Toby and the Silver Blood Witches is in the world!

A sinister plot. A secret city in the sky. A boy with an impossible choice.

My book has been in the world for five weeks now and I wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who has bought a copy.

If you haven’t, what are you waiting for?! It’s available from numerous places including:

Or you can order it from your local bookshop.

For those of you who don’t know, my publisher closed unexpectedly just a few months before my book was due out. After several months spent soul-searching, I bit the bullet and decided to self-publish. It’s wonderful to have my book in the world and to be in control but I’m also having to work extra hard to get each and every sale, so all support is much appreciated.

With everyone’s help, I’ve managed to hit 250 sales and Toby is also in a few bookshops including Waterstones in the Trafford Centre who reached out to me and my illustrator out of the blue. I don’t know how this matches to traditional sales but I’m happy, and hopefully with time, my numbers will increase. The most important thing though is having received some lovely reviews from readers. Hearing that a reluctant reader read your book in 2.5 days and asked his mum to buy four more copies for his friends means everything.

I’d be so grateful if you could keep spreading the word about my book. I really want to raise awareness of young carers and chronic illness, and don’t forget 10% of author profits goes to the ME Association! Although it’s for 9-12 year olds, lots of adults have reported that they really enjoyed it too. So please: tell your family, friends, primary school, bookshop, library, buy it for a gift (happy to sign copies if you live nearby), share it on social media, and if you’ve read it and enjoyed it, leaving a review on Amazon helps to increase its visibility.

I have a new book website https://www.sallydohertyauthor.com/

Check it out and let me know what you think. If you sign up to the newsletter, you’ll be the first to hear about giveaways and the sequel! I’ll also be sending out a ‘Which Character are you?’ quiz on it soon. Sign up to find out if you are more like Toby, Bumble, Willow or Skylark.

Thank you again to everyone who has shared in the exciting first few weeks of my launch.

I’ll leave you with the map which my wonderful illustrator Sarah Jane Docker did for inside my book. I wonder what mysteries lie at the SMI beyond Toby’s garden hedge?