The books have left the building

The distribution Hub at Bluemoose will be working double shifts tomorrow as all the orders for FALLING THROUGH CLOUDS will be wending their way to the major wholesalers and library suppliers. We have already sold nearly 40% of the first print run, which is fantastic since the pub date isn't until January 9th 2010 and we have 600 Facebook chums on the FTC Facebook site. Fortunately we haven't sent any books to Borders UK, which has just gone into administration. I hope all the excellent booksellers there manage to keep their jobs or get something before it all goes pear shaped. I personally would like to thank the booksellers at the Birstall Borders near Leeds who made Stephen Clayton's signing there this year for his book, THE ART OF BEING DEAD, such a wonderful experience.
Off to make sure we have enough tape and labels.

Borders are breathing their last

The Abacus boys have moved into Borders and as eggs is eggs they will make sure they get their monies worth before they shut the doors forever. They are trying to get somebody to buy the business as a going concern but I don't hold out too much hope for that. The company has been run into the ground by the management for months now. I blogged here some six months ago and stated that you don't become a great bookseller by selling crisps and chocolate bars. The writing has been on the wall for ages but still a beligerent management continued on their blinkered path. You can't compete with the Tinternet and the supermarkets, so don't bother, do something different. Create a bookshop that is a customers delight. Fantastic customer service, brilliant events, become a part of the community, have a different stock profile. Even Amazon don't hold every book, they use wholesalers and publishers and it can take two weeks to get a book. The high street can compete, it just takes a bit of nouse and courage. Let the booksellers run the bookshops and the suits with their Harvard MBA's can count the pennies. Just because you've read Michael J Porter's Competitive Advantage, and Competitive Strategy don't think you have all the answers. You patently haven't.

Pre Pub Sales

The FALLING THROUGH CLOUDS Facebook site now has over 350 'friends,' of course some of these might be fly by night chums and don't really care, but the main idea is just to get the name of the book out there in the land of Twitter and Facebook, into the cyber bookselling land and it has worked. Pre Pub sales for Anna's book are excellent and the orders keep coming in, which is great news, considering the book isn't officially out until Jan 9th 2010. We've had some great feedback from Booksellers and authors, which is always great, but the proof will be in how many members of the Great British Public put their hands in their pockets and buy the book.

Borders

News that BORDERS bookshops are about to blow is very depressing, especially for all the dedicated staff that have ben trying to keep the company afloat. The writing was on the wall when they closed Books Etc in London and five prime Borders sites around the country. Another telltale sign that all was not well was when they started to sell Mars bars and crisps. Not that I have anything against such commestibles, but when you're trying to gain a competitive advantage against your competitors with Mars bars, the company model would seem to be broke. The printers have told me that posters for FALLING THROUGH CLOUDS have arrived
which is great news. Several books will be leaving Moose Towers this morning to the various Nabobs of the literary world. I will let you know if any of them have the decency to even regsiter our existence. Again, the Moose is fueled by anger and outrage that new writers get little or no coverage in the Metropolitan press. I have therefore sent a copy to Scott Pack at ME AND MY BIG MOUTH blogsite. He loves the cover and is calling it a Literary Thriller. He will post up a review in the next couple of weeks. Toodlepip.

New Frontiers

We now have an official Facebook site for FALLING THROUGH CLOUDS and it goes by that very name. Within the space of two days it has 220 friends. Scary as you like. I will post up the FTC World Book Tour which starts on the 9th January 2010.
Every day we are receiving pre-publication orders and invites for Anna to attend library events around the country, which is fantastic. Withering Heights News, our newspaper now has another writer on board. She has some great credits to her name and will be an incredible asset. I welcome her aboard.
You can go to www.witheringheightsnews.blogspot.com follow the exploits of the town and comment if you like. Off to sunny Manchester to spread the word.

World Philosophy Day

It's World PHILOSOPHY Day today. Is It?

Falling through clouds

The books are arriving today. 'Falling through clouds'that is, the great new novel from Anna Chilvers. Very excited. Yesterday Anna was interviewed by Virginia Mason of The Halifax Courier. She's their features editor and the piece will be in the newspaper towards the end of November. That's when the media whirl starts. The Moose will be sending review copies to The Manchester Evening News and The Yorkshire Post. Start locally, build the momentum and then send s few copies down to the metropolis. The Guardain , Telegraph, Mail, Times, Independent. Our intern, Bernadette has set up a facebook site for 'Falling through clouds.' The site is called Falling through clouds. I may poke you one of these days and already facebooky chums I don't know have been contacting Moose Towers, via the internet. Technology. I might even Twitter around publication time, Jan 9th. I will also be sening copies to Scott Pack at Me and MY Big Mouth, Mike at A View From. Get a buzz going in cyberspace and who knows. But for now I'm Postman Pat. I will not strike.

Book Launch

It's a big week for Bluemoose as Falling through clouds will be arriving from the printers on Wednesday. And then it's all about press releases, contacting Literary editors from the regional and national press, talking to local radio and tv stations to coordinate with them with all the signings Anna will doing in January and February. The viral marketing will start Monday, with the help of Bernie, who will be at Moose Towers for the week, learning the publishing ropes. I will then get on my bike and take Anna's book to the main Waterstones in Manchester and Leeds and get them to read this great story and hopefully they will put it on their,'Recommends,' list and through word of mouth, Falling through clouds will become the bestseller it deserves.
I have created a fictional town near Haworth called, Withering Heights. I run the local nespaper The Withering news with my wife....Here's the blogsite link. www.witheringheightsnews.blogspot.com I have just received an email form a BBC Producer who's interested. Move over the ARCHERS, here comes WITHERING HEIGHTS.

Discover something new

The Moose has returned from his trip to Scotland and although I wanted to post a list of books that was whetting the appetite of the readers north of the border, I have to report that as Christmas starts earlier and earlier, all the bookshops I visited had their Christmas bestsellers at the front, middle and back of store. So it was Ant and Dec, Peter Kay, Jamie, Jordan and a splattering of Martine. So, nothing new, which is always disappointing. Waterstones were piling everything high and selling them cheap. You can now buy one get one free, although all the titles were not new, but backlist titles. Same old, same old. I will be ordering books from my local independent from now on, at least they seem interested in trying to provide the reader with something new to read.

Ecosse and beyond

Greetings from Scotland. I'm in the Kingdom of Fife and about to head off to Dundee and all points North. Will report back on what books are causing a stir in these parts. Toodlepip.

Road Trip

The Moose is preparing for another sales trip to Scotland. My youngest is preparing a road trip CD, Ecosse desert Island Discs. I will be visiting Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, Perth and Sterling and will let you know what new writers are causing a stir north of the border. There has been a notable backlash to celebrity novels in the wake of Martine McCutcheon's burgeoning literary career. I haven't read it but the word on the street is that it's a pile of the proverbial. Apparently she writes like an angel, according to her publicist. Mmmm. Enough said. Sales of Sleb autobiographies are significantly down on last year, even given that Wats and Smiths are virtually giving them away. People become wary of books that are so below the RRP. Editors and Sales Directors from the big six will be worried. Very worried and rightly so. When the investment in writing is so skewed towards the quick buck from 'sofa names,' then the car crash is just around the corner. Thank the Lord there are independent minded publishers out there like Bluemoose, committed to publishing great stories from talented and gifted writers.

Viral Marketing

The Artwork has been sent to the printers and so we will have the posters for Falling through clouds. very soon. The invitations too, are being printed for the launch at The Trades Club, Hebden Bridge on January 9th 2010. Bluemoose has its very first intern who wil be starting at Moose Towers on Monday 16th November. She will be helping me with the viral marketing campaign. Hopefully by then we will have the books sorted, so we can send them off to reviewers. Time online and on the phone to start the momentum and keep it going until after the launch.

I am Martine.

Today the Moose is booked into a clinic and is undergoing plastic surgery. I want to become Martine McCutcheon. It would appear that Woman's Hour on Radio 4 only interview Soaplets, or other such Slebs for the book spot. So, it's under the knife I go and then I can appear on Radio. Of course you don't have to be beautiful to appear on radio, but it helps. I have tried the face masks, but these BBC Producers are made of sterner stuff and could see straight through my charade. When I'm next in London I may have to storm the Beeb and demand they interview a writer that hasn't received a seven figure sum purely because she's well known and appeared pouting on our screens. That lady is Anna Chilvers, author of Falling through clouds.

Archers Anxiety Attack

There is something afoot at the BBC. Although I don't want to divulge too much about my abluting habits, every time I go for a shower or bath, when I turn the radio on, there it is, the bloody Archers, up to their badass tricks down in Trumpton, or wherever they live. Either the plumber we gainfully employed is an Archers fanatic and has wired the hot water tap to Archers HQ, or the BBC are trying to destabilise Moose Towers with encrypted messages from Eddie Grundy and Co. I will be writing to the Director General of the BBC and an MP ar three. Bath time should be relaxing, not listening to folk prattle on about the best way to iodine the teats of your best dairy herd.