Читать книгу Yes, Please. Thanks!: Teaching Children of All Ages Manners, Respect and Social Skills for Life - Penny Palmano - Страница 6
ОглавлениеWhen we self-published Yes, please. Thanks! in June 2004 it caused such a media frenzy that we were taken completely by surprise. Unfortunately, we were also totally unprepared; so unprepared that the book was still at the printers! I had always hoped that we would get some coverage in newspapers and magazines but I never imagined it would make national news.
It all started back in February when my friend and neighbour Jacqui McCarthy, of d’Image Ltd, organized an interview for me with the social-affairs editor of The Times (a neighbour with a PR company and a villa in the South of France – they don’t come any better than that!).
The social-affairs editor had kindly asked me roughly when I would like the article (which I had not seen) to run. I had a cunning plan that if it was published two weeks before the book was first in the shops, my distributors could use the article to sell it to a great deal more outlets. Then, when the book finally hit the shops I would contact the likes of Jeremy Vine, This Morning and Richard and Judy, show them the article and beg and plead with them to let me come and discuss it on their shows. Best laid plans…
Monday, 31 May, Bank Holiday, 10.45 pm
The phone rings. My son Sam answers it and tells me it’s a reporter from the Daily Mail. I naturally assume it’s a friend winding me up but, as it turns out, it is a reporter who says he is reading about Yes, please. Thanks! in the first edition of The Times and would like to ask me some questions. I ask him what size the article is and whether it is pro the book. He tells me there is a double-page spread about the book with supporting articles and it is very pro the subject. I am speechless, but only momentarily as I have to go and wake up the rest of the family to tell them. We are all so excited it takes me ages to get to sleep.
Tuesday, 1 June, 7 am
I am woken by Radio Five Live asking if I could get to the nearest BBC radio station, which is in Reading, within the hour for a live interview and phone in. I immediately agree. Fortunately, it’s half-term and for the first time in years the children get up early on a non-school day to come and support me. After the show I am immediately informed that the Jeremy Vine Show has been on the phone, and could I do a live interview at lunchtime? Oh yes, please. On leaving the studio I rang home to be told, ‘The world has gone mad! Who do you want first, Sky News, Richard and Judy, This Morning, BBC Breakfast, Daily Mirror, Daily Mail, Woman’s Hour…?’ We simply couldn’t believe it.
But horror of horrors, live TV!? I’m not prepared, I haven’t got anything to wear, I’m having a bad-hair day and there is no time to do anything about it. Even worse, if you can imagine anything worse, the book was not yet in the shops.
From then on it was a marketing dream and a publisher’s nightmare. Incredible national coverage, but no books and our publishing name, Panic Publishing, was not listed anywhere. Our printers, Unwin Bros, were wonderful and worked overtime to get it to our distributors, Gazelle Book Services, in record time, who immediately sent it out to shops and wholesalers. Finally, we were home and dry, or so I thought. Oh, how little I knew. Two weeks later I was still receiving press and doing regional radio interviews, but the book was only just filtering in to the mainstream shops. I had never considered or calculated the time it would take to get from the distributor, sometimes via wholesalers and warehouses, to bookshelves.
The Greatest Reward
Although the media coverage was more than I could ever have hoped for, the reaction to the book from parents was my personal reward. One mother, who tried and tested the book, wrote about her success in the ‘Femail’ section of the Daily Mail which was a far better recommendation for the book than anything I could ever have written. This was the purpose of writing it, to help guide parents to having better-behaved and well-mannered children.
…and Finally in Safe Hands
The final chapter of my publishing adventure came with a call from Carole Tonkinson at HarperCollins asking if they could take over the publishing of the book and re-launch it in April 2005. It was received with open arms. And just as I am going to let their experience help me, I hope you will let my experience help you.
