The M word; How to Market your Book.

Marketing. Yikes.

Now that the excitement of receiving my boxes of books has died down the tough work of 'getting it out there' starts. Here are a promo pic I took for The Isle of Wight County Press - my gorgeous friends Amelie and Alis and their chums.

Technically speaking, this is the bit of publishing children's books I'm least comfortable with. It's pretty hard to tell everyone how wonderful/terrific/genius/educational/insert-your-own-adjective - when you're a typical Brit who doesn't like to blow trumpets in general, let alone one's own. 

There's a good way of circumnavigating this difficulty and it comes from my Uncle's philosophy of 'Get Over Yourself'. I used his advice on Artist's Block, where he suggested the best way to break through that barrier was to 'make some sort of bloody mark on the paper'. So, the best way to get over feeling shy about your fabulous piece of work is to say some bloody words about it!! preferably nice ones. 

How do you start?

Here's my top ten tips:
1. Imagine you are someone else talking about your work. You really like it a lot. What would you say?

2. Get someone to quiz you about how you made it/ why you made it/ what you are going to do with it etc, so you have some answers stored as a back up.

3. This is your livelihood or hobby. You'd better bloomin' like what you've made - so tell people your story. People like to hear the history of a piece of work.

4. Understand how to write a press release. Google it. There are loads of ideas and tips on the Internet.

5. If you feel the urge to say something like 'It would have been better if I had...(insert your own end of the sentence), then roll up a virtual sock and shove it in your mouth. Only say positive things.

 6. Some people won't like what you do. This is because they have their own thing to do. Their thing is not your thing. Don't get hung up on it. If they say something unsavory, have a 'thanks for your comments, it all helps to build my next project' answer. Your next project might be an Hoover that exterminates negative-comment mutterers for all they know.

7.Invest in all the lovely things people say about your work. Keep them in your head (and maybe in your Amazon reviews if you are a book maker!)

8. Tell people about what you do like it's the first time you've said it. You might have told 3,000 people already, but this person is listening to you for the first time. 

9. Ask the people who are engaging in your work what they like about it. Ask them if they could leave you a review on Amazon/your website/ your blog/ twitter.

10. Get over yourself.

Oh and by the way, if you've seen my books and you like them, please can you leave me a review?
Here's some links that will take you straight there:
The House on Hare Hill
Flossie Bonce
Royal Fleas
Vincent and the Vampires
Wally and Bert, BFFs

Thank you so much! I owe you a cuppa!!
Jules x

The House on Hare Hill

Hallo Sailor!

The House on Hare Hill has arrived.

I was very excited to see the finished book - that zingy feeling that I got the first time I saw a published book with my name on the front has not dimmed with time. Hare Hill has a lot more of 'me' in it - my slightly daft humour and skewed view of the world. You might be able to tell that I wrote it during the airing of 'The Great British Bake Off'.

So here's a synopsis: Unlike other hares, Little Hare has given up boxing and taken up yoga. She goes for a walk in the woods where she meets an unlikely array of woodland animals who are all taking part in their species' favourite sports. However, she gets lost and ends up finding a house owned by a jolly handsome chap with the most fabulous set of ears. And guess what he's going to do this summer....

If you would like a copy and you live on the Isle of Wight, you can find me at THESE locations or you can purchase via my ETSY shop or Amazon. All books are signed with a special message if you can let me know who it is for. 

Have a wonderful summer x

The New Moon

Hurrah the first proofs have arrived. The thing is.... there are lots of revisions to make. It's only when you have something that resembles a book, that certain aspects come to life. For example, I had set the text at 30pt (text is always measured in points) and when I held the proof in my hand I realised that was MUCH too big!! 

The moon on the first end page also didn't come out as I had expected. Looking back at Flossie Bonce, I liked that moon so much more, so I pinched it for Hare Hill as well!

The old moon

The new moon

You might notice (if you are very good at noticing small things) that the shadow under the hares has also changed. I decided it looked like they were sitting in a pool of wet cement; that will only lead to trouble.

Now I have the awful wait... the postman will have palpitations every time he comes up my path as I snatch the door open to see if today is the day that proof#2 turns up!! Wally the Chihuahua also loves to see the postie, and each day they play the 'who will leave with the postman's fingers' game.

Sorry postie.

The House on Hare Hill

After a monumental weekend of designing pages, drawing last spreads and deciding on a dedication, The House on Hare Hill is now with the printer for it's first proof. 

I always get very impatient at this time, waiting for the post to arrive. Today is Good Friday, so no chance of any mail today. And then there's the looooooong Easter weekend with a Bank Holiday stuck on the end. I just want to see my book!! I have a really good feeling about the little Hare story. Here's a summary:

It's springtime and all the local Hares are out practicing their favourite sport, boxing. However, Little Hare has never felt the love for boxing, she likes Yoga.

She sets off for a walk in the woods to find some berries for dinner (most specifically, Maryberries) and bumps into a whole host of woodland animals taking part in their national sports. There are golfing weasels, cricketing foxes and skateboarding owls. 

Little Hare eventually ends up at Big Hare's house, whom she rather takes a shine to. He has the most fabulous set of ears. And a totally awesome idea for the place where he lives: Hare Hill.


I took some photos whilst working on the last spread.

Drawing a layout of the whole page

Dip pen, waterproof ink and watercolour
paper over the top of the layout

 

 

 

Ink drawing of just one element of the page

And a colour version of the background
in ink and chalk pastels

Next post will be my box of books!! 

Hello British Summer Time!

British Summer Time officially starts at 2am tomorrow morning, the sun is shining and Husband Marriner has mown the grass for the first time this year. Life is good.

This week has been like the birth of a new era for us. The new book is going well and I am on target to have it published by the end of May, as I had written in my 2014 Creative Workbook, back in January. Here is a bit of a spread I have been working on this week:

On larger areas I have been using my Dad's chalk pastels again, with the skies in watercolour. I usually give the pastels a loose wash of watercolour in a similar colour as I really love the lines that my large brushes make. Little Hare has been evolving as I thought she might. I may have to go back to some of the earlier spreads and change her appearance a little. The line that Little Hare is sniffing took ages to get right. It was created using on the the brushes on Photoshop, but I had to fiddle faddle about for a long time before I got the one I thought looked a bit like a smell. And let me tell you, representing in 2D a concept that is only recognised by your olfactory nerves was no small feat!!!!!

By the way, Flossie Bonce and Wally and Bert, BFFs are both now available on Amazon. 
Here for Flossie
Here for Wally and Bert

Too excited and might need to calm down.

Ooh I'm terribly excited!! I get to the point when making a book, where it all starts coming together and I really like some of the pics I'm creating. Here's a bit of what I've been doing today.




I took a screen print. As you can see from the panel on the right hand side, I have done quite a lot of colouring and rendering on Photoshop, but some of my skies and backgrounds are a mixture of watercolour and the lovely chalk pastels as seen in THIS POST.

It's taken me bloomin' ages to do these two pages. On the left hand side you can just see a bit of a tree and bush peeking through. The brown dotty colour is actually one of my socks that I scanned for a tree trunk. As I took this shot half way through colouring, Little Hare still needs some work.

I'm having more fun with this than is quite proper. Time just flies by and all of a sudden it's time to feed the family! Can't wait to show you more.

Toodly pipsters for now,
Jules x

More books are HERE.