The Fire Portrait is slowly making its way around the world... from the UK in mid-August, to South Africa in September and now to the rest of the globe. But that's just the physical version; if you like an e-book, you could buy it to read from August - wherever you happen to live! And, in the not-too-distant future, I'm delighted to say that there will be an audiobook.
More of that later.
It's bonanza time for readers at the moment. To give you an example, some 188k titles were published in the UK back in 2018, and 275k in the US. That's a lot of choice! And, after a dip, many books delayed by the pandemic have now been released. While that is great news for authors champing at the bit, it does mean that it's getting harder to stand out from the crowd! So I'm particularly grateful to my faithful readers who have posted pics on social media when they came across The Fire Portrait in person.
And talking of books on bookshelves, did you know that for every space on a store's shelves, there are over 100 titles competing for that spot? And, when you reflect on the challenges facing the publishing industry, surely the greatest must be bringing so many new products to market every year in such a competitive environment. Factories can produce the same version of a car, or a widget, whereas publishers have to create an entirely new design and promotional campaign for every new book they publish - and hope that it finds its spot on that shelf.
It makes me grateful that I'm getting a look-in!
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