Less than a month before the launch of my new book and thoughts now turn to the reaction of readers. Scary, really, but that’s the thing about this writing lark; you spend so many months locked in a room, hammering out words on a keyboard and then one day, way down the line, those words eventually see the light of day and you can only hope that people like what they see,
In the meantime, no one will be able to fault my lovely publishers for the effort that is going in to letting people know that the book exists. There are press releases and publicity postcards ready to fly and lots of little independent bookshops are receiving cardboard tubes stuffed with – not only postsers depicting the book – but delicious wrapped chocolates too. That’s not completely gratuitous because my chocolate eating habit is a running theme of the book.
Then there are the promotional videos that have been running on social media – set to hit a reach target of 100,000 before the end of the month. I hate to brag (he lied), but the most successful of these has been the one I suggested around the date of the book’s launch: Halloween. Against a backdrop of spooky images and sound effects, it poses the simple question: what frightened you when you were young? Already we’re receiving answers from around the country. Many talk about a fear of the dark or confined spaces, others mention mysterious noises in the attic and one person singled out the Hound of the Baskervilles.
Have a look yourself and feel free to share your own childhood fear. I promise we wont laugh (much).
Jeff's Zones 