It’s an honour to welcome Patsy Collins to my blog today to talk about the Womagwriter blog. Patsy is a short story writer and novelist. Like myself, she has always found Womagwriter a brilliant resource for short story writers. So when she was asked if she’d like to take over the blog – what did she say? Here’s her story.
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When I first started submitting short stories to magazines, I did a lot by guesswork. As a result, quite a lot of my submissions stood no chance of being accepted. Stories fell between usable word counts, were in 1st person for markets taking only 3rd, included taboo subjects (yep – I had someone ill in a story I submitted to The People’s Friend!) Naturally that didn’t help either my acceptance rate or my confidence.
Then I discovered http://womagwriter.blogspot.co.uk. On there were guidelines for every magazine I’d ever considered submitting to, plus some I’d never heard of. There was advice and updates, plus comments from other writers. It was a huge help for several years. Then Kath McGurl who ran it got a book deal and stopped writing short stories. She kept the blog going as long and as well as she was able with very limited time, but eventually I took over.
These days the blog still contains current guidelines for all the UK women’s magazines which accept fiction submissions, plus as many foreign ones as I can find out about. There’s also lots of tips, information and advice – not just from me, but from many different writers and even a few editors. There are interviews giving an insight into the lives and writing process of other writers. Guest posts offer encouragement or explain a particular writing or submission topic. Sometimes you’ll find special offers on womag related books, or details of new releases. Occasionally there will be links to workshops or other useful events. There’s a page where people can ask questions. Hopefully the blog is as useful now as when I first discovered it.
I enjoy running the blog – particularly when people take the trouble to comment on posts to say they’ve enjoyed them or found them useful. It does take up a lot of time though, so help is always welcome. If you discover a new market or hear any womag news, please let me know, either through the comments, or using the contact information on the blog. Please look through the posted questions occasionally, in case you can answer. If you can contribute a guest post that will be useful to womag writers, or you’re a womag writer, editor, illustrator etc who’d like to be interviewed, please get in touch.
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Thanks so much, Patsy. It’s lovely to have you. As well as writing short stories for womags, Patsy has published four novels. The most recent, Firestarter, is a romantic comedy with a hot fireman and a few flames. Check it out here. http://viewbook.at/Firestarter
PR is a subject which can strike horror into the hearts of authors everywhere. Some love it, some hate it. Personally I quite like it but it’s hard work and very time consuming. I’m always fascinated to hear how other writers handle it. So today I’m absolutely delighted to welcome the very lovely Sarah E. England to my blog to give us her take on PR for authors. Over to you, Sarah.
Sarah England
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Well I thought learning how to write good quality fiction was a long, hard learning curve – what with all those magazine rejections over the years – so twelve years on, with over 160 short stories, several serials and two books published with the small press, I really did think I could do it. Publish my first supernatural horror novel, that is. On my own. Yes – research, writing, editing (many times), proof-reading, formatting, cover art and the publishing! So much to learn. But actually, just at the point I thought I’d cracked it, I began to realise that was the easy bit.
Since then – a month ago – I have discovered just what it means to try and get your new book in front of readers, because without them writing novels is a luxury for most of us. Now I don’t know about you but I really squirm at self-promotion. However, as I had to it anyway with the online publishers I was with, my thinking was – I’ll do it myself and that way I’ll a) get the book out more quickly, and b) have more control over presentation, promotion and price. I have a background in sales and marketing so how hard can it be? Hmmm – well the answer to that is very! Very hard indeed! So this is what I’ve learned and I hope it helps or at least invites discussion!
First you will need to correct all the mistakes you’ve made in terms of proof-reading, cover art, and basic presentation on Amazon – if you’re like me and didn’t pay anyone to do it for you originally! For this you can approach people like Laurence O’Brian of BooksGoSocial… he pointed out my cover title was too small and my own name too big. He advised on the Amazon book page presentation, plus the inclusion of review quotes at the top. Of course, I now realise big publishers will have those reviews ready on day one! And yes, they are important – you have, apparently, 3 seconds to hook a potential reader! And top publishers know this.
Next you have to get your book onto the virtual bookshelf. It isn’t in the shops on the first shelf a potential reader will go to, nor is it on the front page of the genre in which you feature on Amazon. Unless a reader is actually looking for your book or knows you on face book – they don’t know the book is there. So yes, a launch party and your family and friends will catapult you into the top 100 in your genre on day one. But then you could well have to watch a nosedive into oblivion. Unless you do something.
In the past I’ve done blog tours and guest spots and tweeted until I’m hoarse… and it’s got me reviews and a few sales keeping the book in the midlist for a while. But still the wider readership does not know it’s there. So here’s what the big publishers do to get their own books noticed: apart from doing deals with bookstore chains and buying shop front space, they pretty much have to do the same thing in the virtual world of amazon and nook and kobo etc So what do they do?
Spend… a lot!
First there are the top promotional channels like Bookbub and ENT who email out to hundreds of thousands of readers specifying the genre they are interested in. These not only cost serious money per day, but also specify high review ratings and lots of them – not easy to get quickly if you haven’t had your book mailed out to reviewers prior to release, and it’s not easy to get top reviewers quickly either – more on that later. Ideally a cut price deal on the book is required, and even more ideally, a layering approach to your marketing – ie lots of promotional channels all on the same day – right across their mailing lists, social media and websites. So already we’re talking in the high hundreds and that’s just for one day.
Next – advertising in the media. For example The Publishers Weekly is one I subscribed to and which sends out its beautifully presented recommendations every week. So I looked at what a spot in ‘We Love This Book’ would cost me… thousands! Yes thousands, and again – for one day or even just a morning’s circulation. Imagine how a reader on these mailing list buys a book… they will look in the genre they are interested in, pick out something that grabs them, click and buy! Great. If you’re a reader. But try getting onto that list at those prices regularly enough and with a big enough space to attract that 2-3 second attention span a busy person will give you. Without big money….
So now let’s look at radio and TV shows. I now know how writers get to be invited on there! PR companies cost thousands too. And they work for the big publishers. Handshakes on the golf course again?
Lastly, reviews, as I said, are crucial. Why? Well I now know that reviews from the media, beta readers, bloggers, and well-known book reviewers hold great sway with the readers who follow them and trust them – after all no one wants to waste their money. And this is what spreads in the end – recommendations engender trust which in turn engenders more readers.. And promotional companies take notice, eventually believing that the product is of good enough quality to be included on their mailing lists… at a cost of course!
Highlighting this very fact is the recently opened Amazon store in Seattle. They bought books on the basis of reviews not on what they were told to stock by big publishers because that’s what a handful of marketing people decided they would push. So all power to the people… there’s a way forward in this – just not sure what it is yet. Needs shaking up though, doesn’t it?
A note on Father of Lies. I’d been writing for magazines for ten years, and had a background in psychiatry (nursing and then medical sales/marketing) when I met a lady with what used to be called multiple personality disorder and it broke my heart hearing her story and what she suffered. I already had an unhealthy interest in the occult and from that point on I started to do some serious research into demonology and even exorcisms – the books were so scary I had them burnt afterwards because I couldn’t keep them in the house! Anyway, having lived in a haunted mill at one time, up on the bleak but very beautiful Derbyshire moors, Father of Lies soon began to take shape. It took a long time to write, and even longer to prepare for publication …and all I wanted to do was bring it to the readers….sound of sobbing…
To this end a group of us have formed Authors Reach – it’s a day old as I write – but the aim is to bring a diverse group of genres to the reading public and encourage interaction. The one problem I can see regarding independent authors is quality. There are literally thousands of books out there that are really and truly awful. (Why do people think they can just write a book? Another subject …) At least agents and publishers do usually ensure good quality. Usually. In my view it’s very much a closed shop and more upcoming authors need a look in, BUT the issue remains – how does a reader know a book is going to be worth their money? Reviews. Lots of them. Endorsements. Hard work building up a fan base via social media and writers working to help each other. This really does have to be for love, doesn’t it?
Anyway, never one to miss an opportunity – if you love horror and you fancy being scared witless (actually when you know a lot of this is based on a true story it only adds to the horror).. Here’s a little about Father of Lies, and thank you for reading. Please hook up with me on social media too… it will be interesting to know what you think!
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Father of Lies
A Supernatural Horror Novel by S. E. England
Ruby is the most aggressively disturbed patient ever admitted to Drummersgate High Security Forensic Unit, on the bleak Derbyshire moors in England. With no improvement after almost two years, psychiatrist Jack McGowan, finally decides to take a risk and hypnotises her . With devastating effects.
A horrific, dark force is now unleashed on the entire medical team, as each in turn attempts to unlock Ruby’s shocking and sinister past. Who is this girl? And how did she manage to survive such evil when no one else can?
Set in a desolate northern mining village, where secrets remain secrets and intruders are hounded from their homes, soon enough their questions lead to a haunted mill, the heart of darkness…and The Father of Lies.
Sleep tight!
Thank you so much, Sarah. I love the cover by the way. Shivery stuff. And great tips on PR and marketing. Yes, it’s the hard bit, I agree. Writing a book suddenly seems relatively easy, doesn’t it!
Here are another couple of questions from my Dear Della page in Writers’ Forum that I get asked quite frequently – and the answers.
Q I believe I have a good plot and idea for a short philosophical story. However, I am not sure how good or captivating my writing is. I don’t know how I can get in touch with anyone who can critique my writing and give me tips on how to improve. Also, I am worried about another issue. If I send part/all of my manuscript to someone so they can analyse it with me, what stops them from trying to publish it themselves? What legal protection do I have over my work?
A With regard to finding someone to critique your work, I would advise you to contact a good and reputable critique service. The Hilary Johnson Authors’ Advisory Service and Cornerstones both have good reputations. No reputable critique service would copy your work or try to pass it off as their own. This would be both unprofessional and unethical.
However, it sounds to me as if you may not have a finished piece of work to critique currently. If this is the case and at the moment you just want to learn more about the craft of writing, why don’t you try an adult education class in creative writing, or a college or university run writing course? The best way to start is to find one of the above that is near you. Alternatively there are many on line creative writing courses. Look for long established ones, but I recommend your first port of call might be to join a writing group or class and get personal recommendations from their members.
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Q I have read a lot about marketing for self publishers: Headlines such as Top Five Tactics for increasing sales/profile. There is so much one COULD do but it all takes time that could be better spent writing. Is there a promotion fairy you could just hand everything over to?
A Yes, there are promotion and PR services who work with authors with a view to increasing their profile and book sales. If you employ a good one it could be a very good investment. Some PR Services charge by the hour but it’s more usual for them to charge by the project, for example, if you’re launching a new book and you need someone to send out press releases, arrange reviews, maybe organize a guest blog tour or even your book launch. Some ‘promotion fairies’ also offer a social media package which might include things like setting up a Facebook and Twitter account and posting updates on your behalf.
I would recommend that first, you decide what you want a promotion fairy to do and then decide how much you can afford to pay them. I know from my own experience that visibility is crucial for an author. If no one knows about your books they can’t buy them. So promotion is essential, whether you do it or whether you employ someone else.
It doesn’t have to be as time consuming as you think though. It’s regularity and frequency that counts. Just half an hour a day spent on social media, e.g. Twitter can be very effective.
If you are not ‘social media literate’ then maybe someone in your family is. I know one writer whose husband does all her social media and another whose teenage son does it. Thinking laterally may be the perfect solution.
Talking of courses – I’m teaching How To Write and Sell Short Stories on 14 March 2015 at Kinson Community Centre, Bournemouth. Very small group, so lots of individual attention, £45 for the day. Please email me or comment on this blog for further details 🙂
And as for self promotion – my top tip is to be creative. See picture, tee hee.
Today, I am talking to the lovely Helen Yendall about her venture into self publishing an anthology called Paperchase. And it’s a subject close to my heart, short stories. Isn’t it a fabulous cover. So without further ado…
Q: Why did you decide to publish an e-book of short stories?
Well, it certainly wasn’t for fame and fortune! I’ve had some success with published articles, poetry and short stories but not had a book of any kind published. It’s almost unheard of for unknown writers to have collections of short stories published in the traditional way, so I thought I’d go down the self-publishing route. It was fun and very satisfying to see the end result. Although, I must admit, when I pressed ‘publish’, it was rather a nerve-wracking moment.
Q: Why Nerve-Wracking?
When you’re published by, say, a magazine, you’re very protected. All the necessary editing, checking, illustrations and marketing is done by someone else, so I suddenly felt very ‘exposed’. What if no-one bought or liked my book? What about typos, complaints or bad reviews? And – importantly – how was I going to promote it so that people would even know it existed?
Q: Do the stories in ‘Paperchase and other stories’ have a theme?
Yes. I don’t write many traditional boy-meets-girl romance stories, so although my theme is definitely ‘love’ it’s not simply that, rather it’s ‘finding love in unexpected places and in unexpected ways’. At train stations, on a bus, in the middle of a field, through a knitting circle… my stories touch on love for our neighbours, children, parents, friends and grandchildren. I hope the stories are uplifting and life-affirming and that if you have a tear in your eye at the end of one or two, it’s because the story’s moved you, not because it’s upset you!
Q: Do you have a favourite story in the collection?
Ooh, that’s like asking a mother to choose her favourite child! But if I’m pushed, I have to say that ‘The Curse of The Sheep Baby’ is a particular favourite of mine. I wrote it several years ago, when I was doing a Creative Writing course at Birmingham University. We were put into groups of 7 and had to come up with a fitting theme and each write a story on that theme. We chose the 7 deadly sins and I was given ‘envy’. The story I came up with was prompted by a newspaper article I’d just read about women in China who didn’t want to give birth in the year of the Sheep (which, incidentally, we are just about to enter again, when the new Chinese Year starts on February 19th). I liked the story but it spent many years being rejected by magazines and coming nowhere in competitions until, finally, it was placed in a competition in Writers Forum magazine and published, with a beautiful photograph of a Chinese baby. It’s nice to be able to get the story ‘out there’ again by including it in this collection.
Q: Your cover is very striking. What was the inspiration behind that?
Thank you. I wanted the book to have a snappy title and ‘Paperchase’ is the only story in the collection with a one-word title, so it seemed the obvious choice. Then it was a case of working with the illustrator to create a design that not only reflected that story but some of the other stories too. On reflection, the cover is perhaps a little too dark and spooky (none of the stories are gothic in any way!) so perhaps I should have gone for some brighter colours but overall, I’m really pleased with the cover.
Thank you so much for inviting me to be a guest on your blog today, Della!
Paperchase and Other Stories is available here as an e-book, priced at £1.99
It’s a pleasure to have you, Helen. I think the cover is fabulous. And I love your writing room.
For this week’s Wednesday Writing Spot – sorry there hasn’t been one for a while – I would like to welcome my good friend and fellow author, Kath McGurl, who many of you will know from her fabulous Womag blog. She is talking about naming characters – something we all need to do – and how she went about it for her new novel, The Emerald Comb. Fascinating stuff. Over to you, Kath 🙂
‘Character names are so important. They have to be right for the period you’re writing about and right for the character. And personally, I find I can’t get to know my characters properly until I have found the best name for them.
So how do writers decide on names? For first names, some writers use baby name books, or websites which show the most popular names in given years. A good tip for historical writers is to consider the names of the royal family of the period you’re writing about. You can bet that after King George III and Queen Caroline named one of their daughters Augusta, that there were plenty of other little Augustas born in the following few years.
Surnames can be more tricky. You could flick through the phone directory for inspiration. Or, as my favourite writing spot is beside my bookcases, do what I do – browse the names of authors on book spines and pick one of those.
In my book The Emerald Comb, Katie researches her family tree. I needed her ancestors to have an unusual surname that she would easily be able to trace, and I picked ‘St Clair’. Katie was born Catherine St Clair – a name which I think has a nice ring to it. She married, and became in her own words, plain old Katie Smith. Her husband Simon is not at all interested in his family background, so I gave him the genealogist’s nightmare surname: Smith.
One of the main characters in the historical strand of the story is Bartholomew St Clair. I have no idea where the name Bartholomew came from, but I know that I woke up one morning thinking with that name in my head and I knew it was right for him.
Another thing to consider when naming characters is whether their name suits their personality. For Georgia Holland I needed a soft, rounded, pretty name. Whereas for Agnes Cutter I wanted something sharper, spikier.
A writer may want to give the reader an impression of their character just from the name. Charles Dickens was a master at this – the teacher Mr Gradgrind, the miser Ebenezer Scrooge, the conceited Mr Pumblechook, kind and jolly Polly Toodle. These names all fit the characters so well that hardly any description is necessary. The Emerald Comb contains a minor character named Mrs Oliphant, and I hope the reader pictures her as a rather large lady, just from her name.
When my children were born, in each case I had names ready for them as soon as they arrived. I hated to think they’d be in the world for even a single hour without a name. I feel the same about my characters. I can’t begin writing until I know what they’re called, and once named, I never change them. It’s part of their identity, and the main theme of The Emerald Comb is identity. So the names must be right from the start.
What’s the most memorable character name you’ve come across in fiction?’
Many thanks, Kath, and congratulations on the publication of The Emerald Comb. Please do check out Kath’s website and her new novel. Isn’t it a fabulous cover.
Today, I’d like to welcome fellow author, Peter Jones, who has kindly agreed to guest post and shed some light on how he arrived at choosing the book cover for his latest novel. Over to you, Peter…
Behold the cover for The Good Guy’s Guide To Getting The Girl! Lovely isn’t it. Well I think it is. And I won’t have anybody tell me any different because God knows how much pain and suffering we went through before we settled on this little beauty!
In fact, just for fun, I thought it might be kinda cathartic to share with you *some* (and I really do mean some) of the designs that ended up being seriously considered, but ultimately tossed on the scrap heap. Everybody ready? Then buckle up people and prepare yourself for an emotional ride.
Above is a mock-up book jacket which I designed back in 2010 to help motivate me whilst I was writing the book. I figured if I had something I could see which represented my wildest fantasies of having the book published and then subsequently made into a movie, not to mention big name authors taking the time to give me a by-line I could use, I might be more inclined to get a move on and write the thing. I never really intended to show this to anybody, but it hung on my wall for months and months and months. Until it fell off.
Incidentally, that actually is my office wall. I took a picture of my Kylie calendar and my pin board and used those elements as the basis for the cover. And I realise that isn’t Kylie Minogue. In a deluded paranoid moment I decided to swap her picture for someone else in case her lawyers decided to pay me a visit.
When my third & fourth books were published I realised I was missing a trick if there wasn’t at least a mention of my forthcoming novel at the back – and a ‘mention’ would be a whole lot more powerful with an image to accompany it. With this in mind I quickly bashed out this cover which is unashamedly based on Della Galton’s novel Ice And A Slice. Her cover features an image of a girl with a drink (because that’s broadly what the story is about) so logically I chose a fella with a camera.
At the time I really liked this. I liked it’s simplicity and I thought the bloke would appeal to female readers – a plus given that the book is actually classified as Women’s Contemporary Fiction.
Over time though I began to suspect it was a little dull. Worse still, friends I showed it to actually thought it might be non-fiction, rather than fiction – which you can’t really blame them for given that I have four self-help books under my belt. So when the time came to settle on the final cover design we decided to start with this idea, but tweak it as much as possible to make it look a little more ‘chick lit’.
Dear God. It’s difficult to know how this can look less finished than the previous version. We appeared to have gone backwards!
So the thinking here was take the previous idea, and turn the picture of Jason (that’s the protagonist) with his camera into a ‘polaroid’ laying on a coloured background. Except that, unless you had the paperback and could see how the image wrapped all the wall round to the back, where there was a second polaroid image of Melanie (the love interest), it’s not at all obvious what’s going on here. Most of my friends said “what’s that purple bar thing at the side and top?”
And so we arrive at what I thought, for quite a while, was the final version. The polaroids look like polaroids and we’ve got something for everybody; a handsome guy for the gals, and an absolute babe for the lads. I was a little worried that the title was getting lost but I was more than happy to live with it. Notice too how we’ve returned to the original ‘office wall’ background colour. All in all a job well done.
How wrong can you be.
A week or so later the cover was circulated around a couple of dozen potential readers (mostly ladies), and the general consensus was that this is not a good cover. The vast majority of women did not like the lady in the polkadot bikini – some said that would be enough to put them off buying the book. Worse still was the reaction to Jason – many people felt he looked like he was ‘hiding’ behind his camera, thereby making him seem creepy!
Never mind, thought we, all those issues could easily be addressed by re-casting Jason (notice how he’s not hiding behind the camera), and for that matter, Melanie (could she be any more ‘cute’?) Also, in this version my previous concerns about the title were finally resolved, and I love the interesting use of the multiple fonts.
However, something about it just isn’t right. Somehow in attempting to address all the issues raised we’d lost something along the way. This didn’t feel like my book any more, and I’m still not sure it reflects the tone of the story. Not that my concerns mattered. Once the book was circulated again and feedback was – at best – luke warm, we decided to go back to the drawing board.
Take a look at titles by David Nicholls or Nick Hornby and you’ll notice the newer editions are very graphic, and it’s that element that we were trying to capture here. This was one of about six similar ideas, each with a different female face or profile. Personally this image was my favourite, but the title doesn’t quite fit and there were some fears that the woman is slightly too pretty, thereby alienating female readers (again!)
Which is why we settled on this one. And I have to say I’m enormously pleased that we did. Because I love it. And fortunately I wasn’t the only one; here’s one of my favourite bits of feedback:
I love this one! I like the striking image and the colours and it’s exactly the sort of book I am drawn to pick off the shelves. I know that’s extremely subjective… I would assume (perhaps wrongly!) that this would be slightly more clever & comical than your average chick-lit offering.
But who knows, perhaps we still haven’t got it right! Feel free to cast your judgement in the comments box below and maybe we’ll take your thoughts into consideration when the movie poster gets made. Maybe. 😉
Today I’d like to welcome Soundhaven.com to my blog. And it’s all about covers. Oh and just in case you were interested – From Invisible to Irresistible is free today too 🙂 Over to you, Soundhaven.com…
Soundhaven.com hasn’t been around long. About two years give or take. But in that time we’ve published twenty four titles under our own imprint, and helped several authors start their own. We’ve learnt a fair bit in those two short years, particularly when it comes to designing covers.
That age old advice, “never judge a book by its cover”, is as ignored today as it’s ever been. Perhaps more so. In a world where book-covers are more likely to seen as thumbnails on a screen (than through the window of a bookshop) it’s never been more important to make sure the cover of a book stands out from its competitors, and in that briefest of moments communicates some semblance of the wonders that might lay within the pages it enshrouds.
Just for fun then, here are a handful of soundhaven.com covers that we’ve designed, and what we were thinking when came up with them.
Ice And A Slice by Della Galton
Popular magazice Author Della Galton had some pretty clear ideas about what she wanted for the cover of her latest full length novel. From our perspective it was important that the cover worked just as well in print as it does on the screen – for this reason we were keen to find an image we could wrap round the spine and continue onto the back. We’re particularly fond of strong photographic imagery, but sometimes the image needs a helping hand communicate what the book is about, which is why we played around with some of the words and letters in the title. Does the word ‘and’ seem out of focus to you? And did you happen to notice what the pink letters spell out?
The Writer’s Toolshed Series by Della Galton
Sticking with Della, The Short Story Writer’s Toolshed was one of our earliest titles. This short book is a based on a series of articles Della wrote for the rather excellent Writers’ Forum magazine, so it seemed logical (to us) to give the cover that authentic ‘magazine’ feel in an effort appeal to those same readers that the articles had originally been written for. A year later we persuaded Della to bring out a follow up book, and again we went for that magazine look. However, even though Della is wearing a different jacket, and standing in front of a different shed(!) in retrospect I wish we’d made the covers more different, perhaps by changing the colour of the font, or the overall layout. I still wake up in the middle of the night fretting about whether her readers have figured out there’s two books!
How To Start Dating And Stop Waiting Series by Peter Jones
When it came to our most recent ‘series’ we went all out to try and make sure that whilst the titles are clearly related (same font, similar layout, similar colour pallet), they’re very different (if anyone confuses them I think I might just cry). It was important too to come up with a design that could be used to brand the associated website and a facebook page. And finally we were keen to continue the graphical theme that Harper Collins established with Peter’s first book and pick icons that give you some idea what each book is about. Have we succeeded? You decide.
Shadowman and Meltwater by Della Galton
Our two most recent covers are amongst our all time favourites. And whilst the titles aren’t related (they’re not even the same genre) we rather like how they look together. Fiction titles don’t generally have a subtitle, which is partly why we’re strong believers in the importance of an intriguing ‘movie-style’ strap-line.
We hope you like our covers as much as we do. You might be interested to know that even if you’re not one of our authors for a small fee we can be bought! We offer a number of publishing services of which cover designing is just one.
‘Meltwater’ will be available on Kindle in the coming weeks.
I recently judged the H E Bates Short Story Competition, organised by the Northampton Writers Group. Morgen Bailey is the chair and for today’s Wednesday Writing Spot I’m delighted to welcome Morgen to my blog to give us her tips on entering writing competitions. Over to you, Morgen 🙂
Tips on entering Writing Competitions
Competitions are a great inspiration and not only get me writing something new (certainly for the themed ones) but even if I don’t get anywhere, I still have the story to do something else with, like submitting to women’s magazines here in the UK (although it’s more advisable to write specifically for their markets) or self-publishing to add to my collection of eBooks.
I’d love to give you advice that will guarantee a competition win but it won’t. Sorry about that. There are two reasons for this:
You will never know how the judge will feel when he / she reads your story. He / she could be going through an acrimonious divorce and your divorce story is a painful reminder. I know, judges shouldn’t be personally involved in your writing but that’s the thing with fiction (and non-fiction of course); readers get emotionally involved – you should want them to, and if they do, it means your story ‘works’.
You will never know whom you’re up against. Yours could be a fantastic story – the best of twenty about unrequited love – but that’s it, it’s one of many on the same theme. It would have more chance of the judge seeing it if it’s the best but it’s the story about a pink tutu-wearing green alien they remember. I’m not saying to write something so way out that you run the risk of… erm, alienating the non-science-fiction-loving judge, but your story needs to ‘pop’. If you’re going to pick a well-worn theme – it is said, after all, that there are only seven plots – you need to find a new angle.
The most important thing? Read the guidelines. I can’t stress that enough. If they want a maximum of 2,000 words, don’t send them 3,000 or even 2,010 (or a 45-line poem when they only want 40). I’ve just finished judging the first ever NLG Flash Fiction Competition and had to disqualify one story because it was 610 words (max 500). We have Word, so we have a word counter – it’s easy to check and catch you out. Your story may be the best thing since sliced granary but no one will know because they won’t get to read it. I didn’t read the 610-word story, although I might go back out of curiosity.
Another usual pre-requisite is to not send a story (or poem) that has been published (online counts as published) or won / shortlisted in another competition. Another NLG story was disqualified because the author notified us saying he / she had submitted the story in error because it had gained second place in another competition. Ironically, it was also my second-place, so my third became second and another story became my third, and eleventh now highly commended. I don’t know who submitted the story (because I’m Head Judge – only our Secretary knows so it’s fair) but editors and judges remember those authors who do such things, so don’t. Keep a list. File your story in a particular folder. Be organised.
Another must is spell and grammar check. It sounds obvious but I spotted a ‘tine’ instead of ‘time’ in one piece and it lost a point because it was a careless error. Unless you’re writing a new story the day before the deadline, give yourself plenty of notice. Write the piece at least a week (the earlier the better) before you have to send it in, leave it for a day (preferably more) then edit it. Read your story out loud – it will sound different to how it sounds in your head and you will spot errors easier (especially if it’s been a while since you wrote / read it last).
Don’t leave it until the last minute. It’s very tempting to send in your story the day the competition ends just in case you want to make any last minute alterations, or so the judge might remember it coming in, but the organisers appreciate it if you’re early. It makes their job easier, as they can send the stories out to the judge/s in batches rather than in one go.
If the competition has a theme, stick to it. If they want a story set in the London Underground, don’t think you’re being clever by setting it in the Paris Metro or New York Subway, unless you’ve come from / are going to the London Underground. Last year’s H.E. Bates competition had (for the first time in its 20-year+ history) a theme; ‘A Walk at Midnight’, and we had a couple of stories which didn’t include a walk or set, at any point in the story, at midnight.
Choose a snappy title. Don’t be lazy and call it The Journey (a title of an old story of mine which I’ve since renamed No White Left). You can certainly use it as a working title but then a phrase might leap out at you when you’re writing it. I write a short story a day for my blog’s 5pm Fiction slot and it’s often what happens to me.
Research your judge. If he or she writes romance, the chances are s/he’d favour a love story over a slasher horror. If it’s the best thing they’ve ever read then you could still do well but again you’re running a risk. With most competitions, the Head Judge (the name advertised) will only see a selection of the stories, so even if you write to their taste, if the competition panel (often a writing group) don’t like it then it will never reach Mr / Mrs Famous Writer. ‘Named’ judges’ time costs money and most competitions can’t afford to pay a famous (or even semi-famous) author to sift through hundreds of entries.
So you want to make your story (or poem) as good as it can be to get through all those people and make the last one go “wow”. You never know it could even be me.
This Wednesday I am delighted to welcome the lovely Douglas McPherson. He has written a number of romances including The Showman’s Girl, Closer!, and the country music based Nashville Cinderella under the pen name, Julia Douglas. I have to say the cover is absolutely beautiful, Douglas, or should I say, Julia? Over to you…
And actually we’re over to Cindy Coin. Because in this special guest post, the author interviews one of his characters – Cindy Coin, the country-singing heroine of Nashville Cinderella to pick five songs that would be on the sound-track if the book was made into a movie.
(“I guess Carrie Underwood could play me,” says Cindy, “And Taylor Swift could play Katie. As for Hank, Brad Pitt, definitely!”)
Jolene by Dolly Parton
Cindy says: “Dolly is my all-time heroine. I’ll never forget the day my mom and dad took me to one of her shows when I was five-years-old. We stood in line for hours afterwards to meet her and she was so gracious. Sadly, that’s one of the last memories I have of mom and dad. They were musicians and were killed in a tour bus wreck soon afterwards. I guess maybe that’s why I’ve always wanted to be a singer, to kinda feel closer to them.”
I Want Your Body Cowboy by Katie Carnegie
Cindy says: “Katie is the new kid in town and Hank, her manager and my ex, reckons she’s gonna be the biggest star in the world. I really hope she will be, because she’s a great friend of mine. But I can’t help remembering Hank saying the same thing about me – and I’ve been in Nashville for five years now, and I’m still waiting tables. The song was written by Tony, who’s the chef at Lulu’s, the diner where we both work on Lower Broadway. Tony and I share a house in East Nashville, the cheap side of town where all the musicians live, but it’s a strictly best-of-friends arrangement. Tony is like the brother I never had. Sometimes I think he’s more like one of my girlfriends than a guy. In fact, I teased him about how come he wrote such a girly song!”
On The Road Again by Willie Nelson
Cindy says: “Willie is such a sweetheart – the biggest star in the world, but so encouraging. Every year he blows through town and asks if I’ve got a record deal yet. “It’ll happen,” he keeps telling me, “Just remember, it all comes down to the song.” I wish I believed him, but sometimes when I see people like Katie and Hank getting on with their careers while I’m still working in Lulu’s, I feel I’ve been left behind, like a Nashville Cinderella.”
Missing You Miles by Texan Jack Dallas
Cindy says: “Tex is the Next Big Thing. He’s like Elvis and Johnny Cash rolled into one. Katie has fallen for him so bad, but the guy lives on a tour bus and when he’s away he never calls her. He asked me to sing duet with him on this song. It’s so obvious he wrote it about Katie, so why doesn’t he just come out and tell her how he feels? But, as Tony told me, if love ran smooth, who’d need country songs?”
What I’d Give by Cindy Coin
Cindy says: “Tony and Tex wrote this song and asked me to sing the demo. There’s a line that goes, ‘What I’d give to have a guy like that,’ and for some reason, without even knowing it, I sang, ‘What I’d give to have you back.’ I guess I was thinking about Hank, not that I’d ever admit that, but suddenly the tears were streaming down my face as I was singing. Tony and Tex kinda looked at each other and said, ‘You just turned this song into a hit.’ I thought they meant a hit for Katie, because she needs songs her album. But Tony was like, ‘No, Cindy, this is your hit.’ After all these years, it’s almost scary to get my hopes up, so I guess we’ll have to wait and see.”
Thank you very much, Douglas for a refreshingly different guest post.
Nashville Cinderella by Julia Douglas is available to borrow from local libraries in a large print paperback edition (Linford) or to download as an ebook from Amazon and all major online bookstores.
This week I am teaching, How to Write and Sell Erotica, for The Writers’ Holiday, Caerleon, so it is with very great pleasure that I would like to introduce you to another erotica author and friend of mine, Candy Knight. Over to you, Candy…
Hi Della, thank you for inviting me, it’s lovely to be here. I’m relatively new on the writing scene so I’ll start with telling the readers a little about myself and a wee bit about my life as an erotic author.
I was born in a quintessential village hidden in the green rolling hills in the Surrey downs, just south of London, in the era when “gay” meant happy and magazine models were not airbrushed beyond all recognition. Of course it no longer exist as it’s been swallowed up by Greater London now 🙁
I started to write erotica a couple of years ago but the genre wasn’t actually my first choice. My earlier books were of the ‘self help’ variety and they still do quite well but I got bored with them and there’s only so much you can write about overeating and weight loss.
Then I saw a discussion on the T.V. about how the Kindle and e-readers in general were taking the world by storm and one of the main reasons for this phenomenon was that it gave people the freedom and opportunity to read whatever they fancied, wherever they wanted, without the embarrassment of being ‘caught out’. You could now stand on a busy bus or train and no one would have a clue as to what you’re reading!
As a result, downloads of erotic fiction had gone through the roof and there was an increasing demand for well written erotica. About a week later I saw an advertisement for a creative erotic writing course and booked two places straight away.
The hubs and I went together and it was a hoot. We were so embarrassed to start with but everyone was in the same boat and the facilitator was lovely and made everyone feel at ease 😉 After a couple of hours it seemed perfectly natural to be chatting with complete strangers about sex. We had a great time and I haven’t looked back! The story that I started in class that weekend was the first that I published and I called it Unintentional Mistress, I have also included the story in my anthology Ultimate Gift.
Only a select few know that I write erotica, not because I’m ashamed but because the people that I have told seem to think that I must actually try out everything that I write about. It makes me laugh because if I wrote about an axe murdering serial killer, would they assume that I go around chopping people up to see how it’s done? No, of course not but I still get the odd sideways glance when I stand next to other peoples husbands.
My life is very unglamorous and when I approach different tasks I like to wear the appropriate outfit to put me in the right mood. For instance if I exercise I put on a gym kit and if I play golf I don my golf attire but when I sit down to write my erotic stories instead of lacing up my corset and putting on my fishnet stockings, I put of my comfy, fleecy P.J.’s. Yes really! I have no idea why, I just find it easier to write naughty stories in my jim-jams.
In ‘real’ life the sexiest thing I get up to, is going to see burlesque shows, my favourites are Wanton Words and Burlesque Bombshells which is more like going to an old time music hall with its variety acts and it great fun. The other is Burlesque Fever which is far more traditional, it’s fabulous, very professional and you would be amazed to see that the audience is made up mostly of groups of women!
Anyway, enough about me and I would just like to congratulate you on your success with Ice and Slice, I really loved it and it did make me cry!
If the readers would like to know more about my life as an erotic writer and see what I look like they can take a hop over to my website www.candyknight.com where they can see some pictures and read my blog. There’s also all the links to buy my new erotic anthology Ultimate Gift if they fancy and they can follow me on Twitter and Facebook.
Thank you so much for letting my drop by Della, I’ve really enjoyed it.
And I have very much enjoyed having you, Candy, oops maybe I’d better rephrase that – you can’t say anything about erotica without it having a double meaning 🙂 Thanks for coming. Nooooo……
Let’s start again. 🙂 Thank you very much for guest blogging for me, Candy, I am delighted that you enjoyed my writing course. 🙂 I knew Unintentional Mistress was a winner, and wishing you all the very best with your books.
It’s an honour to welcome Patsy Collins to my blog today to talk about the Womagwriter blog. Patsy is a short story writer and novelist. Like myself, she has always found Womagwriter a brilliant resource for short story writers. So when she was asked if she’d like to take over the blog – what did she say? Here’s her story.
