SURVIVING THE TSUNAMI OF GRIEF
By Katrina Taee and Wendelien McNicoll
Blog Post
HOW TO MARKET ONE'S BOOK AND ONESELF?
Wendelien McNicoll • February 23, 2020
Publishing in 1930 and 2020
Imagine my surprise when I found this Preface by W. Somerset Maugham on publishing. I inherited this book amongst many from an elderly beloved and very well-read family friend. The book is called Cakes and Ale or a The Skeleton in the Cupboard by W. Somerset Maugham and was published in 1930 by William Heinemann Ltd.
And this is the Preface:
“Every year hundreds of books, many of considerable merit, pass unnoticed. Each one has taken the author months to write, he may had had it in his mind for years; he has put into it something of himself which is lost for ever, it is heart-rending to think how great are the chances that it will be disregarded in the press of matter what weighs down he critic’s tables and burdens the booksellers’ shelves. It is not unnatural that he should use what means he can to attract the attention of the public. Experience has taught him what to do. He must make himself a public figure. He must keep in the public eye. He must give interviews and get his photograph in the papers. He must write a letter to “The Times,” address meetings and occupy himself with social questions: he must make after-dinner speeches; he must recommend books in the publishers’ advertisements; and he must be seen without fail at the proper places at the proper times. He must never allow himself to be forgotten. It is hard and anxious work, for a mistake may cost him dear; it would be brutal to look with anything but kindliness at an author who takes so much trouble to persuade the world at large to read books that he honestly considers so well worth reading. But there is one form of advertisement that I deplore. This is the cocktail party that is given to launch a book. You secure the presence of a photographer. You invite the gossip writers and as many eminent people as you know. The gossip writers give you a paragraph in their columns and the illustrated papers publish the photographs, but the eminent people expect to get a signed copy of the book for nothing. This ignoble practice is not rendered less objectionable when it is presumed (sometimes no doubt with justice) to be given at the expense of the publisher. It did not flourish at the time I wrote Cake and Ale. It would have given me material for a lively chapter".
Notice how similar this is to marketing today, only we have Social Media, Amazon, the wonderful web designer Jonney Taee, Rhizome Consulting and the Internet instead of writing a letter to The Times. I have often wondered how authors spend ages by themselves to write their book and how difficult it must be to let go of their manuscript. A bit like us letting go of ours, although we are both very sociable and do not compare ourselves for one minute to the great man. And when at last your book goes public, it is time for marketing. Well, we better keep honing our skills on Social Media or it may indeed be a letter to The Times after all.
Our 3rd Reprint has just arrived with new foreword
Liz Gleeson's new short animated film about some of the common experiences of grief.
Authors of Surviving the Tsunami of Grief, Wendelien McNicoll and Katrina Taee attend the official launch of Liz Gleeson's Shapes of Grief Education Programme in Greystones, Ireland.