Piper Nuelle

Marketing is such a damned hard thing to do and attain when you write and Self-Publish a book. You are met with walls that cannot be taken down without the spending of money, advertising is money, everything is money… But you know how the old saying goes ‘You can’t make money without spending money’… Right… So I was thinking to myself, what could be a different way for me to get my books ‘Out there’, at least to my local town.

I remembered seeing the phenomenon ‘Random Acts of Kindness’, which was where people would leave little gifts, like Crochet dolls and or teddys in places for people to find them, adopt them and keep them for free. And I thought what a great idea but I cannot for the life of me Crochet, but I have written a book that I would love for people to discover and read. I know ultimately I write books in the hopes of selling them and maybe making some money back from them, but books is a hard climate to get into and ahead of, and I know for the first few years I probably won’t be making much in the money sense of the word. But my books are art, an art form in the written form, so for now, I just want to get my books out there, seen and heard… And for me at this moment in time, that means, buying some of my own books and hiding them around my local town in a random act of book kindness for someone to find and read and hopefully, make their day.

The first place I went to was my local supermarket ‘Tesco’. They have a great book section inside, so I found a gap in their shelf and hid it inside. I know it seems a bit cheeky to put my book where someone else’s book should be, but it had clearly sold out and was empty, so why not fill the gap until someone takes my book and until they got more stock in.

I then also hid a second one in Tesco, they always do a charity book shelf where local people can donate books and then other people can purchase them by putting pennies in the local charity pot. So, with this signed book I decided at least this way someone can donate some pennies and then at least my book is hopefully helping a charity, if even only in a small way.

I actually felt so naughty hiding my book inside a shop, it felt like I was being a criminal but instead of stealing something and taking something away, I was putting an item in lol… But it felt invigorating and made me happy knowing that I may end up making someone’s day and cheering them up with a FREE SIGNED COPY OF MY BOOK!!!

The next place I chose to hide a copy of my signed book was at my local cinema. Me and my husband had a date night together and I decided to take one with me to hide and leave at the cinema.

We went to see the film ‘Nobody 2’ which was hilarious and witty and was in my opinion better than the first film. Plus we love Bob Odenkirk who is the main character. He was in ‘Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul’. He is a comedy genius and actually kicks ass!!!

But the cinema seemed like the perfect place for me to hide one of my books. For me the writing process is a bit like a film playing out in my head, so to me, I have already seen my book as a movie lol. And the dream is always for your book to make it and then make it to the big screen, so maybe, just maybe I am manifesting that!

I decided to hide it out in the main hall. They recently built the Cineworld Cinema in Eastbourne, it was completed a few years ago, so it has been built with some weird yet cool window designs that are at weird right angles and so on. So, I snuck a copy of my book there in the hopes someone would find it.

I hid it just before our movie started and by the end of the films running time, it had been found and taken!!! Part of me is worried that maybe a member of staff found it and binned it, but I am also in the hopes that they found it and kept it! But I guess I will never know, and that is the risk I take by hiding them like a little easter egg book hunt, I will never know who found them and what they do with them and if they even like them. But it’s all part of the fun.

The next place I decided to hide one was at my local Waitrose store. We have started shopping in there from time to time as they seem to be the only supermarket that sells my daughters favourite fruit… The Dragon Fruit! She loves it, and craves it all the time. She first tried it at a fruit market stall up in London some few months ago, and is now always on the hunt for more of it. So, I was on my weekly stock up of Dragon Fruit and decided to take my signed book with me, and so I hid it in the magazine section.

I have to say that Waitrose Eastbourne is one of the loveliest supermarkets I have ever been too! The staff are so helpful and friendly and it is one of the only shops that myself and my disabled husband don’t feel judged in. He’s an amputee and we do quite often get treated like criminals when we are out and about, but the staff in this store are so nice. So, I’m actually hoping one of them find it hehe… But I may pop back there sometime and hide another one or two.

I know it may seem a little odd for me to just be giving my books away for free, but I want more people to be able to see my book, to discover my book and enjoy my book. And not everyone will hear about it or actively look for it. So for me, this is just a different part of marketing, a way to spread the word about my book and hopefully for it to find its footing in the book world.

I have really enjoyed hiding my books and I really do hope that as a random act of book kindness, it will make someone’s day and cheer them up to find a book they can take home and read for free.

And if you do ever find one of my books, could I please ask you kindly to review it for me on Amazon!!! That would really and truly help me as a struggling author.

Hope you enjoyed my blog post, take care all. xo Piper xo