Book Promotion

2025 08 13

The Anthology Journey, Part 4: The Portal is Open!

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The submissions started rolling in! What a thrill it was to hear that the numbers were increasing each day. With each submission, we knew another brave member had polished their work and made the courageous decision to hit “submit” for a chance to be published in the anthology. I submitted two very different poems: The Rollercoaster explores the emotional ride we experience when a loved one faces cancer; and Barnyard Duet depicts a humorous incident involving my goofy goldendoodle and an unwanted duckling named Quackers.

And so, with everything ticking along nicely, the anthology committee (with lattés in hand) sat back, put our feet on our desks and relaxed.

Just kidding! There was way too much work to be done to enjoy more than a momentary virtual clink of glasses. This was confirmed as I researched past emails in order to write this blog. There were thousands of communications between the A-Team members as we worked furiously behind-the-scenes to research publishing options, figure out promotional opportunities, find an editor and finance the project. While the London Arts Council grant had covered a large part of our expenses, it wouldn’t cover everything. We decided to seek out sponsors from community members. Brenda’s years of expertise with corporate sponsorship served in creating levels of support and incentives such as being mentioned in the anthology, thanked on the website and social media channels and, for some levels, logos added to the tote bags.

From family members to local businesses to friends of the LWS, we were humbled by the amount of support we received. Brenda coined the term “Literary Champion” because that’s what each sponsor was to the anthology project. It cannot be overstated the gratitude we felt, and continue to feel, toward the sponsors who made this project possible.

When the portal closed at midnight on October 15, 2024 and submissions were no longer being accepted, an image of a closed door with a huge padlock appeared on our socials. The anonymous entries were sorted by category and sent to our panel of First Reader judges.

We provided our First Reader judges with a scoring rubric (generously provided by Mirror World Publishing) to ensure that they were reviewing each entry consistently. Based on the judges’ final scores, the top percentage in each category formed the longlist. The judges had a month to review the submissions. And so, we waited.

On November 15, 2024, it was a thrill to announce the longlist. But as in any contest, there will be those who do not advance to the next round. The anthology committee received some emails and in-person conversations about the disappointment of not being chosen. As we faced these conversations, the words of one of my writing teachers, Alison Wearing, came to me: “Rather than taking rejection as evidence that you are not a writer, it’s also possible to take it as evidence that you are.”

The truth of the writing life is that there’s a lot of rejection involved. While I know this personally, I also keep a list of famous rejectees near my laptop: J.K. Rowling, Beatrix Potter, Agatha Christie, George Orwell, Stephen King. A favourite story is that after King’s debut novel was rejected more than 30 times, he threw it in the trash, only to have his wife retrieve it and encourage him to try again. A few years later, Carrie was published and became a bestseller and major motion picture.

The longlist entries were passed on to Emma Donoghue who would curate the shortlist which would become the anthology Out of the Woods. An agonizingly long month stretched out ahead of us as we waited for word from Emma with the results.

To be continued…

Photo of Martha Morrison, Chair of the LWS Anthology Committee Martha Morrison is honoured to have served as Chair of the Anthology Committee for the London Writers Society’s inaugural anthology project Out of the Woods. She holds a BSc in Biochemistry and an MFA in Creative Nonfiction writing. Her work has been published in various literary anthologies and she was shortlisted for the International Amy MacRae Award for Memoir. Her previous careers include flight attendant and professional ballroom dance instructor. Martha lives on a farm outside London with her family, dogs, cats and chickens. Most days, she gets up before the rooster (and the kids) to write in the quiet early mornings.

2025 07 15

The Anthology Journey, Part 3: She said, “Yes!”

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“How are you?” Brenda asked, seeing a strange look on my face as we began our Zoom meeting.

“Really good!” I replied, the smile spreading from ear to ear. And at once, the committee knew why.

“She said yes?” Anne asked, referring to the long-shot email we had sent off to prominent London-based author Emma Donoghue.

“She said yes!” I confirmed. We were silent for a beat (notable for our chatty group) before we burst out in whoops and cheers. The moment was electric as the star power that such a well-known author was lending to our anthology project was undeniable. I felt like a fan girl as I gushed about what it was like to receive the email. “She even signed it, ‘Emma!’” I said before I pulled myself together. After I reassured the team that I had stopped short of printing the email and tucking it away with my keepsakes, we began another two-hour meeting discussing submission guidelines, confirming panel members, and checking in on our grant status.

We built the suspense (hey, we’re writers after all!), keeping the identity of the finalist judge from the membership until the following LWS meeting when we announced it with flourish: she’s an internationally-renowned bestselling author; she’s an academy award nominated screenwriter; she’s… Emma Donoghue! The membership shared our excitement.

But the good news didn’t end there. At the next committee meeting on Zoom, Donna announced that we had been approved for a $4,500 grant from the London Arts Council. Had our meetings been in-person, I think someone would have popped a bottle of bubbly.

As the buds were returning to the trees, and summer only a few months away, our next task was to ensure that our members were writing. I was struggling with my own piece, quietly wrestling with it in the early mornings, and I knew I couldn’t be alone in wondering whether I could find the time, or even the right cadence. The A-Team agreed.

The committee decided to offer workshops for each genre and hired bestselling Canadian author and Trent University creative writing teacher, Adelle Purdham, for the nonfiction workshop; LWS member, novelist, scriptwriter and Fanshawe College creative writing teacher, Meg Howald for fiction; and for poetry, London’s past poet laureate, the celebrated, multi-published Penn Kemp. Donna opened her backyard oasis for dedicated writing time for members, complete with tasty treats and a chance to share work in a safe space. Our established critique groups volunteered to take on “guest members”, offering live beta reads and providing suggestions for writers who had a piece ready to polish.

The plan worked!

Our members were creating, honing their craft, receiving critiques, and polishing their writing. I finally found my rhythm in Penn Kemp’s poetry workshop. Set in her idyllic London home, I realized that the piece I was working on would be better suited to poetry than nonfiction. The herbs from her garden tickled our senses and goldfish from her ample pond splashed nearby. An ambulance’s siren pierced the tranquil afternoon as a group of LWS members discovered their inner poet.

I always wanted to write poetry and even promised my late grandmother that I would. Her first cousin was Margaret Avison and I was left the family collection of the award-winning poet’s books (including her memoir, where my grandmother had dog-eared any pages that mentioned her). Now, thanks to the LWS, I was making another dream come true.

With the website “submission page” ready—another shout out to Marco, our webmaster!—the scoring rubrics and submissions guidelines finalized, and a large part of financing in place thanks to the London Arts Council, we felt ready for the portal to open. Leading up to the September 15 opening, we did a final promotional push. Our volunteers placed posters in local libraries, community centres and retailers. We created a social media blitz, sent reminder emails, and announced the anthology submission dates at each LWS meeting. And then the day arrived. The submissions portal opened and we were live.

To be continued…

2025 06 16

The Anthology Journey, Part 2: Out of the Woods and Onto the Page

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When the Anthology Committee Zoom meeting ended, I paused to admire the woodland behind my house. The title Out of the Woods was still dancing through my mind. The theme encompassed a diversity of ideas, from a fantastical piece with a forest setting to a metaphorical interpretation. I also loved that it was a nod to London’s moniker as “the Forest City.”

I glanced at my phone. My mother was calling. Our family was facing multiple health challenges, so I quickly swiped “accept,” because a phone call meant news, lately mostly bad news. But this call was different. This news was hopeful.

“We’re not out of the woods yet,” my mother said as we ended the call. Out of the woods! The words shot through me as I felt the creative force that I hadn’t felt in so long. Some committee members were sure they were going to submit to the anthology, others had decided not to. I was on the fence but, hearing my mother’s words at that moment, I knew I was going to quote her, write about the experience, and submit a piece.

With the vision and title in place for the anthology, it was time to get back to the ever present “to do” list. At the top? How to fund the anthology. We researched different grant opportunities and applied to the London Arts Council. Donna Costa, with her background in holistic health and a steady, grounded energy took the lead, completing hours of research and paperwork, collecting writing samples, bios, and signatures Then she hit “submit.” These grants are competitive, and we weren’t sure we would be selected, so, in the meantime, we also started formulating a plan to solicit sponsorships.

It’s here that I will pause to thank Marco Muzzi, whose technical help was ever present. He was always in the background, making a landing spot on the anthology website, and creating our own anthology email address. Throughout the creation of the project, there were dozens of tech questions solved by Marco.

Have I mentioned that none of us had ever put together an anthology before? Research needed to be done! I poured over the half dozen anthologies on my bookshelf (ordering more in the process) and together the committee analyzed different literary contests and other anthology publications. LWS member and prolific author, Elaine Cougler, joined us for a meeting to offer her expertise. Justine Dowsett from Mirror World Publishing, with her vast experience publishing anthologies generously answered our questions and shared judging rubrics to ensure an equitable process.

As we wrote the ‘Submission Guidelines,’ in addition to being mindful of modern inclusions such as certifying that work is AI-free, we wanted to keep the emphasis on local writers while recognizing that London serves as the literary hub for the surrounding rural areas (shout out to my fellow rural folks!). We settled on southwestern Ontario as the boundary for entrants and judges. In my research of the region, I came across a newspaper article that described ‘Souwesto’ as an area of considerable interest artistically, but also of psychic murkiness and oddity. Perfect.

The next challenge was to find a judge not connected to the LWS. It was evident we would need a longlist to give to that person, so the judge wouldn’t be inundated with potentially hundreds of pieces. We settled on a model based on a few anthologies we studied: a panel of First Reader judges who were experts in their fields (poetry, fiction, nonfiction) would create a longlist to pass on to the Finalist Judge who would then curate the entries for publication.

Committee member, Anne Kay, had just published her debut historical fiction novel The Salt Man, and took the lead on the panel of First Reader judges. With her contacts in the industry and the Writers’ Union of Canada, we assembled a wonderful team: Anne Kay and Margaret Whitley for nonfiction; Barbara Haworth-Attard and Kym Wolfe for fiction; and Andreas Gripp for poetry.

We needed a Finalist Judge. A celebrity judge, if possible. We started working up a list. “Did you know Emma Donoghue is a London resident?” Anne asked.

“The author who wrote Room and The Pull of the Stars with a literary CV the length of a novel?” I asked, thinking it would be amazing, but assuming she would be too busy to participate in a community anthology.

With a few clicks, Brenda pulled an email address from her website. “We could ask?” And so, with palms sweaty and a bit breathless, I hit “send” on our request.

In the meantime, I began writing my piece to submit to the anthology.

To be continued…

2025 06 10

The Anthology Journey, Part 1: The Seed of an Idea

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The London Writers Society (LWS) inaugural anthology began with the seed of an idea; the collection’s creation was suggested many times over the years, but lay dormant, waiting for the optimal conditions to grow. That time came in 2023 when, under the leadership of President Ron Cougler, the membership expanded and brought a variety of new skills and expertise to the Society. The soil was warming up, watered regularly with maybes: Maybe we could? Maybe we should?

Irene Nevill, the LWS secretary at the time, suggested now was the time! In the next Society newsletter, a call went out to form the first-ever anthology committee. The seed germinated.

I read that newsletter on a sunny afternoon with my two-year-old son asleep for his nap and my infant daughter happily enjoying tummy time. A few months before her birth, I had set aside the memoir I was writing about my time working as a flight attendant to give myself a break, and be in the postpartum bubble with all the messy chaos it entails. But I missed writing and the creative process. While I didn’t think I could return to the mental load of writing a full book, I wondered if I could help with the behind-the-scenes process of pulling together an anthology. Could I organize nap schedules around committee meetings? Maybe I could? Maybe I should?

I thought of my former LWS critique group (oh, hey!), our camaraderie, and the stories that were still haunting me. I remembered the diverse voices I read over the years, purchasing books at LWS events and member launches. I thought of my own dreams and ambitions as an author. I had been published in various anthologies, and the thrill of seeing my name in print, I knew, was another step toward my dream of book publication. I could be part of a project that could give a publishing credit to other deserving writers and aspiring authors.

Thanks largely in part to work I produced in LWS critique groups and letters of support from members, in 2022 I graduated with my MFA in creative nonfiction writing. As writers, we all want to focus on our writing, right? Well, to sum up two years of study with a quote from one of my profs: “If you want to be a published author, you need to be mindful of your literary CV.” In short, your literary CV is what you submit to potential agents and publishing houses along with your manuscript. Unless you’re an absolute literary genius (spoiler alert: I’m not), folks in the biz want to see that you can handle the hard work. Aside from awards and publishing credits, a volunteer role on a committee or devoting time to the LWS Executive are great positions to include on a literary CV (and, a great way to meet new friends).

With that in mind—and the reality that the majority of my current creativity was focussed on making up silly songs, games, and new fun ways to serve vegetables—I put my name forward for the committee. As a bonus, I was excited by the prospect of spending a few dedicated hours each month talking to other literary-minded adults!

The first pre-planning meeting took place in the fall of 2023. Many were interested at first, but by early 2024 the committee had four core members: Donna Costa, Anne Kay, Brenda Martin and myself, affectionately dubbed the ‘A-team’. I was honoured to be nominated as Chair.

The quartet gelled instantly and I looked forward to our meetings each month. Before finishing his term as President, Ron had proposed the timeline of publishing in June 2025, and now it was up to us to figure out how to make that happen in 18 months. The ‘A-team’ shared a common vision for the anthology: to showcase LWS members, to provide them with an opportunity for a publishing credit—a plus for authors hoping to be traditionally published down the road—and to promote the Society by attracting more writers and readers from the community.

With our vision in place, we needed a theme. In one of our early meetings, Brenda suggested, “What about, Out of the Woods?” We all agreed it was perfect. The Zoom meeting ended just as my little ones were waking up from their naps. I was content with my decision to take a behind-the-scenes role, thrilled that we had the title in place, and felt confident our committee was going to do a great job.

And then the phone rang.

To be continued…

2024 11 24

Unlock Your Book’s Potential With Facebook Ads

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WHY THEY WORK

78% of consumers have discovered products on Facebook. (Kleiner Perkins)

Paid Facebook Ads let you engage a wider audience, and generate real book sales. They offer authors a controlled way to promote their books and increase their following across Facebook’s platform (Facebook & Instagram).

WHAT’S A FACEBOOK AD?

They’re like flyers you put on bulletin boards, but online, and you control who sees them, how often, and when!

Note: You can “boost” an existing post, but that’s not our focus here. In this article, we’re talking about paid Facebook ad campaigns.

WAIT, WHAT THE HECK IS A PAID FACEBOOK CAMPAIGN?

They’re one of the best options you have to reach interested readers.

With paid Facebook ad campaigns, you can target users based on interests like specific book genres, authors they follow, and even their preferred reading format (ebook, audiobook, etc.). And you can reach folks around the world!

Businesses using Facebook ads see an average of 200% return on ad spend.” (Nielsen)

HOW IN THE WORLD DO I START?

Your shopping list:

A Facebook Business Page—this gives immediate access to Ads Manager
A defined target audience profile (or profiles)—age, location, specific interests
3-5 images relevant to your book(s)—cover artwork, stock images
Wording (~80 characters or more) for each ad you’d like to make
A preferred budget for how much you’d like to spend.

Step 1: Create Your Campaign

This is where it gets a bit challenging… Facebook provides a wealth of options, but you want to start simply:

Create an “Awareness” campaign. That’s the most user-friendly starting point.
Buying type = “Auction”
Set a “Campaign spending limit”—$100 will give you the best idea of what you’ve got

Depending on your subject matter, you may need to “Categorize.”

STEP 2 OF 3: STICK WITH IT—ALMOST DONE!

You’re creating an “Ad Set” now, time to target:

You need to set a daily budget ($5 is good)
Set your schedule (end date optional)
Optional: you can customize when your ad campaign runs

From there:

Create your audience using the geographic and demographic settings of your choice (below the “Budget & schedule” section)
“Detailed targeting” lets you expand/refine your audience by interest; here, you would search for “mystery books” and choose the results that best match your targeting intentions
Hint: SAVE this audience for later

STEP 3: (FINALLY GET CREATIVE)

You’re creating your first Ad

Follow the prompts to upload your images (and/or video!) and paste your text
Remember: you need to send the audience somewhere—author website, Amazon page, Facebook page
Once you’re done, simply “Publish,” and you’re all set!

EXAMPLES

When you create paid ads in Facebook, they can be automatically reformatted to seamlessly across the myriad creative options available, saving you time and headache.

2023 06 17

How To Promote and Run a Book Launch

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How to Promote & Run a Book Launch

A New LWS How-to Article Has Arrived!

Categories: Book Promotion, How-to, Self PublishingPosted: 2023-06-17 Tags: Book Promotion, How-To, Self-Publishing

A book launch is any form of activity created to promote the release of a book; a marketing technique to create awareness for a book and help initiate sales of the book. As many authors come to learn, it is both a daunting and riveting experience. Our latest how-to article demystifies the process with a simple-to-follow ten-step guide.

(Remember, you have to be a member and logged into the website to see the article. Not a member? Click here to join!)

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