Oasis Magazine - Cairns & Tropical North Queensland Issue 28 - Feb | Mar 2019 | Page 16

Amazing professional development for tropical writers
CAIRNS TROPICAL WRITERS FEST
How To Hook and Keep Your
Reader With Humour
Mira Reisberg is a US based children’s writer and
Illustrator who is briefly passing through Cairns on her
way to deliver the keynote address at the Society of
Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) national
conference in Sydney.
How To Become an
Amazon Bestseller
Amazon and the eBook publications for Kindle and
other reading devices have taken off.
Many local tropical authors and publishers with
wonderful books need better distribution to reach a
global market. Some of their books sit in bookshops or
Cairns Tropical Writers Festival is pleased to engage are stored in boxes in the garage.
Dr Reisberg to meet with local children’s authors and
illustrators in a half-day workshop in Cairns on Even when successful as a print edition, freight and
Wednesday morning, February 20th.
postage can be a barrier to distribution overseas.
These days there are far more readers to reach by
Mira is known as the Picture Book Whisperer, publishing eBooks. It’s not an either / or situation. Any
breathing creativity into others to help them become the serious author needs both.
author and artists they want to be. Her PhD was in
cultural studies, children’s literature and art and graphic CT Mitchell is one author who has cracked Amazon
design, with a particular emphasis on place-based as a bestselling author of mystery short reads and
novels with a thriller edge. He received a 5 star rating
intercultural storytelling.
in the 2017 Readers Choice Awards for his novel
She has also visited hundreds of schools, providing Murder Secret (formerly published as Breaking Point).
valuable tools and techniques for infusing creativity into He published his first book in 2015. He has since
everything, and showing ways that children's picture had nine in the #1 Amazon Bestsellers, and has a
books can be used as a cornerstone for infusing play and massive social media following close to 40,000.
pleasure to teach the standards across the curriculum.
His Cairns seminar on Sunday afternoon 31 March will
After leaving academia in 2012, she founded and show local writers how to get their books into the
still teaches at the Children’s Book Academy, and Amazon top 10 category without spending a fortune on
online writing and illustrating school. Humour is Facebook ads, with the Amazon 'magic' selling your
the number one thing that gets and keeps kids reading, book for you.
and since my calling in this life is to get and keep
kids reading – I simply answered the call,” said Mira. Limited places. Bookings available via
www.cairnstropicalwritersfestival.com
“Whether you’re writing a funny story, adding humour
to an existing story or softening a story for some light
relief, authors and illustrators should have access
to the golden key to getting the funny flowing.”
Limited places. Bookings available via
www.cairnstropicalwritersfestival.com
Books available from a range of stockists, or contact us for advice: www.cairnstropicalwritersfestival.com