#author #emotions #elves #emotheeomotionalelf #bookmarketing #bookgroups #digitallearning #socialmedia #autism #anxiety #mentalhealth

Hi everyone hope your week has been a great one , so much to say today haven’t posted for a few days as it has been truly busy here.

You got to start somewhere you never to old to learn new things , I guess it is an important thing to learn given the kids have already no how, in fact they help me.

The thing is I am pretty serious about learning everything I can the publishing industry about so I can publish more books and learn to format layout and design myself. The one thing I would obviously save up and invest in is a good camera, an editor, my Niki has a digital drawing pad intuous which she designed Emo on. I have know doubt she wants to be involved with the further books to help with some of the illustrations.

Book groups

I have joined a few over the last couple of days , spoken to other authors seen the kind of illustrators out there. It is nice speaking with others on their own publishing journeys. some groups are a mix of author’s illustrators, type setters. book promotion sites, where you can share your work. It is great though that they have rules to follow so everyone’s work can be seen.

There seems to be a big thing we all have in common as authors, that’s wanting reviews left. many of us looking to get readers and sales many asking for advise on marketing their books. I feel less out of depth now and more proactive on teaching myself to do it.

I have even got a chance to go on a online radio to talk about my book, I just have to call and book a slot. I would have been real nervous about it before but it is much easier now since I appeared on the local one when the save our school campaign was happening here.

This is the most important time for marketing Emo the Emotional Elf with it being a Christmas story, I am going to accept what ever help is out their, it is already November time is moving so quick. what sales i make now could give me the much needed reviews to get more traction to it.

I thought about which online influencers may take a chance on it if I get a free copy to them, but they would defiantly have to be someone who has maybe suffered with anxiety or mental health, be or know someone who is autistic. because I think they have a valued opinion to offer. even if our stories are not the same or our journey’s. It is quite an awkward thing to do though how would you even begin to approach them, to ask if they would read.

Why can’t social media all have the same layout for post’s there is sizes for instagram posts , instagram news feeds. Facebook headers , WordPress headers, twitter feeds.

It’s the same pretty much for ebook’s different platforms have different requirement’s for them to be able to upload and work on their systems. different pixels for photo’s to display. Fixed layout or variable layout now this caused me a huge issue when ebook went out and part of the reason it is only on Kobo still working on that one. Bleed lines see i am slowly catching up on some of the terms you have to get used to if you self publish.

Royalties, Percentages , standard industry whole sale, distribution, print cost, returns. Stock whether to get a bulk lot yourself or print on demand.

Agents do you get one or not, long term goals are you a one book wonder or many book author.

Do you have what it takes to never give up, even when you see slow progress, even when your so tired because your updating all your social networks talk to people, when to do start press releases, approaching media and schools. not to forget book signing events. See I have already learned a lot .

I don’t intend to let the set backs I have been through put me off continuing as frustrating as some parts have been, I am really enjoying this new side of me

Blogging Journey

Am I glad I have found WordPress when I first started I wrote with no structure like one long sentences with the odd full stop and comma and missing capital letters. I read my posts now and although it is still pretty basic punctuation and still the odd few mistakes that I often notice after i have published it is becoming easier for me.

Perseverance , Persistence, posting regularly helps to build your audience. learning and updating the way the site works having add on’s, and upgrading as you develop into a more confident blogger.

All though my blog is still probably one of the smaller ones out there, slowly it is building.

So lets share stats to show how by persevering can help.

View’s visitors Blog posts

2017 198 118 23

2018 2030 1116 124

2019 5645 3925 180

The other great thing is that it shows where your visitors and views come from and we this blog has had visitors from 75 different country’s. I find that so amazing just wow. it is a great thing to be able to share and teach your kids about the different country’s and our Jake choose geography as one of his subjects, so this may be a great learning tool for me to talk about other country’s with him.

The sharing of your blog on all your social media helps and having a direct link up, it helps you understand when you are engaging with people who kindly take their time to click your blog links and visit.

So these stats show which sites they are coming from to visit.

so what have I learned about this that I must be doing something right, there have been search engine clicks from Google, Duck Duck Go, Ask, my author amazon page, LinkedIn, Twitter instagram is a little more of the difficult one as you limited to point people to the link in your bio.

Then their is your # are you using the correct ones, not enough or to many. You don’t realize to you look at your mail on each of these sites just how many people you have spoken to over that time, that’s in direct or private messages.

I like to right as if I am talking to one person, I read too other peoples posts if I get a chance to comment I do, more often then not I get called on phone or the the kids call and need something. So please don’t think I don’t read other’s blogs I really enjoy them. That’s it for for book talk .

Amber warning I am completely changing subject now .

Jake and Niki’s transition back to school this week went pretty smoothly although I must admit that first day back on Monday we overslept and made it with about 2 minutes to spare. That is cutting it to fine for my liking, but was used to the holiday’s and hitting the delete button on the alarm it becomes instinctive. Plus it was nice and warm and cozy under the duvet.

Tom’s wheel chair issues.

Tuesday I got back from school run and got a call from Tom’s mum bit of an emergency with Tom’s wheel chair the front wheel was broke , and she needed a lift to his school to take a spare frame. now this is where it gets complex, we take the spare chair frame out of the garage it has a missing part still maybe they had a spare part for the handle. we get there and they condemned his wheelchair as unusable and dangerous the front wheel had a severed screw. They couldn’t fix it because they don’t have funding for it, because the frame is a privately funded one. They did have a part for the handle of the spare frame.

But would need the local authority to come and service it, the frame which is privately funded needed to have it’s own service team to come and fix it. This has to be overseen and go through Tom’s solicitor who is in charge of Tom’s fund he received in compensation from his birth injury’s. see i told you it is a complex situation. I wonder what would happen if that old frame has been got rid of, what would of happened to Tom with out his wheelchair he is reliant on. things take time to sort he wouldn’t of been able to travel home from school, because he comes home in a disability adpted taxi.

He needs to sit in his chair to eat, because he has swallowing problems, and all though he is peg fed his meds and fluids, he does when he chooses eats food normally even though its blended. Still the school got in touch with the local authority wheel chair service , and his mum got in touch with his solicitor. Tom found it all very funny and i think he was surprised I was at his school.

while I was at Tom’s school I had a phone call from Jakes school, I still get that split second of dread even after all this time. I think they know this because they said “it isn’t anything to worry about,” they just wanted to know if I read over his EHCP review and am authorizing them to send it off to county, I asked if they had received it, but they weren’t sure. As soon as I got home I checked my emails to see if I did infact send it, as I added more bits in the parent’s section

I forgot to attach it to email , had to resend and phone it through to tell them, I resent. At least that’s done for another year. Jake told me he has been assessed now for exam considerations and he now has provisions in place. this is the bit of his review I spent the most time on, as anxiety can really affect his ability to do the tests.

So the exam support is he can do his assessments in the base for now but exams will be in a quite room with small group of student, possibly the computer room , which is good because he also gets the use of a commuter to type his exams, so exam marker’s can read his work, he also gets an extra 30 minutes to be able to help him check his work. speaking to his actual lesson teachers after his review they were in agreement this would really help him. that is one big worry off Jakes mind now. It will really help to ease his anxiety a lot.

Next forms I have to do is Niki’s pip renewal which landed on my floor on Saturday and has to be completed by the 27th of this month, not my favorite form to fill in.

Hayley

Working with Hayley on Wednesday was fun, Hayley is so engaged with Emo and the elves.

we began the day early with her planning what she wanted to do, where she wanted to shop. She brought a folder to keep her receipts in, some tinsel some arts and craft stuff to do in the afternoon together. She found a deer dressed as an Elf, two small Elves ready to sit on the shelf next to her Christmas tree, she has begun her Christmas shopping. she wants to get it done early this year when it isn’t busy.

Here we are making homemade decorations she loves doing crafts a lot

She has a little habit when she is happy of rubbing her hands together, she gave the biggest belly laugh too.

Her reaction at the end was the best, I want to write a book so when she stays on Friday we are going to write another short story about her new deer elf, Then I will print it off to go with her other one about the three bears. we will also make it into a little video for her to watch like the you tube book trailer, reading and audio is important part for Hayley she may not be able to read or write but she loves books.

Today I took a bit of a marketing break and just had some chill time, making home made Greek Faki for my husband and Niki, it is nice to just take a short break to re focus.

It was yummy , any that is me finished for the night, i have been writing this for three hours.

Goodnight much love Faye xx