I hope you and your children have had an enjoyable half term and are now ready to embrace the darker evenings – what perfect timing for Halloween tonight with the UK clock changes!
In fact, this post isn’t about witches – or werewolves 🙂 – rather to update you on what I’ve been up to, and to ask for your and your children’s feedback on a fun new interactive book ‘widget’ that I’m trying out.
My new YouTube Channel
First things first, I’m excited to announce that I’ve recently set up a new YouTube channel where children can watch videos about my books including mini trailers, chats from my desk (yes, they get to see my office ‘live’!) videos showing my illustrator at work and (coming soon) video diary and readings. It’s early days but I’ll be adding something new each week so please do let them know. The videos have no advertising or ‘buy’ links and so should be searchable under my name on YouTube Kids if your children are on there.
Click the link or image to see the channel on the main YouTube site and please do give a thumbs up to any videos you enjoy.
New interactive Online Book ‘widgets’ – I’d love your feedback
I’m currently experimenting with a new book widget supplied by Nielsen and called a ‘Book2Look biblet’. It’s pretty cool and combines flip-page book extracts with embedded audio and video clips. I’ve now set up two of my books using the widget and would love to know what you and your children think. If you click on either image below the biblet will open up on your screen or mobile device. Inside you will find:
- early chapter extracts
- embedded videos about the book
- embedded audio book extract (Henry Haynes and the Great Escape), read by American narrator Timothy Strong
- ‘click to share’ feature – share the whole book (as I have below) or your favourite clip
- links to reviews and where to buy
Click each widget to open up.
Please feel free to share the biblets with friends and family, either by forwarding them the link to this blog post or using the ‘share’ button inside the books in the menu.
I’ll post a short survey in a couple of weeks asking what you / the kids thought . However if you wanted to let me know sooner (good or bad – or if something’s not working) please leave a comment below. I’ll be passing on all feedback anonymously to Nielsen.
Would your child’s school like an author visit?
I’ve been busy in the last few weeks setting up school visits, the first few of which will be in a couple of weeks.
World Book Day week in 2017 is almost fully booked but there’s plenty of availability in the spring and summer terms, so please do ask your child’s school to get in touch if they’d like a visit.
As well as giving readings and talking to the children about how I came to write my books I take along fun slides showing how I work online with my Bosnian illustrator – these always go down very well! Schools can read full details here
Personalised signed book orders for Christmas or birthday
Last, but by no means least, if you’d like an extra special surprise gift for a child for Christmas, you can order personalised signed copies of my books for UK delivery from my website. Follow this link to find out more Children love receiving books signed by the author – and it really does help inspire a love of reading! And of course I can also dedicate for birthdays or other occasions. Drop me a line if you have any questions or live nearby and would prefer to collect.
That’s it for now. Enjoy the autumn colours if you have them – they certainly look spectacular in London this week!
With best wishes
Karen Inglis
