Hey ya!
With Christmas around the corner, the mind starts to wander between work and celebrating! I’ve done a mixture of both in the past week.
I went to the ASA marketing workshop to learn about the author as a brand. We had talks from a web-savvy author, publicist and bookseller. It was info overload, good info, all news to me.
Writing the book is the easy part! Getting that book out there is another matter. The Publishers do a lot, but essentially it falls to you, the author, to plug yourself. I’ve already been thinking of this, 6 months ahead of Thai-riffic!’s release.
Last Thursday, I met Kirstin from Penguin Books, she’s the head of sales and education. A very cool lady who’s on the pulse of the book market. We had a brief chat about what Penguin will be doing to promote Thai-riffic! All I can say is that I’m chuffed and thrilled to what they have in store for me. It’s going to be a PPP between us. A proactive, passionate partnership with the Penguin People (I heart alliteration). It’s another perk of being part of a powerful publisher 🙂
Plus I got my very own Puffin Plush toy, which will be used for my upcoming talks, along with my cast of thousands.
In other news, I’ve helped out to start a blog with the CBCA Northern Sydney Sub-branch (more on this soon). I attended a writers network meeting, got to catch up with some prolific authors and illustrators over lunch and lollies. The catching up and celebrating will continue with tonight’s CBCA Northern Sydney Christmas dinner!
Grumpy and I have been roped in to provide a short play about the CBCA short-listed books. Should be fun to perform (and let’s just hope the audience enjoys it too)

O.W