Day: August 14, 2013

A Wild Ride – Book Promotion

On August 3rd, 2013, I did my first ever promotion. I was nudged to do this by the wise and benevolent bestselling author Martin Crosbie. He really is a super swell dude. I decided to try to keep the momentum going for my latest book, Mr. Pish Goes to the Farm, which was released back in June. The planning for this promo started in June, in fact. After the book was out for two weeks, I raised the price of the book from the introductory offer of 99 cents to $2.99. This way, when the promo sale price dropped back to 99 cents, people would feel like they were getting a deal, indeed!

Despite hitting the top of three different “Amazon.com Hot New Releases” lists in June, there were ZERO sales in July. ZERO! We’re talking an internationally-known traveling terrier spreading knowledge and joy! Oh, the humanity! In any case, I was glad I’d plotted with Martin back in June to set up my promo. Here’s what I did. Continue reading “A Wild Ride – Book Promotion”

Flash Fiction: Your Vote Counts

The time of choosing is at hand. Who will be the next Flash Fiction Star? We had a number of great submissions this week. Kudos to all the entrants. Check out this week’s entries here. Vote for your fave then use those share buttons at the bottom of the post to spread the word.

Remember, all our winners will be included in the next edition of the IU Flash Fiction Anthology. So, support your fellow writers and participate in this week’s voting, then spread the word, bang the drums, and share the link to let everyone know the vote is on.

Polls close tomorrow at 5 PM.

 

Who penned your favorite flash fiction entry this week?

  • A.V. Carden (36%, 29 Votes)
  • Dick Waters (25%, 20 Votes)
  • Sherry Molteni (20%, 16 Votes)
  • Lynne Cantwell (11%, 9 Votes)
  • Jon Jefferson (6%, 5 Votes)
  • AL Kaplan (2%, 2 Votes)

Total Voters: 81

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NOTE: Entrants whose submissions exceed the 250 word limit are eliminated from the poll.

Funny Ha Ha

‘You should write a post on being funny,’ fellow minion Yvonne suggested. She was trimming my hair for the wasping season, entirely as though a special haircut for killing wasps wasn’t a bizarre thing to ask for. But then Yvonne, hairdresser extraordinaire as well as much-loved local Indie, has got used to my oddities. I wanted something long enough to push through the back of a baseball cap (because otherwise the wasps get caught in it) but layered enough to poodle-up a bit for parties. Yes, ridiculous, so we giggled.

There is something very unfunny about analysing humour though, and something even less amusing about claiming the right to pontificate about it. However, the idea took hold and here we are looking at getting laughs. The topic fascinates and repels me because people who tell me they are funny are a pet hate. It’s not for them to decide! I may laugh, I may not, that’s up to me.

I’m therefore not going to dare to try and tell you what’s funny, I’m going to look at ways to use humour to corner your reader into the reaction you want for them at that moment in your writing. I hoped to have three points, the best gags work in threes, but actually I thought of four. So this article is officially not funny at all. Continue reading “Funny Ha Ha”