First Royalty Cheque!

My first royalty cheque arrived in the post this morning, covering my sales to date from Borders. Although its not quite enough to allow me to retire to the Bahamas, I was pretty chuffed to say the least!

Post Interview News

Well, the interview on Pete's show went really well. It was live, and I was really nervous to begin with, but Pete and his producer, Jay, put me at my ease and thank goodness I didn't incur any of Pete's infamous wrath!!!!!! Thanks to everyone who listened in and supported me. As usually happens following this kind of promotion, sales have increased this week, so I really appreciate having been given the opportunity to do this.

Global Distribution is on a roll now. Every day, somewhere new stocks it on the internet. The ones I have found so far have been Amazon (in every country), Tesco.com, Barnes and Noble.com, Guardianbookshop.co.uk, Play.com, Buy.com, and of course, there's still Lulu.com and eBay (for the time being, although I will stop this at some point soon). If you haven't yet bought a copy, but want to, do shop around because some of these places are able to sell cheaper than others, so make sure you get the best deal out there. I get the same royalties whatever the sale price, so it doesn't harm me.

I have spent this last week approaching various bookshops direct. Waterstones in Liverpool City Centre are going to get some copies in. Sarah, who is in charge of the local interest section there, is another big Radio City fan, whose memories of the station go back to 1976, so this is always great news for me, as it helps my cause! I hope to get over to Liverpool on Saturday and pop into a few other bookstores, as a follow on from the letters I sent out last week. I will let you know where they are going to be stocked.

Pete Price interview Sunday 25th June

I've just received the invitation to discuss '194 Radio City - The Heart of Liverpool' with Pete Price on his 10pm to 2am show this Sunday 25th June, Radio City 96.7. So once again, if you are able to tune in to this, please do!

Another thing to look out for... Radio City are going to start promoting it on their website this week, so keep an eye out for this too. http://www.radiocity.co.uk/

Its Gone Global at Last!

Finally, despite a few hiccups along the way, my book is finally available through all the normal channels. Global Distribution, as I've said before, means that anyone can order '194 Radio City - The Heart of Liverpool' from any bookshop anywhere in the world, and it is also available to buy through Amazon, and all other major internet sellers. This will make my job of promoting it so much easier, as up until now, I have had to provide all the bookshops who have agreed to stock it with copies from my own shipments. It also means that the books, instead of being printed in the States as they have been, will be printed by LSI in Great Britain, so delivery times should be much quicker.

Have been working on press releases all week, both my own and joint ones with 'Scouse Power' who are the 5 Liverpool Lulu writers I mentioned in previous posts. I will let you know what comes of this.

If you didn't get to hear Gillian Reynolds' interview on Phil Easton's show on Tuesday, I can tell you it was great. As well as plugs for where to buy the book and wonderful comments about its content and style (thank you very much!), the book's subject matter was expanded into a very interesting chat from Gillian and Phil about their memories of Radio City then and now, how radio in general has changed, how Liverpool has changed and what will come out of Capital of Culture 2008.

13th June: Interview with Gillian Reynolds on Phil Easton's Breakfast Show

I have just received the news that Gillian Reynolds is going to be interviewed by Phil Easton live on his Breakfast Show on Magic 1548 tomorrow morning, between 9 and 10am. They are going to be talking about the book during the interview, so if you can listen in, please do!

Incidentally, Gillian was the person who gave Phil Easton his very first job at City, all those years ago!

Hola!

Well, I'm back from 2 weeks in Mallorca. A good time was had by all, and I didn't miss the computer one bit. OK, I sneaked off to an internet cafe once a week just to check if anything important was going on, but other than that, I went completely cold turkey!

Latest news is as follows:

I'm very pleased to report that the book is still selling well, and I am going to order another shipment of 50 today. I have also relisted it on eBay as from yesterday. Global Distribution (whereby bookshops can order the book direct from their suppliers, rather than from me or Lulu) hasn't yet taken effect, and this is somewhat disappointing, although I am assured it shouldn't take much longer. The books I left with Borders in Ellesmere Port just before I went away completely sold out and I took another batch over on Sunday afternoon at their request.

I am currently working with a few other Lulu writers on a joint press release (as mentioned in my previous post) concerning Liverpool Lulu writers. Hopefully this will be more acceptable to the press than a single writer. Its certainly an interesting subject. I will keep you informed as to what happens here.

Also, I believe that Radio City 96.7 have mentioned the book on air already. A friend of my mother's heard Kev Seed talking about it on his show just before I went away. I believe his comments were very positive! Unfortunately, I can't receive Radio City's reception very well here in North Wales, so don't get to listen as regularly as I would like, so if anyone does hear the book mentioned on air, or has done over the last few weeks, could you let me know?

Thanks again to everyone who has purchased and read the book so far, and for all the wonderful feedback via email, letter and answerphone messages. I really appreciate it.