A Busy Week: Interviews, Debates, Readings, Signings, Meetings and Tours

As per my previous post, I visited London last week for a few days. This was a spur-of-the-moment thing; I could have done the interview at the BBC World Service just as easily from Belfast, but I wanted to make the trip and do the interview in person, and meet some of the good folks who have been working on my behalf. I hadn't intended to cause a fuss, but all of a sudden meetings and dinners and office tours were being organised, and it turned into a very busy, but very worthwhile, trip.

At various dinners, office tours and visits to the pub, I met, amongst others, my editor Geoff Mulligan, my other editor Briony Everroad, Harvill Secker publishing director Liz Foley, my UK agent Caspian Dennis, my lovely and very patient publicist Kate Bland, and marketing director Roger Bratchell, as well as a host of other marketing, editorial and sales people far too numerous to mention. Suffice it to say that I was met with hospitality and warmth wherever I went.

I learned more about the publishing business over these three or four days than I have done in two or three years of following all the agent and editor blogs out there. Don't get me wrong - I still believe the wealth of information out there on the Internet is a key factor in my getting as far as I have. But actually meeting the people who are working on my book, finding out how they deal with the press and the retailers, how hard they have to strive to get me out there on the shelves and into the reviews - well, I have a whole new respect for what they do, and a whole lot more gratitude.

I'm a good example of a little knowledge being a dangerous thing, and I have gone into publication expecting a fight. All those blogs out there tell us writers we have to be ready to push and push, and as a result, those of us lucky enough to make it over the transom might wind up on a strange combination of the offensive and the defensive. For example, and I shall confess a big lump of naivety here, after the brilliant review I received in The Observer, I felt a little let down when it wasn't immediately followed by a plethora of reviews in other publications. It wasn't until I met the good people at my publisher that I realised those reviews have to be fought tooth and nail for, that there are dozens and dozens of books duking it out for those precious column inches. Then I realised how incredibly fortunate I've been to get the reviews I've had; there are any number of authors who would gladly give a significant body part to get in depth reviews in both The Observer AND The Guardian. And I also now know how very lucky I am to have gotten so much shelf space in the chain stores, like Eason's and Waterstone's, not to mention the fabulous placement I've had in the airport branches of WH Smith's.

Another valuable lesson has been having realistic expectations in terms of sales for a debut trade paperback. I am told my sell-in is fantastic, enough to make many more established authors envious, and the sell-through is very good from early indications. But something I didn't know, and this may be UK specific and/or particular to the thriller/crime genre, but next year's mass market paperback release is where the real show is. This is where the publisher wants the sales, the hard numbers, and consequently this is where the marketing budget is focused.

Anyway, some photos:



(l-r) Geoff Mulligan (editor at large), Yours Truly, Liz Foley (HS publishing director), Caspian Dennis (my UK agent), Briony Everroad (editor)

And here is my publicist Kate Bland outside Foleys bookshop on Charing Cross Road, where she took me to sign books:



And finally, in this particulr branch of WH Smith's at Stansted Airport, I was #1! I was #15 in a couple of others, but let's just focus on this particular branch, shall we?:



One of the big surprises of the trip came when I went to the offices of the Abner Stein agency in Kensington to meet my UK co-agent Caspian Dennis. I had no earthly idea who else this agency represented, and my jaw must have made quite a noise when it hit the floor upon seeing some of the names. I won't mention them, but we're talking the biggest of the biggest of the big among contemporary authors, as in none more big, like mastadons of modern novelists. I am in quite extraordinary company there.

And finally...

There were a couple of interesting radio bits and pieces recently, and I have saved the audio for anyone interested. The first is the aforementioned BBC World Service interview, which can be listened to here at this link, complete with sound effects during the reading.

The second, and most interesting, was a debate that aired on BBC Radio Ulster just over a week ago on the Sunday Sequence programme, in which the presenter Robbie Meredith discussed the ethics and politics of The Twelve with journalists and authors Henry McDonald and Ruth Dudley Edwards. It's about ten minutes long, and well worth listening to by clicking here.

I'm Back

I'm back in the world of blogging after a short break. This has been a hectic period, and after my thirty day blog marathon, I needed a bit of a rest. So, here's a round up:

New Reviews of THE TWELVE

A review appeared in today's Metro newspaper, which is one of the most widely read dailies in the UK. They said: "Stuart Neville's blistering debut thriller is a walk on the wild side of post-conflict Northern Ireland that brilliantly exposes the suffering still lurking beneath the surface of reconciliation and the hypocrisies that sustain the peace. Neville ceaselessly cranks up the tension ... but it's his caustic assessments of present-day Northern Ireland, penetrating its sad, confused predicaments, that really hit home."

A review also appeared in the Leinster Leader, courtesy of Laura Cassidy, which said: "[Neville's] perfect construction will have the reader flicking ferociously from one page to the next ... a real page-turner. Suspense continues to build throughout the book, culminating in an ending that will both satisfy and surprise. Not since Alex Barclay's Darkhouse has there been such a polished debut thriller from an Irish author."

One thing I've learned in recent days: nothing gives your sales a kick like a good review in a prominent publication. They're golden.

Readings

Last week I attended two book launches in one evening, both within a few hundred yards of each other.

The first was for AFTERMATH by Ruth Dudley Edwards at the Queen's Universty Bookshop. Aftermath is a factual account of the fight for justice by the families of the twenty-nine people killed in the Omagh bombing of 1998. It's an extraordinary story of courage in the face of evil as ordinary people, denied justice in the criminal courts, make world legal history by bringing the terrorists to account in the civil courts.



The other launch was for Adrian McKinty's FIFTY GRAND at No Alibis, which has been receiving praise from all over the world. Adrian travelled all the way from Australia to be in his (almost) home town, and I didn't want to miss it, so I ducked out of Ruth's event early so I could catch it. Beer followed, and I regret to say I wound up a little worse for wear, which was all Gerard Brennan's fault. He forced - forced, I say - me to have that last pint that tipped the balance.



Work in Progress

Finally, at long last, the sequel to THE TWELVE is nearing completion. I'm just at the final showdown. This is always a difficult stage for a novel; the end is in sight, but there's that slight sadness of having to let it go. But I will be very, very happy to see this book finished. More than one author has told me the second novel is the toughest, and my experience bears that out. Hopefully, with a bit of luck, the next time I blog it will be to announce that it's done.