Heather Burnside's Blog, page 15

Book Signing Event

On Saturday 11th 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 16th 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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What’s Next?

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 11th 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 22nd 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 23rd till 25th 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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Winners of Literary and General Knowledge Quizzes

I am now pleased to announce the winners of our Literary Quiz and our General Knowledge Quiz. The winner of the Literary Quiz is Tracey Poulter and the winner of the General Knowledge Quiz is Sara Goodman.

Congratulations to our two winners! Tracey will receive a bundle of five signed books by talented authors and Sara will receive a £25 John Lewis voucher.

In case you’re curious, here are the answers to both quizzes:

Literary Quiz

Prince.
Curly.
Gerald Croft.
District 12.
Gertrude.
To call an assembly, and to denote who can speak at that assembly.
Uncle Nick.
Livia.
London and Paris.
Alzheimers.
The Russian Revolution and the resulting totalitarian state under Stalin.
Nicci Gerrard and Sean French.
Northanger Abbey.
Pilot.
Bletchley Park.
He killed his brother in a jealous rage.
“The Luminaries” by Eleanor Catton (score half a point each).
William Shakespeare.
Thunder Child.
Commentarii de Bello Gallico or Caesar’s Gaelic Wars or The Conquest of Gaul.

General Knowledge Quiz

Individual Voluntary Arrangement.
Jersey.
Wales.
Lea Michelle.
The anus.
1.
12.
Ramsay McDonald.
Joseph Goebbels.
Claudius.
Sodium.
Dolly Parton.
Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook and Stephen Morris were members of both groups.
David Lloyd George.
Silver Linings Playbook.
The Median Nerve.
720 degrees.
On your feet.
African.
It is the right to retain another person’s property until they pay their debt to you.

I would like to say a big thank you to all those who took part.

The SLUR Big Prize Quiz

dydywriter:

Our last quiz for the SLUR book launch is the SLUR Big Prize Quiz. You have six weeks to find the answers to this one. Bye for now and enjoy reading. :) Details below:

Originally posted on Diane Mannion Writing Services:

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…

View original 499 more words

General Knowledge Quiz

dydywriter:

It’s not too late to enter our General Knowledge Quiz. Closing date is Tuesday 23rd Sept at 5pm (UK time). Details below:

Originally posted on Diane Mannion Writing Services:

And now for our General Knowledge Quiz. Again, there will be 20 questions for this quiz but you will have until 5pm next Tuesday 23rd September to get the answers to us. Please send your answers by email to: dianewriting@gmail.com.

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. The winner will be contacted shortly after the closing date, as soon as we have had a chance to go through all the entries, and will also be announced on the blog. We will also publish the answers on the blog after the competition deadline.

The Prize

As this is a General Knowledge Quiz, our prize will be general in nature too, so we’re awarding a £25 John Lewis voucher to the winner. That means you’ll…

View original 359 more words

Literary Quiz

dydywriter:

If you missed our Literary Quiz yesterday, you still have until 5pm next Tuesday to send your answers in. Details below:

Originally posted on Diane Mannion Writing Services:

We’re now moving onto our second competition of the day (or first for Saturday), which is our Literary Quiz. I’m very excited about this one as it gives me a chance to introduce some of my talented author friends who have kindly offered to contribute signed copies of their books as prizes.

We still have two more competitions to go, which are our General Knowledge Quiz later this afternoon, with a £25 gift voucher for the winner, and the SLUR Big Prize Quiz this evening. The winner of the SLUR Big Prize Quiz gets a £50 gift voucher and a signed print copy of SLUR plus my two parenting books. (Please note that some of these quizzes will be re-run on Saturday 20th September but times will differ. You can find full details of approximate times for both days at: http://dianewriting.wordpress.com/2014/09/02/launch-party-agenda/.)

But first let me tell you more about our…

View original 877 more words

The Story of Slur

dydywriter:

If you missed the party yesterday, don’t worry as we’re celebrating today too and re-posting some of our blogs starting with “The Story of Slur”.

Originally posted on Diane Mannion Writing Services:

The party’s started so grab yourself a cuppa and crack open the biscuits – we’ll save the wine and nibbles till later. I thought I’d start by letting you know what we’ve got lined up before telling you a little bit about the book. In fact, SLUR will be telling its own tale, and I have to warn you that with all this attention it’s become the diva of the book world.

We’ll be running some fun quizzes throughout the day and are offering great prizes (more about that below). All quiz answers should be sent by email to dianewriting@gmail.com. We’ll also be publishing updates during the day so if you want to receive the updates by email, just follow this blog by clicking the box marked ‘follow’ to the right of the screen.

Where to Buy SLUR

SLUR is available from Amazon in both Kindle format priced at £1.99…

View original 802 more words

The SLUR Big Prize Quiz

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 31st 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 31st 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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6) The SLUR Big Prize Quiz

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 31st 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?

————————

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 31st 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.

————————

General Knowledge Quiz

And now for our General Knowledge Quiz. Again, there will be 20 questions for this quiz but you will have until 5pm next Tuesday 23rd September to get the answers to us. Please send your answers by email to: dianewriting@gmail.com.

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. The winner will be contacted shortly after the closing date, as soon as we have had a chance to go through all the entries, and will also be announced on the blog. We will also publish the answers on the blog after the competition deadline.

The Prize

As this is a General Knowledge Quiz, our prize will be general in nature too, so we’re awarding a £25 John Lewis voucher to the winner. That means you’ll be able to treat yourself to whatever you fancy.

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.

Don’t forget that we’ve still got the SLUR Big Prize Quiz coming up later today. The winner of the SLUR Big Prize Quiz gets a £50 John Lewis voucher and a signed print copy of SLUR along with my other two publications. The questions for the SLUR Big Prize Quiz will be based on the book so unless you were lucky enough to win a copy in our Meet the Author Quiz, you might want to buy your copy now if you haven’t already done so. Here’s the link: http://viewbook.at/Slur.

But now back to our General Knowledge Quiz.

The Questions

1. In personal finance, what do the letters IVA stand for?

2. On which British island is the town of St Helier?

3. In which country are the Black Mountains?

4. What is the name of the actress who plays Rachel Berry in “Glee”?

5. In a human embryo, what is the first part of the body to develop?

6. How many points is the letter “s” worth in scrabble?

7. What is the square root of 144?

8. Who was the first labour Prime Minister?

9. Who was Hitler’s Propaganda Minister?

10. Which Roman Emperor conquered Britain?

11. Which element has the chemical symbol Na?

12. Who is Miley Cyrus’s godmother?

13. In what way were the Manchester bands Joy Division and New Order related?

14. Who was the British Prime Minister at the end of the First World War?

15. For which film did Jennifer Lawrence win an Academy Award for best actress?

16. Which is the nerve that is damaged in Carpal Tunnel Syndrome?

17. What do the angles in a hexagon add up to?

18. Where would you wear espadrilles?

19. Which elephants have the biggest ears – African or Indian?

20. What is a lien?

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Don’t forget to send your answers by email to dianewriting@gmail.com by 5pm next Tuesday 23rd September at the latest.

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