30 Mar 2012 No Comments
The National Year of Reading 2012 was launched in Canberra on 14 February and in an effort to turn Australia into a nation of readers its three goals are: For all Australians to understand the benefits of reading as a life skill and a catalyst for wellbeing. To promote a reading culture in every home. [...]
05 Mar 2012 No Comments
I have long held a view on self-publishing. Today I read yet another piece about the poor quality of self-published books and I really feel I need to say something about the topic. My first children’s book The Lighthouse Secret was published by a commercial educational publisher who successfully sold the Quick Reads series (each book sold around [...]
23 Aug 2011 1 Comment
Did anyone read Rosemary Neill’s article in the Weekend Australian 13-14 August entitled Paging all authors? It was pretty depressing, really. We all know bookstores are slowly going out of business (just look at Borders and A&R) so that wasn’t new. And I guess many of us have had difficulty getting the major publishers to look at our [...]
17 Aug 2011 No Comments
I write novels for children, that’s what I write. Why? Because I love using my imagination! And how? Well … my first two books were published by commercial publishers (one here in Australia, the other in the UK). I self-published books 3 and 4 because my publisher went out of business, and books 5 and 6 [...]
19 Jun 2011 2 Comments
Recently I uploaded my first children’s book to amazon.com as a Kindle e-book and I so enjoyed using the free software they provided and creating my own cover. Jessie’s Ghosts is about a young girl who goes to stay with her nanna (who is hard of hearing and only has one television station) for the [...]
16 Jun 2011 1 Comment
You have no doubt all heard the recent announcement by Federal Small Business Minister Nick Sherry that most bookshops will ‘cease to exist’ in five years’ time. Well, if you’re like me you just love the feel of a paper book; holding it in your hands and carefully turning the pages. I get excited every time [...]