How to promote your book- give it away!

Giving away a book you have struggled to write may seem counter-productive .

But it is a marketing strategy I heard one very well known publisher say at a Hay Book Festival.

Writing a book  about Paolozzi is not enough. You have got to get it out and about. That is a lesson I am learning the hard way.


Donating copies  to  academic institutions  maybe the only way it will get into their libraries. They are all strapped for cash these days.

Also I recall  that Paolozzi was very generous with his work.  (I suspect there was a deeper motive behind it- in some cases it was the only way that the work would be shown.  Just give it away.)


So I am delighted to hear that both Glasgow School of and Edinburgh College of Art have accepted copies of Paolozzi Revealed  for their libraries.

Also our local library in Bridge of Allan have taken a copy too.

Meanwhile copies of "Paolozzi Revealed" can be purchsed from Amazon.

Sculptor Dufort designs new £2 coin

Sculptor Antony Dufort was in the Paolozzi Masterclass with me nearly twenty years ago.
So imagine my surprise when this image dropped through my email box this morning.

For Antony was commissioned to design the new £2 coin. He wanted a modern version of Britannia, a strong contemporry woman, so he used his Polish wife for inspiration.

I have been trawling through the internet looking for ex students of the Masterclass nd Antony's email popped up . 

Paolozzi , Kafka and the Masterclass

Delighted to get a phone call from Lida Hatrick, who was in the Masterclass with me.

Born in the Czech Republic she came to the UK and took a degree in English and Russian  at Edinburgh University.

It was Lida who explained Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" to us one morning during coffee break when Paolozzi asked if we were familiar with the book.

Only Lida had read it. She gave a brilliant resume which impressed even Paolozzi.


Today Lida lives in the Scottish Borders where she is a practising artist.  We have arranged for her to come to Bridge of Allan in September and she will bring alaong her diary and photos from that time.

She recalls how fraught she felt during the first few days of that Masterclass and wrote her diary all in Czech so nobody could possibly read it!

Artist George Donald, co-organiser of the course along wih Geraldine Prince,  lives near Lida on the Borders and visited her the other morning for coffee . That'show she learnt about the book.
Thank you George!

Paolozzi Revealed by Ann Shaw, price £12.95 .

Available from &Collectivegallery, Bridge of Allan, and Amazon. Also stocked in Blackwell's and The Fruitmarket gallery in Edinburgh and Waterstones in Stirling.

Book launch-- Paolozzi Revealed

(From left to right) Amy Drewery and Avril Nicol , directors of the &Collectve gallery, Malcolm Shaw, Ann Shaw, author, and artist Catherine King with Richard King.

Video of book launch at the &Collective gallery, Bridge of Allan

Publisher Pamela Stennett with Lesley Duncan, Poetry Editor of The Herald and Amy Drewery, director of &Collective gallery.

Well, the book launch was a great success and I am delighted because it was a first event of its kind for the &Collective gallery.

An unexpected bonus was the arrival of art historian Geraldine Prince,  and artist George Donald from Edinburgh who together organised the Masterclass with Paolozzi.

Geraldine gave a very entertaining speech about what it was like to try to organise a man like Paolozzi.

It was good to see old friends from my days at the Glasgow Herald ( as it then was) along with new friends.

So,  thank you to everyone for making the evening such a memorable event  and to film maker Joel for recording it.

And a special thank you to publishers Kennedy & Boyd, for recording in print this moment in art history.

Paolozzi Revealed by Ann Shaw is published by Boyd & Kennedy, price £12.99 .
Available from &Collective gallery, Bridge of Allan, Fruitmarket gallery, Edinburgh, and Waterstones in Stirling . Also Amazon.

Paolozzi- Studio of Objects

A student puts the finishing touches to his self portrait during the Psolozzi Masterclass.

Today the Studios of Objects favourited my tweet about the book launch.

This is a pioneering project which uses a 360-degree archaeological laser scan to capture the preserved studio of artist Eduardo Paolozzi. The 3D scans will be coded for tablets and used in workshops at Pallant House Gallery to explore how users interact and navigate the studio with this innovative technology. The Studio of Objects is also supported by the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art and the Paolozzi Foundation.

This project aims to create new ways for organisations to capture and store their archives digitally, resulting in wider public access.

Paolozzi Revealed, Ann Shaw, published by Kennedy & Boyd, price £12.99 available from &Collective gallery, Bridge of Allan, FK94LY. Click.www.andcollectiveonline.co.uk

Paolozzi Masterclass- book launch

(Caption) from left to right: Amy Drewery and Avril Nicol, directors of the &Collective gallery,  Malcolm Shaw, who helped proof-read and digitise the photos, Ann Shaw, author, and Catherine King, artist and art lecturer with her husband, Richard.

    Art historian Geraldine Prince,  who organised the Masterclass on behalf of Edinburgh College of Art, regaled us with stories of what it was like trying to organise and "control" Paolozzi -a man notorious for his ferocious temper- during the Masterclass.

Paolozzi was not a man amendable to authority and he let Geraldine know on the first morning that she could go back to her office " and do those faxes or whatever it is that you do."

Well, it was certainly a book launch with a difference and thanks to the &Collective gallery in Bridge of Allan who were hosting it  the evening went like clockwork.

( Special thanks to Avril Nicol and Amy Drewery, co-directors and Ruth Drewery for all their hard work).

And I got to meet my publisher Stuart Johnson of Kennedy & Boyd for the first time.

He turned out to be a charming, erudite individual not at all like the hard-nosed publisher I had expected.

Also I met lot of friends again whom I had not seen for some time, along with new ones and we had the whole event filmed by Joel  Rock, a young student from Stirling University  Film and Media Department.

 (Caption) from left to right: Pamela 

Stennett of Kennedy & Boyd , Leslie Duncan, Poetry Editor of The Herald who helped edit the book and Amy Drewery, director of the &Collective gallery, Bridge of Allan.

Paolozzi Revealed by Ann Shaw, publisher Kennedy & Boyd, price £12.99 available from the &Collective gallery, Bridge of Allan or Amazon.