I just nuked my bedroom.
Because I’ve been sleeping on the settee, my room has gradually been gathering dust and accumulative mess over the past few weeks. Today, I decided to blitz it…mostly so I could actually get to the computer and post something on here, if I’m honest. My desk is so clear right now, it’s eerie. It’s like a big, flat, polish-scented wooden desert that I no longer know how to navigate. Let’s see how long it lasts this time!
I might actually manage an hour or so on FFXIII tonight. I’ve been ignoring it, hoping that when next we meet it will have morphed into something altogether less linear.
This is a scatter-brained mini-blog, my apologies. When I have the time and inclination to sit here for any extended period of time, I’ll commit to something a little more interesting. I will say that my ISBN numbers are here, so I can now get to work on finalising FTS. 
I’m still doing bits of editing, and working on the blurbs on the back cover, but otherwise we’re there. Does anyone have any ideas of what other promotion I could do? I’m going to list with Amazon and Waterstone’s, also get local Waterstone’s branches to stock it if possible…and I’ll submit a story with photos to the Express & Star. Other than the usual spamming across websites/journals, what else could be done? I’m sure you’re all far more creative than I am. Will consider prostitution.
Right…I’ve worked hard on this room today, despite the fact that I feel like shite. The annual “it’s getting warmer, time to drop a cold on her while she isn’t expecting it” germs are clogging up my brain. I’m going to make myself feel better by ordering some hairdye (my roots are out of control, my fringe has faded to orange, the world mourns), and possibly budgeting a new iPod into next month’s wage. I love the one I have at the moment, but it keeps dying on me. Any excuse to spend an extortionate amount of money.
marley
/ 28 March, 2010i feel like a comment stalker on your blog!an idea to promote your book would be a little commercial type thing, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpY1S0VImec this is a book that one of my favorite musicians is releasing and i thought this was a hella cool idea, not particulaly something the same for you , but visuals of some kind involving you maybe, and a voice over of you reading from the book, and if you think thats cool id hella love to help with that and do the film!:) wolverhamptons got some sweet spots
i can picture it working well abstractually (is that a word?). feel free to not feel bad about saying errr fuck off crap idea!haha
Marl
Sinead
/ 29 March, 2010I love that advert! This is actually an amazing idea, I’d love to do something like this.
It’s a short stories collection so there isn’t one overriding plot, but I could send you a proof copy and you could see if there’s an idea or two that springs from it…?
marley
/ 31 March, 2010ooo cool!yes yes send me one and ill get right to it!!:) ill fb you my adress , look forward to it
x
Sinead
/ 1 April, 2010Got your address, I’ll hopefully have chance to finish up the editing and order you a copy this weekend, so it’ll be sent out next week sometime.
x
Simon
/ 6 April, 2010Along the same lines as submitting a story to the local papers, you could maybe try Googling for and making a big list of all the major and minor book/literature sites/blogs, filter out the intelligent, reputable and popular ones (and the ones most likely to find your book to be up their alley) from the retarded illiterates and offer them a review copy.
Some sites should have a handy note to say they accept review copies and provide a clear mailing address for that, others you might have to harass with a polite email enquiry to their general contact address, but reputable book review sites are always happy to have new content to review, whether they get around to it or not.
A lot of them may not have the time to cover it, but it’s always worth a shot, and you can always email them a .pdf copy of your finished, formatted book to save you paying for and sending out actual print copies that may not lead to any publicity (and hey, it keeps many trees from getting needlessly deaded!).
Be sure to write up a press release cover letter with your cover blurb, your bio on and contact/url info on and send it along with each review copy you send.
You could register ‘paintthesky.com’ and make up a website with the press release, along with a sample story of your choosing and your retailer links, obviously.
Did you Lulu/Amazon publishing pack deal come with Kindle support? If not, it’s worth looking into that; it’s not likely to bring you a lot of added publicity, but it will make sure that your book is as widely available as possible with the Kindle and similar e-readers bafflingly popular nowadays.
Anddd that’s my ideas gone. XD
xoxox
Sinead
/ 7 April, 2010Thank you Simon.
I love love love your comments and all the help you give me!!
Looking up sites is definitely a good idea – I’ve already thought about mailing off review copies, but that could get expensive (it costs £4.21 to print a copy!). I didn’t think of using the .pdf file instead, so I’ll definitely have to look into that and see who’d expect one.
I’ve never written a press release before, but I’m going to give it a good go.
I think if Marley does end up helping me out with this viral video advert idea, it could work well with an associated website! And it’s not like I don’t already have the webspace…
I’m not sure if it covers Kindle, I doubt it. I think that eBooks need a separate ISBN and have to be registered as a separate product with Nielsen and the British Library, and such, so I’ll have to spend an hour researching into that. It’s definitely going to be available as a £1.99 download on the side (although I’m thinking maybe 99p instead? What do you think?) and I’m not sure what format that would make it!
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU
xoxox