Welcome to another exciting month, where we gather to celebrate the incredible wins of our talented Tellwell authors!
This month of May, we’ll put the limelight on our Tellwell authors and celebrate their wins, including awards, media mentions, events, and great reviews.
Each month, we’re always excited to highlight the successes of our authors! From top award nominations, to featured interviews, to rave reviews – we’re offering a huge congratulations to our authors for these terrific accomplishments!
AWARDS
Dr. Chelinay Gate, author of Lucky-Child: The Secret, just made it to the Prime Minister’s Book Club in Australia. A huge honor!
This compelling coming-of-age tale is the story of Lucy. Answering her dying great-grandmother’s call, Lucy is lured into the dark red heart of Australia’s Great Sandy Desert. Indigenous mother tongues Mangala and Wajarri exquisitely mimic the landscapes and evoke a feeling of timelessness that transports Lucy and the all-female search party into a Dreamtime World, where she learns to respect the Lore, Country and herself. “Like the striking of an ancient gong, I heard my name, Lucy Lucky-Child.”
Lucky-Child: The Secret also won first place in the Fiction category for the 2020 Next Generation Indie Books Awards! The book also won the grand prize in the First Novel category, and was a finalist in the Action/Adventure Category and Regional Category.
Demons at the Doorstep is a young adult urban fantasy. Written by Rachael Bell-Irving, the story follows Jessica, a witch who must team up with her mortal enemy to stop mutated demons from destroying her city. Hard copies and eBooks are now available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Chapters Indigo.
Why did you choose this cover as a monthly focus?
This was a book that I started working on at the end of last year that wrapped up mid-April. It was a little out of our normal process because it required a custom illustration. A lot of the time, the cover is either done first or designed in tandem with the interior. For this one the interior was formatted well before the illustration was done. I had an initial idea of what I wanted for the title, but I knew that it may change drastically when the cover was on my plate. However, once I saw this amazing image, I was able to work in the title surprisingly well, with only minor re-working on spacing.
Tony and RL Read were featured in the Entertainment section of the Stratford Beacon Herald this month, showcasing the release of their light-hearted travel book Around the World: Stories from afar, but close to a bar. Read the full article here.
Ian Mark joined The Homestretch’s host Doug Dirks this month to talk about his experience as a rock performance photographer in the 70’s. Mark recently published a collection of his photos titled Adventures of a 70’s Rock Photographer. He was also featured on CBC News Calgary. Listen to his interview on The Homestretch here.
In light of Autism Awareness Month, Mirian Sansalone spoke about her memoir – Purpose High: Living With Autism, with Jessi Cruickshank on The Goods. The book shares the author’s experiences as a mother of two autistic sons. Watch the episode on CBC TV here. Sansalone also shared five things everyone should know about autism on The Caledon Enterprise. Read the article here.
March was a busy month for Tellwell authors holding events and signings! Here’s a glance at some of the unique events held throughout March:
Comedian and Tellwell Author, Ally Lane launched her book The Chem-Ho, at the Vin Gogh Art Studio in Calgary on March 8th. Lane served up quite the entertaining evening, including a colourful reading on her journey through breast cancer, appetizer’s and complimentary “chemo”-politans administered by Hot Doctors. Stay tuned for more of her events by visiting: www.allylane.com.
On March 19th, Jason Lee was the Keynote Speaker at the Art and Mindfulness Event hosted by Moving Forward Family Services at SFU. His presentation, on “Anger and Your Mental Health,” discussed the barriers certain cultures have on talking openly about mental health. Lee has spoken at several Mental Health conferences across Canada, including the Strength in Unity Summit held last year in Ottawa. For more on the author, or to learn more about his book – Living with the Dragon – Healing 15 000 Days of Abuse and Shame, visit www.solaceinnerhealth.com.
In celebration of World Down Syndrome Day and in memory of her brother, Ken, Diana Frizell kicked off her book tour in Richmond on March 21st. The tour included a wine and cheese evening, and signings at the Down Syndrome Research Foundation and the IndigoSpirit bookstore in Richmond Centre Mall. Frizell aims to raise awareness and support for aging adults with Down Syndrome, based on her family’s experience. Visit www.kensplace.ca for more event details – including future stops on Vancouver Island.
In light of Bell Let’s Talk and a growing conversation on mental illness, Canadian author and songwriter Colleen Songs offers her perspective as the caregiver and loved one to a partner who was mentally ill.
She shares with readers her escape from a significant other with a narcissistic personality disorder and mental illness, in her memoir INHALE.
Through this book and her signing career, she aspires to ignite the voice of the caregiver – who suffers a great deal of abuse and heartbreak as the person they’ve grown to love disappears so suddenly.
“They can transition in a heartbeat,” says Songs. “The quickest thing could shut him off, and I could see it on his face,” she adds.
But, it’s equally important to the author to use her creative gifts of writing and music, to inspire those who are mentally ill to tap into their talents and passions.
“Witnessing the mentally ill exercise their gifts and talents confirmed their happiness and awakening desire to live,” explains Songs. “They can cope better.”
While this has been an extremely cathartic exercise for Songs, writing, and then publishing and promoting this book has brought forth a plethora of emotions, doubts, fears and hesitations about how the telling of her story will affect her loved ones.
Songs says she’s been especially concerned about her children, and how publishing her story will affect them.
“I was afraid of hurting them to the point of almost not publishing. But inside I kept having this feeling that it would release them too. And sure enough, it did!”
Songs says her son, who was 12 when she left home to care for her late ex-husband, felt the book gave him clarity and filled in the gaps he never understood about the relationship that took such a toll on their family.
Her daughter, who was in her late teens at the time, felt the book relieved her of the guilt she’d been carrying, having seen things in the relationship that at the time she didn’t know what to do about.
Beyond the opportunity to reflect and gain clarity, Songs needed to write to gain closure from the past, and talk about how her family got to where they are today.
“With every word I felt such a release of pressure off of my chest, heart, mind and conscience! I carried so much guilt, so much survival-fear for so long that I wasn’t even really trusting nor enjoying my current state of healthy-love and life,” she says.
And finally, she’s starting to let go. “I thought there was enough closure when I finally left. I thought there was enough closure when I heard he’d died. But I only gained a sense of closure through writing,” says Songs.
Like many Tellwell authors, Kimberley Parkinson took a huge step outside of her comfort zone when she decided to publish her first book. When her children’s book What Can You Do? was published, Parkinson realized it was time to get the word out about her book, and that she was going to be the driving force behind that. While marketing seemed daunting initially, her efforts were greeted with success and gratification. Now, she shares some of her early marketing experiences to encourage other authors to push themselves when they take the leap, and publish their writing.
Kimberley Parkinson’s take on book marketing:
A smile appears upon your face. There it is, nestled proudly within your hands, the first copy of your published book. You take a moment to reflect on all the hours spent from the initial thought to the finished product. You have worked so hard and deserve to relish in satisfaction.
Then the next part of your journey beckons…marketing! A mix of excitement and nervousness takes over. What is the best route to take first? Who should I contact, what should I do, where should I go? This is when you take the time to address your strengths and weaknesses. I know with myself, I would rather sit back quietly and let the book sell itself as I am quite shy with this sort of thing. I am not a fan of social media outlets and the thought of trying to sell my book in person to stores or reading my book in front of others at events made me want to throw up! My comfort zone was very comfy, and it didn’t like to feel threatened. However, I knew that for my own growth I had to push myself beyond those comfortable limitations.
I appreciated the knowledgeable advice and strategic outline that was given to me through Tellwell and needed to implement some of their suggestions. I had to at least try because I have always believed that there is no failure if I try. I wasn’t ready to do the social media thing yet, so I decided to go the good old-fashioned way. I travelled to locations that were within a reasonable distance and made sure to have copies of my book with me, along with props such as bookmarks, posters, etc. It was also important to have all my contact and book details ready as you don’t want to be fumbling around when asked.
Do your homework. Find out who the manager is, contact them directly, and most importantly, mind your manners. Be polite, be gracious for any opportunities that present themselves and be respectful to the ones that don’t. Unknown self-published authors tend to make some store owners apprehensive to take a chance on you and that is okay. Thank them for their time and walk out with your head held high. There will inevitably be some doors that close but if you believe in your book and most importantly yourself, you will start to see doors open. Patience and persistence is key.
Get your feet wet with smaller events at first if needed. I started with an intimate book signing/reading at my local library. It was a comfortable setting that helped me get over my nervousness. Have friends and family there for support. I felt much more at ease with their smiling faces around me. Advertise your book in local papers, make calls, get your name out there. After you have experienced one event, the next ones won’t seem so daunting. This is all still very new to me too, and I am learning as I go.
2017 was a great year for many of our authors! Huge congratulations to all who self-published a book last year. Here are just a couple of the authors who have inspired us with their 2017 publishing accomplishments:
Don Levers
Author of Loot for the Taking
After publishing his first book in the late spring of 2017, the author spent the rest of the year travelling throughout British Columbia and Alberta on a book tour which included stops in Kelowna, Kamloops, Victoria, Vancouver and Edmonton. He received quite a bit of publicity along the way, and was interviewed on the CBC’s The Early Edition in September. Most recently, Levers was asked to appear in the Vancouver Public Library’s Annual Report. The author’s persistence when it comes to building relationships with the literary community has lead to his continued success both with events and signings and publicity. For more on Don Levers, visit his website: http://www.lootforthetaking.com/, or follow him on Facebook: @DonLeversAuthor.
Deborah Kane
Author of the Fifth Dragon Series
Not only did the author publish the first 3 books in the Fifth Dragon Series in 2017, but the series is also now available for Chapters, Indigo, and Coles bookstores across Canada to order directly through Ingram! The author worked hard to develop a rapport with Indigo and its affiliates and the combination of book sales, good reviews, and consignment in some of her local bookstores led to the wholesale agreement. Kane is currently working on her next book, and we look forward to seeing what 2018 has in store for this author. For more, visit her website: http://www.dkanebooks.com/ or follow her on Twitter: @dkanebooks.
Philip Wilson
Author of The Librarian
Wilson used a combination of professional book reviews, online advertising, print advertisements and consignment to grow his brand and readership in 2017. His commitment to continued marketing efforts and his willingness to try new tactics, led to a spike in e-book sales and Goodreads ratings leading into 2018. Wilson has also been featured in the Huffington Post twice, most notably as part of IndieReader’s Best Reviewed Books of 2017. The author will be publishing his second book, Songs for Lucy, with Tellwell this spring. For more on Philip Wilson, visit his website: www.philipmwilson.com or follow him on Facebook: @authorphilipwilson.
We’re excited to begin another year of self-publishing and look forward to seeing what 2018 has in store for our authors!
