Category: Announcements

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Press Release: Tesseracts 18: Wrestling with the Gods

This is the first time I’ve ever published a press release. Normally they don’t have a big place in publicizing a book; but, in this case, Tesseracts, an annual anthology of the best in Canadian speculative fiction, holds a story by my husband, James Bambury. Keep an eye out for pre-orders which should be available soon. 

Don’t worry. I’ll remind you. – Beverly

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

“Tesseracts 18: Wrestling with Gods” edited by Liana K and Jerome Stueart 
Faith in Science Fiction and Fantasy Anthology 
ISBN: 978-1-77053-068-3 (Trade Paperback 5.5″ X 8.5″) 
E-BOOK: e-ISBN: 978-1-77053-069-0 To be released April, 2015
http://www.edgewebsite.com/books/tess18/t18-catalog.html

Authors announced for the latest volume of the prestigious Canadian speculative fiction anthology series. 

(Calgary, Alberta) EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing is pleased to announce the names of the contributing authors for the forthcoming edition of the prestigious Tesseract series. 

“Tesseracts 18: Wrestling with Gods” will include works by: Robert J. Sawyer, Matthew Hughes, Alyxandra Harvey, Halli Lilburn, Derwin Mak, J.M. Frey, Steve Stanton, Megan Fennell, Jen Laface and Andrew Czarnietzki, S. L. Nickerson, John Park, Janet K. Nicolson, Suzanne M. McNabb, Allan Weiss, Savithri Machiraju, Carla Richards, Mary-Jean Harris, James Bambury, Mary Pletsch, David Jón Fuller, and Jennifer Rahn, Erling Friis-Baastad, David Fraser, John Bell, David Clink and Tony Pi -27 of the biggest names and brightest rising stars in Canadian science-fiction and fantasy. 

This latest volume of the Tesseracts series contains tales of creative and religious diversity – a trending topic in books and movies. The stories and poems draw from Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Shintoism, Agnosticism, Atheism, Humanism and the beliefs of Indigenous Canadians, (as well as actually creating faiths and religions of other worlds). 

“Any anthology that starts with a story called ‘Mecha-Jesus’ is clearly not a traditional look at religion” says EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publisher, Brian Hades. “This robotic savior is joined by the Hindu god Ganesh trying to break into Bollywood, the Sun God Ra discovering Coronation Street, a priest on Mars, a vampire in residential schools, and a woman with a secret under her hijab. ‘Tesseracts 18: Wrestling with Gods’ definitely contains many surprises!”

As in past versions of the Tesseract series, the editors are handpicked by the publisher. “Tesseracts 18: Wrestling with Gods” is edited by widely-published sci-fi/fantasy author and writing teacher Jerome Stueart — who is a gay Baptist from the Yukon Territory — and “perfect heathen” media personality Liana Kerzner — who is best known as Liana K. 

“Tesseracts 18: Wrestling with Gods” is a lively, thoughtful interfaith/interpath anthology of creative and religious diversity – with a speculative fiction and fantasy twist!

Media Contact: 
Janice Shoults, EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing 
www.edgewebsite.com 
403.254.0160

ABOUT THE TESSERACTS SERIES: 

The first Tesseracts anthology was edited by Judith Merril. Since its publication in 1985, 299 authors/editors/translators and guests have contributed 502 pieces of Canadian speculative fiction, fantasy and horror for this series. Some of Canada’s best known speculative fiction writers have been published within the pages of these volumes – including Margaret Atwood, William Gibson, Robert J. Sawyer, and Spider Robinson (to name a few). Tesseracts Eighteen is the forthcoming volume in the series. The entire series includes Tesseracts One through Eighteen, plus Tesseracts Q, which features translations of works by some of Canada’s top francophone writers of science fiction and fantasy. 

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Self-Planning for Self-Promotion: A Book Marketing without B.S. Web Workshop

I am doing an in-depth online workshop on self-promotion for all authors and comic creators. This isn’t just for the self-published, either. If you’re published by any house, big or small, you know how much work falls to you for your own book marketing and publicity. In fact, it’s telling that my clients primarily fall in the small-to-medium publisher category, with the next largest being major publishing houses. (And yes, I have a few self-published/owner-created comics clients, too!)

Right now there are two dates: Thursday, March 27th at 7 p.m. Eastern Time and Sunday, April 13th at 1 p.m. Eastern Time (get those tickets here). I will do this again a few times a year as long as there is interest, so if you miss these, let me know what time is good for you and I will take that into consideration when I schedule the next one. (Also, if you can gather 6 or more people interested in the workshop, I’ll create another event at a time chosen by your group.)

Here is a tentative course outline:

  • Pre-Planning
    • Honestly determine your strengths and capabilities
    • Choose the right tools for you
    • CreateSpace and other print-on-demand vs. traditional printing vs. ebook-only
    • Decide whether to create a business entity or publish under your own name
  • First Steps
    • Plan and Outline
    • How far in advance to send review requests?
    • How far in advance to hire help if you are going to?
    • How to get blurbs?
    • Publicity: interviews, guest blogging
    • What about traditional media?
    • One-sheets for mailed books
    • Book trailers and other video
  • Details
    • How many and what type of targets?
    • Get your data right here!
    • Review copies: physical vs. electronic
    • Keep consistent, good records
    • What does return on investment mean in this context?
    • Social media: tips, tricks, and useful apps
  • Obstacles
    • Toughening up to criticism–or how to cope if you can’t
    • Connections and networking: more important than you think
    • Growing too fast: slow follower growth is GOOD
    • The importance of honest people
    • Self-publishing and industry respect
  • Q&A
This should all take between 90 minutes and two hours, depending on how many questions there are–and please do bring questions! Also, feel free to email me questions ahead of time if you don’t see them addressed in the outline and I’ll do my best to work them into the material.
Buy tickets here:
I look forward to meeting with you soon!
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Winners Announced!

Thanks once again to everyone who entered and who shared and tweeted. Your support is fantastic and I couldn’t do this without you. This has also been a great chance to promote my non-publicity campaign services, of which there are many you can see here. Some of my favourites are social media planning and coaching, and copy editing, and even though it’s not officially on the list, I enjoy critique as well. It’s likely to end up on the list at some point. So please contact me and ask about these other services. I can work with any budget, so don’t be shy.

Anyhow! here are the three winners:

Karina Sumner-Smith Site | Twitter
Jessica Meddows Site | Twitter
Teri Kline Twitter (and yes, I know the name on the Twitter account doesn’t match this. ;))

I have been in touch with all of them, and it is my hope that I can help them and also have some fun in the process.

I know many of you joined the email list to enter the contest. I hope you’ll stay, but if not, you should be able to unsubscribe easily from the next email you get, or if you’re in a hurry contact me and I’ll take care of it for you.

Coming tomorrow, a guest post about a local self-publishing in comics panel, and next week it’s back to regularly scheduled programming!

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Enter Here to Win Free Consulting or Critiques!

Subscribe (and confirm–check that spam email box!) to my email list and you will be entered to win two consulting or editorial hours. You can use the time toward:

  • Help creating your book or comic’s marketing plan
  • A complete flash fiction critique and copy edit
  • A full social media consultation and plan
  • A brief critique of a novella or a partial of a novel 
  • Website critique/planning assistance
  • Any other publishing- or marketing-related consultation time

Three winners will be selected at random from mailing list subscribers who have joined and confirmed by clicking the response link (remember it may go to a spam filter) by 11:59 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday, February 19th.

Not sure how to join the list? Subscribe right here.

Note that the prize will be delivered no earlier than March 15th, 2014. I will work out final details with the winners, whom I will announce on Thursday, February 20th.

I’ll take this opportunity to also remind you that I provide all of the above services at reasonable rates, so if you aren’t the winner, contact me and let me know what you need and we’ll put together a plan that fits your budget.

Good luck, and spread the word to anyone you think may be interested!

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#GenreLitChat: An Occasional Twitter Chat about Genre

Introducing #GenreLitChat, an occasional Twitter chat with writers on the state of genre, and how their work does–or doesn’t–fit.

The kickoff chat is just in time for your holiday book buying needs! It’s this Thursday, December 5th at 8:30 p.m. EST/5:30 p.m. PST with John Mantooth, author of The Year of the Storm (Berkley/Penguin), Heidi Ruby Miller, author of Green Shift (Raw Dog Screaming Press), and Nathan Ballingrud, author of short story collection North American Lake Monsters (Small Beer Press).

When you join the chat, you can use this page (http://twubs.com/GenreLitChat) which will focus only on the hashtag, and even automatically insert the hashtag for you if you ask questions or reply.
Alternatively, you can follow the hashtag #GenreLitChat right on Twitter, but make sure you use the hashtag or your questions and comments may be missed!

You can send questions to me, the moderator, during the chat (@BeverlyBambury). You are also encouraged to send questions ahead of time to beverly@beverlybambury.com and I’ll add the best ones to the list.

Questions? Email me or ask in the comments. Hope to see you during #GenreLitChat in a couple of days!