Wednesday, May 26, 2010

The Big July Part II

I almost have my full list of stores now and will soon post dates and times so you can, if you wish, come along and say hello and perhaps get a book or three signed!
Key dates are: Thursday July 1 and Friday July 2 in Brisbane, Thursday July 8 doing the south coast from Shellharbour to Batemans Bay, Friday July 9 and Saturday July 10 in Queanbeyan/Canberra, Sunday July 11 Macarthur and Liverpool, Thursday July 15 and Friday July 16 in Adelaide and finishing up with a Thursday lunchtime (July 29) at Galaxy Books in the city.
Along the way, I shall visit every Borders store in NSW and the ACT, Newcastle, the Central Coast and all points of the compass in Sydney.
Along the way I shall try and blog as often as possible, talking about the places I have visited and the people I have met.
PS: The link to my video on YouTube I posted earlier is not working ... you can either go direct to YouTube and search for me, go to my Facebook site and see it there, or go to the Harper Voyager site and see it there!

Sunday, May 9, 2010

The Big July

It seems amazing but almost a year has passed since The Wounded Guardian first appeared on shelves.
It has truly been an amazing ride.
Now The Dragon Sword Histories is about to end, with The Radiant Child, book three, to be released on July 1.
To mark this, I am planning something special - The Big July.
One of the things I have learned over the past year is how effective getting out into the bookstores to meet both the sellers and the people on the streets is.
Not only do you get the chance to meet some amazing people and talk about your books, but you also get to speak to the booksellers directly, let them know about you and you books
I have written before about how much fun this is, and how much I feel it has helped both promote my books and helped me understand more about what people are looking for.
So I am going to bring everything I have learned over the past year to The Big July.
In these 30 days, I plan to visit 50 bookstores and hand-sell 1000 books. That's not just The Radiant Child, but copies of The Wounded Guardian and The Risen Queen as well.
I am hoping the various booksellers will be keen to help me achieve this huge goal and fingers crossed we might be able to get some deals for purchases of two or more books.
I will be posting updates through the month as I travel not just around Newcastle, the Central Coast and Sydney, but visit Brisbane, Adelaide and Canberra as well, while also going further afield in NSW.
Please follow my progress - and I would love to see you at one of many stores!
Check out the following link for a YouTube video with some more details, which I recorded for HarperCollins: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21p5xGnBoB4
You can also see it on my Facebook page.
I shall be posting full lists and times of store visits as they are arranged.
I hope you can help me achieve my goal, and truly make The Big July happen for me and my books.