Wednesday, July 24, 2013

I need your help

I’m feeling better today. I realise now that what was wrong with me yesterday was exhaustion – so will you please suggest this to me, next time I put up a bad-tempered post?

But I need some help from you, dear readers, in another direction.

In trying to get Waterstones to stock the paperback of PLOTTING FOR GROWN-UPS I need to tell them who my likely readers are – not just intelligent women, but which other authors do these intelligent women like? If you were sorting and categorising your bookshelf, which authors would you put me next to? How would you describe my fiction?

Please, please overcome your resistance, your shyness, your modesty, your desire for anonymity, and tell me in the comments section below. It would be a HUGE help.

Your comment will appear as soon as I’ve checked that it’s not from a spammer. A friend emailed today to say that she has tried several times to leave a comment and her comment has got lost. If this has happened to you, I am sorry. I have no idea what the problem is.

 

9 comments:

lyn said...

Sue, I was thinking about this today because I've just started reading my first book by Catherine Alliott & I think you could be compared to her. This is based on reading the first 50pp of her latest book, My Husband Next Door. I'd also compare your books to Katie Fforde (especially the early books), Jill Mansell, Elizabeth Von Arnim (especially Enchanted April) & E M Delafield (Provincial Lady). All these writers write about relationships with humour & their heroines aren't always 20 something. They're also all in print which might be important to Waterstones.

Sue Hepworth said...

That's very helpful. Thanks, Lyn.

Anonymous said...

Hi Sue - just put a review on Amazon for PFG, hope it helps. I'm also asking bookshops why they don't have your books in stock so I hope that helps...so far I've asked in Lincolnshire, Hertfordshire, Bucks and today will be Cambridgeshire! We're on staycation and doing day trips!!

I'm more a crime/mystery or historical fiction reader but now and again break out when I find someone I like. Recently I've enjoyed Joanna Trollope, Penelope Lively and Judy Finnegan as well as Sue Hepworth...

Chris A

Sue Hepworth said...

Thanks for the review, Chris and for the author info, and also - THANK YOU for the PR. Would you like to be my marketing manager?

Sue Hepworth said...

A friend emailed today to say that she has tried several times to leave a comment and her comment has got lost. If this has happened to you, I am sorry. I have no idea what the problem is.

Anonymous said...

I am an avid reader and I love to read your books! As one of your readers has already written, I am wondering when I'll get to read the next one! Right now, I am reading Barbara Kingsolver's newest book, Flight Behavior. Your books, like Kingsolver's, deal with issues that are important on a global level, a local level and a deeply personal level, asking the reader to be involved emotionally and to think on different levels about what is going on in our world. They are also quite funny in places and as an American, I love to see the different use of "English" words. I read mostly fiction including books by Ann Patchett, Louise Erdrich, Carol Shields, Kate Christensen, Jamie Ford, Jane Smiley. You can hold your own with any of these great women writers. I want to see your books on the "new and great" table in bookstores everywhere!

Sue Hepworth said...

Gosh, that's a very nice comment. Thank you.

Anonymous said...

Hi Sue
I've gone over my Amazon past orders and I'd say your writing is similar to authors such as Hilary Boyd, Milly Johnson and Alice Paterson. I suppose I've chosen them because of feelings I get, or a state of mind I'm in during/after reading certain genres, and your writing for me fits with the authors I mentioned. If I want to read about the lives of realistic believeable, characters, with generous descriptions of surrounding and come away feeling lifted because of the added humour than these are the authors (and yourself!) I turn to.

Hope that helps!

Shafia x

Sue Hepworth said...

Thanks, Shafia, that's very helpful.