I am very excited to say that my book cover is almost complete and will very shortly be revealed on this here blog, so stay tuned for that!  I’ve been working closely with Tugboat Designs and we’ve created an alluring image that encapsulates the story beautifully.  

So now everything is happening quite quickly – I’ve formatted my book for uploading (best formatting advice to be found here – thank you Catherine Ryan Howard!) and I’m now checking out Virtual Book Tours to help launch and promote The Cross of Santiago.  I’ve just signed up to http://worldliterarycafe.com who offer lots of promotion options, some free and some paid.  Exposure is vital as a debut author, but as I’ve said ad nauseum, reviews are the best publicity.  As long as they’re positive!  But how can you avoid beating your followers over the head with relentless book promotion?  How do you deal with negative reviews?  Here’s some good advice from AbsoluteWrite.com

 Here’s how to engage in effective promotion:

First: Participate in the conversation. That means it’s not about you and your book. It’s about books, and readers. That means you talk about other people’s books you love and why, and you engage with people who write books you’ve read and loved, and with other readers.

You comment on their blogs. You don’t constantly bring up your own book, but you make genuine, thoughtful, engaged comments. Your comments use the name you write under as your ID, and in the URL field you link to your Web site. 

You post honest, engaging, and genuine reviews of books you like on Amazon, and GoodReads and Library Thing. You don’t slam other people’s books, but you don’t always create 5 star reviews. You are not mean-spirited, but you are always honest. Your profiles connect to your author Website. 

Second: You do not engage in the Author’s Big Mistake. 

• You Never Ever Comment On a Review of your Own Books at ALL Ever in public.
• You Never Ever Review Your Own Books Ever At All Under ANY Name or Account Or Sock Puppet. Ever.
• You Do Not Engage With Reviewers of Your Books or Trolls
• You DO offer book giveaways on your blog, on the blogs of those who review similar books, and you do politely email reviewers and offer them a free copy if they’d be interested in reviewing.