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TERRIFIED AUTHOR TACKLES WINCHESTER CONFERENCE - AND SURVIVES!
Jul 10th 2004
Jul 10th 2004
New Authors Online author, Anne Brooke, recently took her small amount of courage
in both hands and set up a table at the bookfair at The Annual Writers' Conference (held in Winchester in June) in order to sell copies of her blisteringly funny new novel, The
Hit List, a comedy of sex, murder and country living set in the hinterlands
of Suffolk.
At
first she found herself lurking in the vicinity of the emergency exit and in a
position which only the most determined book-buyer would find. But by dint of
looking sad and fluttering her eyelashes at a passing (male) organiser, she managed to get herself moved to a more desirable position next to the entrance. Revisiting long-forgotten market-tradeswoman skills and her Essex Girl past, she then proceeded to bewilder casual passers-by with a stream of surreal patter ranging from "Buy this and amaze your friends with your insider knowledge of Suffolk sexual rituals - free fete tips thrown in!" to "Buy this and I'll stop talking - which has to be worth £9.99 (but to you, sir, only £7!)" - the latter worked better, by the way (hmm, wonder why...).
After two intensive days, during which Anne also attended some of the wide variety of seminars and lectures provided at the Annual Writers' Conference, she managed to sell over 20 copies of the novel to be seen with this summer, hand out dozens of flyers, make several interesting new friends and at least one enemy. Not only that, but her lack of shame and booming voice attracted the attention of Writers' News journalist, Jonathan Telfer, who promises to cover the story (plus action photos!) in the next edition of Writers' News magazine - you heard it here first, folks!
In short, a worthwhile marketing exercise and one I can wholeheartedly recommend to other Authors Online-ers - roll on, AWC 2005!!
At
first she found herself lurking in the vicinity of the emergency exit and in a
position which only the most determined book-buyer would find. But by dint of
looking sad and fluttering her eyelashes at a passing (male) organiser, she managed to get herself moved to a more desirable position next to the entrance. Revisiting long-forgotten market-tradeswoman skills and her Essex Girl past, she then proceeded to bewilder casual passers-by with a stream of surreal patter ranging from "Buy this and amaze your friends with your insider knowledge of Suffolk sexual rituals - free fete tips thrown in!" to "Buy this and I'll stop talking - which has to be worth £9.99 (but to you, sir, only £7!)" - the latter worked better, by the way (hmm, wonder why...).After two intensive days, during which Anne also attended some of the wide variety of seminars and lectures provided at the Annual Writers' Conference, she managed to sell over 20 copies of the novel to be seen with this summer, hand out dozens of flyers, make several interesting new friends and at least one enemy. Not only that, but her lack of shame and booming voice attracted the attention of Writers' News journalist, Jonathan Telfer, who promises to cover the story (plus action photos!) in the next edition of Writers' News magazine - you heard it here first, folks!
In short, a worthwhile marketing exercise and one I can wholeheartedly recommend to other Authors Online-ers - roll on, AWC 2005!!