Category: Spotlight

Book Spotlight: The DIY Musician's Radio Handbook

11/19/2016

The DIY Musician's Radio Handbook: How To Grow Hack Your Fan Base Using Indie Radio Airplay
by D. Grant Smith

Synopsis

Musicians are constantly looking for opportunities to reach new audience. Radio airplay continues to be one of the best outlets to grow your audience and reach new fans. Yet getting your music on the radio is complicated and difficult for many artists. How can you get your music heard on radio so that you can build a stronger and larger audience?
The DIY Musician's Radio Handbook illustrates a practical and thorough step-by-step process for gaining radio airplay AND building solid connections with the people who make radio happen. Jump into the mind of a radio programmer to discover what works and why to gain radio, media, and music industry success with your music.
Author D Grant Smith is not just a music marketing pro. He's the creator and host of the internationally syndicated program The Appetizer Radio Show, and a former radio station manager. In the book, you'll see why radio programmers make their picks on what music gets picked up, and how you can get your music on their radar. Discover the proven process that has helped countless musicians go from unknown and undiscovered to known and celebrated through indie radio airplay. For creative entrepreneurs outside of music, this book is also helpful in seeing how creating human connections and valuing others is the means to create growth that provides long-term benefits. Bloggers, authors, and media creators can gain insights here too.

About the Author

D Grant Smith is the host & creator of The Appetizer Radio Show, a syndicated variety music program that began in 2003. Over the past decade+, Smith has helped musicians get discovered & grow through indie radio airplay like Lindsay Katt, The Rocketboys, William Fitzsimmons, Kelley McRae, Birds Over Arkansas and many more. His experience with The Appetizer Radio Show's growth through syndication taught him what works in marketing media to media, which has helped to fuel his work as "the audience Growth Farmer." Using principles from Dale Carnegie, Zig Ziglar and community building, Smith helps musicians and creative entrepreneurs build supportive communities of superfans through relationship building. His work includes private mentoring, workshops, and speaking engagements where storytelling and empowerment are used to create vibrant and powerful transformations.

https://www.facebook.com/thedgrantsmith

https://wwww.twitter.com/Appetizerradio
http://dgrantsmith.com/books

Amazon: http://amzn.to/2eDJ6pn

Kindle: http://amzn.to/2fS9m1e

1 Comment

Spotlight: The Boy with the Hawk-Like Eyes

8/26/2016

5 Comments

THE SPRITE SISTERS: THE BOY WITH HAWK-LIKE EYES (Vol 6)
Genre: Fantasy, YA, Middle Grade
By Sheridan Winn

THE SPRITE SISTERS
FOUR SISTERS
FOUR ELEMENTS
FOUR POWERS
FIRE WATER EARTH AIR

The Boy With Hawk-like Eyes marks a transition in the Sprite Sister series. The sixth title, it introduces Zak – a boy with dark magic and a new pupil at Drysdale’s School – who brings an invasion of vile, insect-like creatures to Sprite Towers.
‘Have you ever thought about flying?’ said Zak.
Ariel blinked. ‘In an aeroplane?’
‘No. Lifting your arms and soaring into the air.’
Ariel stared at Zak. She could feel his eyes boring into her and the colour rising in her cheeks. She had been flying over Sprite Towers last night!
What should she say? ‘No,’ she said, with a shake of her head. ‘Why, have you?’
Zak grinned. ‘Yes – flying is cool. You should try it.’
It is a year and a half since the Sprite Sisters last used their magic powers. Amidst much bickering, Flame and Marina are busy with their teenage social lives and even Ash seems to have forgotten about magic.
As Ariel harnesses her power of Air to learn to fly, a strange boy comes to Sprite Towers and the family is threatened by the invasion of terrifying, insect-like creatures. With dark magic unleashed in the old house and the air turning poisonous, the Sprite Sisters must quickly find a way to remember their powers.

About the Author

The idea for a series of books about four sisters with magical powers aligned to the four elements popped out at 1.30am on 22nd January 2007, as Sheridan was writing her diary. She noted down the one-sentence idea, and when she woke next morning had the certain feeling that this was the idea she had been waiting for.

She approached Piccadilly Press, which commissioned the first Sprite Sister novel, The Circle of Power. She has since published eight Sprite Sister titles, with another five to come (two main and three prequel stories). In Germany, Fischer Verlag’s sales of Sprite titles have surpassed 500,000.

Sheridan was born in Norfolk, England, and grew up in a big, rambling house in the country that became the inspiration for Sprite Towers.
The eldest of four sisters, she drew on many childhood experiences as inspiration for the stories.

After boarding school she gained a degree in graphic design, followed by a postgraduate teaching certificate. For 25 years she worked with her illustrator husband as his business and creative manager. Together they produced a number of children’s picture books, along with the ‘Mad Gadget’ cartoon, which was the most popular strip in Daily Telegraph’s ‘Young Telegraph’ newspaper for over seven years.

In 2001, Sheridan changed career and became a freelance journalist specialising in lifestyle features and profiles of international business leaders. Today she spends the greater part of her time writing fiction.

In 2014, Sheridan wrote Boudica’s Daughters, a YA novel about two pairs of sisters living two thousand years apart. Essentially, a modern-day tale about coming to terms with a terrible violation, the story of the daughters of Queen Boudica of the Iceni tribe echoes that of today.

A lively and engaging speaker, Sheridan enjoys the chance to interact with her readers and other writers. She lives in Norwich and has two grown-up children and a granddaughter. She has a keen interest in the Arts and finds walking a good way to think up ideas. She always carries a notebook.

http://www.sheridanwinn.com

On Goodreads: http://bit.ly/2aJBqNH
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sheridanwinn/
On Twitter: https://twitter.com/SheridanWinn

The Sprite Sisters: The Boy with Hawk-Like Eyes (Vol 6) on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2b8dsMX
{FREE ON AMAZON FROM AUGUST 24th-28th}
The Sprite Sisters: Magic at Drysdale's School (Vol 7) on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2aOj041
{ON SALE FOR 99 CENTS ON AUGUST 29th}
The Sprite Sisters: The Mystery of the Locked Room (Vol 8) on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2aOj9Ew
{FREE ON AMAZON FROM SEPTEMBER 2nd-6th}

5 Comments

Introducing.....Ally Condie's Summerlost

3/29/2016

1 Comment

Praise:

A Spring 2016 Kids' Indie Next List Top 10 Pick!

Named one of Publishers Weekly’s Most Anticipated Children’s and YA Books of Spring 2016

« “Condie (Matched) strikes a deep emotional chord with this coming-of-age story.” – Publishers Weekly, starred review

« “Multiple, seemingly random details, including a family of turkey vultures that now roost outside Cedar’s window, an absurd soap opera narrative of a woman buried alive, and Leo’s quest for a trip with his father, coalesce into metaphors that help Cedar make sense of her grief and the life she now has to look forward to. Thoughtful, poetic chapter endings guide readers new to psychological depth toward meaningful connections between plot events and thematic reflections.” – BCCB

“A moving tale of friendship and loss. I loved these characters—I wish we could have been friends when I was a kid.” –Brandon Mull, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Fablehaven and Five Kingdoms series

“Ally Condie’s first middle grade book might also be my favorite out of ALL her books to date. Summerlost is a story packed with nostalgia, heart, and gorgeous prose.” – The Novel Novice

“A nuanced portrait of grief deeply grounded in the middle-school mind-set.” – Booklist

“Honest, lovely, and sad.” – Kirkus Reviews

“A sweet, heartfelt story.” – School Library Journal

“Achingly good.” – Summer Laurie, Books Inc.

Letter from Ally:

Dear Readers,

I think most of us have had our hearts broken. Sometimes we can see it coming, and sometimes it comes down with the unexpected force of a sudden gale of wind or a rising of waters that we thought were still and safe. Loss is universal to human experience, but the way we each feel and recover is one of the most personal things we do.

In Summerlost, Cedar is dealing with the loss of her father and younger brother. And my intent was to show how hard their deaths are for her. But this is also a book about the healing power of friendship. Most of us have been broken-hearted; I hope that most of us have also discovered the miracle of friendships that were just what we needed. Cedar and Leo’s friendship is based on someone I met when I was twelve. Like Leo, my friend was fun and liked to enlist me in crazy adventures (although we never gave a secret guided tour of our town the way they do in Summerlost). And, like Leo, he thought I was wonderful and of worth at a time when I needed it most.

SUMMERLOST is my attempt to pay tribute both to the pain we feel and the friendships that save us. Thank you so much for supporting this book, and for your willingness to give Cedar’s story a try. I hope it makes you think of a wonderful friend of your own, whether that is someone you met in the pages of a favorite book or outside, in the world where it is often hard and beautiful to live.

Best wishes and happy reading always,
Ally Condie

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Links:

Buy:
Penguin Random House: http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/534589/summerlost-by-ally-condie/
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0399187197/ref=x_gr_w_bb?ie=UTF8&tag=x_gr_w_bb-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0399187197&SubscriptionId=1MGPYB6YW3HWK55XCGG2
Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/summerlost-ally-condie/1122291979
Indiebound: http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780399187193?aff=penguinrandom

a Rafflecopter giveaway

1 Comment

Spotlight: Further Than Yesterday: That's All That Counts

12/9/2015

2 Comments

Further Than Yesterday:
That's All That Counts
by Medric "Cous" Cousineau, SC, CD

Synopsis
A high-functioning, Royal Military College graduate becomes a naval aviator in a high stress career. What grips him and pushes him to the very brink of despair, so close that he almost steps off into a black abyss that is terminally irreversible?

Further Than Yesterday, is the first hand account that answers that question. The story chronicles of a journey of Hope that delivers a unique perspective of the battles with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder including the devastating effects of Institutional Betrayal by the Armed Forces. The desperate suicidal aviator is saved by an unlikely partner, Thai, a service dog trained to intervene in PTSD.

Captain (Ret.) Cousineau’s story starts out following a young officer’s career that showed great promise before quickly turning into a sojourn in a personal hell that threatens his life, his marriage and his family after a perilous, daring high seas rescue. For the rescue, Cousineau became the first RMC graduate to be awarded the Star of Courage.
With stark candor, the first person account follows not only his struggles to deal with a devastating injury and the complexity of addictions, but parallels the evolution of a misunderstood injury that has become the scourge of modern militaries and the societies that they protect.

Decades in Hell are replaced with a new outlook and a burning desire to help others obtain help through the acquisition of highly trained specialized service dogs to help veterans combat PTSD. The challenges of PTSD and the horrific effects on a family left Cousineau in a position where he needed outside help to secure the greatest aid to his recovery and re-integration with his family. Paws Fur Thought became his way to give back that which he was so freely and fortunately given.

To fund the Paws Fur Thought Initiative, Thai the Service Dog and Cousineau undertook a grueling Long Walk to Sanity, a thousand and sixty five kilometer march over 50 days, during which he was forced to look deep inside himself and his injury, learning essential information in the process of teaching others about PTSD, the misunderstood mental injury that carries a huge weight of Stigma.

Further than Yesterday will challenge the reader to confront their own humanity, and their society’s betrayal of its military veterans. The story is a raw, brutal and poignant journey that confronts head on mental health issues including the “Black Dog” of Depression and Suicide.

About the Author

Cous, a Royal Military College graduate with a degree in English, was injured doing Search and Rescue in 1986, and was awarded the Star of Courage. He has battled PTSD ever since, and in 2012 was paired with his PTSD Service Dog, Thai. As a result, his wife Jocelyn and he co-founded Paws Fur Thought, an initiative that fund raises and advocates to pair other disabled veterans with their Service Dogs. “Further Than Yesterday” is the first volume of a pending trilogy. Cous has been awarded a Mental Health Inspiring Lives award and recognized as the PetLynx Urban Animal Innovator of the Year in 2014. When not busy writing and delivering motivational speeches, Cous can be found reading, traveling, studying history, fishing, listening to music and walking his dog at the beach. Cous also shares the house with his wife, her Service Dog, several cats and their grown daughter Jennifer when she chooses.

On Facebook: Paws Fur Thought - http://on.fb.me/1RADHd5
On Facebook: Further Than Yesterday - http://on.fb.me/1H9Ftwk
@pawsfurthought1
www.furtherthanyesterday.com
On Amazon: http://amzn.to/1H9FdgG

2 Comments

Book Spotlight: The DIY Musician's Radio Handbook

About the Author

Spotlight: The Boy with the Hawk-Like Eyes

About the Author

Introducing.....Ally Condie's Summerlost

Spotlight: Further Than Yesterday: That's All That Counts

About the Author

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