Susan’s Book Is Almost Finished…And Now I Need Your Help
A Note From Fatty: If you want to score a free FatCyclist.com / Rockwell Jersey, today’s the last day you can sign up for the Rockwell Relay. So get off the fence. Go sign up.
You’ll have fun. I promise.
And you’ll also be a whole new kind of exhausted afterward. I promise that, too.
Another Note from Fatty: I won’t be posting tomorrow; I’ll be out of town. I hope to post something on Monday, though.
Susan’s Book Is Almost Finished
I’m really happy to announce that Susan’s novel — The Forgotten Gift – has been through editing and production; proofs are now at the printer. I’ll be getting those next week, making whatever changes I catch, and then — in just a couple weeks — the book will be available to purchase.
Hey, let me show you a little bit of what it’s going to look like.
Front cover and spine
Back cover
And — just to tease you — here are a few pages from the middle of the first chapter.
Okay, that’s enough for now. You’ll be able to read the rest soon.
I Need Your Help
I want a lot of people to buy and enjoy this book. And that means I need to get the word out.
So.
If you are a reviewer or know a reviewer or you have a way to get the word out about this book, please email me. Use the subject line The Forgotten Gift so I can prioritize reading it over the exciting offers I get to go on cycling tours in North Korea (the touring company has left a comment to that post, by the way).
Next, while I love each and every one of my own readers and would give all of you a totally not-awkward embrace if given the chance, well…a lot of you aren’t the target audience, which would be pre-teen and teenage girls.
But I’m guessing that most of you know someone who is the target audience. So when you have a chance to buy this book, get one for yourself and maybe another for someone who will hopefully love it and spread the word to her friends.
In short, your assignment is to help spread the word, any way you can, including in ways I haven’t thought of — because this is a little bit out of my realm of expertise. If you have an idea of how, let me know.
Thank you.
Comment by Barefoot Rose | 02.28.2013 | 11:25 am
I follow the blog The Modern Mrs. Darcy. http://modernmrsdarcy.com/ She does a lot of book reviews. She’s a little older than your targeted audience but her audience is probably mothers of your targeted audience. If you send her a book and tell her Susan’s story, she’ll probably review it for you. Don’t forget that Twilight was a teen romance but many women also devoured those novels.
Comment by Robin O | 02.28.2013 | 11:28 am
I *totally* want to read that… Hey! I used to be a pre-teen and teenage girl. I can’t wait for it to come out!
Comment by Liz M. | 02.28.2013 | 12:11 pm
Hello Elden — Is this self-published? Though the lines are blurring, this does make a difference for some of the more traditional reviewing/promotional avenues. Thanks.
Comment by Mandy R | 02.28.2013 | 12:56 pm
I would love to read this and don’t worry too much about the target audience. There are a lot of adults who read YA, myself included.
Comment by Marsupial Matt (formerly known as MattC) | 02.28.2013 | 1:36 pm
Uhm…I’m just a teensy-weensy bit out of her target audience…but I’m totally sucked in with that snippet, it sounds fantastic! I’d love to read the REST of it! (and I’m pretty sure my wife will love it also…she has ALL the Twilight books AND movies).
Comment by Meghan | 02.28.2013 | 1:38 pm
I really hate to be that annoying person… but that should be “and find out whom she can trust.” (Not “who.”) You also may want to do some shuffling with “Susan raised thousands of dollars with her jewelry for cancer charities.” You can switch that to “Susan raised thousands of dollars for cancer charities with her jewelry,” or even go with “Susan raised thousands of dollars for cancer charities by making and selling…”
Can’t wait to read the book–it looks incredible!
Comment by Daniel Weise | 02.28.2013 | 1:39 pm
Fatty you are such a tease!!!! I can’t wait to read more once it is available.
Comment by Davidh-Marin,ca | 02.28.2013 | 3:18 pm
Bravo Elden, Bravo!!!!
Comment by MarkG | 02.28.2013 | 3:46 pm
I plan to purchase at least one copy and donate it to our school library. Anyone else thinking that this is a good idea?
Comment by Christy S. Lube | 02.28.2013 | 4:02 pm
Oooooo! I happen to have 3 “target audience” living in my house =P (My girls are 14, 10, and 9… but they share well, so I think we’ll just start with 1 copy ;) )
Comment by Candi | 02.28.2013 | 5:04 pm
I’m interested. Will this be available on Kindle? I would look into good reads as well or as soon as I read it i can post on good reads and friends will read and their friends will read etc etc.
Comment by AKChick55 | 02.28.2013 | 9:33 pm
YAY! Sent a Tweet to one of my FAV YA authors to see if she can help give some advice on promotion. I love this genre (and I am NOT in the “target” audience). I’ll spread the word as much as I can. :) This is very bittersweet though as looking at the snippet you gave us to read (thank you!), I’m super sad that Susan won’t be able to write follow-up books. She was most definitely a Superwoman and talented in so very many ways! I can’t wait for the book!!!
Comment by Tammy Blackwell | 02.28.2013 | 9:52 pm
I don’t know how much good it’ll do, but I’ve send some YA book bloggers the link. From my experience, promoting a book takes as much time and hard work as writing one. I wish you all the best of luck and I think it’s a wonderful thing you’re doing to get this out there for Susan. She sounds like a remarkable woman.
Comment by davidh-marin,ca | 03.1.2013 | 12:52 am
Comment by Koryo Tours | 02.26.2013 | 9:38 pm
Hi! We just came across your blog – thanks for the extensive plug! As we state in the tour description, Cycling in the DPRK is definitely not for hardcore cyclists, we’re very limited in where we can take people – but if you’re interested in seeing one of the least understood countries in the world on a bike this is, for now, the only way. Let us know if you do run a competition to join us ;)
Vicky, Koryo Tours
OK Fatty. Should you indeed run a competition around this “prize” please make it clear if it’s the winner, or the loser that has to go. Actually that idea has promise: The individual who raises the least amount for a given contest wins the trip. It will be your biggest contest ever!!!!!
Comment by roadrash | 03.1.2013 | 6:37 am
I do not have any publishing / book reviewing contacts. But I DO have a bakers dozen pre-teen or teenage nieces. Looking forward to placing my order!
Comment by Chris | 03.1.2013 | 7:19 am
Fatty,
Its projects like this that make me proud to wear my Fat Cyclist Jersey.
Comment by Dave T | 03.1.2013 | 9:25 am
Elden well done.
Comment by ClydesdalePilot | 03.1.2013 | 3:01 pm
Kudos, sir. I have a few cousins in the “target demographic,” as well as a fiancee and a fiancee’s best friend that devoured the Twilight books. Can’t wait to place my order.
Comment by Wife#1 | 03.1.2013 | 6:30 pm
We’re in for a copy for our pre-teen daughter, and a few extras as birthday gifts for her pre-teen friends. Woohoo!
On a side note, I just started my Davis fundraising this afternoon. This should be interesting. insert graphic of nervously sweating woman here.
I’m basically promising people (that I know well enough), that I plan to achieve a 100# weight loss by the bike ride on 6/23 (I’m just at about 70# now), and should they agree to donate to support me and Livestrong in advance, but I don’t actually lose 100 pounds by then, that I’ll donate 1.5 times the amount they gave to Livestrong, back to the charity of their choice.
This is either the best or worst fundraising idea I have ever had. It could so easily go either way!
Comment by Rachel | 03.2.2013 | 1:53 am
Goodreads.com.
It’s popular and still growing in popularity, and is *especially* strong with the YA crowd (which is mostly girls).
Sign up for goodreads for an author account in her name, put the book up with as much information as you can. Ask the reviewers to also post a review on goodreads, and submit it to groups. It has a great ‘if you liked book x, you may like book y’ system, and if you can get into that, you can get out the word to a lot of random people who are likely to be in the target audience, and likely some who have a decent following.
Comment by tbeaker | 03.2.2013 | 6:42 pm
Fatty, I loved the teaser and was wondering if the book would be available as an ebook? This is the kind of book my daughter and her friends would love to read but as we live overseas, we normally buy ebooks as it saves on space and weight. I considering purchasing a hard copy just to place in our school’s library. looking forward to the book coming out.
Comment by buckythedonkey | 03.4.2013 | 2:31 am
Chapeau, Fatty.
Comment by Davidh-Marin,ca | 03.4.2013 | 11:19 am
As I checked today’s new comments, I see a PLUS 6 lb gain for the Leader!!!!!!
To which I say BRAVO FATTY! Must have been a great weekend, you deserve it.
Comment by Clydesteve | 03.4.2013 | 11:20 am
Fatty – enjoyed the teaser. The first sentence you exerpted was terrific. Or, maybe i just hate staplers.