It started with the first sale from this website… to a gorgeous lady with the most romantic name (Mrs Hart!!!)… who I didn’t know … who lives in LONDON! Made me smile and grin and bounce around. White Knights was autographed, swathed in hot pink and red, and zapped across the equator for her London debut! And we know she’s in fabulous hands as Candice sent glorious pictures…

And the magic continued…

7 orders were placed from the USA (New York, Connecticut, Michigan and LA!) and one from Central America (Panama!). The South African sales keep climbing: 73 books sold in 5 weeks! Which excludes the 50 books given to our wedding guests! And no marketing… wow!

And… 3 Jozi book clubs have requested that I join them for a glass of wine and chatter about writing, publishing, shoes, shopping and White Knights! A complete privilege and I simply can’t wait! So if any other book club feels like they’d like to share a glass of wine with this writer and chat about everything from the writing to the publishing process, I’d be delighted! Grin.

And…I am doing a coffee morning for Exclusive Books in Hyde Park on 25 February! Wow! Exclusive was wonderful, fabulous and completely supportive… they also suggested that White Knights be submitted for Homebru, which is an annual promotion of selected local titles. So please hold thumbs that White Knights is selected… because April will then be the best month ever, filled with events and signings and loads of fun stuff!

And… in the quest to find White Knights an international publisher so that she can proudly parade besides the heavy weights on the global stage, there have been a flurry of suggestions, two introductions have been made and with fingers crossed and bated breath, we wait to see if any convert into something tangible. (PS: still looking for people who know people… so if you know anyone in the international publishing arena, please could you email me!!!!)

But more than anything, the support, chatter, good wishes and feedback from so many far-flung people has made this week completely magical. Friends, friends of friends, friends of friends of… etc, have been sending comments, feedback, congratulations and praise for White Knights. Three lovely ladies reported that they couldn’t lay their hand on White Knights because their men had hijacked the book first! (I adore modern men!) Two of them were ex-investment bankers, and their feedback was that it was spot on in terms of banking and was more than girl’s beach read! Which I thought was phenomenal feedback. And the chicks are saying they can’t put White Knights down, are dodging dog walking and dishes, and staying up late to read “just one more chapter”! Which has me grinning and utterly delighted that readers are enjoying Emma’s story so much.

And then…just to keep me real…life threw a pothole at me (seriously, out of nowhere!) and a hole the size of my fist in my tyre. Which meant that I spent Friday afternoon with Aziz the friendly AA guy, dropped a couple of thousand rand on 2 new tyres and missed a fabulous bash! Back to earth with a bump, grin.

Happy yoga car

sad blow-out car!

People came! They were curious, laughed, asked questions, drank wine (grin) and bought copies. Very exciting! There was even a queue for autographs because we were having so much fun chatting to everyone who was buying books!

And so now, 3 weeks after the wedding launch with little publicity, almost 50 books have been sold from book shops across the country. While this might sound ridiculously small, it is appropriate to give you context. In South Africa, less than 500,000 people buy more than three books in a year. As such, in South Africa a first print run for a novel is 1,000 copies. In the UK, this is 3,000 and in the US, 6,000. A best selling novel in South Africa is … wait for it… 700 copies!

So while I’m sure those in the industry could correct my stats (and please do!), this means that my first few sales make me almost 7% of the way to becoming a South African bestseller… and then shortly thereafter an international bestseller! Watch out world, grin.

In the lead up to our wedding, all Andrew knew was that I was planning a  surprise. What he didn’t know, was that in those many many hours on my yoga mat (more about the yoga another time!) I was trying to come up with an appropriate way of saying thank you to our wonderful fabulous amazing friends and family for… well… EVERYTHING!

Because it wasn’t just about the fact that they flew from all around the world, gave up sacred vacation days, drove North for five hours braving wandering cattle and potholes to share a weekend at The Coach House with us! It was about everything that came before as well. The support, care, love, laughter, shoulders, reprimands, wine, tequila, dancing, crying, commiserating, reading, writing, giggling… it was for a lifetime of just being there! And then there was my darling Andrew, who has stepped so wonderfully into my life and offered all the above for the remainder of my lifetime!

Clearly needed loads of yoga to think through a thank you that was massive enough! It also needed to be personal, something that was incredibly important to me, that mattered more than anything else.

And so, I decided to dedicate my first novel to Andrew and to give each guests a copy at the wedding.

Andrew’s face was priceless, stunned, thrilled, delighted… and our guests were stunned! As the choir entered the room, White Knights balanced on their heads and singing joyously, the room exploded with laughter, clapping and whistles! Andrew was on his feet, beside me in two seconds and hugging me! Guests were reaching for novels, chatting, laughing, getting goose bumps! It was so gorgeously wonderful… and worth every surreptitious second of plotting and planning.

And so here we are… White Knights has been launched, autographed, we sold our first copy to Anneke Joubert from Tzaneen who heard about the book while having lunch at the Coach House on the day after the wedding… and we heard 2 days before the wedding that Exclusive Books will be stocking it!And now Andrew and I are on day 2 of our honeymoon… sitting on the verandah of Die Kliphuis, a 100-year old house in Standerton. Our next stop is Bethulie… and your next update is when we reach the sea!

ps: for more wedding photos click here

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