Thursday 15 January 2009

Getting publicity


Publicity. I naively imagined it would be a question of sending copies of the book to reviewers on the national papers, then sitting back and waiting for their glowing reviews. It is beginning to occur to me that this is a flawed strategy and that the chances of someone even reading the book are incredibly slim. So I've taken to trawling newspaper and magazine websites, finding names of journalists who might possibly be interested and asking if I could send them a copy. Most ignore me, but maybe one in twenty get back either asking for a copy or saying that it doesn't sound their kind of thing. So far, after literally hundreds of emails, I'm still waiting for the first national review..


For further thoughts on publicity and more about the book , check out my blog at daverobertsbooks.blogspot.com

Monday 12 January 2009

It's all change


There have been changes aplenty in the world of The Bromley Boys since this blog began. Tom, the editor who commissioned the book has taken redundancy, as has Helen, who handled publicity. I've moved from New Zealand to Hartford, Connecticut, which is arguably not a good thing.
Still, there have been a few pluses recently. Time Out published a 3-page extract last week and the Kentish Times called The Bromley Boys "one of the year's best sporting books". Sales in December were good, especially in the South-East, where it was the Xmas bestseller in a couple of shops.
The problem is still getting the national press interested. I think most of them still see it as a local-interest only kind of book. But it's not. Honest. As a new review on Amazon says: "Why don't Waterstones stock books like this?"