My book, Silly Beggar: The World’s Stupidest Begging Letters, was featured on Monday’s edition of magazine show The Hour on Scottish Television. The item was the first in a series about blagging freebies. Throughout the week different approaches to acquiring items for free will be reviewed, with my light-hearted comedy approach up first. Other methods they will look at include the Freecycle project and a group called the Freegans who live on things that the every day folks leave behind (wait - isn’t that the Wombles?).
The item was introduced by two very well-known Scottish presenters: Stephen Jardine and Dorothy Paul. My interview is with presenter Vicky Lee, who visited my home to see some of the goodies I received. We discussed the book and I read a brief excerpt (although all the jokes were mostly cut out!). Even the blog you are reading right now was featured.
One viewer very kindly put my interview on YouTube, so please enjoy the link below:
I spent a very pleasant afternoon on Saturday at Borders Books in the Glasgow Fort retail park, just outside of Glasgow city centre. I had been invited to sign copies of Silly Beggar for customers and to talk to them about the book.
I was very well looked after by the friendly staff and given a good position at the front of the store to catch customers as soon as they walked in. They had also put up a nice big display of the book, with posters, elsewhere in the store, advertising my appearance.
Several customers had heard of our book thanks to the publicity it received last month in the national papers, the Chris Evans show and one customer commented that she had thorougly enjoyed my Richard and Judy interview!
All in all, a great event in a great store. It looked like the staff enjoyed their work and the store really does have a fantastic atmosphere. I was invited back in the run up to Christmas and I plan on taking them up on the offer.
Posted by Spencey on Tuesday Jun 23, 2009 Under Printed Press
It thrilled me to my very socks to discover an article about Silly Beggar in the Weekly News this week.
For those unfamiliar with the work of the Weekly News, it describes itself as a newspaper that thinks it’s a magazine! Packed with real-life dramas, celebrity interviews, an in-depth guide to the latest TV shows and films, up-to-the-minute medical news, puzzles, prize competitions, cartoons, gardening, short stories, The Royal Week, top sports coverage and much, much more.
The Weekly News article talks of my love of tea, buttering up companies, and reveals how the book has several ‘running gags’ throughout, which any one of the companies would not have been party to.
There’s also a picture of me, from the book, holding a magnifying glass to the ‘Slimfast’ logo on my shirt. Unfortunately, the newsprint doesn’t really show the logo very well and it looks more like, for reasons not apparent, I’m magnifying my nipple. Oh well, whatever helps sell the book!
On Saturday, the good folks of Waterstone’s in Kirkcaldy invited me to a book signing. They had set up a table at the front of the store and had handed out lots of flyers to promote the event.
The local paper, the Fife Free Press, had also advertised the event with a brief description of the book and played upon the ‘local’ angle by revealing my birthroots in Kirkcaldy!
The day was a lot of fun and I enjoyed speaking to readers, customers and staff throughout the signing.
Thanks to the power of the press coverage, a few browsing customers remembered hearing about (or reading about) the book and even some of the extracts printed in the Daily Mirror and Daily Record.
As a Scotsman, I can’t help but get a thrill whenever I have the opportunity to promote the book to a Scottish audience. Therefore it gave me enormous pleasure to be interviewed on Clyde 2 this morning by the popular DJ Mike Riddoch.
This interview was quite different to many I have given recently because Mike, who had clearly read and enjoyed the book, picked his favourite emails to discuss rather than the usual companies I find myself frequently asked about. So, unusually, we discussed Angel the cat, my wife Tiffany, Felix cat treats, BT Yahoo and I found myself reading the Tetley poem to the listeners. It was a really good fun interview.
It was also great to be able to promote the book on a Glasgow radio station one week before the signing at Borders, Glasgow Fort (27 June 12 noon). I was able to plug the signing during the interview and Mike even asked me to repeat the details at the end. It was a thoroughly enjoyable discussion of the book and I look forward to meeting the good people of Glasgow on the 27th at Borders, Glasgow Fort.
The signing tour continued on Saturday, 30th of May, with a visit to Waterstone’s in my home town of Dunfermline, Scotland.
This event was a lot of fun as many of my friends and family turned up, including some friends I hadn’t seen in years! In addition to people I knew, I got the chance to talk to a lot of new faces about the book and my experiences since its release.
Waterstone’s did a great job promoting the event, having set up a table at the very front of the store. In other words, nobody could browse their extensive range of books without getting past me first! One staff member had even put their artistic skills to use, having drawn a really snazzy penguin on their promotional whiteboard to bring in passers-by and penguin-watchers!
No penguins were harmed during the event, but a small town in Fife will never be quite the same again.
It really was a fantastic event and I enjoyed catching up with old friends and sharing the book with new ones.
Missed the gig? The video below captures some of the highlights:
Posted by Spencey on Thursday May 21, 2009 Under Printed Press
I was thrilled to find an article on Silly Beggar in my local newspaper, the Dunfermline Press, today. The article, written by readers’ favourite Matt Meade, came about after an enjoyable conversation. Following the interview, Matt had sent me some Dunfermline Press freebies which comprised of: 1 Pencil, 1 Dunfermline Street Map, and a DP Living Magazine. Matt’s article humorously suggests these are the worst items I received!
Most amusingly, Matt suggests that I may become the Godfather of a new blagging movement, revealing how one of my friends, a teacher, encouraged his class to try writing out to companies. He too experienced the thrill of the blag as his pupils received loads of lovely goodies.
As it is the local paper, the article also highlights the Book signing I have coming up on the 30th of May at Waterstones in Dunfermline.
My first ever book signing took place on Saturday, in Borders Books, Fort Kinnaird, Edinburgh.
Borders had set up a display at the front of the store with loads of copies of the book. They had blown up one of the letters featured in the book to A3 size because, funnily enough, it was addressed to them! Yes, some time ago I had written to Borders, Fort Kinnaird, Edinburgh requesting freebies! So it seems appropriate that their store should be the first on my signing tour.
They had promoted the event well with posters advertising my appearance, and throughout the session, they put announcements out that I was in store signing copies of the book.
It was great to meet so many people interested in the book and the concept behind it. One person in particular amused me - no matter what I said, he simply repeated the words “yes, yes - silly mental crazy”. I’m not sure why. It’s possible they were the only English words he knew!
I received a lot of very positive feedback from customers who loved the idea of the book. Although most requested that the book was signed to them, many asked me to sign it to their friends, describing it as a perfect gift. Who am I to argue?! By the end of the session, my table was almost sold out and the staff invited me back to sign again around Christmas time. I will most definitely be there.
