Really pleased with this lovely review of the first two Sage books by Zac, a librarian from New Zealand. Of course, reviews aren’t written to please the author, but a good one always makes my heart sing.
First Reviews
It’s always an anxious wait for the first reviews of a new book, so it was wonderful today to discover the first two reviews are online – and they’re both positive.
Eva at The Multitasking Woman says “If you’re a parent of a budding chef or Masterchef fan, this is the perfect book with food being the central theme.” You can read the rest of her review here.
And Pat at Readplus says ” with its short chapters, interesting characters and touch of suspense, will have its readers eagerly waiting for the next installment.” You can read the rest of her review here.
As a reviewer myself, I know that reviews aren’t written for the author – but, as an author, I must say I’m delighted!
Five Minute Promo: Day 17
Welcome to day 17. If you’ve been doing each day’s task, by now you’ll have several social media accounts, which you are hopefully using regularly. You’ll also have set up a Google alert and email signature line, and be blogging about your book regularly. And by now you’re hopefully starting to get some feedback on your book (and also on your social media efforts, in the form of new followers, or shares or retweets). Today’s task gets you to look for – and share – some of that feedback.
5 Minute Promo #17
Find a review of your book and share it on Twitter and your Facebook page, as well as Pinning it on your Pinterest page. Of course, because you’ve set up a Google Alert (haven’t you?) then you might already be aware of a review. If not, use a search engine, or visit your favourite book review websites and blogs. Then, once you’ve read the review and ascertained that it is at least mostly positive, share it.
BUT, I hear you say, what if I can’t find any reviews. Good question – and, I must admit that as I wrote this post I went and checked for reviews of Sage Cookson’s Sweet Escape and didn’t find any. SO, here’s what you can do. head over to Goodreads, a site where you will find lots of reviews and rankings of books. Search for your book there. You may find that your book is already there. Great. If not, as I found with my book, you can add a record for it. It took me less than two minutes to create an entry for Sage Cookson’s Sweet Escape. You can see it here. Once you’ve got your list on Goodreads, you can either wait for people to review or rank it, or you can use your social media to gently ask people (remember, pushing for reviews will put some people off) who have read it to give it a short review.
Go to it, and use the comment section below to tell me how you go.
Reviews Flying In
With two days to go until the official release of Fly-In Fly-Out Dad, the reviews are starting to arrive. Unlike waiting for Dad to get home, waiting for reviews can be pretty nerve-wracking, so I’m really pleased to say that so far, it seems that reviewers like the book. Better still, they are understanding the intent of the book.
Dimity Powell at the Boomerang Books blog says Fly-In Fly-Out Dad: “is relevant and light-hearted yet intrinsically sensitive to the FIFO dynamic.” She has written a very thorough analysis of the book, which you can read here.
Another wonderful review is from the team at Collins Chirmside, who describe the book as: “A must have for any family where mum or dad have to stay away from home for their work.” You can see their review here.
It was also wonderful to see on a list of 15 books which celebrate the diversity of family life at Readings on the weekend.
As an author, you can’t write for reviewers (just as, as a reviewer, you shouldn’t be writing for the authors), but it always wonderful to know that a reviewer appreciates what you were trying to do.
First Review for 1915
There are lots of scary parts about being an author – coming up with ideas, making them work on paper, editing in a way that meets the publisher’s needs, finding a publisher in the first place… The list is long. But for me, I think the scariest part is after a book is released and you wait to hear what readers think.
So, it was a great relief for me yesterday when the first review of 1915 appeared – and it was a good one!
Opening with the words “Highly recommended.” and going on to give a really detailed run down of the book, Fran Knight from ReadPlus praises the “detailed background”, the characters “with whom students can engage”, concluding that the book is “eminently readable “.
What a heart-warming review! You can see the full review here.
Have a great day. I know I will!
(BTW I forgot to say that in amongst the scary bits there are lots of wonderful wonderful things about being an author. A review that gets what you were trying to do is one of them).
I’m Back!
Roses are Blue Blog Tour Wrap-Up
Wow! What an eight days! I’ve been all around the blogosphere chatting about Roses are Blue, reading lovely reviews, being quizzed and generally having fun. Today is the last official day of the tour, and time for me to reflect on the week.
The tour started last Tuesday, when Karen Tyrell’s reviewed Roses on her blog, describing the book as:
“…a heart-warming story dealing with grief, tragedy, and change.”
She is also offering the chance to win a free copy. All you have to do is read the blog post and comment – but you’d best be quick, because this closes on July 31.
On Wednesday the tour moved on to the Alphabet Soup blog, where Roses are Blue was reviewed by a talented 8 year old reviewer, Matilda. She said:
“I would recommend Roses are Blue to my friends because it’s a change from the other sorts of books we read and it could be a true story.”
There is also a give away of a copy of the book on this site. the instructions on how to enter are nice and clear, and you get to check out Rebecca and my other blog, Poetry Tag and see the fun we have playing with words.
Day three I was off to the Kids Book review site, where there was another lovely review, by Tania McCartney who said:
“The depth of her characters, the emotional responses and fears, the gentle hope, is heart-wrenching in all manner of ways.”
I was also there to chat about poetry in all its forms, with a post titled Poetry is Perfect. I managed to limit myself to just eight reasons that poetry is perfect for children – though I could have gone on for days.
Day four arrived and I was up bright and early to chat with Dale Harcombe about Roses are Blue, which she described as:
” a gem of a book”.
She also asked me about some of the aspects no one else has asked me yet – including the naming of Amber and her friend, who all have names that are colours. You can read what I had to say here.
The weekend was here, but no rest for me – though of course one of the great things about a Blog Tour is that you don’t leave home to do it. SO, while I sat in my pyjamas at home I was also being grilled by the DivaBookNerd about all manner of things including my inspirations, diversity, and work-life balance (hah!). You can read the interview here. While there, I was delighted
to find Roses had also been reviewed on the site a few days earlier.
Day six (Sunday) I dropped in to see the lovely Megan at Children’s Books Daily, She asked me ten questions as part of her Book People feature. I talked about my workspace, my routines (double hah!), favourite books and more. (You can see Megan and I together, on the left, at the launch of Roses in Canberra earlier this year).
Day seven brought tears to my eyes as I read Dimity Powell’s review at the Boomerang Books Blog, where she said:
“Murphy is simply master at massaging sensitive issues into refined, understated yet terrifically moving poetic verse. Her words whisper across the pages with the soft intensity of a mountain breeze.”
Wow. Apparently I’d made Dimity cry, too, so we had tears together, across the miles. Dimity also interviewed me, and got to choose a new name for myself: Aquamarine! If you want to find out more, you’ll have to read the interview.
Yesterday was my final stop but one, and I was delighted to visit the new Australian Children’s Site, where Di Bates wrote a lovely review, saying Roses is:
“…sure to tug at heartstrings.”
I also dropped in to Di’s own blog where I spoke about why and how I write verse novels.
Whew! And so we come to today, where we are here, wrapping up the week (and a bit) that was, and saying thank you to the awesome ladies who hosted me, and/or my book, and to all the readers who stopped by and read the posts. Part of the purpose for a blog tour is to promote the book – but, to me, it’s also something much more important: a celebration!
S0 thank you for celebrating with me!
Celebrating with my lovely friends Sue and Claire at the launch.
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