to ask you to read this book

[lu9months]

Pear Shaped by Adam Blain. my 44 year old husband has written a book about his aggressive brain tumour. its frankly hilarious - i know, it shouldnt be. it is very dark humour. you can download it from amazon and it would be wonderful if his writing could reach as many people as possible

Will give the sample a try, and if I enjoy it, I'll buy it not my usual kind of book, but I like black humour. Looks good. My mother has a non cancerous but still very dangerous mass on her brain. She gets scans every few weeks/months to monitor its growth. We have to laugh about it and the effects or we wouldn't be able to stop crying. E.g. When she occasionally and randomly barks like a dog (something to do with the part of her brain affected). Well done to your dh for finding a silver lining in writing a book about his experiences.

I've just burst into tears at the bit about his wedding ring around your neck, lu. He seems a lovely man and it's so awful this is happening to him.

can you buy it in hard/ soft back i havent got a kindle

If you have a laptop, you can download a Kindle reader on that, Bells. It's well worth it.

I've just finished it and am in bits.

Here's a bump for this book - wish it was a novel, but unfortunately it's all real.

Thanks for the heads up regarding a Kindle reader for a laptop Imperial because I don't have a Kindle. I've just read the "look inside" bit on Amazon and I'm laughing and crying at the same time. It looks a great read. Well done Adam

The book's worth it for his description of how to make the most out of the salad bar at (I assume) Pizza Hut, involving weaving lettuce around celery sticks to form a basket. Very, very funny.

I've bought it to download to the e-reader later.

Thoroughly enjoyed the sample and have now bought the book for my Kindle. Looking forward to reading more of your husband's entertaining writing, and wishing him and you all the very best

thanks all. if you dont have a kindle BellsUpMyNose, you can go to amazon and download the free kindle app to any smart phone, laptop etc, so you can get it that way. no plans for paper edition at the moment, unless a publisher picks it up - heres hoping! please spread the word!

Well done to your DH and good luck.

Sorry to advertise a competitor on this thread but if he's not read it I think your husband would really enjoy

"Shrinkage, manhood marriage and the tumour that tries to kill me" by Bryan Bishop

Should be a comma between manhood and marriage

Manhood marriage sounds like the sort of thing Eurotrash covered!

And tried to kill me..... Phones

lu09 - I've ordered it, and am now laughing out loud (to the surprise of collegaues). Wishing you and your DH all the best.

Just finished reading it after buying it yesterday. It's a fantastic book, very well written, hilarious at times and extremely poignant. Your dh comes across as the most lovely man.
Wishing you and your family all the very best.

P.s. I will go and recommend it to my friends and family.

thanks all for the kind words. is anyone out there any good at getting a book like this to 'go viral' - would make adam so happy! or anyone know how to get publishers to pick up on it? or get more publicity? we are doing it all ourselves at the moment, and are very ignorant!

I downloaded the sample, he is just so brave. Wish him lots of luck. It was good you spotted a problem straight away. Take care x x

Lu, I would approach Janklow & Nesbitt, who are the agents that represent MN and who had the MN Publishing Day just before Christmas. They were absolutely great.

Here is a link to their submissions page.

thanks imperial, will try them !

Lu9, try local paper they are always battling to fill space (not saying this is a space filler!) but you might be surprised how keen the local paper are to take the story on. Same for local radio and in the bit ive read your husband is obviously quick witted and might make a good interview

Don't just approach one agency, send it to a few at a time.

just bought it x

OP, your sales ranking is already terrific, but in terms of things you can do to get the book out there some more, firstly have you made a Facebook page for it? It only takes 5 mins and people do share Facebook pages a lot.

Secondly, if you can bear to do the formatting (which will take a few hours), do a print-on-demand edition - you'd be surprised how many people will buy it even if the price is slightly higher than a trade published book would be. It seems to me the sort of book people will want to buy as a present so I would think there would be a good demand for a print version.

Encourage people (eg on this thread!) not just to buy it but also to review it on Amazon, Goodreads and Mumsnet Reviews. Apparently about 1 in a 100 people who buy a book generally review it, but if all the people on this thread who downloaded it and liked it, added a review, it would really help - especially on Goodreads because the algorithm is tied into number of reviews so the more people that review it, the more people Goodreads will recommend it to.

Best of luck, both with the book (which sounds brilliant) and your husband's health x

My DH says to have a look at create space on amazon, you can get copies of your book printed with it :)