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Showing posts with label #readaloud. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #readaloud. Show all posts

Monday, June 16, 2025

Self Publishing is all about stubborn

 Self Publishing is all about being stubborn… why?

·        As a self publisher you’ve likely already come up against some sort of barrier in traditional publishing: not securing an agent, not finding a publisher to publish your work, or simply decided not to send any more work out to squelch about in a slush pile.

·        Finding out that writing the story is not the end of the process, there are more skills to learn: editing, formatting, illustrating and making all of this stick into a memory stick to send to a printer.

·        Then there’s the promotions and marketing, and generally getting the word out there, about the amazing new book that you now have to sell.

·        There are websites, and blogs and a whole host of ways to get a book noticed online.

·        And pretty soon you realise that writing the book is just the beginning, and learning curves keep hitting you, sharper and steeper than you thought possible. The sense of achievement at rising to each new challenge is amazing, but also exhausting.

So what keeps a self publisher going? Sheer stubbornness and an unshakable belief in the book or books, that have to find their way out of the boxes and into the hands of readers…

So that’s where I’m at, feeling exhausted but stubbornly carrying on…






Tuesday, May 13, 2025

 

Hi, welcome to my blog, which goes back for quite a few years now, through all the trials and tribulations of creating my books and self publishing. I've overcome many hurdles to get to this point, but the biggest hurdle of all seems to be online sales, so if you're reading this, maybe you'd like to follow the link in the picture above, right into my online bookshop, where there's a sale on right now. Have a rummage around and meet the books, all lined up and ready to be personally signed and sent out to new homes. 

Bringing the personal touch of a book signing to a wider audience. You'll find me behind the counter, working on the next book, which is taking shape in fits and starts. I'm working on the illustrations, still in half a mind to send it out to a few more agents before self publishing, just because it would be nice to share some of the process of getting books into the hands of readers.


Thursday, March 20, 2025

Picture Book Brewing

 

Story building

It started with a theme, and it meandered through several storylines, characters jumping in and making it their own, but what was needed was something different, a different viewpoint. And so now I have the words, characters talking to each other, a beginning, a middle and an end.

So what now…? Colour! Literally – paint, brushes, water, and lots of paper, because the first picture, much like the first paragraph written, is not likely to make it as far as the finished book… let the magic commence!  


Friday, March 14, 2025

Self Publishing is all about being stubborn!

 Self Publishing is all about being stubborn… why?

·        As a self publisher you’ve likely already come up against some sort of barrier in traditional publishing: not securing an agent, not finding a publisher to publish your work, or simply decided not to send any more work out to squelch about in a slush pile.

·        Finding out that writing the story is not the end of the process, there are more skills to learn: editing, formatting, illustrating and making all of this stick into a memory stick to send to a printer.

·        Then there’s the promotions and marketing, and generally getting the word out there, about the amazing new book that you now have to sell.

·        There are websites, and blogs and a whole host of ways to get a book noticed online.

·        And pretty soon you realise that writing the book is just the beginning, and learning curves keep hitting you, sharper and steeper than you thought possible. The sense of achievement at rising to each new challenge is amazing, but also exhausting.

So what keeps a self publisher going? Sheer stubbornness and an unshakable belief in the book or books, that have to find their way out of the boxes and into the hands of readers…

So that’s where I’m at, feeling exhausted but stubbornly carrying on…

Monday, April 29, 2019

Author sharing the journey - even the wrong turns and dead ends...

So, my website is back on track and I've optimistically added the link to Rummage4words.co.uk to my blog. The current sticking point is the shop, but if you go to any of the online book sellers or bookshops, and ignore the not currently available notice, then your order will come through to me and I will dispatch your order to you - go on I dare you - let's do this!


Sunday, April 28, 2019

For the books that need to be read - I will fight technology!

I've been having some website issues lately to the point where I'm coming back to my trusty blog to regroup. So where can I go form here? I have books relying on me to find homes for them and send them out into the world to be read...

The journey has been a long and varied one:

My books have been in book shops...


                                                                       and in library displays...


I bought bright orange envelopes - to send the books out into to the world in style.




I knitted sheep as quirky promotion...


...it worked, so I knitted more sheep.


I knitted some cats - the ginger one, not the tabby!


But most of all I've sat or stood behind my books at book signings and sold direct to readers.


...and played around with book displays.
                                               From books going on holiday...


...to a horse display, (yes I knitted the horse and knotted the hay net)
to promote my latest book.


So you see - I am determined - and I will launch my books out into the world!

#LostinaBook #rummage4words 

Monday, February 20, 2017

February at Lost in a Book

February at Lost in a Book

20th Feb

Do you remember that first book that grabbed you when you were just on the edge of confident reading? The book that took you over the edge into forgetting that you even reading, it just felt like you were magically transported to somewhere else and meeting new friends...

I remember it well, and hope to write books that will do the same thing for new readers who are dipping their toes into new worlds between the pages of a book, because if you dip your toes in enough books, you're going to find that one book that will drag you in and hold a little bit of you there for all time...

#Lostinabook #lovereading #halfterm
.............................................................. 
15th Feb

Half Term is creeping up, so here's the plan - I've got Doodle Mayhem on special offer at £3.50 and still postage free - so get the kids reading this half term...

 

First in the Doodle series

Eric would rather doodle than write a story, but when the words start to disappear off the page in front of him, and his doodle starts talking to him, he thinks he must be dreaming.

Eric's doodle has come to life, and he's getting bored; he jumps into Miranda's story, where he gets attacked by a rubber, then he's blown off his feet when Natasha sneezes. Miss Roper is getting angrier by the second. How will Eric ever finish his story, when his doodle just wants to have fun, and create havoc?

Step into a world where drawings come alive, meet Eric's doodles Iver No-Idea and his dog HB as they cause their own brand of trouble.

46 page paperback
Black & white line drawings
ISBN 978-0-9560232-4-7
Lost in a Book
#LostinaBook #amwriting 

Saturday, September 03, 2016

Book launch - new book available now from Lost in a Book

New Book available now!!  

It's new book launch month, and where better to start than in my own online shop.

Order direct from the author and know that the money goes directly into paying for printing my books - I don't pay to advertise, and I do everything except the printing and binding myself because I believe my money is best spent on getting a quality product that I can be proud to sell.

I've got some book signings lined up, the first one being on Tuesday morning 6th September at Clifton Library, York, where I'll also be leaving books in the library display cabinet.

 
#LostinaBook
#Newbook
#booklaunch 

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Most fears are rooted in fear of the unknown, so lets make monsters fun in kids fiction

The Monster Under The Bed - 10th Birthday on 31st January 2015

Monsters in children's fiction - what is it that makes people shy away from buying a book about a monster? 

Children like a hint of something scary, read to them in a safe environment, as long as all is well in the end.   ...so go on, buy a copy... I dare you to!

Books about monsters can even help children who are scared of the dark - there are lists of books for just this purpose - and The Monster Under The bed is right up there on the search lists.

Most fears are rooted in fear of the unknown, so making monsters fun goes a long way towards allaying those fears.
  

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Well I really couldn't have predicted what happened next...

 Well I really couldn't have predicted what happened next...

In the middle of my promotion for A Face Full of Snow... sheep started selling...!

That's right, so I ended up doing some emergency sheep knitting, to ship off to Devon. Then another order came in, but don't panic, this one was for a knitting pattern for someone to knit their own sheep... phew...

Anyway the upshot is, I'm getting a little flock of sheep knitted up to avert more sheep emergencies, whilst really hoping that a few more people will buy patterns...

So what is it about sheep that people can't resist...?

...and should I really be doing another book about sheep...?

Or maybe I should just keep knitting... 

 

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Lost in a Book online bookshop because January is a time to shop from your favourite armchair and let the books come to you...

On the theme of Grabbing Monday and making the most of it - what about grabbing January...?

January has to be the best month of the year for buying and selling books online - why...? because you can stay at home where it's warm, and let the books come to you.

Still not convinced? Well let me show you what's happening in my online bookshop this month...

Right now you can read the next installment of A Face Full of Snow - and find out the secret of how Iver No-Idea and HB managed to gatecrash Eric's skiing holiday..

And at the end of January it's the 10th anniversary of first publishing The Monster Under The Bed - now how can I celebrate that...? The Monster Under The Bed is now in second edition, but I still have a few first editions left... now what could i do with them...? 

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Book excerpt from Lost in a Book's A face Full of Snow

Excerpt: A Face Full of Snow

Chapter 1


Whoosh! Splat! 
Eric’s first attempt at skiing ended up with him flat on his back in the snow, like a stranded bug. He tried to get up, but his skis had other ideas, they felt like a pair of over sized planks strapped to his feet. 
“I’m glad Iver wasn’t here to see that,” muttered Eric, sitting up.
“Who’s Iver?” 
Eric looked up into a pair of green eyes, waggling about on stalks. They were growing out of a green hat, which was pulled over an explosion of orange hair. 

“Hi, I’m Aline,” said the owner of the orange hair.
“Alien?” Eric sat up with a start, his skis clattering together in protest.
“No... Aline. Who’s Iver?” 
“Oh just a friend of mine,” said Eric. He couldn’t tell a complete stranger the truth, even one who had an alien on her head. 
“And is Iver a good skier?” persisted Aline.
“Well he likes to think he is,” said Eric. “If he was here he’d be telling me what to do all the time.”
“That might not be such a bad idea,” said Aline.