Hello again!

It's a little more than a month until the summer Oxford Indie Book Fair, so let's get things warmed up (unlike the weather).

VIDEO INTERVIEWS

There was a strong response to the call for victims volunteers to be interviewed by the media team at the summer event. Thanks to all who replied to say they were up for it. The guys will have limited time on the day to do their interviews as well as record beta-roll footage, set up between interviews and the like, so they will be choosing a selection of applicants who they hope to talk with. They will be asking a short series of standard questions for a separate video and then working through a pre-prepared set of questions tailored to the interviewee. We'll be contacting those who we're hoping to see before the event and giving you a release form to sign so that everything is above board. You'll also get a copy of the questions so that you'll have time to think about a clever response.
Please don't be disappointed if you're not on the list, though they will hopefully attempt to do a number of vox-pops where they swoop in and ask a simple question. You'll also get a chance to smile and wave as they move about the hall with their cameras.
All being well, we'll have some extra material to put up on the BIG SCREENS at the November event and beyond.

MEET THE AUTHORS

This week we hear from Jay Bhatti and Darian Hart on their writing experiences. I've got enough articles for TWO per week for the whole of the month and some beyond. No reason why I can't add more, so if you read what's up there and fancy a go then drop me your story of what makes you tick as a writer to this email address. Send in word, rtf or just paste the text into the email. You'll get a book cover and Amazon link up on the page as well.

SOCIAL MEDIA

We're getting ready to roll out the big guns for the last month before the summer event and that's going to involve a paid advert to interested users on Facebook. Now's the time to start making a noise on your own social media - can you keep it up for a month? Give it a try, it's one way to help get your books known about and increase your sales, presence and algorithm rankings.
Use our example graphics on the exhibitor centre to get you going.

GIVEAWAYS

Who doesn't like something for free right? If the answer's yes, then you can be sure that your readers feel the same.
One popular method to help a book get on in this world used by successful writers is the GIVEAWAY. You can spend cash on adverts, and that can work, but giving a copy of your book to someone who then might leave a good review is worth GOLD. Reviews can help convince readers who are on the fence about your book, they affect the ranking on Amazon making it more likely to be suggested in a search - and a nice review is the real reason you do this isn't it... go on, be honest!
I'm considering opening up a slot on the PUBLIC newsletter to allow exhibitors to advertise giveaways of published or ARCs (advance reader/review copies) of their books. This is ONLY for giveaways, not adverts for paid-for books, and here's the reason:
We want to continue to grow our mailing list. It currently stands at several hundred people; these are self-subscribed individuals who clearly have an interest in reading. These are YOUR PEOPLE. The information will be exclusively availible on the newsletter, so there's an incentive to subscribe and stay subscribed. A larger mailing list gives us access to more potential visitors to the events… and hey, more opportunity for people to come along and buy your book! Win for all.
I'd like to get some feedback on whether this might be popular. Don't send any submissions yet because I want to work out the details, costs etc as well as write a nice article explaining how you’d go about getting books to people - there are a few methods.

So, what do you think?

Right then.. Grab a coffee, read this back and send it out.

Until next time,

Andy, Sylvia James, Shona, Ray and Felicity

PS: I generally save up my book fair correspondence until Friday which is my official book fair day, so please bear with me if I don't answer your emails right away. I do look at them as they come in though.