Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Where I Am At.

So this is where we are at after month number 5 of the journey that is the Hambledown Dream. After my official launch back home in Gippsland, Victoria in April my publisher and I have been working tirelessly, exploring all avenues that we can in an endeavor to bring the novel to the notice of as many major stores as we can. And our work is paying off.

In May I was kindly hosted by Mostly Books of Torrens Park in South Australia and had a wonderful morning in their lovely book store, talking with customers and signing copies of my novel. In a couple of weeks time Borders/Adelaide will be hosting me for an afternoon at the Rundle Mall store where I will be speaking, answering questions and signing copies for readers. I have been in talks with a number of bookstores both here in Adelaide and over in Victoria in the hope that I can get The Hambledown Dream onto the shelves and so far it has been very encouraging.

In the online sphere, I have made significant progress in promotion and marketing of the novel. I have done several interviews for internet media outlets - mostly notably "The Brink Of Sanity Show" in New York and "The Creative Penn" here in Australia. These shows have a significant global reach and their value - not too mention their hospitality and support - cannot be understated.

It is in the online presence of the book where momentum is building. "The Hambledown Dream" is beginning to show up in the online portals for Borders (Australia), Angus and Robertson (Australia) in addition to Amazon Books who have been carrying the novel in both the digital and eVersions since the initial digital publication back in January. Most significantly however, and I have to admit to slightly "geeking out" about this - in the past 24 hours I have become aware that Barnes & Noble Online - one of the largest booksellers globally - is now carrying the title in their catalog. While this is big in one sense - it's presence doesn't necessarily translate into blistering success. What will drive success of the novel is sales and through the use of social networking portals I have achieved a good result so far.

But there is still more I can do. I have come to appreciate more than anything, the value of word of mouth in both raising the profile of the book - it has been through this where the successes have thus far been achieved.

If you know of anyone, who you think "The Hambledown Dream" would appeal to then please, forward this onto them for them to consider. If you're talking with family, with friends, with colleagues and you think they might like to lose themselves in a lyrical and moving tale of loss, love and redemption with a smattering of the paranormal thrown in - then please tell them. If you have access to the various social networking portals going around, please create a quick wall entry linking it to either here at the Official Site or the entries at each of the stores.

To those of you who have joined me on my journey thus far, I want to sincerely thank you for everything you have done. Even if it was just an encouraging word - it means everything when you are trying to push on. You are my "Dream" team.

Open your heart, touch the words, Live the "Dream"

DFA.

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