Archive for the ‘agents’ Category

Posted on February 19, 2008 - by MG

themgharris.com is launched…

 
Look what Redhammer made me!!!

Well, what do you suppose a newly launched debut author does in the first week after her book is out…?

About a year ago I imagined I’d be walking around rather light-headed, visiting bookshops and placing my book somewhere more prominent… And the rest of the time sort of basking in a glow of happiness.

Well, guess what?

I actually AM doing quite a bit of that! (Although they’ve done really well with the book placement - it’s on tables and face out everywhere that I’ve seen. Yay!)

But my hard-working agent is also seeing to it that I’m not entirely frittering away my time eating cream scones, bagels and ice-cream and watching TV. He’s had me thinking of and writing articles for the super-whizzy new fan site that he’s developed at www.themgharris.com

Why did we call it that? Cos mgharris.com is taken and there is more than one MG Harris…

(although I bet there isn’t another Maria Guadalupe Harris but, yanno…drat, I just checked and there ARE!)

So check it out and maybe even join up!

In other news, in Cuba Fidel Castro has ‘resigned’ as El Presidente For Life, Glorious Dictator and Supreme Revolutionary Commandante (or some such overblown title). I guess we’ll have to wait until he checks in by phone with one of his best buddies like French movie actor Gerard Depardieu, to find out if he’s really still alive at all.

He’s put his brother Raul Castro in charge. Cubans have been waiting a long time to see Fidel die or stand down. They have a lot of patience, those people.

Posted on February 15, 2008 - by MG

JOSHUA FILES launch party!

Elaine McQuade (Scholastic), MG Harris, Elv Moody (Scholastic) and Peter Cox (Redhammer) at the launch party for THE JOSHUA FILES

So finally, we threw a party for THE JOSHUA FILES at La Perla, a Mexican restaurant/bar in London. Team Joshua from Scholastic were there, plus many other wonderful people from that company. We were joined by influential children’s booksellers and people from the children’s media. I had some brilliant conversations, although all too brief. So many people to meet!

Elaine and I gave little speeches. Luckily for me Elaine went first. While she spoke I realised that I was in severe danger of forgetting everything I’d planned to say. It was all lost behind a tequila-and-lime-flavoured fog. I had to struggle to latch onto any aspect of what I was saying. Thank goodness I’d decided to start with blaming (totally unfairly )my sister-in-law for my skiing accident. I don’t have any trouble at all talking about that day. Nope, falling onto the Eggli mountain and snapping my tibia is a path quite well etched into my neurons.

Over the next few weeks there will be plenty of opportunities to buy TJF on promotion. It will be Book of the Week in Sainsbury and Tesco, and is on discount now at WHSmith, Waterstones and Borders.

It looks as though the next stage for me will be visiting schools. I’m really looking forward to doing this. Finally hanging out with readers! Might even find a way to combine it with school governor work…asking for 30 mins with all curriculum deputies to talk about 14-19 education initiatives or something. Hmmm.

My agent Peter Cox (pictured above) has been working with designers on a super, super cool new fan site. I hope readers will love it. Should be ready by Monday…but if you are clever at searching on Google you might already be able to find it.

A prize for the first one to locate it! I don’t know what, yet, but something token… 

Posted on November 19, 2007 - by MG

Animoto - “Invisible City” slideshow

My agent told me about this cool new site for creating animated slideshows… Animoto.

So naturally, I’ve been having a bit of a play…

Heh heh. That was fun…

Here’s another remix. This is just experimental…I may well sign up for the full $30 per year to get unlimited videos of longer than 30 secs.

The music is ‘Invisible City’ by Beight, on the album File In Rhythm purchased from Magnatune.

Posted on November 9, 2007 - by MG

I’ve seen it and it’s brill…

Do people still say ‘brill’? Probably showing my age. It’s standard, okay? It’s safe.

Yesterday I met at the Scholastic offices with Agent Cox and Editor Elv to discuss Exciting Top-Secret-For-Now New Online Strategy To Promote “The Joshua Files”. Yes indeed, not content with breaking new ground with the most innovative book cover you’ll see all year, Scholastic’s whizz MD Elaine McQuade has decided to promote this series title online in a Whole New Way. Agent Cox and I are in on the whole idea, which will take readers of the book into a whole new dimension of the world of “The Joshua Files”.

At the start of the meeting, Editor Elv surprised us both by producing a shiny new advance copy of “The Joshua Files - Invisible City” (the only one so far, it was the one sent for final approval by the publishers).

I snapped a photo of the book with some of the doughnuts we were using to fuel the meeting (which was about developing online content so we had doughnuts and coffee like the ‘net geeks we aspire to be).

Here’s a video of Agent Cox and Elv looking at the book…

(If you have a Facebook account you can see the video here.)

Posted on December 17, 2006 - by MG

Yanno - Copyright Miss Snark

I may, from time to time, use the word ‘Yanno’. It’s an ironic version of Tony Blair’s ‘Yenno’.

I didn’t invent it, Miss Snark may have. Miss Snark is a literary agent whose blog provides snarky advice to aspiring writers. I am a fan of Miss Snark. There, I’ve said it.