I’m making a habit of this: typing my blog from under the covers! With good reason, this time, as I was out at a quiz on Wednesday with some friends and it’s taken a bit of recovery time (no…I don’t drink, so it wasn’t that). With our knowledge limited to obscure facts, we were amazed to find that, one question from the finale, we were leading by 5 clear points - we were unbeatable! Except that we weren’t because the last question was worth 10 points and we got it wrong. We snatched defeat from the jaws of victory and slunk out in third place. But we’ll be back, oh yes, more clueless…er…clued up than ever!

I know this has little to do with book promotion, but I promised Sarah and Ian I’d be mentioning the injustice in my Blog!

Back to all things book-related! I was re-reading my previous blogs and realised that I haven’t really given any details of my book - amateur mistake. So here’s what you need to know:

• Â Â Â Karma by Holly A Harvey
• Â Â Â ISBN 9781905108374
• Â Â Â Released 26 February 2007
• Â Â Â Available online at retailers such as Amazon, WHSmith, Tesco, Play.com

Since last time, I had a response from WHSmith with regard to book-signings - I can’t say that it was hugely encouraging. Basically, they’ve given my details to their local book buyer who will get in touch IF they are interested. So, in the case of WHSmith, no news is not good news…

Sarah (friend and owner of Henry’s Books) has been talking to my publisher about a book-signing on World Book Day, which is 1 March 2007 - that’s all that I have secured to date. I haven’t heard anything from my publisher recently, as they have a book coming out next week and are busy with that. I was also hoping that my website would be up and running this week, but it isn’t - maybe next week?

So, where do I go from here? I’m off to look on eBay for a Thinking Cap…

Hello again! Had no intention of writing so often, but I’m cold and bored (typing this from my bed). In my quest to sell more than two books, I emailed Borders, Waterstones, and Gateshead Libraries Service - this is what happened so far:

Was in Borders book shop in Gateshead today, but was feeling too shy Embarassed to ask them what their procedure was with regard to book signings. Was able to justify this by telling myself that I’d already emailed them and was awaiting a response. I wouldn’t even let my mam ask if they were going to stock my book. When I got home, there it was: an email from Borders! I eagerly opened it, and it basically said, “Ask at your local store”. Oh dear!

I’ve still heard nothing from Waterstones and, on checking their website, it says that there is no stock availability of my book in-store. I don’t know if this is because it hasn’t been released yet or because they don’t intend to stock it… I have NO idea if the publishers have had any interest. Speaking of publishers, Sarah (who owns Henry’s Books) is emailing my contact today to ask for some promotional stuff in order to advertise my book/signing - take it she’s had no response yet! Can’t wait to find out how they’re going to market it!

I also had an email from my local Libraries Service - apparently my message to them had been ambiguous and I hadn’t made it clear if I was a local author or someone who was interested in local authors. Whoops! I replied to say that I would love to participate with their Readers’ Groups (though I didn’t know what I could offer them…) I keep agreeing to do things and then spending every minute afterwards worrying about what I’ve let myself in for.

I think that my BIG problem is that I have lots of excellent ideas, but not the guts to follow through with them. I’m going to have to find some self-confidence from somewhere soon - is it available on eBay?

Bye for now - laptop getting heavy and The Simpsons is on TV!

Hello!

Welcome to my first Blog entry - it’s taken me a while to get into Blogging, but now that I have, I ‘m going to try and make it a regular occurrence!

If you’ve looked at my profile, you’ll know that my first book is due out in three weeks’ time. Let me catch you up on how I got to this point. Several years ago, I was stuck in a job that I hated. One of the people I worked for had just joined Friends Reunited and was trying to convince me to join up too - I logged on, but found that I had absolutely nothing to say about myself. Nothing of interest compared to the managers, company owners, jounalists, IT professionals, etc that my former school mates had become. So, I decided to write a book. I sat down one evening and I typed and I typed…and came up with a whole chapter. That was seven years ago!

In November 2005, my mam told me about a national competition to find an “Undiscovered Author”. I wasn’t interested as, deep down, I knew I didn’t stand a chance. Now, read carefully, as the next bit is a little confusing: on 31st December 2005 (coincidentally, as well as being New Year’s Eve, it was also the closing date for the Bookforce “Undiscovered Authors” competition), I was clearing out my emails and re-read one from a gentleman called Mark Jones. He was the star of the show Boogie Nights 2 (which I’d seen in Blackpool during October 2005) and I had emailed him after seeing his website in the show’s brochure - I hadn’t believed that he would actually reply himself, but he did. I happened to mention that I had seen him in Blackpool when I was there for my birthday, and said that I was feeling old at the age of thirty-one. He responded, saying that he’d done more since he’d hit thirty than he had in his twenties. I re-read that message, and thought, “What the hell! I’m not over the hill at thirty-one - I’ll give that competition a go. What do I have to lose?” So, minutes before the deadline, I cobbled together a synopsis, attached my single chapter and hit the ’send’ button before I could change my mind.

I’d put it out of my mind, only to receive a phone call in February 2006 to say that I had won the Fiction category for the North East of England! I couldn’t believe it - I laughed and cried at the same time. The only drawback was that there was no completed book…yet. What you also need to know about me is that I suffer from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - I look ‘normal’ but spend most of my time completely exhausted, even after a little activity. It’s a hard condition for people to understand. Basically, I spend time in bed or resting, to store up the energy to go somewhere or do something, then following this activity, I spend time in bed or resting to recover from it!!! Fortunately, writing is something that I can pick up and put down when I can do very little else… The rest,as they say, is history and my book, Karma, is due out soon.

From now on, I want to document what happens next. The book market is a very competitive one, and I don’t have money to throw around in order to promote or market my book. How much can one little, sleepy person do to compete with well-known authors and large publishing houses? Well, there’s only one way to find out…