Digital Books Today Guest Blog: Vision for Readers

Meant to say earlier that my post Vision for Readers has been selected as the guest blog for Digital Books Today, which means it will appear in their top 3 posts most of the day, is on their Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/DigitalBookToday and shows in the RSS text feed on The Top 100 Best Free Kindle Books List.

So I am understandably thrilled!

Do check out this excellent site and if you leave comments on it I will be doubly thrilled.  Thanks.
http://digitalbooktoday.com/2013/01/10/vision-for-readers/

How do you deal with rejection?

Rejection comes in many forms for writers. It can be that returned manuscript in your familiar SAE, (which happened to me today – more of this in a future blog),  an unwelcome email informing you that your grant application was unsuccessful, a one star review on Goodreads or Amazon  (or no reviews at all!), or simply an honest friend telling you that your book didn’t really do it for them.   Or disappointing blog stats!

When I started sending work out to publishers at the tender age of 13, I kept a paper log (which I still have) listing what I sent out, where, when and the outcome.  It was soon peppered with red crosses but that occasional black tick made the continuous struggle worth it.

When I eventually got an agent, many years later, I thought that was the end of rejection but of course the agent just fields much of that for you, and I still laboured over submissions that publishers eventually turned down, continued to enter writing competitions (most of which I got nowhere with) and sent speculative feature proposals to a range of magazines. Yes, every rejection thickens the skin (but still hurts) and yes, every acceptance still makes me whoop with joy.  You’re never too old to whoop!

Being rejected is part and parcel of being a writer, especially if you want to be published.  If you decide to go the indie route (by-passing the gatekeepers) then you are still at the mercy of your readers.  Some will love you. Some will hate you.  And some won’t give a toss. Which is kind of like life, isn’t it?

Canny writers have a positive approach to rejection – no sooner has their work been returned to them, than they are repackaging said work and sending it elsewhere.  I would recommend this strategy, because it means you always have plenty of work “out there” (at least 10 pieces if possible) so you continue to maximise your chances.  On several occasions where one editor has turned me down, another has accepted my article or story.  Subjectivity, timing and sheer luck all play a part. The trick is to keep moving forwards. Onwards and upwards.   

So, how do you deal with rejection?

Beware of the Horse

Short post today.  Just a sneak preview of the cover of my next new kindle release.  It's called Beware of the Horse and is aimed at young adults.  Due out later this month. Can't wait!

My first pony and remembering

I've been reflecting, as you do when one year ends and another begins.  The radio is playing tunes from the 60s and I'm trying not to feel too sad as it reminds me of Mum and Dad and how much I miss them. While sorting through the mountain of old photos, I came across this one of me as a toddler. My fascination with horses obviously started at a young age! Looking at the picture made me smile.  Maybe you will too. 

Related posts:

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

Vision for Readers

My partner is visually impaired to the extent that, last year, he virtually gave up trying to read the newspaper because the print was so small and difficult to see.  In an effort to help, I bought him special reading lights designed for people with sight problems, but he told me to stop buying him books, because he would never be able to read them now.  It upset me, because I love to read and couldn’t imagine how awful it would feel if that was taken away.  I tried to encourage him to think about audio books, and got him a cd of What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami.  He explained that even before his sight problems, he had never really been much of a bookworm, preferring to be outdoors playing football or running. So we had a house clear out and gave more books to the charity shops. 

He seemed mildly interested when I started to rave about my kindle, and how you could alter the font size and lighting to make reading easier. He has always loved his Android phone, because the idea of having everything he needs in one convenient, small tablet, including his music, always appealed.  So when he recently bought a Kindle Fire HD,  I was rather surprised. Soon, he told me he had started to read a daily newspaper again – on his kindle.  I was really pleased that an activity he had enjoyed previously was now back on the menu.  Last week, he started to download some running books.  And the other day he revealed that he had started to read in his lunch hour at work, and, for the first time in his life, he was enjoying reading books.  Oh, and he can hardly be parted from his kindle.

When the first Harry Potter books became famous, lots of commentators asserted the series had enticed many previously reluctant or non-readers to discover books – especially boys.  I think it’s time someone did some research into how many people who had previously never read a book before have been introduced to this wonderful experience through their e-readers. I reckon they would discover that more – not less – folk are now reading books.  Whether they are ebooks or tree books,  why does that matter? A love of reading can only be a good thing.

Postscript: I’d just finished writing this post when the TV programme Room 101 came on, in which broadcaster John Craven chose digital books as the thing he wanted to ban.  Tellingly, there was a round of applause from the studio audience – I’d love to know how many of them possess an e-reader or regularly visit bookshops.   I’m glad that Frank Skinner, the host, didn’t agree with him and suggested they encourage more reading.  To paraphrase his conclusion; “It’s the words (not the platform) that matters.”

Nigella Lawson and Me

Of the several resolutions I have made for 2013 (losing weight, writing more, running more, going to bed earlier, getting up earlier, etc – you get the picture!) I have also decided to be a bit braver on my blog.  Previously, I’ve tried to focus on being a writer rather than a person, almost afraid to reveal what makes me tick.  Of course, who and what we are is inextricably linked to the way in which we create our words and stories. 

Because of my life experiences, my fictional characters have to work for their positive outcomes.  I hesitate to use the word “happy” ending but prefer to opt for hopeful instead.  In Coming Home, my latest book, Kira, the teenage protagonist, undergoes a great deal of heartache and hardship on the journey to find her lost cats.  In the first of my Matty trilogy,  Matty and the Moonlight Horse, my impulsive female heroine falls in love with not one but two perfect horses.  By the end of Book One, she has neither,  but learns that if dreams don’t come true they can change and evolve – as we do.  

Imperfections, anxieties, flaws and fears are what make us human.  Experiences, both positive and negative, inform and affect our thoughts and creative processes.   So how, you may ask, does this relate to Nigella Lawson?

I am the total opposite of what is termed a domestic goddess.  I can barely cook, for starters (forgive the pun!) and maybe, just maybe, there is a tiny part of me that envies those who can.  I avoid cookery programmes on TV and consequently never imagined I could ever have anything in common with a glamorous celebrity such as Nigella Lawson.  Funny how, with the help of the media, we construct an image of a person we have never met and don’t know and make judgements.  As a writer, who is used to constructing fictional characters, I credit myself with a level of intelligence and awareness that should stop me falling into this trap but I can be as guilty as the next woman.   

Back to Nigella, who was recently interviewed in Red magazine.  Normally, I would have skipped this article but for some reason, I started to read.  I’m glad I did.  She is refreshingly honest and I found myself being unexpectedly moved.  Nigella “admits” to being a “catastrophiser.”  It is telling that I use the word “admits” as if it was a guilty secret.  I, too, am habitually drawn towards what my counsellor labelled “catastrophic thinking”.  Basically, this means that in certain situations, my mind will identify the worst possible scenarios and conclude their inevitability in a process that seems entirely logical.  While this can be useful as a fiction writer, it can stop me doing activities that most “normal” people would perform without turning a hair and can really interfere with daily life.  But I try to hide this behavioural trait since I know from past experience that the majority of people often regard it as weird and incomprehensible.  Certain life events, such as major bereavement, can reinforce catastrophic thinking, which Nigella reflects upon, having lost three of the people she loved to cancer.  Something else we have in common.  Dealing with catastrophic thinking can be an exhausting battle and she describes herself as a worrier and prone to being fearful, which I can totally identify with.   Her frankness resonated enormously and I have huge respect for this.  It was also a real lesson for me on stereotyping people as a result of media hype.  Reading the interview left me feeling inspired to acknowledge and tackle issues and emotions that I tend to hide from, and not to shy away from expressing these through my writing.

Oh, and another thing Nigella and I have in common too – a belief that calorie counting and dieting makes you miserable, “draining the pleasure out of life”.  Well said, Nigella.  I think women everywhere would agree on that!    Although this may make my resolution to lose weight in 2013 rather tricky…..

Backlist signed paperbacks for sale

New for 2013!

I've been doing a bit of administrative housekeeping and have a very limited quantity of some of my backlist titles in paperback that I have decided to sell. I can sign these with a personal message as required. Most of these titles will be difficult to source in the UK.

For full details of how to order, please go to my new blog page
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/p/the-following-e-book-titles-can-be.html