Tags
Book of the Year, bookshop, Helen Hollick, map, marketing, Plank 5, Portraits of Pretence, promotion, Samuel Plank, title
It’s all happening today! First of all, the divine Helen Hollick has featured a little piece by me on her terrific historical fiction blog, Let Us Talk of Many Things. She gave me free rein – rather brave – and I decided to write about how I explore Sam’s London. And quite by chance I realised that it is an interesting blend of old and new, as my two most-consulted resources are a map from 1827, and the Transport for London online journey planner!
Secondly, I have taken delivery of my “Book of the Year 2017” promotional stickers. For those of you interested in the financial side of things, I ordered them from Vistaprint, using – with her permission – the logo designed by Helen. I chose circular, matte, easy-peel stickers to mimic those seen most often in bookshops, and 120 small stickers (3.6 cm in diameter) cost me £26.03 including delivery and VAT. That’s nearly 22p per sticker and a wild extravagance, but I treated myself. I have now put them on the copies of “Portraits of Pretence” that I have in stock, added them to the books in my local bookshops, and posted them to the more distant stockists in Ely and London. I have also been keeping a beady eye on sales for a spike, given all this publicity, but it is so far proving elusive.
And thirdly, I will be launching the “Plank 5” title poll at the end of this week. My creative team and I (that’s me and the husband) are looking at a long list of possibilities in order to narrow it down to the final five. The big thesaurus is out – the one with its own special magnifying glass – so it’s serious stuff. Voting will open on Friday.
Many congratulations. The stickers look great! I look forward to the title poll.
The title long-list is written in BIG LETTERS and pinned on the fridge, so we’re mulling every time we need a drink…!
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