Simon Whaley

The Blog Tour Continues!

Helen Yendall kindly allowed me to write a guest post on her “Blog About Writing” blog. Click here to read one story of how my book, The Positively Productive Writer has helped one writer get a commission, already. And don’t forget, that Helen is running a competition to win a copy of The Positively Productive Writer. Click here for details.

Another 5-star Review for The Positively Productive Writer

I was delighted to see another person has added a 5-star review on Amazon for the Positively Productive Writer. Sheepfarmer said:

I bought this book, thought `I’ll just read one chapter’ before bed,’ then couldn’t put it down and ended up reading most of it at one sitting. `The Positively Productive Writer’ homed in on all those nasty little negatives that stop me from writing and dealt with them: everything from finding extra writing time to dealing with rejection gremlins. It even told me how to identify my most creative and productive moments. An engaging and very encouraging read.

I’d like to thank Sheepfarmer for their kind words and I hope it helps with their writing productivity, which will be rewarded with writing success.

I also note that Amazon.co.uk have dropped the price, again, to £7.53 (what a love round number!)

For more information about The Positively Productive Writer, visit here.

Another Positive Review

I’ve just discovered that someone has left another lovely review of The Positively Productive Writer. It’s great to know that the book is proving so useful to writers. Here’s what the reviewer had to say:

This book contains the best advice to writers I’ve ever read. Writing is a job that requires determination and positivity in industrial quantities and this book most certainly provides excellent guidelines and ideas that provoke both. And more. Simon deals with the “psychological battle of remaining positive’ (p. 49) and he uses well known psychological techniques in an innovative and clear way to help you win that battle every time. He talks about goal setting, the value of rewards and structuring time. How to deal with the problems that life, and being human, throw in the way of writing (families, friends, chores, work, the T.V., the internet, lethargy, thinking you can’t do it, thinking you’re no good …). He is especially good on how to deal with rejection, which all writers experience, and ‘writers block’. There’s no such thing: have a look at pages 87 to 92. 
Importantly, he writes about how to find ideas about what to write. And how to refresh your writing in new ways. Stuck? Read the book. 
As a clinical psychologist I found the psychological techniques very well portrayed. Most distilled accounts of behavioural and cognitive techniques bore me rigid. Simon’s use of them didn’t. As a writer the book prompted feelings of enthusiasm for my work and after reading the book I’ve already found a new outlook on my work. So,dealing with feelings plus sensible methods to organise and stimulate your writing and, essentially, remaining positive, is a winning formula. Writers: off you go then!

For more information visit: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Positively-Productive-Writer-Simon-Whaley/dp/1846948517/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1327050001&sr=8-1

Public Lending Right

Fundraising For A Community Project

I’ve just received my statement from the PLR department (Public Lending Right), which details how many times my books have been borrowed from public libraries over the last year. Every time a book is borrowed, the Government makes a small payment to the author to recognise that a borrowed book, is a lost book sale. It’s only a token payment, but for many authors, this payment is vital, and in these tough economic times, all income is vital. From my point of view, it’s really interesting to see which of my books people are borrowing from the library.

Whilst my bestselling book, One Hundred Ways For A Dog To Train Its Human, has sold over 222,000 copies in the shops, it has only been borrowed from the library 550 times, since publication in 2003. My most-borrowed book is Fundraising for a Community Project, which has now been borrowed 4,173 times, since it was first published in 2007, followed by Best Walks in the Welsh Borders, borrowed 2,344 times, also since 2007.

So, if you would like to buy a book, but can’t, then please use your local library instead. It will help to keep your local library open, and it still helps authors.

TPPW Twitter Competition Winner

The winner of my Twitter competition to win a free copy of The Positively Productive Writer was Lesley Bambridge (@Bunnysideup). Congratulations, Lesley!