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About the author and blogger ...

Anne Goodwin’s drive to understand what makes people tick led to a career in clinical psychology. That same curiosity now powers her fiction.
A prize-winning short-story writer, she has published three novels and a short story collection with small independent press, Inspired Quill. Her debut novel, Sugar and Snails, was shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize.
Away from her desk, Anne guides book-loving walkers through the Derbyshire landscape that inspired Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.
Subscribers to her newsletter can download a free e-book of award-winning short stories.

TELL ME MORE

Have I swallowed a horse to catch a fly?

22/1/2021

6 Comments

 
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If I can't tell whether I'm coming or going, it might be because I'm doing both. Promoting my first novel while checking proofs of the next is making me dizzy, but there's a logic to it. I think.
 
 
My next novel is my best yet and I want as many people as possible to read it. In order to read it, people need to be aware of it, and the ideal way of bringing it to the attention of potential readers is through email. So I set myself the objective of finding 100 new subscribers by April.
 
 


One of the best ways of growing an email list is by offering a reader magnet: an enticing freebie to pull people to my signup page. I published a reader magnet this time last year – Somebody’s Daughter, an e-book of prize-winning short stories – that you might have read. But not everyone who'd enjoy my novels also like short stories, so I decided to offer my first novel for a time-limited period.
 
Of course, it's not enough to organise the freebie and put my feet up. I have to promote Sugar and Snails before I can use it to promote Matilda Windsor Is Coming Home. Which is why I feel caught in a chain compelling me from a tiny bite to trying to swallow an animal bigger than me. Like the old woman in the rhyme.
 
Except that this version is fun and accompanied by a side-order of generous support from fellow authors and bloggers to help me digest a menagerie of insects, mammals and birds. Some have kindly agreed to re-blog reviews and guest posts. With others, we've worked together to produce something new. Let's ditch the dodgy diet metaphor, and have a look at those. Tap on an image to find out more.


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A new short story based on an out-take from an early draft of Sugar and Snails. Come and join in the discussion!
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Why did I take my walking boots and a First Aid kit when staying in with Linda?
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A brand-new giveaway with five other authors – one lucky winner will win signed copies of all six books (entrants with addresses in the UK only).
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New post with reading recommendations for LGBT history month in February
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How romance almost hijacked my heroine’s journey and my novel’s USP: new post @ Women Writers
Charli is also juggling several projects alongside a big one, but making less fuss about it than I am! But it can't be a coincidence that this week's challenge is to compose a 99-word story about a light at the end of the tunnel. Except that we're not allowed to refer to it using the cliché.

Now, in the only scene I reluctantly cut from Sugar and Snails, Diana recalls watching the sun rise over the pyramids in Cairo and believing it's a new dawn. (Metaphor? Or cliché?) If she ever went back as a middle-aged woman, I wonder what that would mean.


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Sunrise over the pyramids
 
The sun god poked his head between the pyramids: an egg yolk; an amber traffic light; courage. At fifteen, I’d seen too many dawns abandon me to darkness. Cairo promised a signal change.
 
Sunrise on the pyramids is a tourist cliché. For those free to holiday abroad. For thirty years I was indifferent. I knew the glare could blind me. The heat could sear my defences clean away.
 
Simon’s invitation shimmers like a heat haze. If I accept, will his lustre dim? Or will it highlight every blemish? Dare I chance it? At fifteen, I watched the sunrise alone.

Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
6 Comments
Charli Mills
23/1/2021 04:38:46 am

Good strategy, Anne, to use what you have already published to promote the next (highly anticipated) novel. It can feel surreal, but you have it mapped out well and in action to attain your goals. You are sharpening your author marketing skills.

Your story is reflective. I don't think its cliche, but its tricky to place forward movement with backward glances. Love the analogy you create from "traffic light" to "signal change."

It's going to be a gallop from here! Sit tall in the saddle.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
23/1/2021 04:56:48 pm

Thanks, Charli, there are a few more hurdles which seem higher because most are new. But I'm learning for future launches too.

I think as well it's hard to avoid metaphor – which will sometimes be cliche – when trying to communicate an idea rather than action. I liked what happened with the traffic lights but again it's a concept that can be overused.

I think we're galloping together for the next couple of weeks.

Reply
Norah Colvin
23/1/2021 07:02:49 am

I wish you success with your marketing, Anne, and hope your book finds many new readers and your reach the centenary you are working towards.
I enjoyed Ms T's story on Marsha's Story Chat and have left a comment over there.
I think your flash is a perfect fit with Sugar and Snails as well as with Charli's prompt.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
23/1/2021 04:59:06 pm

Thanks, Norah, and appreciate you contributing to the discussion at Marsh's place (and it was you who introduced us a few years ago). It's all good stuff but I'm worried I'll miss responding to some generous sharing.

Reply
D. Avery link
25/1/2021 12:55:57 am

Yikes.
Just walk the dog already, this writing and promoting is WORK. Diana is everywhere!
The more I know the more I reach for my running shoes. Okay, these days, snowshoes or skis, but six of one, half a dozen of the other. (that cliche has always been a burr under my saddle)
Anyway, there's Diana again, flashing back in a flash. That last paragraph says so much about her worries in the novel. And what she could gain, no more solo sunrises.
Good luck with all of it. You've certainly worked for it.


Reply
Anne Goodwin
25/1/2021 09:18:31 am

It is work, but fortunately it seems to be working! And fortunately leaves me enough time – just – for reading, singing and walking in the snow.

Reply



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    My published books
    entertaining fiction about identity, mental health and social justice
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    My latest novel, published May 2021
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    My debut novel shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize
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    My second novel published May 2017.
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    Short stories on the theme of identity published 2018
    Anne Goodwin's books on Goodreads
    Sugar and Snails Sugar and Snails
    reviews: 32
    ratings: 52 (avg rating 4.21)

    Underneath Underneath
    reviews: 24
    ratings: 60 (avg rating 3.17)

    Becoming Someone Becoming Someone
    reviews: 8
    ratings: 9 (avg rating 4.56)

    GUD: Greatest Uncommon Denominator, Issue 4 GUD: Greatest Uncommon Denominator, Issue 4
    reviews: 4
    ratings: 9 (avg rating 4.44)

    The Best of Fiction on the Web The Best of Fiction on the Web
    reviews: 3
    ratings: 3 (avg rating 4.67)

    2022 Reading Challenge

    2022 Reading Challenge
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