So, the signed and numbered, limited first editions – with sultry black sprayed edges – are making their way out into the world.
The afternoon I spent in Goldsboro Books signing them (30 May) was a complete joy – not only is it a fabulous bookshop with that amazing book smell permeating its walls and wooden floors, but the people are lovely, my agent works there, and on that particular day it was filled with 750 copies of Godblind.
I wasn’t sure the process for signing, but apparently Goldsboro are experts, because it goes like this: they have already set all the dust jackets flaps (that’s probably not the book world technical term for them) to the correct page, so they slide it over the table, I write the number in and scrawl my signature, line it if necessary and push it back, they replace it with another one. And another. And another.
It’s like a sweat shop. There’s no let up. They’re merciless.
It’s bloody good fun.
I had no idea what 750 hardbacks looked like – it’s big. It’s a mountain of books as tall as I am, with a second, smaller mountain beside it and a small hill on the table to boot. What I’d thought would take a couple of hours took nearly four – and despite it degenerating into a farce where I lost the ability to count or write my name, it was a hugely satisfying, enjoyable and slightly surreal experience.
Not only that, but Godblind is Goldsboro Books’s June Book of the Month! That means it gets a window display all month long! Look!!
And no, they didn’t mistakenly leave behind some tools. If you’ve read the book, you can no doubt work out to which scene this particular window display refers…
And finally, and absolutely not least because it is supremely magnificent, you can now listen to an extract of Godblind from the audio book, read by the hugely talented actress Maggie Ollerenshaw.
Anna Stephens, word seeker 