Time for a Short Story blog
12/09/2016
Unlike giving birth to a baby, all the hard work is done when, on the morning your book baby is born, you receive an email from Kindle Direct Publishing saying, ‘Congratulations! Your book is available for sale in the Kindle Store.’ I hope I’m not the only author who immediately downloads it onto my Kindle even though I already have the mobi file and, of course, I’ve read it through many times. So, why do I do it? Well, to check that everything is working properly and that I have loaded all the information correctly as I’m not ‘a natural’ when it comes to computers! I guess ‘positive customer experience’ is instilled in me after twenty-three years of working at QVC.
Although I launched my first full-length novel, with a blog tour, organised by Jenny in Neverland, I was working so hard on finishing books two and three in the Liberty Sands trilogy that I left it too late to have blog tours for them. I hadn’t really been planning on having a tour for my short story but I was keen for feedback from someone who reads a lot and whose opinion I trust. I contacted Linda Hill, an Amazon top 1000 reviewer, whose blog, Linda’s Book Bag, I appeared on earlier this year, and asked her if she had time to read it and if she knew any other book bloggers who might be interested in giving it the once over. I was so delighted with Linda’s opinion of the story and with the response of other book bloggers offering to read it that I was able to create a tour.
The banner was created using the image of the clock that appears on the book cover. That clock is also on my kitchen wall – it was a present from my mum and dad many years ago and inspired the name of the tearoom, The Primrose Pantry, in my story. Yes, I know the flowers on the clock are pansies… it’s all part of the story. We positioned the dates of the blog tour down the sides of the clock – almost like a 24 hour clock. As well as being the first short story I have written, it is also the first cover we have done ourselves (my daughter did most of the designing) rather than having a professional cover designer, so I hope you like it.
Whenever I write anything, one of the most nerve-wracking moments is waiting for feedback in the form of reviews. I’m delighted to say the first two reviews are five star:
***Perfect for a commute, lunch break or whilst waiting for an appointment. There’s a cracking plot that captivates the reader completely… I found it quite inspiring***
***What a treat this little story was! I was hooked from the start and was kept enthralled to the end. One of the best short stories I’ve read***
I hope you will enjoy it too
love
Julia x
