Carole Matthews

Always good to hear that they've arrived in one piece! Hope you enjoy it. Best Carole xx

Glad to hear that you're enjoying it! Best Carole xx

Hi Guys - just a note to say thanks for having me. I've thoroughly enjoyed my time on the forum and the variety of questions. Hope you'll come and see me if I'm ever in your area. And know that you know me, it's your duty to tidy me up in the bookstores!! (Preferably put my books in front of those whose are selling better than mine ) Hope some of you will sign up for my newsletter at www.carolematthews.com to keep in touch. There's all kinds of useless gossip, monthly competitions and short stories. Will be sending out the prize books at the end of the week - hope you enjoy yours Purple Poppy! Thanks again. Every good wish. Carole xx

Hi Michelle - thankfully, a lot of US readers are great Anglophiles and love the whole 'Brit' thing. I owe Helen Fielding a drink if I ever meet her, because she was the one who started the big Brit chicklit move in the USA which certainly helped me to get my deal over there. The amazing thing is though is how little UK literature they take compared to the amount of US books we import. I'm published now in 23 countries including China, Russia, Thailand, etc and I do wonder what those readers make of some of my stories - or if they even understand them! Because I don't speak a lot of the languages you just have to hope the translator makes a good stab at the jokes and the cultural references. Best Carole xx

My favourite place to do a booksigning is at the enormous Book Expo of America (BEA) fair which is held every year - it switches cities. One year it's in New York, then Chicago, then LA, than San Fransisco. 30,000 booksellers, publishers and authors descend on one place. The booksellers are always so friendly and keen to see the latest books. I do some 'booth' signings - on my publishers stand. And I also do what's called a ''runway' signing where I'm literally at the end of a long chute with a huge queue just signing book after book. I get to rub shoulders with 'real' writers like Lee Child, James Patterson, Nick Hornby. It's a huge ego boost for us authors who are terribly fragile by nature! I don't mind naming names - this deserves shame and ridicule! I was to do a pre-arranged stock signing at a WHSmith store in North London. I turned up, the book manager was away that day - never a good start - so I spoke to her assistant, telling her that I was Carole Matthews and was there to sign books. She went away - for a very long time - then came back with a whole trolley full of Robert Harris's books which she preceded to lay out in front of me. 'I'm not Robert Harris,' I said. 'Oh,' she said, clearly shocked by this revelation. 'Who did you say you were? Jill Mansell?' I'm still not sure to this day how she managed to mistake me for Robert Harris..., Jill Mansell I could have understood. She did eventually find my books - but that kind of thing doesn't do much for the ego (or the blood pressure!) It's always nice when people treat you well. Sometimes you're not even offered basic courtesy - other times people go out of their way to make sure that you're looked after well. If I've had a long drive, it's nice to be offered a drink or shown where the loo is! Sometimes it's just the silly little things that leave a favourable impression. I stood in for a talk at a local library last week as an author had let them down at the last minute - they had me a Thornton's heart iced with 'thank you' as a gift - that was really lovely for someone to take the time to do. Carole xx

Hi Michelle - yes, I do enjoy it. I must say that I do a lot more in the USA than in the UK. They seem - if you don't mind me saying! - more into this kind of thing. Although I'm glad to say that we're catching up fast! Perhaps it's simply down to the vastness of their country that they rely on the internet much more. I think this is the first UK forum I've done (which is why I assumed you were in the US when I first heard from you - durr...) I do a lot of online chats in the states - the only drawback being is that they're usually scheduled for around 2 in the morning for me! I started the myspace site over the Christmas holiday - not really knowing whether it would be useful or not. But I've found it completely addictive. Now I'm spending far too much time pimping my site and not enough writing! I confess that I spent an hour this morning trying to download a tapdancing kitten - sad, I know. And still I couldn't get it to work! Although I'm pleased to say that I did start my next book this afternoon (my editor will be pleased to hear this too!) Again - like my own website - it's an easy way for me to interact with readers. There's nothing nicer than ending the day with a bunch of emails from people telling you that they like your books. It's very motivating! Carole xx

I hope that your friend's book store does well. It's tough to make a living with the competition from the supermarkets and second-hand sales. Sometimes authors don't even realise that a shop wants them to do a signing - all enquiries are fielded by their publishers who can make incredible demands about number of copies that they need to order, etc. I do most of my PR direct through my website because of that. I recently did a talk for a library - when I got there they told me that they'd phoned for 4 months (!!) to my publisher and had got nowhere. One email to me and we'd booked it up. In fairness, some authors hate going out in public - to me it's a rare joy to be let out to meet my readers! Carole xx

I have about 45 places on my list of 'must' visits! Every year it grows longer. Would love to go to Japan. Peru and the Inca Trail is up there too. Would love to go to Antartica - but can't quite work myself up to cope with the cold! I think when you're writing books as a fast pace - I'm now doing two a year - that you use up so much material that it's good to do these things to replenish your stock. (That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!) We always do group holidays and meet so many great people that it's a never-ending supply of stories and anecdotes. I can always find an 'expert' to ring up from my list of trip acquaintances. Best Carole xx

Hi Michelle - The research trip to the Himalayas for With or Without You was absolutely stunning. I fell in love with the people and the places we went to. I did a three-week hike in the foothills of the Annapurnas - fabulous. When I got home, the book just wrote itself - it was an absolute joy. It's one of my own personal favourites out of my books and it's the one that most readers write to me about. I'd love to go back - perhaps to the Everest region next time. We also did a three-week trip across China and I wrote a short story based on our travels when I got back for the Girls' Night In series (which was for the War Child charity). I think it's the best short story I've ever written - called Travelling Light. (I'd like to do a book of short stories one day - I just love writing them! I put a new one up on my website every month.) The Sweetest Taboo was based on my trips to LA. I've been fortunate enough to sell the rights to a couple of my books to Hollywood, so we've had to go out there a few times. A lot of the things that are featured in the book, I did! I do like to go to the places that I write about if I can. You can only do so much from imagination and I find if you go to the place it often throws up other angles for the story that I hadn't thought about. Best Carole xx

I hope that books will still be around - it's like the banana, a perfect package. The new book readers are making quite an impact though - particularly for academic and professional texts at the moment. They also trialled them in schools and got a fabulous response from kids. I guess it's the next generation who might prefer a gadget to a book. There's a certain appeal about being about to download a dozen books onto a reader to take on holiday rather than fill my suitcase with space that should have clothes in it! The screens on the readers are whizzy new electronic ink rather than being computer screeny - much easier on the eye. At

That's the sort of statistic I prefer to hear!!! Best Carole xx

Hi Maureen - a scary fact is that a 'heavy' book buyer is now considered (by the industry) as someone who buys six books a YEAR!! I definitely need therapy on that reckoning... : ) One a week does become an expensive habit - but still much cheaper than joining a gym or smoking. Best Carole xx

I must admit I baulk at paying for a hardback these days - the only person I rush out and buy is Phillipa Gregory as I just can't wait for them! But

Hi Michelle - the majority of the big retailers now get 60%+ discounts on books, so the publishers keep pushing up the cover price to try to make a profit. The Tesco price point for books is

Hi Michelle - this is a tricky one. Once upon a time authors used to believe that people buying second-hand books would then go on to look up the author's other work, if they'd enjoyed it and would, hopefully, pay for it in a book shop. I would love to think that it still applies to some people. But now the second-hand market has gone from a few dusty shelves in an Oxfam store to a multi-million pound business. Oxfam have something like 65 dedicated book stores now and make around 17 million a year - and are putting 'proper' independent book stores out of business at an alarming rate. The problem is with the charity stores is that they don't pay for their product, they don't pay for staff and they get reduced rent and council tax - businesses than need to make a profit can't possibly compete with that. Plus the rise of the internet swapping sites and that fact that you can get most of the bestsellers on Amazon for 1p shortly after publication is all helping to decimate the book industry. It's a big problem. I think in years to come that it will be impossible for writers to make a living from writing books and we'll see a shrinking book market as more of the publisher's spend goes onto promoting the megasellers - like the James Patersons, the Martina Coles and there'll be less diversity in the books available. I think a lot of the people buying second hand books and swapping them don't realise what damage it's causing to the industry that they love so much. The Society of Authors are trying to get people like Amazon and the second hand sellers to donate a tiny amount per book resold (1p or so) to go to ALCS which collects royalties on behalf of authors - so that it can be redistributed amongst writers - but no one is terribly interested in putting themselves out to do it. Oxfam have refused point blank. I hate throwing books away, but would never now donate them to a charity. The other thing that the second-hand market it harming is libraries - who wants to wait weeks to get your turn at a bestseller when you can pick it up so cheaply elsewhere? In a quarter I might sell 5-10 new books on Amazon - compared to 300-400 second hand ones. It's very scary for writers the way things are going. Carole xx