Making progress

Great news arrived in my email this morning.  CreateSpace, the print on demand publishers, now distribute through Amazon's European channels too.  So the 'real' book is now IN STOCK in the UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy and not only through independent sellers who'd picked up the title.

Even better than that, sales are really starting to happen, so I'll (eventually) have royalty cheques to pay in to my account and straight back out to the MS Society.  It's also a much faster turnaround time for anyone that buys and much cheaper shipping.  I'm still waiting for the copies I ordered, so customers might even have their copy before me!  In the meantime my credit card is even more dinted in the name of sending preview copies to magazines to hopefully get a tiny mention to help the charity sales along.

In the meantime, I've re-jigged the free stuff page on the website to help people understand there are loads more than the free chart of the month (which is seeing downloads - thank you) at a very tiny prices, all for a good cause.  Check it out - Free Stuff!!

Now, I'm aware of a few things that might seem to have been overlooked.  It's a niche market I'm appealing to - not everyone does cross stitch - but nearly everyone knows someone that does.  It's a bit like MS itself.  You might not have it, but I bet you know someone or know someone that knows someone.  But so you know much about it?  What I'm trying to promote, as much as the products is the message to tell your friends. A simple retweet or shared link is all it takes. Awareness of MS is built in to the message already.  It helps in so many ways just to click that link.

I might never be a tycoon this way, but I can do my bit to help out.  I can't run marathons.  I can't even walk a mile.  But I can use technology and I'm not incurring any unreasonable costs that might harm the donation fund.  It's a slow process, I know.

Was thinking as I rejigged the free stuff page that the whole front end of the site needs redesigning really.  The home page has the latest news.  The news page has archived news.  The blog page streams this blog, which gives the news (plus the ramblings and ravings of a madwoman) but it really doesn't need all of that.  Where I'm really undecided is the blog.  If you read this via the website (and yes, some people actually do), does it make it a more personal experience because you can see what's going on in my unravelling mind, or would you rather see a separate blog that focuses on what I'm writing, designing, or promoting at the time?  I hear mixed advice about this, so tell me what YOU think.  I can do either.  I can do both, just to be perverse and confuse things.  You are my audience, not the advice givers, and your feedback is what matters most.  If I don't hear anything, I'll leave this blog in place and apologise in advance for the random rants that will no doubt appear!

Stop asking, start doing she thinks to herself.  After tonight's toast-pizza, the layout goes under the knife and hopefully emerges in better shape...