Early praise for The Guardian’s Wyrd

The Guardian’s Wyrd, a fantasy adventure book set in Hout Bay, has received five star praise ahead of its release today.

The book, written by the prolific writer and editor Nerine Dorman, is available from online stores today and is the story of Jay September, a mixed-race boy from Hout Bay who follows his friend Rowan into the deadly politics of the magical realm of Sunthyst.

Reviewers have called it ‘a lovely, sometimes harrowing, sometimes heartbreaking tale’.

The book is a story of friendship, of magic and best of all: an adventure that will get your kids excited about reading again.

But, here’s more about the book:

Sometimes having a fairytale prince as a best friend can be a real pain.

Jay didn't realise that sticking up for Rowan, the gangly new kid at school, would plunge him into the dangers and politics of the magical realm of Sunthyst. But if anyone is up for the challenge it's Jay September. With his trusty dog, Shadow, at his side, he braves the watcher in the dark that guards the tunnels between the worlds, and undertakes a dangerous quest to rescue the prince.

It's a race against time – can he sneak Prince Rowan away from under King Lessian's nose and bring him safely back home – all before the prince's sixteenth birthday? Or is Rowan's mother, the exiled Queen Persia, secretly trying to hold onto her power by denying her son his birthright?

Jay is ready for anything, except, perhaps, the suffocating darkness of the tunnels. And that howling …

If you’d like to interview the author, or find out more about the book, please don’t hesitate to contact Leani from Wordsmack Publishers at 0834614494 or leani@word-smack.com

You can buy the book by clicking here.
See some of the reviews here.

Cover reveal: The Guardian's Wyrd

It's one of our favourite days here at the Wordsmack office: Cover Reveal Day. The other favourites include publishing day and Friday...

Now, check out the gorgeous illustration by artist Colwyn Thomas for Nerine Dorman's fantasy novel The Guardian's Wyrd:

Lovely. And in case you're wondering, that's a rampant unicorn. They come with fangs and attitude. But, before you go away, check out what this book is about:

Sometimes having a fairytale prince as a best friend can be a real pain.

Jay didn't realise that sticking up for Rowan, the gangly new kid at school, would plunge him into the dangers and politics of the magical realm of Sunthyst. But if anyone is up for the challenge it's Jay September. With his trusty dog, Shadow, at his side, he braves the Watcher in the dark that guards the tunnels between the worlds, and undertakes a dangerous quest to rescue the prince.

It's a race against time - can he sneak Prince Rowan away from under King Lessian's nose and bring him safely back home - all before the prince's sixteenth birthday? Or is Rowan's mother, the exiled Queen Persia, secretly trying to hold onto her power by denying her son his birthright?

Jay is ready for anything, except, perhaps, the suffocating darkness of the tunnels. And that howling…

Sign up here to be notified when the book has gone live on Amazon and other digital platforms: http://www.word-smack.com/#!newsletter/c152j 

AND add it to your To Read list on Goodreads here.

The Ripmender is live!

And ready for downloading

Johannesburg, 6 May 2014 – A science fiction romance novel set in part in Durban and on an alien planet? Done. Wordsmack Publishers is excited to announce that The Ripmender by Julianne Alcott, has gone live today. The novel follows Cathy as she tries to navigate going from a friendless, isolated first-year to the best friend of the world’s biggest teen rock-sensation, Nathan Jake.

As the demand for ‘off-centre’ fiction takes off in South Africa, authors like Lauren Beukes, Charlie Human and Cat Hellisen are becoming known for meshing supernatural elements with local backdrops. Zombies in Cape Town and aliens in Durban – it’s the next wave of fiction in a country teeming with interesting and shocking stories.

The Ripmender is part of this trend as it brings science fiction and romance to teen and young adult readers. Teen readers especially will relate to the multicultural characters and the local language used in the book.

More about the book:

“In the real world, one’s idols end up going to rehab or jail, or marrying someone for three days. They don't end up being from another planet.”

Cathy Slater dreams of meeting the love of her life ... teen rock sensation, Nathan Jake. Of course, this is impossible – he is adored by millions, and she has trouble fitting into her own family. Even if he is a tutor at her university, she can’t compete with the packs of adoring fans constantly surrounding him.

But then her life changes forever when she stumbles onto Nathan Jake’s biggest secret. She wasn’t meant to see what he could do … what he was.

Becoming part of his secret means that Cathy is thrown head first into his world – the one in which Ripmenders keep unsuspecting worlds like ours safe from invasion. And then there are the jealous super-fans to deal with …

But can Nathan ever reciprocate Cathy’s feelings? As she discovers more about the Ripmenders and the shadowy organisation that runs them, the more she worries that his cold, calm demeanor will never give way to the loving man she always imagined him to be. Follow the couple from South Africa across the galaxy to fantastical planets through the rips of space.  View it here

About the author:
Julianne Alcott lives in Durban where she works as a librarian at a primary school library. She loves inventing strange plots that she then can research – she’s done it all – from rubbing stinging nettles on her skin to going to the mall with a borrowed wheelchair.  She loves hearing from readers, so send her a Tweet @JulianneAlcott or visit her blog at http://juliannealcott.wordpress.com. She’s also on Wattpad, and every so often publishes stories for free.

For more information on the book, the speculative fiction industry in South Africa or for an interview with Julianne, please don’t hesitate to connect with me at 0834614494.

Using Instagram to market your books

Monique, our bright-eyed intern was given the task of starting an Instagram account and making it work as something that added value and promoted our books. Here are some of the lessons she learnt:

Instagram for Dummies:

I created an Instagram account based on all things geeky called Geeksmack. I have been struggling with the question of how to make it successful and how to gain followers. So, I made a point of learning how to Instagram and how to do it well. Below are a few tips I have learnt along the way.

·           First of all you have to decide what you want to get out of the Instagram account you are going to create. You have to decide if you want to use the account to market a brand or just for personal use.

·           You need to create an interesting username, interesting short biography and post a picture on your account that depicts what you’re trying to convey to the users of Instagram.

·           The pictures that you post need to be relevant to your profile and its purpose. These pictures are a representation of what you're trying to put out there for other people to see and to essentially gain many followers.

Making Instagram successful and gaining followers:
To start you must post pictures that are of good quality, interesting, original and unique and that attract people to want to follow.

When posting hashtags on pictures, they must be relevant and categorical. If people search that particular hashtag, they will end up finding your posts. Do not over kill it with hashtags and write a short description, so people will be encouraged to comment.
It’s important to like and comment on other people’s posts. This is a good way of interacting and gaining followers through this. 

Ideally, in order to gain followers in Instagram you want to target people that are similar to what you are portraying on your profile. A good way to do this is to search hashtags under the categories you are interested in, for example searching #sci-fi. By doing this you can find people who have similar interests to you and follow them and gain followers in return. 

Follow the followers of the people who you are already following or are following you.


Monique De Nobrega is a 22 year old Journalism Degree graduate from The University of Johannesburg. She has a passion for writing with the hopes of one day fulfilling her dream of becoming the editor of Cosmopolitan magazine. This all started from when she was a young girl and developed a love of books and reading. “I enjoyed reading so much that I never wanted to do my homework after school. Books were my enjoyment and entertainment growing up, so was writing every day in my journal.” Her favorite author out of all the books she has read is Jodie Picoult. “Picoult tells the story how it happens in real life and not the happier, faker version of the story”.  Besides reading and writing, she’s a huge animal lover and hates cruelty to animals.

Calling all book bloggers!

Here at Wordsmack Publishers we realise the power of book bloggers - we love that the Internet has made it possible for anyone's voice to be heard. So get hold of us and we'll send you ARCs and cover reveals and interviews and all kinds of goodies!

If you're into speculative fiction - fantasy, sci-fi, paranormal - that kind of stuff, then our books are right up your alley. 

Currently, we have two Young Adult books waiting to be reviewed and published, here's more info on them:


The Ripmender by Julianne Alcott:

"In the real world, your idol usually ends up in rehab or, even worse, at a wedding altar in some tacky Vegas chapel. What they don't do is tell you they are from another planet ... Just my luck!"

Cathy Slater dreams of meeting the love of her life ... teen rock
sensation, Nathan Jake.

He's adored by millions, while she has trouble even fitting into her own family! Although he is a tutor at her university, there is no way she can compete with the packs of worshipping fans constantly surrounding him.

But then fate intervenes and her life changes forever when she stumbles onto Nathan's biggest secret ... She wasn't meant to see what he can do ... what he is ... Now there's no going back.

Who are the Ripmenders and what is their purpose here on Earth?

Follow Cathy across the galaxy as she uncovers the truth about the shady organisation behind Nathan's secret. Can she ever truly understand the mystery behind the man she loves? ... Or will an enemy from the past ruin everything?


The Guardian's Wyrd by Nerine Dorman:

Sometimes having a fairytale prince as a best friend can be a real pain.

Jay didn't realise that sticking up for Rowan, the gangly new kid at school, would plunge him into the dangers and politics of the magical realm of Sunthyst. But if anyone is up for the challenge it's Jay September. With his trusty dog, Shadow, at his side, he braves the watcher in the dark that guards the tunnels between the worlds, and undertakes a dangerous quest to rescue the prince.

It's a race against time - can he sneak Prince Rowan away from under King Lessian's nose and bring him safely back home - all before the prince's sixteenth birthday? Or is Rowan's mother, the exiled Queen Persia, secretly trying to hold onto her power by denying her son his birthright?

Jay is ready for anything, except, perhaps, the suffocating darkness
of the tunnels. And those eyes ...

~

Talk to Wordsmack by checking out our details here: www.word-smack.com

Books for the price of a cup of coffee

Publishers have been vocal recently about the fact that you can now buy a book for the same price as a cup of coffee. Isn't that sad, they lament? How will it last? Well, of course we'd also like to make big profits and pay rent and eat something other than 2 Minute Noodles. But for now, we need to get more people with those eyeballs of theirs onto our books so that their minds can also be blown by how incredible (and sometimes a little scary) our authors' minds are.

To do list:
#1: blow people's minds
#2: make money when Hollywood comes a-knocking
#3: eat something other than 2 Minute Noodles

So therefore, the point, dearies, of this rant: Look at what you get for a measly R20 these days. It's not much. OR you can spend R20 on a book which will blow your mind, broaden your horizons and leave you looking down at your old school friends who clearly are not as impressive as you are.

Below shows: you can buy a Woolies smoothie, a cup of coffee (not even a double shot anymore), a song on iTunes, a cheapass app or ten diapers. OR you can do better.

This price is only available on the awesome Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/the-folds 

We were generous and thought we'd even look at what R40 can give you. It includes a Woolies meal, better apps, or a movie on box office movie and some homemade popcorn (no easy popping for you). OR the brain explosion thing.

This price is only available on the awesome Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/idea-war

Be good, but if you can't, you may as well enjoy.

Leani

Get to know your business geeks. Part 1

I stumbled across a magazine last week that left me with a renewed sense of impressed-ness (I'm keeping that word) at how creative and innovative our little industry is here at tip of the continent. Spliced Magazine is a digital mag, based in Joburg, aimed at the geek community. It looks and feels like something with an enormous budget and teams of clever and artistic people. But, having stalked the poor editor (online. for now ...) I realised it's pulled together by three people: Pippa Tshabalala, Chris Savides and Tim Hulme.

Having worked at a magazine I fully realise how difficult it is to just publish it, never mind getting it to look this good and have great content. However, what I had to be reminded of (and that was mentioned in the first Spliced editorial) is that there are incredible initiatives like this, but somehow we don't know about them or they don't get enough face-time on traditional media platforms. 

So this week's blog is dedicated to amazing small businesses or operators that are working to bring great content or services to a growing market that is looking for original content or original ideas for everyday issues. Share it around and support them and keep the hope alive!

The publications:
Something Wicked is a horror anthology and Jungle Jim a pulp fiction magazine both based in Cape Town. Both accept writing from local authors and the magazines give them the opportunity to be published, which adds a whole new level of craft to their work, we can tell. These are also cracking good reads bringing a local relevance to horror and speculative fiction that for long has been missing from our shores.

Spliced, as mentioned above, is giving 'geek' a sexy new look. Well worth the read (or you can just ogle the editor's boobs).

The competition:
Nova short story competition - Run by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Association (say that fast, I dare you), the Nova is a short story competition in the speculative genre. This year it was judged by Lauren Beukes (the author) and Arthur Goldstuck (of WorldWideWorx), among others. This opportunity gives local, green writers an incredible leg-up in terms of the quality of their work. And we can see it in the quality of their writing.

The venues:
Deetwenty Geeking Venue:  A house in Blairgowrie dedicated to gaming and other geek endeavours. It's where the Trekkies meet and other gamers can drink coffee and do their thing.

Fairy Gothmother: An arts and crafts coffee shop in Linden where you can go find your 'inner geek' or buy geek merch. Having gone to school in Linden I can tell you, a geek shop  here is a development worth mentioning. It means the community is growing and businesses are catering to our needs.

Outer Limits: A brilliant comic bookstore that gives you everything geek-related your heart desires. Think the comic bookstore in Big Bang theory - exactly that. 

The events company:
Orsum Source: A collaborative effort by ourselves and Kate Barnes - we're organising geek-centric events including a Steampunk picnic and Live Action Role Play (Larp) parties. Enough with hipster food markets over the weekends!

The platforms:
Paperight - Making it cheaper to study, Paperight turns any old photocopy shop into a bookstore by allowing customers to print their textbooks there. This is an incredible initiative in a country where textbooks are prohibitively expensive and access to bookstores  is a real problem for many school goers.

bookly - So it's pretty clear that we have a massive thing for this business. In case you haven't read any of our older blog posts, bookly is a reader for cellphones - and this includes feature phones, not just smartphones, bringing free books to millions of people in South Africa. You can access the app on Mxit and see how many people have read and liked a range of local (and classic) books. It's a library on your cell.

The Community:
Make Games SA is a registered association and an online community for professional, hobbyist and student game developers, artists, designers for support in creating games. Very nice. Check them out: 

The stuff:
Arwen Garmentry: Ok, so they've been around for years, but their gorgeous work often features on the wish lists of Steampunkers and anyone else, really, that has seen some of the beautiful clothes they make. 

Sin Bin: This business creates custom accessories, clothing and illustrations and has a loyal following among the cosplayers in SA. 

This list is by no means done, we'll publish a Part 2 soon!

Stay cool, and support your local business geeks!

Leani