Orangeberry Book Collective

How Tweet It Is To Be Loved By You!

It is difficult for new writers to ‘get their work out there.’ We are as a shoal of fish being tossed this way and that in an ever-changing Internet ocean. We are not big fish in a small pond, but tiny, miniscule fish in an Amazonian sea of self-promotions.

We try to stand out. We wrack our brains thinking of this sales technique or that, always trying to entice the reader to read us. After all, being read and enjoyed is the air we breathe, the liberation of a writer’s soul! We scour the Internet looking for information about ‘how to sell.’ Alternatively, those capitalising on our sales ignorance bombard our email boxes, face book pages, and twitter accounts with ‘follow me’ recipes guaranteed to bring instant fortune. Meanwhile, we try to wear every hat, self-promote, write the blog, tweet the tweet, tick the box and like the page, until there is little time left for writing.

This is why some of us have decided to create a new way of operating, of rocking and rolling in this gigantic, virtual ocean. We have realised that by working together and supporting each other, we can do business a different, beautiful way. It involves ‘Paying it Forward.’ We generate goodwill instead of Narcissism, and develop new networks, make new friends and generally don’t feel quite so lonely.

This describes this initiative, Orangeberry Books: a new kind of web site by authors for authors. Many other collaborative promotional initiatives feed into this such as book launches where everyone uses their personal hard-developed networks to help launch each other’s books. After all, for some of us, it is easier to promote someone else’s wonderful work rather than rave about our own. (We are, of course, also capable of that, when asked!) I hope you will support this new initiative. Help the little fish to be noticed. Promote the work of new authors who are dedicated, hard-working, and so deserving!

Big Thank You to all, especially Brian Bianco for creating this wonderful new site! Thank you also to Tammie Clarke Gibbs for creating the great logo!