Writers Life | Hinting, asking, pleading, begging – for reviews

What a funny old place the publishing world has become. I remember reading a classic novel Miss Buncle’s Book. In this story a middle-aged spinster, Miss Buncle, found that her annuity from her investment wasn’t making ends meet. She decided to write a book to make money. She didn’t have much of an imagination, so …

Practicalities of writing different genres

I’ve heard it said numerous times, “Don’t switch genres. Every time you do it is like starting all over again.” Yet authors still switch genres, myself included. My experience of writing in different genres (non-fiction and contemporary) I started by writing non-fiction and never dreamed that I would write novels. All of my non-fiction was …

How to be a good book reviewer

I confess that I have never been good at reviewing books. Even my favourite books, the ones that I could gush about for days, didn’t move me to enter a review on a retailer’s site. Sure, there was a little bit of laziness in there, but until recently, I truly considered my own opinion unimportant. …

Marketing 101 | What is a Reader Magnet?

This question gets asked a lot in the author forums I am part of. I thought it was worth giving an in-depth answer here. A reader magnet is a freebie that an author gives away in exchange for a reader’s email address. You might also hear it referred to as a ‘lead magnet’, which is …

Marketing a Book in a Pandemic and Beyond

Becoming a debut author is a shared time of triumph and worry. This book baby is finally going to be out in the world! Yes!!! But then come all the what ifs and questions . . . Will it sell well? Receive great reviews? Secure attention from influencers and media? Land in-person book signings and …

Online Book Launches in an Age of Covid

Covid has certainly disrupted a lot of writing events this year, but it doesn’t have to stop you from having a book launch. You might just need to think outside the box. I was fortunate in being able to hold a physical book launch for my debut novel Scattered, but I decided to also do …

Me, Me, ME

Narcissism https://www.google.com.au/#q=Narcissism According to the Google definition, it means: excessive interest in or admiration of oneself and one’s physical appearance. extreme selfishness, with a grandiose view of one’s own talents and a craving for admiration, as characterizing a personality type. self-centeredness arising from failure to distinguish the self from external objects, either in very young …

#ThrowbackThursday | 9 #TwitterTips for Authors

Twitter is for twits. That was my first impression, and my second wasn’t much better: that Twitter is like a gaggle of teenage girls with everyone talking and no one listening. But I’ve persevered, and Twitter is now my second most influential social media network, after Facebook. And I’ve got to the point where it …

ACW Writing Resources

Writing Resources for Australasian Christian Writers (ACW): Book Publishing Book Marketing Writing Craft Omega Writers One of the logistical challenges we’ve encountered in moving a five year old group blog to a new platform is how to connect the archived posts from the old site. We didn’t want to lose access to the wealth of …

Building an Author Platform to Share our Love of Books

Sharing our love of books. That’s the Australasian Christian Writers tagline. Our mission, if you prefer. The contributors to Australasian Christian Writers are all Christians. Most of us live in Australia or New Zealand, although some of our guest bloggers will come from further afield (but most will have a close connection to Australia or …