ThankBookFor ThankBookFor

ThankBookFor ThankBookFor

I've been mentally composing this post all week.

There's been some cracking intros firing off in my head, so you won't be surprised to hear that I'm now struggling to decide how to begin. I've got a blank screen in front of me and I'm not sure how to go about using it.

I guess, begin at the start. The title.

ThankBookFor ThankBookFor.

It's good, isn't? It uses the name of the initiative to give thanks to the initiative. Forgive the indulgence, but that's a bit bloody clever, like.

Now, if you'll kindly refer to every blog post we've ever done (bit dramatic that) then you'll notice that the title of each blog post starts with the words ThankBookFor.

ThankBookFor Reading Groups.

ThankBookFor Podcasts: All About the King.

ThankBookFor Margot Robbie and the Forgiving Nature of my Wife.

ThankBookFor Audio Books.

ThankBookFor Borrower Status: Legend.

Okay, the middle one is more speculative than the others, something I'd love to be able to write about as opposed to something I have written about, but you can see the theme. The idea of giving thanks for whatever it is the blog post pertains to. There's a system.

In my head I'd imagined that the blog post with the title ThankBookFor ThankBookFor would be an ode to a tremendous body of inspirational work. A chronicle of all ThankBookFor's many and varied achievements over the last...10 years. About how it went from being run on goodwill and staunch belief to generating a thousand pounds a day. But still being run on goodwill, because that's more cost effective.

I wouldn't have to type any words for such a blog post, simply copy and paste quotes from the hundreds of fan emails we'd be getting every day. Emails that are full of praise and love and endorsements.

'ThankBookFor's inspirational podcast series on how to be the best you can be, regardless of how good you are at whatever it is you're being the best you can be at, really struck a chord with me. Thank you ThankBookFor.'

Derek Gardner, Daydreamer from Sedgley

'Without the guidance of the ThankBookFor Bringing People Together event, and the ThankBookFor Sarcasm podcasts, I would never have met my ex husband. 'Thank you', ThankBookFor.'

Ms Lorraine Smith, Kilmarnock

'The blog post entitled ThankBookFor Margot Robbie and the Forgiving Nature of my Wife was amazing. I think

about it often. What an experience!'

Tom, ThankBookFor

So yeah, there's normally a system. But not here.

Had you noticed, out of interest, that so far in this blog post, including this instance right here, you've read the term ThankBookFor 21 times. Were you getting sick of it? (Spare a thought for me, I've edited the bloody thing.) Were you even aware of it?(THAT ONE'S CALLED SUBLIMINAL.)

I guess what I'm slowly ambling towards telling you is that, as the person behind a public venture, I'm very aware that 'getting it out there' is a big part of the package. That every time a person reads or hears the term ThankBookFor, it's a good thing. Because marketing. And if you've got something that you need to 'sell', be it a future £1k a day venture, a book, an idea, a range of perfume or even a proposal for Margot Robbie, then you need to be able to get that thing to as many people as possible (or Margot Robbie specifically). And if you haven't got a big budget behind you then these days, the way to go about doing that is to utilize social media.

Which leads me very neatly into telling you all about Social Up Your Media, an event that ThankBookFor is hosting. Hosting, but, you'll be delighted to hear, not running. Remember Suzie from the Suzie Speaks podcast? You know, Overall Blog of the Year 2016? Over 640 000 views? Well, she's pretty good at the old social media stuff and she's agreed to run the workshop for us.

It'll be on Sunday October 30th, in Birmingham, at Thimblemill Library. There's more information on the workshop HERE, but suffice to say I think it's going to be a really useful event. In all seriousness, I know a lot of publishers are asking authors to make sure they have a social media platform, so a course like this should be right up any aspiring author's street.

ThankBookFor wouldn't have had anywhere near as much success (relative term) without social media, and I'm genuinely excited to explore other ways of using it to help further

Moving on, there's just a couple more things I wanted to mention. Firstly, our Halloween releases. We'll be doing a couple of podcasts with a Paranormal Investigative team from the West Midlands. One will be with them directly, where we'll be talking about the kinds of things they encounter, favourite locations and the stories behind the things they investigate. And then, in the second podcast, we'll be accompanying them on an actual Ghost Hunt in an actual (reportedly) haunted location! Exciting stuff.

We're also going to be running a competition around November time. The prize for the competition will be quite special. There'll be proof copies of books, actual books, comics, the chance to be named in a future blog post (Not the Margot Robbie one) as well as the international recognition that comes with being associated with TBF. To take part, follow us @ThankBookFor and keep your eyes peeled.

So there it is. It could have been written as

'We have an event on soon, here's the link. Like Ghosts? Then you'll love our Halloween podcasts. Like books? Stay tuned.'

But it wasn't.