Into the Void - an anthology

 

It has always surprised me how different an experience seems once you've done it. Beforehand there may be trepidation or eager anticipation, all sorts of expectations and projections that probably have nothing to do with the 'event' itself.

 

Possibly, the only experiences I've gone into calmly - and positively - are speaking events. On those occasions I either have notes with enough space for me to get 'out of the way' when inspiration strikes, or else I am confident in my subject matter and trusting of my audience to the point where I don’t use notes.

 

I recently completed a crime mystery, the third in a series. Buoyed up by that final rush to the creative finishing line I thought I'd cross another leviathan off my list - a short story collection.

 

To share a masterclass in procrastination, I won the cover design for a planned anthology back in 2014, from https://www.goonwrite.com.

 

There were three reasons for putting off the endeavour:

1. I didn't think I had enough stories.

2. I wasn't convinced that those I had were good enough.

3. I thought it would be a lot of work.

 

When I went back through my folders and my trusty spreadsheet I found plenty of stories. Many of them had been published elsewhere in other anthologies and on websites. Reading those stories again, I recognised that the quality was patchy is some of them but each story was a memory in ink and an attempt to bring an idea to life. Sometimes I had written to order for a competition. Other stories fell from the sky on to the page, like a gift from the Gods. Some were, frankly, hard work. One or two did not make the final list.

 

It was a lot of work. It took ages to edit and proofread each story (with some very minor rewrites). Choosing an order was an exquisite torture as well, trying to balance story length, genres, titles even, over the whole book. And now it's done, I have what I believe is the best version of each of them (at time of writing!). They exist as a collection now, so there is no reason to rework them. I’ve set them free and that has set me free to work on something else.

 

UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0FTT8X2B4

 

US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FTT8X2B4

Guest spot - Tracey Sinclair - Dark Dates

They say you never really know someone until you live with them and I've found that applies to writers as well. By which, I mean, it's only when you spend quality time with them that you begin to understand what makes them tick and what life experiences they're drawing upon.

Sharing a blog like Strictly Writing is a little like being in a relationship of sorts, or maybe a creative commune. We share ideas and anecdotes, as well as excerpts. However, sometimes one of us will post something that's so visceral that it cuts through any intellectualising and brings you to a standstill.

Fellow scribe Tracey Sinclair did just that recently when she blogged about grief and creativity - you can find it here and I recommend a second reading. You'll also note from the comments we received that Tracey's willingness to share exactly what was going on in her life really touched people.

I caught up with her to find out more about her journey as a writer and how her recent experiences had impacted on her writing practice.

Was it a difficult decision to talk so openly and personally about where your life is right now?

It was and it wasn’t – I have blogged about personal things in my life before so it wasn’t a new thing for me to do, and I do think there is genuine value in sharing these kinds of experiences, but actually writing it and getting it out there was far harder than I thought and felt quite exposing. The reaction I got from people made me glad I did it though, as lots of people got in touch to say they found it inspiring and moving.

Have you found writing to be therapeutic and does this change how you write?

Not therapeutic, no, I don’t think so. I enjoy it and it makes me happy, so that has, I suppose, a therapeutic value, but I’m not one of those people who finds some sort of catharsis through writing.

You have a foot in two writing camps - fiction and copywriting / editing. How do you make time for both?

Part of the reason I became a freelancer was so that I would have more flexibility and be able to fit in more fiction writing. Because I can set my own hours I can adapt my work schedule as needed, and work whenever and wherever I want. Sometimes that does mean working very long hours and every day of the week but I don’t mind – I’m happy to be writing at 2am if that’s what it takes to get something done.

What's next for your main character, Cassandra Bick?

Cass came from a place both of love and frustration – I love the urban fantasy genre but I was sick of the fact that the female characters seemed to fall squarely into two camps, these days: impossibly kick ass lone wolf women or swooning teens, and there didn’t seem to be a place for a woman who you could picture yourself having a drink with, a woman who you can imagine living in the real world and who has friends and a job – someone a bit like me, I suppose, only with a far more interesting love life! I also wanted to write something that reflected modern London (and modern life) so wasn’t just peopled by straight white people. Plus I love writers like Jim Butcher and Joss Whedon who realise that adding humour to something doesn’t devalue it or mean you make it less serious; you can care deeply for characters but still tell a joke, or recognise how ridiculous a situation is. I love the fact that in Dark Dates many of the characters, especially Cass, realise just how insane their lives are and can still make jokes even when things are tough, because that’s how people cope with extreme situations.

In terms of what’s next for her, I honestly don’t know – I have a vague idea of what’s going to happen in the third book, but I won’t know until it’s written, as I tend not to plot too far in advance, I like the story to unfold as I’m writing it. In terms of being affected by my own recent experiences, I don’t think her storyline will be. She’s already lost people and is no stranger to grief so that isn’t a new subject for the books, and I have no plans to shoehorn anything in to write through my own experiences. I imagine all of this upheaval will come out in something, somewhere, but not just yet and I’m not sure these books are the place for it. 

What's your process when writing a Cassandra Bick story?

I tend to start with character sketches or short scenes – sometimes funny, sometimes not – that allow me to give ideas a work out then expand that into a handwritten first draft. Sometimes these stem from the fact that I think something would be funny, sometimes just from an idea I had that I’d like to see how it looks written down. I then do another handwritten draft because I think the fact that it’s a laborious process makes me pay more attention and notice mistakes. I rarely build scenes around humour, but I do reread them once they’re done to see if I can puncture any po-facedness, as that’s one of the things I want the books to avoid. I’m with Joss Whedon (again!) on this one, where he said – and I’m paraphrasing because I can’t recall the exact quote – make it as dark as you like, but then for God’s sake, tell a joke.

When and why did you decide to self-publish?

I had two small press titles published in the literary fiction genre, and was struggling to find anyone to take Dark Dates because, apparently, ‘vampires are over’, but it wasn’t the kind of thing my existing publisher would be interested in. So I thought, sod it, and just put the book out there myself, partly because I just got bored of waiting for any progress and I just wanted the first one off my desk. It’s been quite the learning curve – it’s far harder work than you’d think – but I’m glad I did it, as so many people have told me they loved the books and the reviews have generally been excellent, so it makes me feel like I wasn’t deluding myself by thinking they were good!

Where can we find any other interviews?

www.darkdates.org

http://www.jadekerrion.com/2012/10/08/tracey-sinclair-dark-dates/

http://www.book-brats.com/interview-author-tracey-sinclair/
http://traceysinclairconsulting.com/tag/dark-dates/
http://thebooktart.com/new-fiction-release/interview-with-tracey-sinclair-contest/

Where can we find out about your books?

www.darkdates.org

And where can we buy your books?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dark-Dates-Cassandra-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B007RH5PF4

http://amzn.to/WQYiwY

Guest spot - The Chapel in the Woods

Once upon a time, not so long ago - all right then, it was only back in August, Susan Louineau sat in the virtual chair and told me about her ebook, The Chapel in the Woods, which she self-published this year.

Unlike me, Susan has a track record in marketing and put all that knowledge and experience to good use by creating a buzz for her book

I caught up with her recently, in a cafe overlooking a windswept harbour, where she attempted to enlighten me about the joys of being a successful self-published author. 

I had my peppermint tea in one hand, a forkful of chocolate brownie in the other, my notepad on the table and ears pricked up. Who says men can't multi-task?!

What made you choose to go with Kindle from the beginning? 

To be truthful at the time I didn’t realise there were so many platforms for epublishing but I think I chose the right one as I’m not sure there are many souls in this world who haven’t bought something from Amazon at some time or another.

Which has been the best social media tool for you? 

Twitter wins it hands down on this one.  When I first published The Chapel in the Woods I told all my friends on Facebook who were extremely loyal and downloaded it and some even read it and reviewed it favourably.  I quickly realised that once my personal connections had been exhausted I wasn’t going to sell very many.  If no one knows about your product they can’t buy it! I was no social media fanatic and had seen no use for Twitter previously but as soon as I started gaining new followers and following  the example of other authors the books began to sell and the reviews came rolling in. 

At what stage did you put your marketing plan into action, and would you change it for future books?  

I put it in action really rather late.  Next time I will start creating a buzz about the new one as soon as I have completed the first draft.  Now that I have established a worldwide readership I have a significant number of customers who are eager to read the next one and provide reviews early on.

Can you explain the logic of the Kindle giveaways? Call me stupid, but I don't see how giving away books can encourage people to then buy them.

When you self-publish with Kindle you are initially an unknown entity.  Your book appears on the Amazon rankings to begin with quite high up, CITW came in at 4,000 in Fiction; which may seem terribly low but out of half a million novels that’s actually not bad*.  If you don’t sell many your ranking quickly slips.  Let’s face it we’re all a bit lazy and when we open our Kindles/e-readers to browse for something to read we will look at the top 20 or 40 most of the time but often won’t go any further.  

Kindle has both a free chart and a paid chart which appear side by side when you open your device or view on the website.  If your novel is languishing at the bottom no one will know it’s there.  We all like a freebie and giving it away for a set time period, two days in my case, will send it up the free chart and hopefully to the first page for the world to see. 

What's your progress with your current work-in-progress, The Weather Gods?

I am still in the research and plotting phase for The Weather Gods.  It is important for me to learn something new when I write a novel.  CITW taught me about life in the Dark Ages in both England and the feudal Loire Valley and the struggles of the resistance and SOE Agents in the 2^nd World War.

The Weather Gods is opening up a whole new raft of knowledge for me; from meteorology to celtic mythology. Writing has given me the opportunity to be an eternal student, for which I feel blessed.

I mentioned that your marketing approach has really worked for you so, without giving away all your secrets, what were some of your goals and the results?

I heard that the average sales for a first novel are around 300 – 500 in a 12 month period; I decided to set my target at the top end.  CITW smashed this target in just 2 days after the free promotion ended.  Having reached #3 in the Free Fiction chart within 40 hours, it hit #2 in Amazon’s paid UK Spy Stories category by the fourth paid day. 

In your opinion - and this is a biggie - is it possible for a part-time cynic with maybe half an hour a day to make a difference to the success of a new ebook? I ask because my own self-pubbed fantasy, Covenant, should be out soon. All tips gratefully received!

Absolutely!  The best advice I can give is to start networking on Twitter and find the people who will be delighted to read your book, review it and tell their friends.  There is a very supportive network of self-published authors on Twitter who are more than happy to read and spread the word about your work.

One of the biggest pleasures I have discovered is reading other indie authors’ work in all kinds of genres that I would almost certainly never have picked up off a bookshop shelf.  I have discovered a plethora of talented writers that have unexpectedly extended my range of personal taste in fiction. 

Now that The Chapel in the Woods has begun to make a name for itself as an ebook, have you considered making the move to paperback as well?

Yes, I have begun the formatting process for a paperback edition for all those who are reluctant to indulge in the current e-reader frenzy and I hope to release it in time for Christmas.

Links please!

My Twitter handle is: @susanlouineau and you can find me here - https://twitter.com/susanlouineau

Chapel in the Woods can be purchased here: 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Chapel-Woods-ebook/dp/B007JBG9HG

http://www.amazon.com/The-Chapel-Woods-ebook/dp/B007JBG9HG

So what is your experience of self-publishing ebooks? 

Have you formed the same conclusions as Susan, or did you take a different path?

* Blimey!

E is for ebook

When is a book not a book? Tom Uglow spoke at Port Eliot about the ways in which ebooks and the digital experience could be more interactive than a mere saddle-stitched paperback could ever dream of. Being by nature a bit of a Luddite, I'd yet to fully embrace the virtual book, but I could see that my expectations of what an ebook is (or will be) were very wide of the mark.

I saw it as little more than a PDF of a 'real' book. Another helping of humble pie. please.

There is a wide range of ebook devices and platforms, so many that it's easier for me to provide you with a link than attempt to sound knowledgeable.

Cue Wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_e-book_formats

As you may recall, I put together my own ebook as an experiment and a way of commoditising some comedy sketches. (And yes, I did use the word 'commoditising' to goad you!)

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/75117

Mark Coker has created a fantastic tool, enabling any writer to upload a formatted Word doc and hey presto (actual process takes a few more steps) your ebook is born. He has also put together a list of artists who will produce an affordable book cover to your requirements.

So, why am I such a convert to ebooks all of a sudden?

The image above is a bit of a clue and more will be revealed around October 14th.