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'As soon as I finished it, I wanted to know what happened to all the
people in it. That's a great feeling to come away with as a reader, and the mark of a good writer.' - Daneet Stephens, Editor of Mslexia literary magazine, about Shop Girl Diaries.
Shop Girl Diaries is my debut book. It began in June 2008 as a weekly blog about working in my Mum's chandelier shop. The blog was first spotted
by Chloe Thomas, a free lance tv/film director in October 2008 and later, by Salt Publishing in January 2009. Chloe and Salt took Shop Girl to another
level in different ways. Chloe Thomas encouraged me to write the Shop Girl Blog screenplay for a TV pilot.
Our cast was fantastic, and starred Annette Badland (Cutting It) and Katy Wix (Torchwood), as
well as Davood Ghadami, Blake Harrison (Inbetweeners), to name just a few. Fuller details on my Blog entry: Shop Girl -Take 1, Camera, Action!
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| Annette Badland, Jill Benet (Real Mum) Emily Benet, Katy Wix |
Salt Publishing asked me to turn the blog into a book and gave me 6 months to write it. I
took my deadline very seriously and wrote during the week after working in the shop.
Synopsis: Shop Girl Diaries are the scribblings
of Emily, a 24 year old would be writer, working in her Mum’s chandelier shop in south east London. Her large following
of quirky customers provides ample fuel for her hilarious diary; alongside which she tells of her own adventures and unfolding
romance.
The book was published in December, and launched in the Fashion and Textile Museum. We had almost
100 guests, and sold 61 books, which I'm told is the record sale for a book launch at the museum.
Special thanks go to Alison Lewy (from FTM), Michael from The Woolpack, Brian and Liz Snell for a very generous
donation, as well as my wonderful group of friends who helped plan and promote the event so well. It was the most
important evening of my life and it went far too quickly! I suppose I'll have to hurry up and write a new book so
I can do it all over again!
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| Reading an extract at the Launch |
The community website SE1 helped promote my
book and recorded the reading. Why not have a listen to it here
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| Book Signing at the Launch |
Being published by an independent publisher means that if I want to sell my books
I have to get directly involved with promoting it. At first, I was daunted by contacting magazine / newspapers editors
or giving talks on my book, but 'success is related to how courageous you are' so bit by bit I'm overcoming my
shyness and growing in confidence.
Check out the feature in the Southwark News which blew my cover. After that the locals kept coming in to the shop asking if I was writing about
them!
Shop Girl Diaries is being sold mainly on online bookshops. It's much harder getting onto the
shelves of chain shops like Waterstones and I need all the help I can get to raise its profile in this competitive industry.
Meanwhile, I'm happily selling it in my chandelier shop.
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| Shop Girl Diaries in the Shop's Window Display |
A lot of books have gone to my Grandparent's
friends in Wales, and as many to my Auntie's huge group of friends. There's nothing like family for persuading
people to buy their daughter/grandaughter/niece's book!
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| Signing books for all my Auntie's friends! (Thanks!) |
I had a great time talking to Tony Fernandes at Streetlife
Fm and sharing my five special tracks. Podcast coming soon.
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| At StreetLife Fm with Tony Fernandes |
Fancy a read? Simple! The picture below will take
you straight to Amazon where you can buy your own copy of Shop Girl Diaries. Thanks for your support and Happy
Reading!
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