Edinburgh Bookshop Tour for 'A Reluctant Spy'

I'm very lucky compared to many writers, in that I actively enjoy the publishing and marketing side of things (I worked in marketing for many years and I've done a fair amount of public speaking, pitching and meetings over the years). But even so I was a little bit nervous about doing a 'proof drop' like this, because it's just a lot of people and places in one day.

Luckily, the booksellers of Edinburgh are a very friendly and welcoming bunch of people, and I had my good friend Nick Binge along with me for moral support and introductions.

We started down in Stockbridge (actually this first visit was with my Mum, who I'd just had lunch with and who gamely took a couple of pictures for me) at Golden Hare Books, a wonderful and very well-curated indie bookshop that was a favourite of mine when I lived in the area.

After I'd finished there, I got the bus up to Blackwell's Edinburgh who are very kindly hosting my launch event in less than three weeks (ahhh). I met Nick there and we got a selfie with our event poster, then handed over a sampler and some bookmarks to Stephanie.

We then visited McGonagall's nearby, which hosted Nick's launch afterparty last year and agreed to do the same for me! Hooray! We'll be there from around 8.30pm after the launch, all welcome.

After that, we headed down to Waterstones Edinburgh West End, which is a bookshop I've been visiting since I was quite a small child. The very nice Keith told us crime and thriller books was 'pretty much all he read' and took another sampler.

I was flagging slightly at this point, but we forged on to Toppings, which is one of my favourite bookshops in Edinburgh. It's really big and labyrinthine (it's in a former bank building) and bookseller Josh even took us up to the crime and thriller shelves and showed us approximately where my book will appear when stocked. It'll be in the G's, in case you were wondering.

Next stop after that was small-but-perfectly-formed indie bookshop Typewronger Books, just across the road. This is another place with fantastic curation and a really interesting selection. Elsa took our penultimate sampler here in front of a very good wall mural with the shop's logo.

And we finished the day at the bloody marvellous Argonaut Books which is where I finished a fairly chunky edit of A RELUCTANT SPY in December of last year and a regular writing spot for Nick. Elliot took our last sampler and we went to the nearby Lioness of Leith for a well-earned drink. Here's a wee reel:

Overall this was a really fun and affirming day. It was brilliant to meet some of the people who might be reading and selling my book, and I really enjoyed myself. I have a list of another four or five bookshops I'd like to visit before the book comes out (this was my 'city centre' trip, the others are a bit further out).

With any luck, I'll also hopefully be returning to these shops in the not-too-distant future to sign stock! If you're a writer with a book coming out and you feel like you might enjoy doing something like this, I can heartily recommend it. It was an intense day, but very, very worth it.