Evening gang,
Yes, you can. To an extent. In that if it rains you know you're gonna get wet. If you fall down the stairs you know it will hurt and if you win the lottery you know you'll abandon your friends, move away, get a big house and so on.
But otherwise no, we cannot predict a damn thing. Only last week on this very blog I was suggesting that Chelsea might have a hand on the premier league title. A week on and they've lost at Villa. As a Liverpool fan this is wildly exciting as all of a sudden winning the title for the first time in a generation is back in Liverpool's hands. Yes, you still have to favour Man City and Chelsea, but in terms of fixtures, goal difference and just pure heart, Liverpool have a shot. And it's so exciting I struggle to put it into words, but if you're a football fan, a Liverpool fan, you get it.
Bottom line is this. If we keep winning, beat Chelsea and City at Anfield and the title is ours. I've danced around this for months but, if we beat United tomorrow at Old Trafford then I'm officially going to start to believe we might do it. If we beat Chelsea at Anfield then we might even be labelled favourites. Didn't think I'd be considering that this season.
Anyway, the paperback has been reformatted and is ready for launch. Hopefully I'll have copies of Ballroom, Bars and Seawater baths in my possession ready for the book launch on the 29th of this month. If not, then it's just me hanging about by an empty table in a hotel.
Also, big step, The 24 Hour Jazz Café is now listed by Waterstones. Woo. That's step two of my three step plan complete. Next step is to somehow get an account with Gardner's books. They are the sole supplier to Waterstones high street shops. If I can get an account there, I can approach Waterstones to stock my books. Then I can ask to do a signing in my local branch etc. We shall see. The aim is to have all my paperbacks listed with them this year and, hopefully, get them into the stores as well.
Quick tennis update. Federer's 2014 resurgence continues which is ace if you're a fan like I am. He has the most points on tour this year and is in another final tomorrow. If he wins, he's back in the top 4. At 33. Best player ever. Simple as.
Finally, and I know I've mentioned this already. There are just 5 days left of my Story Cartel promo. So, if you want a FREE copy of The 24 Hour Jazz Café you simply have to go there and download it. If you commit to a review you might win a $10 amazon gift card. There's a prize draw for that bit. The reviews are a big deal to an Indie author as it add credibility and further promo. SO since the book is free, I'd appreciate the effort.
That's it for now, apart from a reminder that bits of my next book are available to read over at Wattpad should you be curious.
Carry on....
Showing posts with label Waterstones. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Waterstones. Show all posts
Saturday, 15 March 2014
Wednesday, 12 February 2014
Do you think book signings help sales?
Evening folks,
Quick one tonight, football on Tele.
Given that Alexander McCall Smith did a low key book signing in Lancaster last week that went unpromoted and largely unattended, then I suppose the answer is I don't know.
But I'm doing one anyway!!
Me and awesome fellow local author Frion Farrell will be standing shoulder to shoulder to shift copies of our books. It will be on 29th March in Morecambe, likely at the Headway Hotel. More details to follow as I make them up.
Bottom line, I want to shift some books. I'll see you there.
Note - bloody Liverpool are losing to the bottom team in the league!! Shocking. Nope, hang on, just equalised. Game on. If Liverpool fancy the title this year then they have to find a way to win this one. Nail biting stuff.
Also, despite life threatening weather warnings the wife, me and the dog walked to the shop for half an hour earlier to buy wine. It was savage. But my neighbour was out sorting his recycling in just a t-shirt. Hardcore.
And I've submitted one of my books to Nielson with a view that Waterstones will stock them going forward. Potentially huge!
Quick one tonight, football on Tele.
Given that Alexander McCall Smith did a low key book signing in Lancaster last week that went unpromoted and largely unattended, then I suppose the answer is I don't know.
But I'm doing one anyway!!
Me and awesome fellow local author Frion Farrell will be standing shoulder to shoulder to shift copies of our books. It will be on 29th March in Morecambe, likely at the Headway Hotel. More details to follow as I make them up.
Bottom line, I want to shift some books. I'll see you there.
Note - bloody Liverpool are losing to the bottom team in the league!! Shocking. Nope, hang on, just equalised. Game on. If Liverpool fancy the title this year then they have to find a way to win this one. Nail biting stuff.
Also, despite life threatening weather warnings the wife, me and the dog walked to the shop for half an hour earlier to buy wine. It was savage. But my neighbour was out sorting his recycling in just a t-shirt. Hardcore.
And I've submitted one of my books to Nielson with a view that Waterstones will stock them going forward. Potentially huge!
Friday, 18 January 2013
Is it okay to win at all costs?
Evening gang,
So what does everybody think about Lance Armstrong's confession on Oprah? I've only skimmed through the highlights, if that's the right word, and he didn't seem particularly repentant. Call me a cynic but while he's admitted to the doping etc he didn't seem very sorry and I can't imagine he's suddenly decided to admit to all this cheating without a very good reason.
But the thing that stands out about Lance is this idea of winning at all costs. This week in snowy old Britain we've had a number of high street retailers go into administration, arguably the biggest being HMV. Why is this interesting to me? Well aside from the obvious job losses, empty shop units, economic issues, there's a link to books.
To anyone with any interest in the news it's been no secret that a number of retailers have been in trouble for a while. HMV caught my attention a while ago and I remember talking to colleagues about it months ago saying that they'd be lucky to see out the year. Until recently HMV owned Waterstones but sold it because they needed the funds. But it's no secret that Waterstone's isn't in great shape either.
Now I'm a vocal advocate of paper books, traditional books that you can bend and fold, crease, use to prop things up and chuck at the dog when he's naughty. Although I publish to Kindle I've never owned one and pretty much refused to entertain the notion that they are better than books. Until recently...
I have a library in my house, it's got hundreds of books in it and an antique wooden ladder. I like the smell, how it looks and I like that it never stops growing. I have copies of my own paperbacks on the shelves too. But I bought a 7 inch tablet for the wife this Christmas. She loves it. One of the many apps she's got is the Kindle app. I sent her the draft of my new book to proof read on the tablet instead of printing it like I normally do. She shot through it and I made revisions.
"I'll try it myself I said. I'll read it on the tablet and then I can make live changes on the laptop as I go."
It's brilliant! I almost hate to admit it but it's light, fits in my hand like a paperback, the page turning is natural and fluid and it makes reading as it should be. About the story.
So if they've managed to convert me, where does that leave real books and further more, places like Waterstones? I have no clever answer but it will come as no surprise when we see it on the news that the administrators have been called in.
And that, in a very roundabout, tour de france kind of way, is the point of the topic. Perhaps the high street needed to be a bit sharper off the mark, play a bit dirtier against the online competition and get the government on board to help them, like Lance had his network of helpers to make sure he won at all costs. It's not too late, perhaps Lance could act as an advisor to Waterstones? He's never gonna be allowed on a bike again so he might as well do some good.
In other news, pub tonight for tea. Then a full weekend editing the final draft of the new book which should be out within a week. You'll hear it here first. I also have over 1600 Twitter followers, so thanks to all of them, and sales are going pretty well in spite of my lack of recent promo.
Hope you have a good one, be careful in the snow.
So what does everybody think about Lance Armstrong's confession on Oprah? I've only skimmed through the highlights, if that's the right word, and he didn't seem particularly repentant. Call me a cynic but while he's admitted to the doping etc he didn't seem very sorry and I can't imagine he's suddenly decided to admit to all this cheating without a very good reason.
But the thing that stands out about Lance is this idea of winning at all costs. This week in snowy old Britain we've had a number of high street retailers go into administration, arguably the biggest being HMV. Why is this interesting to me? Well aside from the obvious job losses, empty shop units, economic issues, there's a link to books.
To anyone with any interest in the news it's been no secret that a number of retailers have been in trouble for a while. HMV caught my attention a while ago and I remember talking to colleagues about it months ago saying that they'd be lucky to see out the year. Until recently HMV owned Waterstones but sold it because they needed the funds. But it's no secret that Waterstone's isn't in great shape either.
Now I'm a vocal advocate of paper books, traditional books that you can bend and fold, crease, use to prop things up and chuck at the dog when he's naughty. Although I publish to Kindle I've never owned one and pretty much refused to entertain the notion that they are better than books. Until recently...
I have a library in my house, it's got hundreds of books in it and an antique wooden ladder. I like the smell, how it looks and I like that it never stops growing. I have copies of my own paperbacks on the shelves too. But I bought a 7 inch tablet for the wife this Christmas. She loves it. One of the many apps she's got is the Kindle app. I sent her the draft of my new book to proof read on the tablet instead of printing it like I normally do. She shot through it and I made revisions.
"I'll try it myself I said. I'll read it on the tablet and then I can make live changes on the laptop as I go."
It's brilliant! I almost hate to admit it but it's light, fits in my hand like a paperback, the page turning is natural and fluid and it makes reading as it should be. About the story.
So if they've managed to convert me, where does that leave real books and further more, places like Waterstones? I have no clever answer but it will come as no surprise when we see it on the news that the administrators have been called in.
And that, in a very roundabout, tour de france kind of way, is the point of the topic. Perhaps the high street needed to be a bit sharper off the mark, play a bit dirtier against the online competition and get the government on board to help them, like Lance had his network of helpers to make sure he won at all costs. It's not too late, perhaps Lance could act as an advisor to Waterstones? He's never gonna be allowed on a bike again so he might as well do some good.
In other news, pub tonight for tea. Then a full weekend editing the final draft of the new book which should be out within a week. You'll hear it here first. I also have over 1600 Twitter followers, so thanks to all of them, and sales are going pretty well in spite of my lack of recent promo.
Hope you have a good one, be careful in the snow.
Tuesday, 4 October 2011
Decline in High Street Bookshops
Afternoon all,
Given that I've recently started a blog about my writing and given that I've written a number of novels which I hope one day to see in print it was a proper disappointment to read this article on the BBC website today. The article says that real bookshops are slowly vanishing from the high street and, given the well documented problems Waterstones are having, it's hard to argue with. I'm not a fan of electronic publishing but I am about to try it for myself simply because, like any other writer, I want people to read my work.
Me and the wife buy lots of books but often this is from the supermarket and even when we do go to a bookshop, when was the last time anybody paid full price for a book? When you think that you can buy a bestseller for a couple of quid on a Kindle it's easy to see why it accounts for such a high percentage of sales.
So, despite my preference for something tangible, for the feel of a real book, it would seem electronic might be the way to go. I've included a link to the article here for those that want to read it.
Given that I've recently started a blog about my writing and given that I've written a number of novels which I hope one day to see in print it was a proper disappointment to read this article on the BBC website today. The article says that real bookshops are slowly vanishing from the high street and, given the well documented problems Waterstones are having, it's hard to argue with. I'm not a fan of electronic publishing but I am about to try it for myself simply because, like any other writer, I want people to read my work.
Me and the wife buy lots of books but often this is from the supermarket and even when we do go to a bookshop, when was the last time anybody paid full price for a book? When you think that you can buy a bestseller for a couple of quid on a Kindle it's easy to see why it accounts for such a high percentage of sales.
So, despite my preference for something tangible, for the feel of a real book, it would seem electronic might be the way to go. I've included a link to the article here for those that want to read it.
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