In a desperate bid to garner more publicity I submitted Point North & Pedal as a piece of writers news to Writing Magazine…good on ’em, they published my letter!
Further reading…..
If you liked this blog please take a moment to check out my book describing the solo Land’s End to John O’Groats ride in 2012, all profit from sales to www.criduchat.org.uk
Please click the cover image for the Kindle version or click here to order a paperback copy. Thank you!
It’s been a while since the last blog post; the usual day to day responsibilities have got in the way of riding and writing. The Christmas break has provided a lot of opportunity to revisit the marketing of my book with a view to shifting the remaining copies of the last order. I have also decided to publish to Kindle but have a few issues around the US tax treaty with the UK and getting a decent cover image that is formatted for Kindle.
The opportunity to place a stall in Wantage’s community shop arose in November, I thought this would be a good idea given the annual Dickensian evening would mean around 5,000 people descending on the town square to enjoy the festive extravaganza. I did my best to set up a classy looking stall that promoted the Cri Du Chat Syndrome Support Group as well as my book but it wasn’t that successful. In stepped Mim, the lady who put a lot of hard work into getting the shop up and running, her take on class was much better than mine! I have yet to go back and see how many books have sold…a treat for the New Year.
Having recently discovered the many and varied services offered on fivrr.com, I have paid my $5 to a graphic designer who will recreate the original book cover for Kindle. I paid up front for the design after a brief e mail exchange with this UK based person. I had a design but just needed it in Kindle format, he was happy to do this so I will wait and see. It is possible to do all this stuff yourself but I would have to learn it from the ground up; there are currently not enough hours in the day so fivrr.com seemed like a good idea.
I also became aware of a free reviewing service that will post the review onto their website if they believe it is worthy….I thought I had nothing to lose and you never know who might see this stuff.
As to getting out on a bike ride, I think this will have to wait until next weekend. Until then, it will be the gym.
Further reading…..
If you liked this blog please take a moment to check out my book describing the solo Land’s End to John O’Groats ride in 2012, all profit from sales to www.criduchat.org.uk
Please click the cover image for the Kindle version or click here to order a paperback copy. Thank you!
The last few days have dragged waiting for the proof of the book to arrive…it finally did yesterday. Despite having eagerly anticipating this moment for a long time, it was strangely flat. The book looked like a book: I did notice that the cover was a little flimsy at 250gsm (I have negotiated a free upgrade to 300gsm) and that there was a mistake on the contents page, it was not the momentous moment I thought it was going to be.
However, it was nice to see all the work come together in one place, the cover art appeared so much better actually on a book instead of a .pdf on the screen. I like the design; it really gives a good representation of the content. The pictures in the book are a touch grainy but then none of them were taken with a decent camera (some with a different camera) and I suspect the paper used is not the same as if I had used a publisher and charged £12.99 for the book.
In terms of corrections, I have started to proof read it (again) and have picked up a couple of semi-colons that should be commas and vice versa. The majority of the changes are around re-wording sentences. I am happy with 95% of it but there are still pieces that need attention. After this re-jig, that will be it – back to the printers as a signed off proof, this will mean amending the word document and resubmitting.
Mark Crone at http://www.clearwatertraditionalmarketing.co.uk has produced a fantastic website; I am very grateful and have enjoyed working with him. He sent me over a test page which shows the book cover off nicely and gives people the opportunity to buy. I think this looks really nice, clean and easy to use. Check out his website if you get a few minutes spare.
There is still a long way to go before the first box of books arrive for sale but I hope to have it ready for launch by the last week of April. I’ve come this far and don’t want to spoil things by rushing now. Now that year end has finished at work and I can start cycling again, I fully expect my mood to lift and everything to come right; happy and sunny days are on the way!
Nice early start ruined by a flat rear tyre; it didn’t take long to repair but it was something not in schedule. I had enough pent up nervous energy to run a small village and the tyre issue didn’t help much. After the staple had been extracted from the tyre and everything returned to where it should be, the patch seemed to hold.
There had been a lot of discussion Facebook about this event, two old school friends were taking part in the triathlon: one in the Sprint event and one in the Novice event. I’d caught up with Andy a couple of years ago but hadn’t seen Kate since we left school in 1988. Facebook and this cycling lark have been good for meeting up with old friends.
I found out about this event from a colleague at work who had completed the Sprint Triathlon, he mentioned that there was an event for people with rubbish knees called the SWICLE (Swim/Bike), this sounded a great alternative so I signed up early last year. I had spent a lot of time swimming as a child but it took a while to remember what I was supposed to do in training. I have been training for this one event since October last year but the preparation was hampered by a dodgy back in November and a chest infection at the beginning of March; I wasn’t as fit as I had wanted when I lined up in the pool.
The whole day was excellent but as a total newbie to multi events I was overwhelmed by all the things to remember. The race information e-mailed prior to the event did actually make sense but I wasn’t reading it properly. The race brief was good and I had time to look around to clock all the transition exits and how the pool was set up etc. I saw folks with all their gear in plastic storage boxes, neatly folder for a quick transition; mine was stuffed into a rucksack. I had worked on an order for getting my stuff on at transition but made a last minute change around my top. The plan had been to expect seasonal weather and not have to worry about winter gloves, socks and a top; the weather had other plans and started the day at 0 degrees warming up to a massive 4 degrees by the time my race left.
I chose my cycling jacket as the insulation, purely to keep a cool wind chill on the outside. It was a toss-up between this and a micro-fleece; in the end I was happy with the choice. I left the jacket poolside for transition and lined up with the others for our wave to start. I attached the timing chip to my ankle, worrying that it would fall off and then promptly forgetting it was there. I grabbed a 10 minute warm up in the diving pool followed by a quick stretch, going well so far.
Due to the low numbers in the SWICLE, there was only me and another person in my lane so I was confident of a straight swim with no holdups; I was first off followed by my goggled friend 10 seconds later. I pushed off for 16 of the best lengths I could put in, a total of 400m which I planned to swim smoothly for the first 200m and then gradually increase the effort for the last 200m. Once again, I had gained wisdom from Simon about the best way to swim efficiently and had been practicing this in my training sessions. I had swum timed 400m’s in the pool but it was usually after swimming 1,500m or so during a training session. Today, the lack of fatigue was liberating, I had to concentrate to make sure I counted the lengths correctly and followed my plan instead of going out too hard. All good but then I caught up with the other person in the lane and had to get around her. This took a reasonable amount of energy and wasn’t in the plan but there is not a lot you can do. It happened a second time and this time I had to put my feet down in the shallow end which felt like the seconds flying out the window. I finished strongly and was first out of the pool by 30 seconds, struggled to get my jacket on because it stuck to my skin and then hit the outside air to get to my bike. It was a touch chilly as I crossed the timing mat ending the swim time.
I had practiced transition at home, tried to focus on speed and efficiency to avoid panic and lost seconds. Socks, shoes, glasses, lid, tri-belt (holds race number) and gloves (which stuck to my skin and wasted seconds), un-rack bike and go!
Steve was lurking with his camera and snapped this during the dash to my racked bike. Notice how he expertly captures the expanding bald bit.
My cycling shoes weren’t that great for running in; I went out at pace and soon regretted that show of bravado! By the time I had negotiated the gas works and milling people who all seem to go into moron mode I was running out of oxygen!
