One of the marketing services I purchased, is called Award Finder Xlibris adds my book title to the Award Finder, and this matches my book to the appropriate award. Through the award finder I won first place for my book, Fun Poems For Your Child. This was the Royal Dragonfly Award, which is the award given by Story Monsters Ink. My book has also had a nomination for Next Generation Indie Book Awards, a nomination for London Book Festival, an Honourable Mention in New England Book Festival. I had to have my book sent to re-designing to have the Royal Dragonfly award seal put on the front cover. It felt so good to have won a competition. I feel quite proud of my book and believe that my book could be successful.

I had an email shortly after I had won first place with Story Monsters Ink, Royal Dragonfly Award. They asked if I would like to advertise my book in their magazine. I did have my book added to their reading list, which is another service I paid for. With all of the marketing services I had I was disappointed with how few of my books sold.

I took my book to our local library, and they added my book to their inventory, so local children could read my book. I wrote to the local East Leake magazine, who featured my book in an issue of the magazine. I got recognized in the village after the feature, and staff in the pet shop bought a book from me, which I dedicated for them. I received an email from a lady, who had seen the feature, and wanted to know a bit more about the book. I emailed her back with the answers to her questions, and she ordered a book, which was great. I was working as a nurse in an orthopaedic clinic, and I contacted the communications team, who put a piece about me and my book on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, which gave me more publicity.

Andrew and myself went into Loughborough and spoke to the manager of W.H.Smith in the Carillon Centre. He said I could do book signing anytime I wanted, which was great. W.H.Smith would take a percentage of the sales, plus I was to donate two of my books to them. I was to sort out the posters advertising the book signing. We went to a print shop in Thurmaston, Leicester, he could do some posters and he suggested a banner for the table, which we agreed. We put the posters up in the shop about a week before the book signing, to make people aware of the event. The book signing went well, we sold 6 books, which was good as there were only a few customers coming into the shop. We chose a Saturday for the event as we thought there would be more people about. The pandemic certainly had an impact on how people were shopping, and were still unsure about crowds and indoor places. I was still pleased with the sales though, as that was 6 books that were out there , making my book and name visible.

I started researching other events that we could sell the books at. I found craft fairs were a good outlet for this. We both retired from work, Andrew at the beginning of August 2021 and myself at the end of August 2021.

Our first craft fair was at Beaumanor Hall in Woodhouse, Loughborough. These craft fairs are for handmade crafts, for which a charge is made for the table. We didn’t have much of an idea what the craft fair or what we would need, but the stall holder next to us lent us a cloth for the table. He was also very informative as to what we would need for the next craft fair we attended. By now we had the banner for the front of the table, which looked great. I just had a stack of books, but nothing to display the books. The stall holder had brilliant ideas how we could display the books, he also told us about a cash box, displays for Andrews artwork, which we were also selling, sharing the table with me.

He also said we would need a SumUp, credit card reader for non-cash paying customers. We found we lost about 4 sales as we did not have one, we made a list of everything we would need for future craft fairs. We now look more professional and our items are displayed to make our table more pleasing and interesting people in our products. We have since attended several craft fairs, which is something we both enjoy and it’s a way of getting the book better known. We have met so many lovely people through the craft fairs. Teachers at primary schools have bought my book for the class that they teach. I’ve had several offers of going into the schools for reading my book to the pupils, but so far nothing has materialised. I still hope to do that one day though. A parent of a pupil of a school in Loughborough said she hoped to get me to do a reading on World Book Day, but I received a phone call from a teacher who said they were fully booked for that event, but they would keep my details for any other event that I could do. I was a bit disappointed though, as the World Book Day is a huge opportunity to make my book visable to the pupils.

We had an opportunity to have a market stall in our village, to sell the books and Andrews artwork. The idea behind the venue was to raise awareness and help promote local businesses. We did very well, met some lovely people and sold quite a few books. The lady who organised this event, did an interview with myself and Andrew, and put this on their Facebook page, which has had several views, so hopefully this will generate sales. We have attended several craft fairs at Beaumanor Hall, and have made friends with the lovely staff there. Our Ruby Wedding Anniversary was coming up on December 12^th 2021, and parties were still limited in numbers attending them due to the pandemic, so we didn’t have anything planned, so signed up to do a craft fair on our Anniversary at Beaumanor Hall. We had mentioned this to them, which they remembered. The staff called us both away from our table, after we had set up, and took us down the stairs. The staff gathered at the bottom of the stairs and clapped us coming down the stairs. They then made an announcement of our Ruby Anniversary and presented us with a red velvet cake!

It was a lovely and totally overwhelming gesture. We had our photo taken together with the cake, on the stairs. This was featured on their social media sites. It made our Anniversary special, and something we’ll always remember.

Andrew and myself will continue to do craft fairs and have been successful in selling the books. Children have given very good feedback about the books, which is very encouraging.