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Leaf hits Calgary's bestseller list
A locally written, illustrated and published book hit Calgary’s top 10 weekly bestseller list recently.
Leaf ranked third on
the list published in the Calgary Herald on May 23.
Local author Maxine Spence wrote the children’s book described as a gentle story about the inevitability of change.
It was illustrated by local artist Elsie Archer and self-published by Spence.
Spence said she was “over the moon” when she first heard of the book’s listing from the Carstairs librarian, who happened to catch it in the daily newspaper.
Days later, her excitement hadn’t waned.
“The only word coming to mind, and it’s not that elegant, is gobsmacked,” she said.
The book was launched last summer and Spence has been conducting readings in stores and libraries around the province, marketing it to the masses.
This is her first published book and it is a story of Leaf, who loves spring. He doesn’t want it to ever end. But spring must give way to summer and then to autumn’s fiery beauty. As winter approaches, Leaf’s friends urge him to travel away with them.
“For it to be number three, there’s a million people that write books,” Spence said. “It’s like Leaf’s message is going out into the bigger world.”
Early last week Spence was still tracking down the exact number of book sales which catapulted her book “from nowhere last week,” to the top three in Calgary.
While it can be ordered off her web page, Spence said sales must have increased at the independent bookstores her story is now in.
Distributed by Alpine Book Peddlers, Spence said there’s been “1,000 unforeseen helping hands,” in getting the book this far.
“I’ve had so much support from family, friends and the community,” she said.
She is keen on tracking the book’s “tipping point” and said she is unsure when it happened or which store it happened in.
“I’m just riding it right now.”
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