Cover Reveal: Lost in Cooper Park

What do you think? Do you like the cover? My new book is due for release by Ginninderra Press next month.

How Do I Write a Book Press Release?

You wouldn’t believe I was once a Public Relations consultant with my own business. Here I am scrambling around trying to write a press release for my new book, ‘Lost In Cooper Park’. It’s many years ago since I worked in the publicity industry and so much has changed since then. I’m trying to remember how to create a gob-smacking, eye-catching, has-to-be-read press release.

My new book is soon to be released and I need to get it some traction. I’m with a small but prestigious publisher, Ginninderra Press. No budget for promotion. So here I go. I need to put on my left-brain thinking cap rather than the right-brain fiction writer/poet hat.

So, first things first. I’ll see what Google has to tell me.

Lots. Lots of info on Google and a template or two.

My book won’t be released until next month, so until I have a release date, I can’t send out the release.

In the meantime, I’ll try and find my Media List, hidden under a pile of papers, or named something obscure on my computer.

Apart from sending the press release out to the media, a press release needs to be included when you send out copies of your book for review.

One thing I learnt from my Google search is that I need to add my web site address. Damn! Now I’ll have to update my website too.

The marketing side of being a writer never ends. We all hate it. We’d rather be in our dark caves creating new stories and poems.

I’m at my writing desk now attempting to compose a first draft of the Press Release following one of the templates.

Wish me luck.

Any marketing tips you’d like to share?

Writing the book was the easy part 😦

Back Cover Blurb: ‘Lost in Cooper Park’

I’ve been slaving away trying to write a good blurb for my soon to be released by Ginninderra Press new book, ‘Lost in Cooper Park’.

Writing a blurb is hard hard work. There are no shortcuts or easy answers. Anyway, after a chat with a close writing friend, this is what I’ve put together for the back cover.

The story begins when, after a fierce storm, Gypsy, a golden Labrador, goes missing in Sydney’s Cooper Park.

A bittersweet comedic account of mistakes, misconceptions and reconciliations in the lives of a disparate group of urban men and women.

There’s Crystal, who wants stability with her eight-year-old daughter and new partner.  

Crystal’s ex, searching for the meaning of existence.

Doctor Sarah wanting a new beginning in France.

Rosemary and Philip who want their daughter to walk again.

Crystal’s high school sweetheart who wants another chance.

And the Homeless Girl hiding in Cooper parklands.

And then there’s the cruelty, unpredictability and beauty of life.

Back cover blurb: ‘Lost in Cooper Park’ by Libby Sommer

Tell me what you think? Would you be interested in reading this book?

Perinatal Mental Health Week 2020

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Do you know that it is Perinatal Mental Health Week 2020? A time to raise awareness and collaborate to ensure that parents in need know they are not alone.

1 in 5 mums and 1 in 10 dads experience perinatal depression and anxiety, which is 100,000 Australians each year.

pmhweek.org.au

Australian writers tell the truth about perinatal anxiety and depression in poetry, fiction & essay in the new anthology, Not keeping mum, edited by Maya Linden, published last month. I was honored to have my short story, The New Baby (first published in Quadrant magazine) included in this important anthology.

Heartfelt, at times confronting and occasionally funny, this collection gives insight into how women navigate the profound changes that occur in their bodies, relationships and lives when they become a parent, and how they find the light at the end of the tunnel.”

Anne Buis

All profits from the sale of this book go to PANDA (Perinatal Anxiety and Depression Australia).

Writing Tip: The Bigger the Issue, the Smaller You Write

A fantastic example of this writing advice is Kurt Vonnegut’s  Slaughterhouse-Five.

Poignant and hilarious, threaded with compassion and, behind everything, the cataract of a thundering moral statement. – The Boston Globe

Kurt Vonnegut’s absurdist classic Slaughterhouse-Five introduces us to Billy Pilgrim, a man who becomes unstuck in time after he is abducted by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore. In a plot-scrambling display of virtuosity, we follow Pilgrim simultaneously through all phases of his life, concentrating on his (and Vonnegut’s) shattering experience as an American prisoner of war who witnesses the firebombing of Dresden.

Don’t let the ease of reading fool you – Vonnegut’s isn’t a conventional, or simple, novel. He writes, “There are almost no characters in this story, and almost no dramatic confrontations, because most of the people in it are so sick, and so much the listless playthings of enormous forces. One of the main effects of war, after all, is that people are discouraged from being characters.”

Slaughterhouse-Five is not only Vonnegut’s most powerful book, it is also as important as any written since 1945. Like Catch- 22, it fashions the author’s experiences in the Second World War into an eloquent and deeply funny plea against butchery in the service of authority. Slaughterhouse-Five boasts the same imagination, humanity, and gleeful appreciation of the absurd found in Vonnegut’s other works, but the book’s basis in rock-hard, tragic fact gives it a unique poignancy – and humor. – Goodreads

Highly recommended. A masterpiece.