Smorgasbord Cafe and Bookstore – #Free #Bookmarketing – Share an Excerpt from a previous books 2021

We put a great deal of effort into promoting our new, recent and upcoming books but often our previous releases get sidelined.

In this latest series I am offering authors in the Cafe and Bookstore a chance to promote an earlier book (not your most recent) by sharing an excerpt from the book. Please check the link if it has been some time since you were promoted in the Cafe.

The aim of the series

To showcase a previous book and sell some copies.
Gain more recent reviews for the book.
Promote a selection of other books that are available.
Share an excerpt from the first book in a series to encourage readers to buy following books.

I will top and tail in the usual way with your other books and links, bio, photo and social media. I will also select a review that I feel has the best selling pitch for the book.

This series is open to authors in the Cafe and Bookstore who have more than one book (as this already gets promoted on a regular basis) and have reviews for that book I can select from. Cafe and Bookstore
I suggest an extract of 500 words or a poem that you feel best reflects the theme of your collection. This is a PG rated blog and there are younger readers so it would be great if you could bear that in mind.
If you have an illustration or images you can attach to the email for me to include. No need to send the cover as I will have that or will access from Amazon.
I will check reviews on Amazon sites as well as Goodreads and select one I feel is a great advertisement for the book.
As an author in the Cafe and Bookstore I will already have all your details, links and covers of other books so need to send anything further.
Please send your excerpt and any accompanying images to sally.cronin@moyhill.com

N.B..If you participated last year in the two series and would like to check which book you shared, please email and I will let you know.

To give you an example of what it will look like I am sharing an excerpt from Sam, A Shaggy Dog Story.

Chapter Three – My First Real Friend

It may surprise you to know that I learnt to speak Cat before I fully understood human talk. When I was twelve weeks old Sally took me to the place with the strong smells again and I remembered the sharp pain that I had experienced last time and was ready this time.

I did not understand the word that the man who gave me the sharp pain said when I sank my teeth into the soft part of his hand but it was very loud.

By this time I had learnt quite a few words as Sally and David talked to me all the time. At first I only got the basics like ‘sit’ and ‘good boy’ which always seemed to be accompanied by a small piece of chicken, and because this treat was my favourite at the time, I made a point of remembering these words as it obviously pleased her.

What I did not understand at the time was the conversation that Sally had with the man with the sharp object. He apparently told her that I would end up with a vocabulary of about fourteen to twenty words. How wrong can a man be.

However, on our return from this visit, to what I now know to be the vet, I was allowed a little more freedom and was introduced to the front garden of the house.

The previous owners had built the house in the middle of a two acre plot with nearly an acre of garden to the front, half that again at the back as garden then the remaining left as wild meadow.

The cultivated part of the property was laid out with hundreds of bushes and trees as the previous owners both belonged to families with garden centres who had clearly been very generous. The one drawback was the size of the lawns, which required the hire of a local odd jobber with a wonderful smelly monster that he rode up and down on; which belched regularly. One of my favourite games was slipping out of the front door unnoticed and barking encouragement to monster and driver as they drove slightly crookedly across the lawn.

It was a wonderful playground for a young dog, but the reason I had not been allowed to play out there until now was because another dog was also using it as his territory. He would crawl under the flimsy fence whenever he felt like it. For months I thought his name was “That Bloody Danny” since that is what my mistress called him each time she saw him peeing on her begonias in front of the house. His name was actually just Danny and he was a rather daft Spaniel who was also rather lacking in manners, but more about him later.

There were also other creatures that used the gardens and meadow at the back of the house, such as foxes, feral cats and rabbits, all of whom might have been infected with disease. Hence my fenced off area by the kitchen door with my kennel, sun beds and pool, affectionately known as Costa del Sam and one of my favourite summer hangouts. Funny that I would end up living on the Costa del Sol when I was five years old.

One of the recent five star reviews for the book

Dec 20, 2020 Jessica Bakkers rated it five Stars it was amazing

(Sally) Cronin is a huge animal lover, something I share with her, so when I saw she’d written a story about her dog, I was all over it. Actually, no, sorry, Cronin didn’t write it, Sam himself wrote the story – Cronin just helped with the transcribing! I’m only half-joking now; “Sam, A Shaggy Dog Story” is written so convincingly from a dog’s perspective, I often found myself totally believing I was listening to Sam’s voice, not Cronin’s! She really got into Sam’s head and demonstrates she has an acute understanding of doggie behaviour, from how important smells are (along with cheese and sausages), to explaining the intricacies of the language of dogs (along with the guttural dialect spoken by street cats!). All this from Sam’s sweet-natured, cheese obsessed point of view.

The story follows Sam’s life from his three-week-old puppy days, through his exuberant teenage years in Ireland, and into his mature senior days in Spain. Along the way, he muses about the many friends who have passed in and out of his life – both two-legged and four – and shares his thoughts and insights, and a few hilarious anecdotes, that left me heart-warmed and grinning (enamoured French border patrol, anyone?). There were a few sad moments in the story of Sam’s life – his friendship with grizzled ex-street cat, Henry, was chief among them. I don’t mind saying, I shed a tear at a couple of points in Sam’s story.

My chief takeaway from “Sam, A Shaggy Dog Story”, is that Sam must have been a very, very special Collie to inspire his ‘mum’ to write such a touching book about him. I also takeaway how much of a wonderful human being Sally Cronin is. The love she bestows on Sam is one thing, but her incredibly generous spirit is displayed in the care and love she expends on stray cats, birds, geese…you name it! It’s a refreshing, heart-warming turn in today’s selfish world.

“Sam, A Shaggy Dog Story” is simply a beautiful book. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Read the reviews and buy the book: Amazon UK – And: Amazon US

Read the reviews and buy the books: :Amazon US – and: Amazon UK – Follow Sally on Goodreads:Goodreads – Blog: Smorgasbord Invitation – Twitter: @sgc58 – Facebook: Sally Cronin – LinkedIn: Sally Cronin

About the authors

Sally Cronin waited until she began working for herself, and had the time to commit to the welfare of a dog. before she fulfilled a dream of having another Lassie Collie. From the moment that Sam came home at 8 weeks old they were inseparable, and travelled thousands of miles together and with her husband David, exploring Ireland, Wales, England and Europe. Finally they all ended up in a large house up a mountain to the north of Madrid.

Sam could charm the birds out of the trees and assumed that every human that he met was more interested in him than his humans that were tagging along. He developed a vocabulary and non-verbal clues as to his needs, cheese and sausages being the main ones.

They collaborated on this book, with Sam dictating his recollections and Sally correcting some of his more flamboyant claims pertaining to his adventures.

I hope you will participate in this series.. there are currently 130 authors on the shelves with reviews within the last six months and you can check your entry at this link – Cafe and Bookstore