Free Books? Count Me In!
So the wonderful Miriam Forster (who is not only wonderful because she has the same name as me, although that does add several awesome points) has a book coming out at the beginning of February. I keep forgetting, because after winning her cover contest last year, I got an ARC and it’s been sitting on my shelf for a few months already. It sort of doesn’t register that none of you guys have read it yet.
BUT it is coming out on the 5th February from HarperTeen, and to celebrate she is holding a giveaway!
And I’ve just realised I haven’t told you anything about the book, which I feel I should do. The blurb:
Nisha was abandoned at the gates of the City of a Thousand Dolls when she was just a child. Now sixteen, she makes her way as Matron’s assistant on the grounds of the remote estate, where orphan girls apprentice as musicians, healers, courtesans … and assassins. Only when Nisha begins a forbidden flirtation with a handsome young courier does she let herself imagine a life outside the city walls. Until, one by one, girls around her start to die.
Yeah, I bet you were thinking — wait, flirtation? And Miriam is reading this? PEOPLE DIE OKAY OF COURSE I READ IT. (And plus, I remember when Miriam was still querying, and when she and her agent sold the book. I seem to remember the post title being WE SOLD A BOOK! (ACTUALLY, TWO) or something like that. Personal investment in the success of a novel transcends genre boundaries.)
Also, it has a very beautiful cover. Look:
There are so many bad cover designs out there these days, with vague, generic girls in dresses, or a leaf or broken glass (sometimes I wonder if they take their tips from the ‘hipster’ tag on Tumblr, and I’m waiting for the ones written on paint samples) — this cover is everything that is GOOD about cover design. (The back is pretty too, although as mine is a proof copy it has, like ‘National Marketing Campaign’ and the page count and a ‘Tentative Price’, so I imagine that the finished one won’t have that. Grats on the cool campaign info, though, other!Miriam. Where’s the video trailer it mentions?)
So, yeah, you should want to read this book.
Therefore, I am PROMOTING! This is basically what I see as advertising although I’m bad at sounding coherent while I do it. (I’m tired. I accidentally stayed up until 1.30am watching Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End yesterday, even though I’ve seen it far too many times already, simply because I came downstairs to make toast at about half eleven and Father Person was watching it so I joined him.)
other!Miriam, as I call her to prevent confusion in my mind between me and her (which does happen, as I am bad at remembering who I am) is running a giveaway of lots and lots of books, some ARCs, others normal copies. To enter, you only have to comment on the post each book is listed in. There are other things you can do, like Tweet or share on Facebook, but that’s pretty much it.
Oh, and by writing this post I get an extra entry to every one of them. Which is kind of why I’m doing it.
But it’s a fairly clever thing because by encouraging people not only to regularly visit her blog and comment, but also to tweet and maybe write a post about the giveaway and why it is happening (which is the book release), other!Miriam is spreading the word about her book before it comes out. EFFECTIVE PROMOTION right there because we do not feel manipulated. Well done, other!Miriam. Let us watch and learn.
(Alas, Charley and I cannot do the same for St Mallory’s. Mainly because we’re skint and therefore a giveaway is not logistically feasible.)
Today, the first day of ’30 Days of Bookery’, she is giving away an ARC of a book called Shadowlands by Kate Brian. But there are lots of other books, pictured in this post.
So, head over to other!Miriam’s blog and enter her giveaway, or just marvel over the pretty cover to her book, and then buy a copy when it comes out. Yeah!
Okay, I’ve run out of enthusiastic marketing phrases now. I’m going to go back to editing St Mallory’s Forever! (which mainly involves changing 80% of the exclamation marks to full stops or other punctuation, as I do not like them). See you soon!
Ahaha, you good human being. i ought to promote that too . . . but I am le distractificated right now, and must dash, so I shall rely on someone to poke me later.
Also, we could probably manage some sort of ebook giveaway for St Mall’s when it comes out . . . or something . .. yanno
Hmm, maybe. I have a few additional copies of books I like – I have a shelf of duplicate books. I acquire things a lot and sometimes it’s things I already have, though most of them are secondhand and slightly dog-eared from reading – which could be given away, but (a) that would be copying other!Miriam’s idea and (b) I am too poor to pay the postage, even to the UK, so that’s not possible. Sad times ;(
I’ll think of something, though.
Indeed. I don’t own any duplicate books as far as i know, so I could sell some older ones that I don’t particularly want any more, but again . . . no moneys for postage.
Eh, when St Mall’s makes us rich and famous we’ll do loads xD
Yeah. For book two we will DEFINITELY have a giveaway. You hear that, all of you? GIVEAWAY FOR BOOK TWO! WE PROMISE!
Okay we probably shouldn’t promise things we may not be able to deliver on, but oh well. Too late.
We WILL deliver. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
And I have just written both of them down, so it’s bound to work
I’m now doing the whole ‘Going Postal’ thing in my head, with the golden suit and a bunch of parcels going DELIVER US!
Um.
. . . And now you’ve got me doing that too. Thank you.
Heh I just gave Charley a bunch of Duplicate books… And depending on how things work this year, I might be able to help with a giveaway if you really wanted to do one… :}
Maybe for book two we could have a giveaway where some items are US only and some are UK only – you could post the US ones and we could post the UK ones? The rest of the world would just have to suffer, alas.
But that’s a long way in the future (think how long it took us to write book one!) so let’s not think in too much detail about it now.
Just keep me in mind. Now then later. I just wnat both of you to know I”m here for you. As odd as that may seem, but there it is, and here I am. :}
Your support is ALWAYS appreciated, Cathryn
Yay!
I agree: that is a pretty awesome cover. I believe you/we talked about covers when you wrote a post about Tolkien (or Tolkien managed to get into a post about something else), and saying how covers that are handdrawn (I mean if they’re well handdrawn) are generally better than most of the photomanipulation covers nowadays. For me, covers just need that extra something that doesn’t come from the ‘generic girls in dresses’ as you put it.
That was the TCWT blog chain about cover designs, yup. I remember
And it’s true, Tolkien ones are gorgeous. I spent about an hour looking at different ones a few days ago. I may have drooled over them. Um. Yeah.
Sometimes I think about how I would like my book covers to be designed, but I honestly have no idea. Still, I would like them to be as awesome as other!Miriam’s.
I must have missed the sign up for that, am sad.
Hehe, Tolkien is definitely drool-able.
You have no idea? I’m surprised you haven’t applied your art knowledge to it. To be honest,*whispers* I’ve had a go at designing a couple of covers for my stories. I see *some* other covers that give me a sort of inspiration, but mainly I have ideas for what I want, but couldn’t draw them myself. I have little artist skill.
Well, too many ideas, perhaps. I would like them to be illustrated but I have no idea what I would choose to be the illustration.
This sounds like a really interesting read; I’ve added to my “To-Read” file on Goodreads. And it is a BEAUTIFUL cover Miriam!
Ah, but is that comment directed at me!Miriam or other!Miriam? See, it’s so confusing. This is why I don’t write posts about other!Miriam more often.
That sounds interesting – and it has a nice cover! I DESPISE cover models!! Thanks for letting us know about this Miriam!
Yay for not feeling manipulated! And yay for YOU for St Mallory’s! Also the video trailer is a thing! Sadly it is not my thing so I don’t have a status update. But it sounds most cool.
Ehehe, very well
I think I’ve got you a few readers, going by the comments on this post. Mainly on the basis of the cover, but wahey
Your writing is so funny…
That sounds like a really cool book, and I love the cover.
Superb blog! Do you have any helpful hints for aspiring writers?
I’m hoping to start my own website soon but I’m a little lost on everything.
Would you propose starting with a free platform like
Wordpress or go for a paid option? There are so
many choices out there that I’m completely confused .. Any recommendations? Kudos!
Free option, always. I recently paid to have my own domain name, which was purely an aesthetic thing, but WordPress works absolutely fine.