Ashleigh's Last Blog!

Here comes the second and last blog of my two week stint here at Tonto Books. This week has seen me focus on getting publicity for Rosalind Wyllie’s Everything You Ever Wanted and Stephen Shieber’s Being Normal. This has involved creating Press Releases and mainly getting the local press involved in their books. It has proved quite successful and we have many things in the pipe line for both, so they will have a busy few weeks ahead of them, keep an eye out for it in your local papers and radio stations.


The pair also came in to Tonto a few days ago to have the promo photos taken which you can see; they took it in their stride and look like pros in the making. I got the chance to speak to Ros and Stephen and build on what I already knew, in order to sell them in the best possible way. Their books are doing really well and receiving positive reviews and they haven’t even been officially released yet.

This will be my last blog for Tonto Books, as tomorrow is my last day. I have had a brilliant time working with them and have been kept very busy. I have gained a lot of insight into publishing books, and it has not put me off one bit.

Ashleigh

Keegan backs Stephen Miller book

Paralympian Stephen Miller met up with his pal Kevin Keegan at Newcastle United's training ground yesterday, and sent us some photos. Stephen has known Kevin since he was a toddler, and Kevin was kind enough to write the foreword for the book.

Stephen and King Kev

With Stephen's Mam Ros

A previous meeting...

...and another
Paul

Stephen Miller Paralympian media coverage

Here's just some of the media coverage for Stephen Miller's Paralympian book and launch. The Newcastle Evening Chronicle ran three days of double-page spreads, including a great interview that you can read here.

The Sunday Sun followed up on the launch here.

And BBC Sport ran a good feature about the book here.

Paul

More Paralympian launch photos

A few more photos from Stephen Miller's Paralympian launch:

Ian Payne interviews Stephen

Watching Miller the Movie

Team Tonto with Stephen (and Wor Al)

Stu, Stephen and Jill

A queue forms for signed books

Signing for the fans
Paul

Stephen Miller breaks another record

Not satisfied with breaking world records ahead of Beijing, Stephen Miller broke a Tonto Books record last night. Right, one down, now let's see how many other athletic clichés I can shoehorn into this post...

We were amazed by the level of support Stephen received. You never know how many to expect at a book launch, but as we’d been at Tonto Towers all day, we’d been unaware of the TV coverage for the signing on BBC Look North earlier in the day. So setting up shop, we had a mild panic as we realised we’d have a busy night ahead of us. By the time everyone was in for the event, our Tonto Audience Reader was going off the scale at 300 plus – a new personal best for Tonto.

There were some great moments – a DVD was played to introduce the night showing Stephen winning medals where we cheered along, applauded and were silenced by some of the more poignant moments. Tyne Tees TV presenter Ian Payne was the perfect host in a This is Your Life-style Q&A session, covering some of the book’s stories in more detail. As it drew to a close, Stephen received a standing ovation and went straight back into signing mode (we hope he didn’t strain his throwing arm too much). At one point, I was amazed to see a longer queue for Stephen’s autograph than there was at the bar. How often does that happen?



Massive thanks to everyone who attended. We now have a new Tonto Books Barmy Army on hand at our events and it was nice to see the return of one particular Tonto irregular who was once in the running for ‘Ligger of the Year’. Also there last night: Boxing champ Glen McCrory, ex-Newcastle United goalie Kevin Carr, Mike McCloud and Players Inc editor, Steve Wraith. Thanks also to Jill and Caroline for helping out on the bookstall.

Stu

Stephen Miller Paralympian book launch TODAY

Stephen Miller will be launching his autobiography Paralympian today, Thursday 24 July, 7.30pm at the Club 206 Suite, Level 3, St James' Park, Newcastle upon Tyne. There will be a talk-in, a quiz, a book signing, and several of Stephen's sporting celebrity guests. Entry is free.


In other news, you can hear Sin Cities author Ashley Hames live on the radio tonight - on TalkSport with Ian Collins from 10pm, and, if you're an ex-pat in Spain, on REM.fm with Maurice Boland at 7.40pm UK time.

Paul

Ashleigh's First Tonto Blog!

Hi my name's Ashleigh, no not Ashley Hames, for a start I'm a girl. Paul and Stu have kindly let me come into the world of Tonto Books for two weeks to get a taste of what it's like working in publishing. And what a packed couple of days it has been so far! It was a good week to join the team as we are launching Stephen Miller's Autobiography on Thursday, hope you can all make it! With that in mind I have been writing the press release for it, and inviting all the North East's premier journalists along, as well as meeting Stephen himself, which was a pleasure.


Today has also been productive, as I work on the PR for Rosalind Wyllie's Everything You Ever Wanted,this has seen me delving into the world of Women's magazines, as if I needed any persuasion, in order to find out which type Rosalind's book would appeal to more. I personally think it's a great book and a perfect summer read. However, as a good few magazines now adorn my temporary desk, maybe it wasn't a good idea to let me loose with the glossies!

Well it's time to get back to work, I'm sure I'll be back to let you all know how I'm getting on!

Ashleigh

Free books from BookRabbit

BookRabbit is a new website that is part social networking site, part bookshop. You upload photos of your bookshelves, 'tag' your books, and you're then matched with other readers, meaning you get personalised recommendations, reviews and whatnot. And if you upload a pic of your bookshelf right away they'll send you a handpicked book free! (I've done it - my bookshelf is here). Sign up and get details at www.bookrabbit.com.


Paul

Ashley Hames Newcastle event photos

Wednesday evening saw the start of Ashley Hames' Sin Cities book tour in Newcastle upon Tyne. Ashley's shameless attempt to curry favour with the good people of Newcastle by wearing a Newcastle United shirt with 'Sin Cities' emblazoned on the back worked a treat, and the fantastic event at Waterstone's was followed by a trawl through the city's watering holes until the early hours.

Ashley in Stu in matching jackets related tomfoolery

Ashley enjoys Stephen Miller's Paralympian

Ashley regales the crowd in Waterstone's

Ashley gets wrist ache

Stephen, Paul and Ashley move on to a local watering hole

Stephen and Ashley with Jonny Kennedy author Roger Stutter

If you missed out, Waterstone's have some extra signed copies of the book, while stocks last. Photos from York and Leeds will follow in the next couple of days. Further events and signings are planned across the country - watch this space. Next up will be Stephen Miller's Paralympian launch on Thursday.

Paul

Ashley Hames York & Leeds book events TODAY

Ashley Hames' Sin Cities book tour continues today (Thursday 17 July) as he appears at Waterstone's in York for a book signing at 2pm, and then in Leeds for a talk and signing at 7pm. Click here to view Waterstone's Ashley Hames events page.


The mini tour kicked off in fine style last night in Newcastle - thanks to everyone who came along, especially the bloke who curiously thought he was coming to see "Adam, as in Adam and Eve". By all accounts it was one of the best events the store has ever had. Photos will hopefully appear here later today.

Paul

Ashley Hames Newcastle book signing TODAY

Sin Cities author and TV presenter Ashley Hames will be in Newcastle upon Tyne today (Wednesday 16 July) to kick off his book signing tour. Ashley will be appearing at the Waterstone's Emerson Chambers store at Grey's Monument from 6.30pm to talk about his adventures around the world and to sign copies of the book.


'One of the few concrete truths of modern life is that Newcastle is the UK's number one Sin City,' says Ashley. 'It's ace. With that in mind, I guess it's the perfect place to start our book signing tour...'

You can hear Ashley on Radio Newcastle today at 1.30pm.

The book tour continues tomorrow (Thursday 17 July) at Waterstones in York (2pm) and Leeds (7pm). Click here to view Waterstone's Ashley Hames events page.

Paul

Amazon price match deal

Faceless behemoth it might be, but I really like Amazon. As a reader, you can get any book in print, and some that aren't, at pretty good prices. As a publisher, your books are made easily available and get a fair crack of the whip. Amazon's huge buying power means that they can heavily discount books that they know will sell in reasonable quantities.

From today we're going to try to match Amazon.co.uk's prices in our own online store. So you can get Ashley Hames' Sin Cities for just £5.99, Stephen Miller's Paralympian for £6.99, Rosalind Wyllie's Everything You Ever Wanted for £5.99, and Stephen Miller's Being Normal for £6.39. That's up to 35% off the cover prices. (For a limited time you can also buy Everything You Ever Wanted and Being Normal together for just £10.)

You can visit our online store here.

If, however, you prefer to shop with Amazon, you can view our catalogue of books in the UK, US, Canada, Germany, France or Japan.

Paul

Sin Cities London Launch

Friday 11 July was the launch party for Sin Cities: Adventures of a Sex Reporter at The Westbridge pub, Battersea. Judging by the photographs, bar staff are still tidying up ahead of opening up this morning.


I assume this photo was taken quite a way into the party.

I spoke to Ashley the following day and he told me waht a brilliant time he'd had. Big thanks to everyone who turned up - all the photos can be viewed as people post them here: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=18563684013
The publicity for the book is growing all the time. Ashley went for an interview at Loaded magazine on Thursday and ended up taking part in a bizarre bacon sarnie eating competition - no idea why, but we'll post up details of the magazine feature in September.



Ashley rolls in to Newcastle tomorrow, so in case we're offline for a bit, here's the publicity for this week:
Tuesday 15: Smooth Radio: Ashley picks his '6 at 6' and talks to Paul Wappat.
Wednesday 16: Ashley and Stu on BBC Radio Newcastle.
Wednesday 16: Ashley's author event at Waterstone's Newcastle, 6.30pm.
Thursday 17: Ashley's signing session at Waterstone's York
Thursday 18: Ashley's author event at Waterstone's Leeds, 7pm.

We'll post details of any updates.

Catch up with all the events and goings on at: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=12931077445

Stu

Sin Cities is London Lite Big Read

Ashley Hames' Sin Cities was the Big Read in yesterday's London Lite (readership: just the 824,000, apparently), receiving a very nice almost-full-page review. Orders are flooding in, and Amazon is currently showing the book as #2 in its TV Tie-in Humour chart, outselling the massive QI, and only pipped by the not-really-very humorous Life On Mars. [UPDATE: Now it's #1. Take that, Gene Hunt!] There's loads more great publicity coming up, so watch this space. As a reminder, Ashley's book launch is this Friday 11 July. It's at the Westbridge Pub in Battersea, London from 8pm, so, if you're in the area, why not pop along?

Paul

Sin Cities Release Date

Today is the official launch date of Sin Cities: Adventures of a Sex Reporter by Ashley Hames. And as luck would have it, today we were sent an advert for the book that some unknown cyber geek has edited and put a brilliant 'carpet salesman' voiceover to. A big thank you to that anonymous technical wizard!

Anyone in the London area, watch out for a review feature of the book in tomorrow's London Lite paper. As publicity continues for this title, we'll keep posting updates.

You can also join the Facebook group here



Unrelated news: We took delivery of Everything You Ever Wanted and Being Normal on Friday. All those placing orders via our website will receive their copies long before amazon or other stores have theirs.

Stu

Stephen Miller Paralympian book launch

The launch event for Stephen Miller's Paralympian, My Autobiography will take place in the Club 206 suite at Newcastle United's St James' Park on Thursday 24 July at 7.30pm. There will be a 'talk-in', with Stephen answering questions about his career and the forthcoming Beijing games, a chance to get a signed copy of the book, plus other fun and games and special guests. The new Club 206 suite is named after Alan Shearer's goalscoring record, and can be found on the third level of SJP.


Paralympian launch event, Club 206, Level 3, St James' Park, Newcastle, Thursday 24 July, 7.30pm, free.

Paul

One-two, one-two, this is just a test

'How smart are you?' asks the BBC website. 'Hardly a week passes without headlines about academic standards. Are exams getting easier? Are people getting smarter?' Find out with this quick English test. There's a maths test next week, but I'll be skiving off that one.

Paul