What better Christmas gift than time with my favourite people in the world talking about the things we love the most…books.
Archive for the ‘author signings’ Category
On Tour – join us tomorrow at our book stall
Posted in author signings, Book stalls, book tours, indie publishing, marketing books, marketing fiction, middle grade fiction, writing life, tagged book tours, Coffs Harbour, indie publishing, market stalls on December 9, 2015| Leave a Comment »
The Caravan Goes On: The Four P’s of surviving an Australian Christmas Book Tour
Posted in author signings, book tours, indie publishing, middle grade fiction, tagged Australian fiction, australian writers, book tours, books, Caravan tours, Christmas holiday reading, east coast Australia, Enid Blyton, Newcastle, Port Macquarie, Singleton on November 15, 2015| 1 Comment »
‘Oh, yes, I almost forgot. She was a writing phenomenon.’
In 1932, Enid Blyton wrote a 90,000 word novel in a month for adults titled ‘The Caravan Goes On’. It was never published so I’ve purloined the title for our book tour next month…actually, the title could very well suit me for some time to come.
** note to self: organising a book tour in five main shopping centers on the east coast of Australia at Christmas is not one of your better ideas, Hammo…
Today, the east coast of Australia and tomorrow who knows?? That’s the good thing about caravan book tours…they need never end…except for the fact that I’m traveling with kids, dogs, cat and cantankerous Cracker aboard.
**note to self: brothers and sisters should never lock themselves in caravans together for extended periods of time, especially in summer, and especially at Christmas..
The four four P’s of surviving the hair-brained idea of a book tour on the east coast of Australia with kids and animals at Christmas runs like this:
- Planning – complete book tour in three weeks leading up to visiting Cracker and just hand him the cash in an envelope on Christmas Eve…
- Preparation – remember that all the last minute ‘to do’ things on the list are crucial and all of them must happen prior to departure…there’s nothing like the deadline of Santa coming and Cracker waiting under the tree with his hand out to point to the critical issue of time equally days left to actually finish, upload and print the third Cracker & Gilly novel. It’s called incentive…
- Promotion – press releases, caravan signage, itinerary and packing boxes and boxes of books in the caravan, keeping in mind weight distribution, tare and making sure the tow ball doesn’t collapse under the weight of my ambitions. **note to self: what does a fully laden caravan weigh with kids, cats, dogs, surfboards, bikes, billy carts and boxes of books actually weigh??
- Patience – all good things come to those who wait…and wait…thank you Cracker for your patience…the Cracker & Gilly Mystery Series Book Tour in gathering speed and rolling your way…here’s hoping you and Santa are ready for us. ** note to self: do not, under any circumstances, even in good cheer, especially in good cheer, mention Book 4 until the New Year…nobody, not even Cracker, would deny his family the joy of plotting another mystery in that good old Australian tradition, camping at the Abercrombie…who knows what mischief the Cracker & Gilly team could get up to with a whole new year in front of them??
Do Author Signings Work?
Posted in author signings, book tours, Fiction, indie publishing, marketing books, middle grade fiction, platform, Writing, tagged Author Signing, book marketing, Book Promotion, middle grade fiction on July 27, 2014| 3 Comments »
Marketing is time consuming, there’s no doubt about it, but the benefits are about far more than selling a few books.
From two signings I have sold books, sure, but what I didn’t expect were the associated benefits.
Here’s the list:
1. I met Nick who works in the bookshop where my signings took place. His day job is as a journalist with a local radio station. I donated half a dozen books and he promoted Dirt Busters in prime time. His promotions manager also contacted me.
2. I met Steve who is also an Indie Author. We met later for coffee and it turns out he is a motivational coach in his spare time. His day job is with local schools where he runs Outdoors Programs. He is going to help me set up and run Writers Retreats for students.
3. I met Janet who bought Dirt Busters fir her grandson. Her hometown is co-ordinating their inaugural Writers Festival and she gave me the details of the organiser. Janet also works at the local library and she suggested I contact the Head Librarian. I did and I’m now in discussions about literacy workshops.
4. A elderly lady didn’t want to buy a book but we chatted for awhile anyway. Two of her daughters are local primary school teachers who are keen to invite writers into their classrooms and the third works for Education Queensland and travels to over three hundred primary schools.
growing up writing 