Lives & Times Photo Gallery - I Want Your Photos With The Book

I have tried to get as many people as possible, who have bought Lives & Times, to send me a photo of themselves with the book. I have created a photo gallery, which in years to come will give me a fantastic reminder of many of those people kind enough to buy the book.

There is also an important marketing side to this as well. Each time someone buys the book it potentially opens up a whole new audience to me. If someone sees a friend holding the book there is always the possibility they will want to know what it is about. If they were then to buy the book, another new potential audience is opened up and so on. For me, who is self publishing, this is a great way to build momentum for the book. And social media sites, especially Facebook, is where this kind of marketing can be very successful. 

The use of tagging in photos is key. For instance in the above photo you will see Pauline Redman. Pauline was a great sport recreating a scene from 25 years ago which gets mentioned in the book. She tagged herself, which undoubtedly led to a few sales and interest from people who know her, and she didn't even have to show her face in the photo. Like wise Eddie Macdonald, the former bass player in The Alarm and now part of Smalltown Glory, by being tagged and with a large Alarm following helped generate sales. 

Getting famous faces such as Sir Steve Redgrave, Freya North, Carrie Grant, Shaun Keaveny and Lorraine Kelly, who all feature in the book,to pose with their copies of the book can only help the profile of the book. As well as being a famous author, Freya is also an ambassador for Beating Bowel Cancer. Then you also get photos from bowel cancer survivors like Deb James, who I have only recently come in to contact with. She very kindly supported the book even when she was going through the final stages of her chemotherapy. Having my young niece, Anna, on hand also helps with the cute factor. There is always some kind of positive to doing a photo.

So the potential benefits are huge. If you bought the book and not yet done a photo for me, please take a few minutes to take a picture for me. If you are camera shy be as creative as you like. It all really does make a huge difference. I reckon that the posts with people and the book attract up to ten times more views.

The book has now raised over £1350 for the Beating Bowel Cancer charity, and to see all the ways to order the book click here. 

My Mum, the inspiration behind the charity book, had the lower lob of left lung removed at the beginning of March to remove the cancerous nodules and hopefully prevent the secondary cancer from the bowel from keeping returning to the lung. Attention is now back on the brain cancer as one of the tumours has increased in size so it will need more treatment.