Thursday, June 09, 2005

Get 'em while they're hot

I discovered today that there were less than 50 copies of The Lady Soldier left in the warehouse. Gulp. I had not expected them to go THAT quickly.
Kate Allan and I have been doing quick checks to make sure that there will enough available for a variety of events. We think we have convinced the publishers to do a reprint rather soonish as Kate is going to appear at the Jane Austen Fair at the end of August.
Apparently, the Jane Austen Fair attracts thousands of people and she needs to be there with stock to sell. Hopefully as the new movie will be coming out, it will be even more crowded than usual and lots of people will buy our book.
Also, the bookseller who promised to stock The Lady Soldier in Hexham has not yet done so. He has now promised to do so and to possibly arrange a Saturday morning signing. I explained that I did not want to get a piece in the Hexham Courant until I knew he had books. I also explained about the reviews in The Northern Echo and the two different re-enactment magazines. In addition, I handed him a copy of the Newcastle Journal Culture magazine with the article about the RNA Northumberland in it.
At his last signing plus talk, the author sold 25 books. He also does Evening with authors. The Anne Fine one was a sell out -- 60 people paid for a talk and a dinner with her. I am not in that league. But it would be pleasant to sell a few copies. After all I am a local author.
On 14-16 June, Kate and I will be appearing on the Romance Junkies website-- talking about The Lady Soldier etc. So hopefully that will generate more interest.
Yesterday, we were contacted by Great Writing, a new website dedicated to writing and are doing an interview. Again links with Amazon are promised.
It is all rather exciting but rather nerve wracking, particularly if the publisher is not quick on their feet and we end up doing publicity but no books! As Kate discovered back in April, it is much easier to sell books at fairs if you actually have the stock on hand.
On the positive side, a reprint means the first print run books are potentially much more valuable. It is the books which have all the print numbers on the copyright page from 1 to 10 that are the ones collectors want.
And of course we have made our advance -- always good news.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Glad it's all going so well for your first book! All that hard work is paying off.

... and you've been tagged...