To Cheer me up..

I am following one of the good rules now. A friend's sister, who I've done some favours for is a publisher - the MD of a new company that publishes literary fiction. Obviously she won't publish the kitten, but if I send her a copy she can give me an actual criticism, rather than the form letters you usually get. She could (although this is a slim hope) push it back outwards to agents who are approaching her.

I'm not listing her details because she almost certainly doesn't want to be bothered (not that anyone is reading this blog!!)

The other two copies that I have spare are also going to insiders. I know the marketing people at Harper Collins and Hodder. As they're not editorial there is almost no hope, but they can put it on the desk of someone.

I'll probably print another 3 sets at least so I'm going to have to be very choosey with who i Send them to. Much googling is obviously required. Who are recent kids authors like me, and who represents them?

printer setback

1) there's VAT on the £279 - adding about 50 quid.

2) on top of this I just printed 3 sets of books and all the toner warnings are on (except cyan which is 66% still - blue is my favorite colour at the moment!!!)

I'm hoping that it's just the cartidges that come with the printer, and also that the warning lights come on early. I'm going to print until there's no colour left - basically crash test the cartridges.

however, if these cartridges are the real deal, and are empty like they say it's a problem - the ink used for 3 sets is around £225 to replace.

I suppose what I've learnt is that big blocks of bold colour are great but expensive. Also, I'm guessing that I should use the process colours - i.e. if you use yellow you're only using one ink, but if you do orange you're using yellow and magenta to cover the same area.

We'll see how things pay out.

But at least I now have a total of 4 full samples of the kitten!!! I'm going to have to be very careful to get them sent back!!

this was the letter I sent by the way...

Dear

FLUFFY LITTLE KITTEN

I am writing to you because I have written a short series of children’ picture books. They are aimed at very young children. They feature Fluffy Little Kitten, who suffers minor mishaps, but then resolves them.

I appreciate that it’s very hard to get a children’s book published and that many people delude themselves with books that only they like. I didn’t want to fall into that trap so I put a number of “rough” copies of the book on Ebay to find out if they would be well-received by strangers. Out of 114 copies sold, I received 99 positive comments (many of these are attached to this letter.) This positive feedback led me to believe that a publisher might be interested.

There are 6 books initially with a number more in the pipeline. They’re a bit bulky in manuscript form so I thought I’d send this letter in advance to see if you’d be interested in receiving the whole package. If you want more of a flavour of the books, you should visit fluffylittlekitten.com – although bear in mind that the image quality on the website is poor compared to the books (grainy Jpegs rather than the high res PDFs I use for print)

You can contact me at the address above, or try my phone line (it’s a daytime number) or email me on f.l.kitten@gmail.com.

If you’re able to reply, I’d be very grateful if you could let me know how to progress.

Yours,







Robert Bassett





FeedBack from Ebay for Fluffy Little Kitten

(Punctuation and spelling – as per actual feedback)


Fab , what an imagination - who needs a pet when you have fluffy little kitten!
suitable for both children &adults
thank you kitten was a much enjoyed christmas present
Absolutely fantastic - Fluffy Little Kitten should be on tv.
Fluffy little kitten put a smile on all my family's face Thankyou
Really cute! Reminds me of a comic I used to read! Excellent, thanks! A+++++
Simple, silly (if u're that way inclined) fun, clean, any age. HIGHLY RECOMMEND
very funny, made me laugh out loud
I laughed, I went WOT...??? but enjoyed. bot as pressie 4 cat lovers...
i love f.l.k!so does my son who it was really for!look forward to the books!
brillian, bought for my neice, this is so good she loves it
FLK should be published,Funny,Clean,Daft,Cute,Mad. Cleverly simple for all age s
FLUFFY LITTLE KITTEN IS FANTASTIC!!!!! Absolute genius!
Hilarious...+ I'm thirty something!! A must have... Thanks so much..
Cute. Great for kids with severe & profound learning difficulties.
well worth the money, very funny
Absolute genius! Someone give this guy a publishing deal quick!
very funny, love fluffy little kitten!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
the kitten is awesome!!
Fluffy kittle kitten is good for very young children
Fluffy Little Kitten is so cute. Loved it! Great, quick service. Would recommend
Brilliant! Bought for my niece but girlfriend & I were in stitches. More please!
Fluffy Little Kitten is wonderful - My children & Grandchildren will love it
I LOVE FLK!! This is one of the funniest things I've seen - its a must buy item.excellent ebayer
it doesn't get much better than fluffy little kitten - taking this to work LOL
Kitten top of the class! A must! And great Ebayer too! Many thanks!
fab storys,loved it should become a kids book my 4yr old loved it very tallented
very funny, great storys, will buy the 2nd one!!fast postage!!
Happy Birthday Kitten was extremely funny - a must to buy - very good value
very funny kids 10,8,6 and 4 thought it was brill can't wait for next one A+++++
Hooray for Fluffy Little Kitten! Can't wait until the next installment!
made me laugh!! how about some mice as well?!?!?
great
very funny... a great e-bayer... with thanks
very funny, liked the stories, made me smile. eveyone should have their own kitt
Kitten made the journey and arrived safe and sound.very happy in Australia
loving fluffy little kitten's adventures. Great ebayer. Thanks!
Very cute CD! Well worth it, I love British humor.
AAAA+++Great little cd, quick delivery too...
Entertaining and original - Should be on TV
Beautiful Kitten and FLK's Birthday are the best!Keep up da cute work!A++++
original, certainly twisted, definately worth a loko at the right price.
deffinately... everyone should have one! So funny!
Great seller, fast delivery, highly recommended, soooooooper
Very Funny! Everyone Should Have One!
Yey! FLK is great, i like Fluffy Little kitten falls over the best. RECOMENDED
Ha ha - I liked the fancy dress kitten best! Nice item, sent quickly & safely.
very unusual and interesting, quite funny, thanks!
Brightened up my day - FLK all spotty is hilarious!! Can't wait for next 1! A+
FLK...GENIUS! Well packaged and promptly sent. Thanking You : )
I LOVE FLK !!!! Can't wait for further adventures!!! FLK RULES !!!! * * * * * *
This man speaks to the fluffy little kitten in all of us. Fantastic transaction!
Aarh very sweet - I'd be interested to see how the kitten develops!
The kitten has enriched my life. And it arrived quickly too.
fluffy little kitten is amazing!everyone must have a copy!hollywood watchout!
Im 23 and found this funny. Good luck, email me when youve done the next episode
Great item - Very very funny fluffy little kitten!!!
FLK- V. amusing, kids (age 9, 7 &4)laughed too. ( due to inherited wierd genes!)
Can't wait 'til the next series of fluffy little kitten!!
laughed out loud !!!!!!!! Twice !!! A+++++++++++++=
Fluffy little kitten is fab! I wish you every sucess with it! Whens the next one
Very funny. Buy this! it's great :)
great stuff, little kitten! should be on TV!
brill great laugh. easy to install, great gift very funny
Great cd, verry cute great ebayer
my teenage girls thought it was very funny , well done, A1++++
Very cute!
I loved it!The Fluffy Little Kitten with spots made me giggle!
Gr8 little story. I Love it!!!!!! Purrrrrrfect :0) Many thanks.
Children did enjoy fluffy little kitten. v.fast good ebayer +++++
Very funny, can't wait till the next episode(s), good luck FLK!!!
Absolutely hilarious! This is the best children's book I've ever read!
funny - 'cultish' for my 14 year old - suit little kids for sensible purposes
just gets more and more humerous. Thankyou
Yay! It's so cute, and hey, fluffy! Arrived fast, seller friendly too, thanks!
Good
Awww, gotta love the kitten :)
brilliant FLK is a joy to watch! its a ray of sunshine in a dull world!

self printing samples begins

this seems to be working well - I've just done 3 copies of the 1st book in 30 mins with only about 10 misprinted sheets. The printer is coping very well - it's just I'm feeding the paper wrong accordingly.

I reckon I'm going to do 3 copies of two books a day for three days. I only bought 500 sheets of paper this time so I can only really do three complete sets this week. I'll buy more paper for next weekend.

here's a picture of the manufacture!

Blog is now real-time

that's all I've done so far. From now on, the blog'll update when i've done a new thing.

for instance this afternoon I'm going to start printing the samples with the new laser printer.

publishing - first rejections

at this point (about 2 months later) I have only had contact from 3 organisations - only one of which is a genuine rejection of the kitten

David Higham said they didn't have sufficient enthusiasm for the project

Egmont say they don't accept direct submissions

The Agency say they have too many clients at the moment.

I've kept my rejections - here are the pictures.

my first list of agents/publishers

I sent to the following

Egmont Publishers - mr men and miffy
David Higham Associates
Elaine Greene Ltd
The Agency
Eddison Pearson
Juvenilia Avington
Eunice McMullen Children's Agent
Elizabeth Roy
Rosemary Sandberg
Caroline Sheldon

just look them up on google