Spare a thought for writers missing the buzz of their book launch
It's grim, isn't it? Ullapool Book Festival is cancelled. Aye Write is cancelled. Edinburgh International Book Festival is cancelled.
Tough times for bookshops, tough times for wholesalers. Tough times, above all, for writers who have been counting down the days for months.
Imagine you are a debut novelist. Perhaps you have been submitting work to agents and publishers for decades. Finally, FINALLY, someone has taken on your work! All through the design and editing process, you begin to plan your book launch, your tour, your promotional strategy. Your every fibre fizzes with excitement.
And then along comes the virus and steals it all: the events, the buzz, the momentum.
Instead of being toasted around the country and appearing at book festivals, signing hard copies of your book in front of impatient queues, you sit in your living room tapping at keys, generating as much awareness as you can online.
As I write this, three writers I know celebrate their publication day. A book is born! And yet, in these crowded online forums where everyone is trying to get noticed, it is hard to carve out a space.
So this column will be dedicated to flagging up as many of these newborn books as possible, declaring their names, sharing their covers and giving them a healthy start in life, as best as I can.
1. First up is Anna Mainwaring’s Rebel with a Cupcake. Jesobel Jones is bold and beautiful. She sees no need to apologise for her rambling house, her imperfect family, her single status... or her weight. Jess makes her own cupcakes and she eats them, too. That is, until a wardrobe malfunction leaves Jess exposed, and a mean girl calling her the one thing that's never bothered her before: fat. A teen romance published by Firefly Press.
2. Aberdeen writer Kimberlie Hamilton returns with another non-fiction offering for youngsters. Generation Hope, published by Scholastic, is a collection of brief biographies of young activists around the globe. Children everywhere are sure to be inspired by these world changers who are not afraid to make some noise about things that matter – and they include some north of Scotland candidates too!
3. Edinburgh-based PM Freestone had to have an Instagram book launch for her YA fantasy instalment Shadowscent: Crown of Smoke but I can’t wait to read the conclusion to the diverse Shadowscent world, where scent is power. The first instalment really gripped me last year.
4. Highland writer Moira Forsyth has a considerable following in these parts, and her new e-book Waiting for Lindsay certainly sounds as atmospheric and compelling as her previous works: On a hot July day, 13-year-old Lindsay Mathieson walked along the shore, past the rocks and out of sight. For ever. Thirty years later, a new crisis draws her family back to that familiar beach, and to memories too long buried.
5. Youngsters are sure to love The Vigilante Tooth Fairy by BB Taylor. Plucky Mouse is desperate to spread her wings and become a real tooth fairy, even if it means breaking the fairy code!
6. Annemarie Allan’s eco-adventure for children Breaker. Tom and Beth must save the Firth of Forth from environmental disaster in this timely underwater adventure with community activism at its heart.
7. For history buffs, treats don’t come any better than Maggie Craig’s One Week in April: The Scottish Radical Rising of 1820. Demanding political reform and better living and working conditions, 60,000 weavers and other workers went on strike – and revolution was in the air. I can’t think of anyone better to bring dramatic events of the past to a modern audience than Maggie Craig, one of my absolute writing heroes!
8. And now for something completely different. My final recommendation is a collaboration between Fort William author-illustrator Lucy Joy and and Portmahomack-based publisher Christian Focus. Growing God’s Gifts is a gorgeous, simple and vibrantly illustrated volume for younger children in a beautifully tactile hardback.
So there you have it – all these new book releases are up against it, in this strange new world. Luckily, they have us!
Let’s give them some love! Let’s make some noise!
