MEADOWMANIA -- GOOGLE, ARE YOU WATCHING?

THE MEADOW by Mike O'Hare and Elfreda Pretorius. Available at most of the usual book outlets, including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Borders, Chapters etc. There is a whole new world created when the marketing machine gets into gear. Here's where it's important to get the right image and interest going with the intention of creating a sound or an image that will stick. Of course, once the book has been read, everything changes course and a more subtler approach is made.

There must be thousands of different ways to promote The Meadow by way of this new buzz word -- Meadowmania. This is how the professional advertising people work -- using something that they know will catch on quickly and bringing it into public awareness. Of course, just like any advertised product, the quality has to be there. It's no use having a great slogan with a product that doesn't back it up. In time, Elfreda and I hope that the title of our book will become a household name.

I'm hoping that the members here who have read The Meadow will agree with what I'm attempting to do. Marketing is not an easy task. The first thing that must happen is that a 'gimmick' gets people talking. Word of mouth is the most powerful of all marketing tools and without that, all else fails.

I would be very interested to learn of the number of members who have obtained the book so far. We have no stat counter or automatic feedback. Even Amazon only give our publishers feedback every quarter so we are in the dark as to how well the book is doing. One thing I know for sure is that our American friends are carrying the flag for us so far. Many thanks to all of you who have took the time to make comments about the story, especially Bree from the US and Linda F from Canada who have been in direct contact with me.

Many thanks also to the other readers who are not members of our network yet, particularly the lady who rang me (in the middle of the night lol) from Iowa in the US, tearfully thanking us for bringing out information that she always hoped would happen. And I can't let go the comment from the guy on Facebook who said "Dan Brown, eat your heart out." Compliments like that don't come any better.