Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

Original poster

Where to get the Book of Boff published?

164 replies

BoffinMum · 14/02/2011 14:55

As some of you may know from other threads, or from being sent bits of my housekeeping book to help you out, I have written a domestic manual for those short of time and money that I'd like to get published. I did a lot of research into pitches, wrote what I think is a good one, and susequently approached Darley Anderson, a literary agency, and also Dorling Kindersley, the publisher, and have got absolutely nowhere (not that I expected to, tbh). Not even a standard 'thank you for your email' response. I would welcome any advice people care to give me on how to move this on, as I think it would be a real shame if it never saw the light of day.

OP posts:
SarfEasticated · 10/03/2011 22:05

I did a blog in time for Xmas, nice gifts under £5 and got 2000 hits in a month. No witty prose either, just stuff I'd found on the internet. Maybe try to come up with 'austere buys' to give a reason for people to come to you every day, or household hints? something to make your site 'news'-worthy.

This is my fave blog - beautiful and really interesting and useful, maybe get some ideas from here

www.weebirdy.com/

SarfEasticated · 10/03/2011 21:56

I think it should be wittier and more personal like your usual style on here - you can save the reference style for the book - blogs should be a peek into someone's life. More pics too, and the colour of the site is a bit depressing.
Pimp it I reckon.

FoiledAgain · 10/03/2011 21:30

I'm not sure blogging as a reference book is working.
Blogs are meant to be more personal and more tied to particular events that the blogger experiences day by day.
I also question the validity of prescriptive shopping lists as no family is going to want to eat so precisely what someone else has decreed, taking into accounts likes/dislikes/allergies and all.

Original poster
BoffinMum · 10/03/2011 21:09

I've re-read some of my posts today. They are a bit dull in places. Mumsnet jury please on whether I should gush more generally and pimp the whole thing.

OP posts:
Original poster
BoffinMum · 10/03/2011 21:07

Yes, Katisha, one wall in Farrow and Ball, the rest in Homebase own brand, and your home is gorgeous. Wink

OP posts:
Katisha · 10/03/2011 20:46

Farrow and Ball = austerity??

plupedantic · 10/03/2011 20:02

That's further along than a start!

Original poster
BoffinMum · 10/03/2011 18:42

Have spoken to a reliable insider about guerilla leafleting and he advised not to both on the grounds of it being swamped with people doing it already!

I like the idea of a prize, and I sure can write a great survey. My favourite Austerity brands are currently:

Ecover (but only their washing liquid)
Reckett stain removers
Lakeland
Cash's name tapes
Able labels
White company basic range
Tu@ Sainsbury basic range
Farrow and Ball paints
Sara Beeny's home selling website
Homebase gardens
Milton
Siemens

Some of whom have been Tweeting me, actually, and appear to be following me. I suppose I could message them and invite dialogue about marketing opps and prizes.

OP posts:
plupedantic · 09/03/2011 17:59

I imagine the way to start on guerilla leafleting is contacting the exhibition organisers, to find out whether there is an exclusion zone around the exhibition. I wouldn't stand outside the Tube - that is too "normal" a zone for people to be interested in taking anything - whereas people immediately around the exhibition might be tempted by giveaways, being in that maybe-I-might-win-something-since-I-certainly-can't-bloody-afford-this stuff frame of mind.

Speaking of giveaways, can you afford to run a prize giveaway for subscribers, or respondents to a survey (I'm sure you could design a good survey, and publishing/marketing people could be quite interested in that kind of targeted research of your demographic)? The prizes could be things like nice John Lewis cushions or Lakeland vouchers, which could enable you to contact JL/LL to let them know what you are doing, and gain a potential marketing link with them, too.... If you are feeling really bold, you might propose they donate the prize, in return for a link on your blog (but you would have to declare in your privacy policy any info these outsiders would get from participation in the giveaway).

SarfEasticated · 09/03/2011 15:25

Will put on my FB if that helps.

Original poster
BoffinMum · 09/03/2011 14:57

Thanks for that. I have put info on my profile page on MN and activated it. I can't really link it to my work identity as I'll probably lose currency there, so this is all happening in my maiden name and in a different part of my digital world. I ma now thinking how to tackle Ideal Home and whether guerilla leafleting is going to help. Does anyone have experience of this?

OP posts:
plupedantic · 08/03/2011 23:09

Er - give it a bit of time?

Link to your blog on your MN profile page, on your professional/department homepage, send Easter greetings out with the blog address on it, the Ideal Home Exhibition still hasn't taken place...

Please calm down. I know you have been working on this for what seems like ages, but publishing is still excruciatingly, arse-coveringly slow.

Original poster
BoffinMum · 08/03/2011 22:35

OK, further advice needed now. No publishers flocking to the door, blog views down to 12 or so a day now, not sure where to go next with this.

OP posts:
YakovsNubianBlingExplosion · 18/02/2011 22:23

That works. But now DD is crying and I must re-enter the darkened room ...

Original poster
BoffinMum · 18/02/2011 22:20

Try this

Austerity Housekeeping

OP posts:
YakovsNubianBlingExplosion · 18/02/2011 22:15

Oh, just came back to read your blog and the link isn't working (it's Dirty here, btw). Is it just me, or is it down at the moment?

Original poster
BoffinMum · 18/02/2011 21:58

The problem with outsourcing is that often you have to be in a metroplitan area to do so. There are very many parts of the UK where it is nigh on impossible to drop shirts off for ironing. You can do it round by me but you have to wait a week to get them back, and it's very pricey.

OP posts:
sethstarkaddersmackerel · 18/02/2011 21:15

not that I imagine that that is what would be your problem with having one Smile

sethstarkaddersmackerel · 18/02/2011 21:12

I can imagine French housekeepers being very good at being disapproving.

Bonsoir · 18/02/2011 21:00

No, the only issue is that the top buttons fall off a bit more quickly (but only after a year or so) than when the ironing is done in-house. But I can live with that!

I just love no commitment outsourcing of housework. My idea of hell is the FT housekeeper underfoot all day, which is the norm round these parts.

sethstarkaddersmackerel · 18/02/2011 20:57

I used to iron my dad's shirts for money as a teenager and am consequently quite good at it but today I was ironing a shirt for dh and thinking thank goodness he only has to wear a suit to work occasionally....

these ironing machines, do they not break the buttons any more? I remember shirts with lots of half-buttons snapped off.

I was reading an interview with the Edwardian Farm presenters the other day and it was striking that when they were asked if they would have liked to have lived then, the men were a bit wistful about it but the woman was quite emphatic that she wouldn't.
The amount of drudgery in housework before washing machines and vacuum cleaners and central heating must have been astonishing.

Bonsoir · 18/02/2011 20:51

I send shirts out for ironing and they are ironed by machine Smile. And they come back far better ironed than I or anyone I have ever employed to iron can manage.

I also adore the no-commitment outsourcing aspect - I just drop the shirts at the cleaners (25m from my front door, that I pass 10 times a day) whenever I like, and pick up 24 hours later.

I love machines that do housework!

Original poster
BoffinMum · 18/02/2011 20:47

Bonsoir, I think we need a new wave of technology to help us with that. Self cleaning windows (Pilkington Glass), robot vacuums (Roomba), special machines to suck up dust like in operating theatres and the like, anti-bacterial toilets, central vaccuuming systems, laundry collection pipes, shirt ironing machines and rotary ironers, and so on. All these things exist and could perfectly well be incorporated into the modern home by developers, but ultimately we do not demand them, and instead spend our lives dusting and scrubbing, hoovering and wiping. Strange, when you think about it.

OP posts:
DirtyMartini · 18/02/2011 18:53

Xpost, sorry - I meant Pointy's idea :)

TYV, thanks for pointing me to link. Will follow it when not on iPod -too fiddly.

DirtyMartini · 18/02/2011 18:51

Actually, I bet Collins would love it.