OK, life just got even more surreal – an extract from Oh Sugar was printed in the Daily Express today!
I was at work so I made a beeline for WHSmith in my lunch break. I grabbed a copy of the paper and scanned the health section for a tiny article about sugar. I got a bit of a shock when I saw it; I didn’t expect the article to be so big! Spread over two pages, with a bold red headline and eye-catching images, it really stands out. Wow.
Interesting thing to learn though: I had assumed the extract would be an unabridged version but of course it has to be heavily ‘cut and pasted’ to make a stand-alone article make sense. Naturally, this means the writing doesn’t flow as well as it does in the book. But even so, the end result is way more than I had hoped for (I had visions of a little unassuming article crammed into a dark corner somewhere)! It’s on the Daily Express online (minus the fancy heading and photos) if you want to take a look.
I decided to buy a couple of copies (in case one gets destroyed in some freak newspaper-destroying accident). And when the lady at the till questioned whether I wanted two copies of the same paper, I nodded wisely and managed to resist the temptation to tell her “… actually, one of my articles is in the health section.” (Ha, note ‘one of my’, like I write for the Daily Express every day.)
To top things off, Oh Sugar! is being sold through the Express bookshop too. When I last checked, it was featured on the front page, next to Davina’s ‘Sugar-Free’ book – a fact I am rather liking!
There is more publicity in the pipeline. I’ll keep you posted. Can things get any more surreal???
Click here to buy Oh Sugar! from Amazon
Katherine Bassford 
…… next stop international best selling author! What an achievement to get it in a national, but also for them to use an extract. I read it and thought, ‘brilliant.’
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Thank you! I am a bit gobsmacked that it appeared in a national paper. It all feels quite strange. But good :-)
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Does your publisher know? I’d have a quick chat for advice. I find it extraordinary that the Express has printed an extract from your book, given you a byeline, but not told you they are going to print this, especially if they haven’t given you an opportunity to sign off the changes made to your copy. I hope they included a link to your book? (Can’t see full article on my phone). But you can use it as an opportunity for future work, either with them or elsewhere.
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Hi Grace, yes the publisher told me that an extract from Oh Sugar! was going to be printed in the paper. I just assumed it would be a full extract without any tweaking but apparently it’s the norm! The tweaking was only cutting and pasting different sections from the book – so it is still all my own work, just not in the order I wrote it and not the most engaging parts! I’m still really pleased though and thankful for the opportunity. It’s really hard to get a book noticed at all so any exposure is good. They did print full details of the book at the end of the article, so that’s great too. It will be interesting to see if it leads to any further opportunities…
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Fantastic stuff, Katherine! Make sure you bring a copy to next month’s meet! Woo Hoo! Get in there, etcetera… just great news! :)
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Cheers Tom, I’ll try to remember to bring a copy to the SCBWI meeting. Looking forward to a good catch up with everyone! Hope your book is going well. I have good vibes about this year for us both :-)
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Yep, definitely! A signed one for me please! :) Thanks Katherine, yeah, I’m up for a few good vibes! But, who cares I’d be doing it anyway! Loving the positivity though – fantastic!!! See you soon.
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