Trick Riding

Trick Riders

It's that time of the year, when I look back, reflect and then look forward.  In January 2015 I was hopeful - I was a full time writer, and had struggled to make a freelance living for the previous year or so.  (see http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/im-dreaming-of.html.)  By February, I was getting disillusioned, with the VAT changes and Amazon moving the goalposts for authors (again!), making it harder than ever to make a living. So I vowed to write just 3 more pony books to self publish by the end of 2015.  http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/the-last-pony-books.html

Did I achieve this?  Well, no unless I can write said books within the next 4 days.  So what have I done?  Not much blogging or book marketing.  I've been trying, voluntarily, to fundraise for a big arts project, and put on 2 concerts this year, which was a real learning curve and very tough but worthwhile. What else? I completed my MSc Science Communication and Society, with Merit.  I do love learning new things.  I eventually got another part time job to pay the bills. My 2 short novels, Trick Riders 1 and 2, set in the world of equestrian vaulting, have appeared in print in Norway, Sweden and Finland, and I thoroughly enjoyed researching the topic. I've had fun writing some short stories for Pony magazine, and recently finished a children's novel, Pony on the Trail, which had me researching Western riding and skateboarding, which was also fun. It will be published in summer 2016, in Norway, Sweden and Finland. Maybe I will get to try Western riding in 2016.

So I suppose 2015 has been mostly about learning.  Lots of learning.  Not succeeding in the goals I set myself but achieving other things instead.  And, to my surprise, after becoming disillusioned with my self publishing adventures, I now have a hunger to write those final pony books!  Roll on 2016....

Saturday School for writers on 16 May: self publishing your e-book on Amazon

On Saturday 16 May I'm running a day school in Canterbury from 10am - 4pm called Self Publishing your e-book on Amazon: The Business of Writing.  This is the most popular of my day schools for Canterbury Christ Church University and guides you through the process step by step, dealing with issues such as formatting, pricing, cover design, author pages and book blurb. Whether you want to publish for personal satisfaction or to earn income, this is a chance to find out what is involved so you can do it yourself. 

Cost is just £29.50 and you can book via the link below.
https://www.canterbury.ac.uk/cae/day-schools/spring-2015/the-business-of-writing-2.aspx

What previous students have said about my day schools:

“Jane is very knowledgeable and has a wealth of experience.”

“Fabulously engaging tutor, enthusiastic about her subject, spoke with passion and authority.”

“It was more than I imagined.  Very informative and interesting.”

“Knowledgeable about the topic.  Excellent to listen to. Inspiring.”

“Obvious sound knowledge base and good clear delivery.”

“Useful hand-outs with links that can provide even more information after the course.”

“Inspiring and informative.  Lots of ideas to work with now!”

 “Jane is clearly very experienced.  She has a good relaxed style and is very enthusiastic.”

“Very useful and clearly put across.”

“Excellent content.  Covered more than I expected.”

“Very clear information.  Very generous with the information. Helpful.”

“Very good at answering questions, very clear targets and direction, well prepared.” 
"Jane was honest and enthusiastic. Course was well thought out."
"An energised tutor who inspired me."

 “It was excellent – very informative, well organised, encouraged questions. Engaging.”

Book promotion: is it working for you?

So how was it for you?  Promoting your last book? Marketing can be a bit of a mystery sometimes.  Especially when it comes to books.  As I may have mentioned before, one of my early titles outsells all the others several times over.  I've never promoted this book. If I knew why it sells more I could bottle the formula and use it again.  Unfortunately I've never figured it out, so I can't.

What works and what doesn't? Let's look at social media first.  Namely, Facebook. 

Likes and shares do not equal sales! 

Social Media is often hailed as a book selling tool, but it has its limitations.  One of my charity e-books, Coming Home, has lovely reviews, and every now and then, the Cats Protection, who I donate all my royalties to, give the book a shout on their Facebook page.  Each time they do, it always boosts sales and reviews, which is great, because that's more income for cats in need.  This month, their Facebook post about my book has so far garnered 1132 likes and 145 shares.  Fantastic!  Now, for anyone out there who thinks they can solely rely on Facebook to sell books, think again!  I've sold an extra 25 copies of Coming Home from this exposure.  Likes and shares do not equal sales!  Based on this example, there is roughly one sale per 6 shares, and around 2 sales per 100 likes.  It's worth doing the sums. 

"Old skool" techniques

In order to promote my other darlings, I've tried "old skool" (as I believe it may be called now - god, I'm getting old!) techniques, such as paid advertising space in an actual printed magazine.  Since I write books that are aimed at children and teens who love ponies, I chose the best selling UK magazine aimed at this market - PONY magazine.  It's perfect in so many ways, and in my excitement at trialling some promotion, I pre-booked not one, but 4 advertorials spanning from Easter 2014 to February 2015.  With such a targeted readership so closely aligned to my own target market, how could it fail?  

I've had 2 of my books featured so far.   I knew how many EXTRA books I would have to sell to cover the costs of the ad (a lot!)  So, how did it impact on sales? Disappointingly little.  Of course, the only way to be certain of the impact would be to know how many books would have sold without the ad and there's no way of doing this.  I can just go on what average sales were prior to the ad - although these can vary -  since at least with Amazon, you can track how effective any promo is on a daily basis, which is a really valuable tool.  I'm hoping the ads will be a long term investment to build my visibility with my target audience.  And that anyone who did buy the featured book as a result of the ad will then go on to buy my other titles.  But who knows.....?

Any one else out there using "old skool" methods?  And if so, how was it for you?
Oh, and if anyone has the magic formula for why some books sell better than others (or some foolproof marketing technique for authors), please share it with everyone!  Thanks. 


Related post: http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/the-further-mysteries-of-author.html

Publishing, Planning and Procrastination

I started to write this blog post months ago so I thought it was about time I put it out there.  It's all about reflection - specifically reflecting on what I intended to do, and what I actually did. I looked at my aims for 2013, which did not only focus on writing, because I am something of a butterfly and easily distracted by projects that interest me. 

These were my aims a year ago:

Developing my writing business, including republishing my extensive backlist of novels for children and teenagers.
Getting there, but slowly.  I am well behind my schedule for this.

Being braver and accepting more speaking engagements.
Yes, I am actively promoting this aspect of my work. 

Performing as a classical singer again, especially contemporary repertoire.
Nope.  This may have to wait until 2015. 

Continuing to raise funds for and awareness of the importance of research into early detection and treatment for pancreatic cancer.
Yes, I am organising a (now sold out) ticketed event to raise funds for Pancreatic Cancer UK, and attended a meeting at the Houses of Parliament for the APPG Inquiry. 

In a September 2013 blog post I wrote, "I have 2 more horse titles I want to bring out before the end of September (more likely October now), plus a further title at the end of November (horse sci-fi!) and, hopefully, a completely new story end Dec/mid Jan."  

Ha! Well, I did eventually manage to publish both Joyrider and The Horse in my Heart in November 2013, and my 4 book Gemma series in December. I have not yet managed to put the equestrian sci-fi title onto Amazon - this is now imminent - and the completely new story has not yet been written.  

In my defence, I managed to put out a novella in February this year called Valentine Horse, which is aimed at slightly older readers.   

But I'm disappointed at my productivity, which is not what it should be.  I want to work on two new titles, which are both planned and mapped out, but I need to do the hard graft of actually writing the books.  

Procrastination and vacillation - right now, these two words describe my working practice perfectly!  This has to change.......so did you achieve your writing plans for 2013?  

Related posts: 
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/reflections-on-being-writer-judy-croome.html
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/thinking-it-and-doing-it.html

The Lost Pony of Riverdale

Today I'm mega chuffed to host a fascinating and inspiring guest post from writer Amanda Wills, author of The Lost Pony of Riverdale.  (I love that cover!). Enjoy!

We all know the cliché – everyone has a book in them. According to the late author and intellectual Christopher Hitchens, in most cases that’s where it should stay. I happen to agree with him so, up until about 18 months ago, I remained a frustrated novelist who’d never dared put pen to paper, believing that the world was probably better off without my literary input.

It all changed over the August bank holiday weekend in 2012 when I flipped open the laptop and began writing my first novel, a pony adventure book set on Dartmoor and aimed at pre-teens and nostalgic adult readers. When I look back now at some of the early drafts I cringe. Writing fiction is like anything, the more you practice, the better you get. No-one wins the Man Booker Prize with their first attempt. But I think that’s what puts so many people off writing. You read a beautifully observed and crafted novel and know you can only aspire to being even a quarter as good. So you don’t bother even trying.

Early on I decided I wasn’t interested in writing award-winning literary fiction. I simply wanted to write compelling stories about characters that readers empathised with and cared about. Almost a year later, after much teeth-gnashing, hair twiddling, pen-sucking and head scratching, I self-published The Lost Pony of Riverdale as an ebook on Amazon. But why did it take me until I was in my 40s to write my first novel, when writing has been my career for more than a quarter of a century?

As a child I wrote long, meandering, action-packed stories on anything from my Welsh Mountain pony Smudge to the Roundheads and Cavaliers. My imagination seemed endless and the stories just kept flowing. English was my favourite subject at school and even as a spotty 14-year-old I knew I wanted to write for a living. I landed a job as a cub reporter in the seaside town of Deal and before long I was reporting on one of the biggest stories to ever happen in Kent – the IRA bombing of the Royal Marines School of Music.

In my 21 years as a journalist I covered the whole gamut of life as we know it, from village fetes to murders. I spent the day with Jonathan Aitken when he was a Cabinet Minister - before he fell on his infamous sword of truth - and interviewed famous faces from agony aunt Claire Rayner to sports commentator Harry Carpenter. And although the cynical among you may raise your eyebrows in disbelief, never once did I write a word of fiction.

Five years ago I became a police press officer. I was still writing, but now it was press releases appealing for information about robberies, assaults and fatal car collisions. And so you see, after a quarter of a century reporting the news in one way or another I honestly didn’t think I had it in me to write fiction. That endless flow of ideas I’d had as a child had shrivelled to nothing. I had no confidence in my ability to produce a story that anyone would want to read.

Two years ago my husband Adrian, a fellow journalist, started writing his first novel. He, too, was a frustrated novelist, but he realised that the self-publishing phenomenon gave everyone the opportunity to get their books out there, with or without an agent or publisher. Seeing him tapping away at the computer got me wondering, could I do that? I procrastinated for a few months under the pretext of thinking up story ideas until he told me to stop talking and start writing.

So I did. I stuck with the hackneyed premise that you should write what you know. I had been a horse-mad girl who had devoured pony books by the greats such as the Pullein-Thompson sisters, Elyne Mitchell, Ruby Ferguson and Patricia Leitch. I thought I’d give pony fiction a whirl.  The Lost Pony of Riverdale went on sale in September 2013. I made the decision to self-publish because I was keen to get the book to market as quickly as possible and didn’t have the stomach for endless rejection letters.

The feedback from Amazon readers has been overwhelmingly positive, which makes me glad that I decided to dump the frustrated novelist title and call myself a published indie author instead.  I’ve just finished the first draft of the sequel to The Lost Pony of Riverdale, which has the imaginative working title of Book Two, and which I’m hoping will be on sale late spring 2014.

This fiction writing lark has been a steep learning curve. Although I had a vague idea of the plot for the first book I didn’t do any planning - the characters and story evolved organically. I used the same ‘no planning’ method in the sequel and it’s been a real struggle so I am definitely going to spend more time on characterisation and plot structure before I dive into Book Three.

Adrian and I edited each other’s novels and self-published on the same day. His book couldn’t be more different than mine – it’s a thriller called Deep Sleepers featuring undercover MI5 agent Tom Blake. Now it’s a race to see who can outdo the other on sales. I am happy to report that – for the moment at least - I am in the lead.

And so I discovered that I did have a book in me. Hopefully there are many more to come. Some days I struggle with an empty computer screen and an even emptier imagination, which is dispiriting. But luckily most times when I sit down at the computer, I imagine myself in the shade of the Riverdale tor and the story simply unfolds. It’s alchemic.

Amazon BUY LINK for The Lost Pony of Riverdale http://amzn.to/1ebe0KY

Find out more about Amanda at her website http://www.amandawills.co.uk/

Day Schools for writers in Kent

I'm running 3 Saturday Schools for writers in Canterbury, the first on 29th March. Details and booking info below - only £27.50 each day school!  

Self-publishing your e-book on Amazon 

Saturday 29 March, 2014.  10am-4pm at Canterbury Christ Church University

Writers are self-publishing for a variety of reasons and this day school explores the basics of indie publishing; you create, produce, promote, sell: you are your own publisher.  In the past, writers created and publishers produced, promoted, distributed and sold your work, generally paying a small royalty and (less often now) an advance.   Publishers and agents were the gatekeepers. The major obstacle for independent publishing was access to distribution channels.  All that has changed and if you self-publish with Amazon, you can keep between 35% - 70% of your royalties. But many writers are intimidated or confused about how to do this – losing a wonderful opportunity to distribute their work to a global readership.

With inside information from an experienced professional writer who is both traditionally and indie published, this day school guides you through the process step by step, dealing with issues such as formatting, pricing, cover design, author pages and book blurb. Whether you want to publish for personal satisfaction or to earn income, this is a chance to find out what is involved so you can do it yourself.

The Business of Writing 2: Making Words Work

Saturday 26 April, 2014.  10am-4pm at Canterbury Christ Church University

Unless you are writing for a hobby, it’s a business.  This has given rise to a new title: authorpreneur.

This day school explores and discusses income streams for writers and ways of “monetizing your output” as a writer, including competitions, residencies, workshops, talks, readings, speaking, copywriting, editing, and coaching. We will also look at organisations that exist to help authors, the role of an agent and issues such as contracts, fees and royalties, as well as pitching to agents and publishers.

Finally, we examine managing and costing your time, an essential aspect of being a successful freelance writer.  What are you worth? What are the time vampires and how do you combat them?  How do you stay motivated?  We will look at each of the following topics which address the reality of being freelance, such as working methods,  environment, deadlines, setting targets (financial and personal), the importance of forward planning, recycling work and pen names. The session will also cover building your writing portfolio and creating a marketing plan.   

The Business of Writing 3: Now you see me – how writers can stay visible

Saturday 10 May, 2014.  10am-4pm at Canterbury Christ Church University

With more opportunities than ever before for writers to get their work out to a public readership, how do you stay visible? Is an author also a brand?  And what does this mean for a writer? How do you promote yourself?

We will explore ways writers can stay visible, including author websites, book trailers, blogging and blog carnivals, social networking, book signings and launches, readings, interviews, visits, getting reviews, and ways to showcase your work. What is most effective?

We will also look at creating a personal promotion plan.

About the tutor

Born in 1962, Jane had her first short story published in a UK magazine at age 14.  Since then, 30 novels for teenagers plus over 200 short stories, poems and articles have been published internationally and translated into 9 languages. An award-winning writer, Jane has given talks on radio and to writers groups and regularly delivers writing workshops to schools and adults. She is a member of the National Association of Writers in Education and a qualified writing coach.  For more information go to www.janeayres.blogspot.co.uk

All Day Schools cost £27.50.  To book please contact April Doyle via email to education.communityarts@canterbury.ac.uk or by phoning 01227 863451

A publishing revolution?

"53% of titles on the ebook genre bestseller lists were either self-published or from a single-author publisher, accounting for 43% of daily unit sales, compared to 34% of titles from one of the "big five" publishers."

This quote comes from a recent piece in The Guardian and there is a lot of controversy about the result of the survey and report from author Hugh Howey, and whether or not indie authors and e-books are doing better or worse than trad pubbed writers, but this is a report that writers should be aware of.  And there is no question that there is a publishing revolution, and that this is an exciting time for writers. Check out this article in The Guardian to get several perspectives.....

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/feb/14/hugh-howey-author-earnings-self-publishing-revolution

Self-promotion, the ego and the creative

A while back, I listened to author Edna O’Brien on the radio, talking about the intense concentration needed to write, especially memoir, and how social media dilutes our focus and is so egotistical.

I agree about writing.  I agree that social media can be used as a tool for the ego. And I agree that it can definitely dilute our focus as writers. 

However, this got me thinking about writers promoting themselves.  When you are pursuing the indie route,  unless you pay someone else to do it for you, you have to promote yourself.  How is that different to a publisher doing your marketing and PR?  And if a third party is doing it on your behalf, they are still telling the world how great you are. So is it okay for someone else to big you up, but not okay for you to express this?  Perhaps it’s a symptom of our weird British modesty - a fear of blowing our own trumpet?  That it is somehow wrong to believe you are good, let alone voice that self-confidence? 

An indie writer is a business.  You have to promote a business to survive and no-one seems to object to this but again when it comes to a creative, somehow different standards apply.  How else are we supposed to do it?  Are we supposed to starve in garrets http://creatabot.co.uk/2012/11/01/garrets-and-gatekeepers-by-jane-ayres/ while we sit back and wait to be recognised and lifted from obscurity to the realms of fame?  The internet has provided us with unparalleled opportunities to bypass this old hierarchical system.   It doesn’t mean it’s easy (it’s very tough indeed!) but it does mean we don’t have to wait for approval; we can put ourselves and our work “out there” and wait for the recipients, be they readers, listeners, etc. to respond directly without the barrier of a gatekeeper. 

So why do we drown in pools of false modesty?  Maybe secretly we don’t really think we are worth it (sorry, L’Oreal).  Maybe, deep down, we just want to be “rescued” by a publisher in shining armour…….

Related posts:
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/the-art-of-time-management.html
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/publishing-writers-vanity-and-hypocrisy.html
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/backtracking-lessons-in-indie.html

Sneak preview of covers for Gemma Pony Book Series!

Further to my post about clearing out cupboards and getting on with the 4 kindle books that need formatting, I have been working my little butski off and managed to get 2 of the books done.  Phew!  Two more to go.  As always, I experienced a few hiccups and it is always interesting to see how different the format looks on each kindle reader - working better on the basic kindle and the Paperwhite than the kindle Fire. 

Anyhow, my ambitious plan was to launch all 4 titles in my Gemma Pony Book series for children and teens SIMULTANEOUSLY.  I have a tendency to make things difficult for myself....

So here is a sneak preview of the first draft covers (they have been tweaked since then) from my brilliant designer Klaus Hartleben.  Hopefully I will get the final edits done for Books 3 and 4 before the end of the Bank Holiday weekend.  

And once my cupboards are emptied, I shall no doubt fill them up again fast!

Related post: http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/writing-dreams.html

Carnival of the Indies: Amazon and Marketing

Have you read this month's edition of Self-Publishing: Carnival of the Indies? Two of my blog posts are included! http://bit.ly/12oUQjA

Scroll down to the heading Marketing and Selling Your Books and I reveal all about my experiences of playing with Amazon categories to influence my kindle book rankings. 

Indie versus Trad Route to Publishing

Lots of writers seem to wrestle with whether or not to go the trad route or indie route to publishing.  I've done/do both.  And I am a big fan of the hybrid route.  However, the following posts by other writers are packed full of valuable information about what to consider if you can't decide yet. 

http://janefriedman.com/2013/05/20/infographic-5-key-book-publishing-paths/

http://janefriedman.com/2013/05/17/should-you-self-publish/

Related posts:
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/hybrid-authors-and-authorpreneurs.html
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/publishing-writers-vanity-and-hypocrisy.html

Hybrid authors and authorpreneurs

I'm interested in the current discussions around "authorpreneurs" and "hybrid" authors (I love the word "hybrid".  Very science fiction).  Can you really have the best of both worlds if you are/have been traditionally published and are also self (indie) publishing?

I've done both and I haven't decided yet.  There are, like most things, pros and cons to each.  Indie publishing is tremendously hard work and also gives me an insight into trad publishing that I didn't have before.  It gives me a more balanced perspective, I think.

Many writers who have found success with the indie route are now snapping up trad deals, and the advantage of this is that although you will have less control, you will also have more time to actually write. There are only so many hours in the day and so much energy to use up creatively.

But the aspect of indie that I love most is the control over every aspect of the process.  It's absorbing, fascinating and fun.

Read a great post here which explores the topic in detail:
http://janefriedman.com/2013/01/30/self-pub-and-traditional-pub-cj-lyons/

Related post:
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/the-business-of-writing-part-1.html

Publishing, writers, vanity and hypocrisy

I just read a really interesting post about indie publishing and why there is still a stigma attached to this area of publishing, which probably goes back to the days when those who self-published were accused of "vanity publishing."  Check it out here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/penny-c-sansevieri/selfpublishing-stigma-bec_b_2649254.html

In any other aspect of entrepreneurial business, anyone who invests their own finances in their business project is considered passionate and deserving of admiration.  It is also assumed that if you expect others to invest in your business, then you should also be investing your own money.  It's the ultimate proof of your faith in yourself and your ability.  And artists and musicians are also admired if they invest financially in their talents and skills.  So why are writers regarded differently?  It doesn't actually make any sense. Are we so insecure in our own judgement that we require a gatekeeper such as a publisher or editor to decide for us what is good and what isn't?  And what about all those writers whose work was rejected by publishers repeatedly, only for them to go on to astounding commercial success at a later date after an innovative small press invested in their work, or they self-published (and consequently the book is  later taken up by the big publishers).  We love that kind of story.  It's inspiring.  Tenacity against the odds.  It gives us hope.  And we respect the writer for persevering.

The Business of Writing: Part 1

Apparently, the majority of new businesses fail in the first year – something like 85%.  This can be a trifle discouraging if you have an entrepreneurial tendency.  
 

If, like so many writers,  you are going to self-publish, you are creating a commercial enterprise and you have to become a retail sales specialist and take all the steps needed to make it work.  For example:

·         product quality control

·         packaging

·         distribution

·         marketing

·         sales

·         customer support

You have to write a good book (product), make sure it has a great cover (packaging) and then make it visible so people know how to buy it. (marketing and promotion).

This all sounds surprisingly simple.  Which it is. But simple isn’t the same as easy.  Which it isn’t.

It helps if you enjoy every aspect of the process, because it is a lot of hard work.  But it can be fun and you will learn loads on the way.  I did.  And I’m still learning.

Six months ago I brought out my first backlist title: Matty and the Moonlight Horse.  I was so stunned that I had actually achieved this, I then became terrified to promote it in case everyone hated it.  Very silly indeed.  I didn’t tell anyone it was on Amazon for the first week, and therefore it never sold a single copy.  Then I started promoting actively, and gradually, over the next few months, sales began to build and continue to be steady.  Important, since I donate the royalties to Redwings Horse Sanctuary. 

By contrast, I recently brought out my 5^th backlist title for the kindle.  It’s called Beware of the Horse.  Within a few hours of it being on Amazon, I already sold one copy, which astonished me.  This was before I had even told my partner it was there, let alone anyone else!  So I feel I have made some progress and that the continued work is paying off. 

Note to self when motivation is flagging:  Amazon.com was founded in 1994 but did not show a profit (a tiny one) until late in 2001.

There are lots of brilliant blogs out there that provide invaluable information for anyone considering taking the indie route. I have listed a few below and will explore this topic further in a future post.

http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2012/09/25/1-year-author-entrepreneur/

http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2013/01/matthew-turner/

http://joannegphillips.wordpress.com/2013/02/08/self-publishing-guide-step-2/

http://www.sandalpressonline.com/blog/2012/12/why-some-self-publishers-arent-indie/


Related posts to check out:

Blog Taking Stock reposted on Carnival of the Indies

http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2012/09/self-publishing-carnival-of-the-indies-issue-24/

Blog Backtracking: Lessons in Indie Publishing Part 1 reposted on Carnival of the Indies
http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2012/10/self-publishing-carnival-of-the-indies-issue-25/

Blog Backtracking: Lessons in Indie Publishing Part 2 – Cover Designs reposted on Carnival of the Indies

http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2012/11/self-publishing-carnival-of-the-indies-issue-26-2/

Blog E-Books and Writing for Children reposted on Carnival of the Indies
http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2012/12/self-publishing-carnival-of-the-indies-issue-27/

http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/publishing-writers-vanity-and-hypocrisy.html

Literary Fiction versus Genre Fiction?

In a previous blog post (http://www.janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/how-do-you-deal-with-rejection.html ) I referred to work I recently had rejected and promised to develop this in a future post.  Today I am picking up the thread again, and will try very hard not to end up having a rant, because the topic I will write on has niggled me for a long time.

Literary (or serious) fiction versus genre writing (or commercial fiction).

When I started out as a writer in my teens, I won a few short story competitions at school and decided I wanted to be a journalist.  In fact, when I contacted some well-known writers, this was the career path they recommended to me if I wanted to see my work in print.  Interesting.  I wrote about what I was passionate about, which at the time was horses and riding, and, a bit later, I developed a fascination with the supernatural, often combining the two. I also enjoyed reading horror stories.  (Does anyone remember the Pan Book of Horror Series of short stories?  I used to read these avidly). In fact the first short story I had published in a national horse magazine was about a psychotic pony that goes unaccountably crazy at a horse show and kills another horse! 

After this, I wrote a large body of traditional pony stories and serials, which were all published in pony magazines and annuals, so I kind of pigeon holed myself in a way.  But I was doing what I loved and I felt like a proper writer.

In my twenties and thirties, I sent out a range of other short stories to a mixture of magazines, which included the women’s mags, and some of the small press (and bigger press) literary magazines.  I had limited success with both, faring better with small press.  

When your pony stories are usually accepted by the specialist publications but your non-horsey stuff is more frequently rejected, you tend to veer towards what experience shows you works, but I did persevere with my “other” writing for many years, winning a few more writing competitions and getting a fair bit of poetry (and lots of non-fiction articles) published.  On the whole, “literary” success eluded me, and I soon discovered that in the world of academia, there was far more respect for a writer who had achieved recognition in this field than one who had sold over 162,000 copies (translated into 7 languages) of their latest pony novel for teenage girls.  (This was Transitions, my best seller ever and which took me into the US market). I began to develop a bit of a chip on my shoulder and wondered if I would only be a proper writer if I won the Booker prize (or similar), because whenever I applied for an arts council bursary or RLF Fellowship Scheme, I never got a look in.  

So, back to the point, which was my recent rejection from a literary magazine.  I don’t often enter contests or send speculative work off these days but last year, I sent off 6 of my poems (all previously published) and a short story that I felt proud of, (which had won a literary short story award a few years back) to this magazine.  My work eventually came back to me in the familiar A4 white SAE (I used to spend a fortune on postage before emails were invented!).  It had been read “with interest and careful attention” but “the editors finally decided not to take (them) for publication.” 

Why did this sting so much?  Was it because it reminded me of those days in the past when this was a regular occurrence?  I am always telling other writers to develop a thick skin; rejections are a fact of life for a writer. Just keep going, there’s an element of subjectivity, someone’s opinion, wrong place, wrong time, etc.  But clearly this got to me or I wouldn’t be writing this long and rambling post.  I believed I wrote as well as many of those already published in the magazine.  Deep down, did I think my work simply wasn’t “literary” enough?  I suspected they did.  And does it really matter? 

As regards Treading Water, the short story in question, you can judge for yourself, because I put it on my blog a while back, before I (correction, it) got rejected. 

http://www.janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/p/short-stories.html

http://www.janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/thirty-three.html

My question is, am I being paranoid?  Do I still have a chip on my shoulder?  Does a kind of snobbery  exist in some circles about genre and commercial fiction, as opposed to literary?  And what the hell is the difference?  And does it matter?  Phew.  Ranting again.  Can anyone give a definitive definition of what makes something literary?  Who decides?

Footnote:

There’s an excellent (non-ranty!) post about over at Jane Friedman called “Commodity publishing, self-publishing and the future of fiction”, which explores the role of literary and commercial fiction in the world of indie publishing, and it has some great insights into what can be a controversial topic.

http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=f8b16374ec668e8d6004fcc38&id=d19ec23706&e=fb5467ce0f

Related post: http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/literary-v-genre-fiction-postscript.html

http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/on-books-and-reading-and-pony-books.html

http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/on-ways-to-read-book.html

Adapt and survive

There has been much recent publicity around the future of book shops and the impact of eBooks on writing, publishing and book selling. 

A friend said to me: “Writers who don't adapt to the changing environment won't survive as professional writers. If the bookshops go, the publishing houses may go. No more advances or royalty cheques, however small.”

When you indie publish, you don’t get an advance on your work.  You pay up front, either the capital costs of producing print copies of your work (not insubstantial) or the smaller costs of publishing directly to a digital format.

What if there were no more hard copies?  What if tree books became obsolete?  I don’t see this happening in the near future, though who knows where and how we will be in fifty or a hundred years’ time. 

Of course, if books were only available as e-readers, they would only be available to people with a computer/e-reader and an internet connection, which would exclude people who don’t have access to these. So it actually removes choice for many and divides and marginalises.  It only widens options when those choices are available for everyone.  

As a writer, one needs to keep on top of the constantly developing changes and developments in the world of publishing – adapt and survive. 

Related posts:
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/the-future-of-book-shops.html
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/how-do-we-hear-about-books.html

Carnival of the Indies and Backtracking

Delighted that my post called Backtracking: Lessons in Indie Publishing Part 2 – Cover Designs 
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/backtracking-lessons-in-indie.html

has been selected for the November Carnival of the Indies on The Book Designer.  Yippee!  The link is below.....

http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2012/11/self-publishing-carnival-of-the-indies-issue-26-2/

Backtracking: Lessons in Indie Publishing Part 2 – Cover Designs

Before I launched my titles on kindle, I kept reading how crucial it was to have good professional cover designs for the book.  Amazon is my shop window and the first thing people see is the cover design.  If they like it, hopefully they click on the thumbnail to find out more about the book.  If they see it has some good reviews then they might scroll down to look at the book description.  Then, hopefully, they will click to look inside, or download the free sample.  The overall aim is to get the reader to buy – not easy when they have so much choice!  I studied best selling books, and also the popular titles in my category (horse and pony stories for teens) to see what other writers did.

I played about with some stock images myself before contacting the designer I now work with.  I’d recently had some A6 cards printed to promote my author talks and was introduced to stock photo image sites, where you pay to use an image you like.  What a revelation!  So I chose a few images I liked and then played with some typefaces.  I soon realised that I was not the right person to create the cover – and it was a lot harder than I imagined! 

The designer I chose to collaborate with was someone I had previously worked with, on other design and marketing projects, so I knew we could work together.  However, he had not designed either print or digital book covers before, so this was a first for both of us. We had a meeting where I spread out many of my existing backlist paperback books on the floor and outlined what I wanted my new covers to do, and what they should evoke.  I also stressed that I wanted the trilogy to work as a unit, and to have a recognisable “branding” which I believed could be achieved from the typography.  We looked at the stock images I had chosen, then Klaus went off and started work.

I have to say that when he emailed me the first pic, which I was first saw on my blackberry phone, I nearly cried with emotion.  I loved it! 

With the whole set of 3 titles, I especially like the way the font choice links them, and also the  silhouettes, which I had specified,  and the white constant of the orb moon and sun which also connects them.  My favourite is the 3^rd title, Matty and the Racehorse Rescue. I think the dark blue background combined with the lightning by the jumping horse, and the subtle rain beating down,  really creates the perfect atmosphere for the story.

Despite my long history of being traditionally published, I had never, for any of my many titles, been consulted about the book covers, which is standard practice unless you are a big name author.    In some cases this resulted in a cover photograph which made it clear that no-one involved in the process had read the book or been given an accurate brief, since both the horse and the girl looked completely unlike the descriptions in the book, ie your character is blonde but there is a dark haired girl on the cover, with a chestnut horse when the heroine’s horse is grey.  Some covers I had liked, but many I didn’t, and since they are the first thing people see when thinking about buying a book, you feel helpless and frustrated if you feel the cover doesn’t do it justice. I have also worked in the Sales team of a major publishing house and the sales reps, when they visited the book stores, usually sold the titles on the basis of the proof copy of the cover design before the book even existed.

So for me the most satisfying aspect of the indie publishing experience has been the element of choice and control over every aspect of the book’s production.  

What about lessons learned from the process?  We had a few issues around the resolution of the images but the beauty of publishing to kindle is that you can go back and change things as many times as you like until you are happy with the result. I have realised that there are downfalls to using stock photos.  The one I chose for the first title, Matty and the Moonlight Horse, was a horse silhouetted by moonlight.  I loved it – and so do other authors!  Only 24 hours after I had launched the book, I came across another writer who had also used the design for a book with a similar title!  I felt my stomach lurch.  Bad luck or what?  When I had calmed down and compared the two, I could see that Klaus had sufficiently tailored his design (adding and subtracting elements) to differentiate the two, but the similarities were still apparent.  Next time, I won’t be using stock photos.  I have found an amazing artist and think I will make a bigger financial investment and have original illustrations in the designs.  This, luckily, wasn’t such an issue for the next 2 titles in the series.  I had seen a photo I liked for the cover concept for Matty and the Problem Ponies, but the girl in the photo was too old, with long hair, and the horse too big.  So Klaus worked to change that.  

He says, “I think the hardest bit is finding suitable images to start with. The Problem Ponies was tricky. I think I’ve got about 40 layers in Photoshop where I've merged water and ripples and shadows and highlights and girl and hair and so on! For The Racehorse Rescue, in the end I had to find an actual image of someone and trace round freehand in Photoshop and fill with colour to make silhouette.”

Because of my strong belief in the importance of the cover design, I have given the designer a credit both in the kindle edition of the book, as expected, but also on my book description on Amazon. And everywhere else I publicise the books. I have not noticed any other writers who have done this.

(In fact, with a series of mini short story collections for adults I currently have on kindle, the business model I am using to work with the designer is a 50/50 royalty split.)

Everything we have both learned from the process should inform us when we work on the next few titles and hopefully it will result in some even more stunning cover designs, especially if we incorporate original illustrations.  I love working with a professional designer and seeing the pictures you imagined  in your head finally made real is truly thrilling.  

Related posts: 
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/taking-stock.html
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/adapt-and-survive.html

http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/validation.html
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/backtracking-lessons-in-indie.html
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/e-books-and-writing-for-children.html
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/breathe-indie-publishing-from-experts.html
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/backtracking-lessons-in-indie.html

Carnival of the Indies features Lessons in Indie Publishing Part 1

Brevity is the order of the day.  So this is a short post.

Firstly, I'm totally thrilled that my blog post titled Backtracking: Lessons in Indie Publishing Part 1 is included in the Carnival of the Indies for October on Joel Friedlander's excellent site The Book Designer.  To see the post go to:

http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2012/10/self-publishing-carnival-of-the-indies-issue-25/

Secondly, inspired and encouraged by my guest blogger Vikki Thompson, I have today signed up for NaNoWriMo.  Panicking now!  Hoping to see some of you at some of the Kent events.  And if anyone else out there has signed up, I would love to hear from you.

Thirdly, I promise a more substantial post tomorrow.......

Breathe! Indie publishing from the experts!

Today I want to draw your attention to some really excellent posts about indie publishing and marketing.  

The first one is recommended reading for anyone, like me, who sets themselves impossible targets and then beats themselves up for not meeting them.  This post, called aptly The 5 Keys to Pain-Free Book Promotion by Carol Costello, takes a more realistic and less stressful approach to book promotion.  Great advice and suggests you don’t have to do everything at once!  As Carol says, just breathe.....

http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2012/10/5-keys/

The next one is an informative post by Anthony Wessel, a book industry veteran and founder of DigitalBookToday.com about the cycle of book sales – every writer should read this!

http://www.livewritethrive.com/2012/10/08/the-cycles-of-book-sales/#comment-1882

And finally, a great post with some sobering statistics for writers – for example, in 2011 there were 211,269 self-published titles and out of at least 1.2 million titles published by the entire industry over the course of a year, almost 80% sell fewer than 100 copies. 

http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2012/09/7-book-marketing-mistakes/

But if this makes you feel like giving up, just read this truly inspiring post from dedicated indie writer and entrepreneur Kimanzi Constable. 

http://www.30daybooks.com/from-delivering-bread-at-2am-to-selling-65000-copies-of-his-self-published-books-meet-kimanzi-constable/

Wonderful stuff!

Related posts: 

http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/taking-stock.html
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/adapt-and-survive.html

http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/validation.html
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/backtracking-lessons-in-indie.html
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/e-books-and-writing-for-children.html
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/backtracking-lessons-in-indie.html