Book Signing Events

We are still in the midst of our book signing events for the ASDA UK supermarkets - two more this week, in our home town of Fleetwood on Thursday and a few miles south in Blackpool on Friday, a much larger store.

The sheer footfall through the supermarket doors is staggering. It is a ceasless flow of humanity and trolleys, eager to buy.
The staff are keen to promote the product as part of their commitment to local produce, and are very enthusiastic to have something a little unusual, and for children. I'm learning from ASDA how to be very local yet global - it's fascinating how little details can give a product an edge, so I hope to take this newly acquired expertise into the bookshops too.

It's a fantastic opportunity to get our products in front of the general public in a big way - and the interview on late night BBC Lancashire was a lot of fun too. Ive now been interviewed by all but two of the programmes on BBC Lancashire - think that's a target presenting itself! I only have to crack the breakfast show and the mid morning show and I shall have a full set.
Frogtastic!

Frog the Dog in ASDA UK - FROGTASTIC!!

Friends, there is a time and a place to be cool and professional - this isnt one of them.

We have, after several months of talks, just been given the go ahead to start supplying into ASDA UK!

We will be a local supplier into seven stores, Barrow, Kendal, Lancaster, Fleetwood, Blackpool, Preston and Chorley, with the intention of growing to regional then national sales.

This is fantastic news for us, and a fantastic opportunity to establish ourselves.

So with much to do that couldn't be done until now, I'm going to rush off and run around in cirles for a while with Frog, and we trust that normal blogging will resume as soon as possible!

Frog the Dog - so cool he should be in the chiller cabinet:)

In the beginning....

I have the sort of job that people want to know about, which is great for getting the opportunity to tell everyone about my books.

But I choose carefully what I tell them depending on who I'm talking to - I hate seeing that eager spark of excitement when I say I'm a publisher, quickly followed by bitter disappointment that I only work with Frog the Dog!

I've been running Sniff and Wag Publishing since Sep 2004, intending to keep it small and local. I thought I'd approach three choice retail outlets, make a handful of school visits per year - just enough to make enough money to print the next batch of books, which at that stage I printed and bound myself.

The reaction I got was way beyond what I hoped for - rather than just three shops, I found myself stopping at twelve because I couldnt physically make any more books in time for Christmas, and the schools loved the way Frog the Dog workshops inspired their kids.

So, after some flapping about over printing issues and funding, I had to make some big decisions about the future of Sniff and Wag.

In Sep 2008 I re-launched and re-branded Sniff and Wag with a range of professionally produced products for the retail and educational markets, and they've been very well received. Now I have set myself the target of being a recognised global brand within ten years. How hard can it be??

Since April I have worked with two other companies to submit a proposal to BBC children's TV CBeebies for a pilot show on mid morning TV, I have sent Frog off to the New York Licensing Expo to gauge interest, and I am still in negotiations with ASDA UK (A supermarket chain owned by Wal-Mart) to supply into a number of stores in my area.

It's starting to get a bit exciting - time to start taking notes about how it all comes together and what happens next!