I did my second ever author event earlier this week, at The Owl Bookshop in Kentish Town, north London. Hurry up and finish your own book so you can do the same. It is like throwing a cocktail party, only without having to polish the glassware, fiddle about with canapés, or indeed do any work at all. Unless you count writing the book in the first place which I, for one, would caution against. Far better to park the pain, self-doubt and abject terror, and enjoy the fruits of y

How long is too long to spend planning a book launch, you know, if it’s your first book? A year? A decade? A lifetime? I began planning my book launch when I started my first novel. That was fourteen years ago. The novel, which is in the proverbial bottom drawer (let’s be generous and call it a work-in-progress), took a while. I kept breaking off to write the guest list, and to ponder outfit options. I have a friend who spent years fantasising about what she would wear to her