An Interesting Month - Andrew Crofts

Well, that was an interesting month.

A wise old agent once said to me, “some projects, Andrew, just seem to travel on oiled wheels”, and that seems a perfect description for the birth of my memoir, “Confessions of a Ghostwriter”, this month.

The project began to show promise when the editors at Friday Project suggested almost no changes to the first draft of the manuscript. It picked up speed when their excellent public relations company, The Light Brigade, told me that Robert McCrum at the Observer had read the proofs and wanted to come to see me, followed shortly afterwards with the news that Nick Higham wanted to interview me on BBC News’s “Meet the Author” spot.

Within days of publication the Observer article was up on the Guardian website, had been picked up by another Guardian journalist, Hadley Freeman, and was being widely tweeted and commented on.

Even before “Meet the Author” had hit the screens favourable reviews had appeared close to home in the Telegraph, the Times and  the New Statesman, and as far afield as the South China Morning Post, not to mention a host of blogs and websites. Requests for radio interviews followed, plus a couple of speaking engagements and an interview for Italy’s La Repubblica. The Sunday Express followed up on one of the stories in the book.

So, the billion dollar questions are;

(a) Will all this exposure make people actually buy the book?
(b) Why did this launch go so smoothly?
(c) How can I replicate the experience with every book I write in the future?


The answer in all cases; not a clue.


Comments

madwippitt said…
Congratulations on such an impressively smooth arrival into the world of Confessions ... I've just read the free sample - brilliant! I'll be downloading the book later. So that's one sale :-)
Nick Green said…
It's a mixture of skill and luck, or rather a virtuous circle of both. You're lucky enough to have a subject that has an inherent fascination for a lot of people: ghostwriting (I mean, the very word oozes mystery and excitement, whatever the actual job might be like). But you're lucky enough to have this subject because you're skilful enough to be a ghostwriter. And because you're skilful enough to be a ghostwriter, you're also skilful enough to be able to write a great book about ghostwriting... which is lucky, isn't it?

That is... if you really ARE the author. Already I'm having doubts...
Chris Longmuir said…
I watched the TV programme, and I've bought the book, so that's one sale at least. But you've missed a trick here, Andrew - you should have had the book links at the bottom of this blog to encourage more sales. I'm sure readers would have been tempted to click because it's a fascinating post.
Kathleen Jones said…
I agree with Chris - don't miss a trick! Glad you've had such a good experience - the Friday Project is very well organised. Will tell my daughter how happy you are - she's head of sales and marketing at Harper Collins who own Friday Project. Maybe we could all pay to use their publicity company, but I think they're quite expensive. Good luck with a great book Andrew.
Lydia Bennet said…
congratulations on your successful launch of the haunted memoir! I shall check it out forthwith.
Dennis Hamley said…
Andrew, that's terrific. I didn't see the TV programme but I read the article and was much impressed. I'll buy the book with or without a link!

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