My big at-home book launch for Stalker took place last Sunday, 5 June. So I feel Stalker is at last well and truly out there. I’m also full of admiration for the disciplined, sober launches I’ve been to in the past, held in bookshops, with orderly lines of buyers queuing up for the author’s signature, and time allocated for the author to read out a chapter with maybe a short Q&A to follow. This was nothing like that. In fact it felt like chaos– it felt like a party!
On Stalker’s actual publication date – I June – I also went along to Southwark Cathedral for the Society of Authors annual Awards. So many writers there – all I imagine with at least one book behind them. This led to a short struggle with imposter syndrome as I listened to an awesome talk by keynote speaker Lemn Sissay, on themes of hope and connection. What a performer….
I’d never realised before I went into print myself how much ‘us writers’ hang onto every word of praise, and search every comment for the hidden compliment, or how vulnerable and exposed this whole exercise has made me feel. So it was a joy to get a call from one of my readers last night, quite late, saying she’d just finished the book, and ‘loved it’. She’d also discovered what a bach is, having mistaken it at first for a typo. I’ve never craved compliments before; bizarre that I do now. Call it positivity, whatever, but I’ve been reminded again how precious they are. And how appreciated. No going back now.
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