I'm talking about the blogger who calls herself the Fiction Bitch, though personally I would call her the Fiction Angel. Not only did she write a wonderful review of Taking Comfort, she has now nominated it as her fiction book of the year (2006) on Susan Hill's blog. That's the second list I've made it onto!
So thank you, Bitch.
Feel the embossing
I picked up some copies of my other book this lunchtime. I was amazed to see that they've given me an embossed title with shiny red foil lettering.
Does this mean I've made it? Maybe I should give up now. After all, it doesn't get much better than shiny embossed lettering. I can honestly say it's what I've been working for all these years.
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9 comments:
Wonderful news, Roger. I'm confused though. How did we go from MNW, Taking Comfort, and then quickly to Faber and Faber, with a different name, and little hype on your blog? Did I miss something?
'So thank you, Bitch.' - that made me smile.
Yes, Roger. Great news indeed!
Shameless. The different name is because the books are very different. One contemporary urban whatever you call it - the other historical crime. I was advised to use a different name so as not to confuse booksellers. It may seem a little daft but apparently there was a danger they wouldn't know where to put me in the shops.
The books were in submission simultaneously. Taking Comfort submitted directly by me to MNW. This Axe book was doing the rounds with my agent. What you have to understand is I have been an unpublished failure for many many years. I have had a lot of books 'doing the rounds'. I thought if I was lucky I might have one of them come off. In reality, I expected neither of them to get taken up, purely because rejection had been my sole experience up to that point. To have them both accepted was a bit of a shock - and an embarrassment at first. That might have had something to do with my reticence. After talking things over with all parties, I decided to keep quiet about the Faber book so as not to distract from the launch of Taking Comfort and Macmillan New Writing. Then time passed and there never seemed a good moment to bring it up. I finally got an email from the press officer at Faber saying, start plugging it, so I did. That's about it, I think.
Nik - thanks for your never-ending support!
And thanks for looking in Ian!
It's a two-way thing, Roger. You've been a great supporter of mine as well!
It's also really nice to see good things happening to good (and talented) people.
And, of course, you're welcome. Looking forward to your next release. (How good does that sound?)
Cheers,
Nik.
Oooh, embossed. I'm usually a bit prejudiced about embossed covers and avoid them. (Little ribbons in hardbacks, on the other hand, that's a good thing. Shallow, moi?) Looks like I'll have to make and exception ...
Gah! that's 'an exception' not 'and exception', of course
Thanks disgruntled and Mark. Obviously, I'm pretty shallow myself as I am impressed by my own embossing.
Mark, I'm glad you put inverted commas around that huge. It's all relative. But if I sell only one copy in each country, that's fifteen sales, I think. Not a bad start.
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