Colin Midson – Publicist

The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton

This was a real privilege. I was brought in to to work on Eleanor Catton's book in August 2013 just as it was long-listed for the Booker Prize. Over the course of the next 2 months set off on a nationwide tour, taking in Edinburgh Festival, Cheltenham, London - even Berlin - with a wall-to-wall interview schedule for broadcast and print media. The night of the Booker Prize giving was an extraordinary culmination of a lot of work. She returned for the paperback the following summer and we continued at fever pitch.

The A303 - Highway to the Sun

This was a real pleasure and a rare experience - overseeing a publishing project from start to the very finish. In my capacity as a commissioning editor at Simon & Schuster I brought the idea of a book about the 303 to the editorial table and swiftly found Tom Fort, an author at a loose end. I oversaw the editorial process - working with Tom on the text, commissioning the jacket design, writing cover copy, and even drawing the maps - before leaving S&S to set up Bookshaped. I then publicised the book, securing blanket review coverage and features across the national press, broadcast interviews on Chris Evans Breakfast Show, and on Radio 4 and across the West Country. Plus, of course, the BBC commissioned a one off documentary on the back of the book...

My Life on the Road, by Gloria Steinem

Another great opportunity planning the tour and chaperoning Gloria Steinem as we promoted the hardback of her memoir. This involved the scheduling of a comprehensive UK book tour taking in events at the the Emmanuel Centre for the How To Academy in London, at the Cambridge Book Festival, Oxford Union, Bath Festival, Port Eliot Festival and West Cork. Interviews were secured across the media but most notably on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, BBC Newsnight, BBC Breakfast, the Guardian, and Daily Mail.

Ordinary Thunderstorms

UK Trade campaign for first publication of William Boyd's 2009 novel.
Interviews in broadsheet and weekly media including The New Statesman and Sunday Times.
Broadcast interviews on BBC Radio 4 Open Book. BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime. Reviews across longlead publications and broadsheet and tabloid media.

William Boyd said of the campaign: "Colin Midson did a sensational job on Ordinary Thunderstorms. It was the most impressive trans-media publicity blitz I've ever experienced in the UK"