Something in the air

Well, since blogging briefly on Tuesday, it's all gone mental here! Firstly I had a great time at BBC Radio Lincolnshire on the breakfast show as the sofa guest. As things transpired, I got to talk more about my writing work than OTR, but Rod and the ladies on the team fondled my books and I gave them a Chocolate Jotter each so hopefully they'll spread the word.

I've been getting some excellent new customers who love the books, and I've got a busy week ahead making some bespoke books which is lovely and may lead to renewed levels of craft mojo (which have been sadly missing lately...) I've also been listed on a new site called Little Luxuries and I'm hoping to promote my seedies as wedding favours.

On a grim note, I'm completely fed up with Royal Mail - or should I say Royal Fail. How much more mail do they have to lose? And why is it always my stuff? I'm so angry I could stamp my feet. In fact I just have done.

I've been fascinated by my friend Sam's stuff that she is making at Bobcats Creations and I'm sitting on my hands stopping myself buying all of her necklaces! She's a busy woman, and she's really determined to make a success of her new business. Good luck Sam!

I'm also wondering who I can tell about my arty friend Lizzy's new business as well. Lizzy is a practising commercial artist who also provides hands on art workshops and children's art parties. You can find her here

Well, despite the weather, things are still moving on at a pace - I've got some other ventures underway, and I'm also conscious that the garden is calling. I hate there not being enough hours in the day, so I'd best get on! I'm sorting out a venue for my recycled notebook workshop at the moment - as soon as it's confirmed I'll be advertising them here and on the website and I hope they'll be dead popular!

Have a great weekend and try and stay dry!

February with a hint of December

Winter saw me hibernating, huddled around the pc and not being terribly creative. I had the odd spurt of orders around Christmas mainly from some colleagues in my business networking group 4Networking but it was quieter than I expected. However it's given me loads of food for thought. I've got new and really exciting stuff on the go - there'll be a demo video on YouTube shortly, a collaboration between me and two great people, Jen and James, who own Speak Out Media which is a fabby media company who do all sorts of clever stuff with video, PR and so on. The key message I learned this Christmas (and bear with me cos it was my first festive season!) was that I need way way way more exposure to up my sales. So the work starts now.


New stuff happening

I'm intending to start some occasional workshops this summer offering visitors the chance to make a jotter out of recycled materials - hopefully with some fancy bits as well.

I'm also starting to promote the seedies as wedding favours - a long lasting 'gift' to say thank you to wedding guests. I will have some samples on the website shortly and I will be doing some fairly extensive marketing to get these on the wedding circuit radar.

I've got a plan to produce some birthday books as well. Watch this space.

I've made this a short post because I wanted to re start my blogging habit. Next one will have much more substance and loads of pics.

Social Media Networking

It's all anyone ever talks about nowadays. And it's all a bit overwhelming. Don't know if it's worse because I went on a sort of a course (it really wasn't that bad!) covering the myriad ways in which one can engage in SMN. And this was just from a business perspective. Do this, you mustn't do that, you should be doing this and this and this. It all made sense, at the time, but in the cold light of the (several) days after it's made me think long and hard and, if I am honest, become slightly (no, I don't do slightly anything) anxious. Think about it. You're 'supposed' to have x no of followers on Twitter, so many that you start moaning about the number of people who are following you (he-llo!) and if you haven't got anyone - or a modest number of people as in my case, it's quite easy to sit there feeling anxious that you're not being taken any notice of. Then you see the tweets from the people that you're following, thinking that they'll notice that YOU'RE following them and follow you right back. But they don't, and what the hell are they tweeting about going for a kebab for? The little noise from TweetDeck that occurs every nanosecond telling me that someone I'm following has just tweeted is the sound of anxiety. They aren't mentioning me, and I must look like Johnny no-mates cos no one IS following me. I respond or retweet too quickly because I'm permanently on my PC working out how I can improve my SMM. I mean, I know I'm a web based business, but I don't work ON the web, I just sit there waiting for people to see the light and buy my books.

But Twitter is just the beginning of the evil. You apparently must have a Facebook page for your 'self' and one for your business persona. Then you need a 'fan' page for your business, then you need a link to YouTube where your videos are stored for cos that'll improve your Google search results. And you need to be on Google this and LinkedIn that and you need to juggle all these balls in the air all of the time to show that you're truly connected to the social media circus. But but but but but. That's a lot of very big buts (how rude!) it's all very well, and most people want to keep up with the times,

but HOW DO YOU ACTUALLY FIND THE TIME TO DO ANY REAL WORK?

I'm a one person band, I make great books, I want people to find me, find them, love them and yes, being blunt, buy them. But I can't be selling things I haven't got the time to make. And my anxiety levels about THAT are enough to deal with thanks, without having to think up a social media networking / marketing strategy. I just want to do my thing, politely and profitably over here in this corner of the world. Shucks, even my website doesn't work properly, let alone my SMN. If people can't find my business when they type in On The Rebound in Google, they ain't going to find a 40 something bookbinder living in the boonies and connect with me via any of the above. The world's gone mad.

Tempus Fugit

Lying in bed, half asleep this morning, you know the time, just before the day crashes in shouting and bashing its cymbal of demand, beloved mentioned that I hadn't posted a blog for over a month. My immediate impulse was to deny it, and to suggest that he hadn't bothered looking properly, but, but, but..... With an enormous crescendo the morning and the rest of the day week month year crashed in and I realised that I've been so busy running fast to just stand still. I've often been accused of having too many horizons, and indeed it's an accusation I level at my little boy (who's far too similar to me in that respect, poor soul) and even within the confines of my precious baby, OTR, I realise that this is the case too. So, although I've previously vowed never to apologise, never to explain when there have been blog gaps, I recognise that I really need to structure this life and this business and get a routine going. They (whoever they are) say that Tuesday is the day that most blogs are updated, and although I hate conforming, I had to grab this one today and get moving.

So, what's been going on at OTR towers? Well, I had my first outing last week to a Christmas Fair. The event itself was lovely, and for an excellent cause - Marie Curie Cancer Care, and the Petwood Hotel was a splendid venue. However, and it's a big HOWEVER it wasn't the 'right' place for OTR books, especially given that (a) it's a relatively new idea that very few people have experienced and (b) I'll hold my hands up and admit that I'm not a natural salesperson. However, the list of lessons learned has started, and we'll see whether things improve at the Dunholme Village Hall Craft Fair at the weekend. ONe thing I would say, with a wry smile, is that I would have done better if I had been given a pound for every time someone said 'Oh I've got a loft full of Ladybirds' or 'I remember when they used to come bound like that'. I was at the point of shouting 'Well, leave them in your loft, but at least when they're rebound they're being used and admired and are legitimately used by an adult' and 'you don't remember them being bound like that because I'm the only person doing it......' respectively. But I'm a grown up and I kept my big mouth shut and smiled. Zen calm is sooooo important don't you think?

Anyway, here's a pic of the stall, in the OTR poison green and purple livery. What do you think?



Obviously, the spectre of Christmas looms - although for us we traditionally wait til after Charlie's birthday at the end of November before we get into the full blind panic (or I do, I rather suspect I panic for the whole family.....) but this year is a bit different. I imagine that, because my stuff makes good, unusual and unique presents, I am expecting that I'll make some books for people as gifts, but this then starts me thinking about the nature of gifts at this time of year. Is hand made stuff from someone you know acceptable? Does the monetary value or volume of presents count? Where do children get their values from with regard to presents (I say this freely admitting that I was an appalling child who was convinced that my sister got 'more' than I did......and didn't mind telling my poor parents so.) (Sorry Mum and Dad). Anyway, all this navel staring won't get the book orders made. Plenty of time for reflection when the Christmas rush is over.

Autumn with a hint of Christmas

We've seen frost here this week - just a tad, enough to make the geranium start to curl and the peppers on the patio start to protest. It feels (although it's highly unscientific) as though the frost is later than other years, but as the passage of time goes faster and faster it's hard to tell. We seem here to have jumped from late Summer to grotty autumn without the lovely autumn that precedes it. Why am i wittering on about the weather? Well, firstly I'm English and that's what we do. Our yardstick of all things. Secondly because it almost feels valid to talk about Christmas. Even more so because OTR is going out on the road for the first time at not one not two but three events. I'm busy designing my stall and buying stuff for it, and trying to get creative with the giftwrap bags and the tags that I hope will be very popular and sell as well as my books. I'll post dates and locations shortly once a bit of firming up has been done!

I've loaded some seriously lovely new books on the site - you can see them in the slide show at the top - and I've started to sell books and jotters which, after all, is the point! It's scary standing here at the top of the ski slope but nothing ventured nothing gained I reckon!

I've joined and been to my first meeting. If you're in business you should be a member, it's fab.

There will hopefully be a new category of books available soon, you'll just have to watch this space! In the meantime, don't forget to start thinking ahead about pressies for your loved ones. I'm sure you know where I am coming from!

More strings to my bow

How many blogposts have you read that begin with something along the lines of 'Haven't blogged for a bit....been busy'? I actually started this post like that and then the thought occurred to me that EVERYBODY is busy, and the point of blogging isn't to record every thought word or gesture (well, mine isn't!) but to keep the blogreading public up to date with stuff of interest to them. Why am I wittering on about this? Well, I am starting to consciously think positively - I've had such a dreadful, dreadful year to date that I am not going to allow myself to think negatively any more, and an apologetic start to a blog sounds like a big fat hairy lump of negativity to me. So no space for apologies, on with the good stuff!

So what has been going on at OTR Towers? Well, the big news is that I'm on a traditional bookbinding course - and I'm already learning little tricks of the trade that have opened my eyes to yet more possibilities plus it's going to be immensely helpful in pushing the quality of my other binding projects like Chocolate Jotters and so on sky high.

Here are a couple of pics of my first single signature hand made book with hotfoil lettering. Sounds good huh? I found it easier than I thought I would, which was a great relief!

In the picture above, you can see the hand stitching and the little knot that is made in the centre of each of the signatures (folders of pages to you and me!). When I close my eyes and think about possibilities for seriously quirky hand made books, I can see all sorts of ribbon and thread possibilities that could feature in such a handmade book. I don't know usable the book would be but it would certainly look tremendous!

It was lovely to be a pupil again and the small and very friendly group worked brilliantly well. I'm looking forward to next week's lesson! Well worth a trip out of the countryside to 'that' London.

I'll be back soon with an update on how my Chocolate Jotters have been received down in Devon!

OTR Launch day!

Woo hoo! As of 11 o'clock this morning OTR is officially live! All the work loading the books and the other scrummy stuff on the website has come to fruition (what a lovely, Autumnal word) and apart from a tiny bit of adjustment to one of the pages, OTR's doors are now open. Cue the trumpet fanfare tan ta da.

It's been a bit of time since I blogged because I've been on holiday and we've had a bereavement which has put things out of kilter, but not wanting the devil to find work for my idle hands whilst I mope around feeling sorry for myself I decided to carry on with the launch anyway.

I'm a bit busy sorting stuff out, but just in case you were interested (and who couldn't be!) the website is here . Be sure to bookmark it and keep an eye on our many and frequent new deliveries. Off to do some more marketing now!