I don't understand this bookselling stuff. My publication date was two days ago. I thought everything was on track when last Thursday I received the small stock of my book which I'd ordered. Great! But, then...
On Monday, the publication date, sites such as Amazon continued to say it had not been released. But, OK, perhaps it takes time for them to get their web page updated.
Meanwhile, I continued to work hard getting the word out about my book to anyone I could think of who might be remotely interested.
On Tuesday, I found out from friends that Amazon.co.uk are emailing customers to say that they don't know when my book will be in stock and offering to let them cancel if they wish. Eeeek!!! I also found customers I'd directed to buy from bookshops were getting different and conflicting info from different bookshops. I looked up on the website of Betrams wholesalers and found they'd got 'nil' stock and had moved the delivery date of stock on to end of August (???) .
Of course I got onto my publishers in a panic. They said they'd chased up their distributors, Macmillan, who had released the stock to their customers 'today' (that was yesterday). They said that, therefore, Amazon have no reason to be telling customers to cancel as their orders are being processed. Also, Bertrams get their stock from Macmillans, so they should have the books now.
Today Amazon and other online bookselling sites still show my book as 'not yet released'. (Oh, but it is. It is). I get great pleasure holding my book in my hand, but what good is that if potential customers can't get it? Hopefully, these hiccups will clear up in the next day or two (or preferably in the next hour or two). It's so exciting getting a book published, but it's also so damn frustrating every single step of the way.
Wednesday, 12 August 2009
Saturday, 8 August 2009
Interviews
The telephone interview with the local paper went well on the whole. Only thing I'd fault them with is the emphasis on courage. I'm sure I didn't say those last eight words. I do NOT believe that others who remain in the system have less courage than me. But, anyway, think it's OK overall. You can read the web version here.
Got two more interviews next week. Scary!
Got two more interviews next week. Scary!
Friday, 31 July 2009
Tomorrow it's August!
How can time pass so quickly? How can it be almost August when it seems no time since the start of the year? When my publication date was moved from February to August, it seemed ages away. And now there's just over a week to go! I can't wait to see the finalised version of the book. But I'm scared I'll find things that I missed, despite all the careful checking and re-checking I've done.
The owners of my local independent bookshop are being really encouraging and supportive. I'm looking forward to doing a talk/reading there. Like all indie bookshops, they're struggling to keep afloat. In future when I want to buy a book I'm going to first see if I can get it from them, even if it costs a bit more than from the chains or amazon. I hate the thought of wonderful, indie bookshops going out of business.
I've got two interviews for local papers coming up next week; one will be over the telephone. For some reason, it's the telephone one I feel more nervous about. Maybe it's something to do with the lack of body language. But I'm used to talking on a phone in my job as I work on a mental health telephone helpline. I can't figure out why the thought of giving an interview over the phone makes me feel more vulnerable than a face-to-face interview.
The owners of my local independent bookshop are being really encouraging and supportive. I'm looking forward to doing a talk/reading there. Like all indie bookshops, they're struggling to keep afloat. In future when I want to buy a book I'm going to first see if I can get it from them, even if it costs a bit more than from the chains or amazon. I hate the thought of wonderful, indie bookshops going out of business.
I've got two interviews for local papers coming up next week; one will be over the telephone. For some reason, it's the telephone one I feel more nervous about. Maybe it's something to do with the lack of body language. But I'm used to talking on a phone in my job as I work on a mental health telephone helpline. I can't figure out why the thought of giving an interview over the phone makes me feel more vulnerable than a face-to-face interview.
Wednesday, 15 July 2009
Flapping my flippers
I did make an attempt to keep up to a daily word count, but work-in-progress is back on hold again. I'm much too busy and excited about being less than four weeks away from publication of 'The Dark Threads'. I'm getting silly and going on to amazon.co.uk every two minutes to check my amazon ranking for pre-publication sales (figures which probably don't mean a thing).
I went to hear Clare Allan talk at the Hull Literature Festival. I don't think I could give as good a talk as she did.
I've just been doing the final check on the proofs before my book goes for printing. My article has appeared in Openmind, the national mental health magazine of Mind, and also a review by Dorothy Rowe in that issue. The Sunday Times will be running the feature soon from my interview with them. Meanwhile, my publishers are trying to get more national coverage. In a couple of weeks I've got an interview with a local paper. I need to sort out about doing some talks.
It's all go at the moment. I feel I've got too much to do and not enough time to do it. (So why, then, do I still keep messing about on facebook?).
An elderly friend tells me how in the past, authors weren't expected to do anything in the way of book promotion. It was their job to just write. How wonderful! Now it seems (as I remember once reading on Lorna's Literascribe blog) that authors are expected to "flap their flippers and balance a ball on their nose." Ooops! There goes my ball again.
I went to hear Clare Allan talk at the Hull Literature Festival. I don't think I could give as good a talk as she did.
I've just been doing the final check on the proofs before my book goes for printing. My article has appeared in Openmind, the national mental health magazine of Mind, and also a review by Dorothy Rowe in that issue. The Sunday Times will be running the feature soon from my interview with them. Meanwhile, my publishers are trying to get more national coverage. In a couple of weeks I've got an interview with a local paper. I need to sort out about doing some talks.
It's all go at the moment. I feel I've got too much to do and not enough time to do it. (So why, then, do I still keep messing about on facebook?).
An elderly friend tells me how in the past, authors weren't expected to do anything in the way of book promotion. It was their job to just write. How wonderful! Now it seems (as I remember once reading on Lorna's Literascribe blog) that authors are expected to "flap their flippers and balance a ball on their nose." Ooops! There goes my ball again.
Thursday, 25 June 2009
Procrastinating
I'm not getting on with writing. Why? I suppose the truthful answer is I'm too lazy to be a PROPER writer. I don't keep up to doing a daily word count. I write loads when I feel like it. But what about the days when I don't? Often it takes me ages to get started. I sit at the computer, full of good intentions, but then I decide that first I'll check my emails, and then I start browsing facebook and reading blogs, then check my emails again. Hey, does writing this blog go towards my word count? But then, I've not even been keeping up to writing my blog lately.
For a long time I blamed my small daily writing output on having to go out to work. It wasn't my fault if I didn't get much writing done. I didn't have the time. What I can't understand is that now I only work part-time, and in theory I have much more time for writing, I do even less than when I worked full-time.
Anyway, enough of this moping. It's all got to change. Yesterday I went to an event at the Hull Literature Festival. Listening to author Clare Allan has fired me up with enthusiasm. I'm going to set myself a daily word count target (not yet decided what that will be), stop making excuses and just get on with it.
For a long time I blamed my small daily writing output on having to go out to work. It wasn't my fault if I didn't get much writing done. I didn't have the time. What I can't understand is that now I only work part-time, and in theory I have much more time for writing, I do even less than when I worked full-time.
Anyway, enough of this moping. It's all got to change. Yesterday I went to an event at the Hull Literature Festival. Listening to author Clare Allan has fired me up with enthusiasm. I'm going to set myself a daily word count target (not yet decided what that will be), stop making excuses and just get on with it.
Monday, 15 June 2009
A Special Day
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It's our Silver Wedding Anniversary today and I'm feeling all slushily sentimental and lovey dovey.
Monday, 8 June 2009
Catching Up
I'm behind with everything and doing a juggling act trying to catch up. I've been having those sort of days where you feel you're working hard, but end up wondering where the result is.
I started looking at my novel-in-'progress pending', in an attempt to get back on with it, but I soon got distracted with copy-editing 'The Dark Threads'. Again! Yes, I thought the copy-editing was long finished, as it's been 'done' both by myself and a good copy-editor. Needless to say, my 'one last look' showed up a few more things that needed amending in my book. So I decided I'd better read it again carefully from beginning to end (I'll be able to say every word on all 350 pages off by heart soon!).
I enjoyed going to London to be interviewed for the Sunday Times. There was an initial panic when I found at the last minute my train had been cancelled, but, thanks to mobiles, I was able to rearrange the appointment to half-an-hour later and catch the next train.
I was prepared for the questions. But still ... 'How long did it take you to write the book?' This was one I'd been dreading as there's no straightforward answer. The writing of it has been 'on and off' over many years. I started writing it forty years (!) ago when I wrote on scraps of toilet paper sitting on the floor with my feet up to chest, knees against the pot, and holding the door shut with my back, in the hospital. OK, I suppose that was writing 'purely for therapy', which isn't the same as writing to be published. I never intended anyone else to see my writing then, but it did turn out to be a gathering together of the material for my book.
I asked myself, when did I decide I wanted to share my experiences and actually write a book about them? Would it be sufficiently interesting to others? Might it do some good (oh, sorry if that sounds 'up my backside', but it was one of my hopes)? As well as just a 'human interest story' I felt I had something to say that needed to be said, but I didn't want to come over all 'preachy' (which I don't think I have). There were a lot of questions I needed to ask myself about my motives for writing this kind of book, but, meanwhile, I just got on with it, feeling I simply had to write it. I mean, I've always been interested in writing, but whenever I wrote anything else, this kept intruding. Perhaps soon, at last, I'll be able to concentrate fully on trying to write other books on other subjects. I hope so. I don't want to be able to sing from only one sheet.
Anyway, I divert. On the whole I think my interview in London went well. Afterwards I wandered around until my bunions (old age creeping on) made me stand in the middle of a street, unable to go any further. I managed to hobble into the bookstore that was only a few yards away and I recovered over a cup of coffee, with my shoes off under the table. Well, I never thought when I began this blog that I'd even be bringing my boring old bunions into it! I don't go on like this in my book - honest I don't!
I started looking at my novel-in-'progress pending', in an attempt to get back on with it, but I soon got distracted with copy-editing 'The Dark Threads'. Again! Yes, I thought the copy-editing was long finished, as it's been 'done' both by myself and a good copy-editor. Needless to say, my 'one last look' showed up a few more things that needed amending in my book. So I decided I'd better read it again carefully from beginning to end (I'll be able to say every word on all 350 pages off by heart soon!).
I enjoyed going to London to be interviewed for the Sunday Times. There was an initial panic when I found at the last minute my train had been cancelled, but, thanks to mobiles, I was able to rearrange the appointment to half-an-hour later and catch the next train.
I was prepared for the questions. But still ... 'How long did it take you to write the book?' This was one I'd been dreading as there's no straightforward answer. The writing of it has been 'on and off' over many years. I started writing it forty years (!) ago when I wrote on scraps of toilet paper sitting on the floor with my feet up to chest, knees against the pot, and holding the door shut with my back, in the hospital. OK, I suppose that was writing 'purely for therapy', which isn't the same as writing to be published. I never intended anyone else to see my writing then, but it did turn out to be a gathering together of the material for my book.
I asked myself, when did I decide I wanted to share my experiences and actually write a book about them? Would it be sufficiently interesting to others? Might it do some good (oh, sorry if that sounds 'up my backside', but it was one of my hopes)? As well as just a 'human interest story' I felt I had something to say that needed to be said, but I didn't want to come over all 'preachy' (which I don't think I have). There were a lot of questions I needed to ask myself about my motives for writing this kind of book, but, meanwhile, I just got on with it, feeling I simply had to write it. I mean, I've always been interested in writing, but whenever I wrote anything else, this kept intruding. Perhaps soon, at last, I'll be able to concentrate fully on trying to write other books on other subjects. I hope so. I don't want to be able to sing from only one sheet.
Anyway, I divert. On the whole I think my interview in London went well. Afterwards I wandered around until my bunions (old age creeping on) made me stand in the middle of a street, unable to go any further. I managed to hobble into the bookstore that was only a few yards away and I recovered over a cup of coffee, with my shoes off under the table. Well, I never thought when I began this blog that I'd even be bringing my boring old bunions into it! I don't go on like this in my book - honest I don't!
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