I’ve been slack about writing the blog … so what’s been happening? I spent most of Monday preparing the talk for the Broadway Bookshop (which happened last night) – very nice atmosphere. Full house which meant about 20 people and I think a fair amount of books were sold. I’m still trying to get a printer – sales figures are good – I keep checking Amazon! They are quite often out of stock but obviously take orders and this doesn’t seem to affect the sales rankings. Write article for ES. Join the findanexpert website – interesting to know whether anything will result from it.
Archive for May, 2008
What I left out earlier in the week was the fact that on Tuesday I’d been on Radio 5 Live with Victoria Derbyshire. On Saturday morning I did Saturday Live with Fi Glover – the most nervewracking radio to date – not least because I realised that so many people I knew would be listening to it. The other guests were Andy McNab, Frank Ahearn, David Starkey and Murray Lachlan Young. I don’t think I’d like television but I do really enjoy doing radio. Review in the Times.
Waterstones put in their core stock order – books are being sent to 150 of their shops – mostly one copy to each – but it’s a beginning. Do a phone interview with Three Counties Radio film programme – although inevitably they ask about the film – I am actually able to talk about the book too. On Wednesday I do LBC with Jeni Barnett – about half an hour – she is a great interviewer and makes me feel totally at ease. Catch up with the accounts. The quotes I am getting back from printers vary enormously. Sign books in the Persephone Bookshop. The stuck-in-a-book blog review goes up. The Daily Mail review gets online.
Another good review in the Daily Mail by Kate Chisholm – its not on the Mail website though – so can’t put it on-line. No other reviews over weekend – although keep checking online. My Amazon sales ranking fluctuate but go up to 2290 at one point and then Amazon are out of stock… Infuriating. Send notices of my 2 bookshop talks to friends and Facebook friends. Start sending out more specs to printers for quotes. The donowdo review by Paul Vlitos goes online.
Review by Byron Rogers in the Spectator – not sure what it’ll do for my reputation as he starts it off by saying I threw a kettle at him … (it’s true – I did!) – but the review is very flattering.Do live interview with Radio Manchester and recorded interview with Radio Jersey – both very thoughtful interviews which last about 10 mins each. On spec I go into Waterstones in Notting Hill and Piccadilly and Hatchards asking if they’d like me to sign books which they do, so I do. Review in this month’s Conde Nast Traveller by Giles Foden – short but very nice - ‘a jewel … a wonderful book … fascinating’. Just seen the First Post review by Nicholas Shakespeare - I’d missed it but my brother had found it and posted it on Facebook.
On Bank Holiday Monday go and do some super-market shopping for the launch. Catch up on e-mails etc. On Tuesday a friend helps me to take the books and soft drinks to John Murrays in Albemarle Street where the launch kicks off at 6.30pm. It goes really well I think – a great turnout of people – leave at about 9.30pm. Now more anxiety about waiting for further reviews. Somebody suggested that I should enter it for biography prizes – so will need to pursue that. Am slightly concerned about the vacuum that lies ahead! Send an A3 poster to the Broadway Bookshop where I am giving a talk on Wed May 21st at 6.45pm.
‘Me and My travels’ appears on the back page of the Escape section of the Observer. I do a telephone interview with Claire Saul for My Weekly – which apparently has a circulation of 500,000. Write to Bookforce who have belatedly sent me an invoice for my proof copies. Instead of a 2-3 day turn-around it took 6 weeks for the books to arrive and I had thought, mistakenly, that they had decided to waive the amount – I hope they will reconsider after my letter.
The books are starting to arrive in the bookshops – Sarah Austin from the Kilburn Bookshop asks me to go and sign their copies which I do willingly. Gardners send me an order which I redirect towards Central and My Travel Companion arrives at Central. I get a text from my sister to say that there is an entry in the Week (03/05/08) under People – totally unexpected. ‘Sarah Anderson had what was perhaps the epitome of the “stiff-upper-lip” childhood, says Cassandra Jardine in The Daily Telegraph. The owner of London’s Travel Bookshop and her siblings saw their parents for just half an hour a day, and were otherwise brought up by nannies who frowned on any show of emotion. Aged nine, the young Sarah developed a rare cancer in her arm. Eventually, doctors advised amputation. Her mother signalled the news by taking her alone into the drawing room. And making a chopping motion with her right hand. After the operation, her missing arm was rarely even mentioned. She was expected to cope, uncomplainingly, and she did – but it hasn’t been easy. “It’s much more traumatic than losing a leg,” she says. “Legs area useful for getting about but arms are our link with the world. We use them to touch, hug, gesticulate.” Yet despite the difficulties she has faced (described in a new book, Halfway to Venus), Anderson, now 60, doesn’t entirely regret the attitudes that prevailed when she was ten. “I’m terribly glad I didn’t lose my arm in these politically correct times,” she sys. “I hate terms like ‘upper-limb amputee’, rather than ‘one-armed’, and I dislike compensation culture. It’s better to get on with things.’ Go to an exhibition at the Wellcome Foundation and manage to persuade the Blackwell bookshop there to order some copies. Saturday Live with Fi Glover has booked me for May 17th – my birthday! Woman’s Hour failed to come up with anything. Discover that I’m appearing on various blogs and websites 60goingon16, americareads and whatarewritersreading. The comments are very positive to date and many comment on my not being able to get a publisher.
I took a copy of the book round to Colin Thubron – his quote on the front has made a lot of difference. Do a telephone interview with the Observer (there should be something in the Escape part of the paper this Sunday). They need a colour photograph – luckily I remembered I had had one taken at the book fair by the Wexas magazine and James Innes Williams kindly says I can use it. Hear from Waterstones that they have made it core stock and it will go out to about 150 stores. Fantastic. Literary Review have held back the review – maybe the June issue – but at least that means I can stop going into my newsagents asking for the May issue. They must think me mad!
