Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Some mate he turned out to be.

Stephen King, I mean. All he did was bombard me with bulletins about his latest book. Jeez, I hate people like that, don't you?

Ah, well. Must go. There's probably a message from Kurt.

8 comments:

Dr Ian Hocking said...

Hmm, I was thinking of signing up to that (since a couple of other, lesser-known-than-Kingie friends are on it) - is it worthwhile?

Roger Morris said...

Depends what you mean by worthwhile, Ian. That is to say, it depends what you hope to get out of it. But it's free, so I figure there's nothing to lose. Another opportunity to spread the word about the book. You can select 'friends' to invite into your space, and if you do it well you might get people who share similar interests. I'm going after writers. Trying to create a writer-only space where people can swap thoughts and tell each other about their work. If you take the plunge, let me know and I'll add you to my list. It would be great to have you there.

Anonymous said...

I thought it was "MySpace" and not "TheirSpaceInvadingYourSpace"?

Email spam is quite enough, thank you. They are getting cuter by the minute, or so they think. Contact details on my blog start with the word "crime", so now I'm getting spam from "crime" this and "crime" that. As cute as a Cadbury's Button left on the tarmac in seven hours of this weather! Could anyone be tempted?

I have a question for you, Roger. Were you perhaps at the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival last weekend? There was someone there that looked a lot like the image on your pic, but a bit less jolly. Just wondering...

Thanks for the acknowledgement on my hypothesis, by the way. Pleased to hear your stats are up. (Bet that's not all either, when it comes to your readers.) OK, I stop there.

Roger Morris said...

CFR - Ha! I like it. However, I have only myself to blame as I invited SK in, as well as Kevin Smith (KS) Director of Clerks and a whole lot of other stuff. He is another one for sending bulletins, usually about his blog. Actually it's fine, because it's easy to ignore these bulletins. I wonder, though, if any of these famous friends will ever engage in what I'm trying to get going there, which is a bit of a 'writers' space'. Quite a few people are joining in a simple exercise of describing their work in simple tags. It's a starting point.

I wasn't at Harrogate, I'm afraid. Does this mean I have a clone, or an impersonator? I don't know if my book qualifies as crime fiction, though there is a dead body in it and a rather nasty man who is certainly a criminal. More than that would be telling.

Roger Morris said...

Oh, I can now include Robert Crumb, comic book god, amongst my friends!

mattfwcurran.com Web Admin said...

Hi Roger

I see by Amazon.com that Taking Comfort comes out in the States on 31st August (but they don’t have a cover for it!) so you should be making more friends over the Atlantic.

Have they made any alterations to the cover, or content? I’m decidedly curious about how the Macmillan New Writing titles perform over in the US – it could mean mega-bucks. Or not.

Roger Morris said...

Matt, I was told the US release date would be March 2007 so I'm a bit confused. I was also told it would be a trade paperback, though amazon lists it as a hardback. (Does TP count as HB, I wonder?) I suspect that it is amazon that has got it wrong.

The US edition will be the same as the UK. It's still published by MNW, just distributed by an American distributor called Trafalgar Square Books, who specialise in taking British books to the American market. That's my understanding anyhow. If anyone's got any more info, feel free to put it up.

I don't think it will lead to unimagined riches. But it is another opportunity to sell a few more books, for which I am exceedingly grateful.

Anonymous said...

Twas a sort of clone, Roger. One can never tell when comparing pics with live persons. I never saw the man smiling though - so he only "may have been" you.

One theme at Harrogate this year was that the crime genre is ever widening, with authors pushing the boundaries. Some newbies hadn't necessarily thought they were writing crime/thrillers but were advised to market their books as such. It's not necessarily a dead body or more, an investigation and the presence of "authorities", professional or amateur that is the "package" these days.

Thanks for the info on MySpace. I intend to stay clear. I think I'd find it too overwhelming...