E-Books, cake and flights of fancy... Operation Author, 365 actions

It's week 7 of my operation author project:
 

Operation Author - 

365 Actions to Succeed as an Author

My first action is to put a call out...

I'd really love to hear from anyone who blogs about books or is happy to review books.  

A free e-book in exchange for a review anyone?

With no news in my day job about whether our project to support start ups in Bristol will continue from April, we're now all in redundancy consultations. 

I'm trying not to let it be too depressing and see it as an opportunity to follow my dreams to earn a living through writing and supporting others with their creativity.  The trouble is, my dreams are still just flights of fancy and a month is not enough time to turn them into something tangible!

It's somewhat ironic that the only comprehensive free support for new businesses is Bristol, Outset Bristol, is in danger of closing resulting in at least one of it's staff considering self employment as their favoured option?!

I've been working frantically to have something to launch with if the worst should happen. It's exhausting!

This week, my writing platform endeavours have been:

Day 2 - I followed up a contact that a colleague gave me and found this really great blog:

http://womanontheedgeofreality.com/2012/11/13/101-book-marketing-ideas-for-authors/

Thanks  Linda Parkinson-Hardman

 

My next action is to follow up her invitation for an interview.  Look out for it...

Day 3 - I've been making up marketing material for the events I have coming up.  Thanks to the creative talents of Graham Morse - here's a flyer for the workshop I'm running on Wednesday 5th March - 'Why Marketing your Book is Like Making a Pizza: A Marketing Workshop for Writers'

I'm both excited and nervous about doing the workshop.  I really want it to be a success.

Day 4 - I entered The Bronze Box into the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest.  Wish me luck, it's the first competition I've entered for my writing :-S

Day 5 - I have had another article published in Prowess 2.0: Women in Business.  

I really enjoy business writing, it fits so seamlessly with my day job experience and my love of writing.  It's something I'd like to do more of.  

Can anyone suggest any leads or contacts for me? 

I'm really passionate about supporting independent business and especially underrepresented groups in enterprise, one of which is women.  I'm keen to guest blog, write articles, speak at events etc.

The last couple of days of this week I've been preparing for the book event I'm hosting at The Hydra Bookshop in old market, Bristol on Saturday 22nd Feb from 4pm to 6pm.

I've made up some flyers for Solomon's Secrets to display at the event:

Yesterday I made an epic and absurdly chocolaty fridge cake for the event. Here's the Recipe:

2 x small value Madeira Cakes 

8 x large bars of milk chocolate - the better quality the nicer the cake (I really hate cooking chocolate)

1 x grab bag of Malteasers

4 bags of Milky-bar buttons

4 generous Tablespoons of butter

couple of handfuls of chopped nuts

couple of handfuls of raisins

a few handfuls of mini marshmallows 

Crumble the cake into a big mixing bowl. Melt the chocolate and butter.  Stir the chocolate into the cake. Stir in the Milky-bar buttons and allow them to melt a little in the warm chocolate for a marbled effect.  Stir in the rest of the ingredients. Turn the mix out onto a large baking sheet lined with foil or cling film. Compact the mix into the tray to form a block. Refrigerate overnight then cut into squares.

I decorated it with bronze sugar spray and gold sugar balls before cutting it up.

I'll be giving away the squares at the book event so if you are in Bristol, UK come and get some.

 

What else do you think I could do this week to reach out to more people?

 

 

Operation Author - Week 6

Six weeks into my mission:

Operation Author - 

365 Actions to Succeed as an Author

My seven actions this week have been a mix of online, real world and setting up future events

Day 1 - I'm so close to the end of Solomon's Secrets, it's most inconvenient having a job and life outside of writing! 

With this terrible wet weather, all I really want to do is stay in my warm house and write. I've been snatching every available moment writing passages for the book. Here's a sample:

 

 I also tweaked chapter 1 and re wrote the book blurb and put it on my website: http://bit.ly/1jdpXqW

Day 2 - I went to 2 networking events in Bristol for work this week but while I was there I inevitably talked about my book and this Operation Author project. I made some interesting connections that are worth following up. And my picture was in the The Bristol Post - busted drinking wine on a school night! I'm the one in the flowery top:

Day 3 - I put a tweet out asking about gallery space in Bristol and have a couple of leads to follow up for my Project Book 365 exhibition.

Day 4 -  I was part of an Outset Bristol event on Social Media. Imogen Woodford of Social-i, gave a really engaging talk with some great visuals about using social media effectively for your business. 

She shared some really practical tips with the group and I made lots of notes. 

One thing I'm going to implement as a result of Imogen's advice is to have a plan. I'll look at the month ahead and note any key events, then establish a weekly plan. Now that I've discovered Hootesuite it will be easier to think ahead and schedule appropriate updates and tweets in between my usual browsing and conversing. Thanks Imogen! 

Day 5 - I sent a submission to Rachel at Writers Digest as they were calling for posts about writing groups.  I wrote about Southville Writers

Day 6 - I've not had much take up for the Marketing for Writers workshop or the book signing event at Hyrda Bookshop so I'm making some leaflets to distribute around Bristol while I'm out and about.

Day 7 - I emailed some writers in the Southville Writers network earlier in the week who had expressed an interest in marketing.  I'd given them until the end of the week to book in to my 'Why Marketing your Book is Like Making Pizza: A Workshop for Writers' session at The Stable.

I said I'd advertise the workshop wider but wanted to offer it to the network first. 

I've now put some wider advertising out through Gumtree and various Facebook and LinkedIn groups for writers.

At least I have no reason to leave the house today and venture into the storms.  Big mug of tea and get writing.

What are you writing at the moment?

Operation Author - Week 5

I'm 5 weeks in to my 365 day project;

Operation Author - 365 Actions to succeed as an author

I've been feeling the pressure in many directions recently with so much to do as well as keeping the momentum going with this project.

We are all under notice of redundancy at work, waiting to hear whether the funding will continue from April for the fantastic Outset Bristol project.

We help people in Bristol to explore the reality of starting a small business and I'm one of the Enterprise Coaches.  We've just celebrated the creation of 300 jobs for the city this month and have more than paid for ourselves in terms of economic contribution to the city and through people coming off welfare and creating work for themselves.  

It would be criminal to let it end and leave the amazing future entrepreneurs of Bristol high and dry!

Fingers crossed it will continue, but carving some form of portfolio for myself as a writer is my plan B.  I just wasn't expecting to have to step things up so soon!

With that in mind, this week I have been doing lots of 'real world' activity to build my platform as a writer.   

Day 1 - Interviewed a friend of mine who is a writer about her books, Jo Reed.  I'm adding it to the newsletter I am writing for our writing network, Southville Writers. 

Here's the Interview: http://bit.ly/1ko6qog

Day 2 - I've been making more little origami boxes and leaving them randomly around Bristol.  
In October 2013 I wrote a blog post about this when I made my first batch and included some marketing tips on it - http://ideaism.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/random-acts-of-marketing_16.html.

Inside is a Blurb about the Bronze Box, a sweet and an invitation to tweet me of you find one.  

So far no one has tweeted :(

Here's what they look like

Day 3 - I visited some galleries in Bristol and enquired about putting on an exhibition for my Project Book 356 from last year.  I liked the look of Centrespace, however, I think it'll be too expensive for me as I'm not expecting to sell enough to get a return on the investment.  So I took to twitter and put a tweet out to a few community organisations and creative links in Bristol.  I have a few leads to follow up.

Day 4 - My Interview with Viv Oyolu about my writing a social media tips was published!  I'm so excited about it, I really love it, it sounds so natural and fun.  I got a real buzz from it.  Have a listen.

http://bit.ly/1eA3EbS

Day 5 - I wrapped one of my books in brown paper and stenciled 'Don't judge a book by it's cover' on the spine. 

I left it in a lovely little cafe in Bristol, Hennessey's that's full of books and the fragrance of fresh coffee and pungent herbal teas.  I worked through Outset with one of the staff there on her graphic design business, Sara.  Here she is: http://www.unearthedpromos.com/

Day 6  - I've booked a space at The Stable in Bristol for a workshop called 'Why Marketing your Book is like Making Pizza: A Marketing Workshop for Writers' - here's the Eventbrite Listing http://bit.ly/1iuEhcf

Day 7 - I completed the first Newsletter for Southville Writers using Mail Chimp.

Here it is: http://bit.ly/1g6FXYj


This afternoon and the rest of thew weekend it's back to writing more of Solomon's Secrets. 

I've been on a roll recently, the end is in sight and I'm desperate to get the last few chapters done. 

Here's an extract from a really lovely scene that sent a shiver down my spine when I wrote it (and it's not even a sex scene!):

His breathing changed the smile faded. His weight dissipated into the bed and across her lap. A contented hum, muffled by the folds of her dress, seamlessly turned into a snore.

She smiled to herself, holding him close. She leaned over him and pressed her lips into his forehead. He was warm. Moist with sweat, his skin smelt hot and musky. She’d always loved that smell on him. It smelt like home. Smelt like steamy showers and fading spices.

Resting her face against his, her fingers tangled in his curly hair, she whispered, “Sweet dreams.”

Just a little taste of thigs to come...

What 'real world' marketing activities have worked for you?

 

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