My 2014 Highlights as a novice – Katharine Ann Angel

I said I’d never do anything ‘up front,’ I’d never meet an agent, and I’d avoid the media…

January: I nervously held my second book-signing in Waterstones and sold 29 books. Following that signing I went on to hold plenty more signings and learned to enjoy meeting the public and supporting booksellers. March: I was a guest of Alison Butterworth on the radio.  Since then I’ve ‘done’ radio six times, mostly to advertise signings, but also to promote ‘What’s Your Story, Chorley?’ which I helped launch in April. This was Chorley’s new book festival, which 2QT supported – thank you all!

October: In support of independent bookshops, I helped Elaine from Silverdell’s to run a ‘Books Are My Bag’ (BAMB) party in the Imperial War Museum, Salford. There I met the agent of Virginia Woolf who invited me to visit her workplace in London – and in November I did just that! She leads ‘The Society of Authors’ and is keen to expand ‘up north’. December: Maria Felix Vas from BBC Radio Lancashire interviewed me inside Silverdell Bookshop. I was asked to choose the music to illustrate my life – then I signed books all afternoon. Every month through 2014: Working on new novel.

What’s helped? 1. Linking my Facebook business site to twitter. 2. Creating leaflets to give Joe Public in the street before signings. 3. Thanking shop managers, radio interviewers and reporters via email or twitter. 4. 2QT closed facebook site is brilliant!

Useful link: http://www.societyofauthors.org/authors-north

 

Katharine’s debut book was Being Forgotten a book for young adults.