Still trying to get on top of this blog. Hence, I'm still writing this as historical events rather than in the now. (Bit like I do in my novels sometimes lol)

As I mentioned in an earlier post. March was a good month for sales and some nice reviews came in on Amazon UK. I also mentioned that I'd set the ball rolling on a few other things, some of which are now bearing fruit, while others are still lurking in the shadows waiting to leap out hit me with another high or a cheap low blow! (Here's hoping it's the former lol)

http://AllAuthor.com invited me to enter my novel Shadowchild in the cover of the month awards for the month of April. I love a good competition and signed up.

April 1st - My cover campaign began and I took an early lead. That lasted all of a day before I was rudely shoved out of the top ten - Grrrr!
I picked myself up and decided to focus on staying in the top 25 so I at least made the cut onto the shortlist, it proved to be a little easier than expected and I ended the first week hovering around 3rd place. Okay I may not win but 3rd place still gets a prize and a month of promotion, I'll take that :-) I figured.

10th April - My publisher sent out my press release for Shadowchild. I have to say that I was extremely doubtful it would have an impact, but it was offered for free so, of course, I took it gladly. I worked tirelessly, following up with all the local media outlets, just trying to generate some interest in Matthew Williams and his new book Shadowchild. I mean, seriously! What do the media care about nobody publishing something? But I'd worked bloody hard on this novel so I wasn't giving up easily.

14th April - Cover competition going nicely, Shadowchild poked its head into the top 500 kindle books on Amazon UK. Then, BOOM! Contact from a local newspaper - The Hinckley Times wanted to run a story on me and after the interview they found an angle to go with.

19th April - www.myranour.net/horror Blog invited me to write a piece which is due to go live on the 22nd May. Awesome!

20th April - A friend, Stephen Helmes,
author of Nightly Visits invited me to write a piece for www.lisaswritopia.com as the spotlight author for June. More great news!

21st April - Another newspaper (The Redditch Standard) local to where I grew up wanted to do an article on me. This was becoming a brilliant month!

28th April - A friend who I grew up with messaged me on facebook saying 'Wow Mat your in the Redditch Standard!' My first small taste of newspaper fame lol. Actually that's not quite true, I was on the front page on the Daily Mirror when I was 18 months old - The Bionic baby they called me, after I shrugged off a car.

30th April - Final day of the cover of the month competition, I had a slender lead and rallied every last vote I could muster from my facebook followers (who are all awesome, thanks!) Was it enough? Can you feel the tension :-) lol

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for the my next post, I'm nearly caught up to the present now - PHEW!