Our completely new website to be launched shortly will provide details of all our latest titles together with our complete back catalogue of books and can all be  purchased online. Other new features will include latest news, coming soon and review sections and an authors section. Watch this space!

Melrose Books authors are advised to begin the process about six months prior to publication, sometimes earlier. Here’s why.

1. The idea of promoting your book, and yourself (something for another day), prior to publication is to gather an audience. This audience will be a foundation for sales. Larger audiences mean higher sales potential.

2. Lead time is important. It allows you time to build relationships, become involved in and engage with your market. It also allows you to build trust. Introducing a product the moment you meet someone is too much of a hard sell in today’s market, so you need to engage them first.

3. It takes the pressure off of you. Instead of rushing to get attention the week that your book arrives, you have time to coordinate meetings, events, interviews, reviews; it grants you flexibility; it allows you to build some kind of anticipation. And it makes you look professional.

Ask yourself some questions and do some research. Who are you writing for? What kind of person, or what group of people, will be the most interested? Where and how can you reach them? How does your competition profile with costs and covers? How is your book unique?

Create a list; it can be a life saver. Draw out your timeline: publication date, cover completion date, press notification dates, galley proof/review copy dates, blog posts, etc.

Think about what your online strategy will be. Are you prolific enough to be a blogger, or would a Facebook Fan Page be more appropriate? Do you have a sufficient focus to make Twitter worth your efforts? Perhaps having a webpage is sufficient? You don’t need to do everything, but to grab the largest potential audience you do need to be involved online…with a plan.

Just as important as timelines, your plan needs to have some kind of a budget and an understanding of how much time you will have to commit to marketing and promotion. If you have three hours every Saturday, that will dictate what you can and should do compared to if you have an hour available every day of the week.

Take responsibility, be patient, and think ahead.

And now, you have an opportunity to make that initial impact by designing a cover for one of our upcoming titles!

In the spring of 2012 Melrose Books is publishing Kit Cope Rides the High Country, a novel which sets out to single-handedly restore the Western genre. Written with a great deal of verve and vigour, fashioned with great affection and respect for the genre, author Alan Eltron Barrell’s manuscript bristles with intensity and authenticity. He’s looking for the same kind of energy and vision in a cover design.

Our artists’ call-to-arms is to your left, but more details on this unique opportunity after the jump.

To commemorate this unique Western release, Melrose Books and Alan Eltron Barrell are offering the opportunity for one lucky and talented individual to produce the full cover design artwork for the novel. The winner will receive a free signed copy of the book and their credentials featured inside the novel upon the copyright page.

We are looking for any kind of inspired depiction that captures the spirit of the old west, from cattle and cowboys to towns and showdowns. The finished version must be in full colour and free of any script.

So, if you are artistically inclined, inspired by the old west and would like to add a unique cover design to your portfolio, contact us by emailing marketing@melrosebooks.com.

The competition closes at noon on Monday, October 3, 2011. So get drawin’ and invoke once against the spirit of the old rip-roaring west! Alan Eltron Barrell will chose the depiction that best accomplishes what his own novel sets out to do: remind us all of the savage beauty of the est, and of the fresh and defiant life still flowing in the genre. So take up the cry: Westerns Never Die!

All submissions must be received by Monday, October 3, 2011. Submissions must include preferred contact details, and a self-addressed return package for entries sent by post. Only the winner will be notified, after which no correspondence will be entered into. For questions or submissions prior to October 3, 2011, please contact marketing@melrosebooks.com. Employees and authors of Melrose Books are not eligible. Cover Design Competition

Charles Albert Booth has authored the definitive work on the Lockerbie Bombing of 1988. Confronted daily with the developments of the investigation, The Truth Never Dies is a comprehensive and eyewitness account of the events and their aftermath which examines the evidence and investigating its validity. Charles was the manager of the largest hotel in Lockerbie at the time of the event.

The Truth Never Dies is an in-depth and carefully researched memoir and critical study of the Lockerbie Bombing of 1988. To make sure we’re all up to speed, can you summarise the events on which you base your critical study?

To summarise the events on which I base my  critical study of the Lockerbie Air Disaster, naturally I must start by illustrating the vast loss of life caused by the disaster, and the suffering caused to so many, including the local community of Lockerbie. In summary, I do this by examining the following.

•  The investigation that reached out to so many countries.

•  The difficulty of communicating effectively with different countries.

•  The internal power struggle that existed between different departments and countries.

•  The inefficiency caused by politics of different countries.

•  The tug-of-war by different countries and their politics, creating many conspiracy theories.

•  Attitudes towards relatives of the victims which caused unnecessary suffering.

•  The discrepancy of evidence, presented in one manner and later represented differently.

•  The unreliable witnesses called upon who testified against Al- Megrahi.

•  The offering of the sacrificial lamb to compensate for the lifting of sanctions againstLibya.

•  The shambolic trail in theNetherlandspresided over by Scottish judges.

•  The withholding of evidence, by the prosecution team to the defence team, namely the “Lockerbie Papers”.

•  The disgraceful judgement of the first appeal by Scottish Judges.

•  The manner in which Al Megrahi was released from prison by Kenny MacAskill.

•  The British government pre-involvement  withLibyaprior to Magahi’s release from prison.

•  The devious manner in which Megrahi was interviewed in prison, and the unnecessary dropping of the second appeal against Megrahi’s conviction.

•  The convenient manner in which the government escapes embarrassment by the dropping of the second appeal.

•  The venom expressed by certain Americans against Megrahi’s release.

•  The deceit and governmental lies and politics, over twenty-two years on.

I guess that we were pawns in the beginning. My investigation reveals that we’re still pawns in the struggle between the influence and interference of theUnited States of America.

What inspired you to put this book together – a book that, ultimately, was years in the making?

The final inspiration for me to put this book together was someone like Dr. Jim Swire, who was a long-suffering truth seeker; I tried to see things from the perspective of these people. It was becoming obvious, not just to me but to others, that manipulation was in play with certain aspects of the investigation. As governments created conspiracy theories, these truth seekers walked through the complicated maze and were caught up in a web of deceit.

At the time of the bombing you were the manager of the largest hotel in Lockerbie, and while you were certainly a first-hand witness to what happened you were also in a position to, essentially, view the consequences and the aftermath of that day. If one thing stands out to you, whether it’s in terms of the ensuing investigation or observations of the community or the actions of those involved in the follow-up, what would it be?

The most compelling thing that stands out about the “Lockerbie” disaster is the over-riding confusion of the Lockerbie investigation team, as they tried to come to grips with the ever-changing face on the investigation.

How does your first-hand experience with that investigation make The Truth Never Dies unique?

I view the event not just in terms on the amount of new evidence emerging on a regular basis, but I witnessed first-hand the internal conflicts that occurred between, for example, the (Met) police and the local Lockerbie police, and the delayed evidence from the German police which was ultimately given to the Lockerbie investigation team some six months on. Everyone was protecting their own corner, rather than participating in a full and complete co-operation.

This includes the CIA, whose evaluation of certain matters conflicted with the local investigation team’s evaluation.

Looking down the line, how could there ever be a satisfying conclusion to such a tragic event?

For relatives that lost loved ones, most would not relate to any conclusion. If it were possible to put grief to one side, and not conveniently, see blame placed at the door step of those who were responsible for a miscarriage of justice (whether this be through the evidence being re-examined by a public inquiry), more clarity would surface and show how governments did not play the honest broker at the time of the original investigation.

This in itself would allow all people, relatives or others, to think more critically and not just believe what governments tell you and want you to believe.

Thanks to Charles for taking time out of his schedule to answer a few questions. The Truth Never Dies is the Melrose Books book of the month for May. It is now available through Amazon, through the Melrose Books website and Gardners, so be sure to stop into your local bookseller to place your order! ISBN 978-1-907040-98-6 PRICE £9.99 PAPERBACK 272pp

Beyond the HST deals with the future prospects of High Speed Trains in Britain, touching on critical points which are currently being discussed by the government and in the media–making this is a good time for the book to be released.  Did you see this shift in the rail network coming, or is this a bit of serendipitous timing?

The question of a new high speed train design has been a matter of debate in the railway press for several years now. It is only more recently that these matters have come into focus in the media, principally concerning issues relating to the IEP (Inter City Express Programme) and the new high speed lines to the Midlands and North. There has also been considerable political change in the last two years, both with a new Transport Secretary in the last Labour administration and also of course with the election of the new Coalition government. I did not predict those changes, which occurred during the writing of the book. So to a large extent the timing of Beyond the HST in the middle of public and government interest in this subject is purely coincidental.

On the other hand, there is a certain inevitability in the timing of these events: sooner or later both abstract theories and actual systems run out of steam, and decisions need to be taken about strategies for the next phase. So perhaps the timing of the book is not so surprising after all.    

Your book discusses new solutions for the rail network and high speed trains, including improved speed, comfort, flexibility, cost and accessibility.  What was the impetus behind putting together such a comprehensive proposal?

Although I have never been involved in the railway industry directly, as an enthusiast I have followed events in it for 40 years through reading various railway magazines and the media in general. When I started the book two years ago, the situation concerning the development of coherent technical strategies for the British railway network was very bad. Clearly much of the industry was at loggerheads with the civil servants on policy, for example on railway electrification, and there was much political and business opportunism going on to muddy the waters further.

In my opinion many of these problems were the inevitable consequence of a poorly designed structure imposed on the industry at privatisation, and subsequent tinkering with the system did not really get to the root causes of these issues. So at that time (in common with many others, judging by comments in the railway press) I was frustrated by the battles and technological naivety of the protagonists, together with their apparent disregard for the needs of their customers: the passengers. It looked as though this nation, which once led the world in railway technology, was going to be lumbered with an unimaginative adapted commuter multiple unit for its future inter city expresses. Something had to be done! But what?

It was no use just whingeing; the only valid argument would be to come up with something better. My background in system engineering (albeit in a different industry: electronics) would give me many of the necessary skills to devise something, and as I now had the time in retirement I could research the bits I didn’t already know about. So I put on my thinking cap, studied many options, came up with solutions, checked with a mechanical engineer at my old university that the solutions would work; and Beyond the HST is the result.

How do you think the proposals in Beyond the HST match up with what is currently being debated?

The first point to make is that Beyond the HST is a proposal of what rolling stock I think should be built for Britain in future and why. It makes no comment about who should build it, where, how it should be financed, who should decide, when it should come into service, which routes should benefit first, etc. These are all interesting questions, but it is not my business to answer them. I have absolutely no responsibility for deciding anything (hooray!), I’m just a man with some ideas which seem to be attractive who invites anyone who is interested to consider whether they agree.

The second point is that (to avoid making things even more complicated than they are already) Beyond the HST restricts itself to trains for the established British main line network. There are no proposals for 250mph ultra high speed trains on new lines, nor are there designs for metro trains or trams. Within the scope of the book, however, you will find a coherent rolling stock strategy covering everything from the Flying Scotsman express (if it were still called that!) to the local single coach stopping train from Norwich to Lowestoft.

In comparison with the proposals currently being officially considered by the DfT, there is no doubt that passengers would consider my solution superior. It is also quite likely that overall my solution would be more cost effective in the long term, if full account is taken of all the costs and benefits for the network as a whole: however, long and fierce argument can be expected on that subject before a real conclusion is reached to validate or disprove that impression.

Transport Secretary Philip Hammond recently unveiled details about the government’s plans for the high speed rail network (http://nds.coi.gov.uk/clientmicrosite/Content/Detail.aspx?ClientId=202&NewsAreaId=2&ReleaseID=417186&SubjectId=36).  How does this compare to your proposal, and what do you think of the plan?

As mentioned earlier, Beyond the HST is more about making the best use of the existing main line network rather than new high speed rail lines. We do need some new high speed lines, though, for reasons of relieving capacity bottlenecks as well as reducing journey times to achieve a real modal shift of transport use in our overcrowded island.

The plan for the new high speed network from London to the Midlands and North is quite good, I think, but of course is a compromise between facilities and cost. I would have omitted the Old Oak Common interchange with Crossrail and gone to Paddington instead for that interchange, then continued eastwards to Euston/St.Pancras/King’s Cross as a through station with a further link to HS1 in that area. Then domestic HS2 trains could continue to Stratford ‘International’, and you could probably contrive a terminus station off HS1 curving back to the Docklands area to get domestic trains out of the way of international ones. This would give London passengers a choice of Paddington, Euston, Stratford and Docklands stations to spread the load better and give many useful onward connections, without delaying those who just want to get from the Euston Road to Birmingham as fast as possible. No doubt hands will be raised in horror at the cost of such a proposal!

I agree Heathrow is best served by a spur: only a small proportion of passengers on the high speed network will want to go there and it is undesirable to spend billions on ultra high speed for the majority then slow them down again for the minority.

We’re launching Beyond the HST on Saturday, 29th January at the Waterloo branch of Ian Allan, from 1 to 3pm.  What can you tell us about your presentation?

I plan to give an outline of the objectives of the strategy, followed by a quick overview of why I think none of the existing trains and proposals being considered at present meet those objectives. Then I will explain what my proposed strategy is to meet the requirements, with some pointers to how the various vehicles operate technically. I hope to bring along some simple models of the vehicles too, if I can finish making them in time! Then we can have a question and answer session, followed by signing books for those who want to buy a copy.   

One way or another, transportation in the UK is going to have to change in the near future.  What do you see in the rail network’s future in the next 100 years?

When I was at university in the late 1960s, a commonly held view was that conventional railways were obsolescent and by the turn of the century (10 years ago!) we would all be whizzing around the country at ease in 300 mph magnetically levitated trains powered by linear motors. Well, it hasn’t happened, for many good boring economic and technical reasons. Steel wheel on steel rail still reigns supreme throughout the world, and (as most recently the Chinese have shown) is still capable of considerable further development.

Another change from 50 years ago is that then the car was king and the future, and railways were only needed in special situations. Stuck in traffic jams and breathing the fumes, that’s another prediction we all now regret. In the air too, the jet airliner was definitely the coming thing, and nobody would seriously consider anything else for journeys over 200 miles or so.

So making predictions over even 50 years is a bit of a gamble, never mind 100 years. It does seem, though, that because of environmental concerns support for the idea of railways in Britain is stronger than it has been since the 1970s; concerns are more about how efficiently and effectively the railways are run. If the organisational and strategic policy making issues can be sorted out (and I know the politicians are working on that), railways in Britain have a great future. Railway staff have managed to grow the business massively in the last two decades, in spite of all the problems.

Just think what they could do if they had clear objectives, strategic imagination, decent kit and a management structure and leadership they could all believe in!

Thanks to John for taking so much time out to work with us on this Q&A, and hopefully he can still finish those models in time for the launch next weekend.  Beyond the HST is available through Gardners, Amazon, Ian Allan and other select locations, so stop into your local bookseller for a copy.

For a smaller publisher such as ourselves, we still need to adapt to our brave, new world, but resources are limited. Our biggest challenges were in terms of overheads and man-power.

Electronic publishing has been around for a fair amount of time. Adobe’s PDF was one of the most popular formats to view on computer and that’s been around seemingly forever, but major publishers took real notice of e-books around the turn of the millennium. Once Sony, Amazon and Apple got involved, the market for e-books exploded with the proliferation of platforms dedicated to hosting that very product.

Last year, when I initially introduced the idea to Melrose Books, we had a few quandaries we had to deal with.

1. Because we allow all of our authors to retain not just copyright but all subsidiary rights to their work, we couldn’t begin converting our back catalogue because those subsidiary rights included electronic publishing rights and digital rights management. How would we approach our past authors about signing over their electronic publishing rights/DRM?
2. Keeping in mind that we need to limit overhead without sacrificing quality, which platform (or platforms) would we use to host our e-books? Parties like Amazon and Apple, or would we sell internally?
3. Would we outsource conversion, or would we do it in-house? If done in-house, how do we do it, and which file types will we need for our selected platform of choice?
4. This is just the tip of the iceberg, really…we knew there would be even more questions once we ran into obstacles and the further we got into the process.

How we answered our questions, after the jump…

As it turned out, obtaining electronic publishing rights from a select group of authors in our back catalogue wasn’t difficult. A number of them had already expressed interest in having an electronic version of their book on the market, and others were excited by the idea of being available to a wider audience. This was our easiest problem to overcome: we were honest, told the authors what we wanted and why, and explained how it would benefit them.

Problem numbers two and three were a bit more complicated and involved, because they involved a lot of research…and a lot of trial and error.

Seminars help, reading reports online is necessary and useful, research was essential, but ultimately we knew that we had to keep overheads low and so we had to do everything in-house. Running the conversion of manuscripts ourselves kept us in more control, but it also limited our options for platform to either Amazon’s Kindle or playing host ourselves (and selling our e-books through our website).

Ultimately we chose to go through Amazon. We already worked with them, have had a strong relationship, their platform was already up-and-running not to mention accessible and successful, it gives us time to feel out our market before introducing some new e-commerce into our own website, they have their own security, and selling through Amazon allows our products to be viewed on an e-reader in a fully-formatted, professional manner. A PDF looks fine on your computer screen, but they can look a little shoddy on a Kindle or iPad (a Kindle App allows iPad users to purchase Amazon’s e-books and read them on the foreign reader…another big advantage of choosing Kindle, in our eyes).

Then came the aforementioned trial and error. Kindle accepts a number of different formats, but we needed one that gave our e-books a professional, readable, accessible style. Ultimately we settled on .mobi files, because they’re compatible with InDesign. But there was a lot of time spent making changes, doing the conversions, and checking out how the book looks on an e-reader before we finally had a basic process down. We knew that process would change as we ran into obstacles and began converting more complicated manuscripts.

Of course, now we make things a bit easier on ourselves. Now that we know how Kindle reads our files, we can make changes to the typeset on the front end of the production process to make an eventual conversion to e-book that much easier.

Pricing was another important issue. Many mainstream authors, retailers and publishers will not give too much of a discount on their e-book, for a number of reasons. Some of them have additional content, a lot like extras on a DVD.

For our authors, saleability and getting any edge possible on the market is vital, and so we set a loose guideline for the e-book price being 40% of the cost of the actual book. If any of our authors are brave and willing to try putting their book(s) on sale for even less (we’ve all heard the success stories of the $0.99 or £0.99 e-book from a once unknown author), we encourage that, too.

It continues to be an ongoing process for us, but we have now converted fourteen of our back catalogue titles…all to varying levels of sales, of course.

Over the coming weeks I’d like to talk about some of the other ways Melrose Books is continuing to evolve. It’s a subject I’m very passionate about. In the meantime, I hope you’ll connect with us.

And just in case anyone is interested: Celtic Maidens (Ceri Norman), Here’s a State of Things and Maybe It’s Because I’m a Londoner (Bernard Lockett), The Shepherd Lord (Peter Algar), Up the Rhine and Down the Danube (Derek Brown), University Shambles (Chris Rhodes), When Blood Ties Lie (Jeremy Drewett), The Adversary (James Bowman), His Masters Lover and Sinning in the Rain and Simon: a Decline and Fall of the English Landed Gentry (Nick Heddle), The Great Ocean of Truth (Peter Wadhams) and So Your Girlfriend’s a Vegetarian? (Adam Shaw). Claire Shearwood’s The Grey Scale: Devil’s Game will be available as an e-book by the end of this weekend.

On the third Wednesday evening of every month, Melrose Books and Clare Cottage team up to provide an Author’s Evening. It’s a unique opportunity to meet with an author in an intimate environment, engage with them on their topic of expertise, hear about their experiences as an author and have a drink and a nibble to boot.

Bernard Lockett, this month’s host of Clare Cottage’s Author’s Evening, is a three-time author (with a fourth on the way) and is no stranger to public appearances. On Wednesday he’ll be talking about the music of composers Gilbert and Sullivan, the forerunners of today’s musical theatre. Leonard Bernstein has said that they were his greatest influence in writing West Side Story, and Rogers and Hammerstein have said that their shows were based on the pair.

‘What we have in Gilbert and Sullivan is musical theatre at its very best with large choruses, splendid individual songs, comedy, dances, and often more soulful moments too,’ Bernard says. Brought up on Gilbert and Sullivan, his own parents had been to many of the original first nights in the 1870s and 1880s. ‘I just like the fun, the music, the comedy and equally the pathos all to make a marvellous theatrical evening.’

The presentation kicks off at seven, so if you’re in the Peterborough or Stamford/Helpston area tomorrow, join us for what should be an entertaining and informative evening. Bernard is a Trustee of the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival, and his third book, Here’s a State of Things, lovingly captures the mood of the 19th century in addition to serving as a fitting tribute to the works of Gilbert and Sullivan, and to the original D’Oyly Carte Opera Company. Here’s a State of Things is also available through Kindle.

Clare Cottage is operated by The John Clare Trust, and while being the birth and family home of poet John Clare and now something of a museum, the site has also been developed into a cultural, educational and environmental hub suitable for visits by any age group. Visit the website for a great deal more information on this historical and educational multi-purpose venue.

Bernard, right, speaks with another Melrose Books author at the marketing seminar on 10/05/2011

A quick breakdown of a few events we have coming up in the next couple of weeks, for anyone looking to get out and enjoy the beautiful spring weather.

Saturday 13 May 2011 - Former Essex police officer and current Essex storyteller Mike Benning will be signing books at Waterstone’s in Bury St. Edmunds, the Butter Market location, from 11am. His book, Island Joggings, is an amusing series of anecdotes inspired from a trip to the Caribbean. You can read more about his book at our website, or you can check out our blog post regarding his recent publicity. Ask him to tell you about the rum cake.

Wednesday 18 May 2011 - Bernard Lockett will be the special guest at Clare Cottage for their monthly Author’s Evening. Bernard, who has appeared on numerous programmes with the BBC and spoken with groups such as U3A, WI and others, will be speaking on one of his favourite subjects in the history of the universe: the music of Gilbert and Sullivan. As a Trustee of the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival, his presentation is a comprehensive, informative and entertaining look at the history and music of the two men, and the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company. It is all tied into his third book, Here’s a State of Things, and naturally involves music.

Tuesday 24 May 2011 - Nicci Pugh, author of the nursing memoir on The Falklands War White Ship – Red Crosses, will be speaking to the U3A in Truro, Cornwall. Nicci’s presentation, titled A British Hospital Ship at War, is an informative and fascinating look at life on board a floating hospital working in the South Atlantic Ocean during the war. Including many original and previously unseen photographs, Nicci covers the conversion of Her Majesty’s Hospital Ship Uganda from an ocean cruise liner to a hospital ship, and she also discusses the work of The South Atlantic Medal Association.

For information on these or any other events from authors of Melrose Books, get in touch with us at any time.

Criticism goes hand-in-hand with being a published author. And if you are a published author, then you know perfectly well that it’s not all constructive criticism. Inevitably someone will come along whose review (for example) is scathing, apparently for no other reason than to simply be scathing and to tear down everything you have worked so long and hard to build.

More after the jump…

At these times it can be the hardest thing in the world to be gracious. But this is exactly what you need to be. If you see a negative review online, step away from the screen before your fire gets the better of you and you end up posting a vitriol-laden reply. If someone approaches you in person to say your book isn’t interesting, or if at an event someone heckles you, you absolutely cannot lose your cool. I won’t presume to have all the answers as to how you should respond, but you do need to take a breath and recognize that how you respond will have a knock-on effect to how you are perceived.

When one of our authors was on the radio recently, the gentleman who was broadcasting made the comment “But it’s not really that interesting, is it?” Of course he meant it in jest, but our author calmly replied “Well of course it is, and let me tell you why,” and he went on to tell a couple of anecdotes which ended up playing very well. It was a good interview.

Ultimately, as a published author you become more than an individual. You become a brand, which means you’re just like any other author and in some ways like any other business: people will be less inclined to buy a product from someone who has come off as sour, bitter, ungrateful, sarcastic, resentful or plain old negative and unprofessional. If you are confident, show your personality, take criticism in stride and in general just handle yourself with poise, you’ll be doing yourself a favour and will be in a better position to reap the benefits as a result. Perception matters, and the perception of you and your book go hand-in-hand.

Being an author takes a level of personal courage. No matter who you are you’re putting a part of yourself out there, and opening yourself up like that is a very difficult thing to do. It’s a personal risk and a professional one, and if you’re going to make the decision to be an author then do yourself all the favours you can. Do things that put you in a better position. Don’t beat yourself or do things that could affect you or your book negatively.

Think about your image. Consider who you are as an author and what that means for you as a brand. Understand that everything you do will have consequences, positive or negative. So when the time comes where you’ll have to deal with some adversity as an author, if you handle the situation with grace, then you’re doing the right thing. Such a large part of the game (and any success you might achieve) is predicated on the position you put yourself in, and nobody can have a bigger effect on this than you.

Be a professional, do the right things and position yourself for success.

With the launch of Travis Little’s Entangled and Brendan McCann’s From Belfast to Hong Kong, both authors are doing something a bit different. Little is holding his launch at As You Like It, a trendy eating house/bar/terrace that features “3 sprawling floors, 4 stunning bars, an elegant terrace” and more. McCann, meanwhile, will be giving his audience a performance in Ireland; singing, dancing, a bit of bagpipe and, more likely than any of the other three combined, Brendan telling an anecdote or twelve.

Congratulations to both authors from all of us at Melrose Books! Enjoy your launches!