Reflecting on 8 months in print...

I wish that on the 18th August last year I’d written something down, just taken a moment from the launch of my novel to write a few lines about my expectations and hopes for the novel. I stopped keeping a diary years ago (least said about that the better…) but if I had penned by thoughts I think that, at best, I’d have hoped to sell maybe a thousand books. A few local book signings would have been nice, perhaps a feature in the local press. My expectations would have been modest but also realistic – most debut authors don’t sell many books. And everyone has witnessed the sight of an author sitting forlorn behind a desk in a bookshop shadowed by an unsold pile of their life’s work…

But I’ve been lucky. And pushy. And something has happened that seems to be largely a result of word of mouth resulting in more sales and more people who want me to talk to their book club or woman’s institute meeting or rotary club…

When Legend Press published me I said them ‘send me anywhere; I’ll go. I’ll talk to anyone’. I may have regretted my words when the tenacious Lucy managed to get me onto the Jeremy Vine show to talk about a subject totally unrelated to my novel, but I did it. I arrived at a book signing in Windsor after my sat nav sent me on a three-hour detour through central London, but I turned up and sold books for six hours. I went through heavy snow to talk to a book club of six, only two of whom had actually read the novel… oh the joys! But I am grateful, profoundly grateful, that Legend took a punt on me when mainstream publishing houses said The Woman Before Me was ‘too dark’ ‘didn’t fit neatly into any one genre’ ‘had no commercial appeal’. Despite winning the Debut Dagger in 2005 the manuscript was roundly rejected and took five years to find a home with Legend Press via the Luke Bitmead Bursary. And what has happened since has left me wondering just how in touch those big publishing houses are with the public taste. Consider the evidence:

The Woman Before me was published in August 2010.
By Christmas we were into a second run. The publishing rights have been sold to Germany and India. Large print rights have also sold. I have been interviewed on radio in counties as diverse as Yorkshire and Sussex, West Midlands and Cambridgshire. I have done book signings as far flung as Coventry and Woking, Lowestoft and Slough. My novel is the summer read for the Westcliffe WI and the Bungay Festival. It was long listed for the New Angle Prize for literature.

I wake every day a little shell-shocked at how my writing career, so long a Sisyphean uphill struggle, is gathering pace like a snowball rolling down the other side.

In June Legend Press are publishing my next novel, The Sacrificial Man. This novel also had it’s share of mainstream rejections for being ‘too dark’ and editors wondered if readers would be interested in a suicide pact where a man asked his lover to kill and eat him…
We’ll see.
I’m sacred, I admit. I can see that The Sacrificial Man is an uncompromising read as it explores an odd world of love and obsession. I hope that I can take the readers I have gained with me, on a journey that the mainstream commercial publishers would never have been brave enough to sanction. Want to travel with me?

The Sacrificial Man

Ruth Dugdall's second novel out in June

Legend Press are very excited about the launch of Ruth Dugdall's second novel The Sacrificial Man this summer on 25th June 2011. As a sneak preview below is the blurb for this great book:

What I want to say is that suicide is my choice. No-one else is to blame. Man seeks beautiful woman for the journey of a lifetime: Will you help me to die?

When Probation Officer Cate Austin is given her new assignment, she faces the highest-profile case of her career. Alice Mariani is charged with assisted suicide and Cate must recommend a sentence.

Alice insists her story is one of misinterpreted love, forcing those around her to analyse their own lives. Who is to decide what is normal and when does loyalty turn to obsession?

Investigating the loophole that lies between murder and euthanasia, Cate must now meet the woman who agreed to comply with her lover’s final request. Shocking revelations expose bitter truths that can no longer be ignored

People's Book Prize

I am delighted to say that The Woman Before Me won enough public support to be one of the 3 fiction novels to win the 'winter' round of the People's Book Prize.
Each season a new set of books, nominated by publishers, are put up for public vote and the top 3 go forward to the final in July.

So, there will be 12 fiction novels competing for the title of People's Book, and I'm so pleased to have had the support to get this far.

Thanks to everyone who voted!

On another note, last night was World Book Night and I was at Waterstones, Ipswich for this fantastic event. Five `givers` of books were handing out fantastic titles like 'Stuart' and 'Agent Zig Zag'. I was there to sign copies of my novels, alongside Guy Saville whose debut novel 'Afrika Reich' is un-put-downable. A really great, pacy read with enough depth to provide food for thought after the journey ends.

Over bucks fizz & pretzels we wandered around the store, chatted about books & had a thoroughly lovely evening. Let's hope this initiative introduces more people to books!

New Angle Prize

The Woman Before Me by Ruth Dugdall has been featured on the Lesley Dolphin show on BBC Radio Suffolk, following its longlisting for the New Angle Prize for Literature.

Ruth's hotly anticipated second novel The Sacrificial Man is published by Legend Press on 25th June 2011.

You can listen to the feature by clicking here and going to 1:55hr:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00dytqc/Lesley_Dolphin_World_book_night_and_the_New_Angle_Prize_for_Literature/

World Book Night / New Angle Prize

Celebrate World Book Night with
Ruth Dugdall whose novel The Woman Before Me has just been longlisted for the New Angle Prize for Literature 2011.

WATERSTONE'S IPSWICH
Saturday, 5 March 2011, 7:00PM - 9:00PM
Local author Ruth Dugdall will be in store to help us celebrate World Book Night. She will be signing her books 'The James Version' and the prize winning 'The Woman Before Me'. Both available to purchase on the night.

Beccles Library Event

Ruth Dugdall

will be speaking about her books
‘The Woman Before Me’
and
‘The James Version’


at Beccles Library
Monday 7th March, 7:30pm

(this is a FREE EVENT! Admission by ticket only - available at the library)

Signed copies of both books available for £7.99 each on the evening.

Biting my nails...

...as I wait for 2.10 to come around when Lesley Dolphin will be reviewing The Woman Before Me live on Radio Suffolk.

Here's the link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/england/suffolk/

Hope she likes it!