The campaign begins

Ha, my evil masterplan works. Scotsman/Scotland on Sunday reporter Brian Ferguson spotted my recent twitter activity and called me up for an interview this morning. He liked the idea of me not only writing a book about the Edinburgh Fringe but also doing a show on the Edinburgh Fringe. I guess that's me committed to doing a show then.

I was working not far from the Scotsman offices, so was able to get down there at lunchtime for a spontaneous interview. It's a little earlier than I expected to get coverage, but the book is available for order from Amazon here: The Edinburgh Fringe Survival Guide so it'll all be healthy publicity.

That reminds me: I need to set up a press page on my website, both for journalists to have a press contact and for readers to check out the press coverage.

It was odd being on the other side of the interview table from where I'm used to sitting. Normally I do 10 per cent of the talking and 90 per cent of the listening; this time it was the opposite way round. 

I hope I gave Brian what he was looking for. It brought home to me that interviewees have to be focused and have to work hard to provide interesting and relevant material for the journalist to use. People I interview are always so good at it, I tend to take it for granted, but there's a skill involved.

I guess the more I talk about it, the better I'll get at focusing on the key stories and summing up the things that distinguish the book from all the others.