The Astonishing Future of Alex Nobody is published in the UK!
It’s been quite the month!
My debut novel The Astonishing Future of Alex Nobody was published by Hachette on 10 June. It’s been wonderful seeing the book appear in REAL LIFE bookshops and in the hands of REAL LIFE readers.
I owe a huge thanks to everyone who has supported the book so far, including many brilliant book bloggers and booksellers, and to the brilliant team at Hachette. I would have never dreamed all of this was possible!
On publication day itself, I visited five independent bookshops in London where I met lovely booksellers and signed copies. This included Pickled Pepper Bookshop, the Children’s Bookshop, West End Lane Books, Daunts Marylebone and Stoke Newington Bookshop.
Afterwards I had a long power nap to recover. Then in the evening I had a picnic with friends in Regent’s Park featuring plenty of prosecco, strawberry cupcakes and donuts. It reminded me a little of the scene in the book where Gerty, Arthur, Alex and Jasper have a meal together, only thankfully none of our food was hundreds of years old…
The following week there was the Alex Nobody blog tour, organised by Lucy at Hachette, featuring five fantastic children’s book blogs: My Shelves Are Full, This Book is Brilliant, Reading for Pleasure, Unicorns and Kelpies and The Teacher Bookworm. As part of the tour, I did my first ever Q&A about The Astonishing Future of Alex Nobody, I wrote a piece about when and where I’d like to travel in time, and I wrote a letter to younger self (which heavily featured the Taylor Swift song, 22).
The book was chosen as a Book of the Month for both Toppsta and Books For Topics, which was pretty staggering! It was also chosen as a contender for the Primary School Book Club.
On 26 June, I did a virtual event with the new Inkspots programme of children’s events, run by the brilliant How To Academy. The event can be watched back here: Inkspots with Kate Gilby Smith | Author Talk and Q&A - YouTube
Seeing the book in bookshops is an incredible feeling and at weekends I’ve been popping into as many shops as I can. Sightings of Alex Nobody so far have included: Ink 84 Bookshop, Waterstones Piccadilly, Foyles Charing Cross, Hatchards, Waterstones Sauchiehall Street, Waterstones Byres and Waterstones Argyle.
Before all of this, I was in Guernsey for a few weeks where I was lucky enough to do six events with the Guernsey Literary Festival, who I used to volunteer for. This included five school talks around the island and an event in the local library, chaired by a fantastic 9-year-old called Beatrix, who was not only a brilliant chairperson but also came dressed up as Jasper!
Thanks again to everyone who has supported the book so far. Here’s a little roundup of reviews and blogs which have been published over the month:
Unicorns and Kelpies - The Astonishing Future of Alex Nobody by Kate Gilby Smith | Unicorns and Kelpies (home.blog)
Books for Topics: New Children’s Fiction for Summer 2021 Ones to Watch: New Children's Fiction for Summer 2021 (booksfortopics.com)
Toppsta ‘Book of the Month’ Book Reviews for The Astonishing Future of Alex Nobody By Kate Gilby Smith | Toppsta
Mister Bodd’s No Shelf Control No Shelf Control | Mister Bodd (wordpress.com)
Books For Topics BooksForTopics: June 2021 Books of the Month
Book Bound - The Astonishing Future of Alex Nobody – Book-bound (home.blog)
Books Up North Kid's Book Review: The Astonishing Future of Alex Nobody | Books Up North
This Book is Brilliant Blog Tour: The Astonishing Future of Alex Nobody by Kate Gilby-Smith – This Book is Brilliant! (wordpress.com)
My Shelves are Full The Astonishing Future of Alex Nobody – My Shelves Are Full
Reading For Pleasure Reading For Pleasure: The Astonishing Future of Alex Nobody by Kate Gilby Smith - blog tour (childrenreadingforpleasure.blogspot.com)
The Teacher Bookworm The Astonishing Future of Alex Nobody – Kate Gilby Smith – Teacher Bookworm (theteacherbookworm.com)
Mr Sydney’s Famous World’s Smallest Library The Astonishing Future of Alex Nobody by Kate Gilby Smith – Mrs Sydney's Famous World's Smallest Library (wordpress.com)
The Book Nook The Astonishing Future of Alex Nobody, Reviewed by Sophie - YouTube
Read and Reviews Read and Reviewed: The Astonishing Future of Alex Nobody by Kate Gilby Smith (readandreviews.blogspot.com)
‘Mr Ripley’s Enchanted Books - Mr Ripleys Enchanted Books: Middle Grade Books
