Sunday Salon: Aussie Author Month

Before I get into my post proper today, just a couple of reminders!

Firstly, are you a book blogger/tweeter/Goodreader etc who will be in Sydney this Thursday night? If so, you are invited to join us for an Sydney Book Blogger meetup! We are really pleased with the number of people who have signed up so far, but that doesn't mean that there isn't room for you. If you are interested, check out all the details here.

I will be there, and I am very excited about this get together!

Secondly, are you interested in winning a copy of Caleb's Crossing, the upcoming release from Geraldine Brooks? If you live in the US or Canada, you can enter the current giveaway that I am hosting. (Sorry about those restrictions. The galleys are being sent directly from the publisher, so those restrictions apply).

Okay, on with the main point of today's post!

April is going to be Aussie Author Month! I've started thinking about what I am going to be doing for the month, and I am very excited by it, but I suspect I am going to be exhausted by the end of it!


What is Aussie Author Month

Aussie Author Month is a cross-genre collaboration to support and promote Australian writing. During April, we'll be featuring bestselling and upcoming Australian authors, and highlighting some of our favourite Aussie

books.

Special thanks to Alex from Le Canape for creating this button for us

What kind of things will be happening during the month?

• Author interviews
• Reviews of Aussie books (some sites may already have a full list of reviews to work on. Please do not contact us to review your book.)
• Promotions/discounts/specials at bookstores/online
• Start memes
• Blog carnivals
• Book/Writing competitions with prizes

How you can participate:

If you run a book blog or website…contact us and we’ll list you on our participating blogs pages. Nyssa will be managing the list, so you can contact her directly (see below), or you can leave a comment here and we’ll consolidate our lists. Please include your blog URL, the name of your blog and, if you have a specific focus, which authors you’ll be targeting.

If you’re an Aussie author…contact any of the bloggers below to organise a guest post, feature or giveaway, or you can give a book or two away on either your own site or our sites, and we’ll post links. Please try and target the right blog for your genre/category.

If you’re a bookseller…you can promote Australian books by having an Aussie book section display in your shop, or provide discounts on Aussie written books.

If you are a publisher…you can give a percentage of a books price to the ILP during the month (see below), or promote or giveaway your books through your own site or one of the blogs listed above. If you’re promoting books specifically for Aussie Author Month, please send us a link so we can blog about it.

If you’re interested in books…please feel free to link our Aussie Author Month posts to your blog or social media, buy Australian books and support the ILP.

Who to contact

Promotions and giveaways will be done through the most appropriate site.

If the book is sff, you should contact A Writer Goes on a Journey.
If the book is urban fantasy or paranormal romance, you should contact Fangtastic.
If the book is romance or has romantic elements (happy endings only, please!), contact Bookthingo.
If the book is historical or general Australian fiction, contact The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader.

For all other enquiries, contact Nyssa at nyssa.pascoe@gmail.com

Support the Indigenous Literacy Project (Fundraising):

Part of Aussie Author Month will also be to promote donations to the Indigenous Literacy Project. The ILP is a charity whose aim is to raise literacy levels among Indigenous Australians in rural and remote communities. The ILP works in partnership with the Australian Book Industry and the Fred Hollows Foundation.

What we will be doing for the ILP is not only linking to their website, but will be actively fundraising for them through GoFundraise.com.au. This will be set up closer to the start date of the project, so if you want to be
involved, please email us and we will keep you updated with the appropriate links.

How did Aussie Author Month come about and who are the organisers:

Aussie Author Month started off with a tweet last year, and it’s been a collaborative effort between several bloggers:

Nyssa at A Writer Goes on a Journey via the Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFFWA), who will focus on Australian sff authors,

Ali and Rosie at Fangtastic, who will focus on urban fantasy and paranormal romance authors,

Kat from Bookthingo, who will focus on romance

and later joined by Marg at The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader (that's me), who reads within and outside of romance and sff, including historical fiction.

We hope that other Aussies will get involved in this initiative!