Mal Peet, the Author Video

[AgentPete]

Author videos are notoriously difficult. Publishers often request them (sometimes pay for them) but they’re still hard to pull off. I think the mistake people often make is to try to turn them into epics – not usually possible without an epic budget.

For this one, I simply sat Mal down in front of the camera, and asked him questions. Twenty-four hours later, the video was up. Let me have your thoughts...

 

[Katie-Ellen]

He's a scream...love it.

Heee what breed of dog would the book be? A mongrel pissing on lamp posts.

An exasperated homeopath once accused me of holding out on him. He knew horses so I said, well, look, just think of me as a horse, you don't ask them all these questions. Just prescribe for that horse.

Murdstone makes me think of David Copperfield.

The subtitles are...interesting.

Says this, not Tolkein fan, but person not altogether averse to Lord Of The Rings, either, in case I need warding off.

 

[AgentPete]

Thx. Never quite sure about authors reading extracts. Many books don’t extract well. And authors are often not the best to perform their own work. But I think Mal does it very well.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Do you think he cherry-picked extracts for 'grab' or ambience? For 'ambience' works for me; I am pulled by voice not incident. The bits he read made me think a little of Malcolm Bradbury. 'Eating People Is Wrong.'

 

[AgentPete]

It was one extract, read from teleprompter. I see what you mean about Bradbury. If Mal didn’t have such a strong delivery, I don’t think I’d have wanted him to read an extract... imho, author-read extracts usually don’t work. No context, and non-pro delivery...

 

[Karen Gray]

OMG I Love him! haha! He seems like such a fun guy. Bet that interview was a scream. I love how he rambles sense. Awesome, I can't do that I just ramble nonsense. What a gift he has... so jealous

Book added to my Christmas list. At least there is something to tell hubby I want

 

[Katie-Ellen]

He features one teenager....with a spotty bum.
I love him. He goes up the stairs to write with dread in his knees.

 

[1408]

This was really fun to watch. I laughed a lot, even at my own expense at times! When he started to read the extract, it's odd but, I stopped sitting up straight and instead rested my head in my hand and felt like I was cross-legged on the floor by my teacher's chair listening to a story. He really has something about him. I can't wait to read this!

 

[AgentPete]

He has a very natural and engaging delivery, which is why I thought we’d risk an extract. Author-read extracts are not always a good idea, but in this case, it works, I think.