I never thought I’d be saying this so soon after The Suffering being released but…my little shop is officially open! This is mainly due to the incredible folks in the Books of Horror Group who have made requests for signed books to add to their spooky collections. Unfortunately, international postage costs are a little out of hand from the UK right now. But there is a solution for my friends in the US and other countries in the form of a signed bookplate. This is a matte sticker that fits inside the cover of the book, and costs a fraction of the price to post out to you.
If you’d like a signed book or bookplate, you can find the shop here. I’m happy to add any inscription you like. There will be more exciting stock coming in the future, so watch this space!
May has brought with it another huge goal in the form of 200 reviews on Amazon US. This is another milestone I didn’t think I’d be seeing for while (if at all!). Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read and review the book. Reviews make a huge difference in terms of exposure, and getting the book into the hands of the right people, so they are all welcome and gratefully received. Reviews in the UK are hot on the heels of my US friends also, currently standing at 187, with a 4.3 average. I will also be celebrating when we hit the 200 mark here as well, so lucky me – I get to celebrate twice!
Another moment of excitement was seeing The Suffering on the table at a Barnes & Noble store. It’s incredible to think that people will be browsing the horror section, as I love to do, and might pick up my book and consider adding it to their pile! Unfortunately, we don’t have Barnes & Noble stores here in the UK, and the process of getting books from independent publishers stocked in major stores is tricky. This means until I travel to the US I probably won’t get to see it in “the wild”, so thank you to the people in the US who are sharing these images in the horror groups so I can see them.
Finally (and this one’s a little cheeky), you may have seen that the fantastic Grady Hendrix broke the news that How to Sell a Haunted House is to be made into a major motion picture with Sam Raimi as producer. Talk about goals! I was gobsmacked to check Amazon US later that same week his amazing news broke and see us sitting side-by-side in the chart. Obviously, Grady is HUGE and the book has done some major heavy lifting in the last couple of months (wow, I just checked and it was released on my birthday – how funny!). But being in the chart lurking around incredible writers like Grady is utterly thrilling.
This time last year I was still struggling to get any interest in the book whatsoever so, if you are in the process of querying agents and publishing houses, don’t you dare give up! I almost did. I was so disheartened about the lack of interest in the book I was all set to scrap it and write something new this year and start all over again. Good job I didn’t, right?! Keep pushing for it and perhaps in a year you’ll be seeing your book side-by-side with Grady and others like him, too!
I think that’s all the May news so far. I do have a #vaguepost about something potentially huge coming up, so June News may be just as exciting! I certainly hope so…