If you remember a few weeks ago I joined TikTok? I appear to attract a few other TikTockers (if that’s what they are called) I’m not sure if they are people or robots though. Some of them are people, I know this because they want to sell me services (out of the gutter, please!😂) Formatting, editing, SEO something or other, you know what I mean. I started by explaining I wasn’t looking for those things, but they persist, so now I just ignore. The Bots are easily identified. “Hi, how are you today?” or “Where are you from?” “What’s your book called?” I find it strange because all that information is in my 30-40 second videos. I guess a Bot can’t watch videos. I mean, really, when was the last time you met an old Phillpino or Russian bloke with a Yorkshire accent?
I decided to put the same 40 second videos on You Tube. In the first two weeks my three shorts (they’re YT lingo for short videos, See! I’m getting down with the kids already 😂) I’ve had 3,700 views, 10 hours watching time, 10 subscribers and my last one got 23 likes and 17 comments. BUT, more importantly three book sales. No one asked me a thing, or tried to sell me something. So, I’m happy with You Tube at present.
Out of all the social media Apps I’ve tried this has been the most enjoyable one. Instagram is okay once you get rid of the sex workers. I remember a girl started following me and messaged. “Have you been in my Cam Room?” I replied with. “Why did I leave my socks behind?😂” I never heard from her again.
Aww, bless em, I guess everyone has to earn a living.
Today I am delighted to feature Esther Moonstomp(Chilton) on her blog tour. Myths and Magic is Esther’s second book in her children’s series Saffy’s Secret Quest. So, without further ado, I’ll hand you over to Esther.
Charlie has very kindly allowed me to take over his blog for a short while as part of the blog tour for my second children’s book, Myths and Magic. A huge thank you to Charlie for his support. I really appreciate it.
So here I am on stop two of my tour, with book two.The Secret Dragon was the first in the Saffy’s Secret Quest Series and was released last year. The second book is due out on the 28th May but the paperback is available now to pre-order. The series is for 5-7 year olds, so it’s ideal for parents to read to children or for those that have just started to read on their own. It’ll make a great gift for any young children you know!
The Blurb:
Saffy has solved the first clue in her quest to save the magical world of Mandoreum from danger. Now it’s time to find the second.
She isn’t alone. Her new friend, Lily, a dragon from Mandoreum, wants to help. Together they take a trip and uncover special stories and unexpected surprises.
But Saffy soon learns that first appearances are not always what they seem. And plotting in the background is a witch who will do everything she can to stop them…
Extract:
Saffy looked around. She had been to the museum so many times she had forgotten how exciting it was. Colourful posters hung on the walls and interactive screens flickered as they changed image. A brightly lit café was over at the far corner and there was a gift shop bursting with toys, pens, notepads and all sorts the other side.
“I wish I was playing football with my friends,” Harry said huffily. “Museums are boring.”
“It’s far too wet to play football. And you know how much you enjoyed it here last time. If you’re a good boy, perhaps you can have an ice-cream a bit later,” Mum said.
“It’s raining. I don’t want an ice-cream when it’s raining,” Harry grumbled.
“I’ll save my money, then.” Mum took a protesting Harry by the hand and walked over to the first display.
“Harry is being even more annoying than usual,” Saffy whispered to Lily. “We’ll let them go on ahead and follow.”
A few moments later, Saffy stopped by a collection of spears and ancient tools. “Look at these, Lily.” She smiled as her friend peeped out over the top of her pocket. “They’re hundreds and hundreds of years old.”
“What’s that over there?” Lily pointed to a little mud hut.
Before Saffy knew it, the dragon had clambered out of her pocket and slid down to the floor.
“Where are you going? Stop!” Saffy called after her.
She noticed a group of children walking towards them. Uh oh!
Esther at book launch signings
Author bio:
Esther has been a freelance writer for over twenty-five years, regularly writing articles and short stories for magazines and newspapers such as Writers’ Forum, Writing Magazine,The Guardian, Best of British, The Cat, This England, Yours and The People’s Friend.
Winner of several competitions, including those run by Writing Magazine and The Global Short Story Contest, she has also had the privilege of judging writing competitions and relished being given the role of head judge of the Writers’ Forum monthly short story competition.
Esther loves writing but equally enjoys helping others, which she achieves in her role as a tutor for The Writers Bureau. Always on the lookout for a new challenge, she is taking the distance learning college over at the end of July.
She has had two how-to books on writing published, with a third due out later this year, as well as two collections of short stories. Her second children’s book is coming out in May, where she writes under the name of Esther Moonstomp.
For years I’ve heard about TikTok, but to be honest I thought it was young girls prancing about, putting makeup on, or sharing photos of Dua Lipa, Raye and Harry Styles. Having no interest in any of the above I’ve always dismissed it.
A friend informed me recently this isn’t the only option, and it’s great for publicising your book. This led me to the next quandary, what do you post? The same friend recommended ChatGPT. I do not like AI, and I’ve tried to steer clear of it. Some people use it to create a book and then say.
“Look at me, I’ve written a book.”
No you bloody well haven’t! You’ve got a robot to write it for you.
But… I wasn’t writing a book, just looking for advice on marketing. So I tentatively asked the question. “How do I market my book on TikTok?”
I was surprised at the outcome, it sounded like it knew what I needed, and I now have twenty pages of ideas. None of them involve makeup, dancing or mooning over young Mr Styles, so far so good. The only downfall was when I asked it to recommend a look. Probably need to tweak that a bit.
All I have to do now is create some twenty second videos, we’ll see how it goes. Has anyone else used ChatGPT or TikTok I wonder? Personally AI scares me a little, there are already 85 million books on Amazon, and I do wonder how many are written by robots. Although you can usually tell… They lack humanity and passion, but I could be wrong they may have been written by someone who has no humanity or passion, I’ve never read Mein Kampf, so I’m no expert.
On a different matter, as the broken rib is healing I’ve managed to get up to a 24k training run, next week I need 30k and I’ll feel more confident, as I have the Boston UK Marathon in 4 weeks and was hoping for 03:40:00 time which should give me 1st in my age group 🤞
It appears there is no escaping this film around Christmas time. This year Castle Howard decided to use it as their annual theme, and as always it’s treat for the kids. (although there appeared to be more adults than children😉 )
Castle Howard was built over 300 years ago and took 100 years to complete. Most famously used as the setting for the film Brideshead Revisited an adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s 1945 novel. But this year it was devoted to L.Frank Baum’s novel. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. There were, in fact, 14 Oz books, but his first one, written in 1900, seems to get all the attention. After entering the Castle you are exposed to the semi- demolished home of Dorothy. (She’s already left on a tornado, Oz bound).
We then find ouselves in the Good Witch’s bedroom, because as you will remember, she’s the one who tells Dorothy to follow the Yellow Brick Road and find ole Wiz.
There’s quite a lot more going on that I’m kinda skipping around, it took two hours to get round and I’m sure you good folks need to get dinner on. So after meeting her various companions and hiking to Munchkin Land the Emerald City comes into view. Is it really green or is it a trick? Anyaways we had our photo taken under the Christmas tree
At last Dotty meets the Wizard, but we all know how that ended, don’t we?
But alas, Dot and her friends are being watched the evil eye under the command of the Wicked Witch sees all and a cunning plan is hatched. (you may scream if you feel the urge 😂)
But all’s well that ends well. C’mon…it was a childrens story. Dorothy’s pals get their wishes. I got to meet Glinda, Good Witch of the South and Dotty went home again… Whereas we went outside for a two hour drive home… Yay!
I think the Scarecrow was always my favourite, so I’ll leave you with some words of wisdom from the man himself. Happy Trails, Folks x
Well. I mean…if I had hair I would have pulled it out this week. But it was too long for a title. (not my hair) I wonder if anyone reading this has self published a paperback with Amazon. I did it seamlessley with my first book, The Siege of Mr Khan’s Curry Shop, but this one, Who’s Got The Biscuits, ‘Ay caramba’.
And this is why I hate AI… I suggested a man pulling his hair out image. Oh well, pay peanuts and you get monkeys. So, my friends back to the plot. With a paperback you take a manuscript and you set the Trim, the Margins etc… I won’t bore you with whole shenanigns, but for arguments sake let us pretend I did it to the letter. One week later the author’s copy arrives and the margins are wrong. Okay, submit the manuscript again, but this time use the Amazon Template. A week later the second author’s copy arrives, and it is wrong. Not only are the margins wrong but now there are no paragraph indents. I guess AI has something to do with it.
I considered prayer but I’m told there are about 3000 various Gods, and I’m never quite sure which one works. I guess you could pick one randomly, but then you’re denying 2999 others. Is that blasphemy? I know the COE, and I guess the Catholics believe in blasphemy but what about the others? Anyaways, I went for a run instead. I guess I’m probably a Pagan at heart, because that seemed to work, at least it gave me an idea. Start again.
AI’s interpretation of a great idea 🤷
This is when it gets interesting. Here begineth the third submission. The margins are still wrong, but I have several characters in the book. One is called Janine (sassy, sarcastic and loved by all, but no one will tell her 😂) Another character, Mohammed (not the dead prophet) he’s a bit gormless (not the prophet the character). The template decided to change both names to ‘I’. Not throughout the whole book, just randomly. i.e. another character says. “I’m going to get Janine back.” This became, “I’m going to get I back,”
After a zillion YouTube videos on how to format a manuscript, posing the question on Amazon KDP community, because I began to think I was a bit dumb, I was no further and getting nowhere. So, I went for another run 😂
It was on this freezing, wet, cold run that I decided to start again, again. I went through the whole document, took out all the “I’s” and put in the original names. I discounted the Amazon margin guidelines and super duper hi-tec methods. I took a ruler, a paperback from my bookshelf which had the same page count as my book, and used the ancient method of measuring. 😂
Wow, I stand corrected AI got this one right 😉
Eurika! the margins are great, there are no more people called “I” and the paragraph indents are spot on, so from ebook to paperback in three weeks. Of course by the time I finish my next book I will have forgotten all about this adventure and probably repeat every step. Oh the joys of getting old 😂
After all this time I released the sequel to The Siege of Mr Khan’s Curry Shop, out into the world. There’s something strange about publishing a book. I guess it’s a little like your child’s first day at school. Will they be okay? Will the other children like them? Or, the very worse scenario; will they be sent back because they don’t fit in and they’re not good enough 😂
Who’s Got The Biscuits had a title before it had been written. The main character in the first book liked biscuits so, it fits, but I had that title in my head years ago. You know when you are walking or hiking and all those weird thoughts come into your head? (maybe not?) Anyaways that was one of those days.
I know it won’t make me a load of money, but luckily I don’t really care. The reviews of the first one were so uplifting, who needs money? 😂 Plus I’m hopeless at marketing. My secret weapon is Esther Chilton as an editor she not only does an excellent job but she gives you the confidence that when she has finished it is a good book. There is a certain amount of joy from seeing your book out there. I don’t know about you guys but sometimes I read something from my book and wonder if I actually wrote it, now that’s a strange feeling.
Well it’s a short post because I have to put tea on. I think you posh people call it dinner. But up here in the North we have dinner at dinner time and tea at tea time. I’m not even going to get involved in “Supper” what’s that all about? 😂
A very busy few weeks lately. Not only getting the new novel ready for publishing, but there’s the running. Esther Chilton sent me the final edit of my book and as always she has done such a wonderful job. Now begins the formatting and final examination. Hopefully it will be published in the next two weeks.
Anyway… back to the plot. Yup yours truly is a winner (twice in fact) We had the Nothern Relay Championships here a couple of weeks ago and I found myself in the A team. No pressure then! Three in a team, and each one of us ran 5k each. Guess who went last of the three? When you take over as last man in a relay and your team is ahead, trust me its not fun haha. But best foot forward as they say. We won with a margin of five minutes.
The following day I had a 10k race, and I wasn’t sure how much the previous day had taken out of me. There was only one way to find out, I guess. An undulating road race with forecast rain, not something I was looking forward to. Luckily the rain held off and the undulations were not as high as I’d expected. Once again it was best foot forward. To have a team win one day is fab. To then have an indivdiual win the following day? Well what can I say! There was a bottle of red wine opened that night. 😂
News of the new book has been social media’d. Hopefully it will be well recieved.
I like Kalamaki on the island of Zakynthos because they have turtles. This means there are no late night flights. I guess if I was a turtle meandering up a beach, to lay my eggs, I wouldn’t appreciate being buzzed by a Boeing 737. Suits me fine as I like early morning flights in and out. I’m a lazy git on holiday, I lie around reading and soaking up the sun. Although I’ll fit in one run and hike, and so decided to hike up Mount Skopos to the monastery.
There’s something about a long run or a hike that frees your mind, but also helps you ponder. I guess that’s an oxymoron? Which as a child, I thought was a stupid donkey. Anyaways, I’d taken a copy of my first book, The Siege of Mr Khan’s Curry Shop on this holiday with a mind to read it. As I walked I had an idea, more of that later because this is the hiking part. It was a great trail, and so quiet.
I’ve seen some peculiar viewing points over the years but never graffiti and sunlounger halfway up a trail.
Once you reach the top there are spectacular views of the island and of course the monastery. The exact date the monastery was built in is unknown but 1453 was a guess by a local I spoke to. It was destroyed in the earthquake that shook Greece in 1953 and rebuilt in 1962-1963.
After a rest in the café, yup there is an actual café up there run by a lovely lady, who kindly offered us a glass of water when we reached the top. After a bite to eat it was time to head back down.
Getting back to the idea I had earlier, with my book. I wrote a note inside the front cover and left it on the hotel library shelf. It disappeared for a day then reappeared and disappeared again. It’s still there now. I’m not sure if this is a good marketing ploy or been done before, but I thought over a thousand holiday makers visit the hotel every year, so why not? I’ll leave a book in every hotel I visit from now on with a little message. 😉
Have you ever heard of a book trailer? They are similar to film trailers and the idea is that the public get very excited and can’t wait for the release. My second novel is very nearly finished and my wonderful editor Esther Chilton is doing the final edit and proofread. I’m not Tom Clancy or Stephen King, so I doubt there will be a hullabaloo in the literary world, but I thought I would give it a go. Neither do I have the backing of major publishers, so it had to be a DIY job.
I then spent a few hours researching free to use book trailer companies (like we all do). FlexClip popped up a few times and so I gave it a go. It was very easy to use, and I was pleased with the outcome. Bearing in mind I am but a simple Yorkshireman. We are renown for being miserable, no idea why, I’m quite happy most of the time. I’m not putting my “masterpiece” 😂 out into the world of social media just yet. I think if it goes out to early my fan will probably forget about it. I would be interested in any comments before it goes public though. Oh! it’s better with the sound up, probably the best bit 😂
People often ask me, ‘How many copies of your book have you sold?’ Which, I suppose is natural. I always give the same answer, ‘I don’t know.’ They seem perplexed by this. How could I not know? I have to go on to explain, I wanted to write a book, if it sells, then yippee! If it doesn’t I’m not going to lose sleep. My debut novel, The Siege of Mr Khan’s Curry Shop, was 20 years in the writing so I’m just so happy that I did it.
My next book took me 3 years, so I am getting better. I recently sent the first 300 words of my upcoming second novel to Writing Magazine for James McCreet to critique. My editor told me I was “brave” he doesn’t pull any punches. For me the first two lines of his summary was good enough. “I wouldn’t be at all surprised to read this at the start of a novel published by a best selling thriller author.” I’ll take that ☺️.
My editor, Esther Chilton, is a Godsend. I am very lucky to have found her as she helps turn an OK manuscript into, what I consider, a good book. So, maybe this second novel will sell and help to eliminate the perplexed look from peoples faces. I’m sure like all things, time will tell. If you have written a book and it’s published but not selling, hey! You have achieved, something so many other people dream of. Give yourself a pat or a high five, or what ever your cultural praise is. I’ve just started playing around with FlexClip where you can create a trailer for your forthcoming book. I’ll let you know how I get on next time.
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