Hear yee Hear yee

Getting your book out into the world is quite the achievement, but it doesn't end there. There are more than an estimated 22k books released each year in Australia alone. Then you have to consider; when you are on the internet it is an international Market! I couldn't even guess how many books are released annually worldwide. There are so many creatives striving for attention. That is why we started our street team called the Town Criers.

This doesn't mean that you have to stand out in the street and wave a newspaper around, unless you really feel like it that is. No Judgement here. I would love to have news about BCP, the novella series, or our Author support services in the media somehow. *Wink Wink*

But no, the street team are the end users. The readers. We have been working hard on creating a wide variety of speculative fiction novellas that will expand the variety of stories you are exposed to. These speculative fiction novellas are wide spread from horror to fantasy to sci-fi to magical realism. It is hard when you want to expand on the type of stories that you want to read because the commitment of a 120k full novel is too much when you are starting out. Lets face it, there is a chance that you may not even like it. I mean, I have always stayed away from horrors, but I am actually excited about reading some of the horroresque stories in the series.

You may have heard about this little thing call the Algorythm that has permeated most areas of our online existence. If you tell socials that you love fantasy, that is all you see. The same for any other subject. But I don't just like fantasy. I like a variety of things. Imagine if you could only pick one food and you needed to have a variety of that every day for the rest of your life (we all know the answer is potatoes). It wouldn't be fun. What you choose to watch online and what you are exposed to on your feed is what is feeding your brain. I am hoping that this series will add a little bit of spice to what is on your literary plate.

I wrote a blog the other day about how people listen to people. I know when I am picking a new book it is very rarely that I will see it on the shelf and then just grab it. I would much prefer to get something that has been recommended by a friend or colleague.

I have some questions for you though. Thinking of the last book that you purchased...

Why that book? Was it recommended?

Did you meet the author and want to support them?

When I went to the Indi Author Book fair at the end of last year I made sure that I bought at least one book from all of the participating Authors. They were supporting my Podcast and I wanted to support them. I didn't keep all of the books in the end, I gifted some of them. My daughters actually had some of them signed in their name, so they took those ones. I have the rest here tantalising my TBR. I have started reading a few of them but with the Otherworldly emergence coming out in August I have been reading the books in that series. I will have to have read all of them to approve the proofs before they go to the printer. An important quality control measure that I know is really important from my previous publishing experience. (When I was younger. I was the formatting editor of the Collie Waffle. It was a regular free newsletter that was distributed around town and the amount of time we had to adjust things and make tweaks was uncountable sometimes).

What we want to do in the Town Criers is find early readers. Allow people to get their hands on the stories early. Then once they are released out into the wild, we would be more than happy for you to share your honest reviews with the world. Because it could be your opinion more than anyone else's that will hopefully entice new readers.

Back to the point of my little blog today. If you like stories and the Otherworldly Emergence has peaked your interest, then look into joining the town criers so you can get advanced reader copies of the books and share what you think. You will be welcomed with a digital pat on the back and kept up to date on the whole series.

Join the Town Criers