RNA book marketing morning

Saturday’s talk to the RNA in London seemed to go well. (Or it might just be that I used lots of amusing cartoons in my presentation.)

Certainly, it was beneficial to me to pull together online book marketing into an hour’s talk, bearing in mind the constraints – finanical, technical and time-wise – which an author has. I suffer from lack of all three.

Thank you to Brian Kavanagh for allowing me to show his excellent book trailer for his novel The Embroidered Corpse, to Jenny Haddon for arranging the event, and to my co-speaker Alison Baverstock author of Marketing Your Book, An Author’s Guide, who gave an excellent talk, which included how authors should work with their publishers’ publicity department. Answer: be pleasant at all times, build up a relationship, inform them of anything helpful well in advance (about the time you hand your final manuscript in) and be prepared to go beyond what they are already doing for you (for example, in terms of local newspapers, or personal connections you might have who might help you). I’d also like to thank the audience for laughing in all the right places.

Have you noticed that hi-points seem to be followed by lows? Not long after I’d enjoyed a lovely lunch with some writer friends following the book marketing morning, I was robbed on the London Underground and had my purse stolen!