KA Hitchins

Blog Tour Highlights: A Weekend Break Rather than a Two Week Cruise!

31st March 2018 by KA Hitchins Leave a Comment

I’ve come to the end of my blog tour for The Gardener’s Daughter, and thought I’d share the highlights for those of you who might have missed it. I can’t thank the wonderful book bloggers who took part enough for helping my launch go off with a bang. Writing is only one side of the coin; an author needs readers and reviewers otherwise the whole process is just speaking into the silence.

Day 1 https://lovebooksgroup.blog/2018/03/19/bookish-the-gardeners-daughter-by-k-a-hitchins-kathrynhitchins-instantapostleauthor-interview-ya/

“I dedicated the book to my late father, Alec Hitchins, who was a professional artist and keen gardener. Since losing him, I’ve realised what a wise, loving and stable influence he was on my life. Knowing where you come from plays an enormous part in the formation of your identity and I wanted to write a book about the search for a father and the search for one’s self. When my heroine, Ava, accidentally discovers she’s adopted, she sets off on a dangerous journey, looking for the truth and finding instead a can of worms. She comes to realise what she lost when she left home. I drew on my own sense of grief for my father when writing those passages, so it’s only fitting the book should be dedicated to him.”

Day 2 http://www.swirlandthread.com/the-gardeners-daughter-ka-hitchins/

“When people ask what I do and I tell them I’m a writer, I can tell from their expressions and comments that they imagine me sitting peacefully in a book lined study, tapping away at my keyboard, adding daily to the pile of crisp white paper on the desk which grows methodically from chapter 1 until I type ‘The End’.

“Nothing could be further from the truth. In the first place, I very rarely sit in my study to write. I’m either at the kitchen table, with half an ear on the wash cycle and the other making sure the saucepans don’t boil over; sitting in the car and jotting in a small notebook while I wait for the kids to come out of school; or snatching a quick cup of tea in a supermarket café, far away from the pile of ironing and the bathroom floor that needs washing.

“Instead, writing a novel is more a question of harvesting snippets and catching thoughts before they fly away and are lost for ever. It’s jotting down conversations between characters you’ve yet to create, capturing their voices before they fade to silence. It’s about lists of possibilities, little diagrams, sketching floor plans and googling baby sites in search of the perfect name for your hero or heroine.”

Day 3 https://dearreader915.wordpress.com/category/hitchens-k-a/

“This is a thriller, with a strong storyline, lurching from incident to incident. At first, it’s about Ava trying to find out what she needs to know for herself, but, as the story progresses, it becomes about Ava and Zavier trying to work things through together.

“Instant Apostle is, of course, a Christian publishing company, but nowhere is God mentioned. (This is not uncommon in Instant Apostle books. The religious hand is normally very light.) The Gardener’s Daughter is a clever reworking of the parable of The Prodigal Son and the conclusions drawn at the end, by Ava, reflect Christian teaching on love and redemption, but applied to the storyline, not as a sermon.”

Day 4 https://novelgossip.com/2018/03/22/blogtour-the-gardners-daughter-by-kathryn-hitchins-kathrynhitchins/

“I decided I wanted to write about identity and how this is affected by the fathers we have – good fathers, bad fathers and absent fathers. My motherless nineteen-year-old heroine, Ava Gage, accidentally discovers she’s adopted when trying to do a good turn. In a fit of anger, she impetuously runs away in search of her biological identity. Penniless and cut-off from everything she’s ever known, and trapped in a deadly game of cat and mouse with a ruthless criminal gang, she unearths the shocking truth behind her mother’s death and discovers who her real father is – with a sprinkling of romance and humour along the way!

“I have to admit, that writing YA was more difficult than I envisaged. Having two novels under my belt I thought it would be a breeze to write something for a younger audience but in fact the opposite is true. It isn’t a question of simplifying the writing. Teenagers don’t like to be talked down to, and they won’t waste their time reading something unless they’re gripped from the word go and the storyline relates to the issues in their life. After all, YA authors aren’t just competing with each other for teenagers’ attention, they’re competing with computer games, YouTube, and social media.”

Day 5 http://www.christianbookaholic.com/2018/03/23/the-gardeners-daughter-by-k-a-hitchins/#more-2494

“When I began The Gardener’s Daughter I had no idea what to expect – but oh wow, oh wow, oh wow what an incredible read. It exceeded all my expectations. Totally engrossing, full of suspense, minute attention to detail. An all round fabulous read you do not want to miss.”

Day 6 https://aloverofbooks.wordpress.com/2018/03/24/blog-tour-the-gardeners-daughter-by-k-a-hitchins/

“When I lost my Dad to cancer and began speaking to friends about what he had meant to me, I realised just how many people don’t have a good relationship with their fathers, or even have any real contact with them. Most of the positive things in my life are a direct result of the happy and secure upbringing my parents gave me, rather than the result of anything especially good or talented about me. What would happen, I wondered, if I woke up one day and realised that everything in my childhood had been a lie, and that my real father had abandoned me before I was born? That was the premise for the book. Ava’s identity is intrinsically linked to knowing where she’s come from and finding a place she can call home.”

Day 7 https://bbookinspector.wordpress.com/2018/03/25/blogtour-bookreview-the-gardeners-daughter-by-k-a-hitchins-tgd-kathrynhitchins/

“I really enjoyed the ending of this novel, and if there will be a continuation, I will be definitely waiting for it. 🙂 So, to conclude, this is a very amusing book, filled with very well developed and engrossing characters and intriguing plot, and I truly believe that Hitchins is incredibly good at what she does. So please give this book a try and hopefully you will enjoy it as much as I did. 🙂”

Day 8 https://lifeinthespaciousplace.wordpress.com/2018/03/26/the-gardeners-daughter/

“I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found it a gripping read as the story is full of action with lots of twists to the plot. I was drawn in to Ava’s search for the truth and there was the constant temptation to read just a few more pages to find out what would happen next.”

Day 9 https://chataboutbooks.wordpress.com/2018/03/27/the-gardeners-daughter-by-kathryn-hitchins-kathrynhitchins-blogtour-authorinterview-tgd/

“I’d dreamed of being a writer throughout my childhood and teens. As soon as I realised stories were created by people and weren’t magically ‘just there’ to be plucked from the library shelves, I knew I wanted to create these worlds for myself and for other people.”

Day 10 http://www.mandybakerjohnson.com/2018/03/the-gardeners-daughter/

“I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is intriguing and kept me guessing right to the very end with its twists and turns. The characters surrounding Ava are not necessarily who they seem to be, whether from her past or in her present. The Gardener’s Daughter is cleverly written and is a satisfying read. I had been looking forward to this next book by K A Hitchins and I wasn’t disappointed. She is right up there as one of my favourite authors. I’m giving this book 5* on Amazon and can highly recommend it.”

Day 11 https://www.katherineblessan.com/blog/the-tale-of-a-prodigal-daughter/

“This book is targeted at young adults with the aim of conveying Christian truth through fiction in a subtle and non-preachy way. However, it can also be read by adults, and I hope it will help people have a better understanding of the Christian gospel and want to encounter Jesus for themselves.”

Day 12 https://www.compulsivereaders.com/reviews/blog-tour-k-a-hitchins-the-gardners-daughter/

“An enjoyable story with some interesting characters, an insight into the world of botany and holiday parks and an overall message of love, family and belonging.”

Launching your Book

22nd January 2018 by KA Hitchins 4 Comments

I’m beginning to plan the launch for my new book, The Gardener’s Daughter, which will be released in March. I’ve just dug out an article I wrote about my experience of launching two books in 2016, which I circulated to a group of authors who were about to be published by Instant Apostle and were wanting some advice. It’s a useful check list of things to think about, so I thought I would share it more widely.

For me, one of the scariest things about having a book published is the book launch. I feel nervous standing up and talking in public, and I don’t like being the centre of attention. I’m an introvert. That’s why I love writing!

Here’s a few things I learned from launching my books The Girl at the End of the Road and The Key of All Unknown.

Date of Launch

Try and time your launch as close as possible to the date of publication of your book. I held both my book launches a couple of weeks before my books were actually available online and in shops. This meant that people were reading them and were giving me feedback by the time the books were released and I had something to tweet and post about, and a couple of nice reviews.

Think carefully about which day of the week to hold your launch. Friday and Saturday nights at first sight seem like a good idea, but they are also the nights when people tend to socialise and might have other engagements. A weekday evening from 8.00 – 10.00 pm might be a better option. You know the people you are going to invite. Try not to clash with another event when it’s likely your friends won’t attend, e.g. when the FA cup final is on the telly! Make it as easy as you can for people to be able to come.

Venue

Choosing the right venue, both in terms of practicality and cost, is vital. Here are a few things to consider:

Is it within your budget? Church halls and libraries might be free or very reasonably priced. Hotel function rooms are lovely but are also very expensive.

Is it easy to get to? Is it near good public transport links? Is there parking (preferably free) nearby? Is there disability access? Try not to book a sports club which is way out in the back of beyond and down a dark, unlit track in the middle of winter. It’s not the kind of place people want to turn out to on a cold, dark evening. However, it might be lovely in the middle of summer.

Is it the right size? Nothing is worse than having too few people rattling around in a large hall. It will make you feel very exposed and make the launch look like a failure even if it isn’t. Draw up a draft list of people you will be sending personal invitations to, then estimate that about 10% won’t be able to come on the night.

Does the venue suit your book? You might be able to find a venue which fits with the theme of your book. If your book is set in a particular place, maybe you could hold a launch there. I held my first launch at a local Arts Base.The staff there were very helpful and gave me lots of advice about how they publish their own events, which meant that I had people I didn’t know coming along and buying the book. I’m trying to hold my next launch in a local garden centre to link with the setting in The Gardener’s Daughter but I’m not sure if this will be possible.

The Trestle Arts Base, venue for my first book launch

Does the venue have a good layout? Try and imagine what you need for your launch. You will need a room with seats, either in rows or round small tables, facing a stage or a lectern where you will speak. It’s also good to have a mingling area for when people first come in so you can greet them and offer them refreshments (tea/coffee/biscuits, or wine/fruit juice/crisps). You will also need to have two large tables spaced fairly well apart. One is for you to sit and sign your books and the other will be for your guests to buy your book. Queues are likely to form at both, so don’t have them too close together as queue management can become a problem.

For both my launches I hired venues which had several areas I could use – a room for the talk, a mingling area and a signing/buying room. This had the advantage that I could invite quite a large number of people, but if not many came the event didn’t feel empty. I had seating for about 25 people, but there was standing room at the back of the room. It’s much nicer to feel people are crowding in than facing a sea of empty seats. Having a different room for greeting your guests, serving refreshments and mingling prior to your talk, and where you can also sell and sign your book after your talk is ideal.

What are the facilities like? Check that the toilets and kitchen areas are appropriate. Can the venue offer a microphone and lectern for you to use? Is there a music system for you to be able to play background music? Do they have enough tables and chairs? Do you need to use a screen as part of your presentation? Will there be someone there to help you on the night with setting up and clearing away, or are you being given a set of keys and being left to set up everything and clear up yourself?

Will a local bookshop do the launch for you? Waterstones often support local authors, and might be willing to host your launch event or offer a signing opportunity. You might live near an independent bookshop which might be happy to host the launch. If this is the case, they sometimes provide some drinks and nibbles, thus saving you the expense. However, if you are a self-published author, or if like me your publisher expects you to buy a certain number of copies of your own book for resale, you need to remember that the shop will be selling their copies of your book and you will be receiving a much lower royalty on each sale than if you sell directly to your friends and family. The advantage of having a launch in a bookshop is that you can inform the local media, get some great photos of yourself doing a signing in a shop, and have your book stocked locally. The disadvantage is that it’s not going to help sell the box of books in your garage!

Invitations

Depending on the size of the venue, you will be restricted by health and safety regulations on the numbers of people that can be safely invited. You can produce your own invitations fairly cheaply on a computer. Cut and paste the front cover graphic of your novel, and set out the time, date, venue, parking availability etc. Encourage people to RSVP as this will reassure you that people are coming.

You could also see if you could have your event advertised in your local newspaper. Your venue might be willing to put up a poster or have invitations by their reception desk. Ask your local shops if they would let you stick an invitation on their customer notice boards. Advertise on Twitter and Facebook, particularly in local Facebook groups. Ask your friends and family to help spread the word, perhaps by having a poster up in their window. With social media, putting up posters and leafleting houses, I think you will get about a 1% response rate. This seems low, but if you post on an appropriate Facebook group with 500 followers, you could get 5 positive responses.

Promotional Materials

If you have decided you would like to pay for some promotional materials, make sure these are ready for the big day. This could include banners, business cards, book marks, postcards, badges, fridge magnets, pens etc. Vista print produces basic business cards at a very reasonable rate, and it’s always good to be able to hand people your contact details and let them know if you are on social media.

Ask for Help

You will need to have a team of helpers on the day, for example

someone to help set out the room if heavy lifting is required
someone to serve refreshments
someone to sell the books while you are signing copies
someone to act as Master of Ceremonies, introducing you at the beginning of your talk, interviewing you/asking questions etc.
someone to take good quality photos or video the event. Pictures of you signing books, speaking and having people queuing up to buy your books are great to Tweet and put on your Facebook page. Even if you have a small launch, good pictures will make it look like a worthwhile event.
someone to help you clear up afterwards.

The Programme

Once you have your date and venue and the invitations have gone out, it’s time to plan the programme. It’s good to draw up a timed agenda. My launch events were between an hour and a half and two hours. Some people leave straight after having their book signed, and some like to linger and chat. This is just a suggested outline – you know your guests and how long you want to speak for.

15 – 30 minutes meeting, greeting, mingling and refreshments

30 – 45 minutes author talk, thanking people, reading from your book and answering questions. You might like to take questions from the floor, or if you are nervous agree some pre-prepared questions with your Master of Ceremonies. Don’t forget to ask people to leave reviews of your book on Amazon and Goodreads.

30 – 45 minutes selling and signing copies of your book and chatting to your guests.

Things to Remember on the Day

Get to the venue early to set up. It takes longer than you think. Things to bring with you:

Your books!
Your speech
Signing pen
White table cloth for your signing table
A cash box and float of money, with plenty of small change
A notice saying who cheques should be made out to
Any promotional material you might have ordered (banners, business cards, book marks, postcards, badges, fridge magnets, pens etc)
A sign-up sheet so your visitors can sign up to receive email updates from you (you have to ask permission before you put people on a mailing list)
A visitors’ book for signing and leaving comments (I use this also to encourage people to leave me their email addresses rather than doing a sign-up sheet)
Refreshments (wine/fruit juice and crisps or tea, coffee, milk, sugar and biscuits depending on what kind of event you would like it to be)
Wine glasses if you needed to hire them (Waitrose hire them out for free)
A CD player and CD’s if you want to have gentle background music.
Camera (for someone else to take photos)
Bin bags for the clear up

Lastly . . . Enjoy your event

You will probably be a bit nervous, but first and foremost this is an opportunity for you to celebrate with your friends and family.

Afterwards

Don’t forget to thank people for helping and coming along. Tell people on social media how it went, including lots of photos. You could write an article for your local newspaper, telling them that you had a launch event, and include a good quality photograph of yourself and the front cover of the book. They might not use it but sometimes they are looking for space to fill. You could draft out the article in advance and have it ready to send off with the photos the next day so the news is really up to date.

When people begin to feed back their reactions to the book, be thankful and gracious even if not all comments are positive. If someone raves about your book, encourage them to write up a review for Amazon and Goodreads and to share their enthusiasm on their own social media.

Facing Death? It’s Time to Live

8th January 2018 by KA Hitchins Leave a Comment

8 January 2018

The beginning of a new year is a time for reflection, for looking back and planning forwards, perhaps making resolutions – giving things up or taking things on – and generally taking stock of one’s life. At a time when the year is young and fresh, spreading ahead like a blank sheet of paper or unblemished snow, it might seem strange that my thoughts are turning to another unknown and as yet unvisited territory: Death.

As I grow older, the poignancy of the Christmas and New Year season deepens and sharpens. I’ve found myself blinking at the twinkling of lights. Baubles and tinsel swim before my eyes, flickering into clarity before blurring with sudden tears. It starts with the Christmas card list. Each year I’m removing from my address labels document the names of those who’ve passed away during the last twelve months. At first it was my parents’ generation; now I’m beginning to experience the loss of those in my own generation. A sobering thought.

There are the empty spaces around the dining room table on Christmas day. Beloved parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles – or, even more heartbreakingly siblings, partners and offspring – are no longer alive to share our festivities. Then there’s the unhappy thought that for some of the people we know, maybe even ourselves, this will be the last chance to enjoy Christmas.

We might be facing 2018 with grim dread, fearing what’s to come and already grieving its fulfilment. But do thoughts of death always have to open the door to denial and despair?

My fellow Instant Apostle author, Ann Clifford, has written a book which addresses the personal and practical elements of dying, acknowledging the pain and confusion that accompany loss, but also helping the reader to conquer their fears and to view death as a portal to the future. As the themes in the book resonated very much with what I was trying to do with my novel The Key of All Unknown, I’ve invited Ann onto my blog to ask her a few questions.

Ann, it’s lovely to talk a little more about your book, Time to Live: The Beginner’s Guide to Saying Goodbye. Perhaps you could tell me why you wanted to write about death.

Seven years ago a small group of us from a local church decided we wanted to do something lovely for the elderly in our area of West London. What grew from that was Tea-Timers where guests were invited for a free home-made tea. We incorporated hand massage, nail painting and a Quiz which they all loved. Ages varied from 60’s through to 90’s. Working with them I realised how ill-prepared they were for their own dying and death.

With only 35% of people saying they have written a will, we seem to be in denial about the obvious fact that all of us will die. Why do we find it so difficult to talk about?

We are filled with superstition that if we talk about it, it will happen. Also it is the great unknown. If we believe in God and read the bible then there is a great deal of reassurance. Death becomes only a portal to something unimaginably wonderful. If any reader remembers the story of Mary Magdalene looking for the body of Jesus there is a heart-stopping moment when she hears her name called and suddenly recognises her resurrected Lord. I love to think that when I die I will hear my name being called and I will indeed meet Jesus face to face just as she did.

What kind of practical things can we do to prepare for our own death?

We can make decisions about what we do and do not want to happen if we are fortunate enough to see our death approaching. We can give permission to our loved ones to make the decisions. This is not a given. In the book I have collated as much practical information as I could into an accessible format. I have set up a Power of Attorney and also written an Advanced Decision. But there is so much more. So many ways to say ‘I love you’ to those we will leave behind. Our dying and death is not about us, rather it is about our loved ones. Our passing will be our final words. I encourage us all to make those as loving and caring as possible.

What practical things can we do to help prepare others to face the death of a loved one?

We need to talk about death. The book is meant to be a tool to help the conversations to happen. I can’t think of anything better as we face up to the reality of the death of a loved one, to be able to find the words to talk together meaningfully. Sometimes we have fallen out with each other and allowed bitterness and unforgiveness into our hearts. This is the opportunity to extend forgiveness, rediscover love and allow peace to reign rather than conflict.

If asked, I guess a lot of people would want to die peacefully in their sleep at a good old age. In your book you talk about ‘dying well’. What do you mean by that?

Dying well is leaving our loved ones with our applause and love for them resounding in their lives. Everything that needed to be said has been aired. The celebration of our lives has been prepared and our final words will glorify the God we love. The burial place or scattering of ashes is known. We prepare for all the major events in our lives; our death is the only certain one. Preparing well for it means our loved ones are not burdened with myriad choices at such an emotional and stressful time.

How might a more open approach to the subject of death, enhance the lives we are living now?

Those that have prepared speak of peace descending because everything is in order. A folder containing passwords, bank details etc is primed. The paperwork for every detail is ready. The celebration details are written. Leaving well paves the way in the family for others to follow and mitigates a little the sadness, loss and grief of bereavement and separation.

This is not your first project. Tell me more about your writing life.

I began writing seriously after the birth of my first child. Whilst he didn’t sleep at night so well, he slept in the day for a couple of hours. I began by writing sketches, moved into playwriting, travelled into screenwriting and now have ended up writing books. My first novel Occupation I self-published on Kindle. I never expected to write a non-fiction book on dying and death, but it has been a joy to see how it has been received.

I can’t thank Instant Apostle enough for publishing the book. Currently I am working on a book/programme for the Chaiya Art Awards www.chaiyaartawards.co.uk. Do inform any artists of any medium that you know about this fantastic new art award with a top prize of £10,000. I am also on the second draft of a new novel called ‘It Started With a Kiss’.

A big thank you to Ann Clifford for taking the time to answer my questions. I’m looking forward to all that 2018 brings, mindful also of the sorrows that may come my way. I know from personal experience that preparing for loss can alleviate much of the stress and fear. When we were told that my own father had terminal cancer, our family was devastated. But those last few months gave us time for those precious conversations. Everything was said that needed to be said and we were able to face the worst in the best way we could, with love, humour and thankfulness for my father, for the life he lived and the faith in God he shared with us during his time on earth.

At the beginning of 2018, as well as making changes to the amount of food we eat, alcohol we drink or exercise we take, let’s spend some time thinking about those things we fear the most to rid them of their power. You might come to the same conclusion that I have that it’s the very finiteness of our lives that give them meaning and purpose and makes every moment precious. There’s a perceptual choice to be made. Is life full or empty? Is it a place of bleakness, where words and actions are the precursor to eternal silence and stillness, our mortality pulling us inexorably towards nothing? Or do we choose to live in a world with love and hope at the centre, where forgiveness can be found and victory snatched from defeat? I choose the second, always, every time.

Happy New Year!

Biography

Ann Clifford has wide-ranging professional experience encompassing church and organisational leadership, screenwriting, film-making, special needs education and public speaking. Life happens, and she has experienced a lot of it. She loves God, her husband, her two adult children and many others. Her website is: www.annclifford.co.uk

The Evolution of a Front Cover

11th December 2017 by KA Hitchins 6 Comments

One of the most exciting things about being a writer is seeing your story transform into a physical book with a stunning front cover. But the process of getting the right cover for your book is often tricky.

Front cover design is an art in itself. Every book will be competing for space in a bookshop and the cover design could be the decisive factor in persuading a shop to stock your book in the first place. Each books also competes for readers. Without a great design, a reader won’t even bother to pick up a book, let alone read the blurb or hand over their money!

What’s needed is an impressive graphic that will grab the attention of the browser from across the shop floor. The design should reflect the genre of the book, offering readers subtle clues as to whether it’s their kind of read or not. It’s a good idea to look at other books the same genre and to go for a similar look and feel. Romance novels often have a curly cursive font and pastel-coloured illustrations. Crime novels often use dark or monochrome backgrounds with an aggressive splash of colour and block lettering for the title.

Strong, simple colours will make an impact as long as they don’t detract from the title. For example, my first two novels fall into the ‘contemporary commercial fiction’ genre. Both have elements of mystery with a hint of romance, and my second book, The Key of All Unknown, was a whodunit with a twist. Both covers have an unfussy colour scheme of black, white, red and blue.

It’s said that it takes about eight seconds for someone to make a judgement about a book. In that time, they answer three questions:

Who’s it by?

Have I already read it?

Is it my sort of book?

So as well as being visually arresting, a book cover must convey essential information about the author, the title and the genre. In our internet age, these three pieces of information must display clearly on a thumbnail on a computer screen or mobile phone as well as in a bookshop. The choice of typography should complement the design. If the text is too small or elaborate, it might be off-putting or difficult to read.

A second function of typography is to establish a consistent, instantly recognisable, ‘author brand’. For example, my books use Times Roman for the title font and a sans serif font for my name. Once you have developed a brand, this should be rolled out consistently across all your author activities (blog, website, promotional material) so your readers get used to associating it with your writing.

A book will generally spend most of its life on a shelf, so don’t forget that the look of the spine is just as important as the look of the cover. It should simplify the style and overall design of the cover with the the title, author name and publisher very clearly visible.

Getting it right, can be quite a process. Having read the synopsis of my third novel, The Gardener;s Daughter, the design team at Instant Apostle came up with an initial idea that dovetailed well with my author brand.

However, I didn’t think the black, white and red colour scheme worked for this book. It made it look like a crime thriller, whereas it’s a story about an orphan heart trying to find a home. I wanted the cover to be softer and more organic, whilst still retaining some elements of the branding from my first two books. The image of the cut flower is clever – it symbolises my heroine, Ava, who runs away from home to search for her biological father when she discovers she’s adopted – but the pool of blood was a little over the top and didn’t really link to the plot.

I asked if the colour scheme could be softened. I also sent the team pictures of book covers that I really liked and felt reflected the tone of The Gardener’s Daughter, suggesting the use of a caravan image, as Ava ends up squatting in a derelict caravan in a creepy forest. I received three great cover ideas back from the designer.

The publisher was still very keen on the cut flower idea, but my reservations had grown stronger. I didn’t understand why the cut flower was green and the others were black, when logically it should be the other way round. Plus, with ‘gardener’ in the title and a picture of secateurs, was there too much gardening in the cover, when it’s not actually a gardening book? Would it appeal to my Young Adult readership or did it look a little ‘old lady’?

I thought this cover was too dark and it lost the branding link with my first two books. Also the design interferes with the clarity of the lettering. However, I liked the menacing shape of the tree very much because it fitted well with the sense of peril in the story.

This was my favourite design. It retained the branding of my first two books. The text was clear, and the picture was well grounded. The trees were a little too neat and tidy for my liking and didn’t convey the emotion in the story. Also, the camper van needed to be changed to a caravan, but I felt we were moving in the right direction.

So, here’s the final version.

I’m so grateful to Instant Apostle for allowing me to have input into the process. I know that some publishers hand cover design over to a marketing department and the author has to accept whatever is provided. That’s one of the great things about working with a small independent publisher that values the input of the author. It has helped me appreciate much more the commercial side of book marketing.

For those of you who have spotted the inconsistent capital ‘G’ in the title, when my other books use lower case for the titles, you’ll have to read the book to discover the significance!

What would be the dream cover for your book?

How I organised an Author Blog Tour

8th August 2017 by KA Hitchins 4 Comments

Authors love being featured on other people’s blogs, whether it’s having their latest book reviewed by a book blogger, being interviewed about their writing life or contributing an article on a subject dear to their heart. The pièce de résistance must therefore be having your very own blog book tour.

A blog tour is like a traditional book tour, except all the stops are virtual. Instead of going from book shop to book shop, the author goes from blog to blog. The purpose is to expose the author to as wide an audience as possible without having all the expense and trouble of travelling around the country. You can read more about blog tours here: http://www.bookmasters.com/blog/blog-book-tour/

I’ve managed to have my books featured on several individual book review blogs, but had no idea how go about organising a blog tour for myself. Having signed a contract with a small independent publisher, there was no money to pay for a publicist to organise a tour for me and I didn’t know many bloggers personally who I could recruit.

In any case, as an unknown author I found it excruciatingly difficult to ask bloggers for their help, particularly as they knew what a blog tour involved and I didn’t. I was worried I’d look stupid and unprofessional. Having also had my fair share of rejections through the submissions process, I wasn’t keen to expose my tender heart to more refusals.

Then I had a light bulb moment. I would ask another author if I could organise a blog tour for them, making it clear I had no experience in this area but would be willing to give it a go if they were. I knew I had to find the right kind of author – one whose work I admired, who was also a new author and who had passions and expertise outside of their book which would be interesting for bloggers to explore.

The main advantage of organising a blog tour for another author is that it’s much easier to ask for help on behalf of someone else. It’s also easier for a blogger to say, ‘no,’ to a third party, and it doesn’t hurt when they do! When they say, ‘yes’, however, you know they really want to be involved.

Having come to the end of the tour, I can wholeheartedly recommend the benefits. It was exciting to be able to enjoy someone else’s positive reviews and success for a change. I logged onto social media every day during the tour with a sense of expectation, reading that day’s blog and enjoying seeing it Retweeted and shared into wider networks than my own.

The benefits for the author were: several great book reviews, a small increase in book sales, greater credibility as a writer and the possibility that her name and the name of her book will be more easily picked up by search engines in the future.

As well as increasing the profile of the author, I’ve also gained more Twitter and Facebook followers, and have met some wonderful people online who I might not have bumped into otherwise. I have more of a sense of the community of writers and bloggers working in my genre and I’ve seen first-hand how bloggers are able to find new angles on the same story, presenting their thoughts in the most succinct and imaginative ways. Hopefully the lessons I’ve learned will improve my own blogging.

Perhaps most importantly I’ve realised how rewarding it is to work collaboratively. The writer’s life is a lonely one. It was all too easy for me to become obsessed with my own reviews and sales figures and begin to lose perspective. There are many ways to gain a sense of personal achievement and helping to promote another author is one of them. With the internet swarming with publicists charging extraordinary sums to organise blog tours, it’s time writers took matters into their own hands.

So authors, instead of desperately searching for book review bloggers to feature your book, why not organise a blog tour for another author you know. Take a moment away from your own marketing and give yourself the opportunity to enjoy someone else’s success. There will be benefits for you both – and you never know one day someone might be willing to organise a tour for you.

And if organising a blog tour seems too much work, why not occasionally feature another author on your blog? Amazon does not allow review swaps on its site, but there’s nothing to stop you teaming up with another author to blog about each other’s books.

Here a step by step guide of how I set up the blog tour.

Find an author who has several different angles to their writing, not just their book. Are they involved in a particular field or have a particular expertise? Have they an interesting life story? Can they talk about writing related issues? Some of the blogs on the tour can be book reviews, an author interview or an article produced by the author on a topic close to their heart, but the material for each blog needs to be unique in some way. Bloggers do not want to duplicate material from other blogs.
Recruit a group of willing bloggers (this is the hard part!). I advertised for bloggers in relevant Facebook groups, and contacted other authors I knew who blogged. It took several weeks before I had enough blog spots to cover ten days.
Set up a secret Facebook page and add in all the bloggers and the author. Encourage them to follow each other on Facebook and Twitter.
Send out a review e-book to each bloggers so they can read it if they want to.
Ask the bloggers what kind of a blog they want to have on their site and encourage them to coordinate direct with the author over interview questions/blog content.
Agree dates for the tour with everyone and produce a schedule, ideally with a blog being published every day for a set period of time. Encourage the bloggers to advertise the schedule in advance.
Select a relevant hashtag for the tour so that all Tweets can be easily found in one place and retweeted
Once the tour is up and running, check that blogs are being posted each day and chase up any that are late. Share the blog posts on Twitter and Facebook, including in the secret Facebook group so the other bloggers can find them easily. Share and retweet other people’s posts and tweets.
At the end of the tour, thank and congratulate everyone involved.

If you have experience of organising blog tours, I’d love to hear how you do it. I know I still have much to learn.

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