Resilience and Me - The 8 Firsts in my life

 Having endocarditis in 2020-21 gave me a whole lot of firsts in my life. I have mentioned some in my memoir but here are ones that I can recall.

1. My first CT scan. These are fine just as long as they don't involve a cannula, which the first couple I had to have did. If you hate needles as much as me, do ask if they could put it in your arm when you are lying down.

2. My first MRI scan. I think my mum told me at the time about the loud noises you experience. They are loud even wearing ear plugs and headphones which are given to you. If you have music going on the machine, try to tune into that. It does help. Another tip is that you can't usually wear metal during the scan so if your shape allows go without a bra and wear a crop top and wear joggers/trackies or a skirt (weather permitting).

3. My first blood transfusion. I never want one of those again. It takes 4-5 hours to complete, even longer if you are like me and need the toilet often.

4. My first major surgery. One I hope to never repeat in my life. My mechanical heart valve is meant to be for life. This is why I chose this instead of a tissue valve.

5. My first pacemaker. I never expected to have one of those at all in my life. If you have read my memoir, then you know why I was fitted one. I might have to have it replaced later in life as they don't last as long as a valve. I do know that I will probably this year have to have one of the leads replaced as it is making extra noise (my body has always been complicated).

6. My first time having carers. I never thought I'd have them until I was much older. They did help me to recover at home, knowing that I wasn't alone all day.

7. My first time using hospital transport. I didn't even know that it existed until I was transferred to my second and third hospitals, and then when I came home could use it to attend my appointments. I still use it today especially to go to my main appointments at Guy's and St Thomas's hospitals. It involves waiting around for them to come and collect you both at home and at hospital but it is a door to door service.

8. Saying that, the above is another first for me – attending hospital appointments on my own. Before the surgery I always used to go with my mum as I was afraid of getting lost and not knowing what to say to medical staff due to my Asperger's. I now go to all my appointments on my own, something that I am amazed I do. I believe that it comes from no longer having a hole in the heart which made me nervous. So, one good thing did come out of that period of my life.

BTW my memoir 'Endocarditis - My Journey' got a 5 star review from The Book Dragon store, which you can read on their website. It is available to buy there as well as my website, Amazon and other ebook retailers.

Want a bit of magic in your life?

 

Yes, I think we all need a bit of magic in our lives at times, especially during tough periods. I for one feel that I do a lot of the time now. It is why I haven 't been here a lot this year as I have had a lot of personal and upsetting days especially since the end of August when my mum passed away in hospital. With Christmas coming up, it will be harder still for me as it will be the first Christmas without her.

Anyway, here is a bit of magic for you to read, especially for us authors. I have a short story in this anthology 'Modern Magic' called 'The Dragon Pen' which helps an author meet her deadline. Don't we all want one of those. It is available to order as an ebook or paperback here https://books2read.com/u/mvXpQz

Have fun reading it all.

Review of writing goals

I went to look at this blog to see what my writing goals were so I could review them, and saw that was when I last posted here. Oops. How lax of me. That shall be one of my goals then, to blog more. I did read what my goals were, and have had to rethink a couple, either because of what I write or because of current circumstances. So, here we go.

Not to give up on sending sci-fi stories out. I have given up, mainly because I have realised that the type of sci-fi I write (and want to write) isn't what the magazines want. They want gritty types whereas mine are more gentle and clean. Am now thinking about still writing them but for my own collection to publish, possibly next year.

Promote my children's books in libraries. Due to the lockdown, this has had to be put on hold until when I can do so.

Promote my ghost stories more. I have been promoting them now and then on Facebook, esp in groups I belong to.

I have found another way to promote them - write them for magazines. So I have found a market for them, with one acceptance so far. Yours Fiction (a quarterly magazine) that publishes just fiction wants ghost stories, so I have sent them two more stories so far. Am working on another, and have a couple more in mind, which were going to be put in my short story collection. Which brings me to my next goal -

Get together a collection of my ghost stories to publish. I have started. I have found some on Word and have put them in one folder ready to print out again and read through.

Another way to promote ghost stories is to write more ebooks with them in. I have thought of another series with a helpful ghost in, which I've been jotting down notes about over the last couple of weeks.

Last goal. Write the last in my Singleton magical realism series. Am still writing that. I want to finish the first draft this month. I want to publish before autumn, when I feel that traditional published books will eventually be published.

New goal - to publish Alistair's story in August/Sept.

So, I shall catch up sometime soon about these.

My writing priorities have changed

Over the last month or so my writing priorities have changed. How? Well, I had wanted to write both adult and children's fiction, but I now want to mainly concentrate on writing for children. I still am going to write short stories for womags; that is my second priority, but as for adult fiction? I will continue and complete the 2 ebook series' I have been writing ie Geraldine's Gems and Singleton. I will also write pocket novels, but probably only once a year. I will write them in between the children's books I have planned, and they are many. So, how has it changed for me? I have been helping a new author edit and write his own picture books for children, and have been enjoying it immensely, coming up with ideas for him to work on. Helping him has made me realise that I enjoy writing for children more than adults. He has found this too. I think we both find writing for children much easier than writing adult fiction.

So, here is my current writing plan.

1. Finish the pocket novel I am revising. Near the end. It is now 48K. 2K to go. When I finish that, I shall send it to my editor.
2. Whilst that it being edited, I shall start plotting the third and final mermaid story. I am looking forward to that.
3. When I have written and published that, I shall start reading and revising 'Boring Billy'. Get that edited and publish it myself.
4. Then I shall write and publish the last of Geraldine's Gems.
5. Back to writing for children. Read through Charlie, get it edited and published.
6. During the retreat in May I plan to start writing the next Asperkids ebook which will be about Susie who has a heart problem but can work wonders with her fingers and making tapestries. (Based on me).

I think that is enough for getting on with for now, don't you? Now that I want to specialise in writing for children, that is where my niche lays and I want to help new children's authors feel the way I do about writing that genre. So, my author service has changed too.

2016 Writing goals

So, here is my main writing goals for this new year. Where did 2015 go?

1. To finish the pocket novel I have been rewriting since last October, get it professionally edited, then send it to the editor of My Weekly Pocket Novels. I feel I am on my way with this one, as I am adding a lot to the plot still and getting near the ideal word count of 50K.

2. Continue writing short stories aimed at the women's magazines. Get at least 5 accepted for publication. This one runs over from last year. I have 4 stories out there already; two with The Weekly News, 1 with Woman's Weekly, and 1 with Take a Break's Fiction Feast. I am currently rewriting another aimed for People's Friend, and have another nearly finished for Yours. I am happier about writing these as I found a blog esp for womag writers to put their stories on there for feedback. I have learnt to go with what I have been told by these writers as most of them have been successful with their stories. The one I'm revising now is from their comments about it on the blog.

3. Finish 'Geraldine's Gem's' series. Have one more ebook to write and publish, which I plan to do soon.

4. Possibly start publishing my Asperkids series of ebooks. Want to give the first one 'Billy' a few tweaks before getting it edited. Have ideas on what I want to do with this.

5. Finish 'Mermaid' trilogy. Plan to do this as well later this year.

6. Start publishing my children's ebooks that aren't in print, into print, starting with 'Railway Angel'. This was decided last year when my client told me that his granddaughter likes my books and wanted more of them. So, I will do.

7. Might publish the 'Angels' series as a box set at a cheap price.

8. Starting next week, I am going to record in my new diary planner what I write and type each day, then blog about it all the following week. A public record you could say.

I have a special diary planner to write all these down.

So, what are you writing goals for 2016? Let me know and maybe we can be accountable to each other. Good luck.

Do you have a theme in all your books?

Sorry I've not been here a lot, but been helping my mum round the house and garden, and then went down with a cold. Still have the cold, but much better now.

Anyway, do you have a theme running through all your books? I do. Mine is hope and second chances. I shall explain more.

With my Guardian Angels series, there is hope for the teen angels, Lizzie and Danny, for redemption by helping other teens on Earth from risking their lives and death, like they did. They give hope to the teens they help by showing them what they can do with their lives if they just try and not give in to boredom. I'm currently writing the fifth and final of the series, where Lizzie and Danny have their last mission to pass and graduate from the school. It doesn't all go to plan like they hoped.

In Geraldine's Gems adult romance series, Geraldine has gone to Heaven after dying and given the chance to redeem herself (she was not nice when alive) by first getting her ex love to be nice again, then going down to Earth to help her relatives get their lives and love back on track. As she is told, One good turn deserves another. So her relatives are given hope and second chance at love.

Then in my dark magical romance series 'Secrets of Singleton' some of the residents whom are single, are given the hope of romance by certain objects who have magical powers given by their descendants.

So there you have my theme of Hope and Second Chances.

I plan to put this theme in non-fiction soon, too. I plan to write and publish a series of short ebooks to help new authors with their writing. The first one is going to be full of writing exercises for all genres, the second one will be more exercises, but will use words and verbs that often get mixed up and confused eg practice/se. (One which I used to get confused with).

You can buy any of the above ebooks at http://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B0034P09WW

New goals - the update

Do you remember my goals for this year that I posted in January? Here they are. Here is the update on how I am getting on with them:

1. To complete my YA fantasy series 'The Guardian Angels'. I am working on this one. Started writing this in May on the retreat, continued with it during last week whilst waiting for edits. Will finish it this year.

 2. To complete my mermaid trilogy. Not started the last one yet. Don't think I will have time, unless I do this in the afternoon when I've finished my Pocket Novel partial and Billy.

 3. To complete my adult romance series 'Geraldine's Gems'. Hope to do this after I've finished last of my Angel ebooks.

 4. To write 1 or 2 more of my Singleton village series. Working on edits for this one, as lots of comments from my editor and lots to learn still about pacing.

 5. To maybe write another of my Asperkids series. Need to revise part of Billy first. So not this year.

 6. To publish my first Asperkids books about Boring Billy. Maybe by end of the year as I want to revise part of it from what I learnt at the retreat in May.

 7. To get at least 5 short stories accepted and published by women's magazines. Work in progress. lol. Have had rejections so far. One out with Woman's Weekly and working on another for Yours. I have found a blog esp for womag writers who give feedback to your stories, so have been using that for help.

 8. To earn at least £500 from no 7. Not sure if I will get there by end of year. Another work in progress.

 9. To break even with my writing expenses this year. I've been working at a loss the last few years. Getting there. Half way there but only thanks to my new business, my 1-2-1 author service.

 10. The main one I feel is... to graduate from the RNA's New Writer's Scheme, hopefully with a Pocket Novel script. Working on this now. Am rewriting a script that I submitted a few years ago and did nothing with. This is a slow work in progress as I only work on it when I have time late afternoon. Decided that I won't have time to do all of it by end of August, so have been working on the first three chapters and will rewrite the synopsis for it, and send the rest of the ms as a draft.

My other goal, which was new, instead of writing Pocket Novels, is to work on my author service. That is going really well and I have four clients so far, one of whom is v appreciative of my help to him.

So, how are you goals going? Will post again at the end of November with my progress.

Make the most of your connections

The idea for this post came to me a couple of days ago when a fellow woman Aspie mentioned to me on a FB post I put up in her group about my new website to get discovered. I needed to work on this myself, as she said that I could get exposure and publicity for my ebooks as she is a book reviewer. So, I have messaged her asking what I need to do. I will message her again when I want to get a second ebook reviewed by her. So, if you have a social media connection that can help you get more exposure and publicity with her books, then make the most of it.

This got me thinking about how else I can get more publicity. I remembered in an email from my cover designer, who had put on her signature that on her blog she offers author and character interviews and book excerpts. So, I had a look to see what I have to do for this, saved it into a document and will work on this for publicity for my romance ebooks first. So, if you work with someone, eg your editor or designer, and you have seen that they have a blog you can appear on, then do take that opportunity.  I am going to note something down next week to email her next week to get on her blog.

Why I like doing talks

Yesterday afternoon, I gave another talk at Sydenham Community Library about ebooks. This one was about how to get discovered as an author. Only one lady turned up this time, and only because she worked as a volunteer there. But I had to persuade her to come as she was feeling down after a bad week and was thinking of putting her writing on hold. I said why and to go for it. It was saying this that made me realise that I like giving these talks. So it was just us two. While I was doing the talk, I was getting ideas on how the lady could start writing what she wanted if she didn't feel up to writing a whole novel yet. The more I talked, the more ideas I got and told her. The lady writes non-fiction about her past life. The ideas I gave her were blogging as it's free, writing letters to magazines if she read something that struck a chord with her (this is what I have done and been successful with) and finding magazines that dealt with nostalgia and travel that are connected to what she has written. I was with her an hour, talking about discoverability and how she can start writing again. By the end of it, she had found it useful and I had come away feeling that I had helped her back on track with her writing. This is what made me realise that I like helping people, esp other authors if they want ideas or that little push to get on with things.

I went to say goodbye to the other librarians. I listened to them talking. One of them was giving ideas on how they could promote my talks in the future. There was another lady there, whom I believed had something to do with a reading group there. Plus, she mentioned she was a part-time teacher. Out came my business cards and I gave her one. Another good contact made. Although whether I shall hear anything from her I don't know.

So, if you are an author, esp an indie one and new to publishing, and need that little push with ideas or help getting discovered, come along to one of my talks (listed on my website www.julieaday.co.uk). Or sign up to my newsletter at

http://forms.aweber.com/form/25/1466306025.htm where you can get tips on writing, marketing, news on my ebooks and events. Or pop along to my Aspiepreneur blog at www.hopewithjulie.wordpress.com where I will soon be adding freebies to help authors with their planning.

A buzz after stress

After a few stressful days last week when my mum fainted in our utility room, went pale and blue in the face and I had to call paramedics, I had a buzz on Saturday when I gave my latest talk about publishing ebooks. (Mum is getting better day by day she tells me). Anyway, my latest talk was about platforms, pricing and royalties.

I got there early, even though there was a lot of traffic due to gas works going on locally. I had a chat with the boss of the library. I introduced myself at the desk, and the volunteer I spoke to said that she wanted to come to my talk as she is interested in writing. My talk was booked for 2pm. I found a nice cosy corner in the library, where there were sofas and chairs. I set my goodies up and sat. I was told one lady had come and was getting tea. I chatted to her for a few minutes, finding out she only lived a few roads down from me. Then I began my talk, chatting about what platforms there are for digital and print. Then the lady volunteer joined us and I recapped what I'd already said. I was asked questions about how to publish an ebook, what is needed to be done. What the platforms involve and how to get to them. My talk lasted half an hour. Then I had questions, which I did my best to answer as both the ladies wrote non-fiction with diagrams etc. Not my forte. I gave them the chance to sign up to my newsletter, which they both did. I await confirmation from Aweber for that. I also gave them a feedback questionnaire about the talk (an idea I got from an ebook by Joanna Penn). It was all good. The comments I got are 'clear, direct, well-structured' and 'simplistic'. Both said there wasn't anything that could have been done better. The one question I was keen to see answered was about attending if they had to pay a fee of 50p before hand. They both put yes. So I am now thinking I might do that.

After a stressful few days making sure my mum was going to be OK, I had a buzz at the library, esp when both ladies said they found it useful and were thinking of coming to my next one. Hurrah. For someone with Asperger's, I find that I get a buzz and enjoy sharing my knowledge of ebooks and all it entails.

My next talk is on Saturday 21 March at 2pm at the same place: Sydenham Community Library. It is going to be about discoverability as an indie author. So, if you want to find out ways on how to get readers to find you, come to my talk to find out more.

Now 'A Friend in Need' is published, I am back to tell you how to reach as many readers you can as an indie author of ebooks – this is the way I do. In my next library talk I will be mentioning ebook platforms, and this is the way to get to as many readers as you can – publish on as many digital platforms you can. I know that some indie authors have had great success with publishing exclusively on Amazon, esp with their Select programme, but for me, I want to reach as many readers as I can, to let them know what I like writing about: mainly hope and second chances. Ever since I became an indie author in 2011, I have published widely. Although, when I published ‘Snakeskin Boots’ I did put it in Select as an experiment to see what results I got – no sales. When the 90 days were up, I published it widely.  I will continue to publish on as many channels as I can. So, when ‘A Friend’ came out last week, I published it on Amazon, Kobo, Smashwords for its own store and the US libraries and subscription services eg Oyster, and Draft2Digital for Apple and their new channel, Tolino. Now that D2D have this new channel, I am going to put the rest of my ebooks that aren’t on there, on there. I started today by putting ‘More Fish in the Sea’ on there. I have now put all of my ebooks on there. I have also checked Goodreads, and they are all on there, too. My next task is to update my website so that they are all on there, too, plus reorganise the pages for my children's ebooks. I also need to put them all on ALLi's website for discoverability.

So, that’s how to reach as many readers you want to – publish your ebook on all platforms you can find. If D2D add more channels, I will add them there, too.

Are you an indie author? If so, do you believe in being exclusive to one etailer or do you publish widely? Let me know.

My pricing experiment

I have hinted about doing this on social media, and I have actually begun it - a pricing experiment. Up until this year, all my ebooks were either free or 0.99c. Then I started to read Dean Wesley Smith's blog 'Think like a publisher' again and the new EU VAT law came in and I decided to increase the prices of most of them. I am going to do this for maybe three months to see what the results are. Here is what I have done:

The Guardian Angels
The Railway Angel, the first in my YA series 'The Guardian Angels' is still perma-free. I am keeping it that way to entice readers to buy the rest of the series and a thank you. I am still getting lots of downloads for that. Whether those are being read or not I don't know.
The rest of the series is now $2.99 each.

Geraldine's Gems
One Good Turn is remaining as 99c it being the first in the series. More Fish and Don't Get Mad are both now $2.99. The others in the series 'Life' and A trouble shared are both $3.99.

Mermaids
These are both $2.99 each. The last one, yet to be written, will also be that price.

Singleton
All these ebooks are now at $2.99.

I have priced all ebooks between 5K and 10K at $2.99. All ebooks over that word count and under 20K are $3.99.

So, I will let you know how the pricing goes. What results in sales I get.

Creating a business plan - Step 3

This is a third step, which you don't have to do, but I read it in an ebook I am reading by Ryan Petty about Creating a Writing Livelihood. It is to write down an inventory of all your assets eg stories that you have got to write, written and not done anything with or have ideas for. As I write ebooks for both adults and children, and have started writing short stories for women's magazines, I am only going to put on here the list for adult mss. Here we go:

To Complete: 1 x Geraldine's Gems to include a short story that will conclude the series
4 x Secret of Singleton short stories
Checkmate - old ms which I will be working into a My Weekly Pocket Novel

Written and not done anything with (ie their old mss in my wardrobe)
1. Forgotten Memories
2. Stay With Me (thinking of turning into a pocket novel)
3. A Matter of Time

Ideas for:
A series of 5 ebooks about superwomen heroes who fall in love with men who don't, to stop villains from creating monsters out of children with powers.
Lots of notes with ideas on for both contemporary and romantic suspense books.
Eden's World - might turn this into a serial outline for Woman's Weekly

How to create a business plan - Step 2

I have posted about writing what you have achieved this year, so how about writing down what you haven't achieved. I am going to put down what I haven't, why I think this is and what I am going to do about it next year. Here we go:

1. Ebooks - I didn't achieve to write and publish as many ebooks as I wanted. I believe this was because I didn't make use of all the time I had because I was distracted by other ventures I was trying, which wasted time for me. What I plan to do - I have already started to make more of the time I have in the day to write.

2. Sales - I didn't achieve as many sales of my ebooks that I wanted to do. Why? I think this is because of the low price. All my ebooks are at 99c, which is a discount price. I now think that this is only suitable for discount buyers and not serious readers. So, next year, or even after Christmas, I am going to up the prices of all of my ebooks. I am going to think like a publisher. Lots of trad publishers have joined the ebook world and indies have to compete with them now, so I am trying to match their prices.

3. I didn't get my Asperkids series of books out there. Why? The publisher I had emailed the partial to hadn't got back to me about it. Next year I want to get my characters out there myself. Get the ms professionally edited, get an illustrator to do the cover and drawings in the book I want. Will be researching that next year.

4. I didn't get a short story in a magazine. I hadn't done the proper research and find out what sort of stories they publish. I have been to workshops by Woman's Weekly and know what they like now. I have been reading the magazines to get a feel for the type of stories they publish. I now have a better idea of what stories I will be sending to which magazines.

So, are there things that you haven't achieved this year? If so, what are you going to do about them? Let me know.

How to create a business plan - Step 1

I got this idea from the current issue of Writer's News magazine, and thought it was a good idea so am using it to create my plan for next year's writing. The first step is to write down what you have achieved this year. So here I am doing this here.

1. Ebooks - I published three ebooks (2 short books and one story). They were 'Life in the Old Dog', 'The Vanity Quest' and 'The Leaping Angels'.

2. I wrote a children's book, the second in the series about Asperkids finding confidence via a magical world at school.

3. I had published several letters in magazines this year, and got more rewards than I've done before doing this.

4. I started to give more talks at a local library, helping new authors get on the path to indie writing.

5. I created a new marketing website, to help other authors get discovered. This goes with a blog.

6. Finally, I wrote and sent off a story to Woman's Weekly magazine, after attending their workshops and realising what sort of stories they publish.

Despite all that I have achieved this year, there are things I haven't, and I will be mentioning those in the next post, and why I think this is.

So, what have you achieved this year that you are proud to have done? Let me know.

A major writing decision

I have previously posted that I want to stay as an indie author, publishing my own ebooks, and still get to be a full member of the Romantic Novelists' Association. To be a full member, you need to have had a contract from a publisher for a novel of 35,000 words. I still want to do this but have now come to a big decision on how to go about this. Here is my decision:

1. I want to continue being an indie author for both adult and children's ebooks, so I am going to carry on doing this as I love having the control and freedom to writing what I want, deciding my own cover, my own pricing and when I want to publish.

2. To get into the RNA as a full member, I am not going to try to have a novel published by a traditional publisher as I believe that method of publishing is getting more and more broken. Also, I feel that with most print publishers, contracts wouldn't allow for authors to self-publish other books, which is not what I want. So here is what I plan to do. I want to get published with My Weekly Pocket Novels instead. I see this is a way still to be traditionally published as they come out fortnightly in print, and after that is published you can try to get it into large print with a large print publisher. So, once I have finished the short story I am working on and sent it to Woman's Weekly magazine, I am going to work on revisions of a novel, and that will be sent as a pocket novel.

3. As pocket novels are up to 50,000 words, any novels that I write that go over that amount I will publish as an ebook myself, or any novels that I believe don't match with My Weekly's subjects, such as romantic suspense, then I will also publish as an ebook myself.

So there you have my new major decision about writing. I have been reading ebooks about being an indie author, and the more I read about being one, the more I am certain that is the path I want to stick to.

How to write letters and tips talk - how it went

Last Saturday I gave a talk at Sydenham Community Library on how to write letters and tips to magazines and get paid for them. As I have had numerous successes with these myself, I thought I'd teach others to do the same and pass on my knowledge. After getting there later than I planned due to a delayed mini-cab arriving 25 minutes later, I still had time to settle down before people arrived. It was raining, so I didn't expect many to come. I was right. I only had 2 people arrive, both of whom had come to my last talk. I gave the talk. Throughout the talk, I answered questions and we chatted about writing. One of the men said that it gave him a wake-up call as he didn't realise that people wrote to magazines and got paid for them. He was going to try a filler himself. We chatted about writing and ebooks after that for a while.

While that man was finding out about what else the library did, I chatted to the other man, his friend. I also found out when the library's Xmas fayre was going to be and booked myself to have a stall for that. I will be selling my books, badges and organic products there.

So, although the weather was bad and I only had 2 people turn up, I deem the talk a success because I got them thinking about having a go themselves at writing a letter to a magazine, and I taught them something they didn't know.

This talk I am planning to sell on my new marketing website soon to be launched. If you wish to be one of the first people to know when the website goes live and when these guides are available to buy, why not sign up for my newsletter at

http://forms.aweber.com/form/25/1466306025.htm

Coming soon from me....

A new marketing website with guides on how authors and marketers can get discovered. Here is what I have planned for it:

Writing magazine fillers - letters and tip to magazines, and how to get paid for them

How to get leads on-line; how to get reader lists for your books; autoresponders

Finding your brand

Planning and goal setting

Social media: blogs, websites, social network sites. What to do and not to do on Google

Publishing ebooks - my library talk series

My library talks

Gift shop - promoting a few items you can get from my Zazzle store

and more.

This is all that I have learnt from being an indie author and within the last year as being an affiliate marketer.

I have yet to set up the website, which will be a blog, too, so I can blog marketing tips for you all now and then.

To be one of the first to find out when it goes live, why not sign up for my newsletter at

http://forms.aweber.com/form/25/1466306025.htm

How my library talk went in April

On 26 April I gave a talk at Sydenham Community Library to a group of adults about 'The 5 Steps to Publishing an Ebook'.  I was going to do a report on here, but Debbie Young of The Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) offered me a slot on their blog and I said yes. It went up last Saturday, and you can read it here http://www.selfpublishingadvice.org/reaching-readers-with-library-talks/#comment-236975.

As you can read, I considered it a great success. So much so, that I plan to do it again with another library whom I've yet to approach about it, and I intend doing a follow-up about what you need to know when publishing your ebook.

If you know of any library in the SE London area that might be interested in an author giving this talk, please let me know. Am keen to do this again, as I so enjoyed it.

So watch this space for more news on more talks.

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The London Book Fair - Part 2

So after I had lunch at the busy café, I went back to the Kobo stand where I knew the next talk would be - Opening up to Indies by ALLi. I managed to find a seat so I didn't have to stand or sit on the floor. While the audio was being set up, I chatted to the two older ladies sitting next to me about writing ebooks and we swapped cards. I also had said hello to Lorna Ferguson, (Hi, Lorna). Then the talk happened by Debbie Young and Dan Holloway, who told us in their own ways how they came to write the book. I laughed at the image of Debbie being a teacher and being chased by young girls because she had told both groups they were sorry. The book  is all about helping other bodies like libraries, agents and publishers etc to open up to indie authors and help them be discovered. Then it was time to mingle again. I chatted to and listened to Debbie talk to Denise Barnes, then another author, putting my points across when I could.

After that I decided I'd go to find the publisher in the other court. With my map, I found the stall, but was disappointed that it wasn't as I expected it to be - a stand with book samples and no publisher. I then went to the restaurant, but it was too noisy still so after several minutes I left and went to find the pub in the Strand for the social later on.

So that was my LBF this year. I doubt it I'll go next year as it is moving to Olympia, a bit further away.