March 10th, 2015

Books in the Wild

By Kate Ormand, G.R. Mannering and Ben Joel Price.

Kate Ormand: Seeing your books in the wild is so cool! I remember the first time I walked into a bookshop and saw DARK DAYS on the shelf – it was an amazing feeling to be up there with so many authors I read and love. I love seeing photos of my books in homes and hands and bookstores. A reader or friend sending me a photo is one of my favourite things ever! Here are two of my most treasured ‘books in the wild’ photos:

DARK DAYS on the table in Waterstones, UK

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and PIERRE THE FRENCH BULLDOG RECYCLES in Barnes and Noble Tribeca, NY

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G.R. Mannering: When I was told that the kindle version of my fantasy novel, ROSES, was in the Amazon bestseller charts, I couldn’t believe it. What on earth was my little book doing up there?! But in the YA fairy tale list, next to Marissa Meyer’s Lunar Chronicle Series, there it was; its red cover blushing with pride. To think that there were hundreds of electronic versions of ROSES on reader’s kindles all over the world was so bizarre! I still get overwhelmed when I try to imagine it (which I avoid now that I’m writing the sequel) but that moment is one that I will never forget!

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Ben Joel Price: Picture The Scene

It was around 7pm on a Wednesday evening when I received a text from my friend Neil. He was travelling on the bus through Piccadilly Circus when he spotted something familiar in the window of Europe’s largest book store.

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When I opened the image he’d sent over, the butterflies began flapping excitedly in my stomach. I had absolutely no idea my book was currently being featured in the window of Waterstones Piccadilly!

That weekend, my partner Natalia and I hurtled off to the big smoke to see for ourselves.

Sure enough there it was, propped up on on a backdrop of inspiration and wonderment.

After stargazing for several minutes, we ventured up to the second floor of the stunning art deco building and found it on display under a sign which read:

‘Picture The Scene – Beautiful evocative new and bestselling hardback picture books. Future favourites to set young minds wandering into magical realms’

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I’ll never forget that moment.

It was such an honour to be amongst some of the greatest children’s storytellers of our time.

I took out my camera and began taking pictures of the display when the lady serving at the till stopped me and said ‘Excuse me but you can’t take pictures in here’, to which I replied ‘But it’s my book!’. She raised a smile, handed me a pen me and said ‘Go right ahead, would you like to sign them too?’.

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