Change of Book Title..

A Marketing Evolution

Michele Gorman's latest novel is being reissued in the US with her original title and a brand new cover. Since changing titles after publication is fairly unusual in publishing, we thought you might like to hear a little bit about it.

When the UK distribution rights were sold to Avon (Harper Collins), the working title of the novel was Boyfriends Recycled - it's about three best friends who recycle their exes in exchange for an upgrade (wouldn’t that be fantastic in real life?!)

Publishers often change working titles to fit in better with the readers in their markets, and Avon felt that Match Me If You Can was a better title for the UK, so we changed the title for the US too.

Here’s the original UK cover designed by Avon, which was published in January.

Since lots of book review blogs have a global readership, we wanted to avoid any confusion over titles during the publication period, so for the US publication we kept the cover consistent with Avon’s in terms of the title, fonts and the heart image. 

But Michele was really keen to have the original title in the US, so we’ve just given it a bright new cover that captures the story and tone of the book. We hope you love it!

* And Amazon has made the change so that readers who bought the original eBook can't accidentally buy the new title - clever Amazonians! *

Michele Gorman

My thanks to Notting Hill Press for this information.

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It's all in the cover...

Notting Hill Press
2016

Like most readers I am intrigued by the variation in book cover design from one country to another and have often wondered what makes one cover work better than another. This is a recent case in point with the US cover of  Michele Gorman's  latest novel, Match Me If  You Can.

It’s interesting to see how the same book is marketed differently depending on where its fans are based. Michele Gorman’s Match Me If You Can is published by Avon (Harper Collins) in the UK and by Notting Hill Press in the US. Avon took the lead in designing the marketing package for Michele’s UK chick lit fans, with a pretty teal cover, fun font and firm focus on the online dating/romance storylines in the book.

Avon
2016

Meet best friends Catherine, Rachel and Sarah. Yet to find Mr Right, they’ve been settling for Mr Right Now. But when Catherine, London’s finest matchmaker, gets the girls to join her dating site where they can rate and recommend their ex-boyfriends, they soon realise that anything could happen… There’s someone for everyone, right? These best friends are about to find out!

To complement the UK cover, we at Notting Hill Press designed the US cover using the same fonts and heart motif. But something started to bother us. Match Me If You Can is also about strong women. It’s funny, cheeky, poignant and realistic. The women join the dating website and recycle their exes but their lives – their friendship, families and careers – are at the heart of the book. And while both British and American fans are definitely romantics, American readers are also really partial to a feisty story about friends.

We had to admit it: our hot pink cover didn’t seem quite right for Michele’s US fans. So we had a rethink about it, and here’s the result!

Meet best friends, Catherine, Rachel and Sarah. They’re fun, smart and successful, and haven’t had a date worth booking a wax appointment for in ages.

Catherine runs London’s most successful matchmaking business with her silent partner and ex-husband, Richard, who’s just announced that he’s marrying his twenty-three year-old girlfriend. Catherine has bras that are older than Magda, and now she’s barging in on their business with her meddlesome demands and wedding plans.

Architect Rachel’s got problems of her own. At work she’s competing against her ex-boyfriend, James, to win their biggest project and the promotion that comes with it. So when she joins Catherine’s website, RecycLove.com, where everyone brings an ex to recycle for the chance of an upgrade, she knows just who she’s going to trade in.

Homebody baker, Sarah, is in a rut thanks to family demands over the last few years. Reluctantly she joins RecycLove.com, where she’s convinced that some minor adjustments will improve her chances. But as minor adjustments turn into a complete overhaul and dates start falling at her newly-pedicured feet, will her popularity be worth the sacrifices she’s making?


A warm, funny story of friendship, strong women and self-discovery. Match us if you can, guys, but if not then please step aside and we’ll get on with being fabulous.

We hope you love the new cover and blurb as much as we do !

Notting Hill Press

Michele Gorman

Amazon UK
Amazon US


My Review of Match Me If You Can is here

My thanks To Notting Hill Press for  inviting me to share this feature about Book covers

Fascinating , isn't it?

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Review ~ Match Me If You Can by Michele Gorman

Same book - different cover

These are the two covers on offer for Michele Gorman's latest book

The Blue is the UK cover and the pink one is for the US

 

Published in the UK by Avon Books

Harper Collins

14 January 2016

What's it all about ....

Ever thought about recycling your ex?

Best friends Catherine, Rachel & Sarah are fun, smart, successful and single – just like millions of women with a low tolerance for idiocy in their dates.

Mr. Right hasn't turned up yet, and Mr Right-Now isn't worth booking a wax appointment for. So when Catherine, London’s finest matchmaker, gets Rachel and Sarah to join her dating site where they can recycle their ex-boyfriends in exchange for an upgrade, they soon realise that anything could happen . . .

Three best friends, proving that sometimes it really isn't you… it's him.

Here's the chance to see a promo video of Match Me if You Can

What did I think about the Book?

The course of true love never runs smoothly and for Catherine, running a bespoke matchmaking service, she knows more than most just how rocky a road it is to find exactly the right match. When she encourages her best friends, Rachel and Sarah to sign up to her dating site in order to find their very own Mr. Right, she insists that they also sign up their ex-boyfriends, and what should be a recipe for disaster, very soon turns out to be rather more enlightening than they could ever have imagined.

What I love about this author's work is the sheer believability of it all. Catherine, Rachel and Sarah's trials and tribulations are all too easily identified with. Catherine’s angst at finding her ex-husband is moving on with a new partner hurts far more deeply than she can ever admit too, and yet her belief that there is someone out there for everyone is just the impetus she needs to make her dating business a success. Sarah’s overwhelming love for her sister Sissy is admirable, and yet her sense of responsibility and obligation tends to overshadow her own ability. For Rachel being competitive in a man’s world comes naturally but always being one step ahead of the game, means that she has lost sight of what she truly wants for herself.

Such is the pull of this delightful story that Catherine, Rachel and Sarah really could be the flat mates you once had, and as their troubles become your troubles, you instinctively get drawn into their story and hope that when all is revealed, they will have found not just their own Mr Right Now,  but that they will also have found out far more about themselves, and ultimately, what is really important to each of them.

Best read with …one of Sarah’s delicious home baked Morning Muffins and pot of English Breakfast tea…

About the Author

Visit Michele on her website
Find her on Facebook
Follow her on Twitter @MicheleGormanUK

My thanks to the team at Notting Hill Press and to Avon Books for the chance to read 

Match Me If You Can in advance of its publication.

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Michele Gorman's Festive Feast...

I know that it's a way off Christmas but it's never too early to start planning your Festive Reads

Michele Gorman has delighted romcom fans with her Christmas novellas, and this year all three will be available in a single feel-good collection: 

Michele Gorman’s FESTIVE FEAST is out today

Notting Hill Press
7 October 2015

 FESTIVE FEAST ~ Three Deliciously Funny RomCom Christmas Novellas

The collection includes:


THE RELUCTANT ELF – Meet Britain’s Worst Innkeeper


CHRISTMAS CAROL – One winter wedding, two happy couples, three ex-boyfriends. And a very uncomfortable weekend


TWELVE DAYS TO CHRISTMAS – What if his proposal had an expiration date?

FESTIVE FEAST is available now from Amazon UK  or Amazon.com


Special price the FESTIVE FEAST eBook collection at $3.99/£2.49 (each novella is $2.99/£1.99 when bought individually)

About the Author

Twitter: @MicheleGormanUK
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/MicheleGormanBooks
Instagram: @michelegormanuk

Blog: www.michelegormanwriter.blogspot.com
Website: www.michelegorman.co.uk

~**Happy Festive Reading**~

Review ~ The Curvy Girls Baby Club by Michele Gorman

Notting Hill Press

August 2015

LOVE, LIFE AND A CHRISTMAS DUE DATE

Ellie is fresh back from her honeymoon and can't wait to share her news with her best friends Katie and Jane. To everyone's surprise, mother-of-two Jane has news of her own... The women are due a day apart and Katie can't wait to be an honorary auntie to the babies.

But it's hard to keep your sense of humour, not to mention your self-esteem, in the face of hemorrhoids and elasticated waistbands. Add a clingy mother-in-law, a career in cardiac arrest and a sex life that makes Mother Theresa look lusty, and soon their lives are as out of control as their bodies.

As the co-founders of The Curvy Girls Club, where loving yourself is the only rule, will the friends be able to practice what they preach?

Amazon UK

Amazon.com

Barnes and Noble

My thoughts:

I read The Curvy Girls Club last year and really enjoyed the introduction into the lives of Ellie, Kate and Jess. In this latest novella, we meet up with the girls again, but this time they have rather more on their minds than their Curvy Girls support group. With two out of the three friends expecting their first babies, Katie can't help but feel left out, until the fickle finger of fate intervenes.

As always, the story is really fun to read, whilst at the same time it covers some fairly serious topics, like what happens to couples when a baby starts to loom on the horizon,  how clingy mother-in-laws can be more of  a hindrance than a help, and of how pregnant women are viewed in the work place.

The story is warm and witty and filled with such a sense of joie de vivre that you can't help but be pulled into this charming story of impending motherhood. The characters are nicely portrayed without ever becoming caricatures and infuse such a sense of friendship , that you end up wishing you had such a group of friends to rely on.

The novella is really easy to read in one sitting, it's a real feel good story that will bring a smile to your face, and that for me,  is what fiction is sometimes all about.

About the Author

 The Curvy Girls Baby Club officially launches this week

Here are #13 Reasons to Love Yourself More

 Click here to download your own copy of Reasons to Love Yourself more





My thanks to Michele and Notting Hill Press for sharing this novella with me

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Review ~ The Reluctant Elf by Michele Gorman

Notting Hill Press
13 November 2014

Single mother and extremely undomestic goddess, Lottie, has five days to become the ultimate B&B hostess to save her beloved Aunt Kate’s livelihood.

When Aunt Kate ends up in the hospital, Lottie and her seven-year-old daughter are called to rural Wales to stand in at the B&B. Without the faintest idea how to run a hotel (she can barely run her own life), Lottie must impress the picky hotel reviewer and his dysfunctional family who are coming to stay over Christmas. Without the rating only he can bestow, Aunt Kate will lose her livelihood.

But will Danny, the local taxi driver who she hires to help her, really be Santa’s little helper, or the Grinch who stole Christmas?

Amazon UK

Amazon US

A ramshackle B&B in rural Wales is the setting for this delightful Christmas read. Following a devastating accident to her aunt Kate, Lottie and her seven year old daughter Mabel, arrive in Wales, ostensibly to take over running their aunt’s guest house, however, they are dismayed to find that the B&B, far from being a rural retreat, turns out to be something from a hammer horror film. The faded elegance and shabby chic of this rural idyll and the way in which Lottie enlists the help of local taxi driver Danny to help her turn the business around, forms the basis of the story.

From the beginning I loved the story, the setting, and the characters, who made me, laugh out loud. It has a wonderful light hearted charm and whilst it’s a quick read, I read it in one sitting over the course of a rainy afternoon; it really helped to lighten my mood and provided great escapism.

So, if you want something to cheer you up on a cold wintery day – put the kettle on, grab a cup of tea, and a packet of chocolate hob nobs, and immerse yourself in The Reluctant Elf.

Lovely.

Watch the You Tube Video 

Here 

About the Author

My thanks to Notting Hill Press for my review copy of this book.

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