Hot Little Hands

Here it is... well almost. This is the uncorrected proof that gets used for promotional purposes. I've had them for my books before but not without a colour cover. They were made for Lab Rats but I don't think the sales reps ever saw them. It's good to see it in it a physical form for the first time. It's now a thing, an object in the real world. However that means it's also an object that has to be sold, assessed, reviewed... discounted.

Right now is the moment of hope. The moment when I foolishly allow myself to think that this might be a success. I always hear something positive about the book at this stage - 'it's had great feedback', 'the sales conference was very excited', 'certain influential booksellers are very keen'. I get a bit carried away and light a candle of flickering hope in the maelstrom that is Australian publishing.

Leading Edge Title
This time round it's the news that The Trouble with Sauce is to be a Leading Edge book. Leading Edge is a buying group of independent book sellers. Each month they select a number of books which are offered at a slight discount and pushed within their stores. It tends to be known best sellers or books which are more suited to the 'independents' than to the big chains. I think I fall in the latter category. It's certainly a plus being on the list and apparently they don't often do ABC Books. This may be part of the new age of Harper Collins.

First rule of being a minor author: be nice to the reps
I found out about Leading Edge from one of the Harper Collins reps. In my relentless pursuit of self-promotion I engineered a lunch with him via one of the Allen and Unwin reps. It was like a informal handover, from the person who used to sell my books in, to the one who was just about to start. In Australia where there are lots of independent book stores and all books aren't sold on group deals, the reps still play an important role. Book stores listen to them so if they say stock Bruno's book, they probably will. Now, at least I know one of the reps selling my books, or more the point, he knows me. The manager of Kinokunyia was also there - again a big plus. He asked if I wanted to come and do a library talk with him in September. I said YES of course.

Second rule: Pity the Publicist
The big mistake Harper Collins have made in giving me a copy of the uncorrected proof is that it lists the contact details for the publicist on the back. Poor Monica - she's about to get flooded with good ideas and fabulous suggestions on a book for which she probably has about 2.5 hours of work allocated.

Love a good typo

This has to be the best typo I've come across in ages and, best of all, it's not one of mine! South Sydney Leagues Club, located in my neighbourhood is under renovation and is hoping to add a supermarket. The development application, submitted to council and available for public view, says the supermarket plans to run a takeaway café with some highly paid staff:
'The café will be run by a barrister employed by the supermarket.'
As one of my neighbours adroitly pointed out - 'I suppose that rules out suing them for serving bad coffee!'

Moving swiftly on - time for grown ups

It's finally happened - I've started writing the adult novel, the one where I try to be the best writer I can and move beyond being simply entertaining. So far I like my intro page. Going into the story it gets a bit "typical Bouchet" but I can work on that. For the present day parts I'm trying present tense narrative. I always hated that as a reader but for some reason I'm giving it a go here. I want the narrator to be discovering at the same time as the reader.

When we plunge into the past narrative (which is most of the book) I use past tenses. Haven't got to that bit yet.

It's nice to be finally on the way. This one has had more think time and more preparation than anything before. If it were a journey I have packed and repacked my bags, got out the maps, bought additional maps, cross referenced them. I'd have fretted about not knowing the exact route and doubted my orienteering's ability to find the best route.

After a few 4 am panics that I would never set off I had my 'just do it moment' and sauntered out of the door this morning pretending it were just a quick stroll. So far it's all quite fresh and exciting, the countryside is pleasant and I'm settling into my new hiking boots. I don't have any Kendal Mint Cake in my knapsack in case I do get lost. Perhaps this is a mistake, it's going to be a long trek across difficult country.

The final cover

In flurry of last minute activity, the cover has been finalised, the shoutline written, researched and approved, thank yous & dedications rushed through and packs for the book reps put together. Don't let anyone tell you that the book industry can't move fast when it wants to. So far so good with Harper Collins running ABC books. I get the sense that there's more people involved and active and I think there will be a more direct relationship with the reps. There will be for me as I've engineering meeting one Sydney rep for lunch next week. I plan to bribe shamelessly with alcohol.

Here's the final version of the cover. I like it, but when it's finalised I get nervous. It's easy to absolutely love the first versions because you know there's time and space for improvement, but when the invigilator calls 'pens down' that's it. GULP.

And the winner is...

Thank you to everyone who voted on the cover, left comments and gave me opinions on facebook. It was fantastic and very useful. I also canvassed the opinions of over 400 school children at Waitara Public School along with several young friends. Their favourite was No1, with No 3 not very far behind. Number 2 was a distant 3rd. Of course this clashes with the preference on here and at the publishers for Number 2.

I did like Number 2 but pointed out to the publishers that there were similarities to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. The typeface is virtually the same, the 3-part title-in-the-middle structure and the outline figure are quite familiar. I'm hoping my book will also be featuring "Winner Whitbread Book of the Year" on the cover.
The 'covers committee' at Harper Collins (yes they have a committee!) has now suggested going for Cover 3 with the tomato sauce to be more of a splodge and less of a Dexter-esque blood pour. The pills will be made to look more like capsules than the latest ecstasy tablet. I'm happy with this.

Judging a book by its cover
I've always maintained that this is perfectly possible and if you can't, something has gone wrong. I tested the case with one group of kids at Waitara. I showed them the covers without saying anything about the book and asked them what it was about. They said it was aimed at boys. Most said aged between 8 and 12, some said a bit younger, others older. They all agreed it was a comedy but was a little bit scary too. The book was about there being poison in food or about a boy who hated Tomato Sauce. One young boy developed quite an interesting plot about a boy who thought all the food he was given has something wrong with it and was scared of eating.

I could see how they could tell this from the covers. However they went on to say the book was set mainly in one place in Australia and it didn't move around very much. They were spot on, but I still can't see how they worked that out from the covers. Quite brilliant.

Manuscript Complete
I have completely finished writing the book with the final manuscript now submitted. I had a strange block on the final sentence. It just needed tidying up to make it clearer but I couldn't do it! It took me over 24 hours to fix. Talk about coming a cropper at the final hurdle. The last word is 'do'.