Where to buy ‘Mental’; the importance of positive reviews
‘Mental’ has been out for over a month now. So far, the reception has been very positive and sales have been good. I even got my first royalties! (Miniscule, but still.)
Here’s where you can buy the book online:
- ‘Mental’ on The Book Centre website – paperback
- ‘Mental’ on Book Depository – paperback
- ‘Mental’ on Amazon – ebook and paperback
As for bricks and mortar, the book is currently on sale in the following places:
- The Book Centre, John Roberts Square, Waterford
- Ardkeen Quality Food Store, Dunmore Road, Waterford
- The Book Centre, 5 South Main Street, Wexford
- The Book Centre, 10 High Street, Kilkenny
- Barker and Jones, 2 Poplar Square, Naas, County Kildare
If you have read the book and enjoyed it, I would be delighted if you would post a review of it on Amazon. Your review can be as short as you like – one sentence is perfectly acceptable.
There are already some lovely reviews, like this one:
Have a look at the full list of reviews so far and do consider writing one yourself. The book needs to reach ten reviews in order to qualify for inclusion in Amazon’s “Also bought” listings, as well as the “You might like” recommendations. Being included in these promotions gains the book more exposure and, hopefully, more sales.
Positive Amazon reviews are valuable to writers also because they help the book move higher up in Amazon’s rankings. And this creates – yes you guessed it – more exposure and more sales.
Book launch of ‘Mental’ with pictures
Relief is the main feeling I’m experiencing at the moment!
I’m delighted to report that the launch of my book Mental went really well. It took place in The Book Centre, Waterford, in the evening of Friday March 24th. All books sold out!
Not only that but there was standing room only by the time the event kicked off. I couldn’t ask for a more encouraging result.
Photos are below. The video is split into two parts: Part 1 contains poet Mark Roper’s launch speech and and Part 2 contains my speech and my reading from the story ‘Ask Jessica’ in Mental.
Thank you to everyone who attended and bought the book (and those who were left empty-handed after it sold out!), Maeve Cooke and The Book Centre staff for having us, and Mark Roper for giving a lovely, thoughtful speech to launch the book.
You can buy the book as an ebook or paperback now from The Book Depository (free delivery worldwide) and Amazon. As of next week, it will be back in stock in The Book Centre bricks-and-mortar store and on their website.
Maeve Cooke, manager of The Book Centre, opens the launch.
Poet Mark Roper launching the book.
Tumbleweed, crickets and other launch day terrors
Back in the heady days of early 2017, when March 24th was months away, I had no nerves at all about my launch day. I was breezily looking forward to a nice relaxed evening, chatting to friends and family, in a place that I love.
Now that launch day is the day after tomorrow, all breeziness is gone and I am a bundle of fears and self-doubt. The following thoughts are on an ever-repeating reel in my head:
- What if only a handful of people turn up? (Cue images of tumbleweed rolling through and the sound of crickets in the background.)
- What if a reasonable number of people turn up but hardly anyone buys the book? (Cue image of stacks of unsold books on the floor of my bedroom forever more.)
- What if lots of people buy the book but hate it and demand their money back? (Image: me crying while handing back bank notes to an angry mob.)
- What if online trolls get wind of the book and flame me on Twitter to the degree that I have to quit social media and become a hermit?
I’ll stop there before the fantasies get even more ludicrous. I’m sure Twitter trolls have better things to be doing with their time than picking on a virtually unknown self-published author. Right?!
To switch back to positive mode, a window display for ‘Mental’ and a poster advertising the launch are currently in situ in the window of The Book Centre, Waterford, where the launch takes place on Friday evening.
To my surprise, I had to set up the display myself. My surprise was not that a self-published author would do their own window display (who else would do it?), but that The Book Centre were willing to let me loose on their window. I have zero experience of doing displays of any kind. Here is the result of my attempt:
‘Mental’ in the window of The Book Centre independent book store, Waterford, Ireland.
Lesson learned: window dressing is a lot more difficult than it looks. Kind friends have assured me that it looks ‘minimalist’ and fitting to the theme of the book (rather than ‘bare’ and ‘bland’ as I (still) suspect).
My next post will be a report on the launch itself. Fingers crossed for no tumbleweed or crickets.
Book launch news
I seem to be in a constant state of excitement these days.
The latest reason is that I have confirmed the person who will launch my book. It is none other than Mark Roper. Mark is a nationally renowned poet and creative writing educator with a lengthy list of publications, credits and accolades to his name. (For details of these see Mark’s website.) I had the pleasure of having a piece of mine included alongside one of his in The Sunday Miscellany Anthology in 2011.
Poet Mark Roper
Even more significantly for me on a personal level, Mark was a writing mentor of mine back in 2003 and 2004 when I returned home to Ireland from my travels abroad. He encouraged and supported my writing as part of his Writer in Residency year at Waterford Regional Hospital (now University Waterford Hospital) and kindly included a piece of mine in an anthology of writing from people in the hospital. He has continued to provide support and encouragement ever since.
Mark’s kind and gentle manner is famous among those who know him. That temperament was in evidence when I attended his workshops in the hospital with a small, sometimes noisy baby in tow. He did not bat an eyelid at the presence of my daughter and made us feel nothing but welcome. It is seemingly little things like these that are true indicators of a person’s character.
The launch itself takes place in The Book Centre, Waterford on March 24th. There will be details in my next post; in the meantime, check out the event page on Facebook.
‘Mental’ front cover reveal
One of the most fun tasks in this self-publishing voyage so far has been working with my graphic designer to create a front cover image. And here it finally is:
To say I’m excited to finally release the cover is an understatement. After all, it is the front cover, more than any other part, that we visualise when we plan to publish a book.
To create the cover, I worked with book designer and illustrator Jana Vuković. Jana came recommended by a writer friend who had used her services. Jana and I have never met; in fact, I don’t even know where she lives! We communicate solely by email.
Jana started off the process by asking me for examples of existing book covers that I liked, to give her an idea of the direction we needed to head in. I sent her links to three or four. Then, she got me to complete a questionnaire in order to help me to express exactly what I wanted to achieve with my book cover. I was a bit taken aback by how vague my thoughts had been up to that point! We pinned down the key words, my preferred colours and the most important part of the book to be reflected in the cover image.
The one thing I was specific about from the start was that I wanted the cover to be an illustration, and symbolic rather than depicting an instantly recognisable ‘thing’. I felt this was appropriate for a book that focusses on the mind, thoughts and mental turmoil but also hope and possibility.
I found Jana to be utterly professional and always quick to respond. Her prices are reasonable and her ‘after-sale service’ is great. (Being the rookie that I am, I temporarily forgot that my book needed a back cover! She stepped in at a moment’s notice to provide me with one.)
The current step in my self-publishing process is waiting for the proof copy to arrive from CreateSpace. I may just about explode with excitement to hold an actual physical copy of my book for the very first time! I will post here as soon as it arrives.
The author head shot dilemma: professional or DIY?
This is something I was undecided on for a long time: do I need a professional author head shot?
All the self-publishing experts I know say yes, you do. They say it’s an investment in your work. They say it reflects a professional ethos. They say that a cropped image of you squinting in the sun on holiday with a disembodied arm around your shoulders may not send the right message about your work.
Then there’s our old friend, self-doubt. I’m ‘only’ self-publishing, after all. I’m trying to keep my costs down. The cropped holiday snap will do fine, won’t it? Who do I think I am?
I found that my decision was made even harder by the fact that I already had a very nice author photo, taken by a friend who does photography in his spare time and is excellent at it. The snags were: 1) The picture is several years old. Hands up, I (sadly) don’t look much like that any more. 2) My friend had very kindly taken the picture free of charge. I value the friendship and didn’t want to ask him for more free work, nor I did I want to cause him awkwardness or embarrassment by trying to insist on paying him.
After agonising over the decision a little longer (I can be indecisive!), I decided to grab the bull by the horns. I would go professional.
I found a local, female photographer. This was important to me. Don’t get me wrong, I love my big, established brands when it suits me, but when it comes to bespoke work, especially anything artistic, I try to support my local economy and women who are setting up in business on their own.
Enter Bara Alich, whose work I had seen and loved in a local charity calendar. Bara works from a pop-up studio in a room in her home. She tears down the studio after each shoot because the room is used by the family the rest of the time. She brings in a local make-up artist to prep subjects before shoots. She’s incredibly nice (I had a cold at the time, and she made me fresh honey, lemon and ginger tea!), professional and ambitious. That’s the kind of set-up I like.
Here we are getting ready for the shoot:
Bara took huge pains to find out from me what I was aiming for with the photo. She made me think about what I really wanted the photo to ‘say’. My book is about mental health issues so, together, we worked out that we wanted the result to show friendliness, kindness and understanding, yet strength and reliability as well.
Bara helped me pick outfits that would fit in with those key words, and her make-up artist did a very professional job (and managed to cover up the rotten cold!). Here’s the result:
It is always cringe-inducing to look at pictures of yourself, but I am happy with this one. It fulfils my expectations and hopefully, it does something to persuade people that my book is worth a look.
You do have to grin and bear it when you’re handing over money for a self-financed project – and that little voice saying “You could have just done it yourself” never quite goes away. I’m happy with my decision and with the result.
PS. My next post will be the book cover reveal! Stay tuned!
My new book ‘Mental’ comes out this year
Allow me to be selfish for a moment. 2017 is going to be a huge year for me because this is the year that I publish my first book.
It’s a book of short stories and it’s called ‘Mental’. The stories all deal with the issue of mental health as it affects the five main characters, who are of different ages and backgrounds. My aim with the book – apart from creating a piece of work that hopefully has some artistic merit! – is to shed light into the often darkened corners of our mental worlds.
I’m self-publishing the book, a process that so far has been mostly enjoyable. As a child, I was fascinated with the physicality of books. I tried a few times to make my own, in an attempt to fulfil my dream of seeing my name on a front cover.
Armed with the Olivetti typewriter that Santa had brought, my drawing pens, paper and folders liberated from my Dad’s workplace, and lots of sellotape, I sadly found that the results were never quite up to my expectations. Back then, this was the best I could do (this ‘book’ was the result of a school history project): 
Had I been born only a few decades later, my younger self could simply have used one of today’s self-publishing platforms to publish my early attempts at a novel.
For Mental, I’m using Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) for the ebook and CreateSpace, Amazon’s print-on-demand service, for the print version.
One of the most exciting tasks so far has been working with an awesome graphic designer to create the cover of the book. I’ll be revealing the cover on this blog very soon!
Last books of the year
Mother knows best. So too, apparently, does Other Half. This is part of my Christmas book haul:
‘Cowboy Song’ by Graeme Thompson was a gift from my partner and ‘Hilbilly Elegy’ by J.D. Vance was from my mother. I’m halfway through the former. It’s utterly gripping and the cause of the current crop of grey smudges under my eyes (in a good way). ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ – subtitled ‘A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis’ – will be a great, if sobering, read.
Happy new year, everyone.
Mia Gallagher interview, Imagine Arts Festival 2016
Last night, I had the pleasure of meeting and interviewing author Mia Gallagher as part of this year’s Imagine Arts Festival.
Image credit: Kate McCarthy
As I suspected, Mia is a delight. She is an interviewer’s dream: chatty, friendly and open. She has lots to say but isn’t in the slightest overbearing. Despite being an internationally acclaimed writer, she is completely down to earth and generous.
We talked a lot about her latest novel, Beautiful Pictures of the Lost Homeland, as well as about her writing life, her process, and creativity. I loved hearing that at one stage during the writing of BPLH, she sat cross-legged on her floor, surrounded by stacks of paper. That’s such a romantic image of a writer. Much more appealing than sitting bolt upright in front of a computer screen!
The occasion was further enhanced by the venue, St. Patrick’s Gateway Centre in Waterford city. As the image above shows, this former church provides a highly suitable and atmospheric setting for arts events.
My thanks are due to Ollie Breslin, Nora Boland and everyone else on the Imagine organising committee for a perfectly run event, and to the audience members who turned out on a Monday evening.
Beautiful Pictures of the Lost Homeland is available from all the usual book outlets, as is Hellfire, Mia’s first novel.
What are you reading?
I love asking people that question, don’t you? The answer can sometimes give you a glimpse into someone’s inner world. Other times, it’s a glimpse into their everyday life.
This week, I’m reading three books: Roald Dahl’s Collected Short Stories Vol. 2, Mia Gallagher’s Beautiful Pictures of the Lost Homeland (see my previous post) and Lucy Caldwell’s short story collection Multitudes.
I would love to be able to claim that this shows what a wide, eclectic and voracious reader I am. Sadly, what it really means is that I have trouble focusing!
On the positive side, all three books are truly wonderful. I’ll be posting more about them in the near future.
Last week, I finished Distress Signals by Catherine Ryan Howard, a thriller that held my attention from start to finish.
I’ll post a review of that soon, too.
Am I over-committing myself again?
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