Life at the Roast

The first Book Roast authors had no idea what they were letting themselves in for... The invitation kind of worked like this: send us an excerpt from your magnum opus and we'll invite people over to read it and have a chat. Oh, and there will be three ridiculous questions for them to answer, which may lead to them mocking both you and your book. Oh, yeah, and you have to hand over a free copy of your book. Yup, we're for real.

Amazingly, authors lined up! And so did readers. The Book Roast wasn't always about the content of a book, but about the chance for readers to interact with writers and for writers to promote their work. The lively comment trails demonstrate the success of interaction! Behind the scenes, our statisticians confirmed the success of promotion with huge numbers of silent readers who checked out every roast and comment trail - in most cases, numbers well into the hundreds.

We were open to almost anything and we got it- romance, thrillers, sci-fi, non-fiction, young adult, children's, fantasy, cosies, women's fiction, even erotica (although that one only after a lengthy behind the scenes debate among the Roast Masters!)

Our regular author appearances were interspersed with special events. Remember 'Reach out and Read' where we helped raise money for a charity that gave books to children? As part of that we asked a group of children what they would write about, if they were to write a book. Voted most popular answer was the one from Ashley, age 5, who succinctly answered: Me.

We featured an editor's week, an agent's week and a series of first chapters. New authors and established ones embraced our format and joined in the fun.

We took an extended holiday break, but Chris didn't leave us without entertainment. Remember this?

A couple of our most popular Book Roast characters were the rather naughty Miss Savannah, and the equally cheeky publishing intern, Antonio. Some sense and balance was provided by our New York publishing insider, Miss Spitfire, whose posts gave us a fascinating peek into the publishing process.

Of course, like every great show, we've had our bloopers...

Like the day the author didn't turn up. Turned out her publicist had booked her in and the message hadn't got through to the author. After that - no more publicists. We talked to the author or nobody!

How about the day the Roast Master didn't turn up? Um, that would be me. A couple of times. Living down under has its disadvantages, one of them being that I'm asleep at the usual Roast kick off time, another being that Blogger's scheduling clock doesn't synch with mine. So unless I remember to put up the roast the night before... Yes, Chris ended up rescuing my authors a few times.

And then there were the authors and agents who turned up after a lengthy swim in the whisky vat...no names...you know who you are. The funniest roastees ever!

I'd like to thank all our authors for their talent, courage and participation! The agents, editors and bloggers who supported us. And I'd like to thank Chris, for making the whole thing possible.

See you around the blogs!

16 comments:

Charles Gramlich said...

I wasn't aware of the glitches. Everything always seemed to run so smoothly I thought you folks were made by cyberdyne.

Chris Eldin said...

OMG!!! You guys just made me cry. Who did this? I'll be back after I cruise around and let this all sink in.

Thank you, my dear friends. I've said it before, but I love you, man.

Chris

Chris Eldin said...

Who published my books? Who? Who? That is the bestest prize a girl could ever ask for...
:-)

Seriously, those covers are awesome!!! A friend told me recently 'to visualize.' This is serendipitous. Thank you, truly.

elysabeth said...

I'm thankful to have been a part of the book roast at least once. I appreciate all the efforts put forth to make sure everything did work like clockwork. I was going to ask where we could get Chris's books. Thank you all for some enjoyable times. Thank you, Chris, for allowing me the opportunity to start my second blog tour off on the Book Roast blog - it was great. I do hope in the future that something like this will come along again, but for now, we understand why you have to put a foot down and let things happen as they do. Anyway - looking forward to seeing your books - E :)

--------------
Elysabeth Eldering
Author of the Junior Geography Detective Squad (JGDS), 50-state, mystery, trivia series

STATE OF WILDERNESS, Book 1 of 50 now available.
STATE OF QUARRIES, book 2 of 50 now available
STATE OF RESERVATIONS, book 3 of 50 coming 2009

WHERE WILL THE ADVENTURE TAKE YOU NEXT?

http://jgdsseries.blogspot.com
http://junior-geography-detective-squad.weebly.com/
http://elysabethsstories.blogspot.com/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jgdsseries/ (series newsletter forum)

Mary Cunningham said...

You are truly one of the funniest people I know, Chris. I'm so honored to call you a friend!

And those book covers...they look perfect! It's gonna happen. I feel it! (plus, I have the inside track on knowing how great they are!)

xoxo,

Mary

Shona Snowden said...

LOL, Charles! We're only partially bionic.

Chris, wipe away the tears, you'll frazzle your keyboard. The artwork was Phoenix, of course! Every Roast Master, past and present, was in on this little 'thank you' plot!

Robin B. said...

Hey girl,

Hope you see the post above this one!

Love, Rob

Phoenix Sullivan said...

Just wanna give Miss Chris a big, warm, raccoon-friendly hug for inviting me along on this awesome journey. I had to bow out early -- way too many food fights around here and all my best tee's were getting stained -- but I was kept in the loop from first to last. It was my pleasure and my honor to meet a great many talented writers through this blog -- and it was all because of Chris and her tireless (trust me, keeping the Book Roast going was fairly grueling) generosity. Cheers to our Head Chef!!!

Gary Corby said...

Thanks so much for giving us Book Roast, Chris.

You're a good friend and a great book person.

Gary

Sylvia said...

It always looked smooth as silk from the other side of the web browser.

Whirlochre said...

Yes — silk, with all that loopy embroidery French flapper girls used to have on their knickers.

(pauses to sob)

(sobs)

It's going to be like the Enterprise without Spock...

Hywela Lyn said...

Just popping my head out of the bushes in sunny wild west Wales to add my grateful thanks to Chris -and to everyone else who's made the Book roast such a memorable experience.

I've had the honor and priviledge to be roasted not once, but three times, the last being Monday of this momentous week, when my dear friend and crit partner Miss Mae took over the main basting process for me. Thanks to the Bookroast Ive gained additional exposure for my three books and on each occasion had a blast and been overshelmed by the number of comments, and the wit and humour of the whole thing.

I've loved reading other people's excerpts as well, and making the occasional comment and the atmosphere here has been like a big friendly barbeque, one that had an endless supply of food and drink and where you never knew who might pop in next.

THANK YOU CHRIS AND THE BOOKROAST -you will besorely missed!

Vicki Delany said...

I was sorry to hear the book roast is coming to an end. I really enjoyed my day being the roastee. All the best.

Spy Scribbler said...

Thank you, Chris! I've always felt a little intimidated by how funny everyone is with those clever questions, but I read every post and comment section religiously.

Thanks, Chris! It was a great roast!

laughingwolf said...

WUNDERBRA... what a rush this has been, especially meeting so many great folk! :)

NAZDAROVJA! ;) lol

Shona Snowden said...

Bringing down the shutters...