Pub day, Harper Collins Summer Party, Times and ipaper, Amazon glitches, Waterstones stack, good times
nosebag #49
Dear all, it’s been another very exciting and busy week, because of course, it’s been ‘publication day’. Yes, on Thursday, Ultra Processed Women finally hit the shelves - my 4th book baby, out in the world.
This will be the last edition of the nosebag that is dominated by news of the launch. Next week we will get back to our usual Friday edition of The Word is Woman, and I also want to write a post for you about this news story on the Queer Birth Club (apologies for the link to GBNews, I’m not a fan BUT it’s the only coverage that isn’t paywalled). Boy oh boy do I have a few things to say about the QBC.
If, however, you do want continued content on the topic of UPF, please slide over and subscribe to my new substack,
, which will also be picking up speed in the coming weeks. There’s 50% off an annual subscription for the whole of July - just £17.50 for a whole year’s sub.
Monday saw the release of a podcast episode I recorded with Angela Foster at High Performance Health.
On Tuesday I headed to London in the extraordinary heat, with the dress I told you about last week packed in my suitcase. On the train I wrote a substack for you just filling you in on the latest, in particular that me and the book were featured in the Times that day…
The Harper Collins Summer Party was stunning as ever. I’ve been to a few of them now - and it’s impossible not to feel extraordinarily lucky as you stand in the John Madejski Garden at the V&A Museum, a delicious cocktail in hand. It certainly makes all the hours you’ve spent sat at the kitchen table, crying into your laptop in your dressing gown, seem worthwhile.
Back in Somerset, the weather cooled a bit, but the pace continued with another piece of news coverage, this time in the ipaper…
By the way, I’ve no idea why both the Times and the ipaper billed me as a ‘psychotherapist’. I am a qualified Dramatherapist (a form of psychotherapy), but I haven’t practiced in over a decade and am no longer HCPC registered. It’s a bit of a mystery why they both described me in this way…but too late now I guess! Anyone who wants some therapy, please note I now charge £1200 per hour. 😆
The launch day itself was slightly marred by some issues with Amazon who appeared not to have any stock of the book! Some of you contacted me to let me know that you had been told you would not get your copy for over a week. I can only apologise about this situation, which is something to do with warehouses and distribution and completely out of my hands. I believe it’s resolving now, and that most of you who preordered have now got your copy. On a similar note, there is no paperback available yet (it’s only in hardback, audio or kindle), so it’s a bit of a mystery why it’s being advertised for the bargain price of £898.
For £898 I will happily hand write it for you with a quill and parchment, so just let me know if you’re interested in this option (I can do you some top of the range psychotherapy while you wait as well).
I was really blown away to see that book giant Waterstones included UPW in this stack of new releases. They ask, “Which one would you pick?” Feel free to tell them!!
At the end of a week that has also included some fairly gnarly parenting scenarios and has even seen one of my offspring get on a plane to Cambodia (she is going out there with a charity for ten days), I really felt on my knees by Friday night, and nearly cancelled the drinks party I’d planned at my house to celebrate the book’s publication. But I stuck my frock on anyway and revived myself with several glasses of my favourite fizz, Cremant, which - as my good friend
points out in this post, is 100% definitely not UPF - I know this because I checked with Carlos Monteiro himself. (Em’s hotdogs definitely are though)
So with this happy image of me and some really nice people in my garden, I will love you and leave you, have a lovely Sunday. Milli x
Dress (and the gold sandals) are lovely! The Waterstones thing is actually great because it means no one close to any marketing, social media or publicity stuff has been told/is saying ‘hang on, we can’t promote that awful transphobe’ 😀😀😀
Got some good chuckles from this one (the psychotherapist bill and the paperback cost and scroll) 😆
Congrats again on the book! Your dress and your garden celebration looked magical!