Kate Adams’ book, The Flat Tummy Club has just had her first book published by Hodder & Stoughton and we were lucky enough to catch her for a quick q and a whilst she was busy promoting her book.
Please tell us about you/your book?
I was the health publisher at Penguin where I used to publish diet books;
big blockbuster diet books like You Are What You Eat and Cook Yourself
Thin. And what happened? I put on 2 1/2 stone. Since leaving to go
freelance I decided to get back to my healthy roots and create my own plan
for healthy living, which I call the Flat Tummy Club. It started with a
few friends on Facebook, then www.flattummyclub.co.uk and this month
Hodder have published the Flat Tummy Club Diet. Earlier this week the book
went to #18 on Amazon after a piece in Times Body & Soul.
2/Why do you think your book appealed to your agent/publisher?
It’s a combination of my personal story and also a really great practical
plan – so ‘how I lost it and anyone can too, living in the real world’.
I’d say it’s the tone of the book that appealed and of course the title!
3/It’s your first book that has just been published, what top three tips
would you give to our members?
1. Find your ‘flow’ and go with it at the right pace rather than trying to
force things along. It really helped me practice my writing through my
newsletter and on the website before tackling the completely different
structure of a book and also being ready to get out there and shout my
message loud on publication.
2. Don’t try and write for ‘everybody’. Think about who will really
benefit from your book or really like it and try to inspire those people,
even if it’s a small audience it’s still important.
3. Enjoy yourself. Writing and books are lovely things.
4/Which writers do you admire?
I admire both fiction and non-fiction writers who believe in crafting
their books and creating an experience for the reader, whatever the
subject. I admire Toni Morrison, Michael Ondaatje and Tim Winton very much
and in the health field Dr David Servan Schreiber in particular.
5/Who is your publisher and why are they right for your book?
I am published by Hodder & Stoughton. They work really hard on every
single book, their designers and editors are excellent and they are also
very enjoyable to work with. They ‘got’ me and the book immediately and
had high aspirations despite it being my first. I’m sure that’s what lead
to serialisation in the Daily Mail and the main interview in the Times.
6/You have a blog, what other ‘platforms’ do you think writers can
work on to get themselves noticed?
Twitter and Facebook are clearly very important now in terms of being
noticed – I am late to both those parties but catching up! I also think
it’s good to immerse yourself in your field – for me that means talking to
all sorts of health experts and writers to get interesting hooks and
perspectives and also improves my profile. The editors get to hear about
you from different sources that way, which is usually a good thing!
7/ your book appeared in the D Mail. Would you explain what this means for
a book? And it’s sales?
The key reason a publisher is keen to place serialisation of your book,
where a newspaper or magazine uses an extract for a negotiated fee, is to
create a pre-launch buzz for the book and give you a spike in sales,
particularly on Amazon. If you can hit high on the Amazon chart then it
creates a self-fulfilling prophecy as more people see the book and might
think ‘it must be good’ if it’s already selling so well. Other media will
also look at the national newspapers and so it can often lead to more
publicity and a snowball effect.
www.flattummyclub.co.uk
www.twitter.com/aflattummyclub
www.facebook.com/flattummyclub