The proofs of Spider, Spider have started to make their way out into the world. Real paper books full of my words.
Proof copies are sent out into the world while the last few corrections are still being made so that reviewers and booksellers can read before the release and authors can give those nice quotes you see on the cover of a book. This means the last proofreading is being done at the same time as the book is being read by some writers I admire enormously. Most embarrassing find so far; one of my characters angrily doing something angrily. *dies*
Duckworth Books, my publisher, organised that the proof would be in the goodie bag at the Book Party which is a party with books and about books and absolutely full of people who are mad about books. This was a brilliant idea and led to me actually having a signing queue at one point. It felt like being in one of my daydreams of publication. The party itself was really good fun and if you write, read or talk about books I can recommend it.
Excitingly we’re starting to get the first trickle of comments from people who’ve read the book and there are words like ‘beautiful’ and ‘intriguing’ being used.
If you’d like to buy Spider, Spider the pre-order page is already up on Waterstones.
Meanwhile I have got the most important review of all:
[winces in empathy over the angrily doing ...]
At least it was caught in this proofing phase!