Free book publicity ? AI concerns

Free book publicity

Discount Stuff on Twitter (yes, I still call it that!) will post about your free or discounted books if you message them.

Update Ooops. This wasn't supposed to appear in it's own post – this kind of thing is what happens when I try to get organised and get stuff ready in advance. Oh well, as it's here, I'll add in a link to the AI issue Marguerite has mentioned in the comments .– https://www.pcworld.com/article/2343263/facebook-wants-to-use-your-posts-for-ai-training-how-to-object.html and a picture of me sitting by a really big rock, taken right at the start of our latest campervan adventure. If you want to hear and see much more about that, follow the blog updates on my website.

Book cover competition result – and other stuff

This is my last 'written at home' blog post for ... no idea, actually! The photos are of my garden, taken on a last look round before heading north.

All being well, there will still be regular(ish) posts, written and posted from the mobile writing retreat (aka our campervan). If any are sparse, or look like I got distracted before I finished them, it might be due to poor internet access, but will most likely be because I did get distracted! We're going to Orkney and there's so much there I want to see. Hopefully you'll make allowances.

Competition result

I have the result of my book cover design competition. Thank you to everyone who took part - and congratulations to the winner!

Hannah, who is providing the prize, says –"I really enjoyed reading all of them. I would like to choose the entry of 'The Italian Connection' by Elizabeth McGinty as the winner as it sounds like a wonderful story that I would love to illustrate!"

If Hannah and Elizabeth are happy to share the result, I'll show that in a future post – and if anyone else offers a suitable prize* I'll run more competitions here.

*Anything vaguely writing related, or chocolate, cake, cash etc

Free entry writing competitions

If you can write a story of between 25 and 50 words, you have a chance of winning $35 with this competition from On the Premises.

Here's a competition from ALCS for educational writing. It's only for 'traditionally published' work though. I couldn't see how they defined that, but they do ask who the publisher is. The prize is £2,000 in total.

My news

I have a new short story collection out! This will probably be the last one for a while, as I intend to focus on my novel series over the summer. But then I do have a habit of writing stuff other than what I was 'supposed' to.

Crime In Mind is a sister publication to Criminal Intent – both contain 24 short crime stories and are available as ebooks, paperbacks and through kindle unlimited. They can also be ordered in bookshops, or requested in libraries.

Over to You

 Do you have any writing news?

Do you know any market news? Have you heard about any free to enter writing competitions? Or come across calls for submissions or other opportunities?

Are you researching, writing, subbing? Had any acceptances or rejections? Still waiting to hear back on outstanding submissions? Do you have a question? Can you offer tips or encouragement to other writers?

Any other writing related news, questions and comments are also welcome and appreciated. As well as allowing us all to share information, help and encourage each other, comments show editors, competition organisers and others that the blog is read and will therefore be more likely to answer my questions, or provide information for me to share with you.

Feel free to use these photos as picture prompts. If you'd like written writing prompts, short exercises and story/scene suggestions then you might find this book useful.

Womag / competition news

Thanks to Sharon Haston for notifying me that My Weekly are running a short story competition for amateur writers. The prize is publication, a signed book and a film download – and I imagine that after being published in the magazine the author would go on 'the list' and be able to regularly submit to the magazine.

Today is your last chance to enter the competition to win a free book cover design.

My news

The second book in my cosy mystery series has been proofread and sent out ready for ARC reviews.

What do you write? (and places to send your work)

I'm interested to know genres and forms you write – please let me know in the comments, and I'll try to find suitable competitions and publication opportunities for you. I ask, because sometimes I see something which seems very niche, or is just so different from the kind of thing I write, that I wonder if it's worth posting about it. Obviously I can't promise to find something for everyone, but I can avoid dismissing an opportunity someone would have considered perfect.

Free to enter writing competitions

Thanks to Alyson for the link to this short story competition. They want  There's more info on the website to help. The prize is $3,000 plus possible publication in an anthology. If the anthology happens, writers of included work will earn a share of the royalties. Looks like anyone over 18 can enter.

 

Other opportunities

Thanks to Sheila Crosby for telling me about this grant for older writers of speculative fiction. (I can't say I like they way they speculate us grown up writers look, but I wouldn't mind the cash!)

There's still time to enter the competition to win a cover for your book (real or imaginary).

Linen press are looking for short stories. Women only for this one.

A couple of quickies

If you have a book finished, or nearly finished and are thinking of trying to get an agent or publisher then this free online event on Thursday evening might be of interest. 

And if you enjoy writing prompts and exercises and/or find them useful, you might like to know that the kindle version of the little purple book is currently 99p / 99c.

btw, I'm now sharing more of my own writing news on the blog embedded on my website, so if you want to know what I'm up to (and are prepared to risk even more campervan trip photos that will appear here) take a look over there now and then.

Win a free book cover design

Today I have a guest post and exclusive competition from Hannah Zhang!

Hi, I'm Hannah, a freelance illustrator and designer based in New Zealand, and I am collaborating with Womagwriter to to host a competition where you can win a free illustrated book cover! To give you an idea of the kind of thing I do, I've created a couple of mock covers for well known books. If you'd like to see examples of my other illustration work here is my website.

To enter, simply make a comment on this blog post with the title of your book, its genre and (optionally) a short 1-2 sentence description of your book. This book doesn't have to be finished, or even real. You could make up a title just for fun, it could be a book that you are thinking about writing, or even an existing book that you would like to have re-designed. If it's for a real book you're going to publish, and wish to use my design, I'll provide the cover files for you to upload

Maximum two entries per person. Entries close in two weeks (on 18th May). Good luck! 

From Patsy – Hannah will select a winner from all entries received by the closing date. I'll announce the winner on here and invite them to contact Hannah directly. (If you're not sure how to leave a comment, see here.)

Womag news

Details of the Best competition (as far as I can see and recall, the rules haven't changed.)

My news

I was on the radio Thursday. If you missed it but would like to hear me waffling on about my writing, you can do that here.