This is me, having just opened one of the boxes of my new book, which arrived by courier a few days ago. I’ve only ordered a small quantity to start with, but if things (i.e. sales) go well, I can easily order more. Fingers crossed. So now, the book is pretty much set up. It’s available on Amazon as a Kindle ebook here (for just £2.50). I’m set up as an author on Goodreads, for those of you who use it. And the paperback version (as seen in the photo above) is available by mail order from my publishing company Strelitzia (£10.49 including P&P). Both versions are set up on the Neilsen Booknet database, so in theory it should be possible to go into a bookshop and ask them to order a copy.

There are a few tasks remaining. I need to send a copy to the British Library (something everyone who publishes a book must do) and add it to the British Library’s public lending right system. The only problem being the British Library were subjected to a cyber attack last year, and are still not fully operational!

Next, I’ll be venturing into uncharted (for me) waters, in attempting to publicise my book. At the risk of blowing my own trumpet (normally, I’m the kind of person who doesn’t even like to tell people I’ve got a trumpet!) I think my new novel is rather good. But apparently, writing a novel that sits well with those by the best authors of the day is the easy bit – getting it in front of enough people to make it fly is the really difficult part. So follow me on my literary marketing journey, as I document my efforts to sell Shooting at Strangers.

Synopsis:

One bright, spring morning in Manchester City centre, a terrorist pulls out a gun and starts shooting indiscriminately. Among the panicking crowd, one woman recognises the gunman. Surviving the attack, weighed down by trauma and survivor guilt, Amber Jennings sets out to discover how Jameel – the shy, rather awkward young man she knew in her late teens – could have become a mass murderer.

The complicated relationships of Amber’s earlier life interweave with and inform the contemporary narrative. Central to the story is Amber’s relationship with the MI5 officer whose suspicions are aroused by her investigative activities. When the press become interested in her story, Amber’s troubles increase still further. Operating beneath the radar of both MI5 and the media, Amber’s eyes are opened to the troubling role she herself played in her friend’s tragic downward spiral.

‘Shooting at Strangers’ looks beyond the simplistic, black and white, good and evil representations of terrorism, to explore the complexities and contradictions of the characters involved.

text & images © Graham Wright