Welcome everyone to the last newsletter of the year, for all those who are keeping count (I’m sure none of you), this is my 213th newsletter since I started Beyond The Vale Publishing all the way back in 2020! My aim was simple – high quality affordable self-publishing services. Yes that’s right, Beyond The Vale will be 5 next year, we will be celebrating, watch this space.
Have you all had a great year. Some ups and downs, I’m sure but welcome to the Beyond The Vale and Turn The Page review of the year, and what a year it’s been!
Turn The Page Distribution
Let’s start with our distribution business. If you want your book into Exclusive Books (and more) then this is the business for you.
This year, we launched 124 titles through our network of agents into Exclusive Books, assisting 94 authors get the magnificent exposure of having their books in the country’s top book store.
We launched our first ever sales charts during this year – look out for the first newsletter of January where we will be featuring the full year 2024 chart!
On top of that, we helped a number of those get additional exposure by hosting launches or signings at Exclusive Books, check out these pictures:
Beyond The Vale Publishing
We have been hard at work publishing your books, for the third year in a row, we have published over 50 titles, which is awesome. Here are just some of them:
If you’ve contacted us recently, you’ll know that our team has grown during this year. As well as yours truly and Rochelle who manages Amazon and produces most of our covers, we now have a full time illustrator, Elsa and our full time administrator started in October this year, Zhani.
In March, we moved offices to accommodate the extra personnel and expanded our space. We’re still in Edenvale and if you want to come past and meet us personally, make an appointment by emailing info@beyondthevalepublishing.com and we look forward to meeting you.
And it wouldn’t be my year end newsletter without sneaking a picture of Rochelle in, working hard.
Sugar Monkey Media
With Sugar Monkey Media, we are able to provide value for money social media marketing to our authors to raise their brands. Check out our social media handles for examples of the amazing trailers that Kyle from Sugar Monkey Media is able to create.
DotDot
Our on-line retail partner, DotDot, not only provides a safe reliable platform for online sales but goes above and beyond other online sites and working in conjunction with Beyond The Vale and Turn The Page, has brought us and our authors book fairs and book selling events under the ‘Power pages’ banner.
Most of our books are available for sale on DotDots website – you can access it here.
Check out these images from the year:
Check out 2025 for even more collaborations and opportunities for authors to get out and sell your books through the Power Pages events
Comic Con 2024
I can’t have a review of the year without my favourite event – Comic Con. This happened in September and as expected it was four days of amazing interaction, book sales and tired feet. 167 books were sold, a wonderful increase from 125 last year and authors popped in to say hello.
The stand looked incredible, a real improvement from last year:
NEW RELEASES
Edition 2 of the amazing comic book series “The Legends of T’Tickot” was released as well as book 5 of my Alien Spy series. I was so pleased when people came back for book 5 who had bought books 1-4 last year.
AND NOW LETS TAKE A LOOK AT SOME OF OUR AMAZING READERS:
So, what else have I been up to?
So, apart from publishing, arranging distribution, moving offices, author signings, attending Power Pages events and releasing Alien Spy 5 for Comic Con, I have been keeping busy as follows:
Attending the Kingsmead Book Fair as an invited author
Book Fair at the women’s prison in Joburg
Hosting our first Brand Building workshop for authors with Vimal from DotDot
And yes, I still find time to write. Alien Spy 6 which is the last in the series is started and will definitely be released for Comic Con 2025.
So, what’s the plan for 2025?
Firstly, it will be Beyond The Vale’s fifth birthday so watch out for that!
There will be more Author Branding workshops – dates to be announced.
There will be other great courses coming up with our friends at DotDot
We are working on some great new products and marketing offerings with both DotDot and Sugar Monkey Media, watch this space for more information.
We’re looking forward to more great published books and looking forward to getting more of your books into Exclusive Books.
If you want more information on anything mentioned in this newsletter, drop me an email at info@beyondthevalepublishing.com or info@turnthepage.co.za or contact us through the website here.
