Book Signing for ‘A Gangster’s Grip’

Posted in Book Signing by heatherbwriter

On Saturday 24^th October I held my book signing event for my second novel, A Gangster’s Grip at Thackeray’s Books in Denton, Manchester. The shop’s proprietors had prepared an excellent window display in advance of the book signing, showing the cover of ‘A Gangster’s Grip’ and giving the background to both of my novels. Apparently the poster had attracted interest and positive feedback from customers in the days preceding the book signing.

We arrived fifteen minutes early to find that we already had a customer waiting, and we still had to set up the table and display. My wardrobe malfunction didn’t help matters and, as more customers arrived, I struggled to free my lacy blouse, which had become entangled in my necklace. (This is not exactly the professional image you want to project to readers. 🙂 ) A valuable lesson was learnt and I think that in future it would be advisable to arrive half an hour before the signing.

Fortunately the customers were very patient, and the convivial atmosphere at Thackeray’s helped. Book signings are held in a room above the bookshop, which is also a tearoom selling home-made pastries and housing art displays from local authors.

As well as people who had attended my previous book signing for Slur, there were some new faces. It was great to meet new readers and chat about my books. One thing I did underestimate was how many copies of my previous novel, ‘Slur’ I would need. Because ‘A Gangster’s Grip’ is the second book in a trilogy, readers who hadn’t already read ‘Slur’ wanted to start with that one first. Some even bought both books. Another valuable lesson learnt for future signings is to stock up on print copies of all my books. I have now sold out of my author copies of ‘Slur’ and emptied Thackeray’s shelves of all copies too, although the book can still be ordered online from Amazon. N.B. I’ll be restocking as soon as possible.

Despite a couple of minor hiccups, it was a successful afternoon, and a wonderful opportunity to engage with readers. Although readers can get an idea of what a book is about by reading the blurb and glancing through the first few pages, they enjoy meeting authors and finding out a little about the background to novels. Book signings give readers a chance to do this and also enable authors to build up a local following.

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9Oct2015

Book Launch Update – ‘A Gangster’s Grip’

Posted in Book launch by heatherbwriter

It’s been a busy couple of days since the launch of ‘A Gangster’s Grip’ and there’s still a lot happening. Here’s an update:

‘Slur’ Free Promotion – Although I originally planned to offer ‘Slur’ for free a few weeks after the launch of ‘A Gangster’s Grip’, I made an impromptu, last minute decision to offer it free at the same time as the launch. ‘Slur’ is therefore currently available to download to the Kindle FREE until Sunday. Here’s the link if you want to grab a copy before the offer expires: http://viewbook.at/Slur.

Author Interview – Fellow author Georgia Rose has published a fabulous interview on her website at: Georgia Rose, in which we discuss some of the background behind ‘A Gangster’s Grip’ amongst other topics. Georgia is a busy lady who is a member of Rosie’s book review team as well as a talented author. You can find lots of great book reviews, author interviews and details of Georgia’s own riveting trilogy on her website. It’s well worth a visit.

First Reviews – ‘A Gangster’s Grip’ has received its first reviews, one of which is from the lovely Kath at Ignite Books. Kath only features 5 star reviews on her blog so I was extremely chuffed to get a mention. It’s also good to hear that Kath feels ‘A Gangster’s Grip’ is a better book than ‘Slur’ because, like all writers, I aim to improve with each novel.

‘About Manchester’ Feature – The launch of ‘A Gangster’s Grip was also featured in the ‘About Manchester’ online magazine so here’s another link to check out: About Manchester.

I still have plenty of activities lined up so I’ll keep you updated as events take place. Right, now I’m off to post a print copy of ‘A Gangster’s Grip’ to my daughter – she’s first in the queue otherwise I’m in big trouble. 🙂

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30Jan2015

Announcing the Launch of ‘Crime, Conflict & Consequences’

Posted in Short Story Book by heatherbwriter

I am pleased to announce the launch of my new short story book ‘Crime, Conflict & Consequences’, which is now available to download on the Kindle at: http://viewbook.at/Consequences for only 99p (UK) or $1.48 (US).

The book has ten short tales, which cross a number of different genres and styles, and cover various topics including crime, love and family dilemmas. There are also a few twist in the tale types. The stories are ideal for an enjoyable quick read during your coffee break or whenever you have a spare few minutes.

Developing my Alter Ego

I am continuing to publish under my new pen-name Heather Burnside and am making a few changes to the blog. I have separated my book writing endeavours from my writing business entirely so the blog is no longer an add-on to my writing services website. I now want it to have its own presence to complement my new identity.

As part of the ongoing development I want Heather Burnside to have more than a blog so that I will be able to showcase my books etc. The first step was to drop the ‘wordpress’ from my URL and pay an annual fee which allows me to have my own name for the URL i.e. www.heatherburnside.com and add more pages to the website rather than just the standard About page and blog that you get with the free WordPress account.

At the moment I’ve only added a books page but I’ve made a few other changes such as the theme and the addition of my mailing list link at the top right of every page. As I publish more books I will be expanding the website and hopefully adding more features.

What’s next?

Now that I’ve published my short story book I can’t wait to move onto my second novel which is also a crime thriller. In fact, I’ve already started work on it, but it isn’t the book that I originally previewed in the back of SLUR. I will be writing that one eventually although it will have to wait a while. There is a reason for this switch, which I will tell you more about in my next blog post. In the meantime I hope you enjoy reading ‘Crime, Conflict & Consequences’.

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15Oct2014

Book Signing Event

Posted in Uncategorized by heatherbwriter

On Saturday 11^th October I held a book signing for my novel SLUR at Thackeray’s Books in Denton, Manchester. The event went well and I enjoyed meeting members of the press and public.

Signing some Books

It was good to get the support of the lovely Margaret, proprietor of Thackeray’s Books, and her husband, as well as my brother Barry who helped with the lifting and shifting. Some of my good friends also turned up to give moral support and were good enough to stay and have a chat and a cuppa once everybody else had left.

Margaret, Barry and Myself

The event was attended by The Tameside Reporter, About Tameside monthly magazine and a representative from the Denton town team who kindly announced the signing on the news page of their website. The Denton town team was set up to support the revitalisation of Denton town centre based on the Portas recommendations relating to British high streets. It was lovely to meet the town team representative who also bought three copies of SLUR for Christmas presents.

The book signing will be featured in the Tameside Reporter, which goes to print on Thursday 16^th October. It will also be featured in the November edition of About Tameside magazine, which is circulated at the start of the month.

Margaret and Myself

Whilst I was at the event one of my very good friends invited me to a school open day to set up stall selling my books next Saturday. She suggested that my non-fiction books, Kids’ Clubs and Organizations and Great Places for Kids’ Parties would make ideal purchases for parents. Plus, some parents may even want to treat themselves to a copy of SLUR at the same time. After the success of my book signing event, I’m looking forward to taking part in the open day this coming Saturday. Ironically it’s at the secondary school that I attended many years ago.

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9Oct2014

What’s Next?

Posted in Book Promotion by heatherbwriter

It’s been such a busy time since the book launch party for my debut novel SLUR so I thought I would take a moment to reflect on the position to date and look at what direction I will be heading in next. First, a little bit about the launch party:

I have to be honest and say that if I was to look at the launch party solely in terms of financial gain, then I haven’t recouped the rewards for the efforts that I put in. However, for me it was about more than that. The launch party was a way of celebrating the culmination of many years of effort. It was a really fun couple of days and I want to extend a big thank you to all the people that took part including those that entered the competitions. I’d also like to thank the people that featured the launch on their blogs and helped to get the word out through social media.

Although a novel is the end product in terms of the creative process, it is only the beginning when it comes to promotion. I am therefore viewing the launch party as not only a celebration but also the first step in my promotional efforts for SLUR. This isn’t the first book that I have published but the non-fiction books cater to a different readership so in a way it is like publishing a first book. So at the moment SLUR has to stand alone until I follow it up with more fiction books.

Having said all that, SLUR has made a good start. I had hoped to reach the top 20 in each of the categories I had chosen so that the browsing public could spot my book, but I didn’t quite achieve that. However, at its peak SLUR reached around 11,500 for all paid books on Amazon UK (out of over 2.5 million) and number 76 in one of my chosen categories. So, with a few more sales I would have reached the top 20. I am planning to follow up the launch party with further promotional activities as follows:

Book Signing Event

I will be signing copies of SLUR at my local book shop on Saturday 11^th October. The local press have promised to feature the book signing so hopefully this will boost sales.

Goodreads Giveaway

SLUR is currently being featured as a Goodreads Giveaway where readers can win one of two signed print copies. Here is the link if you would like to enter: http://bit.ly/1vKnLvh. The closing date for entries is 22^nd October 2014.

Reviews and Blogs

I haven’t submitted my novel to as many of these as I should but I find it a very time consuming process. I always check the blog or website first to see the type of thing they publish and then send them an email together with details of my book. This invariably takes up some time but unfortunately only about 50% of them reply. Of those that reply, many of them already have lengthy reading lists so they are unable to take on any more work. Therefore, when I am planning promotional activities I tend to find other things to do that are more productive in terms of the time expended. I wonder if anybody else has had this experience.

Free Promotion

I’ve decided to run a free promotion on both of my parenting books. Whether this will have any impact on sales of SLUR remains to be seen as the readership is different (as mentioned above). I hope there may be some chance that readers downloading the free parenting books might also spot the novel but, if not, there’s nothing to lose by trying. The promotion applies to Kindle copies and is set to run from 23^rd till 25^th October.

Libraries

I’ll be approaching libraries to stock my novel as I did with my parenting books. I don’t think that the appeal will be as nationwide for my novel as it was for the parenting books though. Libraries tend to go for anything regional and with the parenting books there is something for all regions. As my novel is based in Manchester I will concentrate on libraries based in the northwest. I think it is still worth doing because not only are there the initial sales to consider, but also public lending rights as well as getting my name out to a wider network of readers.

Promotion is very much an ongoing process but once I’ve completed the main thrust of activities I’m anxious to get back to some writing. Apart from writing articles and web copy for clients, I haven’t done any other writing for weeks. I’m hoping to publish a blog soon revealing my plans for my next book writing venture. Watch this space!

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19Sep2014

The SLUR Big Prize Quiz

Posted in Uncategorized by heatherbwriter

Now we come to our last quiz of the day, the SLUR Big Prize Quiz.

The Prize

For this one we are offering our top prize of a £50 John Lewis gift voucher plus a signed print copy of SLUR together with signed print copies of my other two publications, Kids’ Clubs and Organizations: viewBook.at/KidsClubs and Great Places for Kids’ Parties: viewBook.at/KidsParties. You’ll still need a copy of Slur before you can enter the competition though as all the questions are based on the book.

N.B. We welcome overseas attendees and are willing to exchange the voucher for the equivalent in the country of choice if the prizes are won by somebody from overseas.

You can buy a Kindle version of Slur for only £1.99 at: http://viewbook.at/Slur, and if you manage to win the signed print copy as well, why not put it away as a keepsake? I’ve started to buy signed print copies of books by Indie authors because, you never know, they might become famous one day so it’s good to get your hands on a signed original.

If you want to buy the Kindle version to read on your computer, iPad or smartphone, you can download the free app here that enables you to do so.

Don’t forget to send all your answers by email to: dianewriting@gmail.com as with our other quizzes. As mentioned above, all the questions are based on the book, but they’re all straightforward. To give everybody a fair chance (because print copies of the book take longer to obtain than Kindle copies) there is a closing date of 5pm on 31^st October 2014 for this competition. That should give everyone time to read the book and find the answers.

Once we have reached the closing date, the winning entry will be drawn from the names of all the correct entries. We’ll also notify the prize winner by email and will put the answers to the quiz on the blog after the competition closing date.

The Questions

1.What is the name of the girl that Rita got into a fight with?

2. What is the name of Julie and Rita’s local pub?

3. What is the name of the nightclub that Julie and Rita frequent?

4. Which secondary school did Julie, Rita and Vinny attend?

5. Who is Inspector Bowden’s superior officer?

6. What is the name of the company where Julie works?

7. Where does Rita go for her holidays?

8. What is the Whippet’s real name?

9. What is Julie’s younger sister called?

10. Who, apart from Vinny, does Julie go on a date with?

11. What is Julie’s dad called?

12. What is Julie’s mum called?

13. What type of job does Rita have?

14. What is the name of Julie’s colleague who works on the switchboard with her?

15. How old is Julie?

16. What is the name of Rita’s friend who works with her?

17. What is the name of Amanda’s supervisor?

18. What does Julie find in a toilet cubicle at work?

19. What is Amanda’s boyfriend called?

20. What does Melanie Butterworth see that raises suspicions?

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That’s it for today. Thanks for coming to my book launch party. I hope you’ve enjoyed taking part in our competitions and that you’ll enjoy reading SLUR. Good luck with your competition entries. We’ll publish the results of the Literary Quiz and the General Knowledge Quiz on the blog after next Tuesday’s closing date, and the results of the SLUR Big Prize Quiz after the closing date in six weeks’ time. Don’t forget to send your answers to this quiz by email to dianewriting@gmail.com by the closing date of 5pm on Friday 31^st October.

We’re off to have a well-earned glass of the fizzy stuff now before we get busy working our way through all those competition entries in the coming days and weeks.

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10Sep2014

Who are my Fab Five Indie Authors?

Posted in Indie Authors by heatherbwriter

My Fab Five Indie Authors will be playing a special role in my online book launch party for my debut novel SLUR: http://viewbook.at/Slur, which is a crime thriller set in 1980s Manchester. So, I would like to say a big thank you to each of the Fab Five for their contribution. You can find out more about my launch party by checking out the agenda. The book launch party will be taking place on this blog on 19^th and 20^th September.

Each of these talented authors has kindly agreed to donate a signed print copy of one of their books as a prize for our Literary Quiz. This means that the lucky winner will receive a bundle of all five books. The books cover a range of genres to cater to different tastes but the thing that they all have in common is that they are particularly well written and a good read. The books included in the prize are: Can’t Live Without, Necropolis, Never Say Sorry, A Single Step and Reaper’s Rhythm. To find out more about each book, please follow the links under the author details.

Given the wealth of talent in the independent author community, it was difficult to choose just five authors, and there were some others that I would like to have included. However, I have chosen these five because I have read and enjoyed books by all of them, and can recommend their work. I have also made a personal connection with each of the authors and found them friendly and supportive. I would therefore like to tell you a little more about these five exceptional people:

Joanne Phillips

Joanne is a popular and prolific author of romantic comedies and cosy mysteries. Her debut novel Can’t Live Without was an Amazon top 20 bestseller and her books regularly appear on Amazon category bestseller lists. To date she has published four novels, a short story collection and a novelette.

Apart from being a talented author and a lovely lady, Joanne is a great supporter of the Indie community and runs a very informative blog sharing advice about the book writing, publishing and marketing process, which you can find at: http://joannegphillips.wordpress.com/. Readers can also find out all about Joanne’s books on her website: http://www.joannephillips.co.uk/.

Guy Portman

Guy has published two novels which differ in subject matter but both are peppered with Guy’s unique sardonic humour. He writes in a literary style that doesn’t conform to current writing trends. In fact, because Guy’s writing style is so individual I think that it can be considered timeless, and I can see his second novel in particular, Necropolis, becoming a cult classic. Although the graphic content may not suit everybody, this book will stay with you for a long time after you have read it.

Guy also publishes a regular literary blog, which is both witty and informative. It can be found at: http://guyportman.com/.

Rose Edmunds

If you’re looking for a fast paced thriller with plenty of twists and turns, then Rose’s debut novel, Never Say Sorry, is a must. Rose is a skilled thriller writer who knows how to grab readers from page one and keep them turning the pages.

Never Say Sorry is set in the world of corporate finance and involves a conspiracy to suppress a natural cancer cure. It has received great reviews to date and the good news is that Rose has a second book due out soon called Concealment, which is a psychological thriller. You can find out more about Rose’s forthcoming thriller, Concealment, at: http://www.roseedmunds.co.uk/.

Georgia Rose

Camera shy Georgia prefers to hide behind her blue rose symbol. Georgia is relatively new to the independent writing scene but has already made an impact since publishing her debut novel A Single Step at the end of 2013. This romantic suspense novel has received many excellent reviews and been featured on a number of popular blogs. A Single Step is the first in a trilogy, and the second novel, Before the Dawn, will be released on 26^th September, so Georgia’s fans won’t have long to wait.

Georgia publishes a lively blog, which features author interviews, book reviews and recommendations, as well as giving an insight into her writing journey. You can find out more about Georgia and her work at: http://www.georgiarosebooks.com/.

Clare Davidson

Clare writes fantasy novels for the young adult niche, but the characterisation is so strong in Clare’s novels that they appeal to more than just a young adult readership. I have read two of Clare’s novels, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and I found myself empathising with the lead character who is a teenage girl. To date Clare has written a standalone novel, Trinity, and three novels in the Hidden series, of which Reaper’s Rhythm is the first. She is currently working on the fourth novel in the series.

Clare also runs a stimulating and thought provoking blog, which you can find at: http://www.claredavidson.com/blog/.

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As well as our Literary Quiz, we’ll be running three other quizzes for our launch day celebrations so don’t forget to join us if you don’t want to miss out on the fun.

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2Sep2014

Launch Party Agenda

Posted in Book Launch Party by heatherbwriter

On Friday 19^th September 2014 and Saturday 20^th September I’ll be having my online book launch party for my debut novel SLUR here at my blog. The book is already available to purchase at: http://viewbook.at/Slur. It’s been 15 years since I first started writing SLUR, which I always said I would publish one day. That day has arrived and I plan to have one hell of a celebration. I’m having a full day of competitions and prizes on the Friday with a top prize of a £50 gift voucher and a signed print copy of the book plus my other two non-fiction books in the end of day competition. Then I’ll probably chill and open a bottle of the fizzy stuff.

For those that can’t make it on the Friday, I’ll be repeating three out of the four competitions on the Saturday. The closing date for two of the competitions is the following Tuesday 23^rd September, and the closing date for the final (big prize) competition is Friday 31^st October. Therefore, those attending the party on Saturday 20^th September still have a chance of winning these three competitions.

I’d love it if as many friends, family, clients, fellow authors and acquaintances as possible could attend the event. In fact, everybody is welcome. If you can’t manage a full day, you might want to just pop along for part of it. I’m therefore detailing my agenda with approximate times so you know what to expect.

N.B. Please note that we welcome attendees from oversees. As the prize vouchers are in GBP, we will exchange them for equivalent vouchers if overseas entrants win any of the competitions.

Friday 19^th September 2014

N.B. All times are GMT

1. The Story of SLUR (approx. 9.30am – 10am) – We start with an introduction of what we’ve got lined up for the day followed by The Story of SLUR. It’s been so long since the author first put pen to paper (or was it a feather quill?) that SLUR has taken on a life of its own. This witty passage takes a look at the story of SLUR from the book’s own viewpoint, and I have to warn you that now SLUR (http://viewbook.at/Slur) has finally stepped into the limelight, it’s become a bit of a diva.

2. Meet the Author Quiz (approx. 10.30am – 11am) – 10 fun questions about the author. The answers to a lot of these will be guesses but the emphasis is on having a bit of fun. Answers to be sent by email and the deadline is 1pm. The winner will be drawn from all those with 10 correct answers or, failing that, the winner will be drawn from those with the most correct answers. The winner will be announced on the blog later in the afternoon and the prize is a signed print copy of SLUR (http://viewbook.at/Slur), signed print copies of my two parenting books, which you can view here and a £10 gift voucher

3. Literary Quiz (approx. 1pm) – Introducing my Fab Five independent authors – each one is donating a signed print copy of one of their books as a prize. The winner gets a bundle of all five books. The quiz has 20 questions and the winner will be drawn from all those with 20 correct answers or, if nobody gets all the answers right, the winner will be drawn from all those with the most correct answers. Closing date is the following Tuesday 23^rd September at 5pm. The winner will be contacted shortly afterwards, as soon as we have had time to go through the entries, and will be announced on the blog along with the answers.

4. Announcing the winner of our Meet the Author Quiz (approx. 3pm depending on the number of entries). Along with this announcement we will publish the answers to the quiz. This blog post also lists ways in which you can stay in touch with the author or follow the author on social media.

5. General Knowledge Quiz (approx. 5pm) – This quiz has 20 questions and the winner will be drawn from all those with 20 correct answers or, if nobody gets all the answers right, the winner will be drawn from all those with the most correct answers. Closing date is the following Tuesday 23^rd September at 5pm. The winner will be contacted shortly afterwards, as soon as we have had time to go through the entries, and will be announced on the blog along with the answers. The prize is a £25 John Lewis gift voucher.

6. The SLUR Big Prize Quiz (approx. 7pm) – there are 20 questions for this one, which are all based on the book. Entrants have six weeks to submit their entries as this gives them plenty of time to buy a copy, read it and find the answers. The prize will be a £50 John Lewis voucher and a signed print copy of SLUR (http://viewbook.at/Slur) as a keepsake (or to give to someone as a present), plus a signed print copy of each of my two parenting books, which you can view here. The winner’s name will be drawn from the names of all the correct entries. The winner will be announced on the blog after the closing date of Friday 31^st October at 5pm, and will also be contacted by email.

Saturday 20^th September 2014

N.B. All times are GMT

1. The Story of SLUR (approx. 10am) – We start with an introduction of what we’ve got lined up for the day followed by The Story of SLUR. It’s been so long since the author first put pen to paper (or was it a feather quill?) that SLUR has taken on a life of its own. This witty passage takes a look at the story of SLUR from the book’s own viewpoint, and I have to warn you that now SLUR (http://viewbook.at/Slur) has finally stepped into the limelight, it’s become a bit of a diva.

2. Literary Quiz (approx. 12noon) – Introducing my Fab Five independent authors – each one is donating a signed print copy of one of their books as a prize. The winner gets a bundle of all five books. The quiz has 20 questions and the winner will be drawn from all those with 20 correct answers or, if nobody gets all the answers right, the winner will be drawn from all those with the most correct answers. Closing date is the following Tuesday 23rd September at 5pm. The winner will be contacted shortly afterwards, as soon as we have had time to go through the entries, and will be announced on the blog along with the answers.

3. General Knowledge Quiz (approx. 2pm) – This quiz has 20 questions and the winner will be drawn from all those with 20 correct answers or, if nobody gets all the answers right, the winner will be drawn from all those with the most correct answers. Closing date is the following Tuesday 23rd September at 5pm. The winner will be contacted shortly afterwards, as soon as we have had time to go through the entries, and will be announced on the blog along with the answers. The prize is a £25 John Lewis gift voucher.

4. The SLUR Big Prize Quiz (approx. 4pm) – there are 20 questions for this one, which are all based on the book. Entrants have six weeks to submit their entries as this gives them plenty of time to buy a copy, read it and find the answers. The prize will be a £50 John Lewis voucher and a signed print copy of SLUR (http://viewbook.at/Slur) as a keepsake (or to give to someone as a present), plus a signed print copy of each of my two parenting books, which you can view here. The winner’s name will be drawn from the names of all the correct entries. The winner will be announced on the blog after the closing date of Friday 31st October at 5pm, and will also be contacted by email.

N.B. We also welcome overseas attendees and are willing to exchange the vouchers for the equivalent in the country of choice if the prizes are won by somebody from overseas.

I hope you can make it. Bye for now.

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