Hi folks,

I am delighted to share with you some of the endorsements I had so far for love lay down beside me and we wept.

Sometimes when I see endorsements on books, I wonder how they came about. Do the writers know each other? Are they all with the same publishing company? Is there a bit of mutual back scratching going on? If you aren’t a well-known, well-connected author, how do you persuade other writers to read a proof copy? As usual, although I’ve published a novel before, I feel like a novice learning on the job (albeit with a dash of healthy cynicism). 

My cynicism, though, has taken a back seat for a while, thanks to my own experience of the process. Firstly, let me say that Imogen, Deputy Head of Editorial, has been doing a lot of the hard work for me, contacting certain writers through their agents or through mutual contacts. The three endorsements here are from writers that I have made a connection with directly. What amazes me is that not only did they agree to read the book and say lovely things about it, but that they did it when they don’t really know me. 

I mentioned in my last update that Elissa Soave, author of the prize-winning Ginger and Me, was the first to send me an endorsement. I wanted to approach her for a variety of reasons. Firstly, her novel is wonderful and I really respect her writing. Secondly, it is set in Glasgow, so we have a common link. And thirdly, in the interactions that we have had on Twitter/X, mainly in our Women Writers Network twitter chats, she comes across as someone who is extremely supportive of other writers. I wasn’t mistaken. She’s been brilliant.

Here’s what she had to say:

 

Recently I haven’t been that present on social media, especially Twitter/X, but when The Backstreets of Purgatory was coming out, I was fairly active (I will get back to it soon!). Although it has a reputation of being a fairly toxic environment, I have made some fantastic Twitter writing friends. That’s why I haven’t left yet, despite my reservations. One of these writing friends is Andy West. He is a philosopher who taught philosophy in prisons. We had fascinating discussions about whether you could separate the art from the artist, particularly regarding Caravaggio  (the star of Backstreets). Andy’s memoir, The Life Inside, is a thought-provoking, poignant and often funny book about teaching philosophy in prisons. His own very personal story runs in parallel. He understands exactly how terrifying it is to share intimate details of our lives, but that the fear means that what we have written is emotionally honest. Which is surely the whole point of memoir. Here’s what he wrote:

 

The third writer here is Kevin MacNeil. I read his wonderful, laugh-out loud, tragicomedy The Brilliant and Forever about a short story competition set on a Scottish island where one of the main characters is an alpaca. It came to me at a vital point in my writing life when I was suffering from a particularly bad case of professional envy. It touches on many aspects of the writing world, including among other things what success actually means, and made me reevaluate my own feelings. Kevin is a creative writing lecturer at Stirling Uni, and when I wrote to him telling him how valuable I had found his book (not to mention funny, horrific, beautifully bizarre), he wrote me a long message back talking about some of the same themes, about how other people’s success doesn’t preclude one’s own, about realising that there are some circumstances, luck etc that are outside of our control, and that all we can do is do our best work. I was thrilled when he agreed to read the proof of love lay down. Here’s what he had to say:

 

It has been tremendously reassuring to have these wonderful endorsements just as the book starts to go out into the world. The copies of uncorrected proof have been sent out to those people who pledged for an early version, so it is now in the hands of some readers. Nervous? Of course I am!

Helen x