Hi there friend,

Welcome to the first AussieAuthors.com newsletter!

AussieAuthors.com is owned by two Australian authors – Sarah Cook and Cheryl Wright. We are both multi-published, and both have won several awards for our writing. In addition, we are working writers, which means we understand the industry and its readers.

Sarah writes ‘Australian Fiction,’ non-fiction articles, and children’s books, while Cheryl writes across genres – mostly romantic suspense – and also writes non-fiction. Cheryl has several non-fiction books for writers published, with another scheduled for 2007, as well as other non-fiction books such as cookbooks. One of her novels is scheduled for re-release next year, and she writes features for magazines. Three of Cheryl’s books have become bestsellers.

Sarah and Cheryl had their first book of short stories (together) published recently, and you can read more about it on the ‘new releases’ page at the site.

Now, onto the newsletter!

The purpose of this newsletter is to keep you informed about changes at the site, upcoming events, contests, and so on.

Today we’d like to give you a quick rundown of what’s been happening around the site, how the site works, and also our upcoming major event.

The aim of AussieAuthors.com is to bring readers and writers together. One of the ways we are doing this is to highlight Australian authors. Many authors you will know while others are new on the publishing scene.

Each month we will have a new ‘featured author’. This generally changes in the middle of the month, and our intention is to send notification of when that happens.

The featured author page will give you loads of information, including the author’s publications, contests, newsletter details and so on.

Another highlight of the site is the ‘spotlight’ page. This will include up to six authors, and will give a brief overview of that author. Again, these will change monthly, but they will not all necessarily change at the same time. It depends on when the author slot began.

We have lists of author contests, newsletters, new releases, and interviews. We suggest you visit the site regularly, because contests will come and go fairly regularly. New releases and interviews will stay forever, and will be added to the site as they are available.

We also have a page where author websites are listed. Make sure you also check our ‘free stuff’ page often, as that will be added to as new items become available.

Our first major event – Once Upon a Time - is coming up very soon, and we have lots of authors participating. There will be giveaways and prizes, and we don’t want you to miss out.

Feel free to let your friends know about the event, because as far as we’re concerned, the more the merrier. (You are very welcome to forward this newsletter, or send your friends to the site to subscribe.)

The events will be a regular feature, and you’ll have lots of opportunities to win prizes, and receive pressies from your favourite authors.

Okay, back to the website: Anne Whitfield is our current featured author. This lady is prolific! Her contemporary book Long Distance Love won the Ecataromance Reviewers Award recently, and she has lots of books published, with many more to come.

Our spotlight authors at this time are Christina Carlisle and Tricia McGill. Both these ladies are also very prolific, and are multi-published.

Tricia was our featured author last month, and has had two of her books reach finalist level in the Romantic Book of the Year contest in the last few years (including this year). Tricia’s book Shrinking Violet missed out on winning the award, but having read the book, can tell you it’s great fun!

Christina is a three-time Number One Bestseller, and currently has six published books, with three more scheduled for release.

Do check all these authors out, as I know you’re in for a real treat!

Okay, I think that’s all for this issue. We’d love to hear your feedback, so please let us know what you think by going to the ‘contact’ page at the site and completing the webform.

Til next time….

Sarah Cook and Cheryl Wright