I am so proud of our little story book. When i opened the box full of our first print run of books, i could see the front cover and it looked just as i imagined, strikingly bright and colourful. I picked one up and it felt great quality and i couldn't wait to show my daughters our creation in particular Holly who drew the initial illustrations.
I found myself reading the story over several times, and i kept flicking through the pages as i couldn't believe we had actually created a children's story book that will be available for the general public to buy.
Now i have the books what do i do? How can i get people interested, parents, children and primary school teachers?
I already had the book signing arranged and contacted several schools to schedule in a story reading, and also to sell at their Christmas fairs.
I have been tweeting, keeping face book followers up to date and developing the instagram page. What more can i do? I found a few face book author pages that have been extremely helpful, for example Greatstorybooks Authors and Illustrators and Writers Unite. The former has been particularly friendly and informative.
I have self published our book without paying for any additional marketing or promotion and i am now experiencing how challenging this is going to be.
The book signing went very well and i had several old school friends attend who i haven't seen in decades and didn`t even recognise, which was amazing in itself :)
I met some great children who showed alot of interest in the vibrant setting we made, our cute characters, and what else would appeal to children, but lots of colourful sweets.
This was all part of the experience of Hollie and Figgs as it relates to the story line.
The first time i signed a book i felt more than proud. It was for a little girl called Summer. Her dad said, "she has never met a real author before," which made me smile.
Alongside the book signed with a personal message i gave her an exclusive to Hollie and Figgs Cocoalibre cat chocolate, a book mark, and a sweet of her choice.
It was amazing to talk to her and the other children who came along. To hear their thoughts and experience their excitement when i talked to them about our cat Figgs who is magical and can talk.
The book also contains a little invitation that my daughter Holly made. I thought that it would be a fun addition and give readers something tactile to hold and generate interest. It is an invitation to a princess`s ball, but you would have to read the story to know what that`s all about. You can only get this invitation in the special edition books through the Hollie and Figgs website.
Both my daughters accompanied me to help out and the local tabloid had written half a page in its newspaper, which was a pleasant surprise.
So far we have had amazing amount of support. Throughout this project i have been keeping my kickstarter backers up to date, as they have been instrumental in making our creation come to life for example, RRB Hammond, Marilyn and Mike, Lynne, Benny Pointer, Bella and other very kind and generous people.
I hope that they love our book and characters as much as we do and they share our story with others to help Hollie and Figgs develop a following for when the next story in the series is released, which i hope to be in summer 2017.
The next post i write will be FUN as i will be sharing some feedback and photos from children, teachers and parents who have read the book. I cant wait to get started!!
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