Michael Thornton Books

So many great things are happening. Elaine and I had a ball last weekend at the Woodend Arts Festival. On Monday (Queen's Birthday) we listened to a panel of speakers -- two authors, a publisher and a literary agent -- speak bluntly yet honestly about the process of getting published. Of course, I was able to sit there wallowing in the fact that JACKAROO would be hitting the shelves exactly two weeks later, comfortable in the knowledge that I had experienced almost everything the speakers said, and yet had survived, and been published. During question time, one poor guy poured out his frustration that no one other than his family thought his novel worth publishing -- and he couldn't understand why. On one agent's advice, he'd cut 80,000 words from it, and still it got rejected. One of the panel made the point that the only appraisal that counted was that of a publisher. At another session, Ann Blainey spoke beautifully about her biography of Dame Nellie Melba. Her talk was riveting. 

Last night as I walked past a bookshop I couldn't resist it; I went in and asked if they'd ordered any copies of a great new book soon to be released. The staff member looked it up on her computer, and found they've ordered ONE copy of JACKAROO. ONE copy! I told her they'd need many more copies than that, given the rush I'd been told she should expect. She never twigged.