‘Alma’ collecting money on the Esplanade, Sidmouth
Fresh Air followed by Cakes!
Join me at 2.30 pm today, 15th of November for a short walk round the locations in Sidmouth that inspired ‘Revenge Ritual’ – followed at 3 pm by tea and cakes at the library and a talk about my novel.
Part of Devon Libraries Active Life, Active Minds programme. Tickets are available from Sidmouth Library, which is where we will start.
For the whole programme see http://www.devon.gov.uk/print/alam16-brochure.pdf
REVENGE RITUAL is on FREE PROMOTION
On Amazon Kindle until Saturday 30th of July
It’s a great holiday read :
‘I took this book in my Kindle as a holiday read . . .’
‘Do not expect to be able to put this down.’
‘Set along the beautiful Jurassic Coast in Devon with modern day twists and turns.’
‘Good plot, bringing in 21st Century themes and written with an excellent local West Country feel about it.’
‘I really enjoyed the plot and the unexpected twist at the end. Kept me reading with one eye open.
Sometimes an author comes across a brilliant book about the writing process. Debbie Young’s lovely guide to promoting your book is one such find. I have dipped into it almost daily after Revenge Ritual was published in August last year. It’s been so very useful as I work my way through the all the necessary post publishing processes leading up to my book launch and beyond.
I can’t praise this self-help manual highly enough. It contains all the information that you need to promote your book. If you don’t have an agent or mainstream publisher, or even if you do, Sell your books! takes you through everything needed to make readers aware of your book and increase its sales. It has chapters on all the ‘action stations’ authors will have to tackle from planning a marketing campaign, identifying their target readership, attracting visitors to the essential-to-have website, using social media, approaching libraries and bookshops and attracting media interest.
Debbie Young’s style is encouraging and comprehensive. I learnt a lot from this book but probably the best advice was around identifying my market. I knew internet promotion and sales would be important, hence the website. But reading ‘Sell your books!’ helped me appreciate that for a local author with a novel set in Devon where I live, my primary market was the one on my doorstep where readers knew the area and wanted to know more about me. Not only has this local approach paid off in book sales but it has been brilliant meeting people who have read my book.
‘Sell your books!’ will do what it says.
A big thank you to all of you who turned out on a wet and windy morning just before Christmas for the launch of the paperback version of REVENGE RITUAL at The Clock Tower Café in Sidmouth.
All set up but will anyone come?
They came – and even stayed to listen to the opening.
But the ramble round the settings from the book was rained off!
Join local author CJ Browne for the launch of
REVENGE RITUAL
a crime thriller set around Sidmouth.
At The Clock Tower Cafe, Connaught Gardens, Peak Hill Road, Sidmouth EX10 8RZ.
On Thursday, 17th of December, from 10 to 11 a.m.
And afterwards for a short ‘Revenge Ritual Ramble’ – a guided tour of the settings where the action happens.
Come and find out about the scary side of Sidmouth . . .
Copies of the paperback will be available to buy and have signed. REVENGE RITUAL is published by Endeavour Press and also available as an eBook on the Amazon Kindle Site.
For more information email: cj.browne@live.co.uk
Check out Rosie’s #MysteryNovember Book Tour. Just returned from Hong Kong so it is great to see Revenge Ritual up there. Thank you everyone for your comments. Now going to catch up with the other great reads featured on the bus.
Life Writing with my friend Christine Partington
So many events in the South West I was spoilt for choice. But I chose Sherborne, Yeovil and Bristol. All very inspiring in their different ways. At Sherborne I had a chance to discuss the outline of my new novel with festival ‘Writer in Residence’ Diana Cambridge. Talking it through has really fired me up to get down to writing it. Attending Sophie King’s Life Writing workshop produced more ideas to develop the plot as well as providing a fascinating afternoon listening to the other participants.
Author chat with Yvonne Payne
In Bristol I went to the Book Bazaar and Seminars. Learnt loads from Lucienne Boyce’s informative talk on researching historical settings, was inspired by Ira Rainey’s book ‘From Fat man to Green Man’ and enjoyed a lovely chat over hot chocolate with author Yvonne Payne, about the importance of place in writing. Something which is very obvious in her novel ‘Kritsotopoula’ set in the Greek village where she lives. We also talked about book launches. Very useful as mine for Revenge Ritual is all fixed for the 17th of December. More about this later.
In Yeovil, the talks ranged from the full on battle charge of Andy McNab to a quieter but informative chat from Tim Weaver on the latest novel in his ‘David Riker’ series ‘What Remains’. It was a very helpful discussion on writing serial characters. I shall remember Tim’s comment ‘What happens in the first book of the series will have a long term effect in future books’ but also ‘that the character needs to abide by the rules of the world of the series that the author creates, or readers will be disappointed.’ So far I’m half way through ‘What Remains’ and I can see what he means already. I’ll be reviewing Tim’s book in my next blog post.
Result of Revenge Ritual Free promotion
The eBook of Revenge Ritual has been on free promotion on Amazon this week and it’s so exciting to watch the rankings change. Of course, these are the ‘Free book rankings’ but I never thought I’d see Revenge Ritual No 22 in the top 100 free best sellers in Kindle store, and No 2 in psychological suspense. It started the day ranked as 4,363 and by the evening had risen to No 21. It was a day to cherish. I’m very new to Twitter but it seems my family and friends and Endeavour Press have a lot of followers between them – and I kept getting messages about Revenge Ritual being tweeted all day long, plus some lovely responses back from people I’d emailed.
Thank you everyone who participated. Revenge Ritual will be available as a free download until Saturday, the end of the month. If you haven’t got your yet, click on the link below:
Endeavour Press have just published the eBook version on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com. It came as a surprise as I wasn’t expected it to be released until next week. But I’m delighted – and I hope it’s going to make brilliant and intriguing Bank Holiday reading.
A print version will be available soon, which I’d love to sign for anyone who can find me.
Endeavour Press have just sent me the cover design for REVENGE RITUAL.
I LOVE IT.
There’s something thrilling about seeing your slightly ravaged name in blood red capitals.
The graphics are great. They raise questions that need answers:
Who is the woman?
Where is she?
And – what’s waiting for her behind those doors?
REVENGE RITUAL IS OUT SOON. Read it to find the answers.
C J Browne 