Saturday, September 20, 2014

Big events loom for the Abigail project

The new Christmas novel (left) with its elder siblings
The next three months look to be busy ones for the Abigail project. With the launch of the new Abigail Christmas novel, A McAdam Station Christmas, set for November 9 in a special event at the McAdam Railway Station, author Mark Walma says he's gearing up for an exciting time.

"We've gotten the proof copy of the new novel back from the printer and it looks great," Walma said. "Now it's just a matter of convincing the public to be as excited about this book as we are."

Walma admits that the part he enjoys most about the whole creative project is the writing itself but, he adds, "there is certainly a thrill to meeting people who have purchased and enjoyed the books as well."

The process of promoting and selling a book is an intense one for the author. "A good friend of mine, Ross Pennie, is the author of a successful series of medical mysteries and he gave me some of the best advice I've ever received as a writer," Walma said. "He told me that I can send out all the press releases, hang up all the posters I want, but people want to buy a book from someone they feel they know. So it's up to me to get out there and meet people and sell myself as much as I'm selling the books and the McAdam Railway Station."

To that end, Walma has planned a series of public appearances for the next three months, leading up to Christmas.

The first such event is scheduled for Saturday, November 1 and will take place at the Station in downtown Fredericton from 11 to 4. "It's a joint event with our artist and craftspeople friends from Artful Persuasion and with the Saturday Sips wine-tasting event put on by NB Liquor," Walma explained. "It's a sort of pre-launch celebration to thank all of the people here in Fredericton who have supported the Abigail project and Artful Persuasion itself."

Then, on Sunday, November 2 at 2 p.m., the McAdam Railway Station and Hotel will host the Launch event for the Christmas novel itself. "That's always a fun event," Walma said. "We usually get more than 100 people to come to celebrate with us, honouring not just the Abigail books but also all of the wonderful work that has gone on throughout the year to support the Station."

Following that, Walma will be at the Boyce Farmers Market in Fredericton for several Saturdays in late November and December and also the special Sunday Christmas Markets as well.

"It will be a busy time for me but a fun time too," Walma said. "If we can spark some media interest, maybe it will be even busier!"

Sunday, September 7, 2014

Video trailer is now online

The new Abigail Massey promotional video (or "novel trailer") is complete. Author Mark Walma announced that the video was posted this afternoon to Youtube. It can be found here.

"It's a tongue-in-cheek parody of the current political ads that are getting so much play here in New Brunswick," Mark said. "I'm quite hopeful that it will help to raise the profile of the Abigail books in general and the upcoming Christmas novella in particular."

So far, Mark has been working on promoting the video through Facebook, Twitter and the various blogs and websites to which he is related.

"Things have gone pretty well," he said. "In just four hours, the Facebook announcement of the posting of the video has been seen by more than 300 people and we've already had more than 15 views of the video itself."

Friday, September 5, 2014

Busy times as book launch looms...

Two months until launch!

It’s amazing to think that suddenly we are just two months from the launch of A McAdam Station Christmas, the new Abigail Massey Christmas novella. The official launch event is scheduled for Sunday, November 9 at the McAdam Railway Station and Hotel and that means the project team is currently busy, busy, busy.

“To be honest, now that we’ve already launched three Abigail books, the launch itself is not that difficult to plan,” author Mark Walma said recently. “Sure, we want to keep things fresh and include new wrinkles each time out but the basic planning is already done.”

It’s the other aspects of the fall program that have people hopping.

First, there is the final preparation of the book itself: finalizing the layout, checking (and checking again) for typos, formatting errors and other small problems with the galleys, and arranging for a sample book to be printed so that it can be checked once more in its final form.

“Things got more complicated when we found out that significant changes at our original publisher mean we might need to find a new place to have the books printed,” Mark explained.

With illustrator/designer Lynn Walma taking care of the printing details, including scoping out new printing companies to compare price, quality and service, Mark has been focusing on promotions for the new book.

“I’ve been reading about a new concept in book marketing – video trailers – where you basically make the equivalent of a film trailer for your novel,” Mark said. “It’s an interesting idea that, I think, could really help to bring the book to life online and perhaps attract more people to it.”

As a result, Mark has been busily working on a short promotional video for A McAdam Station Christmas, which he hopes to have posted to the web soon. Then it’s a matter of making sure it gets seen by as many people as possible.

“In other words,” Mark laughed, “you have to find ways to promote the video that you’ve created to promote your book.”

And finally, since interest in the Abigail books is so high in New Brunswick’s capital city of Fredericton, the idea was put forward for the Abigail team to work with its principal sales partner, Artful Persuasion (an arts co-operative store located in the city’s downtown), to hold a joint event: a Christmas sale of the beautiful art and crafts produced by Artful’s many members and a second launch event for the Abigail book.

“We’ve been very lucky to have found so many wonderful partners among the local artists and crafts people who are members of Artful Persuasion in Fredericton, Simply Local Eh in Saint John and the Woodstock Farm and Craft Market,” Mark said. “People like Sarah Robichaud Smith-Stewart, Veronica Perrin and Carrie Allen-Golding have been staunch allies from the start, carrying our books in their various sales venues and including us in their promotional events. A joint event is a great way to join forces with them to bring our often different customer groups together.”

The details of the Fredericton event are still being worked out. Watch this space for more news and information as it becomes available.