Pauline Barclay talks about Famous Five Plus.

Novel Kicks would like to welcome back Pauline Barclay to our blog….

Laura, thank you for having me here on your fantastic web site and thanks to your hospitality, I’m not a stranger here having appeared twice before. Though this time, as much as I would love to talk about my books and of course my new book due out at the end of this year, I will save all of that for another time if you’ll have me back.

Today, I’d like to tell you about Famous Five Plus which is an Indie Author Group. As an Indie author I know how hard it is to get your name out there to the widest audience. And of course whilst you are marketing yourself, you are not writing. Added to trying to balance writing and marketing you can often feel isolated having no one to talk to, to bounce ideas off or to share any success that might come your way. Writing is for many a solitary occupation and being an Indie author you can often feel even more isolated, but by sharing thoughts and ideas can make you feel less on your own. These are just some of the reasons I decided to set up Famous Five Plus to bring like mind people together who could share their experiences and support each other. So on 31^st October 2011, I launched Famous Five Plus. To get the group off the ground I invited five authors I had become friendly with to join me. Since then many authors have asked to join the group.

Famous Five Plus is about working together as a group and supporting each other. Everyday I update the FFP web site with a new post, an extract from a member’s book, highlight an author, highlight one of the member’s trailers and more. All members are asked to promote these changes through social media:  Twitter, Facebook or their own Blog / web sites. What is wonderful is that during the month everyone is promoted and everyone gets involved.

Famous Five Plus is also about encouraging support from other areas too. We have a list of Book Reviewers who have joined FFP and are happy to review any or all of the books from FFP authors. Our readers play an invaluable part in the group posting reviews and supporting the authors.

But to make FFP as dynamic as possible we have Friends who offer their services at a special rate to members. These include an editor who has spent over twenty years in the publishing world, Book cover designers and a Print on Demand publisher. Adding to this already amazing mix, we have two wonderful sponsors. Strictly Business Magazine who produces a monthly E-magazine. Strictly Business is the sponsor of our daily Book in the Spotlight page and provides one full page each month in their magazine highlighting a selection of FFP books. Cathy Helms from Avalon Graphics not only sponsors our daily Trailer Playing feature, but has designed and produced a spectacular Author Showcase video trailer.

And if that wasn’t enough we also have a FFP Reader’s Club with its own Closed Facebook Page. There is a lot going on at Famous Five Plus, but what is amazing about the group is the energy from the members. Individually and collectively everyone is determined to succeed and we believe that working as a group, supporting each other will make not only a difference, but will help make it happen. In just over 9 months FFP’s small group is now a family group; a group that works together, cares about each other and wants success.

To learn about the authors at Famous Five Plus visit www.famousfiveplus.com

Strictly Business Magazine http://www.strictlybusinessmag.co.uk/

Avalon Graphics http://www.avalongraphics.org

To learn more about Pauline Barclay visit http://paulinembarclay,blogspot.com or www.paulinebarclay.co.uk

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by

Laura

I’m Laura. I started Novel Kicks in 2009. I wanted a place to post my writing as well as give other writers like me the opportunity to do the same. There is also a monthly book club, a writing room which features writing prompts, book reviews, competitions, author interviews and guest posts.

I grew up by the sea (my favourite place in the world) and I currently live in Hampshire. I am married to Chris, have a cat named Buddy and I would love to be a writer. I’m trying to write the novel I’ve talked so much about writing if only I could stop pressing delete. I’ve loved writing since creative writing classes in primary school. I have always wanted to see my teacher Miss Sayers again and thank her for the encouragement. When not trying to write the novel or writing snippets of stories on anything I can get my hands on, I love reading, dancing like a loon and singing to myself very badly. My current obsession is Once Upon a Time and I would be happy to live with magic in the enchanted forest surrounded by all those wonderful stories provided that world also included Harry Potter. I love reading chick lit. contemporary fiction and novels with mystery.