Image: Lunchtime Mama
After Tuesday night up late working on the promotional material for STELLA, then Wednesday’s late one for a theatre visit with my wife, tiredness played a big part in my day yesterday. The day job dragged and I realised in the midst of it all that the week was dragging too. I kept thinking it was Thursday when it was only Wednesday. I hate it when that happens.
As a result, I overslept and had to call a taxi to get me in to the office on time. Bad week to sleep in as this is mine for covering the day shift so I need to be there from 8am until 5pm. The same thing happened again this morning despite getting to bed a bit earlier last night. I just seem to need a damn good sleep at the moment but 7 hours isn’t enough. I’ll just have to put it down to the energy I’m burning up at the day job and with all the excitement surrounding STELLA’s impending release.
With all that said and done, I did manage to keep the ball rolling with the things that mattered. My media kit for STELLA is now complete, which means I can start putting the blog tour together and starting the hunt for reviews and press coverage. It contains a book blurb, extract, author biography, press release, Q&A, and some lo-res images (high-res on request so people’s emails do not get held up). It’s looking rather nifty.
Tonight I’ll begin sending out formal requests for my blog tour in June. I’ve already lined up two events but no dates confirmed just yet. Stay tuned for a full schedule soon enough.
I finished polishing up my story, Shallow, and it’s now ready for going out. A rejection came in for Off the Ground so I’ve a few to turn around before the end of the week.
The June issue of my monthly newsletter, The Patter, is almost ready. I’ve just got some tweaking and polishing to do to bring it up to scratch then I can schedule it for distribution on Monday morning. Since I started Twittering about the newsletter-only competition, the number of subscribers has soared. I’m going to do a Twitter-only competition next week, also, so follow me on Twitter if you want to be involved.
For the second issue in a row I’ve had authors not responding to emails concerning their publishing contracts with the Ranfurly Review. Two authors have not sent back the contracts despite three separate attempts over several weeks to reach them. Once upon a time I would have gone searching on the Internet but not any more. If people don’t get back they get pulled and black listed.
I’m now left with two rather large holes in Issue 7 and only three days left to fill them. I’ll have to bring a couple of contributions forward, which isn’t always as easy as it sounds; the author has promoted already, the piece doesn’t fit the overall theme of the issue – could be anything.
I now have FOUR authors that I refuse to accept submissions from due to not-return of emails or contracts. It’s not like they don’t have enough time, and I just doubt how seriously they take their work. The Ranfurly may be a non-paying e-zine, but it I run it seriously and prefer to have people involved who have a genuine love of the craft than time wasters.
It’s not too late to sign up to my newsletter for the chance to win a free e-book of STELLA and some signed promo stuff. Enter your email address here and when the next newsletter comes out on 1st June you’ll have five days to get your entry in. The answer is really easy – all you have to do is watch the promotional video on my site to be in with a chance.
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