Making the fun happen

One of the very nicest things about doing what I do is the scope for having fun and being silly, which is always a welcome break from being sensible and corporate.

I push myself very hard in the pursuit of professionalism and achievement, and refuse to relent when it comes to the fun side of the business. Sometimes making the fun is hard work!

Frog worked hard at the Brand Licensing show at Olympia, catching some international interest, and on his "day off" went out to shoot some photos for our upcoming promo video to accompany The Frog Blog Dog Log Song, ready for imminent release on Itunes.

Yes, a Frog pop song - how much fun is that??

We wanted some photos of Frog at iconic London sights to use in the video - how hard can it be?

Not as easy as one might first think!

The famous landmarks might seem to be right next to the tube stops - but maps lie! So a great deal of brisk walking was called for.

The Tube was closed in places for maintainance work - more brisk walking, catching buses, and more brisk walking.

Some of us involved in this frantic photo bid are not as fit as some others, and you really wouldn't believe how many stairs there are to access the underground system - its a long way down - and up again! Oh my poor knees....

The photo I most wanted was a shot of Frog with a Guardsman at Buckingham Palace, so when we got there I was very disappointed to discover that the guardsmen now stand well inside the palace grounds, whereas they used to be outside the gates and prone to all kinds of attention from the public. We were flummoxed!




















The technicalities were proving hard - the guardsmen were quite some distance away, the railings got in the way and Frog wouldn't stay focussed. When it started to rain, we decided to move on.

But perhaps the power of positive thinking was with us - as we trudged wearily down Birdcage Walk, passing the Guards Chapel, our tired spirits lifted when we spotted two guardsmen outside the chapel, waiting for a wedding to start.

We decided that the Prince of Wales' motto "Carpe Diem -Seize the Day" was called for, so I despatched Frog Ted with my charming and attractive accomplice to ask the favour.
You can see what a great photo we got at the top of this post.
I could go home happy!

Among the 80 odd photos we took in five hours, and the 40 odd that we intend to use, this one is my favourite, so we want to say a very big thank you to the Guardsmen involved for their willingness to take part. I'm sure they must have had other more important things on their mind! We know how much the iconic sights of London are enjoyed around the world, and really wanted them to be a strong part of our pop video.

So here's to the splendid and long suffering guardsmen, to Frog, and to my cheerful accomplice, who all contributed magnificently to making the fun happen - you are all quite FROGTASTIC!

Frog the Dog World theme park plans put on hold

Sadly, our dreams of buying Fleetwood Pier to build a Frog the Dog World theme park have suffered a set back - the poor old pier was burned down yesterday, the last of the old English seaside piers to be built, back in 1910.

I would love to have known the pier in its heyday; but in recent years it has fallen into decay, and was recently bought by a local business man who hoped (somehwat controversially) to build residential flats on it.

In the hearts of most Fleetwood people though was the dream of restoring it to its former glory. Can you imagine how much it would cost in public liability insurance alone to have a fun fair on the pier these days? But it's what piers were made for - we want to see merry-go-rounds and helter skelters, we want to sniff the candy floss, peer over the railings into the briny, saunter long the planks to take in the stiff sea breezes.

We want somewhere to relish the views across Morecambe Bay, somewhere to sit with an ice cream, somewhere to sit inside when its raining; this IS England, after all!

Now we will have to stand by watching the pier disintegrate whilst it is decided what will happen to it next. Poor old pier.

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!

Five years of Sniffing and Wagging

Five years in business as Sniff and Wag - Frogtastic! What an eventful, exciting, and exhausting five years it has been. But it's only when reminded by family that I really look back at our various adventures. I tend to be so focussed on making the present into a successful future that it's easy to overlook just how far we have come.

When I started, I just wanted to be one of the 20% of small businesses in the UK that make it through the first year, and that did feel like a real achievement.

We had a quiet spell in the middle when we had to decide how to go forward with printing the books - full colour printing in the UK is expensive, and I wanted to be sure that we could justify the print run. Five years on I am in the process of deciding on how soon we will need a print run ten times the size.

We have met so many amazing people, and made such good friends along the way. We have learnt more than we could ever imagine that we would need to know! And yet, it feels like the beginning.

Because now I have set my sights at achieving much larger goals, and starting to supply into one of the UK's top four supermarkets is the beginning of that strategy coming together.

Not everything we try falls into place - I worked hard to put myself forward to be the author of choice to promote the Lancashire Library big summer read, but without sucess. I worked with two other companies to put in a bid to the BBC children's tv for a pilot programme for under fives, and Frog Ted was our ambassador at the New York Licensing Show back in June, to showcase Frog the Dog to international licensing companies. There has been some interest from the far east, but this is a process that takes time, so we have put it to the back of our minds for now. None of these ventures would have seemed remotely possible five years ago, or even 18 months ago, but now, we tuck them away and see what else might be possible.

It's hard to listen to the news being so negative about the economy; but I am told over and again that it's those of us who keep going through the bad times that will make it through the other side. I CAN see the light and it's very bright - I'm going to be here in another five years. What's going to happen next?

Have fun!

Pressing press releases

I am a woman in need of staff, preferably a PR team.
Please apply here, with a full tin of biscuits and an unflappable disposition. A willingness to pet the celebrity dog whilst preparing copy is appreciated.
Please excuse me now, I have a pressing appointment with the ..erm...press.

Get out of your comfort zones!

When I started out writing those simple stories for young children, I could not have envisaged where Frog would take me and what an adventure it would be.

The learning curve has been almost vertical!

I am constantly out of my comfort zone; learning new skills, meeting new people, getting into new areas of expertise. This week I have gritted my teeth and launched Frog into Myspace. Youchers!

A year ago I researched a bit and decided it wasnt for us. I visited Terry Pratchett's page (and others) and saw all the illiterate txt speak messages left by the dubious searchers of internet fame and thought that this was not for us.

But now I feel I understand so much more about how the viral marketing works that I can see how I can make Myspace work for me.

Yes, I will have to cut my way through the sloss - but that happens everywhere.

On Myspace I can create for Frog and the cats a place where they can be free of the constraints of the books, where they can interact with each other and with other people, where they can develop new aspects of their personalities that are currently limited by being created within a book for very young children.

It also means that I can create something new for our readers to grow up with so that when they leave picture books behind, they can still have fun and interact with Frog and his friends in quite a real way as peers. The characters can have more depth, the readers get new content and background. So although I cannot give the time to creating a whole new story book right now, I can create small vignettes that add to our content for readers whilst giving me the space to keep a creative toe in the warm water.

It always seems odd and a shame to me that the general public seem to assume that one must either love books OR computers. I really believe that the future is in both - a shared world that moves seamlessly with whatever platform you want to use at that time, and in whatever format.

I especially enjoy writing the Frogblogdoglog - and it's a great adddition to the main wagsite that is safe and easy for the kids to navigate by themselves. The blog introduces youngsters to another format that I hope they will become familiar with for when they want to step out a little themselves. Blogging community blogcatalog is within my comfort zone, it's my networking place of choice, and Ive made some good friends here. but I have to be elsewhere too, and how to choose? It has been trial and error for the last year or so, but now i feel it is comng together, I'm finding the platforms that i enjoy using, and that give us what we need to build a complete world for Frog and his friends.

A recent addition to our collection is Flickr - having paid a small fee to upgrade to "pro" status, I can now arrange Frog pics in neat collections and sets that make sense to view and to follow. Now that we have blog friends sending us in their pics of Frog adventures, I can add them to the overall collection, so you can see photos of the original and real Frog, the dog that inspired the stories, a selection of cartoon Frog pics, and now an amazing assortment of photos of Frog Ted getting upto mischief around the world.

Now that Facebook have introduced "pages" Frog is allowed a page that he could not have before, and we are slowly picking up a fan base there. It's interesting to see who turns up in these various places - some people are everywhere! Others of course stay with a select few places they feel most comfortable with, so Frog needs to be prolific in his networking to catch all these places.

The reality is that I can only service so many outlets within the limited time I have available, so although I have recently had a very enjoyable time discovering Plurk, I shall have to give it up, as it really geared up for daily, indeed multi-daily input, and I just cannot give it that amount of attention. I find it easier to be in places on a more sporadic basis - and that wont harm if I am out of the office for a few days. Sorry Plurk! You're great, but not for us just now.

So, wherever it is you like to be, come and find us too. The weak link in this is my appalling memory and the possibility that I will forget to link everything up so it is all the seamless eperience it ought to be, but hey, I'm learning a lot of new stuff, I have to forget the old stuff to make room for the new!

On facebook, put "frog the dog" into the search facility

myspace www.myspace.com/therealfrogthedog

Where will I find you?

Watch this (my)space!

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:)