Sold my First Copy!

Well here's a wonderful thing; after writing hundreds of poems and lyrics over several decades, having an initial Collection gathered together, sorted, frmed on the page, printed and sent to me, and then giving away about 15 copies (of the first 100) 'Poems of the Past' to family and friends (and to two old friends from my past now rediscovered, thanks Chris and Tony), I have finally sold a copy to someone! 

My Witch-in-law Judith (no it's ok, she knows I often call her that) was obviously given a copy -much to her surprise but I think she liked it- and when she was back at home spoke about it to one of her friends in Kent (I'll refrain from saying fellow 'Covener') who read some of the poems (the first one coincidently about a work colleague of mine Terry, which chimed with her as her husband was called Terry) and immediately asked to buy a copy! So I have my first £2.99 sale! 

Audrey is a good friend of Judith and my daughter has spent some time with 'Auntie Strawberry'  when visiting Judith (or Grandma to my daughter), so Audrey knows some of the people and situations that are within the collection and as such perhaps could not be considered to be a true 'stranger' reader; but even so, she wanted to pay for a copy and did. I am so grateful to her for that, and said so in the inscription in the book on its way to her even now.

On a related subject, the very nice David (the co-owner of 'Oxley's Deli' in Dovercourt, Essex, you can find them here: http://www.oxleysofdovercourt.co.uk/) now has a copy of my Collection upstairs in his coffee shop (very nice Latte's), and the very very nice David at 'Danbury Fine Foods' (in Danbury, Essex, located at Eve's Corner -really nice Chelsea Buns and great Latte's- find them here: http://www.danburyfinefoods.co.uk/) has a display copy plus copies of the Collection to buy for your very own should be be passing. 

I know that, as marketing 'pushes' goes, this is unlikely to win any awards (or maybe even readers), but at the moment it is all I can do and I am very grateful to both David's (and their wives) for helping and supporting me in the way that they have. David Oxley used to work with my wife some years ago and we spoke about my Collection when we were in there one time, and he sort of 'offered' to have a copy in the upstairs coffee area for customers to look at over their comestibles, and I've been visiting Danbury Fine Food every Monday for a while now and thought I'd ask the owner if he'd be willing to host some copies of my Collection and, to my pleasure and amazement he said yes!

So, a small step in trying to get a readership, but an important one for me nevertheless.

Oh, and while I remember (a big thing nowadays) a friend of mine Neil read some of my poems aloud to his family and then got his girls to read to him - he said he liked the poems and that he did find that reading poetry aloud made a difference - so give it a try it with poetry you like!

Thanks for reading. Please continue to do so, no matter what it is you read....

Alan