Hello there and I hope August is treating you well. I should be taking advantage of my daughter staying with my parents at the moment and starting on book 15 but Word disappeared off my computer this morning (it had apparently run out of space to sustain it) and that has thrown my whole day out so I’m not in the mood for writing. I’m therefore having a bitty day trying to catch up on a load of admin as well as tidy my tip of an office.
I thought I’d therefore pull a quick blog post together highlighting some of the offers on my books right now…
KINDLE USERS
All of my books are FREE if you’re a Kindle Unlimited subscriber. There are 12 titles out there already and a 13th will be out on 31st August – Snowflakes Over The Starfish Café – so that’s a lot of hours of pure escapism to dive into.
If you’re in Prime Reading, All You Need Is Love is still in the Prime Reading programme and will be until at least the end of September. This is available globally.
And for anyone not in either of those programmes, there are still some bargains to be had:
99p for All You Need is Love ($1.99 in USA)
99p for Making Wishes at Bay View (book 1 in the Welcome to Whitsborough Bay series) (99c in USA)
99p for Finding Love at Hedgehog Hollow and Family Secrets at HedgehogHollow (books 1 and 3 in the Hedgehog Hollow series) ($1.99 and 99c in USA respectively)
£1.39 for Christmas Wishes at the Chocolate Shop
APPLE USERS
99p for All You Need is Love ($1.99 in USA)
99p for Making Wishes at Bay View (book 1 in the Welcome to Whitsborough Bay series) ($1.99 in USA)
99p for Finding Love at Hedgehog Hollow and Family Secrets at HedgehogHollow (books 1 and 3 in the Hedgehog Hollow series) ($1.99 in USA respectively)
KOBO USERS
I’m the Author of the Month until the end of August and they’re running a Buy One Get One Free offer on nearly all of my titles with Finding Love at Hedgehog Hollow not in the deal but only being 99p anyway. The prices range from 99p to £2.99 per eBook and you can find a summary of the offer in a previous blog post here.
AUDIOBOOK LISTENERS
If you’re an Audible subscriber, you can listen to six of my titles for FREE as part of your subscription:
Making Wishes at Bay View
New Beginnings at Seaside Blooms
The Secret to Happiness
Christmas at Carly’s Cupcakes
Starry Skies Over The Chocolate Pot Café
Finding Love at Hedgehog Hollow
There’s a 10% off offer on Audiobooks purchases from or downloaded from The Reading House You need to use the discount code of BOLDWOOD10 which will give you a 10% reduction on mine or any other Boldwood titles during August in celebration of Boldwood’s 2nd birthday.
You can also stream my audiobooks on Spotify and via several other streaming services.
LARGE PRINT READERS
All of my books are available as large print editions through The Reading House using the same code above.
PAPERBACK READERS
If you would like a signed paperback, please contact me. I send signed/dedicated paperbacks out to UK readers for the book’s retail price plus postage. The RRP of most of my books is £8.99 and postage will be £2 or £3 depending on the size of the book.
Four of my titles retail at £12.99 – Making Wishes at Bay View, New Beginnings at Seaside Blooms, Finding Hope at Lighthouse Cove and The Secret to Happiness and I can offer these slightly cheaper than that plus postage. I can also offer deals on bundles. Just email me at jessicaredlandwriter@yahoo.co.uk or drop me a DM on my Facebook Page – Jessica Redland Author – on Twitter or Instagram.
Two weeks ago today, it was publication day for the third book in the Hedgehog Hollow series – Family Secrets at Hedgehog Hollow – and I am so in awe of how much readers have taken the hedgehogs to their hearts and wanted to convey my heartfelt thanks.
When I had the idea to set a book in a hedgehog rescue centre, I was only thinking of writing a standalone book but, as is often the case when I’m writing, the setting and the characters burst into life and had so much more to offer than one story. And the hedgehogs had me too. The more I learned about them, the more I wanted to write about them. Just gorgeous. (Photo credit for top photo: Sarah Howell).
It’s quite scary not only committing to writing a sequel but to working on it before knowing whether readers like the first book. Finding Love at Hedgehog Hollow was released on 2nd July 2020 and, at that point, all of my books had been set in the fictional seaside town of Whitsborough Bay. I was worried that readers might not like the change of setting and not want to take a trip to Hedgehog Hollow. It never even entered my head that a whole new group of lovely readers might be attracted because of the mention of hedgehogs and would discover my writing through this series instead.
I’d almost finished writing New Arrivals at Hedgehog Hollow when the first book in the series was released and it was such a huge relief that readers responded really positively.
But when New Arrivals was released in January this year, the fear set in again. Would readers love book 2 as much as book 1? I was particularly nervous about this because my confidence had been knocked by two particularly negative reviews from readers who’d received an advanced reader copy (ARC). I have always been open and honest about the writing process and the highs and lows I’ve experienced along the way so I shared this negative feedback in my acknowledgements at the back of Family Secrets at Hedgehog Hollow:
“…The first few reviews were gorgeous, but then two came in together that stopped me in my tracks. Both reviewers declared that it had been a big mistake turning the first book into a series and one called book two ‘cringeworthy’ with ‘nothing to add, just padding’ before concluding that she was ‘very disappointed’. Wow! How was I supposed to continue writing a third book when I’d read something like that? The answer is, I couldn’t. I was creatively paralysed for days. I’d pitched the idea to my editor for a fourth book by that point but was now questioning whether I should even finish writing the third one. Yes, I’ll admit it, those reviews made me cry.”
I always read the acknowledgements but I’m conscious I do this with my author head on, curious about the journey the author has been on, where they got their idea (if they share that detail) and getting to know them a bit better. I have often wondered whether readers look at them.
Some certainly do because I have received so many gorgeous messages from readers and have read reviews which specifically address what I put in my acknowledgements. I’ve been quite overwhelmed by the outpouring of kindness, asking me to never let the negativity get to me as those readers love my work and don’t ever want me to stop writing! I appreciate all of the lovely comments I’ve received so very much. In a world where you can be anything… be kind. And those readers absolutely have been and it has been so touching.
While I know and understand that there will always be readers who don’t like what I write – we all like different things after all – I suffer quite badly from imposter syndrome and comments like this really play to my insecurities. I continue to work hard on this and, with every kind message and review, I’m finding it easy to mute the voice that says, ‘You have no right to be here, your recent success is a fluke, you’re not good enough, and you’ve just been found out!’ Gosh, I hate that voice!
Me when Imposter Syndrome attacks!
Family Secrets at Hedgehog Hollow went up as an ARC earlier this year and, funnily enough, the same two reviewers I’d referred to in my acknowledgements came back for more, despite having hated book two. They both gave me a 4-star rating this time although they still choose to have a dig about book 2: ‘I love all of this author’s work. Wasn’t a fan of book 2 in this series but this book certainly makes up for it. Absolutely gripping!’ and ‘I will literally read anything by this author. Book 2 of this series was a bit of a let down and after the first couple of chapters of this book I wasn’t holding out much hope. BUT things then began to come good and I suddenly found it was 1am and I really needed to sleep but couldn’t until it was finished!’ Perhaps a bit of a backhanded compliment, praising book 3 while still criticising book 2 but I’ll take it and keep focusing on the lovely parts!
I did get some negative ARCs from readers who struggled to get into the story but they mainly seemed to be from those who hadn’t read the first two books. The blurb did make it clear it was the third book in a series and readers would have a richer reading experience starting at the beginning so I wasn’t too concerned by those.
Overall, I didn’t get as positive a reaction from the book 3 ARCs as I’d received for the first two books so I approached publication day for Family Secrets with some trepidation once more. Especially as I knew how much one of the main characters, Chloe, was not a fan favourite.
I have, however, been blown away by the response since release date.
Not only did this book gather the most pre-orders I’ve had on any other book – something which helped place me in a chart in industry specialist publication, The Bookseller (see above), for the first time ever – but the hedgehogs and I have received more than 800 reviews/ratings in just two weeks. With 83% of those at 5-star and a 4.8 star average, it is also my joint-best reviews score on Amazon (tied with Charlee and the Chocolate Shop whose reviews have been transferred onto the fresh version coming out in August under the new title of Christmas Wishes at the Chocolate Shop). Absolutely thrilled with this!
At this rate of reviews, I think we could well be at 1,000 within a month of release but… ssshhh… I didn’t say that as I don’t want to jinx it!
Speaking of milestones, New Arrivals at Hedgehog Hollow has passed a massive 2,000 reviews/ratings milestone recently and the hedgehogs are holding big celebrations. Finding Love at Hedgehog Hollow just needs 130 at the time of writing to hit that milestone too.
As well as the lovely comments about the story and my writing that I see in reviews, something that absolutely makes my day is when a reader comments on what they’ve learned about helping hedgehogs. I’ve had readers going out and checking their gardens to make sure they’re accessible for hogs, setting up feeding stations, leaving out food and water, and even volunteering at a local rescue centre on the back of reading my books. Wow! How amazing and humbling is that?
Since publication day, the third instalment of Hedgehog Hollow has held fast in the Kindle Top 100 to which is absolutely amazing so thank you to everyone who pre-ordered or and downloaded across the past fortnight.
Family Secrets at Hedgehog Hollow is now finally out on Audible as of today so thank you to all those who have been patiently waiting for that. Woo hoo!
It also appears to be properly available as a paperback via Amazon although it’s showing a UK price of £9.99. The RRP is £8.99 which is showing on the Waterstones website and you can ask at any good book shop and they’ll be able to order it in for £8.99. Or if you want a signed copy, get in touch with me via DM on any of my social media platforms. It’s £12.99 including UK p&p for any one book but I’m offering signed copies of the series so far for £35 including UK p&p.
Thank you again for all the hedgehog love. Have an amazing week.
I posted at the weekend that Family Secrets at Hedgehog Hollow had broken the record (for me) set by New Arrivals at Hedgehog Hollow by reaching the 100 milestone for reviews/ratings in 4.5 days instead of one week.
It has just smashed it again.
Today, on the one-week anniversary of the release of book 3 – the equivalent time when book 2 reached the 100 milestone – Family Secrets at Hedgehog Hollow has hit 300 reviews/ratings on Amazon (310 at the time of writing this).
Stunned!
Just a short blog post to say an enormous thank you to everyone who has left a review or rating including the fabulous bloggers on the ongoing blog tour. The hedgehogs are having a party!
My batch of paperbacks have just arrived too along with my large print edition. All three of the books are available as large print (left pic) and will all ultimately be available as hardback too but only books 2 and 3 are currently available in that format.
Signed copies of any of my individual paperbacks can be ordered directly from me by getting in touch via DM on social media. It’s £12.99 including P&P to the UK per book but I have deals on certain multiple purchases: a full set of 11 books, the Welcome to Whitsborough Bay series, the 2 x Christmas releases and will also be adding in a deal for the 3 x Hedgehog Hollow books purchased together.
As well as my paperbacks and large print book, there was another arrival: my latest furry hedgehog to add to my collection. He’s a limited edition Charlie Bear called Diddle Daddle. Isn’t he the most gorgeous? He can’t wait to dive into the Hedgehog Hollow series and read all about his friends!
Finally, it’s been lovely to add my gorgeous Book Crown onto Family Secrets at Hedgehog Hollow. It has been waiting patiently! If you love this, you can order this and stacks of other variations of charm and colour from Book Crowns on Facebook here. They do hedgehogs! I have one of those for Finding Love at Hedgehog Hollow and a gorgeous butterfly on New Arrivals at Hedgehog Hollow.
It’s the last day of the month and time to reflect on what’s happened in April…
I’ve had another month of not reading much as I’ve been deep in my editing cave (more on that later) but I have read an early copy of the first book in a new series from Nicola May. Nicola has had some phenomenal success, topping the Kindle chart for what seemed forever a couple of years back – an impressive feat anyway but extra impressive for an indie author. Her paperbacks now have a publishing deal and I was asked if I’d read Welcome to Ferry Lane Market. I thoroughly enjoyed it and it will be out in the summer so watch out for that. It’s available for pre-order on Amazon here.
I’ve also just started beta reading the final book in the four-strong Kearton Bay series, The Whole of the Moon, by super talented author (and bestie) Sharon Booth. It’s out at the end of May and it’s so fabulous to be back among old friends. You can pre-order it on Amazon here although I’d definitely recommend the full series. And all the rest of Sharon’s books for that matter!
The fabulous Line of Duty continues to grip hubby and me on a Sunday evening although last week’s episode was a little confusing as it felt like there was a plot hole. Hopefully it will all become clear in Sunday’s final episode. Will we discover who ‘H’ is? I would so love to think so but I’m pretty sure I’ve read that there’s another series to come so I suspect we might not.
I love watching The Hit List with the lovely Marvin and Rochelle Humes on a Saturday teatime. It’s a fun format so, even if you’re not into music, it’s worth watching. I love Rochelle’s facial reactions and how she clings onto Marvin in the final round when the contestants panic, their minds go blank, and the money starts slipping away from them.
Speaking of fun formats, I have a new viewing pleasure for a Saturday evening: I Can See Your Voice on BBC hosted by Paddy McGuinness with a celeb panel helping a pair of contestants deduce who from a line-up of six can sing and who can’t. Over a few rounds, they gradually eliminate 1-2 ‘singers’ and at that point we discover whether their sleuthing was accurate and they’ve eliminated someone who’s tone-deaf. When they get down to the final ‘singer’, the contestants win £10k if that person can sing but the ‘singer’ wins £10k if they are tone-deaf and have fooled everyone. I’d seen trailers and dismissed it as something I wouldn’t be interested in but then caught a clip on Gogglebox which looked great fun. We laughed so much on Saturday night when the final singer turned out to be completely off-key and the singer on the celeb panel – Ronan Keating that night – had to duet with her. If you haven’t already checked it out, I highly recommend it. Great family fun!
Finally, we managed a film this month but I’m still undecided about it. I saw it trailered a lot when it came out in 2018 and it had me intrigued, especially as it’s based on a true story: Welcome to Marwen. It stars Steve Carrell as aspiring artist Mark Hogancamp who was horrifically assaulted by a group of 5 men and left for dead. Brain damaged from the attack, he has no memory of his previous life and can no longer draw so he turns to photography, constructing a miniature WWII village called Marwen and creating stories using Barbie-like dolls. A lot of the film is played out by the dolls whose experiences, albeit in the WWII backdrop, mirror what Hogancamp is going through. Why did I struggle? Probably because so much of it was with the dolls. I wanted to know more about Hogancamp himself and what happened to his attackers when the case went to court but there seemed to be gaps. I’m probably missing the point and I’m sure others would feel that everything that needed to be told was told by the dolls but it just didn’t quite work for me personally.
It has been a crazy-busy month with writing. The edits came through for the final book in my backlist to be re-released: Charlee and the Chocolate Shop. I haven’t read this since it went up for publication in 2017 but it has had great reviews. My editor commented on how much my writing style has changed over the years and I was surprised at that as this was the 6th book I’d written and I thought my style had changed much earlier. When I re-read it, I had a bit of a shock! I’ll write a separate post with more detail about this but I wasn’t happy with the book. The story was still great but the way I told it needed work so it took me about six times as long to edit as it would have done if I’d just made the editorial tweaks here and there. I feel much happier with it so it was time well spent.
I also finished writing book 13 and it has been a huge struggle. Again, I’ll cover this in more detail in a future blog post but I knew something wasn’t quite right with it and had my suspicions as to what that might be. When the edits came back a week ago, those suspicions were confirmed. I had effectively tried to cover two stories in one book and, as a result, hadn’t given enough attention to either. The exciting news is this means a sequel which is already partially written but the challenging part for me is stripping one plot line out and stitching the story back together. Lots of hard work and re-thinking but it will be worth it in the end. My editor, Nia, is phenomenal. She is so insightful about what needs work but also so supportive and encouraging.
I’ve had some exciting events to celebrate in April:
AUSTRALIAN GOLD BOX – Seven of my books were in a special gold box deal on Amazon Australia where they are offered for the equivalent of 99p (or thereabouts) for a 24-hour period only. All but one of the books reached the Top 100 with one of them – The Secret to Happiness – peaking at #10 which was amazing. The only book that didn’t make it into the Top 100 wasn’t far outside and it was Christmas at Carly’s Cupcakes. Given the time of year, I wasn’t at all surprised it wasn’t storming the charts!
ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE – There was a BookBub promotion in the UK, Australia and Canada which saw Top 100 in Canada and Top 50 for Australia although it peaked at #127 in the UK. As this book had previously been out as Bear With Me, I wasn’t sure if it would climb so high so I was really pleased with these positions.
We think that the timing of Easter Sunday for this promotion and the Gold Box one may have had an effect on sales as I know of lots of people who were off social media and making it family time so, instead of seeing that as a negative, I prefer to think of it as even more impressive how high the books got considering it was Easter Sunday and there were so many other distractions.
SIGNED PAPERBACKS – I started selling signed copies of my paperback and had a really positive response with quite a few readers wanting the entire back catalogue which was lovely. I still have loads of paperbacks as I haven’t pushed it since so do DM me on any social media format if you’re interested.
REVIEWS MILESTONES – Making Wishes at Bay View and The Secret to Happiness both passed 1,000 reviews this month, meaning six of my books have now done so. The love for the hedgehogs is strong with both Finding Love at Hedgehog Hollow and New Arrivals at Hedgehog Hollow passing 1,500 and Christmas at Carly’s Cupcakes passing a whopping 2,000 milestone! Can’t believe how many reviews/ratings my stories have been gathering. Thank you so much to everyone who has shared the book love. It means the world to me xx
Restrictions have lifted and we met up with my parents at Thorp Perrow arboretum at the start of this month for a lovely (but very cold) wander around. I hadn’t seen them since October half term so it was brilliant to catch up in person although weird not hugging. Don’t like that 😦
Piano lessons have resumed face to face but I’m going to return to Zoom lessons from next week. I struggle for time to practice around writing and, to allow for traffic and roadworks getting across town to my lesson, I end up losing about 45-50 mins travelling. My daughter’s learning piano and she does this in a group lesson (although there are only 2 in her group). I think it’s important she has the face-to-face interaction but I don’t need it. I can already play (badly) and am rekindling the skill after a 30-year gap without touching the piano. I’m also playing for fun rather than exams so it’s a different set-up. My travel time can be devoted to practice instead and, as my piano teacher has to be at the opposite end of the room to me due to distancing, there is no benefit in us being in the same room.
On the way back from my first face-to-face lesson, I passed a local garden centre called Dean’s Garden Centre and decided to nip in to see if I could get some artificial spring flowers for my Insta posts. I managed that but was also surprised and delighted to spot Making Wishes at Bay View in there alongside some other Boldwood authors! When The Works stock our books, the print-run includes a number that are sold to another book distributor who sends them mainly to the USA and Canada. However, they can also be distributed around the UK and will appear in retailers with small selections of books such as post offices, garden centres, local supermarkets and so on. I feel I may also need to check out our other local garden centre soon in case there are any in there!
Other than that, I haven’t ventured out at all. I started to paint the fence a couple of weekends ago and managed 5 out of the 11 panels but I’ve been in my editing cave since then so it will be end mid-May before I manage the rest. Quite pleased with the result so far, though. Ella wasn’t impressed. She spent the time trying to eat a plant pot instead!
I have a busy May coming up. It’s my birthday tomorrow and publication day of Family Secrets at Hedgehog Hollow on Tuesday which is exciting (but nerve-wracking as it’s always scary awaiting the verdict!) I’m also getting my hair cut for the first time since December 2019 on Tuesday. Yay!
I have until the middle of May to finish the huge edit on book 13 and then I’m back to Hedgehog Hollow to write book 4 in the series; my 14th book in total.
Hope April has treated you well and, if it hasn’t, that May is kind to you.
I’ve been meaning to do this for ages but there’s always a new book to write so finding time for the admin side of things can be a bit of a challenge. However, in the gap between waiting for edits on book 13 and starting on book 14, I’ve finally got my act together and am really excited to offer signed paperbacks.
I have ten titles available at the moment and am offering them for £12.99 each which includes 2nd class p&p in the UK only. For overseas readers, I’m happy to look into additional postage costs if you DM me on social media letting me know which book(s) interest you. They’re all different weights and thicknesses so I do need the books to be able to get an overseas no-obligation quote.
I have a couple of special offers available too. These will change over time and are not transposable onto other books i.e. I’m not offering this on any combination of two or four books:
And there’s also a very special offer for anyone who would like the full set of ten paperbacks:
This is both exciting and nerve-wracking for me because, when I ordered, I had no idea whether anyone would even want any. When I unpacked them, I hoped they would as I have 200 paperbacks clogging up my office otherwise although I can always build a Whitsborough Bay Fortress or Hedgehog Hollow hideaway to play in if they don’t!
Imposter’s syndrome has also taken hold. This morning, I posted the pricing in my Redland’s Readers Facebook group and my fingers were sweating so much I could barely type. Mmm, attractive! The imposter is screaming, ‘Who do you think you are? Who on earth would want you to sign a paperback? Only brilliant successful authors get to do that!’ Ooh, I wish that voice would shush!
I am a little shocked and delighted that I have had 3 orders for the full set of ten already and one single one which has made me very happy and has helped quieten the imposter … a little!
My office is a scary mess! The paperbacks arrived by courier across ten boxes over two days and I’ve managed to fit them in four now but I have an absolute stack of packaging piled up in the corner. Presumably the printer had to limit the weight of each box so couldn’t fill it with books, hence all the packing paper. I can’t bring myself to shove all this in the recycling bin but can’t see me getting through much of it myself as I have some boxes which fit nine books in perfectly with no movement (gutted they couldn’t quite fit ten in) and smaller orders will go in jiffy bags. We’re hoping to move house in the next year so I might need to flatten it all out and pop it into the attic until then.
If anyone would like one of my signed paperbacks or would like to take advantage of one of the offers, please DM me on Twitter (@JessicaRedland), Instagram (@jessicaredlandauthor) or Facebook which you can find here.
My preferred method of payment is PayPal but I can consider other options which we can discuss via DM. On your book(s), I can:
Sign them only with a very short standard message from me
As number 1 plus your name (or the name of the person to whom you wish to gift the book(s))
As number 2 plus a dedication
Right, I’m off to fold up some packaging material. Hope you have a fabulous weekend.
Jessica Redland Author 