Time to step back

I have noticed these last few days that certain things have been pressing my buttons like mad. The biggest of these by far has been a spiritual novel, whose name I won't mention directly which has been doing the rounds. The author of this book, who according to her website, worked in the city before having children is putting out the intent to sell 1 million books by December, when her book is presumably self published, and 100 million by the end of next year (I think I got that right). In order to do this, she placed full page advertisements in last weekend's London, New York and Sydney Times. I have no idea what the response to this has been, since last time I looked there was no mention on her website.

The thing that is pressing my buttons more than anything though is not the fact the she is doing this, but the fact that she can afford to do this, because in my mind it does reinforce the idea of there being a very uneven playing field when it comes to the whole publishing business. Money does definitely talk, and it is not what you have written that counts, but who you know and how many you can sell, for this you can also read those who can afford to pay. It is bit like Random House or one of the other large publishers paying book stores for prime space.

The other thing that has been annoying me is the fact that this book seems to be being endorsed by a lot of well known people within the spiritual community and circulated around the Internet. A lot of these same people promised to do the same with my own book but didn't. I suppose it goes back to the same old thing though - why were they not honest enough to tell me that they were unable to keep those promises, and why did they feel they had to fob me off in this way by making promises they have not been able to keep.

Having thought about this in detail though yesterday, and discussed it at length with Coran, it is almost as if seeing all the things that this woman is going and the successes that she appears to be enjoying (although I don't actually know if she is, or whether it may turn out to be nothing but hype), it makes me feel that the things that I am doing are not enough and are not good enough. This is of course total rubbish. I have put an extraordinary amount of my own time, energy, and yes, money into this project and I know that the universe will respond. Slowly at first to begin, but then things will get bigger and bigger until they snowball.

My own goals are if anything far more realistic, as hardly any books in all of history have sold 100 million copies in one year - if she is self published, imagine stuffing all those envelopes - this is a sure fire way to get RSI and never write a book again ! I have learnt the industry inside out though from the bottom up (quite literally) so although i may be aiming lower at asking for 1000 sales by the end of the tax year, this is far more realistic and achievable.

It seems at the moment though that I am trying almost too hard and pushing things to happen before they and I are ready for things to happen. I bumped into my friend Soraya yesterday on the way home from the gym yesterday and was talking about this with her. She mentioned that there was an interesting article re this on Jelaila Starr's website (Jelaila being spokesperson for the Nibiruan Council). I had a read of that last night then and digested what she had to say. That was basically then when things get like this, where it feels like you are continually hitting a brick wall then you need to step back and analyse. So that is what I have done.

I went back to the drawing board and thought about how much better I could sound when ringing book stores if I had some answers prepared, kind of like the sales spiel that cold callers use, but less rehearsed. I have written some ideas down and am keeping it in front of me each time I call. Having spoken to half a dozen or so stores today, the results have been a bit more encouraging. I have secured 2 more orders from stores in London - Leadenhall and Kensington. A member of the public actually went into the Kensington store it seems and asked to order a copy - maybe then they will order some more in response to this ? I will have to email the MBS Manager and let them have some information .....

Head Banging Time

I can't even remember what we did this weekend - I have vague recollections of having lunch somewhere and a trip to Polesden Lacey, a nearby National Trust property, but it just seems to have passed in a blur. Must be a symptom of me getting old - or perhaps I should say middle aged. The term middle aged seems to change anyway as people live longer, so by the time I am ready to kick the bucket it may well mean someone in their 50's rather than 40's. Now I have given my age away - oh well, who cares ! I have never been one of these flimsy, floaty females who has to lie about her age, and see nothing shameful in the fact that I have reached the grand old age of 42. This is quite appropriate actually given the subtitle of my book - the answer to life, the universe and everything in between. Mind you, if I am supposed to have sussed aout what it all means, I think my computer must have crashed, either that or I asked it the wrong question, but then again, most of is do don't we!

Enough of my rambling then and on with the serious stuff. I don't know what it is about Mondays, but I never seem to really get anywhere with the ringing book shops thing. Maybe it is just not a good day to be doing this, as everyone feels depressed about returning to work, but then again, these days most of them are open on the weekends anyway. So, no it can't be them, it has to be me. It certainly feels like them sometimes though. It got to the point yesterday when I actually said to one of them that I was going to go and buy some aspirin in preparation for the fact that I was about to go and bang my head rhythmically against the wall ...

So what caused me to feel like this - apart from me of course, because it as always my stuff. Well, it was mostly a very strange chap at Books Etc in Finchley Road. Mind you, the Manager at Waterstones in Bolton didn't exaclty help either. 'Like I said to you last time, if he is interested the buyer will order some copies'. Well, pardon me, but if they don't bother to tell me when or even if he has, how am I supposed to know that ! You would think they would welcome an author who is proactive and enquiring enough to want to help herself by finding these things out, but apparently I am being a nuisance. What the hell do these people work in book shops for then, if they don't people like me ringing them up then he has 2 options (other than the one he exercised, ie. telling me to sod off, in not so many words). He can either go and live in a field all on his own, or he can get off his backside, stop wingeing and recommend my book to some of those fancy and overpaid sales reps that keep visiting .... Oh well, in my dreams. I tell you this much, he was not in mine last night !

The only reason I rang Books Etc at Finchley Road though was because one of their other branches indicated that they had some copies in stock, presumably as a result of the stuff that I sent to them last month. So, I rang them up, and they checked the system and didn't find any. So I asked them who would be the right person to speak to re getting some ordered - answer our Head Office. 'Well, actually my book has already been accepted by the Borders/Books Etc Head Office' was my reply'. His reply was in not so polite terms 'Books Etc is seperate to Borders and you have to go back to the Head Office'. I reached for the aspirin at this point ....

No, actually I rang Paul and got him to sort it out. Basically, as I suspected, this member of staff (member being the operative word) was as usual talking out of a certain part of his anatomy (that would be the one that he sits on). Borders and Books Etc are the same company, and if you are accepted by one, then you are accepted by the other as well, and can approach whatever of their stores you want to - same as Waterstones then (tell that to Bolton). Furthermore, the Head Office Buying Department are aware of my book, but somewhat confusingly requested another copy of it. Well, I am loathe to send that when I happen to know that Adam Hughes from their Oxford Street branch recently sent them the copy that I in turn sent to him. So, I have sent them a pile of promotional materials with a note to that effect, and we will see what happens.

On the bright side, I did discover that 2 more shops ordered that I was not aware of - Basildon and Bournemouth. Cheltenham unfortunately though will not be, since in the Managers words 'we do not have the time or the budget to experiment with this kind of backlist'. Oh well, their loss is Bournemouth and Basildon's gain ... I know that it is only a matter of time before both they and Bolton are sent them anyway, as like it or not this will happen. Those books will be rolled out company wide before this tax year is out. Back to the telephone then ....

108 copies sold last month

A few days ago, I finally got the final sales figures for the month of August and was astonished to find that I had sold 108 copies ! That means that my total sales figures have doubled in just one month, since I sold just 100 copies in the first year of publication. To say that I am pleased then is then an understatement.

25 of these copies were sold prior to the 13th, so could have been from anywhere - libraries order through a different supplier (Bertrams), so as I contacted most of them at the end of July, some may have been through that source, the rest were probably just individuals ordering through Amazon etc. 2 copies were also sold in the United States, so that means that I sold 81 copies through Gardners in around 2 1/2 weeks. Most of them will be to various branches of Waterstones, since I have been busy ringing all 300 or so of them in turn. I started with the local ones first, since they were more likely to order, and have been gradually working through the rest of them from A-Z. So far I have got as far as the H's, so this is a very good start.

This week though seems to have flown by in a blur of book shops, local papers and everything else that happens in ones every day life. I have been checking Gardners site every day, and earlier this evening it said they have 28 copies in stock. This week then has been a little slower than previous weeks, but I am still making good progress. I have some more Waterstones who have signed up and placed orders - namely, Aberystwyth (Wales), Braehead (Scotland), Folkestone (Kent), St Neots (Cambs), Ilford (Essex) and Inverness (Scotland). I guess that they have all then ordered just the one copy, but one copy is one copy, and it is another foot (or six) through the door). The beauty of the Waterstones system is that once you are in a store, and they have ordered your books, then when one sells, then another is automatically reordered. So that means that I will not have to follow up with these stores - they will soon let me know after all if, or perhaps I should say when, the books start to sell.

I also had an order this week direct from my own website - to a lady called Tracy Saunders who lives in Spain. I got to her know via another writers forum (a POD comparison site actually) called Books and Tales, run by the very strangely named Clea Saal. I do find a lot of these American names very peculiar indeed and can't help wondering at their origins. Anyway, Tracy is writing a book, soon to be published by I-Universe about a Christian martyr called Priscillian, and I for one am thorughoughly looking forward to reading it. She seems very knowledgeable on these matters, which is more than be said for myself, as I know very little about this aspect of Christianity.

According to the Surrey Advertiser, I am an expert in a lot of things. They described my book in this weeks edition as a 'philosophical work about the history of man and the meaning of the universe'. At least though they didn't call me Jane, unlike the more immediate local paper, who said that my book 'was proving a hit right across the world'. The piece was entitled 'June finds winner in lost continents', and they then referred to me actually in the piece as Jane! Honestly I know I shouldn't moan as it is all free publicity that helps to sell books, but don't these people employ proof readers. It is bad form to say anything other than thank you, so I will keep my mouth firmly shut from now on.

I actually rang LBC radio earlier this afternoon (it seems like more than 10 days since I sent that book to Southern Counties) to see if they might be interested in conducting an interview. They didn't think they had any show that was suitable, which is a shame, since it seems that their Sunday morning shows do not feature interviews. The only other possibility might be the Friday night psychic show that Edwin Courtenay is frequently on, but I don't really see myself on there to be honest, as it is more about esoteric stuff really - channelling, spells and the like, and that isn't really what my book is about. Still, there are other stations out there, and plenty more fish as they say in the sea!

Will carry podding along nicely then!

26 stores and counting

I am feeling a lot better today, as no doubt, everyone will be relieved to hear, not least of all my long suffering partner Coran. He has been very good these past few weeks, and an absolute tower of strength and I do not give him the acknowledgement that he deserves. I will say it now though, I could not have done any of this without his love and support, and my life is so much richer for the fact that he is in it.

I had a look at the Gardners website yesterday then and tapped in my ISBN and found that they had 38 copies in stock. Waterstones in Dorchester then ordered 2 copies and the figure dropped down to 36. Then this morning I noticed that the figure was down again to 34. Where have those 2 little copies gone to? Have they gone to my local independent, or perhaps to Waterstones in Cheltenham, who emailed me today to say that they had received the information that I sent? No doubt all will be revealed in due course.

I do wish that when book stores placed orders they would let me know so that I could keep an up to date inventory of who has copies, as it erally would be very useful to know this. It would also help them as I would be able to target media approaches to those areas where the books are particularly well represented and doing well. I did try to explain this to the Manager of one of the branches I spoke to, but he insisted that I did not need to know. I do find this very strange indeed, as you would have thought they would welcome the chance to work with someone like myself who wants to target their approach accordingly. It seems not though.

Still, if Gardners have ordered 115 copies to date, and I have 34 now in stock, then that means that they have sold 81 copies so far - not bad for slightly less than 3 weeks. And these do not include copies sold early on in the month before the sor announcement was made, the figure for which I happen to know was another 11 copies. Then there are the library copies sold to Bertrams, and this is another moot point also, that libraries do not bother to let me know when they have ordered copies. Perhaps I will log on to the Public Lending Rights website and see if they have any information, as short of becoming a member of every public library in the UK, I will not know who has them and where the orders have come from !

So far then, there are 26 book stores that I definately know of who have copies, these are all listed on my new and improved website, but for those of you who are too lazy to click your mouse, I will list them here as well:

Borders - Whiteleys (Bayswater), Fleet Street (London), Lakeside, Wimbledon, Kingston-upon-Thames, Newbury, Uxbridge.

Waterstones - Aviemore, Barnstaple, Barnet, Belfast, Blackpool, Bluewater, Brentwood, Brighton, Chesham, Covent Garden, Coventry (Lower Precinct), Derby, Dorchester, Dorking, Epsom, Godalming, Kingston-upon-Thames (Bentalls Centre), Redhill, Staines.

Lets hope that these copies then start to sell, as the relevant Head Offices do keep on eye on such happenings and once this starts to happen, then the books do stand a very good chance of being shipped out to all stores countrywide. Now that would be worth writing about and may even get me into the Bookseller !

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 !