It’s a jungle out there in publishing land.

With so many books being coming out these days, publishing houses spend a great deal of time working out how to get the attention of booksellers and other industry people. Nobody can read more than a tiny fraction of all the titles that are published each week – so how do you convince people to read yours?

The answer is pretty simple: send them cool stuff.

The photo at the top of this post was taken by the amazing marketing team at Penguin who have been sending galleys (advanced reading copies) of Setting Free the Kites out to indie booksellers.   Much of the novel takes place in an amusement park – hence the Crackerjack. (A quick confession: since I didn’t grow up in the States, Crackerjack does not make me go misty-eyed with elegiac childhood memories.) And there is some excellent 70s rock and roll in the book, too – which explains the groovy postcard with the New York Dolls on it. The quotation on the postcard reads:

“‘Joni Mitchell? Cat Stevens?’ Liam wagged his finger at us in warning, as if listening to that stuff might lead us to Lawrence Welk. ‘Have you listened to the lyrics? Every song is a fucking question. But this!’ My brother brandished the New York Dolls album. ‘This has answers.'”

I’m happy.