Why? Because we all need practice in pitching our work to others and thinking seriously about what our unique selling points really are in the world of children's books.
Why 200 words? Because most book blurbs need to be that length or less to be successful, and if you haven't caught the interest of your reader by then it isn't going to happen.
You might find this link about writing an effective book description helpful in preparing your free plug https://www.createspace.com/en/community/docs/DOC-1462
Here's the rules:
• You can only plug your own work.
• You can plug more than one of your works, as long as they relate to children's books and squeak within the 200 word limit.
• Children's books include anything from Picture Books up to Young Adult (but not New Adult), and can take any 'for sale' format (traditional print, e-book, print-on-demand, book app). You are welcome to plug traditionally published work as well as self-published work.
• If you don't have any work published in book format yet, promote your website, your blog, or any online illustration portfolios you have.
• Write (or paste) your free plug in the comment section below.
• Each person only gets one comment section to plug with.
• A home page URL will be counted as one word and any other URLs will be counted as two words. However you cannot include more than 4 URLs in your plug.
• Make sure that any URL you provide is available to anyone on the internet and doesn't require registrations and passwords to view.
• The comment section will be open from around midnight 9 April to midnight 10 April Australian Eastern Standard Time, comment moderation will be on, and every few hours comments will be checked that they comply with the rules before being published.
• CBHunCC members get a bonus and have 300 words to plug with, and are the only ones allowed to plug exhibitions, book launches and local community events.
• The best plug as judged by the CBHunCC moderator will have their work promoted by 3 tweets from @CBHunCC, one on 11 Apr, one on 12 Apr and one on 13 Apr.
The plan is to run a Free Plug Friday every two months, so please tune in for the next one in early June 2015.