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Traditional or Indie publishing – which is right for you?
I’m in the process of giving my blog a spring clean, deleting old, out-of-date posts and generally tidying up, and I thought it would be fun to share this, my very first post! I wrote this back in 2013, prior to self-publishing my first novel. Have my opinions changed since then? Take a look, and […]
Edinburgh should be on everybody’s bucket list #holiday
I’ve been hanging onto this one for a while – since May, in fact, as there has been so much else going on, but I felt it was about time to start sharing my visit to this amazing city. I’m not, by nature, a city lover. Holidays, for me, are usually about getting out into […]
#BookReview – A HEAVEN FOR TOASTERS by Nicholas C.Rossis #SF
Back with yet another review – this one a recently released novel by fellow blogger Nicholas C. Rossis. Blurb A science fiction crime adventure with plenty of humour and romance A souvlaki and some sun. That is all Detective Mika Pensive wanted from her fun weekend away on the Greek islands. Instead, she finds herself […]
How to write attention grabbing sentences: active vs passive construction #amwriting
With the huge number of novels available these days, it’s important to grab your readers’ attention immediately or they may never read past the sample pages Amazon offers. There’s lots of advice out there on writing those all-important opening lines – start with action, suggest something unusual, be controversial etc. – but I want to […]
Touring the Isle of Harris, #OuterHebrides day 7 #Scotland
Our second day on Harris was planned well in advance around a visit to the North Harris Eagle Observatory. I have seen a golden eagle once before, up on the north coast of Scotland, but this particular site has a resident pair and sightings are frequent, so with fingers firmly crossed, off we set. On […]
4 steps to writing your Amazon book blurb – notes from #20BooksLondon
Sharing a bit more of what I learned at 20BooksLondon, here is a resume of the notes I took on blurb writing. Now I’m fairly confident about my blurb writing ability, but I’m very aware in this industry things change – what works this week doesn’t next (especially in marketing), so any of the latest […]
#20BooksLondon – World building with a difference #publishing
When I was trying to figure out what to share first about the lessons I learned at the 20Books conference, I decided the best thing would be to talk about the one thing I didn’t take notes on before I forget! I didn’t take notes because this is never going to be me (I think), […]
How I sold 1,000 books over the holidays #marketing #bestseller
Here is my promised share of how I sold 1000 books and became a bestseller (in Canada and Australia, at any rate) over the 10 days of the Christmas/New Year holiday. Settle in, folks, this is going to be a long post. First up, what I did was nothing ground breaking, just plain old advertising […]
Authors, do you use beta readers? Editors? I have a guilty secret… #amwriting #amediting
Since I joined the Indie publishing scene back in 2013, I have read SO many times the advice, nay instruction, ‘thou shalt not publish without having your work professionally edited/proof read/beta read’. But I have a guilty secret… I don’t use editors or proof readers. Gasp! Isn’t my work trash? Well, apparently not, if my […]
Writers, how do you manage your time? Have you discovered the Pomodoro technique? #TimeManagement #amwriting
I shared this technique earlier on Marcia Meara’s blog, THE WRITE STUFF, while Marcia continues her clear up after the destruction visited upon her home by Hurricane Irma. I am not a full time writer. Like a lot of others, I have to fit my writing time around my full time business. And my business is […]
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