So, another year has been and gone. 2013 has definitely been
the best year of my life. I could sit here and start reeling off a seemingly never ending list of things that I've loved, and a few things that weren't so great about 2013, but I won't bore you to tears with all that malarkey. Instead, I'll just say that, ignoring the
months of October and November, this year has been pretty much perfection. It’s quite
hard to sum it all up, but the best three moments have definitely been:
- Reaching the number one best seller spot on Amazon for my book, Vee for Victory.
- Passing my driving test.
- Getting a five star review for my first ever play, A Walk in the Park.
As I’m sure you undoubtedly know already, I’m hugely
grateful to everyone who has supported me this year, in whichever form your
support came in, but especially if you went out of your way to watch my play in
Manchester or spent money on my book. A massive thank you to everyone who has
left such lovely reviews about the book, who have posted links on Facebook and who tirelessly re-tweeted things for me on Twitter. You are all magnificent human
beings and I adore the very bones of you. I can assure you that one day I will
return the favour in whatever way I can. I suppose I have accepted that I’m the
designated driver for all intents and purposes for the foreseeable future!
Now, common misconception has it that you need to own a Kindle
in order to read my book, so rather than reply to you all individually, I thought
the time was nigh for a new blog entry – one which, hopefully, can talk you
through how to download Vee for Victory if you don’t have a Kindle.
So, first of all, you need to make sure you have an Amazon
account. For those of you who don’t know, Amazon works in the same way that
eBay does. You can buy and sell things on there. It doesn’t even need to be
books. Games, clothes, shoes, DVDs… You name it, it’s on Amazon. It’s free to
sign up, and you don’t need to be selling or buying anything currently to
register with them. You just need to go to amazon.co.uk and click on “New
Customer”.
You’ll more than likely have to activate your account
through a link sent to you in an email, as you normally do on websites like
these. It’s just so they can verify that you are indeed human. Once you are
activated on Amazon, you’re off to a good start.
Next step is downloading the Kindle app. Kindle is a type of
e-book – or electronic book if you’re
a technophobe like my mum – and without having access to Kindle, you’re not
going to get very far. Now, to install this, you just need a smart phone. So,
any iphones, Samsungs, HTCs or Blackberrys and everything in between – as long
as you have the accessibility to download apps from the app store or the play
store, then you’re onto a good thing. Just go to search and type in “Kindle”.
It’s free to download, and only takes around 60 seconds to
load onto your phone.(Handy hint: If you have a tablet, like an ipad for
example, you can still download the Kindle app onto there, and again it doesn’t
cost a penny. Ooh er.) When you find the Kindle app, it will say “download”
instead of “open” like mine does on the picture. The only reason mine says “open”
is because I’ve already got the app downloaded, like the ninja that I am.
Once you’ve got that bad boy sorted, just go to the “search”
bar and type in Vee for Victory and it will come up offering you the chance to
download it. A word of warning for you – it will
cost you money. On a lighter note, it only costs £3.21. I’ve had a few
people whinging saying they want to read it, but don’t want to get charged for
it.
Fair enough. I’m not going to beg anyone to buy my book – if
you want to read it, then by all
means, go ahead. It would make my day. Literally. Nothing makes me smile more
than someone telling me they’re reading Vee. But if you’re after a free read,
then have a little mooch on Kindle for other books. The cheaper the book is,
the less successful it is expected to be, so perhaps that says something about
the books which are for free. I get 70% of the royalties from all the sales I
make, so on my dad’s calculations (let’s face it - we all know what my maths is
like) it’s approximately £2.24 per book sold.
The rest of the money goes to tax and of course, the Kindle
and Amazon guys get a cut of it. I’ve gone from full time employment to part
time hours at work, in order to concentrate on my writing and acting, so if you
are one of the people who have turned
their noses up a bit at forking out £3.21, please just bear in mind that it is
literally paying my wages.
I know this has been a very short blog entry, but I’m busily
writing the sequel to Vee for Victory as we speak. Well, as I type. You know
what I mean. I keep getting distracted though. I blame Christmas TV.
Admittedly, having Bridget Jones being shown on ITV2 for the one millionth time
this year isn’t quite as gripping as it once used to be, but there are plenty
of other programmes and films that have been on which have fully captured my
attention.
The thing is, I physically can’t write and watch TV. One of
them starts to go dramatically downhill. You remember what it was like when you
were at school and you’d be half heartedly writing something down, but the
person next to you would whisper to you about last night’s Eastenders, and
before you know it, you’ve scribbled down Kat
Slater on your coursework? Well, it’s a bit like that.
So, I’ve been trying
to discipline myself by making sure that once I’ve got home from work, I’m fed,
showered and typing away within two hours. But it doesn’t always work, so if
you do see me messing around online
posting an unnecessary amount of photos onto Instagram or Tweeting the cast
members of Harry Potter, feel free to give me a slap and send me on my way.
