical stuff. Still, I had most fun writing “Naked News for Indie Authors How NOT to Invest Your Marketing $$$”. The reason for this is, that I have been self-publishing since 1988. Since then I have seen predatory marketing services shoot up like mushrooms after a Spring rain, and I know they hurt indie authors by selling them overpriced se4rvices. In fact I have even seen services who used to be (expensive and) good offer complete nonsense programs. “Naked News for Indie Authors How NOT to Invest Your Marketing $$$” was my effort to reveal their tricks and pay them back.
ABC: What genre do you enjoy writing the most and why?
Gisela H. I really enjoy writing nonfiction. Since ebooks can be published and sold cheaply I consider writing my books my contribution to society.
ABC: Do you have a pet or pets?
Gisela H. Trying to follow Hemingway’s thinking I am mom to two cats. Artemis, whose original name was Zakaria (named after my favorite journalist) but who got renamed because she is a hunter. I named her after the Greek Goddess of Hunt. After I moved away from Wilmington, NC to Greenville, SC, I found out that I had to keep her indoors. The region is famous for copperhead snakes. Though typically that’s not a problem because these poisonous snakes are shy it could be a problem for Artemis because she actively hunts snakes. Therefore I adopted a “bro” for her – Yin-Yang. Yin-Yang like his name says is the most balanced cat one could imagine, who stays even balanced and friendly when Artemis throws an occasional alpha female tantrum. At night, both of them will sleep together on my bed to “guard” me.
ABC: If you had a supernatural power, what would it be?
Gisela H. I would love to be able to swing my arms with a dramatic gesture and people’s lies would be written on their foreheads. I think that would be a cool superpower because it would not interrupt life as we know it but it might force people to not lie.
ABC: What is something you want to accomplish before you die?
Gisela H. I want to and AM working actively on it, expose the scammers, who prey on indie authors by selling them programs, which have a remote chance of succeeding. One example would be “getting on Oprah’s TV show. Anybody who watches Oprah knows that she features the same authors again and again, and very few others. On the other hand it is really easy to get on local TV and I am presenting this information which really helps authors. In other words, I have made it my goal to debunk the various myths and help indie authors to achieve their goals realistically.
ABC: Do you have an embarrassing moment you’d like to share?
Gisela H. In 1989 my friend Karen and I traveled to Sulawesi, Indonesia. We flew in and out of the city of Ujung Pandang, today called Makassar; only people, who have visited there know where this city is located. Unfortunately, as we were flying out, our flight got delayed. We had to stand endless hours in front of the counter, while we were waiting we were commenting on the other tourists, who were waiting. Both Karen and I grew up in a small little village in lower Austria, where people speak an interesting dialect. To make sure that none of the other tourists would understand us, we spoke in that dialect, even though the chance that somebody in this airport would understand German was already pretty remote. As it so happened, the gentleman who was standing right in front of us happened to be an extremely good-looking man, with the looks of Gregory Peck. Karen and I discussed his looks extensively, speculating that he had to be British. After that went on for about fifteen minutes the guy turned around and said, “Thank you ladies, I really appreciate your compliments a lot.” He was a United Nations employee, who had grown up less than 6 miles from where we had grown up, so he understood the dialect. Karen and I almost died from embarrassment.
ABC: Is there one person past or present you would meet and why?
Ted Turner! Since I graduated with a degree in Mass Media, Turner’s efforts to found CNN are the efforts of a visionary. Also, his work to save the planet as well as to rid the world from nuclear weapons is totally impressive to me. He is my hero.
Meet Gisela Hausmann: Getting Personal
Q: Go ahead and introduce yourself. Tell the audience about yourself.
Gisela H. Gisela Hausmann, author of “naked (meaning no-fluff) books”, mom of two awesome kids, widow, who is too busy date, am always writing books that will hopefully make a difference, email evangelist, adventurer, globe trotter, who also, wants to make a dent in the world of indie publishing by publishing the tricks, which help indie authors save marketing dollars
Q: Tell us where and when were you born.
Gisela H. In was born in Vienna Austria, 1962, on Easter Monday. It was a glorious day. It has been recorded that on that day, in late April, it was so hot, that newborn babies were bathed next to the open window. A week later when I was baptized snow a foot of snow caused havoc and guests could almost not make it to the event.
Q: How would you describe yourself?
Gisela H. A helpful no-nonsense problem solver, who is always working on big plans. Environmentalist and cat-lover.
Q: Tell us about where you grew up.
Gisela H.Even though I was born in Vienna Austria, I grew up in a little Austrian city where my father was one of the elementary school principals. There was absolutely nothing going on in this little city. As a result I became an avid reader. I read every single book in the children’s book section of the city’s library.
Q: Tell everyone what it is you do when you’re not [verb from previous question].
Gisela H.When I am not ‘reading’ I am writing, marketing my boos, or tending to my yard. I also love gardening.
Q: Are you serious with anyone?
Gisela H.I wish (sad smiley). Widowed for about fifteen years I have tried hard to find a soul mate but it isn’t easy, especially when one is as busy like I am.
Q: Tell us about your worst fear.
Gisela H.Hmm, I don’t really have any fears; I learned to overcome these a while ago. My trick is – when you are active and doing something, you can’t really be afraid because you can watch your progress, which makes it clear that success will come. Even if you are not successful with whatever you are doing, because you are doing, you get new ideas for new endeavors. I also wrote a book, “Naked Determination, 41 Stories About Overcoming Fear”. It won multiple awards.
I love life and I will always work hard to make it the best I can. I hope everybody joins me in that effort.
