Posted By Jacquie Rogers on May 22, 2009

by Francesca Prescott
Copyright © 2009 Francesca Prescott

Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad

My first foray into the world of magazine interviews

Promoting a book is always hard work, but possibly even more so when you’re an English writer living in a foreign country. I live near Geneva, in the French speaking part of Switzerland, and when my début romantic comedy, Mucho Caliente! - Wish upon a Latino Superstar was released by US publisher BookStrand late last year, I had no idea how many hours I’d be putting into promotion. Frankly, at that point, promotion was the last thing on my mind; I was still basking in the freshly published afterglow.

However, little by little, reality sank in. Mucho Caliente! had been published, had received numerous excellent reviews, but on the grand scale of Amazonian rankings, was utterly invisible. While all I wanted to do was get back to work on my second novel, I also wanted to sell this one. I wanted to spread the fun, funky and ultra romantic Caliente word to as many people as possible. Due to the language barrier, local promotion was limited to harassing friends (and friends of friends!), and offering a few copies for sale at Geneva’s small English bookshop. What to do?

Mucho Caliente! is set in Ibiza, one of the four Balearic Islands located off the Mediterranean coast of Spain. Ibiza is small, beautiful and very famous. It has a substantial English speaking population resident all year round, and attracts tens of thousands of tourists from all over the world during the summer months. Since Mucho Caliente! is the perfect, entertaining, summer read, it seemed to me that if my book was advertised on the island, not only might it sell, it might also put smiles on people’s faces as they lay on their sun-beds, soaking up rays and reading about my heroine’s hilarious adventures with Latino superstar, Emilio Caliente. You may think I’m a dreamer, but I do love the idea of spreading a little extra summer holiday cheer!

 

In February this year, Mucho Caliente! was voted Best Book of the Year 2008 by LASR (The Long and Short Reviews), so I figured I might be able to capitalize on this victory for promotional purposes. I did some research, talked to friends who live in Ibiza, and decided to approach a couple of the island’s popular magazines. I chose three: IBIZA STYLE, IBIZA NOW, and PACHA MAGAZINE. I then sat down and composed an email letter introducing myself and my book.

A few days later, I received two emails, the first from the English features editor of IBIZA NOW, asking me to send him a copy of the book so that he could read it and decide whether it might be of interest to his magazine. Six hours later, the editor of IBIZA STYLE also emailed me, saying he had looked at my website, had read my biography as well as the first chapter of Mucho Caliente!. He wanted to read the entire book, but would already like to schedule an interview with me in Ibiza in early April, so that he could feature me and my book in the May issue of IBIZA STYLE.

I sat back in my chair and stared at the screen. Never in a million years had I expected to be asked to fly over for an interview. At best, I had hoped for a short book review. In fact, to be perfectly honest, I hadn’t even banked on any response at all. Writers (and creative people in general) are used to being either ignored, or told - more or less politely - “thanks, but no thanks”.

It just goes to show that if you don’t try, you never get.

On a Sunday morning in early April, I flew to Ibiza, rented a car, and drove across the island to stay with my friend Victoria, who had kindly agreed to lend me her guesthouse for the week. The weather was fabulous, and it felt great to be back on the island. Being there for professional reasons made it feel all the more special; I was on my first, albeit self-financed, promotional tour!

On Monday morning, I called the editor of IBIZA STYLE, Jürgen Bushe. He suggested we schedule the interview for Wednesday lunchtime in an Italian restaurant at Marina Botafoch, Ibiza town’s main harbor. After lunch, we would drive to Nassau, a trendy beach bar, where we would shoot some photos.

I almost choked on my coffee. Shoot some photos?! Not only did he want to interview me, he also wanted to do a photoshoot?!

Amazingly enough, my answer emerged ultra cool. “Okay, thank you very much, that will be great!” I said, sounding like I did interviews with magazine editors over lunch followed by photoshoots in glamorous beach bars all the time! When I hung up, I rushed into my bedroom and rummaged through my clothes, wondering what the heck I would wear. I summoned Victoria from her fabulous old farmhouse on top of the hill, and with her help, finally selected my new, dusky pink, silk velvet dress (designed by Victoria herself), to be worn with my flat, silver ballerinas.

Unfortunately, when I woke up on Wednesday morning, it was bucketing rain. I’m talking cold, torrential, power-shower rain. The dusky pink, silk velvet dress was out of the question; a couple of raindrops and it would be pock-marked forever. Disappointed, I resorted to jeans, a boho-chic, purple shirt and my old trainers. I hadn’t thought of bringing a warm jacket with me, so Victoria leant me a huge, chunky-knit cardigan. She couldn’t find her umbrella, so I borrowed a floppy (and somewhat smelly!) hat, told her to wish me luck, and set off across the island in my rented car.

Was I nervous? This is the crazy part. I’m a reserved, rather shy person, and my confidence is certainly not commensurate with my height (I’m 5′9). I should have been terrified.

But as I drove towards Ibiza town, I wasn’t the least bit nervous. I suppose I was confident enough about Mucho Caliente! to know I’d be fine discussing it with Jürgen. I’m passionate about writing, about Ibiza, about the themes in my book, and about, well, all sorts of other things, so I figured meeting someone who was interested in getting to know me couldn’t be so terrible. I mean, he’d read the book and enjoyed it. If he wanted to write about me, he wasn’t going to bash me during an interview, was he! Of course, there was the tummy twitching possibility that we might not “connect,” but as soon as I walked into the restaurant and sat down at his table, I knew everything would be fine. Jürgen was friendly, charming and professional, and immediately put me at ease. I found his little tape recorder a tad intimidating initially, but he told me not to worry, assuring me he wouldn’t print anything I didn’t want him to.

We studied the menu, he ordered a bottle of wine, said hello to loads of people (the man seems to know everyone!) and I relaxed. We were soon chatting animatedly, enjoying ourselves. It was wonderful to be able to talk openly about myself, about my experiences as a writer, about where the ideas for my book had come from, especially in view of a magazine article. I felt myself becoming more confident and animated as the conversation evolved. My first person-to-person interview couldn’t have gone any better.

Because of the atrocious weather, Jürgen decided to reschedule the photoshoot for the following day. Nevertheless, after lunch, he still wanted to swing by Nassau, the trendy beach bar on Platja d’En Bossa. Nassau was holding their season’s opening party that afternoon, and he wanted to introduce me to a couple of people.

Despite the rain, Nassau was bopping when we arrived, filled with beautiful, young, trendy people sipping cocktails and champagne. Instantly, my confidence vanished; in my jeans and bulky, knitted jacket and my old trainers, I felt boring and muesli-ishly out of place. But Jürgen strode proudly ahead of me. “Meet Francesca Prescott,” he boomed to the owner of the bar, loudly enough for everyone else to hear too. “She’s a very famous English writer, and she’s written a very funny, page turning novel set in Ibiza!”

Right!

Utterly thrown, I grabbed a glass of champagne from a circulating waiter, and tried to arrange my features into something resembling those of a cool, famous writer. I cocked a hip, tossed my hair, sipped my drink and smiled at everyone as Jürgen brandished his copy of “Mucho Caliente!” and pointed me out to the glitterati. I’d been famous all of thirty seconds and I was already blushing, not to mention sweating profusely! Note to self: must practice my famous-author-in-public act in front of the mirror for future events.

As planned, we shot the photos in relatively sunny conditions the following day outside my friend Victoria’s stunning old farmhouse. It was easy; all I had to do was listen to Jürgen’s directions and try to look as relaxed and as pretty as possible! I was thrilled with the results and turning cart-wheels in my garden when I saw the four page article in the magazine. Four pages! Never in a million years had I expected four pages!

As far as exposure for my book, this opportunity vastly exceeded any of my humble expectations when I sat down to write to Ibiza’s three main magazines a few months ago. IBIZA STYLE is a trilingual magazine; all the articles are printed in English, German and Spanish. With seven issues a year and a distribution of 30′000, it is available in all of the island’s four and five star hotels, from all newsagents in Ibiza and its stunning little sister island, Formentera, and from newsagents specializing in international press in Majorca, in all major cities on the Spanish Mediterranean coast, and in Madrid. It is also sold in all major German and Austrian cities, in central London, in all Spanish, German and London airports, and is distributed on several European airlines with flights serving Ibiza. Basically, a lot of people will be flicking through the May issue of this magazine, and hopefully, some of them might be intrigued enough by Jürgen’s article to seek out their own copy of Mucho Caliente!

As for IBIZA NOW, they were kind enough to print an excellent review of Mucho Caliente! in their May issue, and also uploaded it onto their on-line edition. The latter includes a buy-link for my book on their on-line store, which generates a lot of traffic.

Sadly, PACHA magazine never got back to me. But in the words of 70s rock star Meat Loaf, “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad.”

With love from,
Francesca Prescott
May 2009

The article in IBIZA STYLE, titled MUCHO CALIENTE, can be read on my website at: http://www.francescaprescott.com/pages/news/index.asp?NewsID=58

IBIZA STYLE’s magazine pages (the layout and photos of the article about me) can be viewed on:  http://www.francescaprescott.com/photo-gallery.asp

IBIZA NOW’s review of MUCHO CALIENTE can be read on my website at:
http://www.francescaprescott.com/pages/news/index.asp?NewsID=59.

Mucho Caliente! - Wish upon a Latino Superstar is available in print from Amazon, as well as from Barnes & Noble

E-book and Kindle editions of “Mucho Caliente!” are available from BookStrand, Mobipocket, Allromance E-books, and Amazon.

For further information, please visit my website: www.francescaprescott.com