Authors Electric

I've loved sharing all my bookish experiences with all at AE I posted my first blog for Authors Electric in April 2016, just a month after I'd self-published my debut solo book. I felt a great sense of belonging - reading other author's posts, having a new monthly "deadline" and sharing my bookish experiences with everyone involved with AE. In the past year and a half, that feeling hasn't changed, although my situation has. My son finally entered the world of full-time education, and while that sounds like I should have more time on my hands, I haven't. It's quite a surreal feeling to be given more "free" hours each day, yet feel you're still not getting enough done. But, not only am I using this time to write the fourth book in my series, I've also taken on a new project that will mean I can continue to work from home and keep my working fingers in the proverbial publishing pie. Sadly, that does mean something has to gi...

My book fairy journey: The stickers arrived, the preparation happened and the six places I left my books in central London on Saturday 16 September 2017. Today, Goodreads turns 10 and they've celebrated by teaming up with The Book Fairies. Authors and readers were invited to order some special stickers, put them on the front of their books and then hide those books in plain sight for people to find. I had visited The Book Fairies website before, and loved the idea (you may have read about actress Emma Watson leaving books on London's underground for people to find, well this is the same thing and she is an official "fairy"). So, when I received an email from Goodreads, telling me about their #hideabookday to celebrate their tenth birthday, I knew I had to get involved. Throughout the year, The Book Fairies website sells stickers, badges, bags and ribbons that you can use with the books you're gifting. I opted for the stickers, as they had a few for Goodre...

This is me - and it must have been taken after the reading as I'm smiling! I thought I’d use this month’s blog to give you all a quick update about the meet the author event I attended on July 1 st (click here if you want to read my original post) . Well, I’m happy to report that not only did I make it through the door, but I also read the prologue of my second book, No Safe Home. I won’t lie, my hands were trembling – and I had to hold both the book and the microphone in front of me, so there was no hiding the shakes – and my tongue felt ten times too big for my dry mouth. But, despite all of that, I read the chapter. More importantly, and thankfully, the audience listened intently, applauded and one person even purchased the book after the event due to hearing the prologue. Definitely worth the week of jitters leading up to the event, I think. I have to thank the team at Bloodhound Books and my friends and all the supporters who came to the event. I think my pre-...

Earlier in the year I, foolishly some might say, raised my hand to join an author event next month. Back then, mid-writing my work in progress, July felt like a million miles away. Well, it wasn’t, obviously, and the countdown is now against me. What’s wrong with attending an author event, you might ask? For me, loads. Especially when you’re fourth in line to stand up and read a chapter from your book. Some writers relish in this time and it comes naturally to them to read aloud the words they silently typed on their keyboard. To share a moment with your readers, when they hear your voice and are given the opportunity to ask you questions about the book, or your writing journey. All of this fills me with dread. It takes me back to my first year of university and a creative writing module I was studying. Part of our final grade, I think twenty or thirty per cent of it, was marked on each of us standing in front of the class (no more than twenty people, I’d guess) and read alou...

I come to you today from the depths of my editing cave. I've been here for two weeks now, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel - and therefore the reason you're having any contact from me at all. Before writing my books, I worked for an in-house magazine as assistant editor for eight years. A weekly magazine, and a team of two, we designed the layout, interviewed the staff, wrote and edited the articles. What I do now has a very similar set-up, and that's what I had in mind when I started this process in 2015: I can handle all aspects of my writing career, after all, I've done it for many years. How wrong could I have been? And yes, editing, I'm looking at you. What I didn't appreciate was the amount of editing I'd have to do in one hit. Gone are the few hundred word articles, replaced by the hundreds of pages and thousands of words. The paragraphs are no longer factual events, coloured with interesting quotes from employees, but are the inner ...

Getting the work/life balance right during the school holidays can be difficult for everyone So, today – Tuesday 18 th April – marks the end of the Easter holidays and my son returns to pre-school. Although I’ve just written the date, I have no real clue what day it is, why I’m sitting at my laptop and who the characters in my current work in progress are. You see, I think I’m a very lucky person to be able to work from home. It means a can choose the hours that suit me and I can work around my son’s part-time school rota. However, the downside to that is, I’ve found I’ve just had two weeks off work… two weeks I didn’t actually want off, and I’m feeling extremely guilty. Before my son finished nursery, I had just hit the half-way mark with my work in progress. My protagonist, DI Hamilton, was talking to me and telling me where he wanted the story to go and another influential character was coming up against some deadly threats. I was in a good place with the story. I’m ...

The start of the New Year inspired some authors to share images on Faceboook of the views from their writing area. There were some truly beautiful pictures – which made me yearn more for a holiday than writing time… but that’s probably just me. These views were also a huge contrast to the one I have, and it got me thinking – does our surroundings unintentionally influence the genre we choose to write? I always think writing by the sea is very special. UK or abroad, to me, it just looks beautiful and calming and inspirational. The office window looks out onto a veranda, or pier, and the sun glistens off the water before streaming through to the author’s workspace. It’s easy to see why so many of those authors who shared images like these write about romance, or humorous situations, or family life and children’s books. You can almost taste the salty sea-breeze from their novels.   My writing space is one half of my bedroom. I set it up last year after I self-published my de...

Ghosts Electric was the first published anthology I wrote a short story for, and I had my reservations. While I love to read novellas or a two-page story spread in magazines, I never thought it was something I’d be able to successfully master. A collage of promotional images put together by the authors involved with the second anthology I have a short story published in      During my youth, I wrote untold amounts of small stories in notepads and colourfully designed  hardback books and treasured them for many years. But they were just for me. A collection of ideas that one day I hoped would evolve and grow and become a full-length novel. Those stories have never managed to make it out of the dusty drawer – and that’s probably a good thing – but I do finally have the ideas I need to make those novels. And, regardless of age and my state of imagination, the basic premise of writing is that the story must have a beginning, a middle and an end. But, when ...

Excuse the blatant attack of self-promo, but stick with me for a minute… I’m excited to share my debut novel, In the Shadows, is now available in audiobook format on Amazon, Audible and iTunes. When I self-published in March the thought of audiobooks didn’t even occur to me. I guess there’s two reasons for this: one, I’ve always assumed it’s something only “big” publishing houses offer, and two, I don’t use audiobooks myself so they escaped my thought process. Tut tut to me. In the last six months I’ve discovered audiobooks are hugely popular, and a few readers asked if this was available immediately after publishing. There are a multitude of people who want this format – be it for health reasons, because they have long commutes or because they take their dogs for long walks. A friend pointed me in the direction of ACX – an indie publishing tool via Kindle Direct Publishing. It’s a very simple, self-serve website. After I uploaded the necessary details about my book, and a...

You don't even have to pack a bag! Though I’m sure most of you will know what I mean by ‘blog tour,’ I’d hate to start my post by making assumptions, so a brief explanation wouldn’t hurt…           Think of an excited author travelling from city to city, bookshop to bookshop, eagerly waiting for readers to bombard them in their droves, desperate for signed copies of said author’s new book. Maybe even have a little conversation too. Well, ditch that image because a blog tour is quite different (although you’ll still have the excitable author).           A blog tour happens via social media – namely blog posts, Facebook and Twitter. Each day of your blog tour a blogger will hold their ‘stop’ on the tour and feature your new release on their blog. It could be a review, author guest post, book extract or giveaway. Or a combination of these things. Usually, the blogger will then share their post ...

Though these women look quite pleased with themselves, I must admit, it's not myself and Mel This time last year, I would never have believed that I could say I am a self-published author. If I was also told I’d be embarking on a new crime series with New York Times Bestselling Author, M.A Comley, I’d say you were pulling my leg. But look at me, it’s happened and it’s a dream come true.      After speaking to a variety of authors online, I’ve come to realise co-writing isn’t for everyone. Some even say it would be their worst nightmare. And I can totally understand that. Having someone grill your work, edit it and not agree with your ideas could be frustrating. But look at it from a different perspective and it could mean that person is enhancing what you’ve written and enriching your ideas.      I find myself in a lucky position. I am working with an experienced author who has published over 35 books in five years and definitely knows her...

During the last year, my life has changed dramatically thanks to the people I've met and the books I've read. So when I had the opportunity to be part of World Book Night as a distributor, I was delighted. Yes, I know it was almost a month ago now, but hear me out. The Reading Agency's World Book Night took place on 23rd April this year. Their drive was to reach out to people in the UK who do not normally read for pleasure - and therefore 187,500 copies of 15 specially printed books - including titles from Ann Cleeves, Amanda Prowse and Sarah Hilary, to name a few - were distributed by reading enthusiasts. That included me. Sometime last year, I filled out an online registration form as to why I wanted to be involved, how I would distribute the books and choose the title I would like to receive. I didn't actually think I'd get chosen, but I did. I was given 16 copies of Ann Cleeves' short story, Too Good To Be True. It wasn't the book I had requested, ...

That's me! Beaming when my paperbacks arrived It's always a tad intimidating being the "new kid" in any scenario. But this year has already brought me a lot of new and first situations, and thankfully it's not beginning to feel so daunting any more. I have been welcomed into the Authors Electric's small but perfectly formed group and this is my first post on the website. So, I'd really just like to take this opportunity to tell you a little bit about me. I am 30 years old, a single mother and indie author. So far this year I have released my debut solo novel, In the Shadows, co-authored a novella called Web of Deceit and am currently in the process of co-writing a new crime series (the first book, The Caller, is available for pre-order on Amazon). My love of reading books and writing stories stems way back to when I was a little girl. I carried a small hardback book with me to write me tales in. At some point my poor mother was given it as a bir...