This has been a whirlwind of a week. Again I’m going to do this week’s newsletter in short format because I just didn’t take the time to make daily notes throughout the week.

First, though, there are two things I forgot to mention last time.

Jason Fischer, the author who arguably caused *waves hands* all this to happen, is a finalist in the 2021 Australian Shadows Awards in the Novel category with Papa Lucy & the Boneman, the book that arguably caused *waves hands* all this to happen. So that’s incredibly gratifying, to say the least. Keep your fingers crossed on April 11th (the awards are on April 12th, but in Australia, where they live in the FUTURE).
Emily, Genevieve’s agent, said this, which is also incredibly gratifying.

To which I only have to add: Big publishers are giant wusses.

So back to this week. Let’s see.

Genevieve’s book got a trailer:

AND Genevieve herself did a WHOLE-ASS INTERVIEW ON THE ACTUAL BBC, which is just mindblowing to me. Have a listen: go here and skip to 90 minutes in. Let Savage Garden finish up their thing, and then enjoy the interview!

What else—Oh yes, I also found a setting in Ingram Spark that may for once and for all address the issue of whether Gardners will let some places have my books or not. The question of whether they’re “returnable” may be what’s in play; I always thought they were set to be returnable but not physically to me (aka any returns would be destroyed), but maybe I got that wrong, because there seems to be a setting that lets me state that explicitly.

Anyway, it takes a WEEK for settings to change (this seems as believable to me as the fact that Nielsen charges you HUNDREDS of pounds to keep track of some 13 digit numbers in a spreadsheet, or that they also charge you to generate barcodes; even Ingram Spark doesn’t charge for that, and I’d consider them the Ryanair of publishing when it comes to extra fees)—where was I? Oh yeah. So I made that change a week ago, so maybe next week I’ll be able to see if it worked. What a palaver.
I got ALMOST all of my covers sorted out—just waiting for Hangdog Souls artwork and then we’re good—and I got Jessica Gregson’s After Silence off to the Booker Prize (hell yes, it’s that good—haven’t you learned to trust me by now?).
I also got the hardback for Chocolate Cake for Imaginary Lives almost ready; I’m just waiting for Ingram to do again in 3-5 working days what Amazon does in 3-5 working minutes and let me order a wretched proof.
In the midst of getting all these books ready for you to buy, I found how hard I’m going to get hit (and therefore you’re going to get hit) by rising paper/printing costs. Hardbacks are eye-wateringly expensive now (Jess’s book is nearly 500 pages and will cost £19.99 because it’s only at that cost that I can avoid making a loss on it). Prices for other hardbacks will have to rise too. Chocolate Cake was supposed to be £13.99, which would have meant a loss on every copy—it’s going to be £15.99 now. Fortunately, we seem to be still ok for paperbacks; I don’t fully understand why, but this is where we are.
I think everything (bar Hangdog Souls) is now on Goodreads.
And I’ve booked a launch party in for The Transfer Problem by Adam Saint and Genevieve too. It’s going to be Thursday 28 April at Vout-O-Reenee’s. Invitations will go out soonish; I’ll probably put everyone who receives this letter on the list (but let me know if that is Not OK).

I think that’s all; the last thing is a plea:

PLEASE RATE AND REVIEW ANY BOOKS YOU HAVE BOUGHT FROM ME ON AMAZON AND GOODREADS PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE

It really makes a massive difference.

Ok, if I don’t go now, I’m not going to get my son’s birthday presents wrapped before he gets home from school. And that’s not negotiable. Gotta run.

Yours,

Angel

The Deixis Press Weekly

The Deixis Press Weekly - Issue #37