Showing posts with label contest. Show all posts
Showing posts with label contest. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Holiday Book Event

Indies (writers who self-publish) and those of us with small publishers share some common problems.

We’re not known to the larger reading public. We don’t have big-budget publicists (in fact, many of us lack both publicists and budgets). We’re constantly told we need to get our “brands” known if we’re ever to compete in the marketplace. Whatever is to be done to tempt people to try our books is squarely upon our individual shoulders.

Darcia Helle, author of The Cutting Edge and five other mystery/suspense novels, was pondering this situation one day and came up with an idea to showcase authors, thank readers who have supported them and introduce more people to a variety of books. She contacted others and had an amazing response. I was among those contacted and I’m offering a print copy of Being Someone Else, fourth in the Sticks Hetrick mystery series.

The big holiday giveaway event officially launched on Dec. 1 and continues through the month. It features hundreds of print and e-books by 47 writers. There’s an entry form at the site: http://www.quietfurybooks.com/holidayevent.html The event is international, so you can win a book no matter where you live, and there are titles sure to suit every taste.

So come on over, join in the fun and browse the selection. You’re certain to find some exciting new additions for your To-Be-Read list and you might win a free book.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

No Free Kindle For Me

Over at Shelfari (www.shelfari.com) there was a contest going on for a free 3G Kindle. Since I want a Kindle and getting one for free would definitely be a plus, I jumped to the site to see what the contest involved.

To qualify members of the Shelfari librarians and editors group (I’m eligible) had to post contributions on the current New York Times Bestsellers lists prior to October 5. So, I took a look at the lists.

In the area of hardcover fiction I found only one book I had been interested in reading: Stieg Larrson’s The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest. Now that was a book I liked and I supposed it would be possible to post some positive facts. But that probably wouldn’t be enough to win me a Kindle. The situation in hardcover non-fiction wasn’t much better. The only two books on the list I want to read are Isabel Wilkerson’s The Warmth of Other Suns and S. C. Gwynne’s Empire of the Summer Moon.

I fared a bit better in paperback trade fiction. I’ve read and adored Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, Barbara Kingsolver’s The Lacuna, Larrson’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played With Fire and Garth Stein’s The Art of Racing in the Rain. I’ve also read and liked Jamie Ford’s Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet and Robert Goolrick’s A Reliable Wife. Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese is on my TBR list and at some point I’ll probably also read Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls and probably could be tempted by Grisham’s Ford County or King’s Under the Dome.

In paperback mass market there were the two Larrson novels, Ford County, Dave Baldacci’s True Blue and Robert Parker’s The Professional. Mass market non-fiction offered Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential and Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink as possibilities.

The final choices were hardcover and paperback advice where I found absolutely nothing I cared to read.

I guess I’m going to have to buy my own Kindle.