I have just got off the phone from Paul, the publicist from Authors OnLine. He has submitted the book to quite a few people now, including The Times, Borders and Bertrams, one of the two largest distributors here in the UK. Two out of three of The Times reviewers love it, and the third is reading it at the moment. As to whether they will print a review though remains to be seen, as they do get around 200 submissions a week. Paul was lucky then to persuade them to look at my book at all. Even so, the fact that they do like it means that they will hopefully tell other people and they in turn will tell other people and so it goes on. You only have to get one good review in the right place and you are off and running ....
A lot of them have though commented that although they love the book, there is something about the cover that does not say 'pick me up and read me'. Paul himself said that he felt this too, but he did not know exactly what it was that was wrong. The two people from The Times though, and also Borders in Birmingham have said that they think it would be better if the cover was along the lines of the X Files or ET, where the cover comes towards you from a light in the background, a bit like some of the books on NDE's maybe. I need them to give this some serious thought, as these people carry considerable clout in the industry and their opinions matter. The book can still do well, but with the right cover it could do even better. Paul's son is an artist so if and when I come up with any more ideas then he may be able to do something for me at hopefully reasonable cost. In the meantime though I will start by having a look at my own library for some inspiration. Of course any ideas that anyone on here has will also be appreciated ....
A lot of them have though commented that although they love the book, there is something about the cover that does not say 'pick me up and read me'. Paul himself said that he felt this too, but he did not know exactly what it was that was wrong. The two people from The Times though, and also Borders in Birmingham have said that they think it would be better if the cover was along the lines of the X Files or ET, where the cover comes towards you from a light in the background, a bit like some of the books on NDE's maybe. I need them to give this some serious thought, as these people carry considerable clout in the industry and their opinions matter. The book can still do well, but with the right cover it could do even better. Paul's son is an artist so if and when I come up with any more ideas then he may be able to do something for me at hopefully reasonable cost. In the meantime though I will start by having a look at my own library for some inspiration. Of course any ideas that anyone on here has will also be appreciated ....
