Category Archives: Riduna

August 25, 2011 · 12:14 pm

Which Setting? An Inspiration to Write

Choosing the right setting for your novel is vital but how do we do it?

Familiar or Imaginary

If we choose a familar location it has loads of advantages:

  • You can imagine each scene and the descriptions flow effortlessly as you write
  • Your audience loves to read about places they know
  • Promotion is more straight forward because  your initial drive can focus on reaching out to people with links with that location

If we choose a local setting there are added advantages:

  • You are more likely to have success with local papers if it is local interest
  • You are more likely to be interviewed on local radio
  • Local bookshops will feel more parochial and will be happy to promote your work in their ever popular local interest section
  • Talks in libraries and to various local groups will be popular
  • It is easier for a new author to begin making a name locally

If you choose a holiday location:

  • You may have a fresh audience for some years to come
  • People often buy books to read on holiday
  • People often buy books to remind themselves of a memorable holiday
  • The setting is usually beautiful, inspiring, exciting……
  • It is a setting which lifts readers beyond their everyday lives

If you choose an imaginary setting then:

  • You can let your imagination truly take over
  • You are not restricted to accurate detail as long as it is plausible
  • You are aiming for a wide audience
  • The scenes you evoke stand for themselves and do not need association to be successful

Your setting may have been your original inspiration, as Alderney was mine. As I stood on the Butes wondering what life might have been like in Victorian times I knew I just had to carry out some research. Alderney is unique as a setting for a novel. Many have been written on Guernsey and Jersey but, as far as I know, ‘Riduna’ is the first novel inspired by the beautiful island of Alderney.

My current writing was inspired looking out over a field one day. Very different!

Was it a location which inspired you to write?

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August 11, 2011 · 4:35 pm

The Ripple Effect – Marketing your novel – a personal experience

The Ripple Effect

You never know where or how far the ripples will reach when you drop a stone in a pool and

I make no apology for using this analogy, even though it’s a bit of a cliché.

A good friend, ex publisher and bookshop owner once said on hearing that my first novel ‘Riduna’ had been published, ‘Now your hard work begins.’ He was not referring to starting the next novel and since I’d sighed with relief when the proof reading and editing phase was finally over, which I considered the hardest work of all, I asked him what he meant.

‘You need to get out there, talk to people and make things happen,’ he said. ‘It’s up to you as a new author. You can sit back and wait and see, but there is a limit to what the publisher can actually do at this stage.’

Still puzzled I replied, ‘That’s their job, isn’t it. All that publicity and stuff.’

‘Oh no,’ he said. ‘If you think like that you’ll get nowhere.’ After that he gave me a list of tasks to do and I must say that it was a bit daunting at first.

  • Visit likely bookshops who might sell your book and I mean go in and see them. They get hundreds of leaflets sent. What will make them take note of yours?
  • Keep contact with them and take them publicity, like posters and book marks.
  • Arrange book signings wherever you can.
  • Pop into libraries, starting with your local ones.
  • Phone the press. You never know.

With that list, getting quite excited I added some of my own. Since Riduna was based on Alderney and Guernsey and was historical romantic fiction and a good holiday read, we spent time dropping leaflets and bookmarks at hotels and visiting museums too.  Through this and my friend’s help I made good contact with several bookshops, held three successful book signings and was asked to talk at Bedford library. News reached the Alderney press, the Guernsey Press and the Luton News.

Now here is where the ripple effect started. Later I was contacted by Flitwick library and more recently Stotfold Library have also booked me for a slot, then out of the blue I had a phone call from a ladies group who was given my name by the library. The ripple effect.

Since I was focussed wholeheartedly on selling books through bookshops, my helpful website designer remarked,

‘You should try going on Twitter and Facebook or writing your own blog.’ This has rippled to being asked to be a guest blogger on sites like ‘Visit Guernsey’ and ‘Novel Publicity’. You will find that the more you are willing to give of yourself the more others are likely to support you. In fact Twitter is one continuous ripple as tweets are retweeted as you build up trust with your followers.

 Well, the rest is history and the ripple effect now has far reaching and unforeseen contacts (and friends) over the globe. Not only that but I have the satisfaction of readers telling me almost immediately what they think when they read ‘Riduna.’ Amazing.

Have you any more marketing tips for new authors on the block to share or personal examples of The Ripple Effect?

 

 

 

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July 11, 2011 · 1:18 pm

Watch the word count 85,000, 90,000, 100,000…

I was interested to read an article in the newspaper recently which discussed the new fashion of shorter novels to fit in the the e reader life style. Novellas are coming back into fashion, as are short stories, bite commuter sized reads to while away the hour travelling by train.

When I wrote   ‘Riduna’ I did not think of an optimum length. I just wrote the story until it was finished and, although the editorial process was fairly vigorous, it did not run to cutting out chunks of the novel to make it shorter.

Thus the final word count was just over 102,000 words; (Not 200,000 as mentioned in one newspaper article and I’m not sure whether it was a slip of the tongue on my part or a slip of the pen on behalf of the journalist! I’ll give the journalist the benefit of the doubt since I was quite nervous to be interviewed in those early days)  The actual word count of 102,000 seemed ok for a first novel but larger than the optimum count I’ve heard mentioned of 85,000 since.

I hoped to aim for nearer 85,000 for my second novel, which I hope to be out before the end of the year, but even then I have finished up with over 98,000. Unlike Riduna, which is a very gentle book describing the weaving in and out of island life through the eyes of my key characters until half way through when the pace quickens and every page is full of drama as the saga unfolds, my new novel is action packed throughout. It would take an expert with an independent eye to trim it down, if it was felt necessary to do so.

In my eyes the length  (within reasonable parameters) makes little difference  to a paper based novel, so long as the story is compelling and the characters believable, except maybe in the temptation to decrease the size of print, but is it the same for e books? If my publisher were to bring Riduna out as an e book would it be better to offer an abridged version?

I’m inclined to think the answer is ‘yes.’ What do you think?

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