9. Getting a shock – A wonderful surprise

Getting a shock – A wonderful surprise: Michael Joseph Imprint is, I’m told, Penguin’s powerhouse of commercial publishing. They want to sell books. They target the main booksellers, of course, but also the supermarkets. And because of this, most new fiction they publish in genres like crime, go straight to paperback. My book was to hit the shelves in this format in spring 2014. Only… not. In in September 2013 my agent emailed to relay that Penguin had decided launch the book in June 2014, in hardback! This, they said, was an endorsement of the writing. Now I should say that all along nice people have been saying complementary things about the book, but I’m a novice; I’ve never been able to shake the suspicion that this might be the publishing industry version of theatre luvie-speak. But this news was a real shot in the arm. Another nice touch, the launch date coincides with my wedding anniversary, which one can only hope should help me remember both.