WRITING A BOOK IS JUST THE BEGINNING

This is great, I thought, much better than self-publication. Having a commercial publisher at last, I can just sit back and think about my next work. No more trying to flog my book through friends and contacts. Once, in desperation for exposure, I sent a manuscript to Melvyn Bragg. He sent me a kind reply but my sales did not improve. But now, AustinMacauley’s marketing department would do all the hard work.

Well, they have been busy on my behalf, but that didn’t absolve me from also doing my bit. So, up to publication day, and beyond, I have been boring the pants off subscribers to LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter with illustrated posts declaiming my new book, Pig, as well as emailing local news organisations and the local branches of major bookshops, offering to provide a personal appearance with marketing materials provided by the publisher. None of the bookshop chains replied. I suppose they’re only interested in established authors. But undaunted, I set off in my car to the nearest town, Ellon in Aberdeenshire, to see how my local bookshop manager would respond. The chap running Better Read Books was far more congenial than I had hoped, declared he was always keen to support local authors, and took four copies of my book, a wad of bookmarks, and a poster. He suggested I also visit the town library, since ‘they always welcome free books’. Which I did, leaving them two copies, a poster and a little bemused. So, that gave me more of a sense of satisfaction than pumping out text on social media. The personal touch, that always appealed to Bill, my antihero in Pig.

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