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PR is one of the most misunderstood (and underestimated) parts of an author’s journey. After 15+ years and 1000+ campaigns, I’ve realised that many people still think PR means: ❌ instant sales ❌ overnight fame ❌ “getting in the press” once But real PR is so much bigger than that. It’s about: ✨ visibility ✨ credibility ✨ discoverability ✨ connection ✨ long-term author growth In my latest blog post, I’m pulling back the curtain on what PR actually means for authors, why expectations can become so unrealistic, and why strategic visibility matters more than ever in today’s crowded publishing landscape. If you’ve ever wondered: “Why isn’t my book selling after coverage?” “What does a publicist actually do?” “Why does PR take time?” …this post is for you. Read via the link in bio @literallypr #AuthorPR #BookPR #LiterallyPR #AuthorBranding #BookMarketing #PublishingIndustry #PublishingLife #IndieAuthor #WritersOfInstagram #AuthorLife #BookPublicity #PRForAuthors #BookLaunch #AuthorMarketing #WritingCommunity #SelfPublishing #VisibilityMatters #Discoverability #BookIndustry #AuthorSupport

Do you love reading? Would you like to choose new books that you'd like to read before everyone else? And have those books sent free to your door (often with extra goodies) in exchange for your honest review? We're particularly looking for #nonfiction reader reviewers at the mo (think memoirs, business guides, self help) but we represent all genres and all readers are welcome! To sign up: https://bit.ly/TBR1 (link also in bio) COME JOIN THE FUN!!!!!!!! #bookreviewerswanted #bookreviewers #bookreviews #bookstagram #freebooks #tbrcommunity #reviewingbooks

📖📮 Book Mail 📮📖 Thank you so much to LiterallyPR and the author for sending me this book to review. Look out for my review on 3rd June Book title: The French Vendetta Author: Simon Michael Series: Charles Holborne Legal Thrillers Book 11 Publisher: Sapere Books Genre: Fiction ● Legal Thriller ● Crime ● Historical Fiction Pages: 368 Blurb: France, 1969 When a rare gap opens in barrister Charles Holborne’s court diary, he and Sally seize the chance for their long-postponed honeymoon. With baby Leia in tow, they seek peace in a friend’s farmhouse deep in the rural heart of Gascony — a picturesque land of vineyards, sleepy village squares and distant Pyrenean peaks. But Charles soon discovers that the village’s charm hides something much darker. Beneath the quiet seethes a poisonous web of old grudges and betrayals — a community still fighting the Second World War, where old crimes refuse to stay buried. Drawn into a simmering vendetta between those who collaborated with the Nazis and those who resisted, Charles has no choice but to defend a client in a place with no judge, no rules, and no law. With a firing squad waiting for the verdict, his defendant’s life is on the line… #Ad #BookMail #Bookstagram #BookLover #BookReviewer

📚✨ Review – Punctuation to the Rescue by Cheryl Olsten ✨📚 Thank you so much to @cherylolsten and @literallypr for sending us this beautiful book 💛 This book is probably aimed slightly older than my wee girl’s age range, but we’ve been really enjoying it together as part of our bedtime routine ✨ She’s loved all the different punctuation characters and their personalities — especially spotting who was who on each page 👀 The illustrations are so colourful and fun. I also really liked how educational it is without feeling too heavy. It has naturally led to chats while we were reading. Such a sweet, clever story with a lovely message throughout, and a really nice one to share together at bedtime 🤍 Blurb In this modern-day fable the distinct personalities of the four main characters come to life. Period, Comma, Exclamation Point, and Question Mark—Punctuation to the Rescue is sure to capture children’s imaginations as they embark on a fun-filled adventure, while learning basic punctuation through this very colorful and exciting story. Exclamation Point is exasperated by how hard it is to do their job when they are so misused. The only way to get their “point” across is to leave! They decide that a sailing trip would be just the solution. Fresh sea air, new horizons to explore. Off to the Island of fun they go…until their sea voyage takes an unexpected turn. #PunctuationToTheRescue

📖📮 Book Mail 📮📖 Thank you so much to LiterallyPR and the author for sending me this book to review. Look out for my review on 1st June Book title: Rübezahl Author: M. Laszlo Publisher: Alkira Genre: Metaphysical ● Visionary Fiction Pages: 350 Blurb: The City of Iluze is under siege, and only Waltraud understands that the fiend Rübezahl is the source of the problem. The winged old man has lived in captivity in the garret of Professor Kaspar's townhouse for decades. Waltraud, a beautiful seventeen-year-old maiden gifted with psychometry and enslaved as a child by Rübezahl, hears his cries and exhortations for release. But only she can hear him. Her refusal to assist in Rübezahl's escape results in the fiend's vengeance: a spell cast over the city in the form of rain, hallucinations, and a strange apathy that afflicts every denizen of the city. Even worse, Rübezahl exacts personal torment for Waltraud by entering her body and mind at critical junctures. The situation is made worse for Waltraud and the citizens of Iluze as journalists fall in line to protect the paranormal abuser and his wishes. #Ad #BookMail #Bookstagram #BookLover #BookReviewer

If your ideal TV weekend line-up would include: ⚖️ The Lincoln Lawyer 🫆 MobLand 🕵️ Peaky Blinders …then take this as your official invite to the world of Charles Holborne. Simon Michael’s bestselling legal thriller series combines: • courtroom drama • organised crime • corruption and power • historical realism • and morally complex characters who you can’t get enough of What makes these books unique is authenticity. Simon Michael isn’t just writing legal thrillers from research alone. He’s a former barrister, and that insider knowledge runs through every courtroom scene, every negotiation, every dangerous compromise. In The French Vendetta, Charles Holborne leaves London for a break in rural France in 1969, only to find himself trapped in a community still haunted by wartime betrayal, collaboration and revenge. Early readers are already loving this one! And it’s already topped the historical thrillers chart on Audible. ★★★★★ “The characterisation is brilliant. And it has the ring of truth about it.” Out 15 May. #TheFrenchVendetta #SimonMichael #CharlesHolborne #LegalThriller #HistoricalCrime

📖📮 Book Mail 📮📖 Thank you so much to LiterallyPR and the author for sending me this book to review. I love the cover, at first glance I thought it was a Galaxy. Then I realised it's a face. Look out for my review on 19th May Book title: Inside Stories: Poems for a Troubled Age Author: Steve Logan Publisher: Moondragon Books Genre: Poetry ● Social Issues ● Self help Pages: 64 Blurb: The poems in this book are attempts to imagine our inner lives – the part of our lives which is most evident to ourselves but often least evident to others. Some of them are directly about the person I imagine myself to be. But most, on the face of it, are about others. I’m aware that all perception is shot through with assumptions, values and prejudices as well as glimmers of self-transcending insight. The act of imagining isn’t a mirror but a lens. Yet I feel that imagining through the lens of ourselves is something we are all doing in every waking moment of our lives as well as in our dreams. Dreaming is anyway the background music of thinking. We refract reality in the attempt to get at it. The whole collection sprang from the first poem in the book, ‘Special Needs’. I met a fearsome-looking but gentle-voiced man who had, like myself, grown up in the South Wales valleys. Unlike me, however, he had lived in his hometown all his life. He had the accent I had till I left and tasted estrangement on my tongue. I felt, in talking to him, a sense of connection and loss. I wondered whether the ‘education’ I’d been sent away to get had been too dearly purchased even though in some respects I was grateful for it. This man described himself as ‘special needs’. I left him feeling that the term applied to everyone in some way or other. We all have special needs. So what the poem describes is not just the man, but how, in meeting him, I saw myself. Instead of regarding my own concerns as a nuisance, I decided to be curious about them. And that led to the rest of the poems, some of which are about people I could claim to know well, but whose mysteries will speak only through the grace which all art hopes to be touched by. #Ad #BookMail #Bookstagram #BookLover #BookReviewer

Thank you so much coachremiwrites @literallypr @browndogbooks for my fab book mail!! Make sure you return to check out my review. Date TBC. This book is being modelled by Ozzy from Golden Oldies Cat Rescue And Hospice . Check out the links in the bio to check out my Facebook Page or if you wish to treat them or help the rescue. PUBLICATION DATE 1ST JUNE. Synopsis One small boy. One big book. A whole lot of trouble. Barnaby Bumstead isn’t your average adventurer. He doesn't have a sword, a map to buried treasure, or a secret superpower. What he does have is a very important book: "The Gentle Art: A Guide to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu." With a dash of defiance, a lot of practice, and a few well-timed tumbles, The Barnaby Bumstead Adventures is a hilarious, action-packed journey about finding your feet (and sometimes landing on your head) in a world that’s constantly trying to trip you up. 🌟 Why Kids Will Love It: - Action-Packed: Fast-paced chapters that keep readers turning the page. - The Martial Arts Twist: A unique focus on Jiu-Jitsu and the power of technique over size. - Relatable Heroes: Characters who make mistakes, get into trouble, and have to find their own way out. Author Bio Remi Makulec lives a bit of a double life in the South West of the UK. When he isn’t consulting on Health & Safety (teaching people how not to get hurt), he’s on the mats teaching Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (showing people exactly how to do the opposite). After years of coaching "mini assassins" and raising two children of his own in Almondsbury, Barnaby finally brought his cast of imaginary characters to life in Barnaby and his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Adventures. He believes that every child has a hero inside them—they just might need a Gi and a good sense of humor to find it. Pre-order Link /products/barnaby-bumstead-and-the-gentle-takedown-remi-makulec

Thank you so much @steveloganmusic @literallypr @moondragonbooks for my brilliant book mail!! Make sure you return to check out my review on the 25th May. This book is being modelled by Dodger from Golden Oldies Cat Rescue And Hospice . Check out the links in the bio to check out my Facebook Page or if you wish to treat them or help the rescue. Synopsis The poems in this book are attempts to imagine our inner lives – the part of our lives which is most evident to ourselves but often least evident to others. Some of them are directly about the person I imagine myself to be. But most, on the face of it, are about others. I’m aware that all perception is shot through with assumptions, values and prejudices as well as glimmers of self-transcending insight. The act of imagining isn’t a mirror but a lens. Yet I feel that imagining through the lens of ourselves is something we are all doing in every waking moment of our lives as well as in our dreams. Dreaming is anyway the background music of thinking. We refract reality in the attempt to get at it. Purchase Link /Inside-Stories-Poems-Troubled-Age/dp/1739672178 Author Bio Steve Logan is a rock musician and poet from South Wales. He has held appointments in English literature at the universities of Oxford, Cardiff and Cambridge, has written for many national newspapers and magazines and works also as a psychotherapist. Steve sees music and poetry as aspects of each other. Words on a page and sounds in the air can used to symbolise states of feeling. In songs words and music coalesce. In poems they yearn for each other. Steve's previous poetry book is Heartlands (2024) a homage to the valleys culture he grew up in, financially poor but in other ways rich. He believes that cultures educate more deeply than colleges. Inside Stories (2026) aims to show that imagination is a lens not a mirror. We are ourselves inescapably present in the way we imagine others. Steve's sixth solo album is Psych Ward (2023). It addresses the question of why in the West we are, for all our privilege, so often discontent. Currently Steve is at work on a new album, a new poetry collection and a memoir.

AD/PR Book Review: Hijab and Red Lipstick by Yousra Imran. Thank you to the author, publisher and Literally PR for the gifted second edition copy of this book. Please see the comments for the synopsis. Sometimes chance moments can change you in some way. Maybe you were in the right place at the right time to see a stunning asteroid shower. Or you’ve actually been at the end of a rainbow. Being able to pick up Hijab and Red Lipstick is that chance moment for me. You see, it’s not my usual genre. Scroll through my posts and you’ll see a concoction of the weird and wonderful. But this… this has truly opened my eyes. I read it with shock, anger, fear at the experiences of girls and women under Guardianship laws amongst the strict Muslim men who choose to twist a religion to bully, scare, beat, and even kill those who don’t conform. But I also learned about the positive side to this religion which can so often be misunderstood by westerners like myself. I adored the character of Sara and her courage to carve out her own life. The novel is based on partial autobiographical experiences and those shared with Yousra Iman from others to create the story. I am truly grateful to the author for educating me about the customs, traditions and rules that women live with in this culture. I never truly understood the fear and terrible reality of being beaten or killed for bringing “shame” on the family by doing things considered haram. And I am in awe of any girl or woman who survives this. I loved this book, despite it being a difficult read in parts, because I truly believe it has changed me. And I hope, one day, it will go some way to help change the experiences of Muslim women under duress and coercion. Don’t let the heavy topics put you off - it’s inspirational and I think you’ll find yourself cheering for Sara as she goes on her journey of self-enlightenment. It can only be a full ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating from me, with a wholehearted recommendation to read this honestly written book. #HijabandRedLipstick #HashtagPress #LiterallyPR #FiveStarRead #BookReviewers

📚 Book review 📚 Thank you to LiterallyPR and the author for a free physical copy in return for an honest review. Book details: In comments Review: 📆 single timeline. 👀 single POV 🐢 -🐇 medium-paced 💬 "'You're going to be OK. You're strong' I l said to myself." I really love the cover on this book, in a way the picture reminds me of the cover on The Handmaid's Tale, which is no surprise as the subject matter is similar in some ways. I also really appreciated the glossary of Arabic terms at the back of the book. There were a few words that I knew, but many that I didn't. It's important to note that this book is not a reflection on Islam, but on a society misaligning it's values in the name of religion. It is my understanding that Islam is a very peaceful religion, where women are revered and protected, though the western media would have you believe otherwise. And whilst this is a work of fiction, it is closely based on Imran's life. It deals with some sensitive topics, so although Amazon have it listed as suitable for ages 13-18, I personally feel that 16+ is more appropriate. The writing was an easy to read, first person narrative set mainly in the past with the occasional "now" chapter. This really worked as a writing style; and along with the short chapters made it easy to read despite the sometimes difficult subject. At times I forgot that this is a work of fiction and was totally absorbed in the story. I found the plot to be a really interesting look at culture, and how men use religion as an excuse. It also showed how even within such a strict society, the same worries and issues affect young women eg "why isn't he texting me back?" or deciding "how far" you should go with a date. I wonder if the strictness actually made Sara more nieve than if she had been raised in the UK. Overall I found this a really enjoyable read (but be aware of the subject matter which is detailed in the author's note before reading). I was surprised to read that this is Imran's first book as the story was so complete and well written. Blurb: In comments #Ad #BookReviewer #FreeReview #HonestReview #HijabAndRedLipstick

📖📮 Book Mail 📮📖 Thank you so much to LiterallyPR and the author for sending me this book to review. Look out for my review on 10th May Book title: Hijab and Red Lipstick (2nd edition) Author: Yousra Imran Publisher: Hashtag Press Genre: Fiction ● Coming of Age ● 12-18 years Pages: 256 Blurb: You cannot do anything in this country without my permission.” For sixteen-year-old Sara, life has always been about following the rules; her father’s rules. Makeup? Haram. Fashion magazines? Haram. Friends who don’t meet his approval? Definitely Haram. When her strict Egyptian dad moves the family to the Arabian Gulf, Sara’s world shrinks overnight. In a place where a woman’s freedom depends on a man’s permission, every dream feels out of reach. But Sara refuses to disappear quietly. As her passion for writing, beauty and independence grows stronger, so does her courage to challenge the expectations that bind her. Can she stay true to her faith while finding her own voice, and a future she chooses for herself? Candid, courageous and unforgettable, Hijab & Red Lipstick (second edition) is a powerful coming-of-age story about identity, patriarchy and the fight to belong - inspired by the experiences of women who dare to defy. #Ad #BookMail #Bookstagram #BookLover #BookReviewer