As you can see from the excited squeak of joy below about Killer Books, I was pretty pleased with things this week. I seemed to spend so long chewing the carpet about not being published, that when it finally happened, I thought words to the effect of “Here we go! It’s all plain sailing from now on.” (As a matter of fact, I thought nothing nearly so coherent; I thought, if you can dignify the process by the word “thought” “!!!@**” or perhaps “???” and even,“^&%!!” with a quick “$*&!!£!^^” thrown in for good measure.)
And, I must say, being published is a lot – so much - better than not being published but it does mean that there’s new challenges. Publicity, for instance. Now you know – because you’re obviously a well informed, thoughtful type of person – that my books are excellent. Not only are they easy to read with gripping stories, they can, at a pinch, be used to prop up a wonky table, stop a sofa cushion from sagging, provide a really classy mouse mat, serve as a platform for a performing gerbil or act as a very small pillow. However, not everyone knows that.
And that’s where publicity comes in. When two or three writers are gathered together, it’s the subject that always crops up. This isn’t personal, you understand. I am typical of many and live for Art alone, but editors love sales. It’s just altruistic kindness to them, you understand. So what on earth, apart from shouting in the street, which will earn you nothing but censorious glances, can you do? Well, there’s magazines, of course. Writing Magazine is always a good bet, as they frequently carry stories about the newly-published. (I’d recommend Writing Magazine anyway as an excellent way to keep in touch with the writing world). Depending on how thin the news is, local papers can be interested in a local author. (Sometimes news in local papers can be very thin indeed; my favourite local paper headline is “Worksop Man Dies Of Natural Causes”). There’s local radio, too. That’s sometimes iffy in its results, though. I did two and a half hours once on local radio. I thoroughly enjoyed it but I can’t say I had a huge listening public. Peter was away and my Dad, a keen tennis fan, was watching Andy Murray. One man rang in to ask if we could stop talking and play more music and another texted to say that he hadn’t got one of the jokes. Ah well, you can’t win ’em all…
The internet though… For anyone of a certain age – and in this context that means anyone roughly over twenty – it’s incredible how easy it is to be in touch with someone a few thousand miles away. When A Hundred Thousand Dragons came out, I emailed the independent bookshops in the USA to tell them about it. The addresses are there on the internet. Beth Kanell of Kingdom Books, Vermont, read the book and really liked it (Yo! Result!) and submitted a review to the monthly round-up of books promoted by the Independent Booksellers’ Association – and bingo! Dragons is a Killer Book.
Woooh! Do tell more! You E-mailed all the independent bookstores in the US? Those who specialize in mysteries?? How did you go about that? Just Google independent book dealers? then follow up one by one??? My questions are purely academic, you understand.
ReplyDeleteOh, I DO love the listener who called in to say he didn't get the joke!
As you were so kind as to say you enjoyed an American in England perspective in Private Grave, wait tillyou read THE WHITE GARDEN by Stephanie Barronf. Her American heroine driving a roudnabout is worth the book.