3 year business anniversary

illustration and self-publishing

This weekend saw the third anniversary of my birdwatching logbooks. A lot has changed since 2021 when I received my first ever order of 100 Town & Country Garden Birds and 100 Coast & Clifftop Birds books from the printers and saw my little lockdown project made real.

Wanting to be part of the solution rather than the problem has always been central to my titles, and although I had envisaged a wider reach locally with my books (so more stockists in Sussex) I have rather bucked that with producing a logbook for Southwestern USA. I’m happy that many of my initial stockists are still making regular orders, although business has been slow so far this year as the weather has not been particularly encouraging – unless, like me, you are a dedicated pluviophile and love cloudy and rainy days.

Now that Birds of the Mogollon Wildway has gone to print I am feeling in limbo and having my usual stress dreams about the finished book so wanting to do something reassuring and well within my comfort zone. I want to redo some of the illustrations and paint more so I can have different ones in each book. I also need to think up some new marketing ideas. My sketchbook tours have been well-received on YouTube and I really want to show how the logbooks can be used…I suspect lots of them end up being stuck in a drawer and the point of them is to get people birdwatching. Having said that, I don’t show myself using mine so that’s something I want to tackle. It will be a good excuse to take the dog to some of my favourite haunts too over the summer.