A Truth Beyond Full – Book Launching: an article by Rosie Oliver.

The Novel Being Published!

My novel, ‘A Truth Beyond Full,’ had been written, accepted by Elsewhen Press, edited, cover designed by Alex Storer, and publication dates set. I could take a well-earned break to enjoy the satisfaction of having a newly published novel out there for all to see, or so I thought.

It was also a relief I had got to this stage after all this time working on the novel. It had started out as an exercise in a creative writing class: write a description of a place. I must have been in a bit of a mood, as I, being a science fiction writer, could not face doing anything mundane on Earth. A quick look around the Solar System gave me the ideal picture: a photo taken by Voyager 2 of Miranda, the fifth largest moon of Uranus. Even more appropriately, it was nicknamed the Frankenstein moon because of its patchwork of different types of icework.

My description was awful, but Miranda had dug its way into my brain cells like a parasite. What if people lived on that moon? They would have to have a very different lifestyle from us in order to survive the place, no ifs, ands, or buts. So I wrote a few pieces describing the place and what people would be doing. Well, it snowballed from there, and I ended up with a novel.

The viewpoint character turned out to be as dull as ditchwater but had done the comprehensive world-building for me. Fortunately, I had a couple of more fascinating characters to choose from to be the crucial viewpoint character. The one with the simple redemption-to-hero story arc got picked. Yep, I rewrote the whole novel and added even more depth to the society with pointers relevant to our world in the here and now.

Peter, the publisher at Elsewhen Press, wrote the blurb, which, to my surprise, took an extra major step back from a complex, in-depth, multi-faceted story. But then he was the publisher with a lot more experience of these things, so I relied on his judgement. The blurb is: Don’t Dig Deep Lest You Regret What You Find.

Miranda, an ice and rock moon of Uranus, has been a thriving mining colony. But recently there has been a rise in fatal accidents. Kylone has an ability to extrapolate patterns behind a rock face to determine where and how to dig. When his fiancée died in another accident, he blamed himself and his ability. A wreck, no longer able to mine, he became a priest with limited duties in the locally developed priesthood. Assigned to officiate at a hero miner’s funeral, the widow asks Kylone to investigate the spate of accidents, and, along with some help from an unexpected source, he starts to suspect that they may have a more sinister cause, a suspicion that puts his own life in danger.

WorldCon at Glasgow

WorldCon was happening in Glasgow in August 2024. Publisher Peter had already arranged various book launches for his other authors there, but there was no way ‘A Truth Beyond Full’ could be published in time. There was one thing we could do: put some publicity leaflets on his dealer’s table. Peter was busy organising so much, and I knew a good, very local printer. We had got the cover by Alex Storer sorted in time, and I got a pile of leaflets to take up to Glasgow with me. When I collected those leaflets, it was the first time I saw my cover in print. Wow! I could physically feel something of my novel in my hands for the first time. The leaflets were gorgeous and well-printed. Even the printer was impressed! Now I could sit back and enjoy seeing ‘A Truth Beyond Full’ being published. If anything, the opposite happened to the ‘sitting back’ bit.

Organising the Book Launches

The paperback publication was set for 11th November 2024, the Monday following the NovaCon Science Fiction convention to be held in Buxton, Derbyshire. Peter from Elsewhen Press asked if I would be there. Despite it being the longest-running SF convention in the United Kingdom, this was to be its 53rd event, and I had never been. Reasons varied from inconvenience to lack of an interesting program for me. His prompt made me look at their website. The guest of honour was Allen Stroud, someone known to write the kind of science fiction I liked. This sounded promising. The railway station being next to the hotel made it convenient. Besides, it had been 50 years since I last visited Buxton, and it would be interesting to see how it had changed. But the clincher for me was the promise of science talks alongside the normal panels and guest of honours’ interviews. Convention and hotel immediately booked! Peter was delighted, and he would organise a book launch for ‘A Truth Beyond Full.’.

Linda, a poetry-writing friend from university days, mentioned our old college was going to hold a creative writing event on Saturday, 23rd November, two weeks after the book launch at NovaCon. Unfortunately, to her great disappointment, long-standing commitments would prevent her from attending. Yet the conversation was enough to make me look at the college’s website. They asked to let them know about published books they were unaware of, and, of course, I let them know about the impending publication ‘A Truth Beyond Full.’.  Almost by return email, Jackie asked me to give a ten-minute talk or presentation about the novel as part of the ‘Somerville Creates.’ How could I refuse?

As the publication dates neared, I went into excited transmit-about-my-novel mode with anyone who would sit or stand still long enough to listen. I even took to carrying a few leaflets around with me to thrust into surprised hands. The listeners and recipients included the owner of ‘Nature’s Choice,’ a health and refill shop in Chipping Sodbury town centre. Before I knew it, Karen, whom I had known for years, suggested we hold a book launch in her shop on 16th November, the free Saturday between visiting Buxton and Somerville in Oxford. I went into confused gawk mode. Naturally, I welcomed the idea, but how do I organise a book launch?

In this case, there was a complication. A new small bookshop was going to open mid-September in Chipping Sodbury. It would look a bit odd holding a book launch in a health shop when a bookshop was available. As soon as I could, I visited the Sodbury Book Garden to see if they might be interested in having a book launch event in November. After a few conversations, they said that they were still in the setting-up process and would not be considering doing any events before the New Year. They were happy for me to do the book launch at Nature’s Choice. Back to Karen I went to agree on dates and times and publicity and things. Details matter. Nobody wants surprises… famous last words.

E-Book Launch

The e-publication day was set for 11th October. I had this strange hexaflake, a hexagon surrounded by six hexagons on the cover. Wouldn’t it be nice to use the shape as a seven-day countdown ‘advent calendar’ on my blog? Why not? What harm could it do? It might even do some good in encouraging sales. A door would open each day on a picture of some aspect of the novel, which I would accompany with some background. Thanks to the lovely pictures courtesy of NASA, this is exactly what I did.

Did it have any effect? I don’t know. But I do have a nice bit of ‘artwork’ as a summary of the world-building behind the novel.

Then Peter pinged me with the news that ‘London News’ and ‘Digital Camera’ had both e-published articles about how I developed the whole novel from Voyager 2’s picture of Miranda, a moon of Uranus, taken in January 1986. What impressed me was that this story was picked up by publications outside of the science fiction arena. Wow!

More organising!

Two weeks before NovaCon was BristolCon, a two-day event over the last weekend in October. I’d booked it the previous year, even before Peter had accepted ‘A Truth Beyond Full.’.  Because I was helping behind the scenes, I’d limited myself to choosing to participate on one panel and do one reading, which would be related to that panel, i.e., nothing to do with my novel. For various reasons, BristolCon’s program was published only very shortly before the event. I found myself with a reading and no panel. With the e-publication of my novel two weeks before BristolCon, I switched to reading an excerpt from my novel.

Effectively, I was now doing four events in five weeks. That meant preparation and organisation had to come to the fore. Peter at Elsewhen Press was aware of all this and kindly sent me some bookmarks to add to my remaining pile of leaflets for ‘A Truth Beyond Full.’.  He also let me know he was having a poster printed for my Chipping Sodbury book launch that I could pick up at NovaCon.

At this point, I’d decided there was no point in making a list of things to do, as it would be torn up before the ink was dry by another unexpected turn of events. My prep focus, therefore, comprised dealing with the events as they came along in time order.

BristolCon in Bristol

First up was BristolCon. Choose an excerpt to read. It was only a five-minute slot by the time you’d done the introduction. It had to be something that did not need much in the way of background explanation, give a fairly comprehensive feel of the novel’s world-building, and yet would end on a bit of a cliffhanger to get the listeners wanting to know what would happen next. That is quite a tall order. Out came the single-page Excel spreadsheet summary of the novel, which is in cryptic notes that only I can understand.

In the meantime, I realised two authors published by Elsewhen had booked a dealer’s table at BristolCon. I asked for a favour for them to display some of my leaflets and bookmarks on their table. Judith Mortimore and Penny Hill were more than happy to oblige, as there was some room on their table.

Back to that excerpt. Found one. A trial scene is always good for some tension and leaving the listeners hanging on what the verdict is going to be, only it was not the kind of trial as we know them. This meant it ticked the world-building requirement as well. I marked up the section in pencil and spent about an hour practicing it. I stopped when I felt I was almost perfect. This is a tip I learnt from a long time ago: if you do a perfect performance when practicing, you are likely to end up doing a disinterested performance on the day.

BristolCon happened. Helping behind the scenes with very little booked meant I could at times wander around and talk to people. Remember those leaflets on Judith’s and Penny’s table? I ended up popping back every so often to pick one up to hand to people. It also meant that their dealer’s table got extra visits, and, on one occasion at least, this helped with a book sale. The ladies were pleased with the result.

As for the reading, it went well with a decent number of people in the audience. I could relax! A couple of people did say afterwards that they were sorry to miss my reading, but that is normal for conventions: too many distractions!

Anyone who knows the chairperson of BristolCon knows she likes to organise. I’d told her about my local book launch in Chipping Sodbury. Next thing I know, I’m ordered to send details. So I do. I know from experience not to argue with such a formidable lady. The details were duly published on the BristolCon website under local news.

Even More Organising

Then I realised some of the people attending my reading at BristolCon could attend the book launch at NovaCon in a fortnight’s time. No alternative but to pick another excerpt, especially for them. This reading was not time-limited, but it could not be too long. Out came my single-page novel crib sheet. The same criteria applied for the new reading as the old. I did manage to find a section with multiple stopping points and cliffhangers that I could stop at, depending on the audience. This effectively involved an elevator kidnapping the protagonist. I use the word ‘elevator’ here as it’s the closest Earth analogue to what is used on Miranda. Of course, I did the practice, totally unsure of how many people would turn up or what the audience would be like.

Yet, something had started annoying me: Amazon, to be precise. Yes, ‘A Truth Beyond Full’ was up for sale on their sites. But the cover pictures for the paperback version kept on being shown as to be supplied, despite the fact that it was being shown for the e-publication. After a while of this situation, I pinged Peter about it. He confirmed the paperback cover had been loaded and accepted successfully. He had done his bit. But the situation did leave me wondering whether the lack of a paperback cover picture stultified sales. I definitely was not happy about this aspect.

Next up was designing an advert for the Chipping Sodbury Tourist Office to put in their window. Thought it would be easy. Nah! Finding something that was photogenic about ‘Nature’s Choice’ proved challenging. Going into stubborn mode got me there in the end. Then a bit of to-ing and fro-ing with Karen to make sure she was happy with it before handing a printed version over to the tourist office.

Then I had an e-mail from Peter asking if I could bring up some spare copies of the novel in case he sold out of his stack of copies. My first reaction? What did he know that I didn’t? Was my novel going to be that popular, especially as it’s science fiction of the unusual kind? That certainly had me scratching my head with what I am sure was a what-the-heck look chiselled onto my face. Nothing I could do about it except be obliging and duly hunt out a plastic box that could safely hold seven copies and pack it in my suitcase.

NovaCon in Buxton

Everything went well with travel plans until I got to Bristol Parkway Railway Station. The lift from the entrance to the bridge to get to the platforms was not working, and I had a heavy suitcase. Fortunately, staff had been brought in to help people up and down the stairs. I really felt sorry for the chap carrying that suitcase up. Fortunately, the lift down to the railway platform was working! So I settled down to wait for my train with a booked seat at the right part of the platform.

Guess what? A last-minute platform change was announced, and a horde of us rushed to climb the stairs and get the lift back up to the bridge. Of course, I took the lift down to the newly assigned platform. A whole bunch of us got down to the platform. The lift doors refused to open. The train was due to arrive any minute! I pressed the open doors sign several times. Nothing. Panic rising, I finally pressed the alarm button. Yay! The doors opened. I dashed out. Glancing back, I realised I had never seen a lift empty so fast.

Arriving at the hotel later that day, I found myself with a choice. Climb a flight of stairs or take the lift to the first floor and descend a different flight of stairs carrying that heavy suitcase. Yes, I could have waited for some help from the hotel staff, but they were obviously very busy. So I braved the lift. Pressed the button to call the lift. Nothing happened. Tried again. Still no lights to say it was even coming down from wherever. I asked someone nearby whether the lift was working only to be told that it sometimes does that because of the way it works and to give it a few minutes. Huh? So I waited. Yes, the person had been right. I really had enough of lifts by the end of that day.

The book launch was scheduled for the following day. I was happy to see quite a few willing to come along to hear about ‘A Truth Beyond Full,’ including the guest of honour, Allen Stroud, who had a gap in his busy schedule. Wow! A glance round the room showed they were science fiction cognoscenti. So the introduction I had prepared for the less knowledgeable was ripped up, and I went ad lib.

The reading went reasonably well. Only towards the end of the reading did it click that it was about the protagonist being kidnapped and stuck in a lift. Talk about coincidences! Fortunately, there is no time to freak out about that. The questions session was next. I’d been to a few book launches where there was that awkward silence while people tried to think up suitable questions to ask or just wanted to leave.

Not a bit of it. Questions came in thick and fast about many different aspects. The audience was interested, animated, and smiling. The surprise was the wide variety of aspects covered in this session, e.g., why was there a bias to Scottish and Welsh names? The answer was they were Cornish because my late husband was a Cornishman, and we had spent many happy holidays there exploring the industrial mining heritage. It was natural for me to pick up on such names. I could only assume they had read at least some of the e-published novel.

Then came the traditional book-selling bit. I just watched Peter’s pile of copies of ‘A Truth Beyond Full’ go down as I signed the eagerly bought copies. By the end of the session, I knew by the big grin on Peter’s face he was happy with the launch. Me? I was happy I could relax, even if I instinctively avoided the lift for the rest of the day!

Yet Even More Organising

When I got back home, I was happy to now see a picture of the paperback cover could be found on the Amazon site. At last! I was still left wondering how many possible sales had been lost because of this. It is a question I’ll never find the answer to.

Next up was sorting out the slides for my ten-minute talk at my old college. Using the rule of one slide per two minutes of talk that I had learnt a long, long time ago meant four slides in total. What could I talk about that would interest a diverse crowd that had interests in history, high literature (well, that’s what I call it), geography, sciences, and, you name it, whatever? These were not the science fiction enthusiasts, more like facing the amassed academia of the world and more. It meant I had to introduce them to some of the genre’s drivers as well as ‘A Truth Beyond Full.’.  Nothing for it, but to have a go. I settled on explaining how the novel came to be written, partly because I could show that famous picture of Miranda taken by Voyager 2. Of course, I rehearsed the speech that went with the slides before sending them off. If nothing else, I had to get the line of argument right.

I had a request from Jackie, the lady organising the Somerville Creates Day, to bring some copies of my book along for sale. Said I would if I had any left over from the local book launch in Chipping Sodbury.

Nature’s Choice in Chipping Sodbury

On to the book launch the following Saturday at ‘Nature’s Choice.’.  Got everything ready on the Friday for the Saturday. Copies of my novel were carefully packed in plastic boxes and stowed in a suitcase, the poster that Peter had given me was tidily rolled up in a cardboard tube, and added bits and bobs of bookmarks, etc., were packed.

Then I got an email from Karen, owner of ‘Nature’s Choice.’.  She was stuck in Spain because of the flooding and wouldn’t be back in time for the book launch in her shop. However, she did say her assistant, Caz, would be on hand to help. My first thought was thank goodness Karen was safe and sound. My second thought was I was going to be dealing with a relatively unknown person to me. That could mean anything from being guided by Caz to taking the lead on sorting out my book launch space.

It turned out to be very much the former. Caz was very helpful and accommodating. What was not was the lack of potential customers for my novel. I put this down in a small part to it being a miserable, cloudy day and there being some sort of craft fair in the town hall to distract customers. Other reasons are guessable and speculative.

Nevertheless, after I finished my session, Caz offered to take six copies to put on sale. By that time I had my doubts that no more than one would be sold. Nevertheless, I left six copies with her in the shop and stuff like the poster and bookmarks.

What it did mean was I could take a few copies of my novel up to Somerville College to sell for the next and last event the following Saturday. I actually spent the interim days catching up on other stuff that I should have done whenever.

Somerville Creates in Oxford

Then Storm Bert was announced for the very day I would need to travel to and back from Oxford. You can bet I watched the weather forecasts closely after that. Would I feel safe enough to get there and back again, especially as I knew parts of the railway line I would travel along were susceptible to flooding, as well as icicles hanging down in a tunnel during colder spells? Ah! The delights of the British railway system.

The day before, I noticed that the centre of the storm would be away from where I would be travelling, so I made the decision to go. Getting there was the easy bit in that the storm would not quite have reached Bristol yet.

I got there half an hour earlier than advertised, courtesy of the railway system as per usual. Yes, I did mean earlier! This is how quirky the railway system can get! So I had a leisurely cup of decent coffee in Nero’s that is along the way from Oxford railway station to the college.

Got to the venue as they were setting up and got myself sorted. Fortunately, I was on early in the program, so I didn’t have time to let the nerves build up. There were five of us with ten-minute slots describing our books. Mine was the middle slot. I watched as the first two stood talking to a script behind a lecture desk, talking into its microphones. Nope, I was having none of that. Instead, I used the microphone to stand beside the desk so people could see me. The slides had my line to take, so I talked to them, embellishing them with interesting side details, e.g., like the twelve-kilometre height of the Verona Rupes feature on Miranda’s photo and how people who were touch-sensitive could, through feeling the ice vibrate, ‘listen’ to the ‘ice-song’ of very small gas bubbles collapsing inside it. By the time I stepped off the stage, I was inwardly shaking with rattlesnakes of nerves, only to be told by one viewer over lunch that I looked relaxed. Aim achieved. Yay!

The storm clouds had been gathering during the day, so, as soon as I decently could, I gathered my stuff and headed for the railway station. Some trains had been cancelled due to lack of train crew. Mine was not, though it was late enough to make me wonder if I’d make my connection. I did. The connecting train literally arrived as I was walking along the platform. I got on, flung myself onto an empty seat, relieved and stunned that it was all finally over. Then I heard the sloshing of water under the train’s wheels on the line’s favourite flooding spots. I suspect mine was one of the last trains to get through on that line before it was closed due to flooding.

After All The Fuss

I ventured into ‘Nature’s Choice’ a few days later. To my amazement, there were only two copies of my books left there. How did that happen?

I’m sure there are more interesting times to come with ‘A Truth Beyond Full.’.  Like the… well, it’s a case of wait and see.

So, what is my view of book launches after having been through these experiences? It is exciting, nerve-wracking, and, at the same time, very satisfying to meet readers interested in ‘A Truth Beyond Full.’.  Talk about living up to the saying, ‘expect the unexpected,’ which this very much did. Though, to be fair, I think I had more than my fair share of things going wrong, as a lot of them were outside of my control, such as the lifts and storms.

Part of the unexpected was due to me going up a learning curve, such as getting publicity material sorted. One thing I could have done that would have helped was collating a reference package of material for talks put together early on in this process.

Are book launches worth it? Nobody can know the true effect of such publicity. What I would say is that the reaction felt more positive from those audiences who, for one reason or another, had an interest in the novel’s subject. In the future, if, and it is a big if, I get another novel published, I’ll stick to book launches where people are interested in science fiction.  But hey, my novel is out there for all to enjoy!

My thanks go to all who helped and tried to help get ‘A Truth Beyond Full’ into the big wide booktopia. It was much appreciated by me.

© Rosie Oliver 2024