Plodcast

As I mentioned a few days ago, I am now an Award-Winning Author.  In a bid to make as much noise as I could about this – being a self-published author means being your own [under-funded and under-staffed] marketing department – I contacted everyone I could think of who might be willing to publicise my success.  And one of the first to reply was Leigh Chambers, who “appears” on our local radio station, Cambridge 105, and who interviewed me back in October 2015 (as a local author) on her “Bookmark” show.  She explained that all of her current “Bookmark” interview slots are taken, but invited me to come in to her daytime show instead and have a chat.  Which I did on Thursday last week, and it has now been issued as a ten-minute podcast.  So you can hear me talking about Sam, “Portraits of Pretence”, the Discovering Diamonds “Book of the Year 2017” award, and other writerly things.

A couple of things to note: the Cambridge 105 website refers to me as a lawyer, which is flattering but wrong; and I had no idea that they were going to photograph me, so I am wearing my casual squirrel dress and no make-up.  Writers on the radio do not expect to be seen…

A new hook for the Worm

Just a quick post today, to remind all of you self-published authors out there of the importance of shameless self-promotion.  I have written before about how I try to exploit every “hook” to get some publicity for Sam and his stories.  And one thing I take advantage of is the fact that I spend a fair proportion of my working life in Guernsey.

Guernsey is one of the Channel Islands, and it has a very active financial sector.  Couple this with my unusual name, which means that many people living in Guernsey and working in finance have vaguely heard of me, and there you have a potential hook.  So I sent a press release to a Guernsey news website, and today I see that they have shared it – here it is.  Who knows whether it will lead to any more “Worm” sales, but I know for certain that it won’t lead to any fewer.

(I’ve also just come back from recording a radio interview for a book programme on a local radio station, but I’ll tell you more about that once it’s broadcast.)

All systems are go!

Well, what a weekend (it’s a Bank Holiday Monday here in the UK, so we’ve had three days of weekend).  I spent all of Saturday formatting the text of “Worm in the Blossom” so that it matches the look of “Fatal Forgery” and “The Man in the Canary Waistcoat” – I achieve this by using the same interior template for them all, and cutting and pasting the text into it.  (Slow but strangely satisfying work, as it finally starts to look like a book rather than just a really long essay.)  I bought a one-off licence for the template for “FF”, and then extended it to infinite use for “Canary” and beyond.  It’s a nice “space-y” template – i.e. the text is not crowded on the page – and it uses a traditional font that matches the historic feel of the books.

Then Sunday was for proof-reading – and that certainly gives you tired eyes.  I don’t know if it means I was editing too much, but my red pen ran out halfway through and so the second half was marked up in bright pink.  And this morning I made all of those changes to the text and sent it – along with the full cover (front and back and spine – yes, the cover designer was also working on BH Monday) to CreateSpace for their “quick and dirty” check.  This is an automatic check to make sure that everything fits and is the right size – and it is.  And about three minutes ago I received an email from them to confirm that I can go ahead and order a printed proof copy – which I have done!  Hurrah!  So this will be waiting for me when I get back from holiday, which gains me about two weeks on my original timetable.  This doesn’t mean that I will publish earlier – I’m still looking at 16 October – but it does mean that I will be able to order my first big box of copies from the US using a slower delivery method, and so save a bit of money.

Well, my husband is hovering to turn off the computers and network, so I’ll finish for now.  When I get back from my travels (mid September) I’ll tell you all about the invitation I received today to talk about my books on local radio!  As I said, what a weekend!

What, no headphones?

Well, the other day I promised to let you know how it went when I appeared (is that what you do when it’s audio only?) on our local radio station, BBC Radio Cambridgeshire.  As we self-published authors know, the trickiest part of the whole process (well, the second trickiest, after writing the blooming thing) is getting publicity.  If you are lucky enough to go the traditional publishing route, you have the heft of a publishing company behind you: they can tout your book to shops, highlight it in their catalogue, shoehorn it into a “three-for-two” offer, feature you on their website, and countless other things.  But if it’s just you, well, it’s just you, and you have to fight hard for every scrap of attention.

I am fortunate in that I have been able to manufacture several “hooks” for my novel – in other words, there are several reasons why people might be interested.  There is the subject itself – financial crime, police, capital punishment, etc.  Then there is the location – I’ve been able to get quite a bit of media interest in Gibraltar because “Fatal Forgery” is in part set there, and not many books are.  There is the cross-over with my day job: by day, anti-money laundering crimefighter; by night, writer of historical financial crime fiction.  And – hence the interest of the local Beeb – I am already a weekly columnist in our local newspaper, so we have the “columnist finally writes something of a decent length” angle.  I feel sure that I am not unique in being able to see these hooks – every writer must be able to do this too.  I can also recommend getting friends and family involved – they might be better at spotting links than you are, as they have a bit more objectivity about your book.

So, how did the radio piece go?  I can report that it was great fun, and I was only sorry that it didn’t last longer, as it is such a treat to talk about my book.  I simply sat in front of a giant microphone and chatted to the radio host – no headphones, no scary silences, just a really friendly talk.  She very kindly mentioned the title of the book about a dozen times, and I managed to name the two local bookshops that are selling it, so we shall see if there is a stampede of dedicated listeners and readers.  If you’re curious about how it actually sounds, you can listen to it for the next six days via this link (my bit is scattered between the music and weather from 17:40 to 37:25, although the whole show is three hours long): http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01fxc0m  I just hope I don’t hear from Rod Stewart’s lawyers…

Visiting Auntie

Great excitement – I’m going to be on the radio!  I was out at dinner the other night, and a friend of a friend suggested that a good way to publicise my book in Cambridge would be to go on local radio, and in particular the afternoon show where they do arts reviews and discussions.  So I contacted Sue Dougan at BBC Radio Cambridgeshire, gave her a copy of “Fatal Forgery” and – barring something really exciting happening, like a violent turn to the punt wars or the towers of King’s collapsing – I’ll be on her show on Monday 16 September.

I really don’t know what to expect: I’ve been told to turn up just before the show starts at noon, and then it’s all a mystery.  I assume that there’ll be a discussion of some sort, but then will I be kept around to comment on other things, or to take questions from listeners?  At least I know I don’t have to dress up: I did offer to wear my £3 tiara from Claire’s, which I save for special occasions, but Sue said there was no need.  She may have regretted her invitation at this point, but it was too late.

I have heard my voice before, in recordings, and it’s ghastly.  I sound much posher from the outside than from the inside, perhaps because in here I know what I am really thinking, but there you go – it’s probably too late to learn and assimilate a whole new accent by Monday.  I’ll let you know how it goes.