New Writers: Is this what you're doing on Twitter? #MondayBlogs #WritingCommunity

I've been doing this self-publishing/Twitter stuff for ten years now.  I assume many new writers do as I did back in November 2011: sign up because they've just published their first book and someone told them, 'If you're a writer you need to be on Twitter'.  Then they plunge in without having a clue what they're doing.  Yes, me too.  Hence this post.

Every social media site has its own culture, and you don't understand it until you're in it.  It takes a while to learn - which is why I still see, every day, activity I've been reading about not doing since 2012.  You may be using Twitter purely to chat, discover and be entertained - the original use of social media! - but if you want to find readers for your book(s) and you're doing any of the following, you might need a re-think... 

🤔🤔🤔

1. Only following and interacting with other writers

It's lovely to meet other writers, especially if you don't know any in real life.  Your new virtual friends understand the highs, lows and angst of what you do, and are there to give advice and opinions, etc.  Several writers and bloggers I've met on Twitter have now become real life friends.  This is social media at its best: finding people who share your interests and who you would otherwise never have come to know.  People who do what you do.

But they're not the target market for your book.

Over time, some of them might love what you do and become your regular readers.  I can think of six writers I've met via Twitter whom I number amongst my favourite authors.  But that's over a period of a decade, and although you're so grateful for those publication day sales and early reviews that give each book a nice kick start, you won't reach the reading public (i.e., people you don't know) unless you broaden your horizons.

If you were a clothes designer, your first sales port of call would not be other designers, even though they wear clothes, too.  If you were a painter, you would not target other artists to buy your work.  Yet every day thousands of writers talk only to their fellow scribes on social media, spend time adding their links to #writerslifts and those #writer #indieauthor #shamelessselfpromo tweets, or those that say 'hey, add your links and I'll buy 3 books'.  And round and round it all goes as they promote their work to each other.

Step outside the #WritingCommunity.  Talk to people who share your other interests - and views.  Follow book bloggers, avid readers, the followers of well-known authors who write in your genre.  Who live in places in which your books are set.  In order to find your readers, you need to get out there.

2. Making your bio all about your books

Never mind book sales - which of these bios would make you want to investigate further?  Maybe take a look down their tweets and click the link provided to find out more about them and their work?

Anne Author @AuthorAnne

Author of The Book, The Other Book, The Third Book and The Short Story Collection.  Available on Amazon. #KindleUnlimited.' ⛔ DMs, Politics

Will Writer @WillWriter

Writer: 3 novels and blog.  Keen hiker. Trying to write 4th novel but, you know, Netflix and Assassin's Creed.  Cat lover.

Anne tells you nothing about herself except that she wants you to buy her books.  Which suggests she is only on Twitter to make this happen.  Will, on the other hand, has told you of five interests you might share, and indicated that he might be fun to know.  

A bio should be about you.  A link to your site or Amazon author page so that anyone who wishes to can look up your work, is all you need.  

3. Forgetting the link on promotional book tweets

I see this so often.  A short description of the book, the information that it's currently discounted at 99p or free, and the cover.  And that's all.  No link.  Yesterday I suggested to someone that she put the link on a tweet, and she said she didn't have the room.  Well, shorten the description!  Play around with those 280 characters!  Other times when I've made the suggestion, I've been told that the link is in their bio, or (worse) that it can be found on Amazon.

It's possible that some people, if particularly interested in the book description, will go to your bio, but significantly fewer will bother to bring up Amazon and put the name of the book into the search.  Attention spans are short, these days.  Twitter is a fast-moving, constantly changing site.  The majority want a link they can click, right there, or they'll simply move on to the next tweet.

4. Asking and answering those daft questions

The person who tweets 'If I was buying your MC a drink, what would it be?' does not give two hoots what your protagonist's favourite drink may be, or indeed what colour biro you use.  Most people who ask these questions do so to increase interaction on their profile, so that Twitter's algorithms will make them more visible (i.e., appear in more people's feed).  That's all.  If you like, you can ask some questions yourself.  268 people may reveal to you the flavour of their antagonist's favourite jam.  But bear in mind that as many will mute you as will answer the question - and being muted isn't like being blocked; you will never know.

Incidentally, I believe the same goes for the 'add your links and I'll buy three books' tweets.  Or 'I need new books to read - please answer with your recommendations'.  I reckon most of them are algorithm manipulators.  Not all, but most.  I daresay now and again these do result in sales, but not very often.

5. Spamming

This is a piece of advice that should be repeated in every single writer/social media advice post until everyone understands (unlikely, I know).  Here it is: do NOT send unsolicited DMs or tweets to new followers asking them to read/buy/review your book.  EVER.  Even those who are polite to you and show an interest would still rather you didn't.  A LOT of people immediately unfollow anyone who does this; others block, or report.

Similarly, if you see someone tweeting about their book, do not reply with a link to yours.  That's right, even if it's in the same genre.  Don't 'hashtag hijack' to promote your work - in other words, adding a vaguely relevant hashtag to your book tweet.  For instance, I'm in a group that started the hashtag #PostApocFriday.  Every week one of us decides on a theme relevant to a post-apocalyptic world (for instance 'silence' or 'education' or 'weapons'), and anyone who wants to can post an image, interpreting the theme as they wish.  Inevitably, the hashtag sometimes gets added to people's promotional tweets about their books.  That's hashtag hijacking.

6. Attempting stealth review swaps

This has happened to me a few times.  I've received a new review on one of my books and, because I recognise the name on the review, I've sent a DM to the person concerned to thank them.  We've had a couple of friendly exchanges about writing/books, and then the other person hits me with it: would I be interested in reviewing one of her books, too?

My reply is that I don't do review swaps, because this is what this is, albeit not directly.  Inevitably, once I say no, the writer in question will never read/review me again, despite having raved about the first one to an extent that made me blush. 

If someone has talked to you on Twitter they are probably already aware of what you write.  If they want to read your book, they will. 

(Also, if another writer follows you back, please don't introduce yourself by asking if they would like to do a review swap, as happened to me this morning - many of us are actively against them!)

7.  Forgetting the quotation marks

If you quote a review ('I was up all night reading this book' etc) on your book promotion tweet, and don't put quotation marks around it, you look as though you're saying 'A masterpiece of a story with wonderful characters' about your own book.  I thought this had been stamped out, but I've seen a resurgence of late!

8.  Calling yourself a best-selling or award-winning author...

....when you're not, or when you won an award that nobody has heard of apart from the 30 people who paid to enter it.  Or got an orange Amazon label because your book reached #1 for one week, in such an obscure genre that it didn't mean you sold a great deal anyway.

It's not a good look.  Just don't do it.  Actual award-winners and best sellers are usually quite low key on their bios.

Hope this has been helpful, and good luck!

To go Free or not to go Free?

I decided to write this post after talking to several newer self-published authors about whether or not free promotions for a first book are worth doing, and what results they should expect.  It should also help those who have written more than one stand-alone novel, or a series, or indeed anyone who has not tried a free promotion before.

 
What are free promotions for?  The answer may seem obvious, but here it is:

1. To get your book on Kindles far and wide.
2. To find new readers for your other books, or those soon to be written.
3. To get more reviews and ratings.
4. To boost the book's visibility on Amazon.

So do they work?  Points 1 and 4, above, will depend on several elements:

• The extent of your social media presence.
• The cover and the blurb.
• The quality of reviews already present.
• Whether or not you are willing to pay a promotional company for extra exposure - more about this later.

Points 2 and 3 will depend on:

• The quality of the free book - more about this later, too.
• Whether or not it is your sole publication and, if so, how soon your next book will be published. 

Let's take a look at all these points.

1.  The extent of your social media presence, and Amazon visibility.

How it used to be: I did my first free promo in April 2012, with just 1000 Twitter followers.  I put my first two books on free, and got around 33K downloads.  All I did was tweet about them, and get them posted on sites that featured free books at no cost, none of which exist any more.  I will not detail the effect this had when the book went back to 'paid', but it was pretty amazing.

Why?

A major factor in determining how well your book sells is how often Amazon's computers show it to potential readers, e.g., in recommendations, in the 'also bought' and 'also viewed', etc.  If 20K people have downloaded your book over one weekend, Amazon's AI thinks, 'People like this. I'll show it to everyone, and it will make money for the Mighty Zon.'.

That was 8 years ago.  Times have changed - a lot!

These days, everyone has Kindles jam-packed with books they will never read.  There are hundreds of thousands of freebies on Amazon every day of the week.  Many readers will have downloaded free books that shouldn't have been published in the first place, and assume 'free' means 'crap'.  Now, you have to sell a free book in the same way you would if it wasn't free, using hooks, quotes and taglines that will make people think, hmm, that sounds interesting.  If you have only 1000 followers on Twitter, it is likely that, because of the site's algorithms, only a few hundred, if that, will see your tweets.  Out of those, not all will be takers; probably under 100 of them.

From my experience and observation, you need to get at least 2K downloads to make any difference to the book's visibility on Amazon.  You can get more by using Facebook (I am not on the site any more, but I believe there are lots of groups and pages that publicise free books), by retweeting others on Twitter so that they will retweet you back, and by paying a promotional site (yes, I shall get to that soon!).

Having said this, every time someone downloads your book, they are a potential new reader - and going free can introduce you to readers who have not noticed you before.  I find that my other books sell better during a free promotion, too; maybe they download the free one, read it, like it and buy another, or have a browse around all your other books and buy one that seems more up their street.

2.  The Cover and the Blurb

These are of varying importance, depending on the individual.  If a book's subject matter is something I want to read about, and the blurb draws me in, I don't give a stuff about the cover; it's the genre and blurb that 'speaks' to me.  Others are attracted mainly by the cover.  It makes sense, though, to have the best cover you can afford or make, and to make sure the blurb is sharp, to the point, enticing and error-free.  You could always try running it past some honest friends to see how it might be improved.

3.  The Quality of the Reviews Already Present

Obviously, it makes sense to have as many reviews on the book as possible before doing a special promotion.  Most new writers start off with reviews from friends, family and online writer friends, who usually make the mistake of saying it's the best book they've ever read.  If your only reviews are one or two liners of this type, especially if they have never reviewed any other books, it will scream 'reviews from family and friends'.  It helps if you have a few from regular reviewers and book bloggers, too.  You can read more about getting reviews by looking in the 'Reviews' section of this list of articles: HERE. 

4. Paying for promotion

'Is it crazy to pay for promotion for a book that's free?'  No, it's not.  On average once a month, I do a free promotion for one of my books using Freebooksy.  To book it, you choose one day during your promotion, pay your £60 or $75 or whatever (those figures are approximate), and your book will feature on their daily email to 1000s of subscribers. These will be mostly in countries that buy from Amazon.com, such as the US.  The boost this gives will get it high in the book's genre charts, so that on the days that are left, the downloads will carry on coming.  This is why it's best to choose the first or second day of your promotion.  Have a look on the Freebooksy site before booking it on Amazon KDP, as some days will be sold out.

Using Freebooksy's 'series promotion' feature works very well - it's a good idea to bring the second book down in price, too.  This often means the second and third books are purchased immediately, along with the free download.

I have also had reasonable results with The eReaderCafe , EReaderIQ and less so with Book Doggy but this is reflected in the price (it's only about £12).  

In my experience, a Freebooksy promotion will obtain 2K - 5K downloads, though some genres may do better; others, worse.  But this is enough to give a sagging book a lift, get future sales - especially if your book is the first in a series - and obtain new reviews and ratings.  Maybe even more importantly, doing Freebooksy promos makes a BIG difference to my Kindle Unlimited pages read - and not just for the book that is being promoted, but for all of them.  I can only assume that the increased visibility brings my other books to the attention of readers, too.  

nb:  September 14: To illustrate this, here is my KU pages read report on Amazon, from September 1st to 13th, 2020.  I did a Freebooksy promotion for one of my books starting on September 6th, with the Freebooksy promo on September 7th.

 

I have also got lots of new ratings and the odd new review since this promotion and another in mid-August - it's good that readers can just rate, now, instead of having to write a review.  The book I made free in August has gained over 20 new ratings on Amazon, and a few reviews in the last few weeks.

Now: BookBub.  You've probably heard of it.  It's fabulous, and has not 1000s but 1,000,000s of subscribers.  It costs about £540 to promote a free book for one day (it works in the same way as all the others), but it's worth it.  You have to submit the book for their consideration, and they only take around 10% of those submitted, but you can keep trying; I know of one writer who submitted the same book about 16 times before finally getting accepted.  I've been accepted twice so far, and got 37K downloads the first time, and 45K the second.  For each, I got over 300 new reviews or ratings across all sites (all Amazons, Bookbub itself, Goodreads) for each book (it's probably more by now), and the boost this gave me in Amazon visibility meant that I made the money back several times over in the two or three months that followed, in sales for the book that had been on promotion, and others.

For more details of any of these promotional sites, take a look via the links provided.  Do be aware, though that the wider your readership, the more likely you are to get some bad reviews.  Most of the ones I got for The Devil You Know were extremely positive, but I got a few humdingers for The House of York!  Unless you're getting a great deal of bad reviews, in which case you need to take a long, hard look at the book itself, it's just something you must learn to accept.  And you can learn from them, sometimes.

 

5.  The Quality of the Free Book

The ideal world: 1000s will download the free book, read it immediately, think, 'Wow!  I need more!', then leap to Amazon and to buy more of your work.  Of course, this rarely happens.

Think about your own reading habits.  If a book really grips you, you'll buy the next in the series or another novel by that author.  If it's just 'quite good' but didn't really grip you, or it's okay but still needs some work, you probably won't. Similarly, if you can see that it's good but it's just not your thing - no book appeals to everyone.

Note: It is four years since I wrote this blog post but it still applies.  I now have 2 more 3-book series, and do the same series promotions for them.  Keeps them all turning over!

I have a four book series, and put the first one, Tipping Point, on free a couple of times a year. I get around an 80% 'read-through' to Book #2, Lindisfarne, and 70% for #3, UK2, and 60% for #4, Legacy.  But the people who do read all four often go on to buy others; the associated short stories, another book set in the same world (Blackthorn), The Devil You Know, and my other 3 book series. These are the ones who like my writing style—the more downloads you get, the more likely you are to find them.

 
If your free book is not soundly edited and proofread, with great pacing, characters that the readers care about, realistic dialogue and a well-constructed plot without any dodgy bits, you will get less read-throughs, and less reviews.  I say this from observation and, sadly, experience - my first two books needed better editing and proofreading.  I thought the fantastic free promo would get me started.  It didn't.  That came several books later, when I was more experienced in every aspect of novel-writing.  I did get some great reviews, and found readers who stuck with me, but I got some bad ones, too, and made errors with the subject matter of the third and fourth books - basically, the first few years were a learning experience!

Putting one book on free is no guarantee of future sales.  However!  A lack of them might not necessarily mean your book is a mess.  It might be simply because of my theory, which I will now explain:

'Last month, my book got 1000 free downloads 

- so where are all the new reviews and read-through sales?'

The following amounts are general estimates, so please don't take me to task about it; it's not meant to be actual figures, but to illustrate why you should not expect your free promotion to propel you into Amazon best-selling glory.

Your book is downloaded 1000 times.  What happens next?

• 500 people will never read it, or even see it again.  It will get lost in the thousands of other free books on their Kindles.
• 50 may discover it in 6 months' time.  Or a year, or two years.  I was still getting the odd review for You Wish (that first book) two or three years after I put it on free.
• 100 will start it, not like it, and abandon after a chapter or two.
• 50 will start it, think it's okay, but not be that bothered about it; they may abandon simply when they see another book that excites them more.
• 100 will finish it, and think it was good, but won't be gagging to read any more.
• 100 will like it, and maybe read more. Some time.  Not necessarily immediately.
• Out of all the above, you may get the odd review or rating, though they probably won't be 5*.  There are now just 100 readers left.
• 50 will like it alot, and get another one, though this may be on Kindle Unlimited, so you won't see an immediate sale.  
• 50 will like it alot, even adore it; these could become 'your readers'.  But half of them may not get round to buying another book just because... well, just because.  How many times have you said, 'Oh yes, I really liked his first book.  I'll get round to reading the sequel some time.'?
• Of those 50, 10 will tell other people about you, in person or on social media. They may tell you, too, how much they liked the book.
• The 100 people in the previous three points are your possible 4/5* reviewers.  However, they may mean to, but never get round to it; 99% of readers don't review.  Also, do not forget that these magic people might not actually read the book for a few months. 

Remember: a free download is not the same as a sale.

Your book's free ranking on Amazon has no bearing on its paid ranking

 
6.  Is It Your Only Book?

I would not advise paying for promotion if you have only one book, because however much a reader loves it, he or she will have nowhere else to go once it's read.  On the other hand, you may get some new reviews; generally, though, the only time I would advise paying is when the next book is imminent - and by that I mean will be published within the next couple of weeks.   If so, it is a good idea to write something to that effect either on the blurb or in the author's note at the back.  Or leave the option to sign up for a newsletter if you do one, or follow you on social media.

If the book is #1 of a continuing story, it's best to wait until the series is complete before spending out, or have at least three books ready to download. 
Otherwise, people tend to forget.  There are 1000s of books published every week - it is easy to forget about an author, even if you really liked them.

7.  What else can you do?

When promoting your free book on Twitter, do a good new pinned tweet every day of the promotion, giving an indication of the book's genre, and a line or two to say what it's about, or quotes from great reviews (from book bloggers, not your best mate or your mum).  Vary the tweets.  Use pictures.  RT others alot, tweet it a few times during the day. You can also DM Twitter friends to ask them to help you promote it.

But please Don't:

• Go overboard with the tweets; it'll annoy your followers (yep, done it myself!).
• Try to entice the reading public by tweeting how many downloads it's already had, unless it's at #1 in a main genre chart, or has had something like 10K, which is a pull in itself.  On the whole, though, amounts of downloads don't mean much to prospective readers.
  
• Say things like 'Let's get #1 of The Dragon Chronicles into the Top 100 #Free chart!'.  Some people will want to help, but, basically, you're the only one who cares.
• Ask for reviews in the tweets: 'Please download, read and review'.  That's a huge no-no.
• Call yourself a 'best-selling author' if you're not.  Getting to the top of an obscure genre chart for one day does not make you a best-selling author.  

If, having read this, you've decided against going free, you can always try a 99p/c promotion, for a week.  If it is published on Amazon KDP, you can do a Kindle Countdown promotion, which means that you can put the book on for as low as 99p/c and still get the 70% royalty.  The price can be increased gradually during the week, or you can just leave it at 99 for the whole week; I do.  Again, it is best to do this once the book has got some decent reviews, and has an enticing blurb, etc, etc.

This might interest you - in order to test how 'visible' Amazon makes my books, I have recently tried putting a book on free and doing nothing, no promotion, not even a tweet.  I chose older books that I don't promote anyway.  Both of them got around 200 downloads - which says to me that this Amazon visibility thing works!

I hope this helps, and good luck!

Pauses For Thought: Ten Pieces of Advice for New Writers/Self-Publishers

Based on my nine years as a self-published writer and reader of 'indie' books, and my membership of Rosie Amber's Book Review Team.

1.  Should your first attempt be your debut?

This is a difficult one to assess.  Your novel is nearly finished, you're justifiably proud of yourself, and can't wait to get it up on Amazon, describe yourself as a published author, and see those sales start to roll in.  If this is your very first attempt at writing, though, it might be worth considering these scenarios: 

• Joe is taking guitar lessons, and has managed to put basic tunes to some of his lyrics.  He tells you of his intention to approach a local venue for a paid gig.
• Lucy has always wanted to paint.  She takes some lessons at a night class, and paints her first watercolour.  She asks you to wish her luck; she is taking it to a local gallery to ask them to display it.
• Ray has never done any professional photography, but he takes some great snaps on his phone that his followers on social media say are awesome.  He asks you to help him write his application for a job as a photographer on a local paper.

I'm sure you might diplomatically suggest to Joe, Lucy and Ray that they hang back and get a bit of experience before taking such ambitious steps.  Develop and polish their skills.  Yet every day new writers publish their first literary attempts on Amazon, without seeking out professional assessment of their work, employing an editor, or doing any sort of 'apprenticeship' in the form of short stories, or penning other novels or novellas in order to learn the craft of writing.  After initial sales and reviews from family and friends, most disappear without trace.

Now and again a virgin writer will put fingers to keys and produce a masterpiece, but this is rare.  Of course the nature of self-publishing is that you can publish what you want, when you want, but in a year's time you might wish you had not been in such a hurry.  Wait.  Practice.  Get feedback.  Amazon will still be there in a year's time.

✍✍✍

2.  Quality not Quantity
Recently, I have talked to two new-ish writers who say they love writing flash fiction, articles, novellas, short stories, but suspect they do not have the 'stamina' to write a novel.  One is extraordinarily talented and writes fabulous shorter fiction and pieces based on his own life (Phil Motel, HERE). I've known some who've made a great job of writing various scenes from the novel they're convinced they'll write one day, but never get round to linking them together.  Writing a novel is hard.  You need a LOT of material, and a great deal of self-motivation.  It doesn't suit all personality types.  You may find that short stories and novelettes are more your style, or that you'll feel in the frame of mind to apply yourself to a full-length novel at some other point in your life.

There is room for everyone - the 150K word epic fantasy scribe, and the writer of novelettes and long short stories that can be read in an afternoon - especially these days, with ever-shortening attention spans!  Don't feel that you are not a 'proper' writer, or that your work is not valid unless you can produce 90K words of it.  You are, and it is.

3.  Ten years or three months?
Recently on Twitter I had a bit of a wrangle with someone who claimed that he has spent ten years writing his novel, because he is a true artiste and respects the craft, and carefully considers every word.  His words implied that those who publish several titles a year do not.

I publish two a year.  All are between 90 and 110K, drafted over and over, properly edited and proofread.  Some people write four a year, others one.  You can only write at your own pace.  I would love to write three a year, but I can't, not without the quality deteriorating.  However, ten years is rather a long time.  If you want to achieve any sort of readership in the current publishing climate, I would say that you would need to get used to producing one every year or eighteen months, at least.

4.  All image and no substance.

When the Kindle self-pub thing first began, lots of writers made their own covers, which ranged from as good as the professionals to the truly dire.  Then came the blog posts and articles: yes, people really do judge a book by its cover.  As the self-publishing phenomenon exploded, competition became fierce, and writers had to up their presentation game.  Soon, every indie book sported amazing fantasy creations, artistic images of women walking down shadowed roads, cutesy cottages with title in appropriately jaunty font, etc., just like the traditionally published.

Over the last few years, though, I've come across many indie books with gorgeous, clearly professional and probably expensive covers, only to look inside and find content that doesn't do them justice.  Flat or lazy writing, bad pacing, wooden dialogue, one-dimensional characters; you name it.

A while back, on Amazon, I saw a book with a terrific cover (which was what made me click on it) and lots of bad reviews complaining about all the errors within.  One reader commented that she felt angry about it, as if she'd been conned into wasting her money.  The author commented back that he was sorry, but after spending out on the cover he didn't have any money left for proofreading, and talked about his dream of being a published author.

Sadly, the reading public don't care about your dreams, if you're not willing to save up your pennies to present them well. Of course a great cover will help you sell books, but it's what's inside that brings the good reviews—and future sales.

It's easy to sell one book.  But unless the content is compelling, presented well with a great structure and plot, and characters that come alive, the reader who bought it won't buy another.

5.  How much is too much?

Your book may have taken you one and a half years to write.  You may have spent hundreds on editing, proofreading, cover art, and be looking to make some of that money back.  Your friends tell you not to undersell yourself; you, too, might feel that your precious baby is worth more than £2.99.  But if you over-price it, potential readers will move on.  You need to study the market.  See what other books of your genre and length are selling for.  No, not those by GRR Martin or Kate Atkinson, but other unknowns.  Then price it accordingly.  The time to go a bit higher is when you've developed a readership.  Except that by then you might not need to; it is better to sell 30 books at £1.99 than 3 at £4.99.

Note, Aug 30th:  during an Amazon browse just now, I came across a book that interested me.  7 short stories, 171 pages.  It was priced at £3.99.  Yes, I know, it's only 4 quid, but it still made me think, nah.  Given that many full-length novels (including my own) are between .99 and £2.99.  Had the author priced it realistically (I'd say no more than £1.99, preferably £1.50 or .99p), I'd have bought it.  He might have got a lovely review on my blog, Amazon and Goodreads.  I might have bought more books by him.  Other people may have read my review and bought it on my recommendation.  THIS is how you build a readership.  Not by pricing out of the market.

6.  A few words about Twitter

• If you're going to do screenshots of excerpts from your work, make sure it doesn't contain typos, duplicated words, incorrect punctuation, etc.
• If you only 'do' Twitter within the #WritingCommunity, and only tweet about writing, you won't reach the reading public.  Many people outside this tiny corner of Twitter mute those who do endless 'writer lifts' and those 'leave your links and I'll buy 3 books' tweets. 
• If you're tweeting about your published novel, don't forget to add the buy links.  Might seem obvious, but it's surprising how many tweets I see with just the cover, description and no link.  No, people won't go to Amazon and look it up.  Not even if it's free.  Also, American writers should be aware that readers from other countries (UK, most of Europe, Australia and others) cannot buy from Amazon.com.  So you need to at least tweet the UK link, or use a 'universal' one.  If you don't know how to do that, ask.
• 
  

7.  I've said it many times but it can never be said too often.
If someone who claims to be a publisher or agent asks you for money, run a mile.  These are scammers, or vanity publishers.  Agents get paid with royalties from your books.  Publishers pay YOU money, ditto.  If you choose to go with a pay-to-publish outfit, like Troubadour, that's your choice, but don't be misled into thinking it's a real publishing deal.

8. Same heading as #7
If you want to write for a living, or part of it, it's a good idea to learn how to punctuate properly.  However, I know lots of successful authors whose punctuation is less than perfect; they leave it to their proofreader to sort out.  Fair enough.  The problem comes when the proofreader doesn't know how to do it, either; sadly, many of the inept advertise their services most convincingly.  Approximately half the 'indie' books I've tried (some published by small publishers) sport incorrect use of semicolons, comma splices, have missing vocative commas, etc.  You should never publish without a professional proofread, but you need to make sure that the proofreader knows what he or she is doing.  Do not believe website blurb.  Get recommendations.  

The other day someone showed me a tweet in which a 'copy editor' (according to his Twitter bio) described a certain number of people as being 'adverse' to a particular practice.  I saw the same error in the blurb of a book published by a well-known vanity press.  If you don't know what's wrong with that, and even if you do, it is essential that you take recommendations from experienced authors before hiring a proofreader.  If you don't know any, ask me.

9.  Language, Timothy.
On Twitter, I see a few discussions about whether or not one's characters should use bad language.  Here is my take on it: if a character would say fuck, have him say it.  But perhaps let him do so less often than he might in real life, simply because it becomes tedious to read if he's saying it every other sentence.  Some of my characters swear quite a lot, some not at all, but even with the ones who do, I edit some out.

n.b. if any readers are offended by the language used, they are not your target market. Don't think you have to change your writing style because one review complains about it.  There are plenty who won't mind.

10.  And finally...
If you want to write, you will.  If you haven't written for three months, it's because you're busy doing other things necessary for your health and wealth, because there is too much other stuff going on in your head right now, or because you don't actually want to do it all that much.  It is not 'writer's block'.  Think about it.  If you keep meaning to paint the bathroom but haven't got round to it yet, it's because you're giving priority to other areas of your life.  The same goes for writing.  It's your priority, or it's not.  

Today, I wrote about 900 words.  Every one of them screamed and resisted as it came out, and the section I've written is, not to put too fine a point on it, a bit crap.  But I want to get this novel written; I was determined to push it on to the next stage, so I made myself keep at it.  Yesterday was a great day: 3K and I was pleased with most of what I wrote.  I'm hoping tomorrow will be better than today; either way, I shall be at the laptop all afternoon.

Once you start writing, the ideas will come.  They're unlikely to do so while you're spending the afternoon on social media complaining about your 'writer's block' or lack of motivation.

If you don't want to write, it's perfectly fine.  You don't have to.  It might be harder to admit that you don't actually want to do it as much as you think you do.  If you'd rather watch TV or read or muck about with tagging games on Twitter or play Assassin's Creed, it's your choice.  But don't pretend to yourself that your unwillingness to sit down, open the document and get on with it is some dramatic 'syndrome' peculiar to creative people, please!

Good Luck!

3 Misconceptions That Can Hinder New Writers

A while back I wrote an article entitled 7 Myths That Can Hold New Writers Back. Here are three more, with the subtitle 'and will prevent them publishing a really good book and finding lots of readers'.

1. If a book is good it will sell of its own accord, without the need for promotion.

Ages ago, a proofreader friend told me about one of her clients, who, though a terrific writer, hardly sold any books.  When she suggested various ways of promoting them, his reply was 'but if they're so good they should just sell, shouldn't they?'

The other day, a writer was talking to me about the fact that his books weren't selling. When I suggested methods that might change this, he replied that he didn't like 'blatant promotion', and preferred people to 'discover' his work online, by means of discussion on its subject matter.  A nice idea, but I had to stop myself saying, 'So how's that working for you?'  I looked them up; they had one review apiece, and I could see by the rankings that they hadn't sold more than a handful. 

Here's the thing.  Sure, we'd love our online activity to consist only of chatting, and to have others think, 'What a great guy!  What fascinating insight he has!  I see he's a writer; I'll go seek out his books, and buy them all!'  Yes, that will happen now and again, but, mostly, if you don't promote your books, they won't 'just sell', however fabulous they are.

Why not?  Because no one will know they exist.

Most self-pub or small indie published writers sell the majority of their books via ebook on Amazon, I find, and it's where almost all start off.  But the site contains millions of titles.  Millions.  Yours (and mine, and everyone else's) are the needle in the haystack; if you don't promote your books yourself, they will become invisible to Amazon users.  If they never get clicked on, bought, downloaded on Kindle Unlimited or reviewed, they won't appear on 'also boughts' or recommendations.  They will not show up in searches.  They may as well be shut in a virtual drawer.

No one is making you promote, if you feel it's a bit naff to do so, or not 'you', or if you just can't be bothered (see below) - that's fair enough.  Or, indeed, if you're not fussed, and are just happy to have written them; I know a few who feel this way, and you need read no further!  But if you want to sell more than the odd one here and there to people you know and online writer friends, you will need to learn how to do this stuff.

2. You're 'no good at' promotion.

A while back, someone asked me to help to tweet his cut-price offer on one of his books.  He asked me, he said, because he was 'no good at' promotion.  I was happy to help as I have a silly amount of followers and the book was good, but I couldn't resist questioning this 'no good at' claim.  Did he mean he felt embarrassed promoting his own work, or that he didn't know how to?  He admitted that he actually meant he couldn't be bothered.

Building up any sort of online platform does take time, and effort, when you'd rather be writing, or watching TV, or reading, or whatever.  It means finding out how to use the site(s) of your choice, reading advice articles, following people and interacting so that you gain more 'reach', sharing others' stuff and taking an interest in what they do, seeking out bloggers who will feature you, thinking up ways to present your work on Twitter/instagram/Facebook, without giving your followers a virtual bludgeoning about the head (commonly known as spamming 'buy my book' tweets).  If you're not sure how, have a look at what others do.  If you would like to read some articles on this subject, click this link and go to the 'Writers and Social Media/Promotion' section.

If you feel shy about it, remember that you don't have to say 'this is a fantastic book, you totally have to read it NOW!'.  Your tweets, for instance, can show the book off like an advert, rather than telling everyone it's a #mustread, which is off-putting, anyway.  People will investigate further if they like the cover, or think the subject matter sounds interesting.  Choose a good quote from a review—not 'I couldn't put it down' or that nice bit that your writer friend wrote about your characterisation and descriptive abilities; find something shorter and more punchy.  Or choose a quote from the book itself; a belter of a one-liner, rather than detail about the plot or something that means a lot to you but doesn't work out of context.  Then add a couple of hashtags to show the genre, and don't forget the cover - and the buy links!


3. Producing a novel is all about letting the creative juices flow.

You know how it is, when you hit on that great idea.  You mull that story around in your mind and get excited about it; you open a new document and get stuck in.  You think of new developments when you're away from it, and can't wait to get back to your desk to start making them come alive.  You think about your characters until they seem almost as real as people you know, and often more interesting.  You have moments when you can hardly type fast enough; your fingers fly over the keys, as your brain creates scenes, settings, new characters. 

Thing is, that's only the beginning.

Have you ever tried showing someone a first draft?  Did you get any of these type of reactions?

'It was great, but....

• I didn't get that bit about Jake discovering his real father was a famous actor; it didn't go anywhere. Yes, it's a stunning revelation, and, mm-mm, I'm sure it was great fun to write, but it was like you put it in, then forgot about it.
• ...I hate to say it, but did you know you've explained the bit about Lizzie and the king four times?  And how come all the characters use exactly the same adjectives and slang?
• Why have you put in a chapter about the architecture of Prague in it for?  Ah, I see.  You really wanted to write about it, because Prague is so beautiful—yes, I can see you got really carried away!  But I was waiting to get on with the story....
• I love this fight scene, but are you sure Jim could just get up and walk away, with those sort of injuries?  Oh, I see.  He needs to be in Texas that night for the next bit of the plot.  But he'd probably be dead.  Did you not research knife wounds to the femoral artery?'

Novels need planning.  Thinking through.  Researching.  Creativity is only one part of the whole process. The first draft, that wonderful burst of creativity, is just the raw material.  

I read for Rosie Amber's Book Review Team, and one of the problems I find all too often, with self- or small indie publisher books, is that they simply need more work, to iron out clunky sentences, to get rid of long-winded descriptions, to add clarity, suspense, foreshadowing ... these are the elements that get sorted out in multiple redrafts.  You need to go back and start at the beginning, each time.  Go through it over and over.  Four, five, six and more times, however many is necessary until the book is as 'tight' as you can make it.

I'm not a perfect writer; no one is.  But you owe it to yourself to make the book as good as it can be.  I find that as I write the first draft, I realise that other sections earlier on might need some tweaking.  Or I see that more emphasis is needed on certain aspects.  To this end, I have post-it notes all over a board in front of my desk, which I put into order when I'm about to start the next draft.  They say things like 'make more clear that Byron doesn't like Hemsley', 'establish that Evie is a fabulous pastry cook', 'Need more detail about the trouble in the city before Ryder turns up'.  By the time I'm at the end of the third draft, I've got the story about right.  Then it's time to look at every sentence and see if it could be written more succinctly.  

Redraft until you're sick of the sight of it.  And then do another one.

Hope this helps!