Wait a moment while I fetch my soap box.

Saying thanks
I have just had an inspiring morning with the journalists who attend my monthly Journalists’ Support Group meetings. One of the group shared how she had been doing a number of reviews on new and interesting books and mentioning them on her blog. As all good bloggers do, she has then been tweeting about these books. As all good authors do, they have been retweeting her kind mentions. Some of them have also contacted my journalist directly and thanked her for her kindness.
Makes sense?

Of course it does.

The fact is that one of the best ways to grow your network of the nice, kind people (such as bloggers) who write about your books for free is to take the simple step of saying thank you. Saying thank you will show the nice, kind people (such as bloggers) that you are nice and kind too. And so a relationship starts to form between authors and bloggers.

The next thing that happens is that the nice, kind blogger is likely to write about your book A SECOND time.

You see …. you do business with people you like. And one way to make someone like you is to say thank you.

Authors need bloggers
If you are an author you NEED all the publicity and reviews you can get. One of the best ways to get this coverage is to make friends with bloggers, journalists and so on.
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Authors need to ensure that they spot every single mention your book receives. The easiest way to ensure you don’t miss any (and thus don’t miss the chance to thank the writer and start to build that all-important relationship) is to set up a Google Alert for the title of your book and another for your name. As soon as you spot you have been mentioned zoom on over there and say thanks.
Simple, isn’t it?

You see, the harsh reality is that IF (God forbid) you do forget to thank that nice, kind blogger, then that nice, kind blogger may do one of the following:

• Forget all about you and your book and never mention it or recommend it to anyone ever again
• Think you are a miserable and ungrateful so and so
• Write about your biggest competitor instead

And you would not want that to happen, now would you?

OK, rant over. I shall now put my soapbox away.

Earlier this year I had the pleasure of working with Karen Greve Young, who wanted me to help her turn the draft of a shared memoir, written with her mother, Vicki, while she was ill with ovarian cancer, into a published book. This book appealed to me because it is about so many things: mothers and daughters; the art of letter-writing; sustaining a relationship despite Karen’s moves abroad; that proceeds from the book go to charity; that ovarian cancer is a silent killer and awareness about this illness needs to be increased.

Today, Karen is having the launch party for Love You So Much: a shared memoir, which was published just two weeks ago. Today would have been Vicki’s 66th birthday.

Karen Greve Young is the co-author of “Cancer is Canada”, a report published in April by Charity Intelligence Canada. A graduate of Harvard University and Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, she is the Director of Strategic Initiatives at MaRS Discovery District in Toronto, Canada. She misses her mother every single day.

​Victoria Zacheis Greve was a life-long volunteer in Virginia and Washington, DC and a Certified Public Accountant focused on non-profit clients. She was the first in her family to go to university, earning a BS from the University of Delaware and a Masters in Taxation from George Washington University. She was married for 36 years to her university sweetheart and had two children. She died of ovarian cancer in 2004.

Tell me about your book. What is it about? Can you describe it in just a few sentences?
Our book is a shared story of the four and a half years of my mother’s ovarian cancer journey. In it, we share our own perspectives as mother and daughter, patient and family member, as life takes leads to different countries and different life stages.

Why did you write it?
After my mother finished her career and her full-time role as mother of the bride at my wedding, she needed something to focus on besides her cancer. One sleepless night, I came up with the utterly crazy idea that we could write a book together about her cancer experience. She loved the idea of a shared project that could help other patients and families…and off we wrote.

What qualifies you to write this book?
Countless people write about their life experience – for many different reasons. In our case, neither of us felt that our experience during my mother’s cancer was unique or worthy of being the topic of a book. But together, our shared experience provides a unique window into life with cancer from the patient’s and family’s perspective told alongside each other.

Why do you think your book needed to be written? What will it do for other people? How will it help? Did you have any competition?
Cancer impacted my mother and me differently, as it does patients and family members in all families. We hope our story will help others coping with similar circumstances to bridge misunderstandings and find mutual acceptance – while realizing that there will be hard times to work through. Although we have seen stories in which a surviving family member includes emails from a lost loved one, we aren’t aware of any stories where the patient and daughter/mother/father/son embark on sharing their story together. This was very much a shared project from the outset, and still is even now that my mother has been gone for more than seven years.

Who do you think will read your book? What made you think that there was a market for it?
This is a book written by women – ordinary women – to which millions of women and men will relate. Cancer is the number one cause of death from disease globally and nearly every person has been impacted either as a patient or loved one. We found through our own journey that sometimes others’ stories were helpful in understanding what we were going through. We hope this will help others in the same way.

This book also goes beyond cancer – it is the story of the loving but complicated relationship of a mother and daughter, both with strong personalities. It goes through the daughter’s early career, wedding and fertility challenges and the mother’s reluctant retirement and transition to having married children. It happens to include September 11 and the Washington DC sniper crisis, as we lived through both tragedies.

It does not matter how good a book is, or how good your writing is if no one knows about it. What steps have you taken or do you plan to take to promote your book? Are you a speaker or trainer? Do you have a blog? A website? A newsletter? Do you use Facebook, Twitter or other social media tools? What about press releases and sending out review copies and free articles? Have you had any other ideas? Which methods do you think work best and can you give me any examples?
I have done substantial public speaking on cancer and charity topics. We are notifying ovarian and general cancer organizations about our book and also sharing it with the wider media. We have a website (ovariancancermemoir.com).

I am now based in Canada and recently co-authored a report on Cancer in Canada: Framing the Crisis and Previewing the Opportunity for Donors that received substantial press coverage; I have reached out personally to those press contacts, including Margaret Wente of the Globe and Mail and Libby Znaimer of Zoomer Media.

What was your biggest challenge regarding the writing of your book? How have you overcome that?
The loss of my mother. Continuing to work on our book after she was gone was excruciating – it still is. I am planning a launch party on August 19th – the day she would have turned 66 years old – and I want to call her to discuss flowers and lighting. Instead I turn to my Aunt Cyndi or one of my many friends who have helped to fill the gaping hole my mother’s death left in my life.

Now you have written this book, what do you hope its publication will do for you? How has completing it made you feel about yourself?
More than anything, relieved that I have fulfilled my promise to my mom and myself that our story would be shared with others. I hope it is well received and that others appreciate the bravery, style and grace my mother showed throughout her cancer journey. Mostly, I am happy to have the book complete as a glimpse for my children and my nephews of the vivacious woman who was their GG.

You have a huge launch planned for your book. A book launch is always a great way to kick off the publicity for a new book and is also a chance for celebration. Tell us a bit about yours.
It will be a backyard (weather permitting), catered cocktail party at my home in the Kingsway neighbourhood of Toronto. My brother, father and aunt are coming from Virginia for the event, which is very much a celebration of our shared triumph with the book and also of my mother’s birthday. We’ll have an understated teal colour theme, as the teal ribbon represents ovarian cancer – this will be visible from the outset as guests are greeted with fragrant and delicious Hpnotiq champagne cocktails.  I plan to read a very brief excerpt of our book and introduce my family/our main characters to friends. Books will be available for sale and signing, but above all it is a celebration!

If you were to give advice to someone else who is thinking about writing a book, what would be your number one tip?
Really and truly consider why you are doing it and whether you enjoy writing. I am not a natural writer and found myself honing my powers of procrastination in anticipation of writing the book. If it’s a book that is meaningful to you, it will come and it will be worth it.  For me, I am thrilled to have Love You So Much, A Shared Memoir as my first, last and only book.

 JP: Tell me about your book. What is it about? Can you describe it in just a few sentences? To show that a book has focus it is vital that it can be described briefly and succinctly.
JH: From Barcelona Vol. 1 is what I describe as “city-lit,” which is basically fiction centered on a particular city. Rather than devote a full length novel, I thought it would be more entertaining to write ten short stories of different genres from crime to horror to literary and historical fiction, giving readers a more varied view of the place.

JP: Why did you write it?
JH: Mostly to work on my craft and to see if I could be published.

JP: Why do you think your book needed to be written? What will your book do for other people?
JH: There just seemed to be a market for fiction centered on a city. A good example is Shadow of the Wind by Zafrón. You say, Barcelona, and people immediately cite that book. I just wanted to show different sides of the city beyond mysterious book sellers.

JP: Who do you think will read your book? What made you think that there was a market for it? If your book has been out for a while, what proof do you have that you were right?
JH: I think anyone interested in Barcelona or Spain will like it. Each story offers a different view of the city, peeling back the curtain so to speak. This has been reflected in the mostly positive reviews from the critics and readers both on Amazon and in the press.

JP: It does not matter how good a book is, or how good your writing is if no one knows about it. What steps have you taken or do you plan to take to promote your book? Are you a speaker or trainer? Do you have a blog? A website? A newsletter? Do you use Facebook, Twitter or other social media tools? What about press releases and sending out review copies and free articles? Have you had any other ideas? Which methods do you think work best and can you give me any examples?
JH: I have to admit I’m terrible at self-promotion. When the book first came out I did some press, but unfortunately the book’s release coincided with my move from Spain to Holland, so everything kind of got put on hold while my family and I got settled into out new home. Then being the writer I am, I decided to write a novel because I prefer my head to the real world.

That said. I did maintain the blog frombarcelona.com which proved a valuable tool and now started one on life in Alkmaar, hollandfromholland.com. I have a Facebook page but don’t understand Twitter.

JP: How did you publish your book? Did you find an agent, a publisher or did you publish it yourself? Please describe your process and tell us how you found the experience.
JH: I got in touch with a small publisher of guide books, Native Spain, and pitched them the book proposal.  They liked the samples I’d sent and we went from there.

JP: Self-belief can be a big problem for writers. How did you manage to stay confident in your ability and remember that you were good enough to write your book? How did you cope with the days when you thought you could not do it and that it was rubbish?
JH: Self-belief is still something I struggle with. I write because it keeps me sane more than for the fame or glory. It’s a craft that I’m still learning.  So I always want to do one more revision because I’m never happy. This can be a problem if I’m the last person to see and edit it. But in order to keep doing it, I have to learn to live with an imperfect product and make some money.

JP: It’s easy to procrastinate, to blame writers’ block and to put off finishing your project. How did you keep yourself motivated? And how long did it take you to write it? What was your routine?
JH: Honestly writer’s block has never been a problem for me. If anything I tend to suffer from hypergraphia, which is the overwhelming urge to write. But when it comes to the marketing or that end of it, that’s a different story. Usually I decide to write another book, hoping it’ll lead to bigger and better things.

JP: What was your biggest challenge regarding the writing of your book? How have you overcome that?
JH: I think the biggest challenge is not letting the book I’m writing at the time consume me. I have a vocal wife who reminds me of my responsibilities to her and our daughter.

JP: If you were to give advice to someone else who is thinking about writing a book, what would be your number one tip?
JH: Don’t give up your day job and keep at it.

Here I interview Ilana Benady, co-author of a brand new book, Expat FAQs – Moving to and Living in The Dominican Republic. This book is very much a team effort as indeed are many books. It is fitting here to mention the other three who have all played a big part in the creation of this book, published August 2011.

Ilana is Gibraltarian, with a degree in Politics and Social Anthropology from the University of Kent. She lived in Oxford for almost 10 years working for Oxfam, where among other posts she was Communications Officer for Latin America and the Caribbean. This took her to the Dominican Republic for the first time in 1996. Ilana has now lived in the DR for 12 years – nine in the capital Santo Domingo and three on the east coast, in Punta Cana. Today she works as a freelance translator, editor, writer and researcher and is the co-author of Aunt Clara’s Dominican Cookbook (with Clara González) and the Dominican Republic Culture Smart Guide (also with Ginnie Bedggood).

Ginnie, her co-author, sadly died last year.She was a British resident of Puerto Plata on the north coast of the DR. Although retired (academic and social worker) she was an extremely active writer and advisor to prospective expats through her news blog, the DR1 forums and other expat-oriented websites. She had an exceptional knowledge of the DR and its workings, a love and respect for Dominicans and an unusually perceptive understanding of human nature. She was the author of Quisqueya – Mad Dogs and English Couple – an expat memoir, and the co-author (also with Ilana) of The DR Culture Smart Guide.

Grahame Bush is Ginnie’s partner, a retired British businessman and passionate golfer. They had moved to the DR together in the early 1990s. Grahame is in the process of setting up a foundation in Ginnie’s memory, with the idea of nurturing young Dominican talent, possibly in the field of investigative journalism. Together, they hope to donate part of the proceeds from this book donated to the Foundation.

​Pedro “Pedrito” Guzmán is a well-known Dominican photojournalist who cut his teeth in the DR press in the politically turbulent late 1970s/early 1980s Dominican Republic. He went on to work as a war photographer/-reporter in Central America in the mid/late 1980s. He returned to the DR in 1990 and worked as the personal photographer to several leading political figures and has covered a range of key national and international events and has also worked for international NGOs like Unicef and Oxfam. His photos are known for their powerful social realism and depiction of the DR’s natural beauty. Married to author Ilana Benady since 1999, they live in Punta Cana with their 11-year old son Lucas. Many of his photographs appear in the book.

JP: Tell me about your book. What is it about? Can you describe it in just a few sentences?
IB – Expat FAQ – Moving to and Living in the Dominican Republic is a practical, detailed handbook for anyone considering moving to the DR. It covers all the possible issues a prospective expat might face, from the legal nitty-gritty to real-life situations, as well as the country’s cultural and historical context. It is aimed at retirees, professionals and “snowbirds” – people with a second home in the DR.

JP: Why did you write it?
IB – Ginnie and I perceived a strong need for this book, based on the daily flow of questions to sites like DR1.com and to our in-boxes from people considering relocation or retirement to the DR. We found ourselves answering the same questions again and again, so it seemed like the logical step – to compile all this knowledge into one single book.

JP: What qualifies you to write this book?
IB – Both of us are qualified in different but complementary ways: Ginnie knows the country from the perspective of the north coast, expat community, although she did not live in a gringo bubble – she spoke very good Spanish and was very much integrated in the local community.
I have lived in the non-touristy areas in the interior of the country (the small city of Cotuí), the capital Santo Domingo and the touristy east coast. I’m married into a Dominican family, speak fluent Spanish and have a lot of knowledge about the country that I acquired over the years through development work and everyday life. Ginnie was writing from the perspective of an older, retired expat, without children, while my experience is of a (slightly) younger foreigner married to a local and raising a child in the country.

Between us we had about 35 years of experience of living and working in the country.

JP: Why do you think your book needed to be written? What will it do for other people? How will it help? Did you have any competition?
IB – The DR is on the list of prospective retirement destinations for people from the US, Canada and the UK, as well as other European countries. Many people also have holiday homes in the DR and spend the winters there (they are known as “snowbirds”).

Judging by the questions that people ask there is a lack of comprehensive guides where the full range of answers is provided.

There have been other books, one in particular comes to mind but it was Santo Domingo-focused and has been out of print for many years. (Living in Santo Domingo, mid 1990s) There are some personal stories out there, including Ginnie’s own Mad Dogs and English Couple but not a practical, detailed expat handbook as such.

JP: It does not matter how good a book is, or how good your writing is if no one knows about it. What steps have you taken or do you plan to take to promote your book? Are you a speaker or trainer? Do you have a blog? A website? A newsletter? Do you use Facebook, Twitter or other social media tools? What about press releases and sending out review copies and free articles? Have you had any other ideas? Which methods do you think work best and can you give me any examples?
IB: Ginnie had a blog/website that is still being managed by a friend. I use Facebook and will set up a Page for the book, which can serve as a promotion tool as well as a place for people to ask questions. I have a Twitter account that can also be used to promote the book. Find it at @aunt_ilana.
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The Dominican Cooking website (thousands of visitors) and its Facebook page (almost 10,000 likes) will feature the book – part of its readership overlaps with the book’s target audience. The DR1.com forums will be an important promotion tool and it is worth getting paid advertising with them in return for active promotion of the book in the forums, whose readership is identical to the book’s target audience. Otherwise promotion will have to be passive – third party recommendations. DR1 is the top tourism/travel/expat site about the DR in English. I will also promote to other similar sites. I will also promote the book in other DR media in English, by sending a press release to Dominican Today and regional publications read by tourists/expats/snowbirds (Puerto Plata, Sosua News, Casa de Campo News, Bavaro News), as well as the DR media in Spanish where I have a lot of contacts.

Eventually I hope the book will make it onto essential reading lists about the DR, at the end of guidebooks and on other websites.

JP: What was your biggest challenge regarding the writing of your book? How have you overcome that? Of course, it is inevitable that Ginnie passing away was the biggest challenge and it will be relevant for you to comment on that, but did you have any other challenges?
IB – For me, the only really difficult bit was finding the time, as I had to combine my work on the book with a busy working schedule and family obligations, in contrast with Ginnie, who was retired and could give it much more of her attention. Otherwise it was a pleasurable experience and the actual writing came easily.

Another challenge for both of us was to “tell it as it is” honestly without glossing over, but also without being unfair to our host nation, the Dominican people. I think we succeeded, because all the Dominican friends who read the drafts pronounced them accurate and fair, although they did acknowledge there were some uncomfortable truths!

Ginnie’s death in July 2010 was completely unexpected and it took a long time for it to sink in. In practical terms the timing was particularly difficult because we had just completed the text and I was left on my own to deal with all the subsequent work: proofing, revisions, etc. Suddenly I didn’t have anyone to compare notes with, to make decisions together and it was a very lonely situation. On a personal level I lost a dear friend – although we only met in person about twice over the six or so years of our friendship, we were in daily contact via e-mail, exchanging personal news as well as our working communications about the book.

JP: Now you have written this book, what has writing it done for you, your family, your self-esteem or your business? As you have both written a number of things before, please comment in the light of all your writing work.
IB – A bittersweet sense of achievement, tinged by sadness at Ginnie’s absence. It was a very thorough piece of work and I am proud of it. It is also a worthy legacy – Ginnie’s wealth of knowledge and passion to inform people about the DR will live on through the pages of our book. 

JP: If you were to give advice to someone else who is thinking about writing a book, what would be your number one tip?
IB – It will take longer than you think!

Tell me about your book. What is it about? Can you describe it in just a few sentences?
Jump Down Under contains six real life stories of what it is truly like to relocate to the other side of the world and set up a new life in Australia. Each independent story delves deep into the joys and the not so publicized hardships of making such a move, real life accounts with real life emotions, a few tears and rewards of making the Jump Down Under.

Why did you write it?
Thousands of people settle in Australia each year, whilst this is nothing new the whole experience can be very daunting and singular experience. Inevitably most singles, couples and families move on their own, not with friends or groups, hence they are unable to share or voice their concerns or receive insight from others in the know during the emotional rollercoaster and sleepless nights.  I therefore wrote the book to help other people who might be thinking of moving over, or who have moved, and who would like to hear how other people have got on during their move to Australia.

What qualifies you to write this book?
I have moved to Australia twice, once when I was single after backpacking around Australia and deciding to give it a go in Melbourne only to return to the UK 2 years later due to work commitments, and then more recently when my partner and I moved from the UK to Sydney. So I have twice the experience of moving to Australia than most people.

Why do you think your book needed to be written? What will it do for other people? How will it help? Did you have any competition?
My so called ‘simple’ visa application, just like many other peoples, was far from straightforward and during the visa application and during subsequent dramas I wanted to read and understand other people’s stories of moving to Australia. I wanted to rationalize my emotions and to understand that what I was going through was normal, but I couldn’t find a book that provided me enough insight and the internet forums just didn’t contain enough details. Hence the idea for Jump Down Under was born. Why not fill that gap in the market, surely I am not the only person who has this need, I thought.

I have had great a deal of feedback from many people about the book prior to themselves moving to Australia, and they are grateful for the insight to the challenges and hurdles. And a lot of people who have already moved to Australia, including £10 POMES, have stated how they can relate to the experiences and events described in the book. Hence I think it hits the spot.

Who do you think will read your book? What made you think that there was a market for it?
I think anyone thinking of moving to Australia would be interested, especially ones with families. With the GFC and worldwide recession, many people are evaluating their situations and are looking for a change; Australia is often seen as the country with the perfect lifestyle, hence Jump Down Under is a good fit.

The market is full of self-help books telling you how to apply for a visa and what to do when you land in Australia. But there is very little support or written material of what it is truly like to move to Australia, with my and other people’s experiences I thought I could tap into this area of the market place and give people the reassurance and insight that they may be looking for prior to making such a life changing move.

It does not matter how good a book is, or how good your writing is if no one knows about it. What steps have you taken or do you plan to take to promote your book? Are you a speaker or trainer? Do you have a blog? A website? A newsletter? Do you use Facebook, Twitter or other social media tools? What about press releases and sending out review copies and free articles? Have you had any other ideas? Which methods do you think work best and can you give me any examples?
To promote Jump Down Under I am making maximum use of the internet due to the fact that I am living in Australia and the predominant market place for the book is in Europe. To keep things consistent I have decided to reference all my internet material with one name, not so surprisingly Jump Down Under, I have a website jumpdownunder.com which I blog on, facebook page “Jump Down Under”, Twitter “JumpDownUnder”, all of these are linked together with social media tools as well as LinkedIn.  I have promoted my book on a number of Facebook pages, contacted many media / magazine companies and issued the odd free copy to key persons in the specific media areas for reviews and write ups. I am not sure what works best as it is still early days but targeting the key market audiences defiantly helps and gets the right attention.

What was your biggest challenge regarding the writing of your book? How have you overcome that? (I expect working with Joe was a huge challenge but it will not be helpful to the reader to know this)!!
I had a million ideas for this book and keeping them relevant and appropriate for the market was difficult enough but the hardest thing to do was to find the time to get the book written. I knew that if I kept the idea of the book quiet enough and didn’t tell my friends and family I probably wouldn’t have written it, so I told everyone and anyone which forced me to get on with it or lose face. Male pride can be a powerful motivator when you put it to good use. So hour by hour I just got on with it whenever I could, I kept going and blocking out hours in my day to purely dedicate to the book.

Now you have written this book, what has writing it done for you, your family, your self-esteem or your business? If your book is only recently released, please comment on what you hope its publication will do for you.
I am very pleased that Jump Down Under has just been released, I am proud of myself for developing the idea and seeing it through. It is still early days, with the book now written and printed I am onto the second phase of publicizing it and getting out to the market place where it belongs, helping others. As for my self-esteem, well it has certainly not been dented by the experience and I am proud of myself and determination to keep focused and get it completed.

If you were to give advice to someone else who is thinking about writing a book, what would be your number one tip?
Just do it, don’t delay, every journey starts with a single step and once you’re up and walking it just gets easier and your destination just gets closer with every step.