Category Archives: Book promotion

Enter to Win a FREE COPY of DOLL GOD and The Little Free Library with Dogs

What to win a free copy of Doll God?

Enter the Goodreads Giveaway. If you’re not on Goodreads, it is easy to sign up–and it costs nothing to enter to WIN A FREE COPY OF DOLL GOD.

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Doll God by Luanne Castle

Doll God

by Luanne Castle

Released January 10 2015

Enter Giveaway

Remember the little free library?

One of the books I bought at the used bookstore was The Girl on the Train. It was a fairly suspenseful thriller, but it had some pretty big flaws. For one, a lot of the book is taken up by holding the main character’s hand while she drinks. Yeah, she’s a very tedious alcoholic. Boring. Then I figured out the solution to the mystery by the middle of the book, so the ending was a big letdown. None of the characters were likable.

Strangely, the book felt like it was written by Paul (not Paula) Hawkins. This is not meant as a negative about books by men or anything like that. And I’ve never really thought to myself about whether a book was written by a man or woman–I never cared. But I was haunted by the feeling that a woman couldn’t have written this book. It was kind of odd.

All that said, I read the book in one day, so it was a suspenseful read.

I went to California and thought I’d visit the little free library. Since I had just finished reading The Girl on the Train and didn’t have anybody I wanted to subject give it to, I thought I’d walk there and do a switch. When I arrived at the house with the little library, I noticed that the front door was open and a little wire-haired cutie (dog) was walking down the front yard. I kept approaching the library, wondering if the dog was supposed to be outside as he/she wasn’t wearing a collar. Just then a yellow lab came running out of that open door. The lab was not happy with me and ran toward me, growling in an aggressive manner. I walked across the street and turned back in the direction I came from. That was disappointing, considering I like being able to walk to a little library. And I couldn’t help but think of the children’s books in the library and what could have happened if a child had been walking there at that moment.

Later, the gardener drove me over there and I did the swap. I ended up with a book called Earnest about . . . (get this) a yellow lab.

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Filed under Book Giveaway, Book promotion, Book Review, Books, California, Doll God, poems about dolls, Poetry, Poetry book, Poetry Collection, Writing

A Good Book, A Beautiful Gift, and Help the Shelter Animals with One Click!

RE-POSTING BECAUSE THERE ARE STILL SOME BOOKS AND CHARMS LEFT! DO YOU HAVE $10 TO HELP THE ANIMALS AND GET ALL THIS?

 

I’ve rambled on plenty about the no-kill animal shelter where I volunteer. It’s in Phoenix, and they do a fabulous job with the dogs and cats. Hundreds of animals find their forever homes thanks to Home Fur Good.

If you have a heart for the animals OR like pretty gifts OR want to get a copy of Doll God, my award-winning poetry collection, you can do all three of those things and get free shipping to boot!!!

To raise some funds for the shelter and to promote my book I have planned a treat.

First, I have 12 copies of Doll God that can be signed and personalized, if you like.

Then I ordered 12 purse/briefcase charms from a Home Fur Good volunteer who makes them. Each one costs me $5, and each $5 is donated to the shelter!

 

Some charms have a cat (duh) and some have an elephant (which you know I respect).

You will receive a signed copy of my book and a charm (tell me whether you prefer a cat or elephant, and I will send you your preference if I have one available–otherwise I will send the other) with free shipping all for one lil ole donation to HOME FUR GOOD.

My book is valued at $14 and the charm at $5, plus I am picking up the shipping myself. All I am asking is that you donate a minimum of $10 (for shipping to US address) or $15 (for international shipping)!!! Feel free to donate more if you can, but only one package deal per person, please.

$10.00 donation for U.S. shipping

$15 donation for international shipping

Value $19 + free shipping (and you get a tax write-off via HFG)

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

How can you BEAT that? No more excuses that you can’t spend $14 on a poetry book!!! I’m making it really easy for you ;). Just email me either the email you get from HFG verifying your donation or a little screen shot of a non-private part of your donation. Also send your mailing address and full name to writersite.wordpress[at]gmail[dot]com.

If you already have Doll God (thank you thank you thank you), please think of it for gift-giving!!! How can you go wrong with this deal? If you don’t have a purse or briefcase, I’m pretty sure you know somebody who does who would love a pretty charm.

Thank you so much for helping out the cats and dogs!!!

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Filed under #AmWriting, Book Giveaway, Book promotion, Books, Cats and Other Animals, Doll God, poems about dolls, Poetry, Poetry book, Poetry Collection, Writing

A Good Book, A Beautiful Gift, and Help the Shelter Animals with One Click!

 

I’ve rambled on plenty about the no-kill animal shelter where I volunteer. It’s in Phoenix, and they do a fabulous job with the dogs and cats. Hundreds of animals find their forever homes thanks to Home Fur Good.

If you have a heart for the animals OR like pretty gifts OR want to get a copy of Doll God, my award-winning poetry collection, you can do all three of those things and get free shipping to boot!!!

To raise some funds for the shelter and to promote my book I have planned a treat.

First, I have 12 copies of Doll God that can be signed and personalized, if you like.

Then I ordered 12 purse/briefcase charms from a Home Fur Good volunteer who makes them. Each one costs me $5, and each $5 is donated to the shelter!

 

Some charms have a cat (duh) and some have an elephant (which you know I respect).

You will receive a signed copy of my book and a charm (tell me whether you prefer a cat or elephant, and I will send you your preference if I have one available–otherwise I will send the other) with free shipping all for one lil ole donation to HOME FUR GOOD.

My book is valued at $14 and the charm at $5, plus I am picking up the shipping myself. All I am asking is that you donate a minimum of $10 (for shipping to US address) or $15 (for international shipping)!!! Feel free to donate more if you can, but only one package deal per person, please.

$10.00 donation for U.S. shipping

$15 donation for international shipping

Value $19 + free shipping (and you get a tax write-off via HFG)

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

How can you BEAT that? No more excuses that you can’t spend $14 on a poetry book!!! I’m making it really easy for you ;). Just email me either the email you get from HFG verifying your donation or a little screen shot of a non-private part of your donation. Also send your mailing address and full name to writersite.wordpress[at]gmail[dot]com.

If you already have Doll God (thank you thank you thank you), please think of it for gift-giving!!! How can you go wrong with this deal? If you don’t have a purse or briefcase, I’m pretty sure you know somebody who does who would love a pretty charm.

Hurry now, before the dozen books and charms are gone! Thank you so much for helping out the cats and dogs!!!

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Filed under #AmWriting, Book Giveaway, Book promotion, Books, Cats and Other Animals, Doll God, poems about dolls, Poetry, Poetry book, Poetry Collection, Writing

Poetry Potpourri

the museum of americana is a literary magazine with a mission close to my heart:

the museum of americana is an online literary review dedicated to fiction, poetry, nonfiction, photography, and artwork that revives or repurposes the old, the dying, the forgotten, or the almost entirely unknown aspects of Americana. It is published purely out of fascination with the big, weird, wildly contradictory collage that is our nation’s cultural history.

They’ve published two of the poems I intend for my chapbook of poems based on my family history. You can read them here.

Two poems by Luanne Castle

I love how my interest in family history and genealogy and research connects with my partnership with poetry in these poems.

On another note, if you bought a copy of Doll Godsend me your address and I will mail you a sticker to complete your book cover.

If you haven’t bought a copy, please consider it if your finances allow–either for yourself or if you think you’ll hate it (gotta allow for that) as a gift for someone you think will enjoy it. Amazon says it will arrive before Christmas.

Have I ever told you what book existed before Doll God? It’s a scrapbook my daughter made for me two years ago. In it, she hand wrote many of my poems and she included posts from the adoption blog, Don’t We Look Alike, that we worked on together.

In the slideshow you can see a sample of the scrapbook. Note the subtle cat-themed touches. And if you see a pic of a high school couple just remember that it’s easy to find stock pix online (big winky face).

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

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Filed under Book Award, Book contest, Book promotion, Books, Doll God, Family history, Literary Journals, poems about dolls, Poetry, Poetry book, Poetry Collection, Publishing, Research and prep for writing, Vintage American culture, Writing

An Award-Winning Book!

That’s right: my “baby” is an award-winning book. Doll God won the New Mexico-Arizona Book Award in its category. I can’t help but say WOOHOO!

And if I do say so myself, this book makes a great Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and [insert your holiday of choice] gift.

I’ll be donating some autographed copies for the raffle at the Holiday Festival that the animal shelter is participating in, so if you’re in the Phoenix area, you can pick one up that way! Or you can click the book to get to Amazon.

Home Fur Good Holiday Festival Cave Creek, AZ: December 12, 2015

Frontier Town
6245 E. Cave Creek Rd.
Cave Creek, AZ 85331
Get Directions »

Description of Event:

Home Fur Good Holiday Festival will be held on December 12th, 2015. Hours: 10:00am – 3:00pm

 

castle promotional cover

 

 

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Filed under Arizona, Book Award, Book promotion, Cats and Other Animals, Doll God, Dolls, poems about dolls, Poetry, Poetry book, Poetry Collection, Publishing

Reading from The Book

On Sunday, I gave a poetry reading in Redlands, California, at the State Street Deli and Cafe. It was organized by Carla McGill, who did a fabulous job of it. Before I read, Carla read some of her own poetry, as did two other poets. After the event, I was able to sell and sign some copies of Doll God. Although I get nervous speaking in public, I really do love reading my poetry aloud. Actually, I love reading poetry aloud, period.

You know what I notice in this photo? How messed up my scarf got. What a shallow mind.

Here are a couple of clips of the reading. In the first I read “American Girl,” “Effigy,” and “Calculating Loss”–all poems from the book.

and in this clip I read a new poem about my great-grandmother.

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Filed under #AmWriting, Book promotion, Books, California, Doll God, Dolls, poems about dolls, Poetry, Poetry book, Poetry Collection, Poetry reading, Writing

Doll God is a Finalist!

Yesterday I opened an email listing the Finalists for the New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards and dismally scrolled through it, sure that Doll God was overlooked.

But it WASN’T! It’s a Finalist! That was really wonderful news to get at the end of the week. Buy it here haha:

 

castle promotional cover

A week that has been a little rough. Remember my dear Nakana I brought home from the shelter two months ago? Suddenly her liver values have jumped dramatically. That apparently is BAD in cats. More tests on Monday . . . .  Please send prayers or good vibes for her, if you are willing.

My sweet cat

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Filed under Arizona, Book Award, Book promotion, Doll God, Dolls, poems about dolls, Poetry, Poetry book, Poetry Collection, Publishing

What I Do and Don’t Know about Amazon Reviews and Rankings

Way back I said I would share some stuff I learned about publishing a book. A lot has gone on in my life in the past couple of months, so I got a little behind in my spring plans. Nevertheless, I will share the little I’ve learned about the subject of Amazon reviews and rankings with you. I was so ignorant that I didn’t realize how important reviews are to book sales.

Actually, this post is more about what I don’t know about Amazon.

But I used to know even less. To those of you I had to be asked to write an Amazon review for, I’m sorry you even had to ask. If I read your book, and particularly if I reviewed it on here, I should have known to go write a review on Amazon. All it really takes is one or two sentences and a star rating. Mea culpa. Or maybe it’s my bad today.

I’ve heard–and so far this is merely rumor because how Amazon really operates is a mystery even to those who purport to have figured out the formula–that one has to have 25 reviews on Amazon for one’s book to attract any attention from Amazon and perhaps be moved up where a stranger might type in, say, “turtles as pets,” and see the link for your book that rhapsodizes on turtles as pets.

I’ve also heard that it’s important for people to click that “why, YES, this review was extremely helpful to me” (or whatever it’s called) button on Amazon after each positive review.

I have seen many books without any reviews. How can that be? After a writer puts all that effort into writing a book, not one person can write a review of it? I’m having a hard time getting my mind around this phenomenon.

A writer is also supposed to create an Author Page at Author Central on Amazon. Do you know how many writers don’t bother to do this? I guess the idea behind this feature is that someone can use the information on that page to help decide if they want to purchase your book. It’s also helpful for when you publish your second book–and I would imagine that a book in a different genre might make it even more important. As readers, we want to know what makes a writer the right person to write that book.

Here is my Author Page. What else, if anything, should I share on this page?

When Doll God first came out it was on the list of Hot New Releases in Poetry for a few weeks. It was kind of exciting, but what did it really mean? I wonder if I sold even one book because of that list. And how would I know? Here’s the rub about Amazon: if you’re not self-published you’re not necessarily privy to much behind-the-scenes information. What I get is a graph that gives me an idea of the up and down of sales, with the ranking among 8,000,000 books. I’ve checked it out exactly three times. I just looked again and mine right now is 246,886 365,098 (changes fast). But then you know that because this is information that is available to all Amazon readers. You can see it on the page for Doll God under product details. By the way, that number doesn’t seem that terrible to me, especially for a poetry book (although I’d love it to be lower), but if my book was a novel or memoir I would like a much lower number/higher ranking. And besides, it’s a number that will continue to change. One day, when I am no longer doing anything to promote the book it could wind up at 7,999,999.

I would like to hear from people who are self-published. What does your information about sales, etc. look like? How detailed is it? Do you know what motivates a sale?

Do you have any other information about Amazon that you can share?

Lost MaryGold

 Lost MaryGold

 

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Filed under Book promotion, Book Review, Books, Doll God, Poetry, Poetry book, Poetry Collection, Publishing, Writing Tips and Habits

Doll God Makes an Appearance on AZTV

I’m still trying to crank out a revision for Stanford, but I thought I’d give you a snicker of enjoyment today. I want to remind you that the night before my TV interview I did not sleep AT ALL. Therefore, I don’t feel I should be responsible for the baggy, wrinkled state of affairs in this video. I’ll be back Monday!

***

castle promotional cover

 

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Filed under Arizona, Book promotion, Doll God, Dolls, Interview, poems about dolls, Poetry, Poetry book, Poetry Collection, Publishing, Vintage American culture

Author of the Week, Luanne Castle! ~ #AuthorTag @writersitetweet

Thanks to Cate Artios for her sharing community of and for writers.

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Filed under Blogging, Book promotion, Publishing, Writing