Yesterday was a really strange day, and I felt really out of sorts and very frustrated with it all. It just seemed that I spent inordinate amounts of time ringing stores and sending them emails (which I hasten to add, THEY requested) and they kept telling me they had not received them! I then resent it and still it did not arrive ! In some cases, with certain stores this has happened three times now, so it became clear that something was going on. In desperation then I spoke to Paul, who in turn phoned Waterstones Head Office. All they could suggest is that it might be my attachments - information sheet and so on. All this information though is necessary, and once again what the book stores themselves asked for, so you would think their spam settings would allow this to get through. It seems not though - what a way to run a business! I can't believe either that I am the only author to have these frustrations.
Anyway, it was back to the drawing board. With the help of Coran, my ever obliging partner, my emails have been rearranged to look more like a newsletter. The Gardners information is included in the body of the text, removing the need for at least one of those attachments. Coran suggested that I include a link to the relevant page on my own website to get the rest of the stuff - information sheet, cover proots, reviews etc. This will also when I think about it, be a good way of monitoring things, since I can see how many visits I get. A bit more tweeking then was done, and with the help of Dean at the Crawley store, who kept checking to see if the stuff I sent him was received, it finally got through.
The good news then after all that is that following on from the press release I sent round on Tuesday, Paul rang Gardners again to see how many they had sold, and while they could not tell him that, they did tell him that they have placed a third order today for another 35 copies ! This now brings the total to 115 copies in just over 2 weeks! Something then is definately happening that I am not aware of, and maybe some of the stores I have not yet spoken to have ordered after all ....
I had a call back from another local store yesterday - East Grinstead, and it seems like they will be placing an order as well. Laurelie, who runs the MBS/Religious section definately sounds interested, and so does her boss ....
Today then I was supposed to appear in the local edition of the Surrey Advertiser, but it has not materialised. I was a little confused by this, since I had a call from one of their reporters who interviewed me and assured me that it would go in, but so far, nothing! I rang the offices of the local advertiser and it seems that I got a little confused, as although they are called the Advertiser, they are owned by a group called The Surrey Mirror, who are in fact totally different to the Advertiser group. I will then track the Advertiser down via the net and try and get to the bottom of this and find out exactly where I am mentioned!
Anyway, it was back to the drawing board. With the help of Coran, my ever obliging partner, my emails have been rearranged to look more like a newsletter. The Gardners information is included in the body of the text, removing the need for at least one of those attachments. Coran suggested that I include a link to the relevant page on my own website to get the rest of the stuff - information sheet, cover proots, reviews etc. This will also when I think about it, be a good way of monitoring things, since I can see how many visits I get. A bit more tweeking then was done, and with the help of Dean at the Crawley store, who kept checking to see if the stuff I sent him was received, it finally got through.
The good news then after all that is that following on from the press release I sent round on Tuesday, Paul rang Gardners again to see how many they had sold, and while they could not tell him that, they did tell him that they have placed a third order today for another 35 copies ! This now brings the total to 115 copies in just over 2 weeks! Something then is definately happening that I am not aware of, and maybe some of the stores I have not yet spoken to have ordered after all ....
I had a call back from another local store yesterday - East Grinstead, and it seems like they will be placing an order as well. Laurelie, who runs the MBS/Religious section definately sounds interested, and so does her boss ....
Today then I was supposed to appear in the local edition of the Surrey Advertiser, but it has not materialised. I was a little confused by this, since I had a call from one of their reporters who interviewed me and assured me that it would go in, but so far, nothing! I rang the offices of the local advertiser and it seems that I got a little confused, as although they are called the Advertiser, they are owned by a group called The Surrey Mirror, who are in fact totally different to the Advertiser group. I will then track the Advertiser down via the net and try and get to the bottom of this and find out exactly where I am mentioned!
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