Ciao! We’re In Africa

Keep On At It!

When writing my first book, I really had no concept about what would happen when the book was published; after the first rush of sales, shall we say. Then there is a lull that, unless as an author, we commit to keep on at it—keep up the marketing and taking opportunities to promote our book—could mean our book(s) becomes one of those dusty tomes at the back of a bookshelf. It’s alarming for an introvert (like me) to have to keep finding ways of putting myself out there to promote what I believe is an extraordinary family story…yet, keep on at it, I must! My father was the same—except, he wasn’t an introvert, so it was easy for him—looking out for opportunities without coming across as an ‘in your face’ salesperson. Yet, it’s more than that: it’s about planning; that pitch; that hook, that uniqueness, so as to draw people in. By 1957, the family’s fashion business had already made a name for itself in Rhodesia. My father didn’t stop there; he wanted to expand and so began the planning and strategy to exhibit at a trade fair in South Africa.