A press release for my book- opinions please

[Nocturnal Stillness]

First of all good evening.

I have been on these forums (well the last one for awhile) but since the change I havent really been on much due to other commitments.

Anyway the point of this topic is simple, those of you who know me on this forum or its last incarnation will be aware that I am a wannabe author and Ive written a book which I am self-publishing with a website called lulu. The book has taken me over five years to do writing, checking, re-editing, finding errors, correcting errors etc Well eventually I paid for a professional editor and now the book is available to buy.

but at the moment book shops do not have to physically stock the book if they dont want to. Stocking it would mean more people would get to see it, so I approached a few of my local bookshops to enquire on if they would be willing to stock it I even offered to supply a few copies free of charge for them to sell at a 100% profit. I was told they would be interested but first I would have to do a press release for them, so ive made one took me a couple of days but I think its ready.

But before I print it off and take it to the stores, Im searching for opinions on it so here it is, opinions please.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Looking for a book that breaths life back into the undead? New horror Anthology promises that and more!

Want to read a vampire story with more than just bite? Then new horror Anthology `Vampire City & Tales from the Shadows intends to provide you with that an more!

Vampire City & Tales from the Shadows by Matthew Bellingham is a horror anthology featuring four different horror tales. Vampire city begins with a desperate phone call in the middle of the night, between friends Simon and Jason. Simon is terrified and Jason promises to go to him as soon as he can, unknowingly catapulting himself into a world of vicious, life-thirsty vampires.
Holocaust of the Dead follows in gory style; a suspected dog attack victim is far more sinister than his partially dismembered body would suggest...
Mars 2050 and Project Z complete the book unlike the previous two tales these stories are mixed with science-fiction as well as the usual horror the others contain.

Matthew has been writing on and off since his first year of high school at the age of twelve and wrote one of the stories of this anthology two years later which got him an `A Grade from his English Teacher.

"I believe most horror readers will enjoy this book" says Matthew, "As a horror fan myself I ve tried to write stories that I d like and this will hopefully be a sentiment shared by the readers."

Matthew writes part-time in-between a full time job working in a Pharmacy stores of his local hospital. He also designed and runs two websites. One designed for his work and one he hopes will blossom into a community for fellow writers of horror, science-fiction and fantasy.

Reader reviews

"Okay, put all of your preconceived thoughts away. Matthew Bellingham s book, Vampire City and Tales from the Shadows, is NOT just another vampire story. Sure, there are lots of them out there. We all know who Anne Rice is. Stephenie Meyer has earned her place on the New York Times Bestseller with her "thick" YA series. But Bellingham has actually written a book that has a bit more to offer than just some dramatic old blood sucking villains. His book has much more than bite!"

[Review by Shannon Yarbrough]

For the full review including a more in-depth look at the individual stories here is the link;

http://lulubookreview.wordpress.com/2008/07/12/review-21-vampire-city-and-tales-from-the-shadows/

"Vampire City and Tales from the Shadows by Matthew Bellingham is full of plenty of action and adventure. If you are into Vampires, Zombies, guns and other wild critters of the "shadows" then this is the book for you. Bellingham doesn t hold back on the descriptive nature of his stories. I wouldn t read this and then be alone! Kudos to author Matthew Bellingham for bringing to life that of the undead and scary nature!"

[Review by Anastasia Cassella-Young]

For the full review here is the link;

http://www.anastasiasbookattic.com/reviewteam/reviews.html

that is everything bar some book information like page count and isbn but that isnt important for this post.

So now youve read it what do you think? Does it interest you? Does it bore you? have a missed anything?

[seth ranson]

Ok, first of all, congratulations on making it this far.
Second, I m just some average guy that hasn t really got any experience in this (I doubt many people here have, so you should know that anyway), so don t decide anything important because of what I wrote. Not that I d think you would, I wrote that just to be sure.

Third: Five things:

Vampire city begins with a desperate phone call in the middle of the night, between friends Simon and Jason. Simon is terrified and Jason promises to go to him as soon as he can, unknowingly catapulting himself into a world of vicious, life-thirsty vampires.
Holocaust of the Dead follows in gory style; a suspected dog attack victim is far more sinister than his partially dismembered body would suggest...
Mars 2050 and Project Z complete the book unlike the previous two tales these stories are mixed with science-fiction as well as the usual horror the others contain.
1) I was puzzled when I read that first, because I didn t get what Mars 2050 and Project Z were. Maybe it s just me (most probably it is just me...), but if more people notice this you should probably think of something to show that these are actually stories.

2) Did you mention the fourth story in this book? Is it not worth mentioning or am I blind?

3) I m kinda curious why this is more than just a bite. Can t you give some hint without revealing too much of the story?

4) I don t know if I d post the first review. At the end it says that the book has great potential, but that implies that it could have been better. Considering that it s more or less finishing with this, that will be in the readers mind then. I don t know if that s such a good idea. But then, who will actually read the whole review?

5) Almost forgot why I quoted that much text... shouldn t the c in Vampire city be a C?

edit: another thing: why didn t you post this in the creative section? Topics on page 2 are quite dead... though some return... (ok that was a stupid joke, sorry)

[Triple Seven]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Looking for a book that breaths life back into the undead? New horror Anthology promises that and more!

Want to read a vampire story with more than just bite? Then new horror Anthology Vampire City [and] Tales from the Shadows intends to provide you with that an more! [S. 1: a book <> anthology (multiple books?); capital letter for anthology?; S. 2: Then: remove the n; cut one of these sentences entirely or combine them.]

Vampire City [and] Tales from the Shadows by Matthew Bellingham is a horror anthology featuring four different horror tales. Vampire [C]ity begins with a desperate phone call in the middle of the night, between friends Simon and Jason. Simon is terrified and Jason promises to go to him as soon as he can, unknowingly catapulting himself into a world of vicious,life-thirsty vampires.
Holocaust of the Dead follows in gory style; a suspected dog attack victim is far more sinister than his partially dismembered body would suggest...
Mars 2050 and Project Z complete the book[.] [U]nlike the previous two tales[,] these stories are mixed with science-fiction[,] as well as the usual horror the others contain.

Matthew has been writing on and off since his first year of high school, at the age of twelve, and wrote one of the stories of this anthology two years later which got him an [A] from his English [t]eacher.

"I believe most horror readers will enjoy this book"[,] says Matthew, "[a]s a horror fan myself[,] I ve tried to write stories that I d like and this will hopefully be a sentiment shared by the readers."

Matthew writes part-time[,] in [] between a full time job[,] working in a [p]harmacy store[] of his local hospital. He also designed and runs two websites. One designed for his work and one he hopes will blossom into a community for fellow writers of horror, science-fiction and fantasy.

Reader reviews

"Okay, put all of your preconceived thoughts away. Matthew Bellingham s book, Vampire City and Tales from the Shadows, is NOT just another vampire story. Sure, there are lots of them out there. We all know who Anne Rice is. Stephenie Meyer has earned her place on the New York Times Bestseller with her "thick" YA series. But Bellingham has actually written a book that has a bit more to offer than just some dramatic[,] old[,] blood sucking villains. His book has much more than bite!"

[Review by Shannon Yarbrough]

For the full review including a more in-depth look at the individual stories here is the link;

http://lulubookreview.wordpress.com/2008/07/12/review-21-vampire-city-and-tales-from-the-shadows/

"Vampire City and Tales from the Shadows by Matthew Bellingham is full of plenty of action and adventure. If you are into Vampires, Zombies, guns and other wild critters of the "shadows" then this is the book for you. Bellingham doesn t hold back on the descriptive nature of his stories. I wouldn t read this and then be alone! Kudos to author Matthew Bellingham for bringing to life that of the undead and scary nature!"

[Review by Anastasia Cassella-Young]

For the full review here is the link;

http://www.anastasiasbookattic.com/reviewteam/reviews.html


A couple of quick corrections made, not necessarily correct or cohesive in form, but perhaps helpful to some degree.

[Nocturnal Stillness]

Thanks for the replies its one of the reasons Ive posted it on the forum.

Seth

1) Youre probabbly right about that Ill have to think of something to put there.

2) Yes I did, the four stories are Vampire City, Holocaust of the Dead, Mars 2050 and Project Z.

3) that comment I borrowed from one of the reviews, i used it because i thought it sounded good

4) The full review is there if people want to read it. One thing missing is that the reviewer reposted the review on Amazon and gave it 4 out of 5 stars. The part of the review I posted should get people interested.

5) Yes you are right thats a silly error on my part and im embarassed about it thanks for spotting that.

6) I posted this in general and not in creative because I believed that as its not a story itself it belonged here instead (if a mod wants to move it be my guest)

777

thanks for the critique I shall look at them in more detail later while I edit it once more.

Just read it now and to answer one of your questions In genre fiction and especially science fiction, anthology is used to categorize collections of shorter works such as short stories and short novels, usually collected into a single volume for publication.

Thanks a lot