So here I was pretty broke,on a scooter and losing weight quite rapidly from all the rice aqnd only rice I was eating. It was quite bleak especially as I was writing books about setting goals, positive thinking, visualization and affirmation. I suppose the lesson was that if I wanted to preach then I had to practice. I always though to myself that practicing in a pad over-looking the beach was how all authors did it. Surprise, surprise…!
My website www.calminstorm.com has an online booking facility where one can order the books and pay either directly or via a bank deposit. When a order is placed I’m notified with a message forwarding the details of the person placing the order. In return the order receives a reply stating
“Dear…
Thank you for placing an order for a copy of The Magic that’s Ours/ The Power that’s Ours
Please deposit… into the following account and a copy will be mailed to you via registered post.
Please forward me your postal address and to whom you would like it signed.”
Bank Details:
A/C name: Calm In Storm
Bank:
Chq A/C number:
Very Best
Gary Hirson
This system makes it very simple for both myself and the person placing the order.
So on this day I received an order confirmation from a person named Abby Leigh Butler in Nashville Tennessee.
The auto responder gets sent and I then receive a mail back from Abby saying that she already has a copy of
The Magic that’s Ours and that herself and a few undergrads from Van der Bilt University are coming to Cape Town to help build a library and that they wish to meet with me to discuss my books. Oprah here I come I think to myself.
Abby arrives and along with her 5 of us go out to dinner where we chat about life in South Africa among other things. I’m thinking that this is it-as pleasant as it was- when Abby tells me that all the professors and the rest of the tour want me to go back to the hotel and meet with them.
Arriving back at the hotel I’m met by 25 people in total including professors, educators and more undergrads and for the next hour or so I tell them what life was like as a white South African being brought up during the Apartheid era, my journey of becoming an author and most importantly that they’re the first people to see my new book. Conveniently I had about 30 copies of each book in my bag which the group were happy to buy.
So why am I telling you this?
If I didn’t have a website Abby wouldn’t have been able to get hold of me which in turn would never had led to connections in the USA who now use my books in their schools. This in turn give me credibility when speaking to people about my book as I now have reviews from people outside of my own country.
If I wasn’t comfortable speaking in front of people-more about that later- there is no way that I could have come across confidently and comfortably to people who were my target market-IE teachers, educators and professors. And lastly if i didn’t have my bag of books with me I wouldn’t have had anything to sell for cash. As I was on my last cup full of rice at least through the sales of the books I could buy more rice later on in the month.
Abbey’s review from Nashville;
Reviewer: Abby Leigh Butler -Teacher in Metro Nashville, Tennessee Public Schools-USA
I wanted to let you know about a few of my lessons with The Magic that’s Ours in the classroom. I taught 3 guided reading groups last week, where we had 15 minutes to read together. During that lesson, we only got to read the first 3-4 pages, and only did the first Fun Time. I attached the pictures for you to see the creativity. It was so fun for me to see how each group approached the task. This is a class of ELL’s (English Language Learners) with varying proficiency levels of English.
Today, I read the whole book to the class. They really enjoyed it. Thank you for such a wonderful book