Monday, June 16, 2008

Watch the Book

Have pulled together a promo for the book with the help of a friend who used to be in advertising and is now a farmer's wife, and a fantastic design company who do a lot of work branding cheese, honey and local attractions. The company is based in converted farm buildings outside a market town which has its own taxidermist, complete with animal skulls in the window, as well as a podiatrist. (Both occupations with their own charms, I always think.) I do not know if they are what attracted the design agency to the area or whether they just like the fresh air. My friend and I drew up a script at the kitchen table, and the graphics guys did whizz-bang things with their electronic crayons and here it is. For anyone who wants to watch the book. Obviously reading the book would take a lot longer than watching the promo but a lot of people do not have time to read books anymore and like to cheat. So the promo will be good for anyone with a really bad case of time poverty. The nice people at New Writing North gave me money towards making it, and I am paying my friend for her time. I do not know if it will help with sales of the book or not, but what is the point of having a book deal if you do not have fun with it? I do not think they made me look too much like a cheese.

(Anyone wanting to run it on their site just needs to copy and paste the "Embed" code which should bring up the player; for an-e-mail, just copy and paste the html link to the YouTube page.)

40 comments:

Unknown said...

Just watched your promo....that is mint!!!!
LOL

Swearing Mother said...

I LOVE IT!! Especially the bit about the fucking collage (well, I would, wouldn't I?).

Brilliant. Can't wait for my book to arrive.

belle said...

Fantastic!!

Sea Fret said...

That is very disturbing.

Laura Jane Williams said...

Gosh, that is really good! I totally agree about having fun with it... and no, you didn't look TOO much like a cheese. (I am kidding. You did not look like a cheese at all.)

barb said...

That is superb. Very witty. As you're happy to be embedded I will!

Anonymous said...

Love the promo. Life's pretty good in the country, really it is.

CJ xx

Frankofile said...

Just embedded your video - now that's a bizarre phrase...

Penny Pincher said...

Just what we need to lift our spirits during trying times.
I'll pinch the embed link and will then pinch some money from the housekeeping budget to buy the book.
In fact if Amazon are into discounts for more than 5 copies I might buy several as gifts for friends and my book group.
Good luck.

aims said...

That is really well done Judith. The melding of minds - wow!

Unknown said...

Judith, you are gorgeous and that promo is one of the best I have seen for ages. Brilliant!

AlisonK said...

Ha! That's brilliant. Really funny. I was already planning a purchase, but if I wasn't aware of your blog & saw that, it would certainly make me seek out the book.

A Mother's Place is in the Wrong said...

Have just finished catching up with your life, book and all. And just watched your Promo too. Brilliant, and wish you every success with the book, worldwide! Margot xx

Pam said...

Excellent, I loved it! Can't wait to get the book.

Housewifeinthehighlands said...

That is fab. I can relate to the bit about the fucking collage! Congratulations on the book, look forward to reading it.

Pig in the Kitchen said...

so cool! and i looked very carefully to see if your face is asymmetrical, and you'll be delighted to hear that it's not!

what a fab promo...are you getting very excited??!
Pigx

Maggie May said...

That was a very good promo! Well done! Will have to put the book on a wish list!

Unknown said...

Love the promo - even big son loved it. Very best of luck with this project, Judith!

I tune in every now and then to read...

Stinking Billy said...

Way to go, Judith. Maybe you were wasting your time writing a successful book when you could have been producing (albeit with expert help) promotions like this one. Terrific!

laurie said...

very very nice. i like it. but ... is it too late to put in a couple of much-needed commas?

(sorry. former copy editor here.)

I Beatrice said...

Loved the promo Judith - and have the book coming from Amazon.

And Laurie - I was once a proof-reader too, for Penguin; and for the life of me I can't see where you'd want to put any commas?

Working Mum said...

Fabulous! Looking forward to the book.

laurie said...

i beatrice: "Bears might eat me Mummy."

"Where are we Mummy?"

you need a comma before Mummy in both sentences.

sorry to be so picky. it's a charming promo and i'm seeing it pop up on other blogs, too.

Anonymous said...

Absolutely brilliant video! Now I've got to go buy the book. Love your blog, by the way. I just stumbled on it somehow or other. I am American, married to a Brit from London. (We met online, and will celebrate our 4-year wedding anniversary in July.) I lived with him for a few years in London (LOVED IT!), but now we are in our happy little cottage near Charleston, SC.

I Beatrice said...

Have just seen your new piece in the Sunday Times, and was very much moved by the sadness there. I'm so sorry it happened that way for you - there can have been few things more heart-breaking.

There was much gladness too though - which will make people want more than ever to read the book, I think. And a lovely picture of you in your shades of pink with the castle as backdrop!

(See Laurie - a whole sentence, and no commas! Commas are a writer's chief enemy, I think - the trick is to try to do without them, letting the rhythm of speech itself do the work. And Judith's promo would have looked rather silly I think, with your commas inserted!)

Miko said...

You look so beautiful, Judith!

Paddy Ebeneezer said...

Just wanted to say that I read your extracts from today's Sunday Times and really enjoyed it.

thanks

Paddy's mum

Frances said...

Fantastic - can't wait to read your book. I'm just diving into your blog following a well scrumpled Telegraph newspaper clipping tip-off sent via my Mum to me here in Northern California Wine Country. The scary thing for me after watching your video is that there truly are bears near here. Each summer I take my three boys up to Tahoe for a few days by the lake (can't afford England this year)and it's fairly typical to take a step out on the deck and catch a big black bear rifling through the recyclables accidentally not locked in a bear-proof trash container. I blame my husband for dragging me across the pond some seventeen years ago.... Still here. With the help of several hundred bottles of red wine a year!

Frances said...

Fantastic - can't wait to read your book. I'm just diving into your blog following a well scrumpled Telegraph newspaper clipping tip-off sent via my Mum to me here in Northern California Wine Country. The scary thing for me after watching your video is that there truly are bears near here. Each summer I take my three boys up to Tahoe for a few days by the lake (can't afford England this year)and it's fairly typical to take a step out on the deck and catch a big black bear rifling through the recyclables accidentally not locked in a bear-proof trash container. I blame my husband for dragging me across the pond some seventeen years ago.... Still here. With the help of several hundred bottles of red wine a year!

cheshire wife said...

Watched the promo last week - it is very clever.

I have just read your article in the Sunday Times. I am glad that you are now happy in the north after all the upheaval and uncertainty of the last few years. I do not think that I would want to move back to Surrey now. Mainly because we have got the cottage almost as we want it and I can't face another move and renovation job.

Claire said...

What's wit the comment about the commas > were you joking ? Just, enjoy, the promo, for, goodness, sake ,,,,,,,,,

merry weather said...

Good for you Wifey!!

It's not the commas I'm intrigued by though, it's the fucking collage - is there an actual photo of it in the book?

:)

Swearing Mother said...

Read the article in The Times this morning - you are so pretty! And what's more, no sign of nits.

occasional northerner said...

Read the Sunday Times too - will try and appreciate mine more as she runs (and even when she trails along miserably complaining that she wanted to go to the rocks) along the beach.

bushra said...

have seen your blog around but was very moved by the trauma you shared in the sunday times. i shall be linking to keep up with your blog, and pre-order my copy of your book too. best wishes.

Almost Mrs Average said...

ROFL - Have just watched the promo with my three year old and it was so funny it made me come out from lurkers corner...LOL...we're off to have another look. He's demanding a second viewing of the bear ;-D

Pig in the Kitchen said...

just wrested a copy of the sunday times off a fellow expat, and saw your pic on front cover. will be reading it this evening...but a bit worried about the trauma mystery.

Congrats!
Pigx

mrsnesbitt said...

Well hello fellow neighbour! We are just a bit further south, near Whitby!
So interested to read your blog. I once had a lengthy conversation with Jeremy Paxman re a book I was compiling as a school history project!
Intersting!
Great to meet you, will keep posted here.

Single Mother on the Verge said...

That trailer is so hilarious. I love it, I almost love it as much as wife in the north country, are they going to do bus tours to your house? They might auction you at summer fairs. Brilliant.

ItsFairComment said...

Or... you can buy the book 'Wife in the North', by former Sunday Times journalist Judith O’Reilly (...her husband still works there) who makes their holiday home (?) near Alnmouth the family home and presents it as if it were on the Shetland Islands. Rubbing along on just 120k a year, and with a curious amount of spare time (quote:"My husband might have been missing in action but I do have help with the children".), Ms O'Reilly moans on about missing, London (Islington),and having to struggle, (with a nanny for the children! and pots of cash),on how lonely she is etc; But she finds solice in 'blogging' her thoughts,then shamelessly exploits all her media contacts and bags a book deal of £70k (advance). Don't expect to recognise this as the Northumberland we know, it's all of 35miles from the Metro Centre. Another world you know.....

PS you worked in TV.