Archives for Juliet Archer's Diary category
Posted on May 08, 2009 under Juliet Archer's Diary |
Eva Hanagan’s obituary was in today’s Times. It was Auberon Waugh’s description of her - ‘The Jane Austen of the 20th Century’ - that caught my eye.
I must admit I’ve not read any of Eva’s novels. Her first one, In Thrall, was published in 1977 when she was 54; her last, The Daisy Rock, in 1998. All seven of her novels were well received, but she later turned to teaching creative writing. She became the first novelist to be appointed as a writer in residence to the Prison Service!
According to The Times, the ‘Jane Austen’ label arises from her ’sharply observed social satires rich in dark irony, by turns tragic and comic’.
Like me, she ‘gained a proficiency in French, German and Russian’ but she also became ‘an accomplished amateur pianist’ - unlike me!
If any of you have read Eva’s novels, please email me at juliet@julietarcher.com.
Posted on May 06, 2009 under Juliet Archer's Diary |
Not quite as glamorous as the Oriental Express and the blue murder refers to some rather rowdy Blackburn Rovers fans, but still …
Geography isn’t my strong point. So when I suggested combining a book signing tour of North-West England with our son’s golf activities, it seemed a sensible use of everyone’s time. Except I hadn’t realised that 3 of my 4 events were a good 50 miles away from our base at The Villa, Wrea Green (highly recommended). And the car was required for local journeys to transport the equivalent of Tiger Woods’ and Phil Mickelson’s golf equipment, plus son if there was room.
So for 4 days I became a commuter on the Trans-Pennine Express and the little local train service that runs between Preston and Blackpool. Great fun, even when some Blackburn Rovers fans murdered several once-respectable football songs on Saturday afternoon. I managed to get to the Borders stores at Warrington, Manchester Fort and Stockport - and back again - with comparatively little effort. Preston, on the Sunday, was even more of a doddle - a 30-minute car journey.
As usual I met lots of lovely readers - all with their own story to tell - and friendly, helpful staff. This time they included the CEO of Borders, although I didn’t realise it at the time!
Posted on Apr 29, 2009 under Juliet Archer's Diary |
For The Importance of Being Emma to be shortlisted for any award is fantastic. To be shortlisted for two in one month is unbelievable!
The latest award nomination is the Romantic Novelists’ Association Joan Hessayon Award. This is given to the best debut novel that has been assessed by the RNA’s New Writers’ Scheme and subsequently published during the last year. There are 7 of us in contention and Catherine Jones, Chair of the RNA, describes our novels as ‘perfect examples of romantic fiction: engaging, brilliant books with a wonderful love story at the heart of each one.’
The winner will be announced at the RNA’s Summer Party on May 13th. The award is generously sponsored by Dr David Hessayon, in honour of his late wife Joan, who was a longstanding member of the RNA and a great supporterof the New Writers’ Scheme.
JA adds: I found the New Writers’ Scheme feedback invaluable. It helped me improve The Importance of Being Emma and motivated me to find a publisher. I’m very proud to be a contender for the Joan Hessayon Award as it’s great recognition for getting published and a way of encouraging unpublished writers to keep going.
Posted on Apr 11, 2009 under Juliet Archer's Diary |
What a week. First there was the mention in the Sunday Times. Then there was the MNA shortlist. Now I’ve had a new drink named after me. Where will it all end?!
The drink was the brainchild of our friends up the road, Sarah and Niall, who’d invited us round last night to celebrate The Importance of Being Emma making the shortlist for the 2009 Melissa Nathan Award for Comedy Romance. They’d invited a few other neighbours and ‘Baby Emma’ was also there, lying contentedly on the table until I picked her up to read an extract. Not my idea, I hasten to add!
So, what is a Juliet Archer? It’s an intoxicating blend of champagne and Archers peach schnapps. Delicious from the start and even better as the evening wears on. My husband was offered a Naked Juliet - that’s also a drink, nothing to do with me! - which was champagne without the Archers.
The drinks were accompanied by canapés - or canopies, as Harriet calls them in my book. But not just any old canopies, it seems, and not even M&S canopies. Graham had caught the trout (in between vast amounts of food and drink - a real test of endurance) and had it smoked. Kay had done the rest and the result was delectable. After this little anecdote, the testosterone levels rose and it appeared that John had pulled the smoked salmon from Loch Fyne with his bare hands and Niall had wrestled an army of pigs to the ground for the Parma ham.
All in all, a lovely evening and a fitting end to the week. Thank you, S&N!
Posted on Apr 09, 2009 under Juliet Archer's Diary |
The Importance of Being Emma is my debut novel and it’s been fantastic just to see it published by Choc Lit. Imagine how I feel now that it’s been shortlisted for the 2009 Melissa Nathan Award for Comedy Romance!
Melissa started her career as an author with modern versions of Pride & Prejudice and Persuasion before producing bestsellers such as The Nanny and The Waitress. After her tragic death from cancer at the age of 37, her husband set up this award. On her website it says that ‘ She wanted to encourage and reward writers who can combine in a novel the magical, life-enhancing elements of humour and love.’
Well, this writer is certainly feeling encouraged and rewarded! And I’m looking forward to the award ceremony on 10th June. Last year’s was strewn with red rose petals and awash with pink champagne! Sounds rather like a certain scene I’m writing in Persuade Me …
You can read more about this at www.melissanathan.com. Please take a moment to check out the Award Background page, which has the rationale and criteria for the award beautifully expressed in Melissa’s own words.
Posted on Apr 05, 2009 under Juliet Archer's Diary |
Keira Knightley and ... a zombie?! Courtesy of The Sunday Times
5th April 2009: All right, all right, I know it’s only a tiny mention …
It’s in an article by Christopher Goodwin and Louis Wise entitled ‘Pride and Prejudice as zombie pulp fiction’. Not exactly what I aspired to with The Importance of Being Emma, but hey!
At the end you’ll find the following paragraph (I’ve put the bit about me in bold):
‘Louis Wise on The Austen Industry
Forget zombies: Austen will soon be contending with aliens, in the film Pride and Predator, funded by Elton John; and vampires, in Michael Thomas Ford’s novel Jane Bites Back. Pride and Prejudice will become a Marvel Comic this year (Marvel has been here before: the Dashwood sisters have hobnobbed with the Fantastic Four) and has been summarised as a series of Facebook updates (“Elizabeth Bennet is ??!!”), not to mention having been staged as a musical several times — a new version should hit Broadway in 2010. The highlight? Lydia Bennet’s I Can’t Resist a Redcoat. Emma, meanwhile, has been updated to The Importance of Being Emma: in Juliet Archer’s novel, our heroine works in marketing, Harriet Smith is her PA and Knightley is in organics. Amanda Grange has given the men’s side of the story, including Edmund Bertram’s Diary (yawn). You can tuck all your Austen trash into your I Mr Darcy tote — your Austen action figure, Elizabeth and Darcy guest soaps and Jane Austen: Reading Is Sexy T-shirt.’
You can read the full article here. Thank you to JF for alerting me!
Posted on Mar 30, 2009 under Juliet Archer's Diary |
Just had my most successful book signing weekend to date. I knew it was going to be good on Saturday, when I found my table had been set up next to Daniel Craig - only the cardboard cut-out version, but still …
Depending on the size of the store, the best-selling book of the day may reach double figures in terms of sales. Obviously, an author doing a book signing has an opportunity to sell at least as well - and should do even better. On Saturday, I sold a staggering (to me, at any rate!) 29 books in a 4-hour stint at Borders Milton Keynes, without the benefit of any special offers (eg 3 for 2). On Sunday, I went to Borders London Colney expecting to do nothing like as well - hadn’t Saturday been a one-off? When I sold another 29 books in another 4-hour stint, I started to wonder what was happening.
Obviously there are local factors - the weather, pre-event publicity, competing events in the area, the store’s customer profile. And obviously the type of book and its cover - and the type of author! - play a part. But, when I thought about it, I realised it’s mainly about me being able to interact with large numbers of people.
My publishers, Choc Lit, have a background in marketing, so I’ve got some eye-catching props and flyers to hand out. I must have given out almost 100 flyers each day. And I didn’t do this randomly - I asked people what sort of books they liked before giving them a flyer inviting them to come and look at The Importance of Being Emma. A flyer is good, because people are often heading straight to the coffee shop, or to buy something specific, and may forget all about my book.
So a store must be busy enough to have a few hundred people coming through its doors who may like my book, out of which I approach 100. This means the book signing table needs to be on the main thoroughfare, preferably near the front door, even if my feet are frozen!
Then I reckon less than half of these came to my table, say 40, and nearly 30 bought the book. Most people picked up the book, looked at the blurb on the back, read the reviews. Sometimes - but not always - we had a chat. And, of course, 9 times out of 10 the customer wanted a personalised signing - which is the power of author events.
Celebrities and famous authors must sign hundreds or even thousands of books at one sitting, with people queuing up at their table. I’m an unknown first-time author, so I have to work the numbers game - approach 100 people to get 29 books signed and sold.
Hard work, but I love it! And I get to meet lovely people, who I hope will become loyal readers as I bring all of Jane Austen’s completed novels into the 21st century. I’m currently working on Persuasion, which will be published later this year as Persuade Me.
Posted on Mar 23, 2009 under Juliet Archer's Diary |
Just back from a weekend in Lincolnshire. We stayed in a lovely B&B, Baumber Park, and spent Saturday in Boston, a bustling market town featuring the tallest parish church tower in England, St Botolph’s.
I’d arranged a book signing at the local Waterstone’s and Jen, the manager, had warned me that they were celebrating the 40th birthday of The Very Hungry Caterpillar the same day. So I turned up early and watched. The children had great fun making caterpillars out of paper circles, listening to the story - which I remember my own children wanting over and over again - and painting beautiful butterflies.
Over on the other side of the store, my table with its spring tulips and bowl of Cadbury’s Roses chocs (thanks, Jen!) struck a distinctly calmer and quieter note. The children left with their handiwork and a Waterstone’s balloon each and I got down to book signing.
Business was brisk and I met some lovely people, including Pauline, who’d been given my book as a Christmas present (thanks, Jo!) and wanted it signed. The staff were great - Jen had even read The Importance of Being Emma on her day off and had given it a glowing recommendation. Quite a few books were presents for Mother’s Day - let’s hope the mums got a chance to put their feet up on Sunday and start reading.
And afterwards, A Very Hungry Juliet was taken out for a nice meal in a country pub!
Posted on Mar 15, 2009 under Juliet Archer's Diary |
Saturday 14th March: a sunny spring day in London and a real buzz in the air - not of bees, but of people out enjoying themselves in our capital city.
Fortunately, a good many found their way into Borders Oxford Street. On the ground floor they were confronted by Lyn from Choc Lit, giving out leaflets about my book signing; as they came up the escalator to the first floor I was lying in wait, pen poised, at my little table flanked by two pink heart-shaped balloons; and, if they managed to escape to the second floor, they were greeted by strategically placed notices in Starbucks.
There were people from just down the road and people from all over the world, particularly the US and Europe. In fact, my first sale was to a lovely Norwegian man whose daughter studied Russian literature - like myself and also Anna Elliot in my forthcoming version of Persuasion. And an old University friend, who I hadn’t met for years, was as surprised to see me as I was to see him!
From 12 noon until 4.45pm I smiled and chatted and signed and was even interviewed by a roving reporter from London Metropolitan University’s student mag, VerveZine. The staff were great and my book sold very well.
Shortly after 5 I met fellow author Victoria Connelly for a coffee and catch-up. Her latest book Molly’s Millions is out now in hardback, with the paperback available in June. She’d just been to a meeting of the Romantic Novelists’ Association on - guess what - Publicising Your Novel. Unfortunately, I was too busy publicising mine to attend …
My next book signing event was also due to be in London, at Borders Charing Cross Road on 19th March. This time it was going to be a talk at 6.30pm followed by a book signing, but unfortunately it had to be rearranged. So watch this space - or rather the Events Calendar!
Posted on Mar 14, 2009 under Juliet Archer's Diary |
Andy Warhol once said that in future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes. In my case, it was only five - although it felt like fifty!
Yes, Friday 13th March was my radio debut: Author of the Week on BBC 3 Counties Radio - The Afternoon Show with Lorna Milton. (My daughter, who has the attention span of a teenage gnat, thought I was on the national radio station BBC 3 - bless!)
Listen to the interview here.
It was also Comic Relief Red Nose Day, so I turned up sporting a fetching little Sainsbury’s number which I had the presence of mind to remove before I went on air. Otherwise I’d have sounded uncannily like Janice from Friends (without the accent).
I got to the studios in Luton in good time. Mind, even I had no problem finding a building with what looked like a spaceship on its roof. I announced myself at the intercom - lo and behold, the front door opened automatically and a voice directed me up the stairs to Reception, where I sat in splendid isolation for 15 minutes listening to - believe it or not - The Afternoon Show with Lorna Milton. Then - at last - a friendly human called Coral appeared and took me down to The Studio Next To Lorna’s.
Staring through the window at Lorna, I realised that there was no escape. I also realised that I felt underprepared. All I knew for certain was that she was going to ask me about myself and my book and that I could read an excerpt (max. 1 page). I’d rehearsed answers to some specific questions, but would they come up?
Fortunately, I’d had excellent advice on handling radio interviews from Melanie at the Romantic Novelists’ Association. So, when I was summoned into The Actual Studio for a quick briefing with Lorna and heard The Actual Questions she was going to ask, I didn’t panic! I went into that interview smiling, Melanie, I really did! (Apparently, even though no one can see it, a smile comes across in your voice.)
The next five minutes were a bit like having a check-up at the dentist’s: I opened my mouth at the right moments and it didn’t hurt - but, boy, was I glad when it was over! Lorna was very good, very professional, and everything seemed to go smoothly. I even managed to mention my next two local book signing events.
I’d just like to say a big thank you to all those who sent me positive vibes beforehand and congratulations afterwards - it definitely helped.
