Tag Archives: Books for Children

World Book Day 2012: What will kids be able to buy with their £1 book tokens from your shop?

Posted on February 24, 2012 by | 6 Comments
World Book Day 2012

World Book Day 2012

WORLD BOOK DAY is less than one week away, Thursday 1st March: are you ready? Back in my days at the LST Bookshop I have to confess that I never paid much attention to it: academic theology and children’s book promotions didn’t tend to gel too well; but for Christian bookshops out there in the back streets, high streets and marketplaces, it’s surely an opportunity not to be missed to draw in young readers and their parents — especially now, where yours might be the only show in town!

So what will kids be able to buy with their £1 book tokens from your shop? There’s an excellent range of Christian children’s books available for only £1 if you know where to look and who to ask. Here are some of them, courtesy of Alban Books, CLC Wholesale and TMD:

Alban Books

From Alban Books, a superb special offer selection from the Eerdmans Young Readers Series, available to retailers at 65p, firm sale, on condition that they retail at only £1:

To take up this offer, contact Alison Wilson at Alban Books (alison.wilson at albanbooks.com)

Alban Books Special Offers for World Book Day 2012

Alban Books Special Offers for World Book Day 2012

CLC Wholesale: Suggestions for World Book Day 2012

CLC Wholesale: Suggestions for World Book Day 2012

CLC Wholesale

On behalf of CLC Wholesale, Amanda Lutes has kindly highlighted the Lion Children’s My very first Bible stories series, excerpted from their My Very First Bible, all retailing at £1.00.

Then she worked through CLC Wholesale’s 70% discount clearance list to pull out a selection of Youth and Youth Ministry titles that might be suitable for topping up your children’s selection — but stock levels change quickly so availability cannot be guaranteed: first come, first served!

TMD World Book Day 2012 Selection (pdf, 1.9mb)

TMD World Book Day 2012 Selection (pdf, 1.9mb)

Trust Media Distribution

Last but not least, TMD have highlighted 5 titles from their children’s & young people’s list that retail for £1.00/99p, available at 40% trade discount, three from the Legends of Faith series (Eikon Bible Art) and two others, from Scripture Union and Authentic Lifestyle: full details on their World Book Day flyer (pdf, 1.9mb) and on the TMD blog, £1 Books – Ideal for World Book Day.

Orders may be placed online via TMD’s dedicated World Book Day 2012 page.

Acknowledgements

This post emerges from a discussion held in the Christian Authors, Booksellers and Publishers group on facebook, started by Andrew Lacey of GLO Bookshop, Motherwell: my thanks to Andrew for starting a fascinating conversation and to all concerned at Alban Books, CLC Wholesale and TMD for their helpful responses.

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Pre-Christmas party time as Crafty Publishing brings out second book (and dips toes into e-publishing)

Posted on December 1, 2011 by | 10 Comments
Crafty Publishing

Crafty Publishing

DECEMBER IS UPON US and the rush to Christmas has truly begun: how better to start the month than to join the celebrations with one of our smaller trade partners, Crafty Publishing, as their second book is released? Even better, both Young David titles are now available through CLC Wholesale. So without further ado, a warm UKCBD welcome back to Fiona Veitch Smith, author and publisher, who I’ve dragged kicking and screaming back to these hallowed pages…

IT’S BEEN THREE MONTHS since Phil found me in the gutter and elevated me to the dizzy heights of guest blogger for UKCBD [flattery will get you everywhere - Ed] (David and the Hairy Beast claws its way to market). Now in this second instalment of the trials and tribulations of a small start-up publisher trying to find space on the already overcrowded ladder, I can tell you that we’ve advanced at least one rung.

Young David Series

David and the Hairy Beast

David and the Hairy Beast

A few more bookshops have agreed to stock David and the Hairy Beast (the first in a series of quirky picture books about the life of the Young King David) and we’ve even had some orders through Bertrams. Internet sales through our website from individuals are also ticking along.

We’ve taken on a sales agent for the London area and are considering taking on a US dispatch agent as postage costs from the UK are off-putting for customers there. The London agent has approached a couple of dozen shops and most are keen to stock but wanted to wait for the second book to come out before they ordered.

David and the Kingmaker

David and the Kingmaker

David and the Kingmaker was expected to be published by the mid-to-end of October, but a change of project manager at our printer delayed production and we only took delivery of the book on 23 November. This is leaving it very tight for Christmas stocking but all but one of our ‘old’ shops have taken orders (and two of them have restocked the first book too). I also had appointments with two more shop managers this week.

However, sales have been encouraging enough to tell us we have a marketable product and that enough retail outlets are prepared to take a risk on us to make it worth our while. So we have started work on our third title, David and the Giant, which we intend to bring out for Easter.

More Authors and eBooks

The Peace Garden: an ebook from Crafty Publishing

The Peace Garden: an ebook from Crafty Publishing

It was always our plan to start with a series of books I had written to test our business model. If we felt it was workable, we would take on other authors too. It’s early days yet in our print range, but we have signed two new authors for our ebook line. For ebooks we are publishing adult novels. Again we have brought out one of my novels as a ‘test case’. The Peace Garden is a romantic thriller set in England and Apartheid South Africa. We have put it up on Kindle to start with but are in the process of rolling it out to other e-platforms through Smashwords. We hope that it will go ‘live’ on all platforms next week.

Marketing in this area is primarily, of course, online. I am arranging book giveaways and competitions through Goodreads and using Twitter, Linked In, Facebook and other social networking platforms to promote it. I approached New York Times bestselling author Ruth Downie (the Ruso series of Roman mysteries) to review it. Sales are slow, but improving.

The other two authors are writing a fantasy trilogy and a thriller respectively. Our adult range is not specifically Christian (although one of the authors is a Christian and his books have Christian themes) and we are targeting the general market.

Phil asked me why we had decided to go the ebook route. A number of reasons: firstly, our capital is currently tied up in the picture book series. Ebooks are of course far cheaper to produce. But secondly, ebooks have already overtaken paperback novels in the US and it won’t be long until the same is true in the UK. As our experience with the picture books has shown us, a small publisher such as we are, has difficulty physically getting their books to the US market. We don’t have that problem with ebooks. Also, to be honest, I’ve heard from other writer friends who have tried to self-publish adult novels in the UK, it is immensely difficult to get them into indie bookshops (Christian or otherwise). Will we ever bring out print versions? Possibly, if and if we do, you’ll be the first to know.

Disclosure notice: the links to Crafty Publishing featured in this post are affiliate links. If you click through and then proceed to make a purchase, Crafty Publishing will pay a small commission to the UK Christian Bookshops Directory. This is at no extra cost to you. Thank you.

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Introducing Fiona Veitch Smith and Crafty Publishing: David and the Hairy Beast claws its way to market

Posted on August 26, 2011 by | 16 Comments
Fiona Veitch Smith

Fiona Veitch Smith

I MET FIONA VEITCH SMITH online via the Association of Christian Writers facebook group, where she was telling us a bit about her experiences of trying to persuade Christian bookshops to stock her new children’s book, David and the Hairy Beast.

Curious to know more, I checked out her website where I found, to my delight, an excerpt — and loved it. Hopefully, you will too — and you might even find your customers like it as well, but there’s only one way to find out about that…

I invited Fiona to tell us all about it. She writes:

David and the Hairy Beast claws its way to market

When we read of bookshop chains shutting down, publishing contracts becoming scarcer than a footballer without a super injunction and the bogey man of the e-book market changing the way we consume books, then you would be forgiven for raising an eyebrow at a new company launching its pilot title – in hard copy. Add to that the fact that the pilot is ‘self-published’ and the more business savvy among you may well be tutting in disdain. And yet, that’s what Crafty Publishing is doing. My husband Rod and I felt called to start Crafty Publishing using some of the redundancy money he received after being ‘released’ from the NHS. Our vision is to test out the market and distribution chains with a series of children’s picture books that I’ve written and then, if all goes well, start taking on other titles.

But we’re not going into this blindly. I am not a wannabe author who is so desperate to see her name in print that I’d sell the family silver to see it happen. I am already published and produced in a variety of genre including theatre, film and books. I’m currently working on a non-fiction book contract with Lion Hudson and a devotional booklet contract with CWR as well as continuing to work on a series of ghost-written children’s books for the secular market. In addition, I have worked as a freelance editor for Tafelberg Publishing in South Africa as well as for a number of magazines (in the UK and SA).

So why am I publishing my own work? I got a taste for the business side of self-publishing about eight years ago. My first book, Donovon’s Rainbow, was published in South Africa by Vineyard International Publishing (who have subsequently discontinued their children’s line). The book was not distributed beyond Vineyard bookshops in the UK, so when I moved back here in 2002 I asked permission from the publisher to distribute it. Effectively then I took on the job of a self-publisher. I entered the book for the Writers’ News best self-published / independently published children’s book of the year award in 2002 and won. The award gave me confidence to tackle the market and I was able to distribute the book to around 20 bookshops in the UK (secular and Christian).

It was a steep curve and I quickly had to learn about things like wholesale discounts the pros and cons of sale or return, the horrors of cold calling and the shaky financial footing of independent booksellers. I also realised that the title I was trying to sell did not fit easily into existing age categories and that the cover made it look as if it was for a younger readership than it actually was. Despite that, the book went into profit, but we would not do it the same way again.

So when my husband and I decided to launch our own title this year, we had some background to draw on. In addition, since 2002, the internet has become a much more effective marketing tool and as he is a professional software developer, he has been able to tackle that side of things.

But it’s still a scary world out there for a new publisher, not least when dealing with some bookshop managers who consider any ‘retelling’ of a bible story with the same abhorrence they normally reserve for Satan (or Rob Bell). However, there are some great folk too and in the month since the title’s been launched, five bookshops have agreed to stock us and our online sales are ticking over very nicely.

David and the Hairy Beast

David and the Hairy Beast

Our pilot title is called David and the Hairy Beast (retailing at £5.99) and is the first in a series of six books about the childhood of King David. The illustrations are by my design partner, Amy Barnes. We’re working on the next book, David and the Kingmaker, now. It will be ready for distribution in October, in time for the Christmas market. We’ll see how sales go in the New Year before launching the third in the series David and the Giant.

To find out more, please visit www.craftypublishing.com

Fiona Veitch Smith
e: Fiona AT thecraftywriter.com
www.thecraftywriter.com
www.craftypublishing.com
facebook.com/pages/Crafty-Publishing/229271997105270

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Dernier Publishing News: Summer 2011 Update

Posted on June 30, 2011 by | 1 Comment
Janet Evans, Dernier Publishing

Janet Evans, Dernier Publishing

SOMEWHAT DELAYED, so my apologies to Janet Evans (soon to be Wilson) of Dernier Publishing, who writes…

Many thanks to all of you wonderful booksellers who are stocking our books! It has been great to get to know some of you over the past year, some ‘virtually’, some ‘in the flesh’, as it were. It is great to be working with you and to hear some of your stories. It never ceases to surprise me how creative and ingenious some of you are, with cafés opening, events happening, online stores and social networking all making a difference. Good on you: you are doing a fantastic job. It has also been sad to see more shops closing … every loss is a loss to us all, in a way.

So, what of Dernier Publishing? Here are a few highlights of the last nine months or so:

1. This isn’t strictly Dernier Publishing news, it’s more personal, but for those of you who don’t know, I will be marrying Andrew Wilson on 2nd July. After eight years on my own since my first husband died, it is wonderful to have someone to share life with. We met at CRE last year. (I’ve since met another couple who met at CRE!) Andrew is on the staff of a charity that supports those around the world who are persecuted for their faith in Christ. He is also a former journalist, and does some editing and proof-reading for us.

Youth Fiction from Dernier Publishing

Youth Fiction from Dernier Publishing

2. We now have nine books out! When I wrote the last piece for Phil’s blog, back in August, we only had six – that’s a 50% increase! Beech Bank Girls II: Making A Difference (chick lit for 10-14s), The Only Way (brilliant book for teens), and The Birthday Shoes (surprise adventure for 8-11s) are all great books. It’s so exciting to see our list grow – not so we can have a bigger stock, but so that we can reach more young people with the good news of Jesus, through exciting, relevant stories. Now that is something to be excited about!

3. Beech Bank Girls I: Every Girl Has A Story was shortlisted for the Christian Resources Together Awards (children over 12 category). Whoo hoo! How amazing is that?! Although we didn’t win, this still means that this book is one of the three most popular Christian books for children of this age in the whole of the UK – wow! Several kind booksellers told me that they thought we should have won – if that was you, thank you very much! Thanks also to everyone who nominated and voted for us, and congratulations particularly to Eleanor Watkins, the author. It’s a brilliant book, worth every penny of the £5.99 price tag! Book III in the series is due for release in October – maybe it will win the award next year?!

4. I did my first ever radio interview on Premier Radio – Lizzie put me at my ease and I was soon into the swing of it. Several enquiries and encouragements have come from that interview, so thank you, Premier Radio!

5. I was asked to present a prize at the Church School Awards (and met Andy from Blue Peter!) This was a great opportunity to begin inroads into books for schools – again, this wasn’t something I set out to do, but the door just opened for us to be there.

6. I Want to Be An Airline Pilot and Beech Bank Girls II: Making a Difference are in the Speaking Volumes catalogue; and The Birthday Shoes was Kingsway’s book of the month in April. So encouraging!

7. We have two more new books coming out in the autumn. Eleanor Watkins has done a brilliant job with the third story in the Beech Bank Girls series; and Living in Hope, the sequel to I Want to Be an Airline Pilot, by Mary Weeks Millard, is due out in October – keep an eye on the Coming Soon pages on our website! Here’s a sneaky preview of the cover illustration:

Living in Hope: cover preview

Living in Hope: cover preview

8. If all of this seems a bit over the top to those of you who are used to dealing with established publishers, please be aware that we started with nothing, not so long ago – precious little knowledge and one computer in my dining room!

It has been continually amazing to see the hand of the Lord at work. Any success we have had is by his grace alone [Editor's note: don't dismiss your own hard work too quickly, Janet! It's grace and guts in this game of following Jesus!]. He has brought along opportunities, made a way where there seemed to be no way, performed many miracles. I do believe that his heart is so much for our young people, who are growing up in an increasingly dark environment, where sin is no longer considered sin, where to go to church and believe in Jesus is weird.

Mostly, we will never hear about or see the results of our books for ourselves, but I sometimes receive encouragements – here’s a recent one, from Gill:

My niece, aged 15, not overly academic, read one right through last night and loved it. I think it’s the first time in her life that she’s read a whole book from choice! Must be good!

May God bless you all.

Janet Evans, Publisher, and Eleanor Watkins, Author, at the Dernier Publishing stand, CRE 2011

Janet Evans, Publisher, with Eleanor Watkins, Author of the Beech Bank Girls series, at the Dernier Publishing stand, CRE Sanddown Park 2011

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Message in the Sand: Now Out, Now Online

Posted on November 28, 2008 by | Leave a comment

Message in the Sand (front cover)I can think of no more powerful and no more appropriate follow up to my Think Green: Shop Local post than the message of Charmaine Aserappa’s book, Message in the Sand, introduced here by Charmaine last month and, I’m delighted to say, finally published in the Philippines yesterday. I’ll post UK availability details when I have them. 

The story is simple: a young boy, Miguel, sees the sea being destroyed by pollution. But what can one child do? Miguel’s answer is to write a message in the sand… 

For me, it brings to mind the story of Jesus, writing whatever it was he wrote on the ground when the religious leaders of his day, convinced of their own righteousness, tried to force him to condemn a woman who’d been caught out. 

Messages in the sand may be washed away by the tide or by time: but their power transforms lives, and has the potential to transform our world — if we let it.

Read or listen to Miguel’s story. But please don’t stop there: take its message into your heart and let it transform our world.

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