I remember thinking to myself, shortly after my book launch, that sooner rather than later I’d be owning the car of my dreams, women would be throwing themselves at me, Oprah would definitely be calling and I’d soon be summiting the the New York best seller list. Why not, I was now a published author?

That reality of that dream was completely obliterated when I received the sales report from the distributor after the third month of The Magic that’s Ours being on the shelves. I had only sold about 25 books through all the bookstores in the whole of the country.Gone was the sports car and hot babes, Oprah didn’t have my number, and the New York best sellers list was fast becoming a pipe dream.

According to the feedback from readers in the initial stages of compiling The Magic that’s Ours my strongest market would be schools. So I picked up the phone and started phoning them. I would speak to the librarians, foundation phase teachers, vice heads and principals. As daunting as this task might sound, as soon as I mentioned that I was an author the relevant person would either speak to me, return my call or give me their email address to send through the Advance Information sheet about my book.

I would set up meetings with them and go through to introduce myself and my book. Don’t underestimate the title of being an Author because librarians-who are very connected- are always happy to speak with someone who is passionate about what they are teaching. Almost every school I went to bought copies of my book but more importantly I was able to start compiling a data base of people who were interested in what I was doing. Visiting the schools led to a very interesting path that I was about to embark on…