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.
Friday, 31 July 2009
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.
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