Why is the one we want always on the bottom?
Posts Tagged ‘books’
I think I can I think I can: the lore of lost books
Posted in Book collecting, Books, writing life, tagged books, bookshelves, collecting books on March 13, 2016| 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??
Finally…my novel
Posted in Book launch, book publishing, Books, Fiction, indie publishing, Writing, tagged Australian fiction, book launches, books, fiction, indie publishing, Mining, mining fiction, mining history, Norseman on October 5, 2014| 2 Comments »
The benefits of publishing a book series
Posted in book publishing, Books, collaboration, ebooks, Fiction, indie publishing, marketing books, marketing fiction, middle grade fiction, print books, series writing, Writing, writing life, tagged books, books and publishing, writing, writing fiction, writing series fiction on September 26, 2014| 1 Comment »
The first book in our Cracker & Gilly Mystery series arrived yesterday (Book 2 has been out for awhile but that’s another story) and I suddenly realized the potential of publishing and marketing a series.
And, not in any particular order, here they are:
1. We already have a readership
2. We already have a marketing strategy
3. Two books look better than one
4. We can now discount one book in the hope of interesting new readers in our series
5. Writing a book is tough…writing two books shows we’re serious 5. There are more marketing angles with two books
6. There is increased anticipation for Book 3
7. With more books we can sell boxed sets 8. Our books look good between bookends (okay, this one is a gloat:))
Learning Scrivener For Writers – Part 2
Posted in Books, ebooks, Fiction, indie publishing, non fiction, print books, Writing, writing life, writing podcasts, writing tools, tagged books, books and writing, indie publishing, writing, writing podcasts, writing tools, writing tutorials on September 25, 2014| 1 Comment »
The other day I shared my experience of working through a set of tutorials to learn Scrivener, delivered by Joseph at http://www.learnscrivenerfast.com.
I had no intention of doing another post on this but a funny thing happened on the way to completing the course…I cheated and skipped to the end to the Bonuses and found a great podcast by Joanna Penn (of http://www.thecreativepenn.com fame).
The podcast is all about organising your projects.
In my ideal world – let’s call it, say, Fantasyland – I decided to devote 2014 to getting half a dozen projects to completion with the grand idea of having something to market in 2015. Well, in my haphazard way I’m halfway there with three books completed and – remember, this is Fantasyland – selling.
But after listening to Joanna’s podcast on getting organised I realise I’m only a whisker away from having the other three done.
Back to Joseph and learning Scrivener. In my Scrivener binder I now have the final three projects for 2014 racing towards the finish line – Joanna even talks about daily word counts and a gizmo that does this in Scrivener – and yes, it looks like I can reach my goal of six completed projects for sale by the end of the year. If I wanna be clever I can double that because all are in both ebook and print formats (and I’m learning about audio books fast).
Twelve products for sale, me??
Joseph’s Learn Scrivener Fast has jettisoned my writing business out of Fantasyland and into the real world with one swift kick. Now all I need to do is go back in and finish the course…
Ah, I can hear my family laughing as they read this post. Me, finish anything?? In the infamous words of Eliza Doolittle, ‘Just you wait, ‘enry ‘iggins, just you wait’…
Anyone else doing Joseph’s course and loving it? Let us know your successes…
Learning Scrivener For Writers
Posted in book publishing, Books, ebooks, Fiction, indie publishing, non fiction, platform, print books, Writing, writingReading writing fiction, tagged books, books and writing, Ebooks, indie publishing, writing tools on September 22, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Another journey….Scrivener. I’m currently working my way through a set of tutorials by Joseph at http://www.learnscrivenerfast.com so that I can take control of my writing in a way that hasn’t been possible for me to date.
This program promises that not only can I organise my writing and keep count of my progress but I can take control of my output too…and herein lies the secret for me, being able to format my books as ebooks and print books, and upload them to the appropriate retailers in the right format. Sounds simple??
Let me tell you, it’s not…I’ve been blessed with the support of Australian EBook Publisher (AEP)…but now it’s time to learn at least a bit of the process for myself and that’s where Joseph and his ‘learn Scrivener Fast’ tutorials come in…he is my Scrivener coach and can be found at http://learnscrivenerfast.com…
writing, publishing and marketing middle grade mystery series
Posted in Books, Fiction, indie publishing, marketing fiction, middle grade fiction, series writing, tagged books, books and publishing, books and writing, collaboration and writing, marketing books, middle grade fiction, series writing, writing middle grade fiction, writing series fiction on September 21, 2014| 2 Comments »
Finally…
It’s taken six months but I can finally announce the publication of Book 1 of our middle grade Cracker and Gilly Mystery series…FORBIDDEN…it’s a long story and an even longer learning curve (a story I’m saving for another post)…both Book 1, Forbidden, and Book 2, Dirt Busters, are now available in both print and ebook from Amazon and other retailers…
…and if you’re curious what I’m up to during the holiday break, I’m preparing Book 3, Merinda’s Gold, for publication…all good fun…I think…
growing up writing 