Shock and Awe Joins the Armed Services

Some time back, Aliya Whiteley mentioned on her blog that a few of the RAF folks she knows were glancing through my novel with interest. Even (gasp) threatening to buy the odd copy and pass it around.

I mused that it would be great if there were some way to donate some copies to the service, and, lo, Aliya found one. A few days ago I mailed off a dozen copies of Shock and Awe to the Armed Forces Library Service in Germany, from whence they will be distributed to various sites (including back to the UK).

I've added a little sticker on the title page which suggests that if the reader enjoyed the book, they should drop me an e-mail and let me know where in the world they are. I’m not convinced the little tag will tell me much, since if I don’t get answers, I won’t be sure if

1) No one is reading the book, or
2) People who read the book didn’t enjoy it, or
3) No one looks at title pages (I mean, do you?).

I doubt this move will boost my sales, but it may boost my readership, and that’s just as gratifying. And it’s intriguing to think of someone reading my book in some outpost on the edge of nowhere. (Though on reflection, I'm not sure it's the cheeriest book...)

If this works out, it might be something other writers want to consider. Morally, you can't go wrong donating books to libraries, can you?

Thanks to Aliya for all her help and suggestions. And if you read this and happen to be serving in uniform--hey, check the library.

Ideas About Publicity

I was once represented by a venerable US literary agency (how venerable? They were the agents for Stephen Crane and William James, and ya can't get no more venerabler in these here parts). When you went to their website, the agents had blurbs about their activities, some mentions of whatever famous books they had represented, and pictures of themselves. A sort of showcase for the agents.

Ahem. Aliya Whiteley has signed with Gregory and Company, and they seem to have got it right. She's now Intellectual Property, and so she gets showcased. That's right--the agency is actually trying to promote their writers! What a concept...

Gregory and Company appear to have quite a stable of authors (there's a little drop-down menu on the left that shows them all). Among them I find Val McDermid, Robert Barnard, and someone I don't recognize named Tony Blair. The name's somehow familiar, but I can't quite place it...

As long as we're on the topic of publicity, I need to at least mention the Donald Trump book promotion. I'm Johnny-Come-Lately on this, as both David Thayer ("Need an Audience? Give Them Money") and Jamie Ford ("When vanity press just isn't vain enough") have already laid down very funny posts on the topic. But one surefire way to get people to a book signing is to pay them ($100 to the first 100 people, $50 to the next 200, and on down after that).

So, the next time your publisher claims they are doing a bang-up job of promoting your book, look at them with a skeptical eye and say, "Oh? And how much above cover price did you pay people to come buy them?"