Blue Cross Backs ‘Saving Maya’
It’s been a busy week, mostly spent hammering out words for my self-imposed month-long NaNoWriMo challenge. It’s not going well, which doesn’t surprise me as it’s a complete reverse way of writing to how I normally do things. The challenge is to write 50,000 words – a novel – in the month of November. My writing style is a lot more ponderous, I re-write, edit and prevaricate a lot during the writing of a first draft. NaNoWriMo leaves no time for any of that, it’s about banging out words, until it’s done, and only then, editing, or rewriting. But, the point of a challenge is to do something uncomfortable, so, I’m sticking with it, and won’t call it quits till the month’s out. By which time I may have a first draft of the ‘Saving Maya’ sequel completed. Then again….
But, aside from the writing, I’ve spent time doing my least favourite part of being a writer – marketing. It’s not a natural thing for me to do, ever. But, as all but the biggest stars in writing have to do it, I accept it’s an inevitable part of today’s publishing and writing world. People often believe authors write the books and sit back while marketing teams do the marketing. Not the case, not even with well established writers, let alone those writing in a niche. But, I’ve been boosted this week to knuckle down and do what I must, by getting two significant reviews and messages of support for ‘Saving Maya’.
Firstly, Dogs Today has picked it as one of their 2016 best books. And ‘Maya’ is in rather excellent company…
This is the 2nd year running one of my books is featured as one of Dogs Today best books, last year ‘Saving One More’ made their top list 🙂
It’s great to have my writing recognised by one of the UK’s top doggy magazines (Dogs Today also has a huge social media presence with over 1.3million Facebook followers alone) and I hope this will help get the book into future puppy buyers hands. Which in turn will inform them about how to source their new friends in future.
The week’s other fillip came from a source I highly respect. On Wednesday, I was contacted by Tracy Genever, Head of Education Services at the Blue Cross with a surprise and very welcome review of ‘Saving Maya’
A great story for any dog-loving child to read. The story of Willow, the much loved pet and Maya who lives on a puppy farm will melt the heart of any animal lover. The book is packed with empathy and emotion and will teach the reader all about the hardship of life on a puppy farm. It shows how much patience and understanding is needed to accommodate a dog with a difficult past but that there are big rewards for the dog and the humans involved.
Tracy Genever’s review and comments are so important for Annabel and me to receive. To know that our book is recognised by a leading animal rescue organisation as being one that will make a real difference is very rewarding. To know the Blue Cross backs ‘Saving Maya’ made my week. In her email to me, Tracy said that personally she loved it and knows the book will really educate on the issues of puppy farming and the suffering it involves. The Blue Cross is an organisation I have long supported with their progressive rehoming policies and sensible approaches to many of the big issues facing pets in today’s world. Their review has been a big boost in a week of hard work.
Writing a book is just the first stage of it being successful. Writers have to put a lot of time and effort into helping their readers find their work. For me, as my writing is my campaigning, and I write with the primary intention of raising awareness of, and one day helping to end the abusive puppy breeding industry, marketing my books is all about getting them out into the wider world. This in turn gets the truth circulating about the dogs I write about.
So, marketing I do with less – much, much less – enthusiasm than the actual writing of the books. But, I do it with a determination that my books will be read by the people who need to read them. We have to reach beyond the echo-chambers of social media if we’re to make inroads into ending the dark side of the puppy trade. Too often we’re talking to those who already know the situation and what we’re campaigning together against.This isn’t enough for the dogs who are relying on us.
This is where books are different to other efforts at raising awareness. Books hang around in libraries, schools, on book shelves, for years, and are read for a long time after they’re written. The stories of Maya, Susie-Belle, Cerise, Twinkle and all the other dogs who inspire me to write, will be heard years from now. But only if the books are out there. So, I market and write away, and right now, hope people will give at least one of my books as a Christmas gift. Broadening the awareness base, book by book.
Please help if you can by giving a book this Christmas. Wherever in the world you are, these two companies offer FREE worldwide delivery on all my books:
And if you’d like signed copies of ‘Saving Maya’ which will also help to raise funds for Diana Brimblecombe Animal Rescue Centre, please message me here to take part in this offer.
