Tags
author, Fatal Forgery, financial crime, library, marketing, publicity, self-publishing, Susan Grossey
Yesterday I attended a knitting workshop (learning to do intarsia and beading, in case you’re knitty too), and I sat next to a librarian. Of course we fell to talking about books, and I mentioned “Fatal Forgery”. Bless her, she was so excited about sitting next to an author – and she demanded to see my book, holding out her hand. When I said that I don’t carry one with me, she was astonished. “If I had written a book,” she said, “I would show everyone!” And I do wonder whether she’s on the promotional nose with this attitude. I should have had a copy for her to see, and then it would have been passed around the room to all those other knitters, and maybe one or two of them would have noted the title and bought the blasted thing. So from now on, a copy of “Fatal Forgery” will be going everywhere with me. I will use to to reserve my seat when I go off to the loo on the train. I will let it drop from my handbag at opportune moments on the bus and tube. And I will read it while waiting in queues, seemingly absorbed in its gripping pages.
Susan Grossey 
With plenty of print copies of my three left I’ve started to just hand them out to people. Maybe I’ll start leaving them on benches, in cafes etc. I’d sooner have them read for free than be hidden away. Selling them is just too much bother.
Wasn’t there an experiment done once, Roy, where people left books in public places and asked people to read them and then write their name and location in them before handing them on, to track where they went? A bit like a message in a bottle. You could do that! But you’re right: it’s the selling that’s hard.
Best wishes from Susan