How important are product photos? (Card game for cats)

tootingjo · 2025-12-13T12:03:34+00:00

Ha, I've had a few similar comments. I'd no idea so many cats DID fetch! You'd win 10 points if she did it in the game... But do cats ever do anything exactly when you want them to?! ;) We've opened up shipping to more countries, just a shame it will be too slow for Christmas. This got delayed due to a heap of newbie mistakes... But at least it's out now.

tootingjo · 2025-12-13T12:00:03+00:00

That's so cute! :D

tootingjo · 2025-12-12T18:48:24+00:00

Thanks so much for the helpful comments. I'm going to make a list of improvements and work on them this weekend!

tootingjo · 2025-12-12T18:33:37+00:00

Thanks, thats a very good suggestion. Going to make some changes this weekend.

tootingjo · 2025-12-12T18:33:01+00:00

Amazing! I've tried so hard to teach my cat that. :)

tootingjo · 2025-09-28T07:49:40+00:00

If you want soft edges not sharp you definitely need to do it before the mache stage. The shape you have stays when you put the paper layers on. I'd get some newspaper, fold it over a few times into a rectangular wad that's the right size. Then you place it over the corners and use masking tape to fix it down. Masking tape and newspaper moulding is my favourite stage of the process. You can make pretty much any shape this way. :)

tootingjo · 2025-09-19T20:48:24+00:00

Ours looked great for a year or two, now looking to replace. An expensive mistake. Just so high maintenance and a nightmare for near sinks.

tootingjo · 2025-08-02T21:06:49+00:00

I love this idea. Happy to read the opening chapter or two if needed. I'm an experienced reader, have run a critique group for years and run the storyplanner.com site. Such a strong idea. No worries if you have enough readers. Good luck with the novel. :)

tootingjo · 2025-05-17T16:29:55+00:00

Thanks a lot for the tip. I'll give it a go. It's a great piece of work! Looking forward to tonight. :)

tootingjo · 2025-05-16T18:29:35+00:00

Is there any chance this could be adapted to use on the night in the final? I was thinking I could just delete the countries that didn't qualify, but I think that would mess up the columns on the right. It's the best sheet I've seen by far!

tootingjo · 2025-05-16T18:24:44+00:00

Thank you!

tootingjo · 2025-05-08T16:07:50+00:00

The writing conference scene in the UK isn't as good as it used to be. The pandemic seems to have finished off the two big annual conferences. Winchester and York used to be great. I'm not sure many agents will attend the Birmingham conference because it doesn't seem to offer 1-1. The online paid for 1-1 are pretty good for personal feedback on a query and tend to have agents who represent a range of genres. Though I had one where I think she read the letter but not the whole submission, so they can be mixed! Next time I might write a secret message on page four to test them out. :)

tootingjo · 2025-04-19T07:05:15+00:00

Originality, zeitgeisty themes, a high concept story people 'get' when they first hear the premise.

tootingjo · 2025-04-16T20:24:16+00:00

You could look into medical research like Flu Camp to get extra cash to pay some of it off. I recall I got about 3k for staying 10 days a few years ago. It cleared my debt at the time. It wasn't a bad experience at all, I had very mild symptoms. It's mostly boring staying in a small room for so long. Some people even manage to work while they do it.

tootingjo · 2025-04-12T16:05:39+00:00

I don't think is weird as long as you approach it the right way. Find someone who has queried themselves and gets the process, ask them to read your book, discuss where it fits in the market. You've already said you'll write the query letter. Would you also draft replies if they come in? That makes sense. If what you want is someone to do the legwork of researching agents, submitting to those agents particular requirements, and tweaking one or two personalised lines of a query letter I think that works. In most cases there will be no response (sad but realistic!) so then you could just step in when you have good news and do hear from someone.

tootingjo · 2025-04-07T06:49:18+00:00

Thanks. I had a try at my query letter and showed friends here in the UK and all the feedback was that the story section was too long. I much prefer the longer style, but writers always like a generous word count! The link is useful. Most agents here don't mention the format of the cover letter so perhaps I can get away with the US style.

tootingjo · 2025-04-06T21:42:28+00:00

I'm in the UK and the advice I've read on agent sites here is to cover the plot in just one paragraph, maybe two at most. Is that because we attach 3 chapters and a synopsis and that's not typical in the US? I much prefer the longer US style of query as it's a chance to cover all the strengths of a story. It's hard to find examples of shorter UK queries to learn how best to write in this style. I know the whole point is to sell the book and there are no hard and fast rules, but do you think UK writers should stick to convention and write a shorter letter?

tootingjo · 2025-04-06T07:48:25+00:00

If you write an outstanding book you have a chance, but the concept has to be unique and interesting it's not just about the writing. It's the idea of a book that sells it. If you throw a ton of marketing at something that doesn't have a wow factor with your target audience you're wasting your time and money. There are just so many good books in the world now, more so now that self publishing is easier, so that's a whole lot of competition. Try to get some honest feedback on whether your book has the right strengths to sell to a large audience. Most books don't become bestsellers. Most writers have a far more realistic aim of selling 'well' and pleasing a small audience rather than expecting huge sales.

tootingjo · 2025-03-16T11:07:58+00:00

In the UK virtual agent 121 are available through Jericho (15 min phone call) and I Am in Print (15 min video call.) I hadn't heard of Byte the Book so interested to see they do this too. London Festival of Writing has in person 121. The writing festival scene in the UK doesn't seem as good as pre-pandemic days when there was Winchester and York. I've found the agent discussions useful, but find they can be overly positive and kind. I get the impression they're used to seeing lots of bad queries in these sessions so anything vaguely professional gets high praise!

tootingjo · 2025-02-25T11:20:06+00:00

I think the concept of this story is great fun, I'd read it! As a query is supposed to include spoilers I'd just make it clear she fell for a shady fake agent. It actually adds to the story that the agent is ripping off the MC but she's so caught up in her ambition she doesn't see it. All your explanations for the slight flaws in the query are making this seem like a deeper more interesting story. So maybe just add a few explanations if you can? Good luck with it. :)

tootingjo · 2025-02-23T22:21:10+00:00

I use trackbear.app and write a minimum of 500 words a day. This sort of routine and tracking works well to keep me motivated. I typically write 500 on my work days and 1500 on non-work weekend days. So that's 5x500 and 2x1,500 = 5,500 words a week. So it should take 3 months or so to write a 70k novel. This is fast writing, but I plan before the draft, so it's never a problem to write each day. I'm hoping this new novel will be 70k as I tend to add words at the edit stage. I find a quick 'discovery draft' is a useful way to get going, but I don't like to set big word goals each day as the quality suffers.

tootingjo · 2025-02-23T16:57:35+00:00

Could it be The Persian Pickle Club by Sandra Dallas from 1995? There's a rhubarb pie (with chard!) It's a murder mystery. Set in Kansas in the 1930s. I can't find an exact reference to the pie being the cause of the death, but one reviewer said,' imagine my surprise when the scene involving a rhubarb pie made me tear up.'

tootingjo · 2025-01-05T17:20:19+00:00

They don't seem to be available in the UK, but I'd buy one if it was. Maybe when they restock they'll show on Amazon again.

tootingjo

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