out on the road

One of the major challenges for small presses is how to let as many people as possible know what you’re up to. A loyal customer base is a good starting point – and we send out regular newsletters to keep in contact with ours – but how do you build on that? A few years ago, social media was the go-to option, but Facebook’s algorithms make it increasingly useless, and Twitter seems to have gone down the pan since the man-child opened it up to conspiracy theorists and racists. Neither of those groups are our target market, in case you wondered.

We pondered. We took a look at what other folk had been doing. We made lists. We added some things and crossed others out. We drank some coffee and stared out of the window. We realised that we love meeting people face-to-face, and we enjoy working with independent bookshops, and we decided it might be fun to bring those things together. We’re not by any means the first to do this, but we’re looking forward to it immensely.

We’ve two dates lined up for October so far, at Script Haven in Worcester and Blue Sheep Books in Wednesbury. At each of the we’ll be talking about Ignite Books and the ethos behind it, and sharing our experience of how you can get published (as well as what to watch out for and avoid). We’ll be introducing our range of books, of course, reading extracts from a couple of them, and we’ll have copies of all our titles for sale on the night. If all goes well, the bookshops will make some money, and we’ll all go home having had a great time.

We’re at Script Haven on October 12th. And at Blue Sheep Books on the 19th. Put the dates in your diary. Pop along. It’ll be great to see you.