Open Book Blog Hop – 20th January

This week the topic is:

What are your top three distractions and how do you deal with them?

First:

As an author, the first and main distraction is social media.  Unless I work offline, then I tend to check Twitter, WordPress, BookFunnel, ACX, Amazon, Goodreads, KDP, MeWe and my email notifications as they come in.  Fortunately these days I don’t have to check Facebook or LinkedIn as I deleted them, but social media is a serious distraction and time suck if authors are trying to write a novel.

Social media creeps up on you like a convolvulous vine and entwines itself around your very being if you let it.  You start off with one site, then feel obliged to register for more sites because you read online that authors must jump up high to be seen above everybody else, and the only way to do that is to be active across as many social media sites as possible.  However, when you log into these sites, you see the very same authors are on there as well as on all the other sites, and that they’re all jumping up just as high as you are.  It’s a lose-lose situation, as we’re all promoting our books to each other, and not to the readers (who are not authors) that we should be promoting them to!  What a game it all is, and what a terrible waste of time.

Second:

Paid employment takes me away from writing books.  At the moment I earn much more working as a medical secretary three days per week than the royalties I receive from Amazon and Ingram  Spark.   After I’ve spent 6 hours staring at a computer screen at the hospital, then I don’t always fancy coming home and staring at my own screen.  Consequently not much writing gets done on work days.

Third:

Sunshine.  When it’s a lovely day outside and the sun is shining, then I’d rather be out walking or cycling in Suffolk or on the Isle of Wight instead of sitting at a computer.  Therefore in the winter I’m much more productive as regards creative writing!

What distractions affect other blog-hoppers? Click on the blue button below to find out, or just add a comment.

Rules:

1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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Open Book Blog Hop – 6th January

This week the original topic was ‘Does a big ego help or hurt writers?‘ I wrote the following blog on this given subject before it was changed to ‘What is Your Favourite Childhood Book?’  

A newbie writer starts off with a big ego; they’ve written the book that will knock Stephen King off the top ratings, and they rush to send off the first three chapters to an agent or twelve in the Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook.

Eleven of the agents don’t even bother to reply, which makes a small dent in the writer’s ego.  How dare they not even acknowledge the next best thing since sliced bread?  The twelfth agent asks for the rest of the manuscript, which smooths out the dent and inflates the writer’s ego even further.

However, three months later the twelfth agent sends an email asking the newbie writer to re-write the whole book in the third person instead of the first, to begin the story where the middle currently is, to add less events and draw out the rest, to write an outstanding first sentence, and to change the title.  Then they’ll need to cut out repeated words, too many adverbs, and cull the number of words ending in ‘ing.

The newbie writer with their inflated ego thinks ‘bollocks to that – they don’t know what they’re talking about’.  Instead they decide to send the original manuscript off to another twenty five agents in the Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook, regardless of genre preference.

There is no reply.

Pouting and peeved beyond measure, the newbie writer self-publishes their book without taking any notice of the twelfth agent’s recommendations and reads up on marketing.  Eventually there are two sales, both of which garner one star reviews.  The newbie writer’s ego takes a bad tumble and they wonder what the hell they’re doing wrong.

Two years’ later and with no more sales they re-read the twelfth agent’s recommendations again and decide to implement some of them.  It takes them a year to re-write the book, cut out the crap, and think of a better title.  They send it back to the twelfth agent and to ARC readers.  There is no reply from the agent. Some ARC readers love the book, but some pick holes in it.  The newbie writer has no idea whether they’ve written an excellent story or one that needs to be consigned to the slush pile.

The newbie writer loses confidence in their writing ability and starts to read books written by Stephen King and other bestseller authors.  It’s only then that they realise the very steep learning curve ahead of them!

To cut a long story short, authors start off with big egos that soon get whittled down by rejections, corrections and suggestions.  As far as I can tell, a newbie writer might fare much better putting their ego on hold and be more willing to act on constructive criticism given by people who have been in the writing business a lot longer than they have!  However, they also need to learn that they cannot please all the readers all the time; some will love their book and others will hate it.  Their ego will tend to rise and fall with alarming frequency, and they have to learn to manage the troughs as well as the peaks.

What do other blog-hoppers think?  Click on the blue button below to find out, or add a comment or blog of your own:

Rules:

1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Open Book Blog Hop – 23rd December

This week the topic is:

How did publishing your first book change your process of writing?

When I sent my first book entitled ‘The Porn Detective’ (now called ‘Mind Games’) off to a London literary agency in 2013, they decided they would have a meeting to discuss whether to represent me.  I waited on tenterhooks for a week, until they phoned with the news that they wouldn’t be taking it on.  Another agency was interested too.  They asked me to re-submit after I had acted on their constructive feedback.  Here’s what they said:

‘I think your central premise is brilliant – man with a porn obsession, and how this takes a toll on those around him. There is a cue here for an in-depth exploration of the issues – and it’s timely with porn, and the effects of porn, in the news. I also love the thought of a character faking their own death – but I’m not convinced that this needs to be in the same story.

My advice would be to trim down your ideas for this single novel by 75%. You’ve got ideas for about three different novels in one, and it’s not necessary. You write well enough to make ‘effects of porn on family’ interesting, especially with the twist of why he has that obsession in the first place.

Build up tension, work towards a few set pieces – it’s not necessary to have things constantly happening. Make the reader look forward to your next big moment, and really explore the relationships between the main characters. For example – why exactly was your female lead saving herself for marriage – what are her issues?

A pro-active lead is more interesting – not just someone who reacts to what is thrown at her. She needs to be on a journey of her own – and I wouldn’t kill off your male lead. Remember he’s on a journey too.

To sum up – and I hope you don’t mind my feedback – I think you’ve got the makings of a very fine novel in here. Pare it back, and really expand on the issues at the heart of your story. I would be delighted to re-read your work.’

And here’s some more feedback from a third agency:

‘I found the writing very readable, which is good – it flows, though I did feel the pace was rather fast so that we’re rushing past events rather than being able to really absorb what’s happening. In many ways the opening is engaging because it sets the dark tone for the rest of the story, and I found the dialogue quite good, giving us an insight into Frances and Martin’s relationship. 

I did wonder about the probability of Frances being a virgin on her wedding night – I know it’s the 80s, and she’s quite young at the age of twenty-two, but it’s something to consider, especially since sexuality will be such a big theme in the book. If you’re portraying how innocent Frances is, compared to Martin, then I think this can be drawn out more – having mentioned the rather fast pace, I think there’s scope to do that. ‘

It took me another year, but I re-wrote the whole book and toned down the pace with less events happening, and kept the male lead alive.  I changed the title to ‘Mind  Games’, and tried my best to build up the tension.  I won a free edit for a quarter of the book, and as I read through the newly edited chapters I realised it had been made more ‘readable’ by an increase in the number of paragraphs, and a decrease in the amount of repeated words and adverbs.  Buoyed by the thought that ‘Mind Games’ was probably going to be the next best seller I whipped out more adverbs, repeated words and words ending in ‘ing’ for the rest of the chapters, then sent it off to the agencies again.

Nothing.

Bugger it.

Nearly 7 years later I’m still at it, but I’m a bit more realistic.  I don’t think Stephen King needs to be worried about being knocked off his perch just yet…

What have other authors got to say?  Click on the link below to find out, or add your own comment below:

Rules:

1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Open Book Blog Hop – 9th December

This week the topic is:

Interview one of your characters. Introduce them to a new audience or give existing readers new insight into their motivations.

I thought I’d interview Jill Hayes, who is one of the main characters in my new 31,000 word novella ‘Examining Kitchen Cupboards‘, a small part of which is based on my own experience whilst working in a college’s Exams department back in 1999.  The book was published on 7th December.

Stevie:  Jill, do you like your new job as an Examinations Assistant?

Jill:  No, not really.  I don’t think my boss likes me.  I can’t seem to do anything right.  And.. there’s another thing.

Stevie:  What?

Jill:  I’ve found out something.  Everyone knows it’s going on, but nobody talks about it.

Stevie:  Can you be a bit more specific?

Jill:  I’ve since been told to keep quiet and that what goes on in Daxton College has to stay in the college.  However, before I was silenced I was so angry at what I found out that I decided to turn whistle-blower and write some letters to national newspapers under an assumed name.

Stevie:  Any luck?

Jill:  No.  I was told by a succession of editors that they understand my frustrations, but they would not be able to print my letters because they are too controversial.

Stevie:  Sounds intriguing!

Jill:  Yeah, so I wrote to my MP, who told me of somebody else to write to.  When I wrote to them, my son was abducted, beaten up by persons unknown,  and told to inform me to shut up.

Stevie:  Wow.  So you’re not going to spill the beans then?

Jill: Not now.  I’m getting out.  I’ve found another job.  Any job is better than the one I’ve currently got.

Stevie:  Good luck, Jill.  Hope it all works out for you.

Jill:  Thanks.

Jill doesn’t realise what the far-reaching effects are going to be of trying to turn whistle-blower.  Luckily I didn’t suffer the same outcome, but like her I got out of that job as soon as I could find another one.

 Click on the link below to see which characters other blog-hoppers have interviewed:

Rules:

1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Open Book Blog Hop – 2nd December

Tags

writing

This week the topic is:

What one thing would you give up to become a better writer?

There’s actually two things that I’d give up.  The first one would be my job as a medical secretary so that I could concentrate totally on writing.  Unfortunately that’s not possible as I need to earn money like everybody else, and I currently earn more as a medical secretary than I do as a writer.  However, my main job is not half as interesting as being able to sit in peace in my own front room and write whatever comes into my head!  I must say that I’ve learned a great deal by working at the hospital though, and so it’s not all doom and gloom.

The other thing I’d give up is having a presence on social media.  Having to check various sites and promote my books is a drag, a distraction, and a huge time suck.  I do like blogging though, and would probably keep my WordPress site.  I’ve already closed my Facebook account, but I realise that Indie authors would have trouble selling any books at all without the help of social media sites such as Twitter etc.

What would other blog-hoppers give up?  Click on the blue button below to find out.  This is a scheduled post as we’re busy packing up our possessions at the van and moving into a new one, so I’ll get back to any comments a bit later in the week.

Rules:

1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Open Book Blog Hop – 25th November

Tags

marketing books

This week on the Open Book Blog Hop the topic is all about the best way to market our books.

I don’t really think that book launches, cover reveals and blog tours help too much with marketing a book.  There can be an overkill where people get sick of the sight of a book and turn away from it if it’s marketed on too many social media sites and for too long.  Hey, this is just my opinion, but feel free to comment if you think otherwise.

To start with I’d ask on WordPress whether anybody would want to review an ARC copy of a new book.  When the review is done and corrections made I usually put the book up for pre-order for a few weeks at a reduced price (usually £0.99/$0.99) and advertise the book on my website.  I will usually send a message about the book to my email subscribers too.

Following this I would then inform Sally Cronin at Smorgasbord of the publication date. Sally is very supportive of indie authors, and she will write a blog about it.  Sally will combine her blog with any reviews received from ARC readers.

I’ve just contacted Sally regarding my new thriller ‘Examining Kitchen  Cupboards‘, which is on pre-order until December 7th.  There have been various re-blogs and enough of a response from subscribers to Sally’s blog that last week the ranking for my new book on AmazonUK stood at 28,000 (paid).  So thanks very much Sally!  Sally included D.G Kaye’s excellent 5 star review too (thanks Debby!).

I will then share Sally’s blog and D.G Kaye’s review on Twitter and Pinterest.  I don’t do much more than that, because frankly I don’t find that much else works.  Anything more would be ‘overkill’ I think.

What do other authors find is the best way to market their books? You can read their answers by clicking on the blue button below.

Rules:

1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Open Book Blog Hop – 18th November

Today’s topic is:

How many hours a day do you write? How long on average does it take you to write a book?

Back in 2013 when I first started writing, I could rattle off a novel in about 3 months.  I was desperate to get each novel ‘out there’ because I was sure that everyone wanted to read them.  However, 6 years down the line I’m now of the opinion that nobody gives a rat’s ass whether I publish a book or not, because they’re all too busy with their own writing projects, work issues, or just ‘life’.  Therefore I take my time and write for my own enjoyment!

I juggle writing with my job as a medical secretary on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.  On those 3 days I don’t write much and just check my social media sites when I get home from work.  On Tuesdays, Fridays and the weekends I will write for however long I feel like in-between domestic duties and keeping fit.  This might be half an hour or it might be 5 or 6 hours.  It also doesn’t bother me if I don’t write at all; there’s no pressure to create, and that’s how I like it.

What’s the point of giving yourself writing targets to attain as an Indie author?  You’re just heaping stress upon yourself.  Life’s too short to worry about how many words you’ve written in one day, because believe me, nobody gives the aforementioned rat’s ass…

If it takes me a year to write a book I’m okay with that.  I’ve written many books over 6 years, and I’m happier taking my time.

How long does it take other blog-hoppers to write a book?  Click on the blue button below to find out:

Rules:

1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Open Book Blog Hop -11th November

This week’s topic is:

As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal?

I have an avatar that author Yasmin Correa made for me back in 2016, and I also made my own just for this blog.  First of all I’ll share Yasmin’s avatar, which features a book I’m writing, plus one of the awards I won for ‘A House Without Windows’ in 2014.

I then went on to the ‘Make Your Own Avatar’ site, and tried to produce something that looks approximately like myself. This person eventually ended up looking nothing like me at all:

The last one is me after a night out on the lash:

 

What would other blog-hoppers’ avatars look like?  Click on the blue button below to find out, or just add your own:

Rules:

1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Open Book Blog Hop – 28th October

This week the topic is:

 We’ve talked about writer’s block.  Have you ever had reader’s block?

I used to love reading as a child.  In school holidays Mum and Dad would go off to work, and I’d curl up on the sofa with a book and would often still be there at 2pm when Mum came home.  I read for the pleasure of it, and always had a stack of books to get through.  Books have always been a source of comfort to me.

However, when I began writing novels in 2013, all this changed.  First of all I preferred to write and not read, even though I knew that I should be reading much more than I was.  Secondly, when I read anything I began to find faults as I went along (it had never occurred to me to do this beforehand) and somehow the pleasure of reading was somewhat dulled.

Lately I have tried to increase my reading.  I joined the Goodreads’ 2019 challenge and so far this year have managed to read 14 books and now I am on a 15th.  I am really enjoying Mark Edwards’ new book ‘Here to Stay‘, because he writes the type of novels that I like to read – psychological thrillers.

So, no I haven’t really ever had reader’s block, but I try to make more time for reading now.  I still enjoy a good book!

Have any other blog-hoppers ever had reader’s block?  Click on the blue button to find out.  If you haven’t got readers’ block, you may like to check out my bargain paranormal novel ‘Partners in Time‘, which will be just £0.99 only on Halloween (with another bonus too – more to come).

Rules:

1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Open Book Blog Hop – 21st October

This week the topic is:

Do you try to be more original, or to deliver to readers what they want?

Ha ha, that’s a very good question; what actually do readers want?  If I knew that, I’d be selling millions of books! 

I usually wait until I’ve thought up a plot that’s a little bit different.  I try to be original, but in reality I expect every possible subject has already been covered ad nauseam.  I work on the assumption that somewhere out there are readers who might like my family-based dramas, be them humorous, paranormal, or romantic/suspense based.  I wait for the readers to come to me, rather than trying to write something they would like.

Am I doing it all arse-about-face?  Who knows?  Whatever the trending subject matter of the day is,  I’m either not in the loop or possibly it might be a genre I dislike.  It works best for me to write about what’s in my head and heart rather than worry about what I should be writing about.

What do other blog-hoppers think?  Click on the blue button below to find out.

Rules:

1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter