September 2005 ...
I’ve finished at the Eumundi markets. From now on I’ll be concentrating on speaking engagements. If you want to book me, email me at: alanawoods@bigpond.com

August 2005 …
I was invited to appear on two panels at the Byron Bay Writers’ Festival this year between 4 and 7 August. Along with Roz Baker and Ian Small I participated in a panel on ‘Self publishing as the first option’ which was chaired by Irina Dunn from the NSW Writers’ Centre. The second panel was ‘Genuinely thrilling: stories of crime, extra terrestrial and the supernatural’ and I was alongside Matthew Reilly (no need to explain who he is!), Leigh Redhead (first time author with Peepshow, a great read) and Simon Higgins (an internationally known author of young adult fiction, check out his Thunderfish and Jade Draper series, also great reads). The chair was Sandy McCutcheon of Radio National fame and a well-known author in his own right. No need to say that I had a ball. For three days I was a VIP with my own personal photographer. Then I had to go home and the photographer turned back into my husband.

May and June 2005 …
From 28 May to 5 June I attended the Tamworth Cutting Horse Festival with my Aussie Author & Books mates, Roz Baker and Ian Small. Found out that the horse set aren’t into reading, unless the books are about horses. Ian could claim a horse in his book The Kurrajongs, but Roz and I were stumped. Didn’t sell many books, but had a great time. Very friendly people, the cutting horse set.

February 2005 …
In February I started back at the Eumundi markets. Catch up with me every Wednesday and Saturday mornings at my own stall. Check out the markets by logging on to http://www.eumundimarket.com.au.

December 2004 ...
We'll be back in Canberra once again - spending Christmas and New Year with the family and friends.

November 2004 ...
On the way home from yet another visit to the family in Canberra we called in to see Roz Baker again. She had organised a stand at the Bulledullah Music Festival to sell our books. We had a great day listening to the music.

There's nothing like getting out there and meeting prospective readers! John and I are now regulars at the Sunshine Coast Eumundi markets. You can catch up with us there every Saturday and Wednesday. At least until Christmas. After that we're not sure if we'll continue.

October 2004 ...
This month I was the guest speaker at the Noosa Library. The librarian told the crowd that the six copies of Automaton in the library are continually on loan - it's a very popular book. Several bookshops on the coast also agreed to stock Automaton: River Read in Noosaville, Books of Buderim in Buderim, Just Imagine in Maroochydore and Books n Beans in Gympie. And our youngest daughter and her family came back to Australia after three years in Holland - hooray!

September 2004 ...
I'm becoming an old hand at these Royal Shows. Tackled the Melbourne Show solo. Whew. I arrived home wacked but couldn't relax because the very next day I had to be back in Brisbane to take part in the Brisbane Writers' Festival with the Queensland Independent Writers' Cooperative.

August 2004 ...
The Sydney Royal Easter Show had proved so successful I teamed up with two other independent authors to take a stand at the Brisbane Ekka. Again, sales were terrific.

July 2004 ...
On the way home from visiting family in Adelaide and Canberra we called in to attend a book launch at Forster on the NSW coast. Roz Baker, who then came to the Brisbane Ekka with me, launched her two-set books, Sooner or later we all stop laughing and Sooner or later we all come home.

April-June 2004 ...
Only three days after arriving home from the Sydney Show I flew out to Holland and the UK to catch up with my two daughters, and to meet my youngest grandson and attend his first birthday.

In June Sisters in Crime Australia nominated Automaton for the Davitt Awards which are given to the best Australian female crime fiction for the year. You can imagine how thrilled I was to hear. I didn't win, but I'm pretty pleased with Automaton's record to date - the winner of one national award and a nomination for another.

April 2004 …
I teamed up with eight other independent authors to take a stand at the Royal Easter Show from 2 to 15 April. It was a terrific success. Over the 14 days I sold 350 copies of Automaton.

February-March 2004 ...
I retired from work in February and moved to Marcoola on Queensland's Sunshine Coast in March. What a busy time that was for the two of us! Not that things quietened down after that - 2004 proved to be a very busy year all round.

October 2003 …
Automaton won the Fast Books Best Fiction Prize for 2003. I'd entered the competition at almost the last minute and thought the next time I'd hear anything about it would be when reading who won. So imagine my surprise, and delight, when I received a phone call to say it was me! The prize is a national one awarded annually by Fast Books, a division of Wild & Woolley Publishing, for the best self published fiction of the year.

March 2003 …
We accepted an offer from Stephen Matthews, owner of Ginninderra Press, to feature as an affiliate publisher on the Ginninderra Press website.

Tuesday, 11th—2000 copies arrived from Griffin Press in Adelaide.

February 2003 …
My month of fame.

John drove up to Queensland and picked up 10 unsold copies from shops along the way. Sales are going well on Zenani and John left the 10 with WPYC.

The 12th—my birthday—National Library of Australia Summer Program of Talks. 25 people turned up—I was stoked! And I sold more copies.

The 17th—guest of the ACT Chapter of the Fellowship of Australian Writers—talked about self publishing. More copies sold.

The 19th—guest speaker of the ACT Writers Centre—talked about my experiences with printing and distributing Automaton. I sold yet more copies.

Negotiated with Griffin Press for a second print run.

Repeat orders from book shops continued to roll in.

January 2003 …
The 13th. A&R Imperial Arcade wanted every copy we have—which was 28.

Started recalling unsold copies. There weren’t many.

December 2002 …
Listeners of Alex Sloane’s Canberra ABC radio program Sunday Brunch invited to ring in and name the best book for 2002. A listener rang in to name Automaton. Alex was inundated with calls asking where it could be bought.

Jacqui French won the 2002 ACT Chief Minister’s award.

More sales at the ACT Writers’ Centre writers’ expo. Jacqui bought 2 copies. Blast!—Forgot to take photos.

Indian lawyer, Narayan Radhakrishnan, emailed to request permission to include reference to Automaton in A fiction of law, a book tracing the growth of the legal thriller genre over the last two centuries. A complete Who’s Who featuring about 2000 books and 500 authors, it’s to be published by the University of Westminster, London.

Lots of orders for Christmas. We’re down to our last 50 copies. A&R Imperial Arcade rang on 23 December wanting 20 copies asap.

November 2002 …
2GB radio interview on Luke Bono’s Sunday program, with Jeni Caffin, the A&R National Sales and Publicity Manager. Orders from A&R stores around NSW resulted. Click here for Jeni’s comments.

October 2002 …
Repeat orders from book stores keep rolling in.

The National Library of Australia rang. Would I participate in its Summer Program of lunchtime talks in February 2003. I said yes.

The National Sales and Publicity Manager for Angus & Robertson and WH Smith rang. She had noticed Automaton in their Imperial Arcade Sydney store—the great cover attracted her—had taken it home and read it. Said it’s one of the best in the genre that she’s ever read. Would I be interested in a 2GB radio interview. Again, silly question!!

September 2002 …
Invited author by Persephone’s Window book club in Byron Bay. Had a terrific evening. What a spread they provided!!

Went as far as Airlie Beach in the Whitsundays to visit our catamaran, Zenani, which we charter out through a charter management company, Whitsunday Private Yacht Charters. WPYC took signed copies of Automaton to sell to Zenani charterers—‘You’ve sailed her boat, now buy her book”. It’s selling well.

July 2002 ...
Another trip to Queensland. This time for an ABC mid-north coast radio interview on Graham Robinson’s morning show, and as the invited author at Readers’ Teahouse Alpha book club in Kenmore, Brisbane.

Booked by Persephone’s Window in Byron Bay as the September featured author.

Received a phone call from the manager of Dymocks Wynyard store in Sydney. Her customers keep asking her to find out when my next book will be published. I told her in about 18 months.

Readers’ emails continue to arrive.

June 2002 …
Dymocks, cnr Hunter and Pitt Streets went belly up, owing us for the 50 books, most of which had been sold.

As an unsecured creditor we kissed goodbye to that $600.

Received a bulk order from the Brisbane City Council—which cheered us up.

Decided to enter the ACT 2002 Chief Minister’s Book Award and delivered the requisite 6 copies to ArtsACT.

May 2002 …
Another reader’s email arrived!

2nd and 3rd repeat orders from book stores are coming in.

Another ABC radio interview. Alex Sloane’s Sunday Brunch program.

Daltons in Canberra made Automaton its May Book of the Month and asked me along to its May book club meeting as the invited author. Dinner, wine, and a very pleasant evening with some very nice people. I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

April 2002 ...
My first readers’ email arrived!

Sydney was this month’s target. In this photo I’m outside Dymocks, cnr Hunter & Pitt Streets in Sydney. The store took 50 copies and devoted an entire window display to Automaton.

We walked our feet off but got into 10 stores.

Another 2 reviews—by the Canberra Times and Amazon.com reviewer Dr James N. Browne.

March 2002 ...
Off to Adelaide and Melbourne on a selling exercise. These towns were hard nuts to crack—but we managed to get into 10 stores in Adelaide and 7 in Melbourne.

Another 2XX interview, on Bill Tully’s Sound Print program.

Made it into the South Australian library system!! They ordered 20 copies!!

January 2002 ...
In January John and I drove up the east coast of Australia from Canberra as far as the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, boot loaded down with books, visiting bookshops in the main centres along the way.

As in Canberra, most took copies—ranging from 2 to 10. At this stage we were after firm sales if possible (that didn’t eventuate until we were almost out of copies and by then stores knew the book would sell).
We ended up preferring to leave copies on consignment with an open-ended return date. Most stores were happy to keep them for as long as we were to leave them. Firm sale is best, but consignment has an advantage over SOR (sale or return) in that when you receive payment you know the books have been sold and the money is yours to keep.

Along the way I dropped off copies to regional newspapers, hoping for reviews. The Manning River News published a brilliant one in February.

On the 15th Louise Maher, Drive Time presenter on Canberra ABC radio, 666, rang to say she’d read and enjoyed the book and would I be interested in an interview on the 17th. Silly question!!

When in Newcastle the Dymocks manager asked if we had any marketing material, e.g. posters. Thinking it was probably a good idea we had one produced when we got back to Canberra, along with a shelf talker. Not every store wanted them, but others were enthusiastic to have something to draw attention to the book.

December 2001 ...
We took delivery of all 1056 copies of Automaton. Then came the hard part—selling them.

We rang most if not all of the bookshops in the ACT, hoping to get onto shelves for the Christmas rush which is when bookstores make a large part of their annual sales. We were thrilled when most shops took copies. We were on our way!!

The Petrie Plaza Angus & Robertson store has proved to be a staunch supporter after reading the book and liking it. The store is one of Automaton’s biggest sellers.

An interview on 2XX about a week before Christmas helped push things along.

November 2001 ...
Me with husband John and (copper) pigs in Adelaide’s Rundle Mall in a euphoric mood after picking up the page proofs of Automaton from Griffin Press in Adelaide.

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