Sunday interview: Fenella-Jane Miller

Fenella-Jane Miller's first novel, The Unconventional Miss Walters, was out with Robert Hale last month. 1. What kinds of marketing have you done as an author? I've set up interviews with Writer's News, Mature Times, Romance Junkies and Essex County Newspapers. I invited 150 people to my book launch using postcards with a picture of the cover and asking all to order from library if they couldn't come. I've been handing out bookmarks to anyone who expressed an interest and I've visited local bookshops and libraries. 2. What marketing has your publisher done? Robert Hale put The Unconventional Miss Walters in their catalogue, provided excellent postcards and bookmarks, and are supplying point of sale stuff. They sent out 7 review copies, to names I gave, and are entering the book in RNA Romance and Sagittarius competitions. 3. What essential things about marketing did you learn that you wish you'd known from the start? Contact publications as soon as you sell book because they work 6 months in advance. Don't contact the press until it's published. 4. What did you learn during your experiences of trying to market your book? People are very interested in authors. They seem more impressed than we are with ourselves. It was only when I got my first positive feedback from a reader, an ex-literature academic, that I felt confident to go out and sell it. 5. What's the most successful piece of marketing you've done? The book launch party where I sold over 40 books as a direct result of this. 6. What advice would you give for authors starting out with marketing their books? See above!