Nervous times. Will anyone buy it? Is it any good? Does anybody care? Did I have a typo on page 147? Lots of questions at the minute, along with the scariness of a launch.
When you get to that date when strangers may finally read the book, all your apprehensions and doubts re-emerge, but I think it’s important to hang on to the positive feedback, when you know at least some people appreciate the content, and that it’s now up the fickleness of fate whether or not it gets better reviews or more sales than the last. It also makes me feel for the actors and celebs you see on TV, promoting their latest products. Even though it’s in recent memory, my focus and attention are already on the action and characters in the next book, so I find myself surprised when people mention an action or event in the one which is about to be launched, and it takes me a moment to remember what it is. It must be hell if it’s something you made a couple of years ago, putting yourself back into that mindset.
Don’t mistake me, I really love tEXt me, and the characters, and I shall no doubt be reading it through again shortly as a ‘reader’, to check from a different perspective and remind myself of all the little nuances and links I put in, but there’s a strange sense of mixed feelings, like my child is leaving home.
So, here we go…
What if Marian Keyes and Douglas Coupland had an “author affair” a novel was born, and it was then raised by Mike Gayle?
tEXt me is a modern(ish) re-boot of the movie Brief Encounter, set in the era of technology and slightly looser morals, telling the story of Tiffany, a married 30 something who re-connects with her first love from University. The wonders of the new ‘mobile phone’ mean Tiff can safely text, flirt, and re-live her youth and that isn’t cheating, is it? Not even if the texts go a little beyond friendship. And it isn’t like she’d ever contemplate an actual affair. Would she?
Stay safe,
Kit