petite anglaise

In honour of official ‘French Kissing’ publication day, I just wanted to answer a lot of the queries I’ve been receiving on facebook and by email about the novel’s availability abroad.

As things currently stand, I only have a Doubleday Canada release date – March 2010.

The Penguin UK version should be available in the high street bookshops in the UK, throughout the Commonwealth and in a selection of English language bookshops abroad (including WH Smiths in Paris).

In the meantime, if you are outside the UK and wish to get your hands on a copy, your best bet is probably to order it from the Book Depository – it’s reasonably priced and they will ship it anywhere in the world for free.

I do hope you enjoy it.

So. Shameless self-promotion over. I shall now go back to fretting about what my friends and family think of it.

Aie!

Our little family of three (plus bump) is heading to Turkey (more specifically, to the Lycian coast) for two weeks, so things will be (even) quieter than usual around here.

In the meantime, I leave you with the cover of my first novel, published as a paperback original in late August in the UK (to follow in March 2010 in Canada), which is now available for pre-order on Amazon.co.uk and elsewhere online.

Those of you who have been paying attention will note that I’d originally titled the book ‘Rendez-vous’ – which is also the name of the online dating site featured in the story.

The marketing powers-that-be decided to go with ‘French Kissing’ instead, and I’d be quite interested to hear which title people prefer…

I just happened to spot the new cover for the Random House paperback edition of petite, published in the US and Canada on 9 June (which I suspect will be overshadowed by Tadpole’s birthday, on the very same day!)

I had no idea it was going to be blue, and while I like the shade very much (as my wardrobe can testify), I can’t help thinking that it clashes somewhat with my blog colour scheme…

If you are on the other side of the pond, you can order a copy from Amazon US or Amazon Canada, or from your local bookstore.

Hopefully my author copies will be making an appearance in my letter box any day now.

At the risk of upsetting those of my readers who find self-promotion irritating, I just wanted to share with you the contents of the package that arrived this afternoon.

It occurs to me that Tadople may be a little vexed when she comes home from school and realises she is no longer a cover ‘star’ but, all in all, I’m very pleased with the book in its newest incarnation.

So, um, paperback petite should now be widely available in UK bookshops and supermarkets for as little as £4.00 (that’s the current going rate on Amazon, via the link to the right). The eagle-eyed among you will also note that there’s a trip to Paris on Eurostar up for grabs via a competition lurking within.

As of next week I shall be absconding to Belize with The Boy on my honeymoon in a bid to avoid teh internets in general (and Amazon rankings, in particular). I’ll be back to wow you with blurry photos of underwater fauna at the beginning of March.

I don’t think it has quite been finalised yet (there’s the small matter of making the word ‘Anglaise’ more readable which needs addressing) but I just stumbled, quite by chance, upon the paperback cover of the British edition of ‘petite anglaise’ on Amazon UK and thought it might be nice to share it with you.

As you can see, petite has undergone an extreme makeover. The marketing powers-that-be have decided that it’s out with the pushchair and métro sign and in with a possibly-less-than-subtle, curlicued Eiffel tower.

I like it. Because it screams ‘Paris’ and ‘romance’ rather than ‘mummy lit’. Because I love the turquoise-blue background and the embossed tower – to which, admittedly, this rather washed-out jpeg doesn’t really do justice, but trust me, I have a cardboard version. I rather like the cover quotes too, front and back. It’s truly amazing what can be distilled from a five hundred word review by those initiated in the dark art that is ‘cover blurbing’.

Paperback petite is due to hit the shops in February 2009, so why it’s already on Amazon, I’m not entirely sure. But if you’d like to pre-order a copy, be my guest.

Today will see me running a few errands (too tedious to detail) and knuckling down to work on chapter 11 of book#2.

Meanwhile, Petite Anglaise will be busy leaning seductively against the Eiffel Tower in her birthday suit and killer heels in bookshops across the USA and Canada.

So far things are looking good. Petite got glowing advance reviews in Publishers Weekly, Kirkus and Booklist, and has been selected as recommended summer reading by Scoop (WWD), Self (June issue), the books editor of US Glamour and NPR (Nine First Books that Make a Lasting Impression).

My first US interview will air on this week’s edition of The Book Show and my guest post on the Window Seat has just gone live.

But if it was hard for me to get my head around being published in the UK back in March, having my life on sale in bookshops across the Atlantic is even more surreal. I’m wondering whether seeing photographic evidence of Petite “in the wild” Stateside might help me to comprehend that this really is happening. To this end, I’m willing to personally mail a signed galley to the first ten readers who upload a candid shot of the book gracing the shelves of a US or Canadian bookstore to my facebook page.

And, um, don’t forget to buy it while you’re there…