Authors Electric

Have a look at this on the internet. It’s a map of independent bookshops across the country (world?). I have no idea where the data comes from but it does show the vast swathes of Britain with no independent bookshop. Where I live (mid-Cheshire), there are no bookshops at all – not even any chain stores. I’m discounting our local branch of WH Smith which doesn’t really have much more choice than the media aisle at the supermarket. And there is also The Works , but that is mostly remaindered stock bundled as 3 for £5 (good value if they have what you like on the shelves). I do have author friends whose books are actively bought by The Works, so maybe they are branching out more?  Anyway, our nearest independent bookshop is in Nantwich. Nantwich Bookshop & Coffee Lounge . As it says on the tin, it’s a book shop and it’s a coffee lounge – not just coffee either. They do a lovely all-day breakfast too and other sandwichy and lunch things. Food and books – how much better can it g...

I’m afraid I’m not talking turkey gravy here, just another writerly conundrum. Do you ‘flatter your reader’ by letting them work out what’s going on, or just lay it on the line, loud and clear? This balancing act came to mind during the recently concluded TV drama The Missing ,  a gut-wrenching tale about the abduction of a five-year-old child and his father’s insistence on following up new clues eight years later when everyone thinks he should move on.  I’m not questioning the characterisation, the acting or even the labyrinthine plot, only the problem of keeping track of what was going on in a narrative that jumped backwards and forwards in time right up until the final denouement. At first we were told this with useful captions ‘present day’ or ‘eight years earlier’ but after a couple of episodes we were left to work it out.  Well that was fine up to a point, but because the locations and characters were the same in each time frame, some close observation was r...

The Amber Heart on Kindle - Polish & Christmassy When I was wondering whether to do a Christmas 'special offer' on one of my books and also wondering which one to choose, I found myself trying to decide between a couple of suitable books. But really, when it came down to choices, it was a no-brainer. It had to be the Amber Heart . Even the cover seems kind of Christmassy and in my heart, when I think about this book, I think about Poland at Christmas. It is a big doorstop of a book but then it's a big story. Epic. Romantic. Heart rending. When one of my previous agents sent it out, she relayed a letter from an acquisitions editor who said that she had stayed up all night reading it and weeping. They didn't acquire it though. Poland was a non starter as a setting. Now if it had been Russia ... No point at all in telling them that Eastern European borders have been so fluid and so deadly, in consequence, that this novel, set firmly in that part of mid-ninete...

It's that time of year when quizzes and presents abound - so I thought I might combine the two in my post this month.  I have donned my festive Quiz Me Quick hat and set a few brainteasers for you: should you feel like participating, I am awarding either a copy of any one of my e-books or a gift-wrapped copy of the paper edition of Everything Your Dog Expects You to Know (I'll pay UK postage) to the winner of each category. The person with the most correct answers in each category wins - in the event of a tie, the names will go in a hat. Don't post your answers here, but email them to me via the contact page of my author website HERE, where you can also find details of my ebooks.  The deadline is 8th January and the winners will be announced on my blog post here on the 10th. The Questions! Which authors wrote books in which the following horse or dog characters appear? You get the idea: there's a horse or dog theme as that's what I mainly write abo...

Authos Electric Debbie Bennett It’s interesting to see how polarised people become over swearing in fiction – authors and readers alike. In books or on television, in stories, films and dramas. There’s the camp which advocates against swearing of any kind: on the grounds that it isn’t necessary, may offend people and rips a hole in the moral fabric of society. Then there’s the opposing camp, north versus south, which believes in freedom of speech, in allowing characters in books and on screen to be themselves and if people don’t like it, well they are free to switch off their device and/or close the book. There are always two sides to every coin (there are two sides to most things – except, of course, to a Mobius strip …). Why swear unnecessarily when writing, when you know you risk alienating some of your readers? Having said that, dear reader, swearing is as old as the hills – it’s not some new device intended to corrupt the youth of today. Our medieval ancestors were...

At present I am in a situation where I have to listen to Radio 4 in order to understand the way in which my book is being published. Crowd funding is just so new that everyone, even those in the thick of the process, do not quite know what it is that they are doing. So I was interested when I heard Paul Kingsnorth talking on the radio. His book 'The Wake' was published (crowd funded) by Unbound and became the first ever crowd funded book to finish up the Booker Long List. So what did he have to say about the experience? The word he used was 'micro-publishing.' He employed that word to try to explain the difference between buying a book in a bookshop, or purchasing an e-book on-line, and subscribing (or pledging) to a book which has yet to be published through Unbound (or another crowd funding publisher). So what is the difference? Well, on the face of it - very little. In both cases you finish up with a book. If you buy a book, or an e-book, in the normal...

Readers of this blog will know how many fine authors choose to self-publish or are driven to it because they don’t fit a marketing niche. But when we go it alone, how do we build a brand? One important function that publishers used to perform was curation - taking the creme de la creme, producing it well, putting it out under an influential imprint. In the real world, that didn’t always count for much, but the reading public thinks it did - so to get credibility, indies have to replace it somehow. And here’s how we’re doing it. Publishing collectives Some indies band together to form an editorial board. Books aren’t published unless all members approve them. That takes a lot of trust and rigor, and all members have to be in tune with a particular type of reader. Perhaps not good for mavericks, but it’s the indie version of the niche publisher. The handpicked collection Some authors are gathering collections of writers whose work they admire. I was lucky enough to ca...

          A Monday morning knock at our door three weeks ago brought the surprising news that our home was in danger of “sudden and catastrophic” collapse and life as I knew it evaporated. We decamped to a nearby hotel and friends, rallying to the bar at cocktail hour, started calling me Mrs Self.           I’m not a stranger to uncertainty but the general feeling of limbo, of being away but just a short walk from a home that might topple over, takes some getting used to. Life goes on of course and I'm trying to keep my mind on the advantages: a sudden, completely unforeseen withdrawal of housework, supermarket shopping and cleaning for starters. The abundance of folded white towels, bath robes and slippers.  A gym, newspaper delivery, interesting Olympic-related lift encounters etc etc. My old Mac was too huge to unplug and lug all the way here, though I did certa...