I’ve deleted all the items on my electronic ‘to do’ list but I can tell you I spent a lot of evenings teaching myself how to use video editing and subtitling apps on my phone (to create videos for YouTube and social media), I planned games for my FB launch (which was a lot of fun, although I still haven’t send the prizes out a week later 😬), I explored the world of FB advertising, I signed, personalised and doodled 175 pre-ordered copies for Max Minerva’s, followed reader reactions on Pigeonhole, wrote articles, answered Q&As and I took part in Zooms and FB lives.
Now Her Last Holiday is out in the world! Well, in the UK, Canada, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand anyway.
Ireland, and huge parts of Canada, are still in lockdown (my third book to be impacted by lockdown in some way) but I still have cause to celebrate because Her Last Holiday is one of books of the month for Easons (which has never happened before) and it’s my first book to be published in the US and Canada since 2016 (for those of you who have been to one of my talks about the highs and lows of life as an author you can add those wilderness years where I wasn’t published in North America to the lows!)
It should also be in Walmart in the States and Indigo, Walmart and Costco in Canada.
Yesterday Her Last Holiday was published in Australia and New Zealand yesterday and it should be available in Big Win Australia and in Mighty Ape in New Zealand, plus the Nile (online) and some Paper Plus stores. And in some indie stores too. I was tagged in this photo from Josh on Instagram.
In the UK Her Last Holiday is in Asda, Tesco and Sainsbury, Waterstones and various indie bookshops (and Amazon of course). I had my part week figures through yesterday and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous. The hardback of Strangers came out at the start of lockdown 1 in 2020 and my sales figures were half that of Sleep the year before. What would my sales figures for like for the hardback of Her Last Holiday as we crept out of lockdown 3?
Well, dear readers, I need to say THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU because they were the highest so far! The hardback charted at #12 in Sunday Times original fiction chart selling nearly 2,000 copies! To say I was relieved would be an understatement. I’d really like to sneak into the top ten next week so if you haven’t bought a copy yet now would be a really good time! (And you really want to get your hands on a first edition with the gorgeous silver embossing on the board, don’t you? 😉)
This link should take you to an online shop where you can buy the version of Her Last Holiday that’s published in your country: Smarturl.it/herlastholiday