It's Gotta be a Scam... Right? Wrong!

 


Dear Mrs Odgers


I am delighted to be writing to you on behalf of the Governor-General to inform you that you are being considered for the Medal of the Order of Australia (General Division) within the Australian Honours System...

So came the email back in September 2025.
"Scam," said my brain.
Click the link...
Not likely!
However, it seemed a pretty creative and well-worded piece, so I crept around the back door and entered the Governor General's site via a google-search.
I clicked for contact and was duly called by someone who informed me it was a legitimate invitation.

To be considered for one of these honours one has to be nominated, then accept the invitation, then wait for a few months for confirmation. I was next contacted on Jan 6th to say I had been given the award.

So, there you are. I can now sign myself as Sally Odgers OAM.

The award was given for services to literature, following decades of writing with editing and manuscript assessment on the side.
I am honoured. And no, I don't know who nominated me. I was not informed.

So... thank you to the Governor General and her staff, and to my family, publishers, clients and colleagues and of course to book buyers, readers, librarians, bookshops, schools and everyone else who buys books. Without you, I could never have stayed in the public writing game for so long. (Mind you, I would still have written... it's in my DNA.)

Writing for a living can be a lonely business. I have been fortunate to have so much family support. A writer is of course only one part of the equation of a book. We need publishers, illustrators (and a big call out to all of you who have pictured my worlds), distribution networks, bookshops, libraries and readers. Above all, we need bookbuyers. Without you, we can't continue.

I have a little program which I commend to all writers and would-be writers, and to everyone who would like to support writing in Tasmania (and the wider world). Every so often I go into my local (bookshop, that is) and buy one or more children's books. I hand them over and the bookseller puts them under the counter to be given (with carers' permission) to a child customer, or maybe to his or her sibling or companion. This is a win/win/win situation. An Australian author gets a sale, a bookshop gets a sale, a publisher gets a sale and a child gets a lovely surprise. The buyer of the book gets to promote and support the industry that supports reading and positivity in the community. This system also allows me to buy some of the lovely picture books my own family have grown beyond and get them into the hands of a new generation of readers.

If you've read this far, thank you again. And please check out my newest books, The Tinysaurs (children's book, published by Scholastic Australia Feb 1 2026), Rachel Outward Bound (science fiction- eXtasy Books 2024), the Tanqueray series (fantasy, eXtasy Books 2024/2025) and A Party in a Stone (fantasy romance- eXtasy Books 2025)

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