reading

Planning a book launch.

/ lizziechantree / 9 Comments

Lizzie Chantree blog 7

I have begun planning my book launch, which is in Jan next year. It seems so far away, but it will be here before I realise, probably. I’m trying to learn what to do, as i’ve never held a virtual launch before.

So far, I have set up a launch group for anyone who would like to join in with the launch and have designed a tour page, which I have put on this blog for bloggers to sign up to join my tour. It’s been a really interesting to try and find out the best way to approach this. After I had set my launch group up, I read it’s best to set it up 3 months before at the earliest …oops! I did mine a little before that. I have been posting all the tips about book launches I have learnt there to help other authors. I’ve also decided to do shout outs and posts about the bloggers who are supporting my tour across social media by way of a big thank you for their hard work.

If any of you would like to join my tour, or the Facebook tour group, here are the links:

Facebook Tour for Ninja School Mum.

Tour sign up page for Ninja School Mum.

My Twitter page for shout outs for my tour hosts. 

Pay it forward.

/ lizziechantree / 8 Comments

Today is Rave Reviews Book Club’s Pay It Forward day (#PIF). It’s my pleasure to introduce you to an author who is so supportive of others and I’d love to help you discover her work.

D.l. Finn

D.L Finn

Author D.L. Finn is an independent California local, who encourages everyone to embrace their inner child. She was born and raised in the foggy Bay Area, but in 1990 relocated with her husband, kids, dogs and cats to the Sierra foothills in Nevada City, CA. She immersed herself in reading all types of books, but especially loved romance, horror and fantasy. She always treasured creating her own reality on paper. Finally, being surrounded by towering pines, oaks and cedars, her creativity was cradled until it bloomed. Her creations vary from children’s books, young adult fantasy, adult paranormal romance to an autobiography with poetry. She continues on her adventure with an open invitation to her readers to join her.

Click the book covers to buy your own copy and start reading!

Review for No Fairy Tale:

No Fairy Tale takes a look at the author’s life from childhood to adulthood and the struggles inherent along the way. What makes this memoir unique is that the author chooses to tell it in third person substituting a “princess” for herself throughout the narrative.

I was initially wary of reading this, knowing it would touch on issues of abuse, something I have a hard time reading about. But the narrative is so strong and heartfelt, it’s impossible not to be caught up in the writing. The journey is rewarding, especially seeing how the author grows and is able to find peace, not only in her life, but with those around her.

The second half of the book is devoted to poetry. Reading through these, the mood often conveys what the writer was experiencing in her life at that point. Some are beautiful, others sad and dark. My favorites are Meadow, Valentine Kittens and Get Old.

Well written, No Fairy Tale, has the capability of aiding others in similar situations to rise above circumstance.

This Second Chance by [Finn, D.L.]
Book blurb for This Second Chance:
D.L. Finn’s first adult fiction, which has just been released!
Newly married Rachael Battaglia finally had it all. The only detail that stained Rachael’s perfect wedding was a gift she received. It was the exact present that her late ex-husband had given her on their wedding day — a snow globe. That marriage was not what she had envisioned, and she endured years of his abuse and charm until one night she escaped with two kids and one on the way.
Now Rachael was headed to Hawaii with an amazing man and her chance at happiness. Unbeknownst to Rachael, she had an Angel on her side, although this Angel might not be able to save Rachael and her family from the evil that surrounded them. This is a tale of love, past relationships, things unseen, and redemption. Will Rachael find her happy ending, or will this evil thing get its way?
More books by D.L.Finn
An Unusual Island by [Finn, D.L.]   Elizabeth's War by [Finn, D.L.]   Things on a Tree by [Finn, D.L.]
You can find D.L. Finn on Twitter: @dlfinnauthor 

Team Building.

/ lizziechantree / 17 Comments

Lizzie Chantree Monday Marketing2

Happy new week everyone! Today’s Marketing Tips and are about team building. Being a writer can be quite isolating and I’ve found that networking and talking to others really helps me to be inspired and more confident. Here are some tips to gather your own team of confidants, creatives or co-workers to share your working life with. Some might even become good friends!

Networking: Networking is now big business, but the fundamentals remain the same. Networking isn’t always about furthering your career, it can be a great way to meet friends and share creative ideas. There are groups on most social media sites and they usually have a topic name. I run a networking hour on twitter called #CreativeBizHour and it’s for anyone who enjoys creativity and likes to meet other people and have a friendly chat. To join these chats, just add the hashtags to your tweets, but it has to be during the networking session times.

There are networking hours for so many industries or interests from working mums and dads to food lovers, fashionistas to people in specific areas of the world and the list is endless!

You can usually find networking groups locally by doing an internet search. These can be great fun and give you contacts with others who live in the same region as you and have similar interests.

Group Chats: Facebook is a great place to find groups of people with similar interests to you. If you love books, just type book groups into the search bar and lots of variations of book group will appear. See which ones interest you and ask to join. The page admins will then have a chance to check out your application, make sure the topic is a genuine interest to you and add you to the group.

Local hobby groups: Most small towns, villages and cities have local hobby groups. An internet search will usually find them. This is a place to meet people in your area with the same hobbies as you and a great way to network in person and make friends who enjoy the things you do.

 

 

Calling you!

/ lizziechantree / 25 Comments

Perty.Lizzie Chantree. Launch party.jpg

I’ve recently been told by my publisher that my new book with be out on the 30th Jan 2018. Hooray! The thing is …I now have to plan a virtual book launch. You may have seen my Twitter or Facebook post on this topic, where I have basically pleaded dramatically to anyone who can help me to make this process a success, to step forward! I have already published three books myself on Amazon, but this is my first launch and it is a complete mystery to me.

I began by thinking that the launch date was so far away, that it was too early to start planning, but seeing other authors with launch dates near mine already having book covers and blog tours planned, I’m starting to sweat and shake with nerves. Apparently it’s good to have live video Facebook feeds from your launch party, giveaways, quiz questions … What would make you attend a virtual book launch and what would draw you into interacting on Facebook and getting to know more about a book you hadn’t read yet?

So far I have set up a closed Facebook group that anyone can request to join. I will be jotting down launch day goals and explaining tips I have been given in case it helps anyone else in the group. I’m hoping that the people who have joined will jump in and have a great party with me on launch day. If you would like to be part of that experience, click the link here to join in with the launch group. The more the merrier!

 

Lizzie_Chantree blog header 2

My Author Facebook page:

Lizzie Chantree. Author photo 3

Click here if you’d like to be added as a friend of my author page.

Click here if you want to pop by and like my author page.

Many thanks. From Lizzie :) 

Monday Marketing. #3QuickTips

/ lizziechantree / 8 Comments

Lizzie Chantree Monday Marketing2

Welcome to today’s Monday Marketing and #3QuickTips. These tips are about looking after yourself as a writer.

1.  If you work in a distracting environment, like an open plan office, you might need to work out a few strategies to be able to concentrate enough to get some work done. A good idea is to make some mental distance and create a detached view of your working space. This technique is known as self-distancing and helps you to focus on the work in front of you and not the irritation of any distractions around you.

2.  Know when you’re done. Once you have planned, written, rewritten, edited and polished your work, be mindful of pondering. At some point you have to stop over analysing and just go with it. Be thoroughly prepared, but objective. Don’t miss out on moving forward because you can’t finish the last project.

3.  Take care of your body and mind. As writers, we often forget time and space and days can whizz by without us remembering to look up from a manuscript. You will be much more alert if you take regular breaks and eat and exercise properly. It gets your blood flowing and wakes up your mind.

 

 

Grab a new Summer read!

Babe Driven TwitterAd 20

 

First Draft. #AmWriting

/ lizziechantree / 24 Comments

Lizzie Chantree blog 6

I’m currently working on the first draft of my new novel, which is about two women who are both completely misunderstood by their families. It’s great fun to write, but I as I have now signed a publishing deal, which could possibly include a sequel to the book they are publishing, I need to make my workflow easier.

I’m not very good at writing lists, as I often forget where they are. This is what should be on my list during the time my publisher is editing my upcoming novel.

Marketing schedule for new book.

Complete 20,000 words for current manuscript.

Edit/proof current work.

Cover design ideas.

Book blurb.

Keep up with social media commitments, including hosting #CreativeBizHour on Twitter.

Start sequel for soon to be published book.

Write 2 blog posts a week.

Newsletters.

Obviously this includes family commitments and household chores. But by this time I’m scared of my list and have hidden it somewhere I will never look again. A good idea today seemed to be under the dog’s bed!

As with most jobs, we all have to multi-task and the kitchen timer on my writing desk does beep and tell me to get on with it, but as a bit of a dreamer (which helps with my job), it means better planning needs to creep into my day and the usual ‘make it up as I go along’ vibe might have to take a back seat for a while.

I’ll let you know how I get on:)

Pepper

 

Believe in yourself. Be you.

/ lizziechantree / 18 Comments

believe in yourself

I love this photo. It can be easy to doubt yourself as a writer, but learning to believe in yourself and be who you are, can help tremendously. Here are a few ideas to bring inner confidence.

Do something that you love.

If you can find small pockets of time during the week to do something that you love, this will bring more confidence, as you will feel happier on the inside.

 

Stop procrastinating.

Don’t keep putting off getting things done. Task left unfinished will just drag your mood down.

 

Put on a happy face.

Research has shown that smiling makes us feel happier, even if we don’t fully commit to it. Try smiling a few times during the day when you wouldn’t normally and see if it lifts your mood.

 

Celebrate your achievements.

Pat yourself on the back for even the smallest achievement. If you did something well, feel proud of what you have done.

 

Be kind to others.

This is something that makes everyone feel good. Kindness to others is not something everyone can achieve.

 

Getting active.

Moving your muscles every so often increases oxygen flow to the body and helps your mind to focus. You won’t have time to doubt yourself when you are on the move.

 

Throw away any negative thoughts.

You don’t need them. Bin them!

 

Be you 🙂 

Relaxing view

 

Monday marketing. #3QuickTips

/ lizziechantree / 18 Comments

Working together.

Finding Gina. Twitter Ad 10

A powerful marketing tool is YOU! You are the best voice for your writing, but working together with other authors can help ease the pressures of constant marketing and it can also be great fun! Here are 3 top tips to help raise your book’s influence.

1. Share the work load: Work on joint promotions. Assign different jobs to each author in a clear and concise manor, explaining in full how you will all benefit from each task.

2. Combine talents: Think about finding other authors who bring something different into the mix. One may have a great Facebook page, one a fantastic Twitter following, one may have contacts in the press and another might have a key relationship with wonderful book bloggers.

3. Participation: Don’t just sit back and let others in the group do all the work. Contribute and network. Many best selling authors run promotions together and they often work in the same market, not opposing ones. Although they are trying to attract the similar readers, they are helping to broaden their market by having a further reach.

Monday marketing. #3QuickTips

/ lizziechantree / 5 Comments

Here are today’s 3 quick marketing tips for authors.

 

Babe Driven Twitter Ad

 

Most authors struggle to find high numbers of reviews for their work, but things always seemed a little easier to me when you can gift a book to a reviewer in America, but this is not yet available in the UK via Amazon. This is what I’ve discovered about gifting books:

1. When you gift someone a book, they might not download it. They can use the price of the book to buy something else.

2. Most authors drop the price of their book before gifting it, so that the gifting process costs them less.

3. You can’t gift a book during a freebie run. There would be no point anyway, as the reviewer could download it for nothing as long as you had the book free in every country. Free book promotions are often planned months ahead so you would have to plan both events together.

 

Guest post by E. Rachel Hardcastle.

/ lizziechantree / 1 Comment

I have started inviting guest posts to my blog and it’s my pleasure to introduce you to author E. Rachel Hardcastle. Here she shares details of her latest work and I hope that if you live nearby, that you manage to visit her book signing event to find out more about her writing.

MEET THE AUTHOR!(1)

Book Signing Event with Bradford Author E. Rachael Hardcastle.

Date – July 1st 2017

Time – 1100-1430 hours

Location – Wrose Library, Wrose Road, Shipley, West Yorkshire, UK, BD181HX

 

In November 2016, local Bradford author E. Rachael Hardcastle visited Low Ash Primary School in Wrose, Shipley to deliver a creative writing workshop to their Year 6 pupils. At no charge to the school, E. Rachael Hardcastle ran several hours of idea-generating activities tailored to their topic of study, which resulted in the children writing short stories of their own.

Later that month having received and compiled the children’s finished work, two independently published books titled ‘Children of War’ were published and delivered for the school’s library, creating over 50 young authors in less than eight weeks.

At the end of January 2017, E. Rachael Hardcastle returned to the school with further copies of ‘Children Of War’ for the children to take home. It wasn’t long before their story was picked up by a local television station, Made In Leeds, who interviewed E. Rachael Hardcastle and the children on The Lowdown Leeds show in February 2017.

To meet her local readers and aspiring writers, E. Rachael Hardcastle recently contacted Wrose Library, Wrose, Shipley to arrange a book signing event. She hopes to encourage the community to visit the library more often and to meet the hard-working volunteers there.

The event will take place on July 1st 2017 between 1100-1430 hours to celebrate both Wrose Carnival and Bradford Literary Festival. E. Rachael Hardcastle will be taking along copies of her brand new high fantasy release ‘Finding Pandora’ and her post-apocalyptic novel ‘Aeon Infinitum: Run For Your Life’ to personalise and sign for her guests.

Entry to this events will be free of charge. For more information about E. Rachael Hardcastle, her books and her workshops, please visit www.erachaelhardcastle.com.

Social Media:

www.facebook.com/ERHInspired

www.twitter.com/ERHardcastle

Library Website:

www.wroseparishcouncil.gov.uk/wrose-library.html