In this masterclass you will learn public relations skills to take your book releases to the stratosphere.
If you are not ready to do publicity for a book, these PR skills will give you the edge when submitting stories or querying agents.
Part 1: Book Reviews
How to collect interviews from the three main sources of book reviews in addition to your readers, friends, and followers:
book bloggers, bookstagrammers, booktubers
online/offline review journals and magazines
paid review services
Part 2: Interviews, Journalists, Podcasts, & Book Stores
In this lesson, we learn how to find interviews that are worth our time, how to become sources for journalists and bloggers, and how to find podcasts who cater to our potential readers.
We also talk about how to tell if you’re ready for a reading or signing event at a book store and how to collaborate with other local authors for offline events.
Part 3 : The 6-Step Pitch Formula
This is where the work comes in. Now that you’ve built your list of media outlets to pitch, you must make a compelling reason for them to have you. In this lesson, we cover what information you do and do not need in your pitch and how to position yourself so they are excited to show you off.
Amazing things have been going down at Let’s Get Published.
We had our Mixer Parties and finally had a chance to speak with those writers we’ve been texting, commenting, and emailing for years.
It’s truly remarkable to see all the faces and hear the voices of writers and bloggers we’ve been following for so long. It’s been especially important to connect over something we love in these times of pandemic and quarantine.
We also had two pre-launch Writers’ Mastermind chats, where wait list members joined on Zoom to discuss Turning Fear into Fiction and Having Fun with Writing Again. Something magical happens when we put our minds together and combine our ideas.
It’s time to support your fellow writers
We’re proud to say that our writers are making things happen. Stories are being published, books are being released, writing wisdom is being offered, submissions are opening. Have a look below and see what piques your interest. There is something for everyone.
David Antrobus’s “Vacation” is published by Storgy Literary Magazine
Vacation by David Antrobus – “The moment he throws the first jab, he’s conscious of a songbird out in the yard. As he feels the jarring impact and at least one of his knuckles coming apart, he imagines the bird trawling the very latticework of spring for a mate, indifferent to this uncoupling of some other kind of couple….” Read the full story on Storgy
Joe Sale comes out in Burnt Fur anthology, offers Epic Bootcamp to writers
Burnt Fur: Twisted Tails of Horror
Sit. Roll over. PLAY DEAD…
There are no good boys in this anthology, only twisted, deviant, and burnt encounters with animals, humans, and creatures that blur the line between the two.
The Epic Bootcamp is a course to help you tell bigger and better stories. Like Virgil once guided Dante through the circles of Hell, Joseph Sale will be your guide through the pitfalls of storytelling on a grand scale. With over 20+ books published (fiction under his name, and many ghost-written books), and years of academic and editing experience, you could wish for no better guide.
Mr. Sale will teach you how to:
create epic protagonists your audience root for
scale-up your stories and add depth to them
create visions of hell and lead your hero through the
and most importantly, how to end your stories in a way that will haunt your readers forever.
Ross Jeffery’s “Tethered” Available for Preorder, “Juniper” Nominated for Award
Available for Preorder
Tethered explores the fractured relationship of a father and son. Each story is told with unflinching and honest prose that is both hard hitting and heartrending. These stories delve into themes of toxic masculinity, love, hope, despair, domestic violence, sexuality, weakness and overcoming oppression. Tethered also asks the bigger question of ‘do we ever escape the harm our parents do to us; or do we go through life marred and influenced from our upbringing.
Tia Wojciechowski Signs with The Writing Collective for Hectrossippy
My Zoom co-host and sister, Tia Wojciechowski (aka Bia Bella Baker), has just signed with The Writing Collective to publish her pre-industrial YA fantasy Hectrossippy to be released September 2020!
Susan Holt’s The Heart Casts No Shadow earning 5 star reviews
Will Rhonwyn free her heart and her people, or become the pawn of the most dangerous man ever seen?
When her skill at a complex strategy game gives her a way into the palace, Rhonwyn becomes the eyes and ears of the Resistance.
She’s there to help bring down the evil King Risick – the man who seized control and forced her people into his mines. The man who killed Rhonwyn’s father before her eyes, breaking her heart and fracturing her sanity.
Everything changes when she meets a vibrant man who’s also trapped in the palace. Rhonwyn’s not so alone now and her soul begins to heal. But his dangerous secret forces Rhonwyn to choose between the freedom of her people and the love she’s finally found.
Lilyn George from ScifiandScary.com announces opens call for new body horror anthology
ScifiandScary.com is the go-to site for Sci-Fi & Horror Reviews, News, and More. READ THE LATEST REVIEWS.
Twisted Anatomy: A SF&S Body Horror Anthology
Sci-Fi & Scary is pleased to announce that we are opening submissions for our first charity anthology, with a goal of publishing in mid-February, 2021. Proceeds will be split between the Pulmonary Hypertension Association and National Domestic Violence Hotline.
For the details of submitting to this anthology CLICK HERE.
Dan Soule’s Neolithica on Sale for 99¢
99¢ on Kindle
Some things should stay buried…
The discovery of a young boy’s body, brutally murdered and preserved for thousands of years in a Scottish peat bog, brings with it more than a find of a lifetime for archaeologist Mirin Hassan. After the death of her husband, Mirin wants life to get back to normal for her and her young son. But media attention and professional rivalries become the least of her worries. Something other than cameras followed the corpse back to the university. A malevolent force grows unseen. The weather turns biblical. Violence and death spread beyond the university. Could it be connected with the strange discovery? The city grasps for a rational explanation, but time is up. Chaos has arrived, as Mirin realises some things should stay buried.
We’re getting ready to launch the Writers’ Mastermind, and as part of connecting our writing community, we’ll be sharing the latest accomplishments of our members.
Today, we share groundbreaking book releases and stunning art from our cadre of creatives.
***Do you have a book coming out? A cover reveal? Has a magazine published your short story? Have you landed and agent? What’s new with your other creative pursuits? Send your news to christa@letsgetpublished.com.
Juniper, the debut novel by Ross Jeffery
After a 7-year writing hiatus, Ross Jeffery is claiming his place on the weird fiction scene with his first book, Juniper. Truly weird and wild, Juniper will keep you rapt in morbid curiosity, even through the moments you want to recoil.
Ross Jeffery
Ross Jeffery is a Bristol based writer and Executive Director of Books for STORGY Magazine.
Ross has been published in print with STORGY Books, Ellipsis Zine 6, The Bath Flash Fiction Festival 2019, Project 13 Dark and Shlock Magazine. His work has also appeared in various online journals such as STORGY Magazine, About Magazine TX, Elephants Never, 101 Fiction, Ellipsis Zine, Soft Cartel and Idle Ink.
Ross lives in Bristol with his wife (Anna) and two children (Eva and Sophie). You can follow him on Twitter here @Ross1982
Juniper
Juniper is the first book in Ross Jeffery’s proposed trilogy: a post-apocalyptic horror about an insane American town seemingly at the edge of reality. As Juniper suffers from scorching drought and medieval famine, the townsfolk are forced to rely on the ‘new cattle’ for food: monstrous interbred cats kept by the oppressed Janet Lehey.
But there’s a problem: Janet’s prized ginger tom, Bucky, has gone missing, flown the coop. As Janet and her deranged ex-con husband Klein intensify their search for the hulking mongrel, Betty Davis, an old woman clinging to survival on the outskirts of Juniper, discovers something large and ginger and lying half-dead by the side of the road.
She decides to take it home…
Juniper is surreal, dark, funny, and at times: excruciatingly grotesque. Buckle up for a wild ride through the dust-ridden roads of a tiny, half-forgotten American town…
Charlotta Amato is not only a talented aspiring writer, but she also paints mesmerizing artwork—one of a kind, layers of color, life and livity all combined onto a canvas.
Her exclusive works are for sale. Learn more on her Facebook Page.
Save Game by Joseph Sale
Save Game is the latest novel from brilliant author, Joseph Sale. This book is a fully immersive page-turner, just like it’s subject matter. Most writers will relate to wanting to escape into an exciting imaginary world, never to return.
Joseph Sale
Joseph Sale is an editor, novelist, writing coach and co-host of Monaghan & The Mindflayer. He currently writes and is published with The Writing Collective. He has authored more than ten novels, including his Black Gate trilogy, and his love-letter to fantasy: Save Game. He grew up in the Lovecraftian seaside town of Bournemouth. He edits non-fiction and fiction, helping fledgling authors to realise their potential.
Save Game
Levi Jensen is, by all accounts, a loser. He failed sixth-form, never got to university, and works at a no-future fast-food restaurant. The only thing he’s good at is gaming. When his father starts dying of a new type of cancer, only treatable privately and at impossible expense, Levi’s one hope of saving him becomes the million-dollar cash-prize for winning the dark-fantasy video-game Fate of Ellaria. But Levi isn’t the only one with motivations beyond money for winning. And the price of success in Fate of Ellaria might mean the destruction of what little he has left in the real world.
Save Game is a heart-breaking story of an underdog against all odds, as well as a love-letter to the beauty of video-games. Inspired by the amazing and eclectic everyday people who inhabit the gaming world, and the pain of their real-world lives, Save Game aims to show the courage of those who feel they’ve got no place in reality.
Sandra Hould is a stay at home mom, environmentalist, karateka, artist, book addict and future writer. She is always exploring new ways to express herself creatively, no matter how difficult the quest may be.
My art will be raw, imperfect, unapologetic and real, just like life.—Sandra Hould
***Do you have a book coming out? A cover reveal? Has a magazine published your short story? Have you landed and agent? What’s new with your other creative pursuits? Send your news to christa@letsgetpublished.com.
I hope your 2020 is going well and that you’re being productive and feeling inspired.
A big thank you for helping me with your suggestions
Thanks to those who participated in the survey I sent out last month. The results were enlightening and I’m using your feedback as I develop the site. You can see in the graph below what our writers’ biggest concerns are. I’ll be addressing these topics first as I line up the curriculum.
Psst… The first class is almost finished, but I will wait to announce the subject at a later date 😉
You can still leave your feedback in the survey by clicking here.
An apology for the delay
The start of the year has been hectic, and the launch of the Writers’ Mastermind group is behind schedule. I am building this platform on my own from scratch, and personal issues keep popping up.
I’m trying not to dwell on how frustrating the interruptions are and keep focused on how excited I am for the future when we go live. Life doesn’t work on our schedules, unfortunately, so we just have to do the best we can!
But we’re making progress
The good news is I have laid out the foundation of the membership area of the site! I’ve acquired a powerful combination of Divi from Elegant Themes and the Memberpress plugin to create a visually appealing and well-organized learning experience for you all.
So, what’s next?
I’ll be working on finishing and testing the site during the next month. I’ll be traveling and limited to what I can accomplish away from the office, but my goal is to have our new launch date in April 2020.
Get your hair did. We’re having a soirée, and you’re on the VIP list!
If you’re on the wait list, you’ll be invited to a virtual pre-launch mixer where members all over the world will get together in a live video conference, enjoy their beverage of choice, and talk about their writing.
This is going to be a massive event since it will be the first time I speak live with writers who’ve been my close email and social media pals for years. I’m freaking out a bit about that! 🤯 But that’s the purpose of the Writers’ Mastermind. No more isolated writers’ syndrome!
Are you on the wait list?
I’ll be closing the wait list this week. Those on the wait list will get the pre-launch price of $9 a month. This price is locked in for a lifetime.
Those who sign up after the wait list closes will pay regular price of $19 a month. So get in now! SIGN UP FOR THE WAIT LIST.
Animated book covers get more social media engagement than still covers, increasing your chances of making more sales and of getting word out about your book.
The reason? Simple. Elements in motion drive the eye to focus on it longer as there’s more to see. And because people have to linger longer, they’re more likely to retweet/share, like, reply and/or check out the book on Amazon and other sites.
Animated covers is a marketing trend that’s becoming more and more popular. And eye-catching covers deserve recognition because the reality is that most people do still judge a book by its cover. It’s the first thing readers see and the first thing that makes them decide whether to check out the book or not. And since animation jumps out, having an animated cover ensures that future readers will hover over your book instead of just scrolling past it in their social media timeline.
Morgan Wright is the upcoming fantasy author of “The Traitor’s Gambit”, the first book in an ongoing series, and editor/contributor of the “Calendar For Writers 2019-2020” which became a Top 10 Bestseller in the USA, Canada, Germany, Spain and the UK. Morgan has been writing stories since age 7, her earliest imaginations sparked by the fantastic tales of C.S. Lewis and Gothic oeuvres such as Dracula by Bram Stoker and The Sandman by E.T.A. Hoffman. Thus inspired, she mainly writes medieval fantasy with a dark (and possibly morally-dubious) edge.
In March 2017, at age 18, she joined Twitter in the hopes of hitting the 1000 follower-milestone within a year. 10 months later, through the help of Twitter’s loyal #WritingCommunity who have supported her in ways she never imagined possible, she became a Twitter influencer with a current following of over 80.000 people.
Morgan recently graduated with honours from her BA (Honours) English Literature and Creative Writing which she began at age 16, and her short story “Unchained” was Longlisted in the “Let’s Get Published – Spring Writing Contest” while another short story, “The Bad-Wisher’s Lament”, was chosen for publication in Fantasia Divinity’s “Wishes of Illusion” Anthology.
In August of 2019, Morgan launched her now-in-high-demand Book Cover Animations service which brings book covers to life through animation. VISIT MORGAN’S PORTFOLIO HERE.