Problems with communication

During all of this week I have noticed that there seems to be nothing but problems with communciation, first with my emails that did not get through, and now there has been a problem with the Surrey Advertiser, who did not print the piece in this weeks issue that I was assured would be in there. On top of all that, my glasses broke this morning, and I had to chase into town wearing dark glasses to get them fixed. What with one thing and another then it really has been one hell of a week.

As I mentioned here a few days ago, The Surrey Advertiser rang and spoke to me the other day and assured me that they would be running a piece in this weeks issue. Imagine my surprise then when I bought a copy this morning and it was not in there. I rang them and they did explain that it was a misunderstanding and nothing to do with the fact that it was not newsworthy enough and it would definately be going in next weeks editon. At the time it was upsetting and frustrating, but in the end it may actually have worked out for the best, since I am also going to be mentioned in next weeks local paper as well! I was initilaly a little concerned, since my local Waterstones ordered copies on the understanding that it would be in this weeks edition, but by having a mention in both papers next week, this is even better still, plus the fact that it will take this long for the books to arrive anyway, and they may even increase their order! The other stores who have copies may even get a mention as well, since I know that both reporters did look at my own website, so in the end, all is well that ends well.

I am not sure though what lies beneath all of this, whether it is residue dark energy hanging around the book, or just the recent full moon. I am inclined actually to think it is more to do with the full moon, since the spell that was put on the book last year by a witch of the darker persuasion has been well and truly banished, taking her with it. I will be increasing my personal protection again though anyway, since it never hurts, and in time will write about that experience with the dark witch as well. It is time to start mentioning those things I feel, since it will be part of the clearing process.

In my confusion ....

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!

More successes to report

It looks like I might be in Jerry Simmon's newsletter again this week, since I have just had another email from him. The list of stores that have ordered has now reached the grand old number of 21 - 17 Waterstones and 4 Borders. Will be sending a copy to the local Radio station today as well - BBC Southern Counties. They do feature local authors on some of their programmes, so fingers crossed. In the meantime, Paul is going to try the Daily Express Book Club and the Mail on Sunday and is also hoping to contact Barnes and Noble when his contact is back from holiday. The book is only on sale or return in the UK though, not North America.

He has also given the name and number for his contact at IPC Magazines, who publish womens weekly's since they are often looking for 'real life success stories' etc, and may be interested. Will have to pluck up the courage to give her a call then later on today.

On Friday I was told that the 30 books that Gardners had initially ordered did not arrive, since they sent the order to the wrong place. This would not normally have been very good news, since the stores have ordered would have been waiting for their orders to arrive and wondering what was going on! However, in my case it has turned out to be excellent news, since they have orders far exceeding that in number already, and have out another order in this time for 80 copies !! I have sent a press release round then to all on my mailing list and as many of those free press release sites I can find as well as the Publishing News forum ! Almost forgot to mention as well that my copy of The Self Publishing Magazine arrived yesterday (I am featured as self published success story in there), and it looks very good !

As one door opens, another one closes

I will be glad in many ways when this week is over, as it has been such a strange one in many ways, and although there have been many successes and things to celebrate, I end it on a not so good note.

I started the day well enough, and had a very productive morning in fact. The first thing I did was ring Southern Counties radio, which is my local BBC station, to ask how I would go about getting on to one of their shows as a guest. They explained that I would have to send them a copy of the book and gave me the relevant address, so that was good. I then decided to start contacting some local papers, and so made a start with the one in my nearest town. I spoke to a very nice man there who sounded interested and asked me to email him all the details, which I did. I then remembered Patsy at who last year mentioned my book launch, and so emailed her. Following that I emailed The Surrey Mirror. I will follow them all up after the Bank Holiday to make sure they were received and see what the interest is.

Brian then called round to collect the September newsletter, and after he had gone, I set to work ringing more branches of Waterstones, managing to get through the rest of the C's and most of the D's. I was lucky in that I managed to secure orders from four of them - Coventry, Dorchester, Derby and my own local branch as well. My local one is only a small shop, and they have proven extremely diffcult to crack, which given my local connections, I find somewhat puzzling. I do realise that they do not have a large Mind, Body and Spirit section, but my friend Ann Davies recently had her book launch there (Ann writes poetry, which is, if anything, even more difficult to market, especially for POD) and did very well. I managed to cajole the Assistant Manager into ordering one copy, by telling her that I had contacted the local paper and they looked likely to give the book some coverage. Now I have to hope that they follow through!

By then it was lunch time so I had a break and made a list of all the stores that I needed to follow up during the afternoon. It was a long list of almost a dozen of them. Most of them are what I call 'fence sitters', i.e. those who say that they are interested, and may order some copies, after conferring with the MBS Manager etc, but will not seem to commit themselves. This is most frustrating, and I would really much rather the just came out and said that they were not interested, since I could then concentrate on those that were instead of wasting theirs and my time. Oh well, such is life.

I suppose though it was a conversation with the Manager at Aylesbury that has led to my somewhat black and melancholy mood. She was very helpful and polite, so it was not her manner, it was more what she had to tell me about Waterstones buying policies. It seems that all the Store Managers had a memo today from Head Office, saying that a lot of the stores were to be rearranged in order to give more space to the genres that sold well, and less to those that don't. In a lot of the smaller stores then this means that the MBS section will be cut right back to minimal shelf space. It seems that Managers have also been told not to order any books unless they absolutely have to. This is not good news for me at all, especially at the moment, since the autumn seems to be the main book buying period for book stores.

It seems then that as soon as one door swings open, it comes back to hit me in the face. I was feeling so fed up and angry after being told this, that I went to the gym and took it out on the exercise bike to work off all my frustrations.

It is though a Bank Holiday weekend, so I am going to concentrate on getting my website finished, and then I am going to go out and buy the richest, fattiest cream cake I can find !

Did Oxford Street do me a favour in saying no ?

I have good news and bad news today. The bad news is that Borders in Oxford Street will not be stocking my book. The goods news though is that they have sent the copy that I sent them to their Buying Department near Charing Cross to look at, together with a copy of my press release. Paul is of course already talking to them anyway, so this might help clinch the deal. Oxford Street have in some ways then done me a favour in saying no.

The other good news is that I am mentioned in the weekly newsletter by Jerry Simmons (who runs the US based Nothing Binding Project). I emailed him just over a week ago with my news and he has put it in his newsletter. Not sure how many people get this, but quite a few, so it may result in some more US sales.

This morning as well I went to Waterstones in Redhill to sign those 5 copies that they ordered. They have a real nice and POD friendly manager, Kate if anyone else lives near here... She has though placed the 5 copies on a stand with Waterstones recommends written on it right by the front door. I am then feeling very happy. Back to the website then ....

Richard and Judy

Spoke to Richard earlier today at Authors OnLine and he told me that he had just had an email from Gardners. The book has only been a stocked title for just over a week, but they have already sold out of the 30 copies they initially ordered. They have increased the next order to 50 copies !

I rang a few more Waterstones today then and managed to secure orders from 3 more shops - Belfast, Chesham and Covent Garden - another flagship. Still no letter from Adam at Oxford Street though ...

When I rang Richard later on to give him the news, he told me that he had had a call from Paul asking him to write a press release to send to Richard and Judy. Richard though had brain fog and so asked me to write it. Have just sent him a copy ...

Redhill also received their copies today, so will be going there in the morning to sign them. Apparently one of the staff members commented that it looks like a really interesting book and has asked to review it. It will go on a little card in the local authors area - Waterstones recommends ....

Still Plugging Away ....

I have decided that since the book seems to be getting so much publicity of late, it is time to revamp my website, and so these past few days have been busy having a total redesign. It is not the first time I have done this, of course, but this time my partner Coran, who is himself a website designer has been able to help. A year ago he was only just starting this business and did not have that much experience (he has had to learn as he went along). I could have asked him to do the site for me, but being the control freak that I am, and also knowing that the more of my own energy is in there the better it will be, thought it was best that I did most of the work. The Genesis of Man and Genesis Files sections are then nearly complete, and I am the moment halfway through the Egyptian section. Some of the old files will go, and a lot of the pictures with them, and the site will have a brand new and much more professional feel, to go with the brand new and more professional me !

I emailed Michael Allen, aka Grumpy Old Bookman a few days ago, since he mentioned me on his blog a few months back, and I was delighted in that he gave me a wondeful write up over the weekend, which seems to have resulted in several more visits to the site. His blog was listed as one of the top writers blog sites in the Guardian newspaper in 2005, so quite a few industry insiders do visit from time to time.

Talking of industry insiders, I am pleased to report that Paul has also been very active today. He has contacted an online book store called Methuens, who from what I gather are based in Guildford, which is only up the road from me. He has also contacted Virgin Books, Publishing News (I actually emailed their news editor myself last week, and also posted a press release on their forum), the Daily Express book club and Richard and Judy. They are coming to the end o their current season, but that is not such a bad thing, since it means they will be looking for more books to publicise, and although they do mostly feature fiction, they have been known to plug non fiction books as well, so you never know. He also contacted Writers News again and filled them in on what has been happening, and it looks as if they will expand the feature that they had already been planning to run.

For my part I rung around 20 or so more Waterstones today - only secured one definate order from Brighton, but several more stores sound more than interesting and requested further information. I finally managed to get back through to Borders in Oxford Street as well, although Adam Hughes, the MBS Buyer was in a Buyers meeting ! Apparently he has written to me. I will be watching for the postman tomorrow then with bated breath. I wonder if he was presenting my book at the very same Buyers meeting that he was in when I rang .....