The story of two frenetic weeks in an author's life
Book launches, events, award-ceremonies . . . I'm sure everyone believes it is like ALL the time!
Hello and welcome to Making Crime Pay! I’m Nicki Thornton - I’m an author. I share my creative journey here and what I am learning along the way. I pass on my love of books by sharing what I am reading and review them so you can enjoy them too. I visit schools and other places to encourage a love of reading and help writing be more fun! Book me at Authors Aloud.
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Nicki
Big industry events collide
Two of the landmark days in the book trade, World Book Day and the London Book Fair, were within days of each other this year, so that meant a lot of busyness!
Plus I was lucky enough to receive an invite to a writing friend’s book launch - and to speak at the Bucks Book Awards. Phew! My feet have hardly touched the ground.
So here is a whistle-stop tour of the last couple of weeks in photos.
Celebrating World Book Day
World Book Day was created by UNESCO as a worldwide celebration of books and reading, which are two of my big passions. I’m delighted that World Book Day is marked in over 100 countries and so many schools in the UK celebrate it by an author visit to energise a love of reading. A great opportunity to get out there and spark a love of reading if you are an author.
I am passionate about supporting reading for pleasure as it is the single biggest indicator of a child’s future success – more than their family circumstances, parents’ educational background or income. World Book Day is part of a mission to foster a life-long habit of reading for pleasure.
I visited several schools over the week and had such a great time. I don’t tend to take pictures at my school events, but I was lucky enough to be invited to schools with a great reading culture and meet some great big-reading librarians and teachers as well as students. A week talking about books is great with me!
With hardly a moment to draw breath, then it was onto the London Book Fair, where people in the book trade gather to do deals (mostly!).
I wasn’t there with my author hat on, but as part of my other job, which is mentoring booksellers. Lots of booksellers attended to meet up with publishers and discover all the great books due out this year so they can start to plan.
I’m really lucky to work as a bookshop mentor and work with incredibly talented and hardworking people at the retail end of the book trade.
Next stop for me was as a guest speaker at the Bucks Book Awards - run and judged by schools in Buckinghamshire. I was lucky enough to be involved in presenting prizes - everything from the best book reviews to the best 500-word writing competitions. And I took part in a great bookish quiz with many schools in Bucks and their great librarians.
And the winners were The Ministry of Unladylike Activity by Robin Stevens and Five Survive by Holly Jackson - great choices! And ones that I feel sure lots of people will want to read.
Now it’s back to normal for me this week. Sitting down with my laptop open, trying to be creative and drinking lots of tea. Lots of writing to catch up with!
nicki