The Girl form Norway -- in praise of the online book event by Sheena Wilkinson

This will be a short post as I’m just getting over Covid, and right now I am trying to conserve energy for the Romantic Novelists’ Association annual conference – by the time this is posted, I’ll be there, all being well.

Having Covid is very relevant to this post. I’d always planned to write about the virtual book launch of Emma Pass’s wonderful WW2 romantic novel, The Girl from Norway, which was published last week. Emma had had a successful virtual launch for her previous novel, the RNA-shortlisted Before the Dawn, and was keen to repeat the experience. I was lucky enough to read an early version of the novel, and loved it, so I really wanted to help launch it, but I live in Northern Ireland, so I wouldn’t have been able to go to a conventional book launch.

In-person book launches are a wonderful way to bring lots of well-wishers together in one place. But a virtual book launch is a very special thing too.

When I logged on last Thursday, not only did I get to see and hear Emma and her editor talk about the book, but I also saw many friends from the world of books – some of whom I know from Charney and other author events, and whom I haven’t been able to see in real life for years. And – something you don’t get in real life events – some of them had brought their dogs and cats along! (My greyhound Stroller is distantly related to Emma’s greyhound Auburn – they’ve often met online, which it’s fair to say we are more excited about than they are.)

Emma has excellent technical and artistic skills (she designed my website!) and she put those to great use when she shared her screen to show us some fascinating objects from her research – some early radar equipment, which she had actually used, and magazines from the RAF men stationed on Unst. Later came the fiendish WW2/RAF/Shetland-themed quiz – great fun, with plenty of banter among the participants. 

 

This was a lovely, friendly, celebratory event. It felt different from an in-person book launch, of course, but definitely not a poor relation. Since lockdown, there has been a lot of discussion about the importance of online and hybrid events, from an accessibility point of view. I’m fortunate enough, normally, to be able to access in-person events, though I do spend more time travelling than I’d ideally like. But last Thursday, with Covid, not having spoken to anyone outside my household, or seen another face, for days, I really appreciated the fact that such events are accessible when you’re physically unable to leave the house.

 

Emma and I have talked about how much we’d like to do some online author events together – her WW2 novels and my 1930-set Mrs Hart’s Marriage Bureau being natural bedfellows – and the success of the launch of The Girl from Norway has fired me up to make this happen soon! 

 

Thanks to Emma for agreeing to let me write about her event for this blog, and good luck to The Girl from Norway! 

 

Zooming into the (near) Future! A few tips for online school visits by Saviour Pirotta

Like many authors up and down the country, I rely on school visits and festivals for a good chunk of my income. Lockdown started almost at the end of my event bonanza surrounding National Book Week back in March. My last appearance was at the fabulous Pink Pig Farm in Brig. I spent a very happy and productive weekend with fellow authors and Mel and Nick, the wonderful owners of the Rabbit Hole bookshop.  We told stories, read from our work, signed books and tucked more than we should have into Pink Pig's state-ot-the-art cooked breakfasts.

    Fast forward a week and my inbox was flooded with emails cancelling bookings in the summer term. Luckily, I was about to sign a new four-book deal with independent publishers Maverick so I knew I could keep my head above water for an extended period of time. Schools were soon asking if I would do online sessions, though, and the agencies I work through started looking into the possibility of supplying them. I was hesitant at first. I hate the sound of my voice and don't really like how I look on screen or in photographs. In actual visits, I forget about these trivialities like this once I get into the pace of things but, on zoom or whatever, there is no way of escaping the vision of my gurning face. 

    As the summer wore on and it looked like actual school visits would not be happening till 2021, I forced myself to 'snap out of it' as Cher said in Moonlight. I've actually done quite a few visits, culminating in six sessions with a school in Shanghai last week and two events of the East Riding Festival of Words. I can't claim to be an expert on the subject, but here's a few tips I picked up which might prove useful to other members of the SAS.

1.   THERE'S MORE THAN ONE PLATFORM

In the media you read and hear mostly about zoom but there are alternatives. The education authorities in the East Riding of Yorkshire, for example, prefer to use Microsoft Teams. It's something to do with privacy issues. I've also done events on Google Hangout Meets and Skype. They're all more or less the same but do check with the schools what platform they are using so you'll have plenty of time install on your computer and get familiar with it.

2. TO RECORD OR NOT TO RECORD.

Some schools insist that you do not record the session and some ask if they can. I always refuse to let the session be recorded, partly because of privacy issues but mostly because I want the repeat business. I treat my sessions as actual in the flesh visits, except that I'm looking at the kids through the window of my mac. Recording the sessions destroys that unique 'in the moment' experience.

3. WILL YOU HOST?

Most of the schools organise and schedule the event themselves but a few asked that I set it up myself. If they go for the second options, it is very easy to set up. You just schedule a meeting and the platform gives you an event id which you send to the school. Come the hour and the moment, the school logs in and you just click on the accept the invite button. Easy peasy.

4 IS THAT THE TIME?

If you are doing an international event, make sure you check what time you need to log in. My Shanghai events were schedulted for 12.15 their time. Which meant I had to get up at the crack of dawn to be ready for 6.15am our time. Checking everything was set up at 5.30am I realised I might disturb my elderly neighbour whose bedroom shares a party wall with my office. I hastily decamped to the kitchen where I could howl, crack jokes and generally create a rumpus without waking up the neighbours.  

5 CHECK THE BACKGROUND

My hasty retreat to the kitchen necessitated a quick tidy up. Make sure you check the background before going live. This is the perfect opportunity to display artefacts relevant to your subject and show off your new books. I do this using the photobooth app on my laptop but obviously, you can use any camera that will show you what the audience is going to see.

6 IT TAKES TIME...

...as in, this is new territory for most of us so it will take a while to find out what works for you. I love doing writing workshops in actual visits but I couldn't get them to work online.  Ditto with storytelling. I need to be in the same room with the audience for the latter to work as I pick up on the kids's vibes to help steer my delivery. This is nigh on impossible if the kids are just a fuzzy image on a screen. I now read a couple of chapters from the book I'm promoting, talk about the background to the story and how and why I wrote it, and finish off with time for a Q&A.

7 SEEING IS BELIEVING

Larger festivals often host a prep session before the event. Most of the authors participating join in with these and they're a good way to find out how others approach their events. One or two organisers said the audience would not be visible during the entire session and that any questions would be put forward through the chat function on the app. I found not seeing the audience hard going but answering questions that appear in the chat box quite easy. Make sure that you discuss your preferences with the event organiser so that you can relax and concentrate on giving your best performance.

I hope I haven't been teaching my grandmother to suck eggs, as the saying goes. Good luck with your online sessions. Although I just can't wait to start visiting schools again, I plan to keep online sessions to reach places I can't access otherwise. It's a brave new world out there. Let's meet it with confidence.

Saviour's latest Early Reader, Samira's Wish, is out now with WackyBee books. His third instalment in the Wolfsong Series, The Mysterious Island will be published on the 21st January 2021.  Follow Saviour on twitter @spirotta and on Instagram @saviour2858.