Tuesday 28 July 2009

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.

Monday 27 July 2009

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

Thursday 16 July 2009

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.