My crazy writing year

On the face of it you'd think I'd had a successful writing year. With Living Cruelty Free out in Kindle and paperback, my zombie novel Dead Bastards astounding me by coming out before Christmas (thanks to the remarkable editing skills of my publisher Terry Wright) and Hell to Pay written and in the hands of my publisher (and more Die Hard for Girls books planned), it does sound good.

 

But, sadly this year has been a complete nightmare and one I'll be glad to see the back of, for a number of reasons -

1. Because of a Facebook page I set up for my bullying book, I found myself being cyber stalked by a crazy person and their family who'd send me harassing messages even when I blocked them.

2. Writing Living Cruelty Free meant looking at horrific images of man's inhumanity to man and animals. Some of those images and research I had to look at gave me nightmares. I sunk into a deep depression it took me months to get out of.

3. I found myself working 15 hours a day to promote/edit my books - yep, even on Christmas Day. I now find it difficult to sleep and my agoraphobia's got worse.

4. Sales of the books my publisher Need2Know decided to give away, free and unlimited (without telling me) for w YEAR have fallen through the floor. Before, one in particular, was selling steadily. No sales mean any royalties. No wonder I have to decide which room to heat. Anyone has this illusion of writers being wealthy should think again.

5. Thanks to the sock puppet scandal, I've had reviews from people who bought my books taken down on Amazon without explanation. The reason - they said in their reviews they were writers too. Like writers don't/can't read? It's hard enough to get reviews at it is without that happening. Ditto people who were bought my book as a gift because they weren't verified purchasers. Well, they wouldn't be - the books were bought by someone else for them.

 

Not that top authors who’ve already made a name for themselves will be affected; it will just be us little guys who don't have big publishing houses and the might of their publicity budgets behind us.

And, that's just my writing life. Oh, and the year started with a 3 day power cut - in an apartment, with no gas or coal fire.

So, let's raise a glass to 2013, may it bring us all better days.

 

6 Things every writer should know

I was first published when I was 15 and wrote a piece on superstitions for Jackie magazine. Over the years, though my writing, this is what I’ve learned -

 

1. Write as much as you can in as many different genres as you can. That way when opportunities present themselves you'll be ready. I know this from experience. In March 2011, I signed a contract to have my first work of fiction published, my novella How Kirsty Gets Her Kicks. For various reason it didn't happen. I also started a follow up book I called Die Hard for Girls. When I saw on Twitter that Sassy Books were looking for submissions, I tweeted the editor. Would she be interested in Die Hard for Girls that I'd since renamed Hell to Pay. She said yes and I submitted it and was offered a good royalty contract just days later.

2. That brings me to my second point - make sure you're on social networking sites so you'll see these opportunities. Without Twitter I'd have two books sitting in my unpublished file. Join great forums like Writer's News Talkback. Network with other writers. See an opportunity for another writer, let them know. They'll alert you to an opportunity you might have missed.

3. That brings me nicely to my third point - help other writers. Don't see them as competitors; see them as comrades in the trenches of writing. Help one another. Commiserate when things go wrong; celebrate their successes. Unless you do it can get lonely.

4.Learn to promote your books. You can't expect your publisher to place ads in the big newspapers. They only do that for the big names. As for you, a listing in their online catalogue is the best you can hope for. The plus side is that because you know your book so well you're the best person to promote it. I have Twitter, Facebook pages and dedicated blogs for Dead Bastards and Living Cruelty Free. The only cost to me was my time. I know doing this has sold books.

5.Don't ever tell yourself "I can't write in that." If a story comes alive in your head, go with it. I never thought I'd write a horror novel. Then this image came into my head of a man turning up at his friend's door looking like he'd been mugged. Only when he comes inside it becomes clear that his guts are spilling out and this is no ordinary mugging. When he dies and then comes back and tries to eat them, they realize that the zombies are here.

I just couldn't get this image out of my head of this guy's guts spilling out onto the floor and this Glasgow couple trying to scoop them up and shove them back in again, so I started scribbling away. And so, Dead Bastards was born.

6.Just because a publisher says no the first time doesn't mean you should give up. TWB Press who published my Glasgow zombie novel originally turned it down when I submitted it as a serial. I really admired the ethos of the company (no non-sense entertainment), so I worked on it some more and what was intended to be a 30k novella ended up a 70k novel (although over 10, 000 words were cut). The publisher Terry Wright liked it and wanted to publish it.

 

The zombies are on the move...

I was delighted to be invited over to the amazing McDroll's blog to talk about Dead Bastards and why I wrote it.

To read the piece, click here

McDroll's latest book is called Kick It With Conviction and is a collection of short stories. It's available on Amazon UK and USA.

To find out more about McDroll, click here.

Dead Bastards is available now from the following -

Dead Bastards (A Scottish zombie novel) is coming soon

----------Publication date to be announced------

Delighted to announce that my zombie novel set in Glasgow, will be published by TWB Press as an ebook. To find out more, please click on the book cover and while you're at it why not check out the other great books available.

I'm so pleased to be working with Terry Wright, proprieter of TWB Press, author, screenwriter and all round good guy who is one of the most enthusiastic people I've ever met.

Anyone who knows me will know I'm obsessed with zombies. In fact, I even keep one in my closet (okay, he's about 8 inches tall, is made of plastic and is battery operated, but Fester still tries to eat me).

P.S. No, that's not a picture of me on the cover. I'm much zombier looking.

UPDATE - IN December 2014, the book was renamed The Restless Dead and given a brand new cover. Check it out on Amazon. 

Authors with small publishers to lose out as Amazon takes down reviews by other authors

Bet he doesn't need to worry about getting reviews:)

 

As an author I like to see reviews anyone has done of my books. I appreciate anyone who takes the time to read my books. Last night, I noticed some reviews had absconded.

I did a bit of checking and I found out that in response to a petition by 400 authors, Amazon had decided to remove any reviews from customers who were registered with Amazon Author Central - anyone who has a book published, whether it's traditionally published or self-published can set up an account so people can click on an author's name and see a list of their books.

I think this unfairly penalises authors like me who are with small publishers and those who are self-published.

This is unfair for a number of reasons -

1. Authors rely on peer reviews from other authors to get reviews. Readers say they'll do reviews, but they don't always find the time.

2.Authors read books too. They also buy books from Amazon. Why shouldn't they be allowed to leave reviews like anyone who's not an author can?

3.The reviews I did for books by the big publishers were left alone. In other words, Amazon operate a two tier system - if you're an author with a big publishing house you appear to be protected from review removal, but if you're not stuff you. Amazon can do what they like. 

At the moment, I don't think the same applies to the UK Amazon, but it's only a matter of time. So, if your reviews start to go missing you know what's happened. You could always complain to Amazon, but I've heard about people who have who've been warned that if they don't shut up and go away they're books will be taken off the site.

Better go now, off to see if Stephen King will endorse Hell To Pay I already have some amazing authors who've read it and agreed to endorse it. Watch this space...

So, you've written the book, here comes the doubt

You've got the publisher, written the book and now it's done.

There's no room for doubt.

You've done it.

You're an author.

WRONG

You sent it to other authors for endorsements, your finger hovering over the 'send' button, heart beating like a klaxon because you're worried they'll say 'this is utter garbage, please don't write another word, readers need to be protected from your woeful writing.'

Ditto your publisher.

This is perfectly normal. Most writers have doubts.
For a number of reasons -

1. You're too close to your book. You've read it and edited it many, many times, analysed it, dissected it. No wonder you have doubts whether it's any good or not. Imagine if you did that with someone else's book that you were reading. Would you still like it as much?

2. When you read your book, you're reading it as an editor who's close to the work. You don't read it in the same way as you read other people's books or that people will read yours.

3. You're exhausted. All those hours working away into the wee small hours, of thinking about nothing but your book have drained you. You're not thinking straight.

Now you've written that book, take a rest. Read a good book. Relax. Chill out. You've earned it. 

What's luck got to do with it?

 

The other day, I discovered I hadn't even been shortlisted in a novel writing competition I'd hoped to win. But, I shouldn't have been surprised.

This isn't the real lilac pen. I'm too superstitious to take a picture of it.

You see, when I recorded my entry in my diary, I didn't write it in my lucky lilac pen.

Let me tell you a little bit about my pen.

Every time I've written things down using that pen I've been lucky.

Lucky strike.1 - A publisher asks to see more of one of my novels.

Lucky strike.2 - Two days after sending my revenge novella Hell To Pay to Sassy Books, I sign a contract. The book will be out in 2013.

Lucky strike.3 - I noted the details of an idea for an article I sent to an editor. I got the commission.

Writers and their superstitions, eh?

I know I'm not the only one who's very superstitious when it comes to my writing. I have a friend who writes in longhand. Whenever he makes a mistake he scrunches up the paper and throws it in the bin then starts again.

Extreme? Maybe. But, we all have our ways.

Now, where's that lucky pen?