Jasper Fforde
Three separate interviews in which Jasper Fforde discusses the Thursday Next series, his Nursery Crime novels and Shades of Grey, the first in a trilogy set in a future world recognizable as our own - but only just.
Abraham Verghese
An interview with Abraham Verghese about his life and writing and in particular about his extraordinary 2009 novel Cutting for Stone, set in 1960s and '70s Ethiopia and 1980s New York.
Martha A Sandweiss
An interview with Martha Sandweiss in which she discusses her book Passing Strange, a biography of Clarence King who lived a double life—as the celebrated white explorer, geologist, and writer Clarence King and as a black Pullman porter named James Todd, married to Ada with whom he had five children.
Amy Greene
Amy Greene talks about her first novel, Bloodroot, which brings her native Appalachia—and the faith and fury of its people—to rich and vivid life.
Writing and Getting Published
There is a wealth of information on the web about the writing process
and getting published, including Marcia Yudkin's website.
We recommend Marcia's website as a starting point because she gives advice on
many aspects of publishing and promoting a book, plus she talks about the
crooks and scams to watch out for. Also, she provides a lot of ideas about
ways to get yourself in print other than writing a novel. Keep in mind that
most successful authors built up years of experience writing articles and/or short stories before they had their first book published.
There are a multitude of books on the subject of writing and getting
published, including Getting Your Book Published For Dummies and Bestseller:
Secrets of Successful Writing by Celia Brayfield. If you're planning on going the self-publishing route you should check out Mark Levine's The Fine Print of Self-Publishing, in which he reviews the contracts and services of 48 self-publishing companies,
and Writer Beware is another very useful resource
Getting Your Book Reviewed
If your book is likely to be of interest to general readers, in addition to reaching out to websites
such as those below, do look for opportunities within your local community (e.g. ask your local newspaper to review the book; and if you're lucky enough to
have a local independent bookstore, ask if they
would be willing to host a reading/signing - and then make sure to ask how you can help with the promotion to ensure a good turn out).
Building awareness locally can give you useful feedback on the book; it may also provide you with
reviews that you can leverage when you expand your promotion to a wider
audience such as the internet.
If your book is aimed at a very specific audience look for websites and print media aimed at your audience and
contact them - usually your time will be better spent reaching out to a particular specialist group, some of who may be readers -
rather than trying to reach general readers, some of whom maybe interested in your niche topic.
You should also check if your book meets the submission criteria of any of
the 'big four' pre-publication review sources in the USA. These are Booklist,
Library Journal, Publishers Weekly and Kirkus
Reviews. All four are very selective about the types of books they will
consider for review and will usually only review books before publication.
Kirkus Reviews used to offer a
paid review option for books that don't meet the criteria for their main
magazine (e.g. self published, PODs, ebooks and books post-publication), but we assume this will no longer be available now that the magazine's owners have announced that
they are closing Kirkus (Dec 2009).
It is not just the prepublication magazines that are time sensitive - although some may not have firm cutoff dates, most media will
become less interested in reviewing a book the longer it has been released - so make sure that you set time aside to market the
book that you've just spent months, probably years, writing.
Whether you're self-publishing your first novel or have the name of a big
publishing house on your book jacket, you still need to understand the book
publicity process yourself so that you can either do it yourself or
understand how to help your publicist do the best job for you. An excellent
book on this subject is The Savvy Author's Guide to Book Publicity by
Lissa Warren, published in 2003 (ISBN: 0786712759).
Be Careful!
One last note of caution: Before you part with any money for promotions or advertising on or offline, do your
best to verify the claims made. For example, it is very easy for a website to over-claim on their
visitor stats, whether intentionally or unintentionally (for example, by
including page views by non-human traffic such as search engines 'spiders' - which can
add hundreds of thousands of extra page views per month to a website's traffic
stats).
Also, be realistic about your expectations - if a print magazine has a circulation of 30,000, it probably claims a
readership multiple times that (on the basis that some copies are read by more than one person); but when you buy
an ad you're buying an 'opportunity to see' - only a small fraction of those readers
will turn to the page your ad is on, let alone act on it. On the internet, when you buy an ad you are at least
buying actual views by real people (assuming the website suppresses the search engine spiders) but
click through rates are usually measured in fractions of 1% (but, at least,
unlike print media, an interested person can click to find out more). When big companies buy advertising they are doing so as part
of an overall campaign that involves advertising, promotions and PR in multiple places, plus in-store placement.
In short - it is tempting to think that if buy some ads, copies of your book will start to flood
out the door but, realistically, to build a buzz for a book takes a lot of time and exhaustive amounts of energy - there is no
quick fix.
Named for a flower whose blood-red sap possesses the power both to heal and poison, Bloodroot is a stunning fiction debut about the legacies—of magic and madness, faith and secrets, passion and loss—that haunt one family across the generations, from the Great Depression to today.
Samara Taylor used to believe in miracles. But her mother is in rehab, and her father seems more interested in his congregation than his family. And when a young girl in her small town is kidnapped, her already-worn thread of faith begins to unravel.
When she's not digging up bones or other ancient objects, quirky, tart-tongued archaeologist Ruth Galloway lives happily alone in Norfolk. But when a child's bones are found on a desolate beach nearby, and Detective Chief Inspector Harry Nelson calls Galloway for help, Ruth finds herself in...
Few works of literature are as universally beloved as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Now, in this spellbinding historical novel, we meet the young girl whose bright spirit sent her on an unforgettable trip down the rabbit hole –and the grown woman whose story is no less...
The Coral Thief, as riveting and beautifully rendered as Ghostwalk, Rebecca Stott’s first novel, is a provocative and tantalizing mix of history, philosophy, and suspense. It conjures up vividly both the feats of Napoleon and the accomplishments of those working without fame or...
I rarely read anything before this. Years ago I picked this one up and couldn't put it down. It changed me into a book nut. It was a wonderful ...
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I can't believe I waited so long to read this book. Shame on me. This book was wonderful, lyrical, entertaining - all the makings of a wonderful ...
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The book held so much for the reader but in the end I felt robbed. The evolution of Trudy was disturbing and somewhat insulting. She came across as ...
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Justice Department still has issues with Google Settlement(Feb 05 2010) The Department of Justice dealt a serious blow Thursday evening to the chances that the Google Book Search settlement will gain court approval later this...
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Hachette formally adopts 'agency model'(Feb 05 2010) Hachette Book Group USA became the second major U.S. publisher to officially announce its intention to move to an agency model for the sale of e-books....
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