Petticoat Rebellion, the book after which this blog is named, is now available as a Kindle e-book download from Amazon, to mark the centenary of the heroine of the piece, Miss Anna Parnell. So, having shied away from purchasing e-books because I love ‘real’ books, I finally caved in and bought two.

The first was Petticoat Rebellion (of course!) and the second was Results Not Typical, a fun novel about the diet industry by the wonderful ‘unpublished’ author, Catherine Ryan Howard, aka Catherine, Caffeinated. My guess is it won’t be too long before she achieves her long-overdue and much-deserved publishing deal!

If you’re nervous about buying an e-book, don’t be!  You can download the iPhone Kindle app for free and they also have free apps for your Mac, PC or other smartphone. Then try out some free e-books to get started!

Trish

Over the twelve weeks of the course, each of the nine students will create a Digital Strategy for a particular product, campaign or website.

I’ll be building my project around a short-term campaign which will run in early 2011 as a pilot for future, longer campaigns. It’s really exciting to be able to use these learnings straight away, and to have the opportunity to put knowledge into practice. I’ll let you know how the project goes – and I would love it if you would take part!

Lecturer Keith Feighery is a powerhouse who barely stops for breath as he moves from one case study to another and guides us through the syllabus. He speaks ‘digital’ like it’s his mother tongue and sometimes it feels like we’re learning a new language.

While working on this project I’ll also be thinking about how to use these skills to help promote the Petticoat Rebellion e-book, which will be released before the end of the year by Mercier Press. Coming to a Kindle, iPad or pdf near you!

My final thought about online marketing is that nowadays, in many ways, even individuals need their own digital strategy. How we present ourselves online is so important. Friends, family and employers can find everything they need to know about us with just a few clicks – and do we always do ourselves justice, or do we occasionally let ourselves down? (I think I’ll probably come back to this theme again!)

Trish

A map showing all the locations for the Kildare Readers' Festival

Well-known names in the Irish literary arena will feature during the festival, including Sheila O’Flanagan, Dermot Somers, Brian Keenan, John Minahan and John Connolly.

I’ll be reading from “Petticoat Rebellion” in the Osprey Hotel as part of the Kildare Author Panel, along with John McKenna and Rob Kitchin. Dermot Bolger will chair this event. The Author Panel starts at 12 noon, and finishes around 1.30pm.

The festival runs for three days – Friday 14th May to Sunday 16th May inclusive.  Petticoat Rebellion is one of three books selected for the Authors’ Panel in the Osprey Hotel on Saturday 15th May.  As soon as there’s more information, I’ll post it to this blog.

It’s really exciting to be able to share the book in my home county, and I look forward to seeing you there!