Hi everyone,

Thought I would bring you all up to date on what has been happening re my book, since it has been a bit quiet on here of late. I guess a lot of you are probbaly on holidays, or should I say vacation ?

Anyway, some of you may have seen me mentioned in Jerry Simmon's newsletter, where I had some really exciting news. Around a month ago, I decided that it was time to stop sitting around waiting for my book to be noticed, and make it happen. I started then by emailing every single library in the country. This was good, as quite a few libraries ordered copies and more are still considering it. It was not though enough, as I knew that in order to really get noticed, you need sales through tills - this means in book shops. Thanks to the MBS Manager at my local Borders, my book is already listed with them, and so I started to ring the rest of their stores. I was disappointed to find that most of them refused to order as they said they could not get a high enough discount, and they also wanted sale or return.

I spoke to Richard then, the boss at Authors OnLine about this, and he said that if I could get guaranteed orders from at least half a dozen stores, then he would ask Gardners, the UK's biggest distibutor, to take it on those terms, as a stocked title. He has only ever done this for 2 other of his titles (both books on ME), and it is almost unheard of for POD books to be available on those terms !
Straight away then I got back on the phone and managed tos secure those 6 orders, and so, 2 weeks ago, on 13 August, he did the deed.

Gardners initially ordered 30 stock copies, but because in their wisdom, they sent the order through to the wrong place, they were not received. By the time the error was realised, I had orders from so many shops, that they had to place an order for 80 copies ! These include 2 of Waterstones flagship stores in Covent Garden (London) and Bluewater (the UK's biggest indoor shopping mall) as well as Borders in Lakeside (the second biggest shopping mall) and Fleet Street. Fleet Street is where all the newspapers have their offices, so all I want now is for a secretary to come in at lunchtime, buy a copy and show it to her boss, who will then review it !

I am really lucky in that Authors OnLine also have their own publicity man, who has been a tremendous help. He has contacts all over the place, ans is working on at least 5 national book chains in order to get the book stocked in all their stores. He has also approached various newspapers and magazines and even national television. He had an automated response back from Channel 4 yesterday .... The book though is to be featured in the next (October) edition of Writing Magazine, which is read by all the book trade, and I am also to be featured as a self publishing success story in The Self Publishing Magazine. I actually organised this one myself, since they reviewed my book a couple of months ago, and very flatteringly compared the book to the God Delusion. When I wrote and thanked them they asked me to write something as a success story. The magazine has in fact just been printed, as Jane, the editor, emailed for my new address to make sure I received my copy.

Somehow amidst of all this I am finding the time to update my website, since it has become obvious that it needs to be revamped and brought up to date. I am doing this myself, since it is a very big site which over 80 pages. My partner, Coran who is a website designer is also helping though, and has had some very good ideas. If anyone wants a website done then I would recommend him !

It does sometimes feel though like this is all happening to someone else. Sometimes I do still get despondent when I get a few no's from the book shops that I continue to ring. The main thing that frustrates me though is that POD works so quickly, but everything else in publishing is so painfully slow. I guess we all need a reminder sometimes though not to be in such a hurry. After all, good things always come to those who wait, and I would much rather be the tortoise than the hare - podding along nicely !