IWSG March 2026 Elements of a successful book launch

 

Welcome readers, writers, authors, and bloggers!

We're glad you're here! It's the First Wednesday of the month, when we celebrate IWSG Day in the form of a blog hop featuring members and guests of the Insecure Writer's Support Group. Founded by author Alex Cavanaugh (Thank you, Captain!) and fostered by like-minded associates, IWSG is a comfortable place to share views and literary news as we record our journeys. Check out the December newsletter here.

The awesome co-hosts for this month’s posting of the IWSG are:  PJ Colando, Ronel Janse van Vuuren, and Natalie Aguirre! 

 

 Today’s entirely optional question: What elements do you include in your book launch? Or what do you have in mind for your future book launch? Or what advice do you have to offer to others planning to launch a book?

One of the topics I hear the most laments about is getting mailing lists out early. Depending on the length of the campaign, sending out additional reminders might not be a bad idea. You know I’m hoping for feedback on my thoughts, right?

Defining target audience, timing of launch, and venue. I learned a lot my first time out, basically stumbling around 😉

Beyond the immensely helpful blog mentions by faithful friends with more time on their hands than you do (in the middle of a book launch), why not make it an event to remember? Even a small group of ten people all dressed in red T-shirts (as nondescript as possible) is bound to draw a few curious passers-by. Especially if you throw in a couple dozen cupcakes and a few rounds of Musical Chairs. By the time my meager group of mini readers sauntered away with personalized (signed) copies of Beanie’s Backyard, few would realize that it was they who had turned milling around near the Food Court outside of a bookstore at the Mall into a book event!

Such fun that was! As I watched the kids, moms, and grandparents walking away, a thought occurred to me, as it all too often does, what if they don’t like the book? What if they don’t even read it?  

Hoping to calm my worries, I decided to research how to know the things I’m so unsure of. Now I’m unsure of that as well 😉

Here’s what I found:

While many believe you have only to read the first 50 pages of a book to decide if you want to finish it, Page 69, I’m told, is where you’ll find the heart of the book. By page 69, the author has established a storyline, introduced characters you won’t mind hanging out with for a while, and basically found his/her voice as a lead narrator of their latest literary masterpiece.

See you all out there!

Happy Writing

 

IWSG February 2026

 Welcome readers, writers, authors, and bloggers!

We're glad you're here! It's the First Wednesday of the month; when we celebrate IWSG Day in the form of a blog hop featuring members and guests of the Insecure Writer's Support Group. Founded by author Alex Cavanaugh (Thank you, Captain!) and fostered by like-minded associates, IWSG is a comfortable place to share views and literary news as we record our journeys. Check out our monthly newsletter here.

The awesome co-hosts for this month’s posting of the IWSG are:   J Lenni Dorner, Victoria Marie Lees, and Sandra Cox!

 Today’s entirely optional question:    Many writers have written about the experience of rereading their work years later. Have you reread any of your early works? What was that experience like for you?

Have I reread any of my early works? Absolutely! Though, not often. Until recently, I began selecting stories for a children's collection and was pleasantly reminded of how attached I ended up getting to the younger characters as they grew and flourished in the stories I wrote. In some cases, it’s been somewhat of a homecoming. Still others I’ve reviewed (admittedly) left me wondering what the heck I was thinking😉 (Not a children’s story😊)

For the most part, rereading is exhilarating. Motivational, even. Especially when I’m effortlessly transported back into a story that greets me like an old friend. Hanky’s got a few new notes in her Hatbox, indicating the story can indeed go on. It seems the Otters have learned a new routine for entertaining the encroaching Beavers at Wet Bottom Crossing down at Wiggle River, and then there was this crumpled note tossed in the idea box as if by accident:

One scorching- hot summer day when you couldn’t tell the heat waves from sweat dripping in your eyes, there came a turquoise excavator to help us build a pond in the dusty old field out back. But Cotton’s place had a reproachful past that seemed bound to affect uncertain futures like ours.

Oh, the gum-smacking lady driver with hot pink lipstick meant well. In fact, she didn’t even know what she’d dug up when my dad started frantically waving his arms to stop the digging, and my mom fainted right there in the dirt.

But I should start at the beginning.     * * *

I may revisit Cotton’s Place again real soon. As well as half a dozen other stories 😉

I look forward to reading about your experiences. I’ll have just enough time to hop around and visit before I’ll need to rest my eyes for a while. Hope to see you all in April!

Happy writing!

 

 

IWSG November 2025 Let's Not Forget This

 

 

Welcome readers, writers, authors, and bloggers!

We're glad you're here! It's the First Wednesday of the month; when we celebrate IWSG Day in the form of a blog hop featuring members and guests of the Insecure Writer's Support Group. Founded by author Alex Cavanaugh (Thank you, Captain!) and fostered by like-minded associates, IWSG is a comfortable place to share views and literary news as we record our journeys. Check out our monthly newsletter here.

The awesome co-hosts for this month’s posting of the IWSG are:   Jennifer Lane, Jenni Enzor, Renee Scattergood, Rebecca Douglass, Lynn Bradshaw, and Melissa Maygrove!

 Today’s entirely optional question: When you began writing what did you imagine your life as a writer would be like?    

The only thing better than reading a good story is writing one. I knew that after reading my first favorite book – I think it was “Miss Lollipop’s Lion). Later, I carried “The Velvet Room” around with me long after I’d finished reading it as if setting it aside would somehow lessen the impact the story had on me. As if putting it on a shelf would cancel the book tour. I couldn’t let that happen to any book, to any writer. My solution was to write often. Let no bookshelf go unlined with books for – and about – any and everything!

How hard can it be?

I imagined a writer’s journey to be paved with fewer potholes (wherein hide all the things you better not say,) I imagined many more filling stations (for when inspiration invariably runs low), a glove box that refills itself with snacks – oh! As well as a thermos of Iced Tea (or coffee on cold days). Turns out, writing wasn’t the same (as I’d so naively imagined) as a road trip with Grandma, but it can be even better. If you write it right!

“Books have a unique way of stopping time at a particular moment and saying: “Let’s not forget this,” ~ Dave Eggers

Happy writing!

 

IWSG July 2025

 

Welcome, readers, writers, authors, and bloggers!

We're glad you're here! It's the First Wednesday of the month, when we celebrate IWSG Day in the form of a blog hop featuring members and guests of the Insecure Writer's Support Group. Founded by author Alex Cavanaugh (Thank you, Captain!) and fostered by like-minded associates, IWSG is a comfortable place to share views and literary news as we record our journeys. Check out our latest newsletter here.

Our awesome co-hosts this month are:   Rebecca Douglass, Natalie Aguirre, Cathrina Constantine, and Louise Barbour!

The optional question for this month is: Is there a genre that you’d really like to try  writing in and haven’t yet? Do you plan to?

Yes. And yes, it's already in progress.

Every writer generally writes whatever poem or story stirs the inspiration enough to bring a story to glorious life. I didn't start writing to write exclusively for children, but for a time, it seemed I had. It didn't occur to me that I had written an adventure for children or a mystery for young adults until I had. Good thing I have so many good folks around to tell me what I'm doing; "Hey, did you ever finish that mystery you were writing? And "How's that memoir coming along?"  

Should I be worried that no one has asked about the ghost yet?

How's your journey? 

IWSG May 2025 Becoming an Elephant

 

Welcome, readers, writers, authors, and bloggers!

We're glad you're here! It's the First Wednesday of the month; when we celebrate IWSG Day in the form of a blog hop featuring members and guests of the Insecure Writer's Support Group. Founded by author Alex Cavanaugh (Thank you, Captain!) and fostered by like-minded associates, IWSG is a comfortable place to share views and literary news as we record our journeys. Check out our monthly newsletter here.

The awesome co-hosts for the May 7 posting of the IWSG are Feather Stone, Janet Alcorn, Rebecca Douglass, Jemima Pett, and Pat Garcia!

 Today’s entirely optional question: Some common fears writers share are rejection, failure, success, and lack of talent or ability. What are your greatest fears as a writer, and how do you manage them?

By listing all the common (been there, done that) fears, this question really gets to the heart of what’s left of the matter when comes to the final little shadow of fear that looms in the corner of my peripheral conscientiousness like the old White Elephant that everyone considered an attainable treasure until it appeared in “the room” unannounced. I call it relevance, and it’s what I’m afraid of losing. It’s also the elephant that no one wants to talk about.  How do I even know I ever had it? Here are a few thoughts…

 “Relevance to me is about being creative and doing things you believe in, whether that’s music or acting or painting a picture, or whatever it is.

~ Larry Mullen Jr.

Yeah, I agree with that idea. Until or unless losing relevance is a deal-breaker. Do I then stop writing? Ride dejectedly off into the sunset, dropping useless words behind me in the sun-scorched sand?

“The concept that an artist would be revered by popular culture is an immediate dismissal of his relevance as an artist.”  ~ Thomas Kinkade

If that sounds harsh, there’s this:

 “The most striking fault in work by young or beginning novelists, submitted for criticism -- is irrelevance – due either to infatuation or indecision. To direct such an author’s attention to the imperative of relevance is certainly the most useful – and possibly the only – help that can be given.” ~ Elizabeth Bowen

Oof!   Let’s read on,

“Relevance is kind of a weird thing. If one does topical material, it makes sense to want to be relevant. But if someone talks about donut sprinkles, it’s not quite as important.  Unless the US Supreme Court makes a decision outlawing donut sprinkles.” ~ Brian Regan

Perhaps I’d best quit while I’m smiling ;-)

Wishing everyone a wonderfully productive month of May!

 

IWSG March 2025

 

Welcome readers, writers, authors, and bloggers!

We're glad you're here! It's the first Wednesday of the month, and we celebrate IWSG Day in the form of a blog hop featuring members and guests of the Insecure Writer's Support Group. Founded by author Alex Cavanaugh (Thank you, Captain!) and fostered by like-minded associates, IWSG is a comfortable place to share views and literary news as we record our journeys. Check out our monthly newsletter here.

The awesome co-hosts for this month’s posting of the IWSG are:   Joylene Nowell Butler, Louise Barbour, and Tyrean Martinson!

 Today’s entirely optional question: If for one day you could be any one or thing in the world, what would it be? Describe, tell why, and talk about any themes or values are inspired by this.

I’d be the keeper of the hand-painted chalet where a silly wooden bird carefully marked our every moment, popping out of the door to remind us on the hour of every hour that passes every day that the treasure of each second should count and not be tossed away. Except for that fateful day, the family cat had her way and made off with one of the gently swaying pendulum weights, stilling the steady tick-toc and forever silencing the ever-cheerful bird.  However, in none of the handful of stories I’ve created about this event over the years, does the cat ever abscond with the weight like it did. No sir-ee. In one story the cat falls into the aquarium, in another story the dog tries to get involved, alerting Grandma to the devious endeavor going on, whereby cat and dog both are unceremoniously escorted out the back door. That ending still makes me smile;-) While no one ever admitted it, I think we all missed that silly wooden bird.

Then again, perhaps I’d be the sturdy tree by the river that heard all about our secrets, shared our tears, and triumphs, the one that allowed us to climb, and preserved our carvings as sacred etchings of our youth.  I’d be the tree that shaded us from the harsher hues of life even when our hearts rained, the constant friend that whispered, “It’ll be alright,” through skinned-up knees and grass stains. And it was. It just always was alright.

Okay. Your turn! Can’t wait to see what everyone has to say in response – or not, to the optional question.

Happy Writing!

IWSG March 2024 Is AI Keeping it Real?

Welcome readers, writers, authors, and bloggers!

We're glad you're here! It's the First Wednesday of the month, when we celebrate IWSG Day in the form of a blog hop featuring members and guests of the Insecure Writer's Support Group. Founded by author Alex Cavanaugh (Thank you, Captain!) and fostered by like-minded associates, IWSG is a comfortable place to share views and literary news as we record our journeys. Check out the March newsletter here.

The awesome co-hosts for the March 6 posting of the IWSG are Kristina Kelly, Miffie Seideman, Jean Davis, and Liza @ Middle Passages!

Every month, we announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG posts. These questions may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. Include your answer to the question in your IWSG post or let it inspire your post if you are struggling with something to say. 

Remember, the question is optional!

Have you "played" with AI to write those nasty synopses, or do you refuse to go that route? How do you feel about AI's impact on creative writing?

No, I haven’t played with AI. I’m too busy hiding from it. I don’t trust any application that may well have been programmed by someone in a very bad mood the day the program was “born.” I wonder if users of a program (comprised of the thoughts of the programmer), which might here on out be considered “all anyone needs to know about creativity,” could truly produce anything original?  

Can you sue a machine for plagiarism? I like keeping things real.

As far as getting an AI-composed synopsis, I’m skeptical. But it might be worth a try. When it comes to something as personal as creativity, there should be no contest between humans and machines.

I believe everything has a place in this world, but you won’t find weeds in a vase on my table. And I won’t be accepting AI as exceptional in terms of creativity.

According to my writing app (yes, I do use some applications), I’m off to a good start this year. I can almost hear clapping in the background ;-)

Happy Writing!

 

“There’s a page that aches for a word which speaks of a theme that is timeless,”

BE ~ Neil Diamond

 

  

IWSG February 2024 - Modestly Remarkable

Welcome readers, writers, authors, and bloggers!

We're glad you're here! It's the First Wednesday of the month when we celebrate IWSG Day in the form of a blog hop featuring members and guests of the Insecure Writer's Support Group. Founded by author Alex Cavanaugh (Thank you, Captain!) and fostered by like-minded associates, IWSG is a comfortable place to share views and literary news as we record our journeys. Check out the February newsletter here.

The awesome co-hosts for the February 7 posting of the IWSG are:  Janet Alcorn, SE White, Victoria Marie Lees, and Cathrina Constantine!

Today’s entirely optional question:  What turns you off when visiting an author’s website/blog? Lack of information? A drone of negativity? Little mention of the author’s books? The constant mention of books?

I’m not usually shopping when I visit author websites; I’m visiting. So, I’m not keen on sales pitches. But I appreciate the blurbs. I love author blogs because they invariably offer tantalizing tidbits of interest about the author, clues as to why they write what they do, and how they go about marketing. What inspires the author, and where do they store that endless supply of confidence?

“Dare to be remarkable” ~ Jane Gentry

Have you ever noticed how you meet the nicest people in the Greeting Card aisle? Can you imagine meeting someone who would one day change your life in a cemetery? Charles Dickens, born on this day in 1812 with a knack for creating indelible characters, wrote a classic novel around this premise. Have you read “Great Expectations”?

It’s Library Lover’s Month, and we’re right in the middle of Freelance Writers Week. 2024 is a Leap Year, so a few good people might be walking around with an extra birthday later this month. Leap Day is otherwise known as National Time Refund Day.

I love a good mystery, especially when it gets solved, and I wonder how I missed it. Hopefully, between tonight as I write and tomorrow when we meet again, I will have figured out how a perfectly good tub of homemade Red Chile ended up in my washing machine! To Be Continued…

Happy writing!

 

IWSG Sept 2023 12th Anniversary!

 

Welcome readers, writers, authors, and bloggers!

We're glad you're here! It's the First Wednesday of the month when we celebrate IWSG Day in the form of a blog hop featuring members and guests of the Insecure Writer's Support Group. Founded by author Alex Cavanaugh (Thank you, Captain!) and fostered by like-minded associates, IWSG is a comfortable place to share views and literary news as we record our journeys. Check out the September newsletter here.

Our awesome co-hosts this month are:   Sonia Dogra, J Lenni Dorner, Pat Garcia, Sarah - The Faux Fountain Pen, and Meka James!

Happy 12th anniversary, IWSG! I haven’t been around quite that long, but that doesn’t curb my enthusiasm ;-) Cyber hugs all around!

The optional question(s) for this month is: When did you discover the Insecure Writer’s Support Group, how do you connect, and how has it helped you?

My first IWSG post was on May 4, 2016. I talked in somewhat over-flowing prose about stalking my mail carrier for a response to a submission. I shared a quote by Malcolm Forbes about how failure is success if we learn from it. Then I unabashedly wrapped up with a transcribed embrace for all of us: “The surest thing you’ll ever know is when words still flow unfettered…”

As far as I can tell, July 6, 2016, was the very first official Optional Question of the Month. The question was: What’s the best thing someone has ever said about your writing?

My answer was that someone said I paint beautiful word pictures.  The compliment came from an author I deeply loved as a friend and respected as a mentor.  She’s gone now, but her words remain embedded in my heart, indelible proof that someone – and not just anyone – believed in me. I can’t adequately describe how heartening that was. Is. She might as well have been the one jogging behind me the first time I rode my bike without training wheels. The one who let go, knowing I’d be alright.

Encouragement instills confidence, which has everything to do with success. Members of IWSG already know these are just a couple of the many nouns we pass around like reassuring hugs. Inspiration is another. Join us and see for yourself!

I'm on the road today, dear friends. So I'll be just a little behind schedule on my visits ;-)

IWSG July 2022 Choice Worlds

 

Welcome readers, writers, authors, and bloggers!

We’re glad you’re here! It's the First Wednesday of the month; when we celebrate IWSG Day in the form of a blog hop featuring all of the members of the Insecure Writer's Support Group. Founded by author Alex Cavanaugh (Thank you, Captain!) and fostered by like-minded associates, IWSG is a place to share the fabulous views and exciting news that occurs along our fascinating writing journeys. Check out the July newsletter here.  Perusing the many tips and resources offered here is definitely worthwhile and highly rewarding, so pull up a comfy chair, or better yet -  join us!

Our awesome co-hosts for this month's posting of the IWSG are:  J Lenni Dorner, Janet Alcorn, PJ Colando, Jenni Enzor, and Diane Burton!

This month’s optional question is:  If you could live in any book world which one would you choose?

Only one? My first choice (operative word being “world”) would be “Camino Island” by John Grisham. I’d want to be a part of the compelling storyline; peopled with authentic characters I wouldn’t mind knowing, in an ideal coastal setting featuring a charming avantgarde with a dream job. What’s not to like? When the story ended, as they’ve a tendency to do, I’d stay on in a room with a breathtaking view of unyielding storms propelled upon the mainland by an indifferent sea. I’d hang around long enough to watch sea turtles hatch on the beach, along with a couple hundred other spectators.

Before long, I’d have to return to the Sonoran Desert where a 3-day old character named Quinn Quicksilver appeared swaddled in a blanket at dawn one day on a desolate stretch of Arizona highway. Quinn’s story doesn’t involve living in a world so much as an epic journey through one in route to an uncertain future while in search of his unknown past. Who doesn’t enjoy a good adventure now and again?

Can’t wait to read other responses to this month’s optional question!

Until again, be happy, write well!

 

Conviction and the Big Eraser

 

Welcome readers, writers, authors, and bloggers!

For the third time this year, it’s the First Wednesday of the month when we celebrate IWSG Day, in the form of a blog hop featuring all of the members of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group. Founded by Alex Cavanaugh and fostered by like-minded associates, IWSG is a place to share the fabulous views and exciting news that occurs along our fascinating writing journeys. Pull up a chair and join us!

Our awesome co-hosts for this month’s posting of the IWSG are: 

Sarah - The Faux Fountain Pen Jacqui Murray, Chemist Ken, Victoria Marie Lees, Natalie Aguirre, and JQ Rose!

It’s National Write A Letter of Appreciation Week! If you were going to write one, what would your subject be? My topic would be common business sense, but I don’t know who I’d address the letter to just now. ;-)

Amid canceled book and movie contracts, they’ve expanded the definition of cancel-worthy language – yikes! Is “woke” still a word?

Now that Mr. Potatohead has been reduced to just a potato, I wonder what will become of Gumby.

Literary Agents, however, are always looking for new subject matter featuring unique characters from diverse backgrounds cast in distinctively challenging roles. Well, of course, we say. That’s what writers strive to do, we swear. And that’s all well and good as long as we understand the ever-changing rules.

According to the ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom, in the last ten years, Children’s books have been banned or challenged for inappropriate/unsuitable for the age group (in this day and age?), books for YA audiences for featuring a YA main character (because this makes sense?) Further, books containing diverse content were challenged or banned for diverse content.

Now that treasured works by Dr. Seuss have suffered the fate of other greats such as Anne Frank, Roald Dahl, and Dav Pikey, what message does that send to us, the up-and-coming literary icons? We’ve got to be on our game, that’s what. Read till our eyes peel, write our fingers to the bone, use every possible resource available, and remember:

What do we do when the sharpest pencil is still no match for the Big Eraser? Simple. We use indelible words with a conviction that our work will endure and the world will one day right itself. Again.

Has the current “Cancel Culture” affected how you view your writing future? If so, how?

Now that you know what’s been on my mind, what's on yours?

Until again, Happy Writing!

 

 

IWSG - The Form of Stories

 

Welcome readers, writers, authors, and bloggers!

You’re just in time for IWSG Day, which occurs the first Wednesday of every month in the form of a blog hop featuring all of the members of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group. Founded by Alex Cavanaugh and fostered by like-minded associates, IWSG is a place to share the awesome views and exciting news that occurs along our fascinating writing journeys. Pull up a chair and join us!

Our gracious co-hosts this month are:  PJ Colando, J Lenni Dorner, Deniz Bevan, Kim Lajevardi, Natalie Aguirre, and Louise - Fundy Blue!

Our Optional Question of the Month is:  If you could choose one author, living or dead, to be your beta partner, who would it be, and why?  Oh, this is easy. I would love to have Zilpha Keatley Snyder as my partner! From the very first sentence of her book The Velvet Room: “When the tire went flat for the third time that day, it went with a bang.” I was absolutely captivated by the familiar sincerity with which she crafted an atmospheric haven for an overcast life on a black and white page. To this day, I’m inspired by her work.

September is Be Kind to Editors and Writers Month, which is pretty much every day around here ;-) Happy September, everyone!

It’s also Shameless Promotion month! But I’ll save it for another day ;-)

At a time when we’re all looking for something to do besides screen time, movie binging and frequent trips to the fridge – by the way, this gospel singer delightfully nails it -

It’s good to see some of the “old” past times coming back. For instance, knitting, baking, jigsaw puzzles, and board games. And while many creative arts venues are temporarily shuttered, there are a surprising amount of ancient almost-lost arts finding their way back.

Such as Amezeiku – The Japanese art of candy sculpture for which a Takumi (craftsman) has barely five minutes to artfully form (with his fingers) a nearly 200-degree Fahrenheit dollop of candy into the realistic shape of say, a sea turtle, koi, or an octopus – on a stick before the confection hardens. Looks too pretty to eat, don’t you think?

Anyone out there helping out with homeschool?

“If history were told in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten,” ~ Rudyard Kipling

Happy Writing!