Octavo is Tellwell’s easy to use, project management platform for producing a beautiful book, from the inception of your manuscript to the distribution of your book through online retailers. Essentially, Octavo is a series of steps and tasks designed to gather all of the required project materials from you, such as manuscripts, images, and of course, your ideas in an orderly fashion. These assets are then made available to our talented editors and designers so that they can produce an end product that matches your vision as closely as possible, and deliver an incredibly high quality product for you to share with the world.
If you are a new author signing on with Tellwell, your Project Manager will work with you on a day-to-day basis through Octavo, connecting you with the talent who will help your book come to life. Each step within the process is designed to gather the information that is needed at that point. For example, if you have a substantive edit within your package, you will be asked to fill out an Editor Questionnaire upon the submission of your manuscript within Octavo. When it’s time for you to provide information at each stage, we will send you an email with instructions on how to complete the task. Most of the tasks are simple, such as completing our questionnaires or uploading images for your book.
Octavo was crafted out of a vision that Tellwell had to streamline the production process within self-publishing, and is a product that has been built on a foundation of author input and feedback. We are always looking to further develop our new project management platform, so if you do have any questions, concerns, or feedback while using Octavo, please don’t hesitate in reaching out to your Project Manager. Octavo was created to meet your needs; so we truly value what you have to say about it!
March was a busy month for Tellwell authors holding events and signings! Here’s a glance at some of the unique events held throughout March:
Comedian and Tellwell Author, Ally Lane launched her book The Chem-Ho, at the Vin Gogh Art Studio in Calgary on March 8th. Lane served up quite the entertaining evening, including a colourful reading on her journey through breast cancer, appetizer’s and complimentary “chemo”-politans administered by Hot Doctors. Stay tuned for more of her events by visiting: www.allylane.com.
On March 19th, Jason Lee was the Keynote Speaker at the Art and Mindfulness Event hosted by Moving Forward Family Services at SFU. His presentation, on “Anger and Your Mental Health,” discussed the barriers certain cultures have on talking openly about mental health. Lee has spoken at several Mental Health conferences across Canada, including the Strength in Unity Summit held last year in Ottawa. For more on the author, or to learn more about his book – Living with the Dragon – Healing 15 000 Days of Abuse and Shame, visit www.solaceinnerhealth.com.
In celebration of World Down Syndrome Day and in memory of her brother, Ken, Diana Frizell kicked off her book tour in Richmond on March 21st. The tour included a wine and cheese evening, and signings at the Down Syndrome Research Foundation and the IndigoSpirit bookstore in Richmond Centre Mall. Frizell aims to raise awareness and support for aging adults with Down Syndrome, based on her family’s experience. Visit www.kensplace.ca for more event details – including future stops on Vancouver Island.
In light of Bell Let’s Talk and a growing conversation on mental illness, Canadian author and songwriter Colleen Songs offers her perspective as the caregiver and loved one to a partner who was mentally ill.
She shares with readers her escape from a significant other with a narcissistic personality disorder and mental illness, in her memoir INHALE.
Through this book and her signing career, she aspires to ignite the voice of the caregiver – who suffers a great deal of abuse and heartbreak as the person they’ve grown to love disappears so suddenly.
“They can transition in a heartbeat,” says Songs. “The quickest thing could shut him off, and I could see it on his face,” she adds.
But, it’s equally important to the author to use her creative gifts of writing and music, to inspire those who are mentally ill to tap into their talents and passions.
“Witnessing the mentally ill exercise their gifts and talents confirmed their happiness and awakening desire to live,” explains Songs. “They can cope better.”
While this has been an extremely cathartic exercise for Songs, writing, and then publishing and promoting this book has brought forth a plethora of emotions, doubts, fears and hesitations about how the telling of her story will affect her loved ones.
Songs says she’s been especially concerned about her children, and how publishing her story will affect them.
“I was afraid of hurting them to the point of almost not publishing. But inside I kept having this feeling that it would release them too. And sure enough, it did!”
Songs says her son, who was 12 when she left home to care for her late ex-husband, felt the book gave him clarity and filled in the gaps he never understood about the relationship that took such a toll on their family.
Her daughter, who was in her late teens at the time, felt the book relieved her of the guilt she’d been carrying, having seen things in the relationship that at the time she didn’t know what to do about.
Beyond the opportunity to reflect and gain clarity, Songs needed to write to gain closure from the past, and talk about how her family got to where they are today.
“With every word I felt such a release of pressure off of my chest, heart, mind and conscience! I carried so much guilt, so much survival-fear for so long that I wasn’t even really trusting nor enjoying my current state of healthy-love and life,” she says.
And finally, she’s starting to let go. “I thought there was enough closure when I finally left. I thought there was enough closure when I heard he’d died. But I only gained a sense of closure through writing,” says Songs.
2017 was a great year for many of our authors! Huge congratulations to all who self-published a book last year. Here are just a couple of the authors who have inspired us with their 2017 publishing accomplishments:
Don Levers
Author of Loot for the Taking
After publishing his first book in the late spring of 2017, the author spent the rest of the year travelling throughout British Columbia and Alberta on a book tour which included stops in Kelowna, Kamloops, Victoria, Vancouver and Edmonton. He received quite a bit of publicity along the way, and was interviewed on the CBC’s The Early Edition in September. Most recently, Levers was asked to appear in the Vancouver Public Library’s Annual Report. The author’s persistence when it comes to building relationships with the literary community has lead to his continued success both with events and signings and publicity. For more on Don Levers, visit his website: http://www.lootforthetaking.com/, or follow him on Facebook: @DonLeversAuthor.
Deborah Kane
Author of the Fifth Dragon Series
Not only did the author publish the first 3 books in the Fifth Dragon Series in 2017, but the series is also now available for Chapters, Indigo, and Coles bookstores across Canada to order directly through Ingram! The author worked hard to develop a rapport with Indigo and its affiliates and the combination of book sales, good reviews, and consignment in some of her local bookstores led to the wholesale agreement. Kane is currently working on her next book, and we look forward to seeing what 2018 has in store for this author. For more, visit her website: http://www.dkanebooks.com/ or follow her on Twitter: @dkanebooks.
Philip Wilson
Author of The Librarian
Wilson used a combination of professional book reviews, online advertising, print advertisements and consignment to grow his brand and readership in 2017. His commitment to continued marketing efforts and his willingness to try new tactics, led to a spike in e-book sales and Goodreads ratings leading into 2018. Wilson has also been featured in the Huffington Post twice, most notably as part of IndieReader’s Best Reviewed Books of 2017. The author will be publishing his second book, Songs for Lucy, with Tellwell this spring. For more on Philip Wilson, visit his website: www.philipmwilson.com or follow him on Facebook: @authorphilipwilson.
We’re excited to begin another year of self-publishing and look forward to seeing what 2018 has in store for our authors!
It’s that time of year again where Christmas decorations are going up and people are getting in the holiday spirit. Malls are packed as people are shopping for their loved ones. As an author, you may think that this will be a profitable time for book sales, however, it can be challenging.
There are so many promotions on various items and books that are being marketed, therefore, your book may go unnoticed in the storm. Although difficult, there is the potential to make the most of the Christmas season and be extremely successful. You could even bring your book sales back to life! You may find the perfect holiday niche market, network, and/or promoting outlet that becomes a great source to boost your book. You know that it would make an amazing gift, so why not persuade others of that too!
Use these tips to crush your Christmas sales:
- Use your network to push your book sales. Your friends and family are your biggest supporting base, therefore, why not get them to help you? If your friends have events that they are going to ask if you can attend to promote your book. If silent auctions are going on, ask to place your book in it. Of course, you don’t want to step on anyone’s toes or be that person that “only talks about their book.”
- Offer holiday promotions to increase sales traction. Take a look at these tips to see how to effectively launch an online book giveaway. Consider investing in some online advertising as well, to increase your book’s visibility as people are shopping for gifts. For more on advertising options, check out these Tellwell tips.
- Social media is your friend! Use it as much as you can to get your book out there. Find hashtags that gain followers and likes. Once you have found these, keep using them on every post. It also helps to tie your book into the Christmas season, by posting about how it makes a great holiday read, or adding visuals that tie your book into a Christmas setting.
- Take advantage of events! Christmas is a time where people are constantly socializing and going to events. Try to go to as many events as you can to increase your networking opportunities. You never know who you are going to meet. Consider craft fairs and other community-related opportunities to optimize in-person sales.
- Start early! Don’t wait until mid-December to promote your book. Start as early as you can. Keep in mind, bookstores finalize their events and inventory as early as September, so while it may seem ridiculous, consider developing an initial plan late summer, and begin liaising with literary contacts early fall. Proper planning will help you execute great promotion and marketing tactics.
- Be easy on yourself! If you don’t reach your goals for Christmas sales, just remember that it is a really tough time and competition is high. Everything will settle down in the New Year and you will be able to get back to longer term marketing strategies.
Christmas is a wonderful season to reconnect with old friends and family, therefore, you may find the holiday season to be a better time to revise your plans, focus on writing, and get ready to pursue more marketing tactics in January. Whatever you decide to do, enjoy your holidays and take some time to revitalize and cultivate new relationships that can carry forward into the new year.
Happy Holidays from everyone at Tellwell!
We’ve all heard the saying “people can change” at one point or another. While we might not always believe it, there’s no denying Kathy Tuccaro did just that.
After years of physical, verbal and sexual abuse, assault, violence, eating disorders, substance abuse, job loss and homelessness, Tuccaro decided to start writing a different ending for her story.
She sought the help she needed through a Women’s Recovery Program, got her certification in Occupational Health and Safety, and now drives the biggest truck in the world through the Alberta Oil Sands.
In her self-published memoir DREAM BIG! Tuccaro shares her journey from what she describes as the “root cellar of Rock Bottom” to inspirational triumph.
“I have always said I would write a book about my life because nobody would believe me otherwise,” she says. After being encouraged by others at speaking events she attended last year, she decided to start writing.
“I started with a pen and paper while sitting in the 208,000L water truck at work, waiting under the water tree for the tank to fill up. I had written the book within a month,” she says.
It was no easy feat to describe the physical and mental abuse she endured throughout her childhood, nor the sexual assault she faced in her modelling career at 17. Even after relocating to Jasper for a fresh start in 1991, Tuccaro was still confronted with challenges.
She graduated from her nursing program in 1998 as a divorced, single mother with a 3-year-old daughter. After several more years of physically and emotionally abusive relationships, Tuccaro resorted to self-harm and alcohol abuse, which ruined her career. With no job, she was evicted and her daughter stopped speaking to her.
“I had pushed everything into the background my entire life, and kept pretending that I was tough and that I could handle it until the time came when I lost my nursing career for good and relapsed hard with my drinking,” says Tuccaro.
But the gravity of the situation hit even harder during the week she spent living on the streets, when her depression could no longer be avoided or forgotten.
“A man named Toothless Joe slapped me on the back and said, ‘This is the life! Live it! Love it!’ and smiled a great big toothless grin! He was quite content of the life he was living, and the sheer shock of hearing him say that stunned me,” she says.
That was the moment that triggered her to get help. But, even after spending nearly two years in a women’s recovery program, landing a full-time job as a Heavy Equipment Operator, driving a 400 tonne 797F Caterpillar Truck, and initiating and participating in several community initiatives, the pain from her past lingers. “You still relive it as you write about it,” Tuccaro explains.
Like many first-time authors, Heather Pattullo didn’t realize the journey she was getting herself into when she decided to self-publish. On a steep learning curve, she encountered many hurdles along the way, including a 4-month waiting period to gain permission to use the images in her book.
But, her ‘cross-Canada guidebook’ Positively Canadian: A fun guide to Canadian language, culture and history, couldn’t have been released at a better time.
On the cusp of Canada’s 150th birthday, Pattullo has been taking advantage of any opportunity to feature her book, and it’s certainly paying off.
“The end was worth the means to get there. My fingernails are growing again” she said.
Not only has it been extremely rewarding to finally hold the book in hand, but also Pattullo said she’s been overwhelmed with the response from those she’s connected with so far.
Taking advantage of the waiting period to develop some good working relationships with those in her local community, Pattullo has already had book signings at Albany Books in Tsawwassen and Black Bond Books in Delta. Both bookstores are now carrying her book on consignment.
She was featured in her local paper, the Delta Optimist (read the article here,) and was also invited to sell her book at the national and provincial conventions for the Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire (IODE) in Vancouver at the end of May.
Her calendar is already filled up with events throughout July, including book readings and signings at three Fraser Valley Regional libraries in the Delta area, and a signing at the Granville Chapters in Vancouver on July 9.
Pattullo has approached private schools and the Vancouver Community College, to add copies of her book to their libraries for students to read and learn about Canada. She’s already sold the first 150 copies of the book, and a second order has arrived for her upcoming events.
“I haven’t even tapped into the all the ESL schools in Vancouver,” said Pattullo. “I still have lots of places to go, I’ll probably be busy until Christmas!” she laughed.
We know that summer has only just begun, but that means that writing festival season is just around the corner! From August until November, Canadian cities both large and small host a wide range of international writing festivals that will re-ignite your passion for literary arts.
Vancouver Writers Fest
Vancouver, British Columbia
October 16-22
For 30 years, the Vancouver Writers Fest has brought writers together on Granville Island to celebrate storytelling, and continues to foster a community of passionate writers from across British Columbia each year. Visit their website to find out more information.
International Festival of Authors
Toronto, Ontario
October 19-29, 2017
The International Festival of Authors (IFOA) has been gathering world-renowned authors since 1974. From poetry to playwrights, IFOA provides a space for Canadian writers to present their work, and connect with international novelists, short story writers and more. Visit their website to find out more information.
Writers at Woody Point
Bonne Bay, Newfoundland
August 15-20, 2017
If you’re looking for a unique experience in a historic seaside town, the Writers at Woody Point might be your ideal literary getaway. Hosted by CBC’s Shelagh Rogers, this 5-day writing festival fosters community like no other, and will inspire you to share your passion for writing with artists from around the world. Visit their website to find out more information.
