Is the internet a giant game of hide and seek?

Congratulations you found me! 

The internet is starting to feel like a giant game of hide and seek, and I seem to be an expert at hiding...

I sell most of my books at book signings, where people are delighted to meet a real live author, as if I'm some rare and endangered species.

Please visit my bookshop, have a rummage around and read the blurbs.

There's my new book for adults - where I share probably more than I should about how I got outnumbered by cats - is it normal to hiss back at your cat...? She was certainly surprised!

But most of my books are for kids - from picture books to share, to the Doodle series to either read aloud or leave new readers to discover alone.

Jump into a book and find a new friend. Talk about it with an old friend... read yourself into places you never thought you'd go...

Ramblings of an author trying to crack the clicking code

Is it just me, or does everyone come up against these constant learning curves...?

So what is the latest one? Well to get people into my bookshop - it's a little bookshop with big ideas, I think I've mentioned that before but hey, you might have missed it... 

So where are all the customers? They seem to be flocking past on the world wide web, on an endless treadmill of shoppers, all heading for the main shopping outlets.

But I believe there is a growing trend of people who are tired of the endless pushing of goods we probably don't need, and if we search something on the web, then that product turns up on every facet of what we're doing. 

A prime example would be when I recently bought a safety gate at a mainstream online outlet - well the search engines, or whatever causes these things to pop up didn't know what to do with this uncharacteristic purchase, and started sending me adverts for baby products and dog products - I have neither a baby or a dog, so they had failed to second guess what I needed a safety gate for... and I'm quite happy to leave it that way, I don't like to feel spied on, and certainly don't want to give them the satisfaction of knowing the answer to that little mystery...

So... how to play the search engines at their own game...? Gathering clicks in the right place - clicks are the new footfall. OK, now I have a theory - and a bigger mystery than ever... arhh

So help me crack the code - click on my Little Bookshop with big ideas and help me buck the trend... or leave comments below.

Author rambling about books...

It's Monday and the sun is shinning, what a great day to have a clear out and start afresh...

And where better to start than with my website homepage.

So here we go with a new look - the books have come down and gone back to their bookshelves in the online bookshop, where you can read the blurb and add to cart - what an exciting prospect that is, buying a cart load of books... but you can just buy one at once of course.

So have a rummage, read the blurbs and find a new friend. 

Most of my books up to now have sold at craft fairs and book signings, and that has taken time to build, learning how to venture out from behind the computer and take my books out into the world; how attract the attention of passing strangers and spark up a conversation. The books help of course, people are naturally drawn in by the colourful covers, and once they've picked one up they've started a process that will hopefully lead to a sale...  

...and what, you might wonder are those sheep doing on my table of books...?

Well, they are just a few of the characters from one of my books, and a very popular addition they have proved to be - they're running around my online bookshop too...