JoZebwrites

So, here's how it happened. My aunt and uncle took a signed book over to my uncle'a sister who had ordered one. And they photographed her reading it under a Welsh roadsign. And then, on their joint holiday, they took another, this time in a library in Italy. Meanwhile, in the land down under an online friend was patiently waiting for her copy and I joked we should have followed it on its journey. So when it reached her, she posted an upside down photo. At which point a friend in Canada received his and photographed it. And suddenly a world tour was happening. And that's where we're at. We've had the book at Tower Bridge in London today. It'a going to Portugal later. There are rumours of America and Geordie land. And so, it begins. And if I sell a million copies I'll follow it around the world. :)

Promoting your book - part three: Social Media I took part in an online discusssion around about the time I was starting to seriously seek agents about whether an aspiring author should have an online presence, or could that wait until a book had come out. The perceived wisdom was that a website and at least one strong social media platform was the least someone should set up. Up until then, I had an aversion to all things social media. I'm a reasonably private person, I don't do lots of exciting whizzy-bang things - I had little to write about. But I held my nose, did some research and decided to dive into the whirl of Twitter. I held out on Facebook a little longer but bit that bullet a year or so ago, and I joined Goodreads when Abendau's Heir came out. I don't have a shared platform - I tweet and facebook differently and think it's more effective to do so, but many would disagree with that. So, the pros and cons: TWITTER I find Twitter great for links ...

I'm taking part in an authors' roundtable on the fantastic www.sffworld.com and one of the questions I was asked was, if I was dreaming, what I'd love to see happen to my novel. I suppose best seller lists come to mind, or TV adaptations, or movies. Not for me. My dream is of a rock-opera by Muse. I even have the playlist, which I'm going to share in a moment. But first, here's the whys and wherefores: I've had Abendau in my head for 25 years. I've also quite liked music with good bass for much of that time (I blame having my first crush on a bass player for that). When I came to write my novel, I was listening a lot to the likes of Muse and, being a space loving girl with a conflicted hero who thinks pretty deeply (and isn't that conventional for a space hero) the lyrics and flavour of the music, touched on what I was trying to capture in the book. So much so, that certain scenes in the book play in my mind when I'm listening to the song (especi...

So, continuing the Promo - what works for me season, this week I present: Selling at Cons. This weekend I was lucky enough to have my first experience of a Comic con as a published author. I went with Dept 51, the sff arm of the Easons stores, and had a table to the side for me to sign at and chat to potential victims -- sorry, readers... My observations/tips 1. Find a way to let the people passing know you are the author. For the first day, few realised and that definitely had an impact on interest. Later, I used a business card as a badge and that helped, but a picture of me to put on the poster, for instance, would have been good. Also, some detail of my reviews would have been good, maybe the headlines of them. It was useful saying I had good reviews but the evidence wasn't there. 2. Have a couple of approaches/blurbs in mind. A grimdark space opera was the quickest way in for me, but buzz words like character-led and a description of the Inverted Chosen One concept (...