Are those blasted kittens still there?

On By Mick CanningIn advertising, blogging, Making Friends with the Crocodile, promoting, publishing, writing

Having posted a few days ago about my inability to finish one project before starting three others, I’ve attempted to organise myself a little to try to deal with that.

And not too long ago, I also posted about my inability – fear almost – to promote myself effectively.

Coincidentally, several days ago I took part in a Webinar aimed at small businesses (theoretically, that includes writers trying to sell books), about using social media effectively, and whilst I was pleased to discover that I seem to be doing a fair bit right already, there are several things that I should definitely change, which I will do shortly.

shark boy crop

Not kittens.

The first thing I’ll do, will be launch my own Author page on Facebook; something I really should have done before now. And to promote it, I plan to serialise a new short-ish story on this blog, over several posts. It’s something slightly different, for me, in that it is a spoof/satire ‘gritty urban detective drama’, but set in Elizabethan England. So, cue daggers, bawdiness, vomit and lots of mud and sour beer.

This will probably be during the second week of next month.

I have also learned a little more about publishing, from the company Wet Zebra at our local writers’ group, and from a few other independent sources, which might possibly lead to my attempting to publish my next book a little differently.

That next book will, I’m now reasonably certain, be The Assassin’s Garden, which has picked up momentum again. If all goes according to plan (!), it will be the first book of a series, stretching in time from the sixteenth century to the late twentieth century, and set variously in Persia, India, Europe and England.

So, what’s it about? I’m so glad you asked. A secret, something stolen, a pursuit, crossing time and continents. Revenge. It has elements of detective story, a bit of classic Gothic horror, a touch of fantasy, a soupcon of sex and violence, some ‘straight’ historical drama, and kittens. Yes, really.

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Not a kitten either.

I’m nothing if not ambitious.

And, bearing in mind how easily distracted I am, the research will give me huge opportunities to prevaricate and wander off at tangents to all sorts of odd corners of the internet.

Making Friends with the Crocodile cover

Buy it, read it, make me happy!

And for Making Friends with the Crocodile, my published novel, I am going to re-write the promotional blurb and have another attempt to push it out further into the big, wide, novel-reading world.

21 thoughts on “Are those blasted kittens still there?”

  3. Learning to promote is the real trick, isn’t it? Like you, I took stock this year of what I’m doing right, and uh, not so right. Nothing was actually wrong, just not getting me the results I want. But others have figured it out, and we can, too. I’m going to tackle book promotion later on my social media conference, and I’d love to have your input on what you’ve found. 🙂

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  6. Self-promotion is terrifying – it cuts right across the cultural grain. It’s always much easier to promote other people’s work than our own.

    And oh, the distractions our own work can throw up! I speak from experience. I was working on a long story, possibly a trilogy, that’s been hanging around for far too long when I came across a cache of musty documents…

    ‘The Assassin’s Garden’ sounds great. Meanwhile, I’ll look forward to the serial.

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  7. I LOVED the photos of “not kittens!”
    I’m glad you’re moving forward with your next book and working more on promoting yourself as an author. Let me know when you have the new page on Facebook and I’ll be sure to “like” it. I very much enjoyed reading your book…you are a talented writer!

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  9. To promote one’s work is not an easy feat at all but I believe that it can be done. I am still learning this curve without coming across as being pushy but we need to do what needs to be done. All the best with it. I’ll be watching you and I’m also going to feature your book in my series called author zone.

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