Victoria Walters's Blog, page 37
February 10, 2016
The Summer I Met You release day!!
I’m so excited that today my eBook short story THE SUMMER I MET YOU is now available to download hurrah!! This story is a prequel to my forthcoming novel THE SECOND LOVE OF MY LIFE (Out April 7th) and follows two characters from the novel Emma and John and their summer romance.
Can a summer romance last a lifetime?
The story introduces you to the fictional Cornish town of Talting and some of the characters you’ll meet in the novel but it is also a standalone story that hopefully you’ll enjoy in its own right!
As you read the story, you can also listen to the soundtrack I made. I love making playlists for books and I really love the playlist for this story – it makes me feel as if we’re bang in the middle of the summer despite the February chill.
I’m so excited to hear what people think of the story. There are already some fab early reviews:
THE SUMMER I MET YOU can be downloaded for 99p from Amazon, iBooks and Kobo. I would love to hear what you thought of it if you have read it. You can leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads and please do tweet me your thoughts: @Vicky_Walters.
Thank you for all your support!
Victoria
xoxo
February 9, 2016
1
We are down to ONE day woo!! The Summer I Met You is available to download tomorrow yay!!!
1
We are down to ONE day woo!! The Summer I Met You is available to download tomorrow yay!!!
February 8, 2016
2
Just TWO days to go now ….
The Summer I Met You
February 7, 2016
February 6, 2016
February 5, 2016
How can I support a book?
I have had lots of questions from lovely family and friends about how best they can support my book when it’s published, and books in general! So I thought I would write a blog post to help everyone spread the word about books they have loved.
Buy, Buy, Buy!!
Obviously the main way you can support an author is to buy their book! Pre-orders are really helpful because they help retailers decide how many copies to order into their stores, they can raise a book’s ranking on sites like Amazon so the site might place the book in a more prominent position and they also help publishers see how well a book might do and they might promote it even more as a result!
If you can afford to then buying more than one copy and gifting it to friends and family is a great way to raise sales and also spread the word about the book. Which leads us nicely to the next thing you can do to help …
Tell the world!!
If you’ve enjoyed a book then the best thing you can do is tell people about it! So, let’s talk reviews. Reviews are REALLY important because they help people make buying decisions but they also make a book more visible. Let’s use Amazon as an example – once a book achieves a certain number of reviews (I think it might be 20 plus) then they make the book more visible on their site so they might suggest it to people when they buy something similar or they might include it in their recommendation emails. It’s like the saying that money makes money – the more reviews and sales a book has, the more it will likely get!
So, you can leave a review on the site you bought the book on (Waterstones, Amazon, Kobo, iBooks, WH Smith all let you leave reviews), or if you have a Goodreads account you can leave one there, if you’re a book blogger you will post on your own site or a simple tweet or Facebook status or Instagram photo of the book can do so much to make the book more visible online. The more people see a book being well received, the more likely they are to want to read it for themselves. I buy so many books based on people I follow on Twitter talking about it – it really works.
Word-of-mouth is still probably the best way that book can reach the bestseller lists. If you love a book – tell the world that you love it!
Help others buy!!
The more visible a book is, the more people will discover it so you can help by going into your local bookshop and suggesting they order it in because you loved it, for example. If you’re a bookseller yourself, then making a prominent display or inviting the author to sign copies / do an event is a brilliant way of helping the book be a big success!
Another really helpful thing you can do is visit your local library and ask them to order it in so people can borrow it as well.
If you’re in a book club then suggest your group reads that book one month. This means more copies sold but also more people talking about it too.
Show the author!!
A lovely way of showing your support for a book is to keep your eyes peeled for it and then take pictures. Authors love seeing their book ‘out in the wild’ so if you spot the book in a bookshop or a supermarket or at a train station or airport then take a picture! Then you can share the photo on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc so show how excited you were to spot it.
The same goes for author interviews in the press or if you see the book being reviewed in a magazine or newspaper. Telling the author you’ve seen it will be really appreciated. Plus you’ll be showing your family and friends that you’re not the only one who loves this book!
And don’t forget a simple message to the author telling them that you loved their book will no doubt make their day!
Do you guys have any other ideas for supporting a book?
Victoria
xoxo
January 18, 2016
Journey to publication (part 4)
We are now in publication year hurrah!! We are getting very close now guys *nervous excited nervous excited face*
2016 started on a really high note as The Second Love Of My Life was featured in Heat magazine as one of the books of the year to look out for. To say I was over the moon about this is an understatement. There’s my little book hanging out in Heat:
Still taking it in that this happened to be honest.
The new year meant review copies could go out to bloggers too. I have loved seeing everyone share photos of them arriving and seeing the excitement online to read them.
In fact, there has already been a review for The Second Love Of My Life on Goodreads! And it was a lovely five star review. Year made already! I am though really nervous about reviews. I keep being told not to read any and that is really hard not to do but I definitely see why that advice exsists. I just really hope people will enjoy reading it and all the hard work put into it will pay off. I just have to remember I’m proud of this book and having it out there in the world is an achievement in itself.
Just three months to go now eeeeekkkkkkkk!!!!! Any advice for me as publication approaches??
Victoria
xoxo
January 11, 2016
2015 – a year in books
For the first time in 2015 I decided to list all the books I read each month and pick my favourite one. It was really interesting keeping track of what I was reading and has provided me a list of my twelve favourite books of the year.
Looking at the twelve confirms that I enjoy a wide range of books and this has definitely become more the case since working at Waterstones as I choose books I never would have picked up before.
My favourite books are ones that I enjoyed but also ones that inspired me or ones I had a strong emotional reaction too. Some were easy to pick but some months I loved all the books I read so it was a harder task.
I enjoyed the challenge though and it’s really interesting to see look back at the twelve books that made the biggest impact on me in 2015.
I don’t tend to read a lot of non-fiction but I loved both WILD and BIG MAGIC this year so I will definitely be looking out for more in 2016.
In terms of fiction I think the two books that I’m still thinking about the most are A LITTLE LIFE and STATION ELEVEN.
So now I need to decide whether to write about the books I’m reading each month in 2016. What do you guys think? And what books stood out for you in 2015?
Victoria
xoxo
