Dispatch from the Razor's Edge, the Blog of Michael Stephen Fuchs
Things I Learned at Macmillan
"Ah, but the way is so long!
  Years they have been in the wild!
  Sore thirst plagues them, the rocks
  Rising all round, overawe;
  …
  Then, in such hour of need
  Of your fainting, dispirited race,
  Ye, like angels, appear,
  Radiant with ardour divine!
  Beacons of hope, ye appear!"

                - Matthew Arnold, "Rugby Chapel"


Here are some things I learned in my visit to Macmillan last night to discuss marketing plans for the book.
  • My editor (and head of the Macmillan New Writing imprint), Mike Barnard, is a prince. Okay, well I knew that.
  • He reports directly to the Chairman of Macmillan.
  • His 23-year-old marketing assistant, Sophie, is a dead ringer for Sara Jessica Parker (but cuter).
  • Also, she drinks white wine when her boss is around, but switches to beer when he leaves. ;^)
  • The pub down the road from the Macmillan offices in King's Cross is (and was described to me by their Sales Director) as "like the Macmillan canteen except with booze".
  • Something like 1100 people work in the Macmillan offices in London – and several hundred more at other sites around the country.
  • Both the Amazon Fiction Buyer and the Waterstones Fiction Buyer (whom I also met in the pub) are extremely keen on the MNW imprint, and are planning to do special promotions for it. Amazon wants me to do an online author/reader discussion thingy.
  • The guy whose family owns the German media conglomerate that owns Macmillan, and whom I also met, albeit not in the pub, is Stephan from Stuttgart.
  • Mike's son, who is a professional juggler, has a small part in the new Stephen Frears film Mrs. Henderson Presents (with Dame Judi and Bob Hoskins).
  • The rights to my book, both hardcover and paperback, have been sold in Russia. I'm going to be translated. (Okay, I knew this, too, but it still boggles my mind.)
  • An American publication deal, most likely through St. Martin's Press, seems blessedly very likely.
  • I'll probably get to do a signing at a bookstore on Charing Cross Road, and probably London radio interviews.
  • They're sending out review copies to the full Pan Macmillan list (of 150 reviewers). Yay.
  • A critical Guardian article (which kicked off oceans of press) referred to MNW as "the Ryanair of publishing". Now Mike is trying to get Ryanair to do a joint promotion where Macmillan puts bookmarks with that quote in all the books, and Ryanair flies a bunch of authors, Macmillan people, and press folks somewhere warm for a day.
  • The launch party is the sixth of April where, critically, there will be free booze and canapes.
  • I will get to meet the other authors on the list at the launch. One of them is Roger Morris, who I discovered kindly (and totally unprompted) gave me a link on his blog, so I can hardly fail to return the favour.
  • I now have an Amazon.co.uk listing. You can pre-order the book. And it's 30% off (off an already low low price)!



  publishing industry     my books  
about
close photo of Michael Stephen Fuchs

Fuchs is the author of the novels The Manuscript and Pandora's Sisters, both published worldwide by Macmillan in hardback, paperback and all e-book formats (and in translation); the D-Boys series of high-tech, high-concept, spec-ops military adventure novels – D-Boys, Counter-Assault, and Close Quarters Battle (coming in 2016); and is co-author, with Glynn James, of the bestselling Arisen series of special-operations military ZA novels. The second nicest thing anyone has ever said about his work was: "Fuchs seems to operate on the narrative principle of 'when in doubt put in a firefight'." (Kirkus Reviews, more here.)

Fuchs was born in New York; schooled in Virginia (UVa); and later emigrated to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he lived through the dot-com boom. Subsequently he decamped for an extended period of tramping before finally rocking up in London, where he now makes his home. He does a lot of travel blogging, most recently of some very  long  walks around the British Isles. He's been writing and developing for the web since 1994 and shows no particularly hopeful signs of stopping.

You can reach him on .

THE MANUSCRIPT by Michael Stephen Fuchs
PANDORA'S SISTERS by Michael Stephen Fuchs
DON'T SHOOT ME IN THE ASS, AND OTHER STORIES by Michael Stephen Fuchs
D-BOYS by Michael Stephen Fuchs
COUNTER-ASSAULT by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book One - Fortress Britain, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Two - Mogadishu of the Dead, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN : Genesis, by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN Book Three - Three Parts Dead, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN Book Four - Maximum Violence, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN Book Five - EXODUS, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN Book Six - The Horizon, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Seven - Death of Empires, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Eight - Empire of the Dead by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN : NEMESIS by Michael Stephen Fuchs

ARISEN, Book Nine - Cataclysm by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Ten - The Flood by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Eleven - Deathmatch by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Twelve - Carnage by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Thirteen - The Siege by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Fourteen - Endgame by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN : Fickisms
ARISEN : Odyssey
ARISEN : Last Stand
ARISEN : Raiders, Volume 1 - The Collapse
ARISEN : Raiders, Volume 2 - Tribes
Black Squadron
ARISEN : Raiders, Volume 3 - Dead Men Walking
ARISEN : Raiders, Volume 4 - Duty
ARISEN : Raiders, Volume 5 - The Last Raid
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