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Important info on Amazon.co.uk

I have finally discovered why orders for my book that people have sent to Amazon have not been filled, when they have 50 copies in their warehouse. Aparently, a prospective purchaser must go to the Life Less Lost page then click on the tiny link that says 2 used & new. At the top of the page that comes up you should see 'seller kbwalkerwrites' has new copies available for free next day delivery. Please don't ask me why they have created such a confusing system or why they won't fill orders made on the original page.

Amazon.co.uk verses Amazon.com

More problems with Amazon.co.uk. My brother-in-law, Arthur, ordered a book two weeks ago and nothing happened. In despair, he's cancelled his order and I'm going to send him one instead. another friend also told me she ordered a copy weeks ago and I've heard nothing from Amazon so assume it's gone astray, as well. I wonder how many other orders have vanished?

Amazon.com on the other hand have managed to sell 11 books in less than a week without a problem, so far. I've had two newspaper articles, a radio interview and have sent dozens of letters to friends and family in the UK but Amazon.co.uk have only sold two books in over two months. They are making a very difficult job much, much harder.

Available in the US at last!

Createspace has come through a week quicker than expected and two books have already been sold. I look forward to hearing what Americans think of my story.

Rev Kerry's Kind Words

This book is an excellent choice for anyone struggling with a serious illness, whether as a patient, carer or relative. Kim Walker tells the story of her son's cancer wisely and bravely. She describes how her Christian faith sustained her, whilst being honest about the big questions faith doesn't allow one to evade. We hear of those who died as well as those who recovered, the frustrations of hospital neglect and misdiagnosis, the times when family bonds shuddered under the strain. In this book cancer is not the enemy to be beaten but a reality to be lived with. Kim Walker does not speak of her son's eventual remission glibly or simplistically, but writes frankly of the difficulties of amputation, of emotional recovery, of the post-remission depression that followed his brave acceptance of his illness. It is a truthful account of devastation, hope and frustration. The days when things seem right and then go wrong again, the mornings when a parking difficulty or an unhelpful clinician can make the difference betweeh hope and despair. And, above all, it is a story of faith in a dark time, a reminder of how Christianity cannot take away suffering or pain but at the hardest times of one's life may make it easier to bear.

It's all happening

Wow! A moment to catch my breath.

Last Tuesday, I nervously waited outside a building that looked nothing like a church but once inside had all the true warmth and love of church at it's best. Grace Community Church had invited me to speak on the recommendation of Rolf at Huddersfield Christian Bookshop. Not only had he found me the gig, but he turned up to listen, too! The prayer cover I'd asked for from my church prayer team really worked wonders. The talk went well, many books were purchased and I came away full of joy.

Saturday found me at the big event in Burnley, speaking alongside Adrian and Bridget Plass! That was an action-packed day that started when I set off at 8:15 am and finished when I flopped onto my settee back home at 10:30 pm. Met lots of lovely people and sold 17 books ~ yippee!

On Monday, I gave a two hour workshop and talk to Lindsay's writing class. We gathered in Barry's lovely home and the time vanished. It is a small but eager group and it was a pleasure to be part of it for the afternoon. They each bought a book.

With two library talks coming up in the next two weeks, I find I'm running low on books again. Should I do another print run even though there are almost a hundred books stored with Amazon waiting for the wider world to take notice.?

I spoke too soon

This is typical of the roller coaster ride that is self-publishing. Both branches of Amazon seem to have come through, at last. I say 'seem' because so far I only have the possibility of progress. Createspace finally came back to me and it looks like a minor error in communication may be holding things up. I've made alterations and am now holding my breath. Raj from Amazon.co.uk phoned me back, at last, and explained Amazon's stupid system of saying things are out of stock but in fact listing them as available under the 'new and used' link(????). Richard has contacted Nielsons to see if they can get the price changed on the US version to take away the confusion there. So watch this space...

Headaches with Amazon

I'm struggling to get the book printed in the US. Createspace, the printing arm of Amazon.com, won't accept my ISBN number and won't explain why not. It all takes so much time when you are dealing with remote no-reply email communications.
Amazon.co.uk are not being very helpful either. They insisted I send them 104 copies of the book to qualify for their fullfilment programme but they still list the book as being out of stock. They also insist on listing the US version ~ which doesn't actually exist ~ at £6 and eligible for free delivery. Who is going to want to pay £6.99 for the one that is sitting in their warehouse ready to be posted?
AAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!! All I want to do is get back to my writing.

Second batch of books arrives

Two hundred books arrived at my house on Wed and 100 were immediately dispatched to Amazon.co.uk. This means people who order via Amazon will be able to take advantage of free delivery. Plans are afoot to spread the word even further about this book. If you've read it and liked it please encourage others to buy a copy. I'm still trying to get it up and running on Amazon.com but ran into technical difficulties. Sorry for the delay but don't worry, I won't give up.

BBC Radio Leeds

On Friday, I was on Graham Liver's morning programme! He was lovely and helped me relax. Thankfully, the audience couldn't see my dripping hands or realise that my shoulders ached from the tension. Just shows the power of prayer that I managed to sound confident and at ease. It was wonderful to be interviewed on the same programme as Phillipa Gregory. Graham and the book club also discussed Chris Cleave's book The Other Hand.

First print run sold out

With barely thirty books left, it's time to re-order. Hit another small hiccup in my efforts to get the book published in the US but hope to be up and running there soon.

I had a lovely day yesterday speaking to the writers on the Write About Your Life course. Sold lots of books at church and the parish church across the road has also taken copies to sell on their summer bookstall. Rolf at the Christian bookshop has persuaded the rep from Lion Hudson to take a copy to show to his editor... All very gratifying, but it's true ~ the hard work starts once you've launched the book. Those five years I spent writing it were the easy part!

A Life Less Lost is serialized!

Peter Hinchliffe phoned me the day after his partner bought my book. She couldn't put it down and stayed up until 2am to finish it. He was so impressed he wanted to put it on his web magazine, Openwriting. I'm hoping people won't be able to wait 67 weeks to receive all the installments and will order a copy.

The Huddersfield Examiner features Me!

On Friday, Katie Grant wrote a half page article about me and A Life Less Lost, complete with photos. Someone had ordered two books before I even got my copy of the paper!

Book launch

Holmfirth Methodist Church hosted a successful launch last night. I gave a talk, read some exerpts from A Life Less Lost and signed copies. Twenty seven books were sold, which takes us over 100, half of the first print run. Much enthusiasm was generated, with people suggesting ideas to increase sales. I also received a booking to speak at Birstall Library on the 29th of September.

Alison from the Laura Crane Trust wrote:

I took your book home over the weekend and picked it up casually on Sunday afternoon and read the prologue, at 11pm on Sunday evening I had read it from cover to cover. I was engrossed pausing only, rather annoyingly, to have to prepare Sunday Dinner for my family!

I thoroughly enjoyed it and it gave me much to think about. My family and I attend church every Sunday and my husband is completely committed to the Christian faith and he is part of a missionary team that give talks/sermons once a month. I struggle to be so committed and dip in and out with God (more out than in at present!). Reading about the events life has thrown at you over the years and the amazing strength and courage you show in this book and your commitment to your faith is inspiring, reading your different perceptions of bible passages and how you found hope from them when you could have easily turned against God in the circumstances and who could have blamed you?

On a professional level, when work is getting me down I will think about your book and about James’ struggles and hopefully it will remind me why I come to work every day and the good we are trying to do.

Hope you don’t mind me emailing you Kimm but I just wanted to say thank you for leaving a copy of your book in the office last week. I have passed it on and I hope lots of people enjoy reading it as much as I did.

A quarter of the first print run sold!

Books are selling very well and I haven't even started my marketing plans yet. Still trying to get the Paypal system established and busy polishing up possible articles for magazines and newspapers and preparing for various talks coming up. It's taking some time trying to figure out the best way to make books available in the US & Australia.

Feedback has been positive and encouraging. Several people have told me they haven't been able to put it down and one chap said his family had to fetch him out of his car where he'd opened the book on the driveway and been hooked from page one. Many people have described how the story has mirrored their experiences of traumatic events in their own families, even those not related to cancer or involving their children. It was always my hope that people would find the book helpful

The books have arrived!

Wednesday 15th July, 200 books arrived and now I'm in the book selling business.

On our way from Yorkshire to Helsinki, two weeks ago, I was invited to give a talk about my work at Slough Baptist Church to their Tuesday Break group (mainly parents of young children enjoying the playgroup and creche on offer). The response was good and they ordered 12 books so I'm off to a good start.

It turns out writing the book was only the beginning ~ I finished the first draft in four months! Four and a half years of redrafting later, as well as writing other things and learning the craft, the feedback began to sound like I might have something worthwhile. Then months of research into getting my manuscript into book form and here I am.

Plans for marketing include drumming up more speaking engagements, preparing for the big Northern Writers' Event with Adrian and Bridget Plass in September and writing articles for various magazines and newspapers. If anyone has anymore ideas out there, please let me know.

News from Australia

My good friend in Brisbane, Kimberley, is currently enjoying motherhood with one year old Charlotte. I had the crazy idea of asking her if she'd like to handle sales of my book in Australia and she said yes. She's full of ideas and enthusiasm. Here's a quote from one of her emails:

I was thinking of perhaps (when you are ready and have received feedback from others in the UK) contacting some book clubs to see if they would be interested in purchasing copies of your book. It seems (from my quick scan of the web) that most clubs are run from libraries. Not sure how well received I would be from libraries but happy to try. (Not sure if they are most interested in 'best sellers' or if they are happy to read a variety of authors and genres etc, which I think any good book club should be!) If I can manage to get in contact with the 'right' people it could be really good, I think.A couple of my friends are either currently involved in book clubs or at least used to be. I was thinking of asking them who I could contact at their book clubs (or if they could pass on the info etc at the right time). I figure the kind of people who attend book clubs are likely to pass on their thoughts to friends and so potentially through word of mouth it could really spark some interest.

I can't wait to get back from Finland and start the next leg of this adventure!

My manuscript is at the printers!

Printondemand-worldwide are, as I write, processing my manuscript! I can scarcely believe that after 5 years of work I shall finally have actual books in my hands on July 15th. Learning the craft of writing through adult education classes, a Cornerstones residential weekend, self-help books, writers' groups and internet writers' forums has been challenging, hard work and lots of fun.

Swimming in the shark infested waters of self-publishing has been less fun. Because I'd already had 7 speaking engagements about my work and 4 more coming up, I decided to stop waiting for the mainstream publishers to give me a chance. CIDA (Creative Industries Development Agency) in Huddersfield have helped by providing me with a mentorship package.

Richard Netherwood has been my mentor. He's been able to translate printer-speak into something I could understand, turn my word document and artistic ideas into printer-ready pdf files as well as advising me on next steps, book sizes, paper quality, etc, etc.

Now all I need to do is learn a whole new set of skills in marketing...