Seeking storefronts for Sam

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Daunt Books, G David, Hammicks, Hatchards, Heffers, Samuel Plank, Toppings

As regular readers will know, the Sam Plank books appear in the flesh – well, the paper, ink and glue – in three physical bookshops: Heffers and G David in Cambridge, and Toppings in Ely.  (Who knows whether they will appear in the new Amazon store in Seattle!)  They were also stocked in Hammicks Legal Bookshop in Fleet Street until that closed down a few months ago – the closure was nothing to do with Sam, I am assured.  And astonishing though the reach of Amazon is, there is nothing to compare – for authorly satisfaction and browsing availability – to having physical books on a shelf in a bookshop.

I have not forgotten that some months ago I hinted that I was pursuing a third stockist here in Cambridge – negotiations are still ongoing, as is my fear that naming them might jinx it, but if it happens you will not go untold, I promise you.

And now I am thinking about new representation in London.  The problem is (and not just with London) that the big chains are not interested in self-published authors.  Their concern is two-fold: self-published stuff might be rubbish, and self-published stuff is not supplied via the usual book distribution services.  Both fair points, and too tricky for me to overcome alone, so I don’t worry about the big chains.  But finding places that are not unexpectedly connected with the big chains is tricky – I once approached Hatchards and had a lovely long (and I thought promising) chat with a manager, only to be told at the end that they’re part of Waterstones and do not have much ordering independence.

Several people have suggested Daunt Books, and so this is my latest venture.  I have sent a hello email to their Marylebone shop, with lovely (and I hope tempting) pictures of the book covers, and asking whether I could call in with samples when I am in London the week after next.  If I haven’t heard from them by next week, I’ll try the dreaded telephone call, when you have to fight your way through successive layers of staff to get to the crime buyer, without uttering the call-ending words “my self-published book”…

Look at me! Look at me!

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cover, Fatal Forgery, Hammicks, marketing, police, The Man in the Canary Waistcoat

I’m not exactly the stereotypical reclusive author – after all, my day job (anti-money laundering consultant) often involves standing up in front of audiences of hundreds to spread the AML message).  And I LOVE talking to people.  But I am English, and in our DNA – along with the love of crumpets and an ability to make a decent conversation out of any type of weather at all – is a certain modesty, and in particular a horror of blowing one’s own trumpet.  So when an Englishwoman (oh, let’s say me) decides to write a series of books (let’s take “Fatal Forgery” and “The Man in the Canary Waistcoat” as random examples) and then publish them without the back-up of a traditional publishing house and their marketing department, we get a basic, almost visceral, conflict.

I am very proud of both “FF” and “Canary”.  And I know from their reviews that they are good books that people enjoy reading.  They look amazing, thanks to the sterling work of the cover designer.  So what’s not to sell?  And yet I find it remarkably difficult to shoehorn into conversations, “Oh, and did you know that I have written two novels?  Here they are *delves into capacious handbag* – please do buy them.”  I just can’t do it.  So this coming few days is a real test for me.

Tomorrow I am going to London for the day (great excitement – I shall doubtless have M&S iced buns on the train), mainly to attend an evening Christmas drinks party at Hammicks in Fleet Street.  (This is the delightful legal bookshop that is not only stocking my books, but also featuring “Canary” in its Christmas promotion and window.)  The place will be stuffed with potential buyers – legally-minded book-lovers – and I will have to overcome my reserve so that I can point out my books, and the short distance between them and the till.  I have decided to wear a bright pink dress so that I will be visible among the legal black, so there’s no hiding.

And on Saturday I am spending the day on the “Books, Beautiful Books!” stall at the Mill Road Winter Fair here in Cambridge.  I’ve told you about it before, and plans proceed apace.  We’ll be just over the road from the police station, so perhaps a book involving the early history of policing will hit the spot.  Ever the optimist, I have stocked up on £1 coins and £5 notes so that I can give change, and am offering a cover price discount to draw in the crowds.  Perhaps I should take inspiration from the market-sellers who do this for a living – “I’m not asking for £10, I’m not even asking for £8…!”

All I want for Christmas is a magistrate’s constable

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bookshop, financial crime, Hammicks, paperback, promotion, publicity, Samuel Plank, The Man in the Canary Waistcoat

I had some very exciting news this week: Hammicks legal bookshop (on the corner of Fleet Street and Chancery Lane in London – top legal hang-out) has decided to include “The Man in the Canary Waistcoat” in its Christmas promotion!  This entitles the book to a prime position on a table in the middle of the main floor of the shop (surrounded by rubber ducks on the legal theme – Sherlock Duck, etc.) and (wait for it…) in the window!

There it is, top right in all its golden glory, alongside the autobiography of the man who founded law firm DLA Piper, an exposé of how big corporations get away with crime, and a book about Magna Carta (lovely woman – beautiful skin).  So here’s hoping that London’s lawyers, filled with the festive spirit and looking for that perfect gift, will stumble upon Sam.

The Big Week is here!

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Amazon, bookshop, financial crime, G David, Hammicks, Heffers, Kindle, marketing, paperback, print-on-demand, publication date, publicity, Samuel Plank, self-publishing, The Man in the Canary Waistcoat

Apologies for my silence – I was away on holiday in Crete for a week, girding my loins for the Big Week of Publication.  My husband – slow reader and therefore typo-spotter extraordinaire – was also reading my proof copy of “The Man in the Canary Waistcoat”, and yesterday I made my final, final corrections (thankfully only a handful of very small ones needed).  (A bit nerve-racking, his reading of the book, as it was the first time he had read it – he prefers not to read works-in-progress.  So I spent three days hovering over him whenever he was reading, asking, “Where are you up to now?”.  Poor man.  At the end, I asked him which bit he liked best, and it wasn’t what I would have guessed at all, so that’s interesting.)

When we arrived home, two massive boxes of copies of “Canary” were waiting with a neighbour, so three review copies have been sent out, as well as “thanks” copies to my beta-reader, and to the lady who gave us permission to use a document from her late husband’s collection as part of our cover design, and to two relatives who are not Amazon-y.

So what does this week hold?  The paperback and Kindle files have been uploaded to Amazon, as it is something of a dark art to calculate when they might appear, so I thought sooner rather than later might be sensible.  Hopefully they will be in situ, resplendent in their golden covers and ready to go on Friday.  I am tripping over stacks of copies of “Canary”, so they need to be distributed: six copies are going to Hammicks in London today, care of husband and a Boris bike.  Heffers have ordered twelve and David’s ten, so I’ll deliver them tomorrow myself – both are local to me here in Cambridge.  Then I’ll be turning to my “people to tell” list, and working my way through that on Friday – it’s journalists who have kindly written about me before, my own websites, the Society of Authors, and then odd little extras like a poster for my local Department of Criminology.  I tell you, being self-published is not for the faint of heart or weak of cycling leg!

Planning for publication

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bookshop, G David, Hammicks, Heffers, marketing, paperback, print-on-demand, publication date, publicity, Samuel Plank, Susan Grossey, The Man in the Canary Waistcoat

I am aware that when I started this blog, my intention was not to waffle about what it means to me to be a writer (in short, I earn some money by putting words onto paper/screen) but rather to explain to others who are considering becoming self-published authors what the process is like.  So for today’s update….

As explained in my last post, I ordered – and have now taken delivery of – my proof paper copy of “The Man in the Canary Waistcoat”.  It looks lovely, and so I have ordered my bulk purchase of 75 copies.  It sounds a lot, I know, but I have worked it out quite carefully (and, when ordering from CreateSpace, it is advantageous price-wise per copy to order more rather than fewer).  To begin with, I contacted the three bookshops who are very kindly already stocking “Fatal Forgery”.  I showed them the cover and back cover blurb for “Canary”, gave them the publication date (still aiming for 31 October) and then asked if they wanted a few copies – and they all said yes (twelve, ten and six copies respectively).  I then contacted the lovely people who reviewed “Fatal Forgery” and asked if they would be interested in reviewing “Canary”, and so far two of them have said yes.  Then there are gift copies for some family members, for the man who kindly beta-read both “Fatal Forgery” and “Canary”, for the woman who allowed me to use a family document on the cover of “Canary”, and for my two local libraries.  And then – here’s the optimism kicking in – I’ll need a few on hand to re-stock those bookshops!

The interesting thing about self-publishing is that, in order to be able to buy these copies, I have to actually publish the book – but I don’t want to publish it properly (i.e. list it on Amazon) just yet.  So I have “stealth-published” it, so that it is listed only on the CreateSpace website, which hardly anyone visits as a bookshop – and at the end of the month, once I have distributed all the copies as listed above, and lined up my other promotional activities, I will publish it fully, with all guns blazing.

Incidentally, quite by coincidence, I was invited back onto our local radio station this week.  I wrote about this last time I went – and that was an invitation I sought because I was trying to promote “Fatal Forgery”.  This time they invited me, and I went along without really thinking about the timing, and on reflection I think it was an error.  The presenter very kindly mentioned my name and that of my book almost constantly – but kept having to point out that “Canary” is not yet available.  It would have been better to be able to say go and buy it now!  So, as with most things, it really is all about the timing.

All over bar the selling

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bookshop, financial crime, G David, Hammicks, Heffers, marketing, print-on-demand, Samuel Plank, Susan Grossey, The Man in the Canary Waistcoat

Put out the flags!  I have just ordered my paper proof copy of “The Man in the Canary Waistcoat”, and paid extra for it to be sent by rocket-powered carrier pigeon from the US so that it should arrive by the end of the week.  In my mind, that’s it: I will read the proof copy, of course, but my main intention is to check the quality of the printing and paper – the proof-reading has been done already.  That said, over a quarter-century of writing documents, I have learned to accept the Golden Rule of Proofing: no matter how many times you, your friends and even paid professionals proof-read a document, something will always get through.  It’s a bit like weddings: something will always go wrong, and the sooner the bride-to-be accepts this, the happier and more relaxed she will be in the run-up to the big day.  (For me, the caterers forgot to bring coffee cups, so people drank their coffee out of champagne glasses.  And you know what?  No-one gave a hoot.)

Once the proof copy has shown itself to be of excellent quality, I will order my author copies – for me, for family members who do not live in Cambridge and are not online (so can’t buy their own copies), for reviewers who have kindly agreed to have a look, and for the three bookshops who very generously have agreed to stock “Canary” alongside “Fatal Forgery”.  So – barring misfortune such as a fire in the printing works – I’m online to meet that publication date of 31 October.

I’m feeling a bit bereft, as “Canary” has been alongside me for so long now.  But luckily I was listening to the radio the other day, and a magazine item caught my ear.  So now I am fairly sure I know what is going to be the central crime of “Plank 3″…

Remember, it’s supposed to be fun!

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bookshop, Fatal Forgery, financial crime, fraud, G David, Goodreads, Hammicks, Heffers, marketing, print-on-demand, publication date, publicity, Samuel Plank, self-publishing, Susan Grossey

The eagle-eyed amongst you will have spotted that I have altered the publication date of “Plank 2” from 20 October to 31 October.  (Apologies if you had already planned your diary around it…!)  I’m not used to adjusting deadlines, but then nor do I like missing them, so when I was in a lather with my diary yesterday, my ultra-logical husband suggested that I simply change the date to one that suits me better.

The problem was this.  I think I can get the text finalised by mid-October at the latest.  The cover designer is working to that date too.  And I know from “Fatal Forgery” that it takes only about three or four days from publication (i.e. uploading of files) for CreateSpace to have the book listed on Amazon.  But I am going away on holiday in mid-October and – although I had originally thought that it would be good to publish the book and then have the holiday immediately afterwards – I suddenly thought that it would be a shame to miss the fun part of publishing, which (for me at least) is telling everyone that the book is out, and then manically checking the CreateSpace sales page every three minutes until I see the first copy sold.  And I’m not sure husband’s patience would extend to manic checking while on holiday,  Plus I’ll want to take early copies round to the three bookshops that are stocking “Fatal Forgery”, and see if I can get another appearance on the local radio station (do you “appear” on the radio, or just “sound”?), and organise a giveaway on Goodreads, and send emails to kind people who have done reviews in the past, and all the other fun promotional stuff.

So I have (belatedly) remembered the two key features of self-publishing – that is is under my control, and that it’s supposed to be fun.  And I have solved my diary dilemma by simply changing my own, self-imposed publication date to one that suits me better: 31 October 2014.  Which still leaves plenty of time for the bookshops to order the dozens, nay, hundreds of copies that they will be selling in the Christmas rush…  (The third key feature of self-publishing may be over-optimistic self-delusion, but I’ll write about that another day.)

I have a little list

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bookshop, Fatal Forgery, G David, Hammicks, Heffers, marketing, publicity, Samuel Plank

As regular readers will know, I have been fortunate enough to persuade three actual, physical, real, high street bookshops to stock “Fatal Forgery” in paperback – Heffers and G David in Cambridge, and Hammick’s Legal Bookshop in London.  Apart from giving me a thrill every time I pop in and see my books on the shelves (and no, of course I don’t do this, oh, two or three times a week – how desperate do you think I am?  Yes, you’re right – exactly that desperate), I take great pride in the fact that all three shops agreed to stock the book only after the manager of the relevant department had read “FF” and deemed it worthy of being stocked.

When I popped into Heffers a few weeks ago, I noticed that the (very extensive) crime fiction section had a handout for shoppers: a three-page typed list headed “Heffers: Crime Fiction Choice”.  It is divided into sections, headed “Traditional fare”, “Cambridge crime”, “Police procedurals” and so on.  I scanned it eagerly, but no “FF”.  Now, this list is put together by Richard Reynolds, head of crime fiction and probably the most respected crime fiction buyer in the country.  He is a judge on the awards panel of the Crime Writers’ Association, and generally a Big Name in crime fiction.  And, incidentally, a very quiet and modest man – although heaven only knows what’s going on in his mind, with the stuff he’s read over the years.  So I emailed him, and asked what I could do to submit “FF” for inclusion on the “choice list”, and how I could ensure that the sequel (yes, yes, I’m writing as fast as I can) could also be considered.  And the kind man emailed back almost immediately, saying that “FF” had been missed off in error.  A few days ago I called in to the shop, oh so casually strolled up to the crime fiction department, and picked up the latest version of the list.  And there it is!  “Fatal Forgery” is in the section headed “First offenders”!  I was going to take handfuls of the list, but then realised that any I take are ones that are not picked up by potential buyers, so I took just the one for my scrapbook.  I may have to call in at the weekend to see if any copies have sold as a result of the much-coveted and highly valued Reynolds recommendation…

Juicing the reviews

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Amazon, Fatal Forgery, G David, Goodreads, Hammicks, Heffers, marketing, publicity, review, Samuel Plank

Remember how I told you that I was going all out to try and get some reviews for “Fatal Forgery”?  Well, after a lot of silence and then a slow start, I am finally starting to see some returns on my effort.  The latest is a review by Debbie Young, a well-respected writer herself and a much-followed book blogger and reviewer.  And it is such a lovely five-star review – plenty of detail, with specific comments, and encouragement for “Plank 2”!  You can see it here on Amazon (if it’s not obvious, re-sort the reviews to put the newest first).  And Debbie – being, as I say, an author herself and therefore well aware of the importance of reviews – has kindly put her review on Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com and Goodreads, to get as much coverage as possible.

So now here’s a question for you: how can I carry on Debbie’s good work and wring as much juice as possible from that review?  I have thanked her on Twitter (that’s something else she did, to reach her 6,300+ followers) and retweeted her Tweet to my (small in number but enormous in quality) 95 followers.  I am writing this post.  And of course I shall quote liberally from Debbie’s review (with her permission) on “Plank 2”.  I’m reluctant to put another review link on Facebook – my family and friends are probably all Planked out by now.  Should I forward it to the three booksellers who are stocking the physical book – given that the review appears on Amazon…?  Or maybe I could send them the Goodreads version instead.  Any other ideas?

Plank for Christmas

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bookshop, Fatal Forgery, financial crime, Hammicks, marketing, paperback, publicity, Samuel Plank, Susan Grossey

I know, I know – I’m a bad blogger to leave you alone for so long.  I’ve been rather overwhelmed by ordinary, non-writing work, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel (who says writers shouldn’t use cliches?) and please rest assured that I have not abandoned my lovely Plank to his own devices.

Remember how I wrote before about using all possible “hooks” to get a book out there in front of potential readers?  Well, my brother-in-law is a lawyer, and he has made some excellent suggestions about how I could market Plank to the legal fraternity.  Thanks to his ideas, “FF” is now listed on the website and in the glossy catalogue of the Carbolic Smokeball Co, which supplies “unusual gifts for professionals”.  And – hold onto your hat – it is also sitting on the table of Christmas presents for lawyers just inside the front door of tip-top legal bookshop Hammicks, in the heart of London’s legal district:

 

How handsome he looks!  I do have one more foray planned into the legal community, but that’s still in the planning and I won’t spoil the surprise.  And by way of encouragement to those of you who are going through this same process – and gradually realising that marketing a book takes a darn sight longer than writing one – can I just reassure you that, in the right frame of mind, it is great fun!  Every sale is very hard won, but what a sense of satisfaction.