Songster and Wordsmith

It's NaNoWriMo month and I'm taking this opportunity to get a manuscript finished, rather than start a new one. So I apologize for being away from the blog. I have a list of topics I'd like to bring to you, but today I want to talk about book promotion, specifically why the "buy my book" plugs on social media don't work. Firstly, let me begin by saying that I have just spent a few minutes this morning unfollowing authors who do nothing but post links to their books and covers on Twitter. I don't need to see this every time I log on. It makes me groan. And if it makes me grown, it's making genuine readers groan. And sites dedicated to promoting books also make me groan. They advertise that they can push your book to 45,000 readers. It has the same effect as a billboard on a highway. It's there, but it's not connecting with you. You need to build a rapport with readers. Peddling the "buy my book" message doesn't do anything to con

During a recent Read 4 Review campaign, administered through Goodreads group We Heart YA, I announced that at the end of the campaign I would do a giveaway of the print version of the book they reviewed The Bird With The Broken Wing. The winner is Jenn. She has been awarded a print copy. Here's how I got the winner. I wrote the names of everyone who reviewed the book on a slip of paper. I then tossed these names (blindly) at a bowl. Discarded any bits of paper than didn't hit the inside of the bowl. There were 4 names which I thin tossed (blindly) at the bowl and only one name made it inside. Ta da. The winner is Jenn.   Jenn's review: The only reason it took me a while to read this book is because I moved from Davenport, IA to Tacoma, WA for a job. Now that I've finally had some downtime to myself (I happened to get sick on my second weekend here) I've decided to finish it. Well holy schticks. I have no idea what all I actually read. There was

You might recall a few of my earlier posts which were journals of my experience with submitting to agents. The previous posts if you'd like to read there are here. http://dlrichardsonwrites.blogspot.com.au/2015/06/submitting-to-agents.html http://dlrichardsonwrites.blogspot.com.au/2015/06/submitting-to-agents-part-ii.html http://dlrichardsonwrites.blogspot.com.au/2015/06/submitting-to-agents-part-iii.html http://dlrichardsonwrites.blogspot.com.au/2015/06/submitting-to-agents-part-iv.html I have an update on my journey of submitting to agents. Yes, folks, it's not over yet. And the journey won't be over until every agent has been queried, until every publisher has been queried, until every avenue has been exhausted and this book is published, self published if I have to but I've a feeling it wont' come to that. While at a recent writers convention I made the acquaintance of some lovely small press publishers who are doing great things in Australia. The ta