World blog tour kicks off...
...TOMORROW! So excited to be introducing Sweet Shawlettes to knitters outside of North America, where it was published in January. The US blog tour was such a success that we decided to do another one to coincide with the UK and rest of the world publication date - March 7th.
We duly went ahead and arranged the world tour to start on that date, naively thinking that the big booksellers like Amazon would stick to it. How wrong can you be? The book has been available on Amazon UK since the 12th January, albeit low-key, as no-one actually knows about it.
Publication dates are paramount for promotion and it makes me angry that authors are not kept in the loop and consequently made to look like fools when the book is available unbeknown to them. There must be people who've bought the book on Amazon wondering why we've waited until March to start the blog tour.
As there are so many knitting books being published these days, getting them reviewed and noticed by the knitting public is a job which increasingly falls to the author. It's not enough nowadays to be good at what you do, it's now become equally important to be able to promote what you do. Many good books flop because of lack of decent promotion and conversely some (IMO) awful books hit the high spots because the author is media savvy. Anyway, will stop ranting before I really get into my stride and give you the dates. There'll be plenty of chances to win copies of the book, Q&As, reviews etc, and the blog stops are all stellar knitters whose work is inspiring. Also excerpts with giveaways in several leading UK knit mags coming up in March. So get involved!
Publication dates are paramount for promotion and it makes me angry that authors are not kept in the loop and consequently made to look like fools when the book is available unbeknown to them. There must be people who've bought the book on Amazon wondering why we've waited until March to start the blog tour.
As there are so many knitting books being published these days, getting them reviewed and noticed by the knitting public is a job which increasingly falls to the author. It's not enough nowadays to be good at what you do, it's now become equally important to be able to promote what you do. Many good books flop because of lack of decent promotion and conversely some (IMO) awful books hit the high spots because the author is media savvy. Anyway, will stop ranting before I really get into my stride and give you the dates. There'll be plenty of chances to win copies of the book, Q&As, reviews etc, and the blog stops are all stellar knitters whose work is inspiring. Also excerpts with giveaways in several leading UK knit mags coming up in March. So get involved!
Wed 7 Mar Jen Arnall-Culliford Knitwear Jen Arnall-Culliford
Thurs 8 Mar Needled Kate Davies
Fri 9 Mar Rock and Purl Ruth Garcia-Alcantud
Sat 10 Mar Woolly Wormhead Woolly Wormhead
Wed 14 Mar Joli House Amanda France
Thurs 15 Mar This is Knit Lisa & Siobhan
Fri 16 Mar The Knitting Institute Katy Evans
Sat 17 Mar Life’n Knitting Carla Meijsen
Sun 18 Mar ConnieLene Connie
Mon 19 Mar Just Call Me Ruby Susan Crawford
Tues 20 Mar Tiny Owl Knits Stephanie Dosen
Wed 21 Mar Ulla-Bella Anita Tørmoen
One final thing. I noticed a thread on Facebook yesterday about Pinterest. It caught my eye as I'd signed up a couple of weeks ago but hadn't pinned anything until recently. As usual there's always too much to do to read the small print, so I was interested to read the conversation, especially as it was initiated by Franklin Habit, one of the bloggers on the US tour.
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| Pinterest home page |
As I understand it, he was complaining that he had signed up ( account entitled Don't Bother Following Me I Won't Be Posting Anything) as an academic exercise as he was writing an article. He hadn't pinned anything, but as soon as he pressed Go he found himself with 1200 followers, with no way of deleting any of them other than to make 1200 clicks. On looking around on Pinterest, he found many of his cartoons pinned indiscriminately on other boards without permission or credits - a gross infringement of copyright.
I signed up not to pin other people's images but to have an online repository for my own fave pics, so I could identify and access them easily. I was asked if I wanted to link to Facebook or Twitter, but being the suspicious person that I am, I declined and ended up having to agree to ten carefully chosen peeps to start following chosen by Pinterest.
However, after reading Franklin's thread, I'm confused. It brought to my attention that contrary to Facebook, the owners of Pinterest have covered themselves in the small print for any lawsuits relating to content on their site, the buck stopping firmly in the hands of the person who posted it, leaving the one whose copyright has been infringed in the difficult position of being the person to initiate a lawsuit if necessary. The ethics of the site are brought into question and I'm not sure whether I still wish to be associated with it, but feel there's just too much going on right now for me to find the time to find out more. That's why I'm interested to know what you think about Pinterest?
Franklin's post brought about a huge furore on said social media site - you can read the conversation here on his profile page - with many people deleting their accounts. A few stayed true and said they loved it, but obviously there is a problem here that hasn't been addressed by the peeps in charge. What do you think?
Meanwhile, for anyone who wants to keep their own intellectual property safe in cyberspace, here's a piece of code to paste into every page to stop images being pinned:
<meta name="pinterest" content="nopin' />
Happy pinning as they say!
PS Don't forget... if you sign up as a follower before the end of the month, you'll go into my draw for a free copy of Sweet Shawlettes.
PS Don't forget... if you sign up as a follower before the end of the month, you'll go into my draw for a free copy of Sweet Shawlettes.
Hello Jean! Saw the pinterest problem on a Yarnmarket News FB post, and just read Franklin Habit's thoughts. I can understand the concerns of those whose livelihood is based on intellectual or creative property. Like many, I use it simply as a "virtual pinboard," as opposed to the old-fashioned method of cutting things out of magazines with scissors... but I make sure that whatever I pin has a link which credits the original site it came from. I've found some great recipes and new blogs from things others have shared. PM
ReplyDeleteAll the best for a fabulous world tour!! I did sign up on Pinterest last year but my life turned upside down since then so have not had the energy to bother. Your comments make me even less likely to jump on board now. I'd rather use the time to knit :) :)
ReplyDeleteHi Jean, I thought I had let you know that I had purchased my Sweet Shawlettes book from Amazon back in January (maybe I dreamed I had told you) and then did the review on my blog (you can always link to it if you wish).
ReplyDeleteI like Pinterest as an inspirational tool but can see why some people get upset. I always think that sharing pictures is ok as long as they are not falsly claimed. I think the more social media there is out there the more we will see this happening.
Good luck with the UK blog tour xx
Sorry Heike, I though as you'd already reviewed the book, it was too late to include you in the tour. Rushing around now, but we can talk about it tomorrow if you'd like to join the tour. Email me at moss@dircon.co.uk. Lots love, Jx
ReplyDeleteI just signed up yesterday, now I wish I'd looked more carefully.
ReplyDeleteDon't worry, you'll still be in the draw.
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