Archive
Reviews & Updates
Coverage for Wild Eye's Black Shuck: The Devil's Dog title as a result of appearing in the December 2011 issue of The Farley Book List.
In Balance Magazine - January 2012
Black Shuck (The Devil's Dog)
by Val Reynolds
This is a very spooky tale about the North East coast of Norfolk, to be precise, the area round Blakeney and Cley. We know the area reasonably well, having spent many days wandering in the area, and can vouch for its spookiness in bad weather, though none as awful as described!
Nature film maker Harry Lambert, has just lost his best mate in a filming accident and returns home to find that his wife has left him for another man. Urgently needing peace and solitude, he books a cottage in Blakeney for a few days bird-watching, or so he thinks. While there, he gets to meet the locals and finds that they have a lot in common, such as a love of nature. From there he goes to see the seals on Blakeney Spit. He finds a strangely mauled seal and reports it to the warden. Since, by this time he has to leave the cottage he is staying in (his room is booked for someone else), and spots the lonely Customs watch house (currently used as a hostel) on the spit, which he thinks it could be the ideal spot for peace, solitude and reflection and moves in. Needless to say he gets only one of his expectations!
Well into the class of Stephen King and Conan Doyle (Hound of the Baskervilles); it seems strange that so many of this type of story involve mad dogs/wolves/rats! We never hear of mad horses for instance! I suppose these tales reflect our deepest fears, which could be why we like them!
Very good, but don't read late at night!
Black Shuck (The Devil's Dog) Written by Piers Warren
Published by Wild Eye £7.99 ISBN 978-1-905843-01-5
www.wildeye.co.uk www.black-shuck.co.uk
Reviewed by John C Reynolds
The Farley Book List would love to thank its regular clients and the new clients who have used the service this year. A Big Thank You too to all the journalists and bloggers who've signed up to receive the Book List and support my lovely publishers - without you we'd be nowhere.
Tips, Hints & Updates
TIP OF THE MONTH
When writing a children's book ... Please pay particular attention to the age of your audience. What an adult thinks is good for a certain age may not necessarily be the case according to the child! Try out your story on some children of the relevant age. Do they genuinely like it? They'll be frank with you so listen carefully to what they say. They love to be engaged with a book and love to be spoken to like adults. They'll give you great feedback.
________________________________________________________
In any publicity blurb supplied to the journalists don't forget to include details of any places where the author has lived, worked or done anything significant. The regional newspapers, magazines and radio programmes love to champion a local author / hero / personality.
NEWS
Massive interest from the family magazines for the books which appeared in the January 2010 Farley Book List Childrens/Parenting. So a big thank you to the publishers - Crimson and Bayard - for providing such beautiful content. Reviews will subsequently appear throughout the summer. Also as a result of their appearance this month, two author articles and a feature extract for the summer have been secured with prestigious family magazines.
TIP OF THE MONTH
Prepare well enough in advance and build in enough time to be able to maximise publicity.
It's such a shame when beautiful books arrive in my office, but they arrive too late to really be able to maximise their impact. The media like enough leadtime to be able to run any reviews around the time of publication - not months later. Please bear in mind these factors -
- The Bookseller trade magazine likes to hear about new books 6 months in advance.
- In the consumer media, glossy magazines usually have a lead time of at least 3 months, but magazines such as Country Living usually plan 6 months in advance.
This means that the magazines would like a minimum of ... a finalised cover image, sample chapters and contents and a definite publication date set which won't change well in advance.
TIP OF THE MONTH
Book Jackets
Having poured all your passion, time and money into your book (perhaps your first book) it's just as important to spent just as much time and effort getting your book jacket professionally designed. Remember, when someone is picking up your book from a bookshop shelf they haven't got your indepth knowledge of the contents of your book. They'll actually spend very little time trying to find out whether it's for them or not, so the design and the tone is vital and this can't be stressed strongly enough.
Tips
- spend time in a bookshop looking at the sort of books it's going to sit amongst on the shelf
- find book jackets that you like - examine why you like them and whether something similar would be appropriate for yours
- having commissioned a designer and got the design back, does it really represent the book? - has it set the right tone? - will it encourage the browser inside if they know absolutely nothing about the book at all?
- will the design be impactful/recognisable when reproduced quite small. Remember .. when books are reviewed and featured in newspapers, magazines and on websites the book jacket never appears full size ... will it work if it's twice the size of a postage stamp?
Final tip .. have fun. It's really exciting to see your book reviewed in the media. The media want to review things that are good and look great.
Posted @ 17:43:21 on 06 November 2009 back to top
