I have just published all three of my books as eBooks on the kindle store at Amazon. I will allow myself a brief moment to celebrate - hooray! Okay, enough of that. What happens next? How can I let people know that my books are there? The big question facing all independent publishers - how to get noticed?

A route to explore...

FREE Kindle Download version of My Crazy Purple Pen for a limited period - from Thursday 1 August to Monday 5 August.

Amazon provides independent authors with a platform on which to offer their kindle books for free for up to 5 days. There are various stipulations and restrictions but I won’t go into all that now! In summary, the idea is that the freebie loving public will download your book (My Crazy Purple Pen) and your sales ranking and customer review numbers will increase (hopefully by a lot); ultimately the profile of your book will be raised. Additionally, sales of your other books may also be generated if customers like your book enough. Although my book is not the first part of a serial (for which this would be most effective), it is one of three books targeted at the same audience and so there is potential for some cross-marketing to apply.

It appears that for some authors this approach has worked brilliantly and for others, not so good.  I think there is a lot of luck involved, as in life. Either way,  it is definitely worth a punt.

There are a few other things that I have done to raise awareness of this promotion; listed my FREE kindle book offer on as many websites as possible - those that customers use to find FREE ebooks, and posted my promotion on Facebook. 

I haven’t gone down the paid promotions route just yet but’ Bookbub’ looked tempting. Maybe next time.

Fingers crossed!

I had been invited to showcase my books at a local pre-school end of term event. Direct selling is not easy and although there was a lot of interest and leaflets taken, only a few sales were made on the day. However, all was not lost! I had a conversation with a visitor to the stall that made my day.

A woman approached me and said, “My Crazy Purple Pen. Where have I heard about that before? My daughter came home from school one day and she was writing all these stories about a crazy purple pen. I thought she’d made them up herself but it must have been from your book.”
I said, “Does your daughter attend the Lower School? 
“Yes”
“Well, I did read this book to children at the school as part of an author Q&A session.”
“She must have really liked your book! She does love reading.”

I was so happy to hear that a child had enjoyed my book so much that they had gone home and written their own version of the story. That is the best compliment ever!

Thank you for all your feedback about the pirate character Lyrical Len – it seems that he definitely gets a thumbs although it was suggested that he would look more friendly with a less ‘stuck-up’ nose. So, here he is – with said nose job!

I have decided to add a new section to my website; a poetry corner. This is really just a bit of fun!

I hope that my first offering, Office tick-tock, will rattle off your tongue and make you smile. Best read aloud. 

Enjoy!

Office tick-tock

Chit-chat, tappity tap.
Skirts flirting with shirts.
Geeks gazing at datasheets
 - the office is a buzz.

Kettles whistling, printers whirring,
'Go Slow' in the corner's stirring!
Footfall in the corridor.
We've all heard that clip-clop before.

Big bellied boss blusters in.
Brainstorm this.
Blue sky that.
Create, debate, update, regenerate.

Projected, rejected profit profiles.
We couldn't give a fax a-budget!
Everyone knows that management fudge it.

Tick-tock, as one we watch the clock.

Quick as a flash, people dash.
Files are filed.
Switches are switched.
Teacups flung, coats unhung.

Desks deserted.
The buzz, buzzed off.
Until tomorrow...
Tick-tock, tick tock.

A few years ago I wrote a story about the pirate, Captain Sillyvoice. It wasn’t a picture book. It was longer than that and it also involved a family who were able to magically travel to new and adventure filled lands. My friend Carol had read this story at the time and remembered it. She suggested that I should bring back the Captain to feature in my picture books. We were discussing possible crew names and she came up with the idea of ‘Bob Bob’ because his head is always bobbing up and down. I liked it then, and I like it now! Thanks Carol!

So, here is Emma’s brilliant illustration of Bob Bob.

This is the second character from the Captain Sillyvoice books; Lyrical Len can be found in a previous post, and there are some more coming soon!

P.S. Thank you to everyone for the comments in response to the Lyrical Len post - please keep them coming! 

Any feedback is always appreciated.

After a series of delays, caused by problems with the printing and distribution arrangements for my third book, ‘Birthday Cake Disaster’, it is now available for sale from Amazon. I received my own copy this morning! 

Now for a spot of baking.......

Let me tell you a little bit about my latest project; a series of three books about a pirate, aptly named Captain Sillyvoice on account of his very silly voice! Captain Sillyvoice has a loyal crew, each of whom has his own personality and talents. In each buckswashling adventure there will be surprises, excitement, and most of all, lots of fun!

Emma Hunt, who is illustrating these books, is busily creating the character designs for me. I will be posting pictures of these on my blog over the next few weeks - just to give you a preview of what’s to come!

So, without further ado, here is one of the crew named Lyrical Len.