Talking my book

See you in Folkestone on Sunday

In Waterstones in Cambridge

As every author knows the hard part is writing the book, the even harder part is getting people to notice it and buy it. My first book Dot Bomb - still available by the way - was published before the advent of social media, but I had hopes of a little bit of old media coverage.

It came out on September 9th 2001 which seemed a good moment to reflect on the dot com bubble that had popped the previous year. Then two days later the world changed and nobody wanted to talk about boo.com or First Tuesday.

Every year, I still get a royalties statement from the publisher of Dot Bomb. The book sold something like 2,500 copies - but at the bottom of the statement is an amount I still owe them from the modest advance.

I am all the more determined then to make Always On a hit. Which means that as well as plastering the book all over my social media accounts - sorry friends - I am accepting every invitation to talk about it.

Podcasts, radio programmes, conferences and especially book festivals, I am your man. So I’ve spoken on Graham Cluley’s Smashing Security podcast, which is always great fun. I had a very enjoyable conversation with Kate Price McCarthy for the Love Your Library podcast and it was great to hear afterwards that the ebook version of Always On is booked out at Hampshire libraries for months ahead. Another podcast - Pocket Lint with gadget guru Stuart Miles - is coming soon.

I’ve done video interviews with everything from a Chorleywood book club (thanks Nils Blythe) to the Stratford Literary Festival. And finally this weekend I am getting out of my attic and going to an event “in real life”, the Folkestone Book Festival.

I’m speaking at 6pm on Sunday - it’s a hybrid event which you can also attend online. I will be signing books there and am trying to work out a method of online signing - get in touch if you are interested.

I am speaking at more book festivals through the summer and autumn - details will be posted here. If you want me to speak at your event get in touch.

Oh, and buy the book.

I hear they have it at this little online store where it seems to have 10 five star reviews so far.