Murder Your Darlings Dreckly!

As writers, we all know the agony of editing and erasing some of your favourite prose.



The phrase "Murder your darlings!" was coined by Sir Arthur Quiller Couch (“Q”), compiler of the Oxford Book of English Verse and a host of novels about his native Cornwall.

  A quick check on Wikipedia gives a list of 45 books associated with Cornwall. Lots of familiar names, too.



The list is dominated by Winston Graham, and the Poldark series, (the man solely responsible for the recent surge of interest in scything!) and by Daphne du Maurier, surely the doyen of Cornish authors. There are many others though. Enid Blyton set her “Mallory Towers” series of school novels in Cornwall.

Back in Victorian times, RM Ballantyne gave us “Deep Down! A tale of the Cornish mines.” A very readable story and the result of three months he spent at the Botallack in St Just. Coincidently, and a nice example of "what goes around, comes around," Deep Down is the title of a recent Jack Reacher story.

Rosamunde Pilcher hit a literary gold mine with The Shell Seekers; Victoria Holt, Mary Wesley and Susan Howatch too have fallen under the “Kernow Spell”

So why? What is it that brings these amazing authors to write of Cornwall?

For me, it’s the atmosphere. I find that the land and sea, the mines and manor houses, cast a spell. Its as if a parallel world exists when you cross the Tamar.

Many modern authors have set their stories there and use the land or its history as a foundation for their stories, including Victoria Cornwall, one of the Novel Point of View bloggers. I read her first novel – The Thief’s Daughter and loved it. An excellent historical romance adventure, and packed with bona fide detail! .

This is a county where history and legend can be found around every corner, and in every glade in the woods and every cove and bay along the coast. It’s a coast that has seen every phase of history from Phoenician traders coming for tin to make bronze, through raids by African pirates seeking slaves, the mining of tin, copper, arsenic and china clay, the rise and fall of a massive coastal fishing industry based on pilchards, flowers, farms and American soldiers and sailors for the invasion of France in WWII, and now a massive and growing tourist industry.

Some authors make the county their own. Liz Fenwick, American by birth, is now, according to the Guardian, “An award-winning author of eight novels, dubbed 'the queen of the contemporary Cornish novel' “ Her latest novel, The River Between Us, has just been awarded the Popular Romantic Fiction Award by the Romantic Novelists Association..

And so to come right up to date with the myriad of modern authors, across all genres and tropes who succumb to the mystic charms of this multifaceted corner of the country. Check out Melanie Hudson, Jane Johnson, Phillipa Ashley, Mandy James, Kate Ryder, Kitty Wilson! They and others ALL weave their tales using Cornwall’s magic to set their scenes, and very well done, too.

“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley Cornwall again,” and we are off there on holiday in a couple of weeks!

Sharing is Caring! (or The Rules of Engagement)

OK! So, you are an author. What we all want to be is a Successful Author. However, remember; you are the person who defines your success.

For some, it’s just completing your manuscript. For others, it may be to make the bestseller lists in a category, and for others to make lots and lots of Money (I wish you joy in that last one unless JK Rowling reads this blog and she can take it for granted!)

Again, if you ARE JK Rowling, you have a complete publicity machine to roll into action on your behalf. But, sadly, for most of us, WE are our publicity machine! So today even those already commercially successful are required to do more and more themselves.

So what to do? 

In 2 words – Spend Money!💰🪙💳 A marketing campaign MUST have a budget of some sort.

 Obviously, the size of your budget can vary from a tiny amount, enough for a banner, some cards and some leaflets, right up to – in the case of some of the most successful US independent authors – many, MANY thousands of dollars. They will place adverts in social media and will use professional marketers. Because they already have success, they can almost guarantee a massive increase in sales in using their Amazon, Twitter, BookBub and a Mailing List and other Social Media. They will use all the statistical data available to plot the success of each of their adverts and repeat or change them as necessary.

The dichotomy is of course, time. How to split your time between writing and promotion/mrketing. This is a question only you could answer. You must do what suits you best and what you are happy with. In the words of Maria Kondo (how trendy am I?)  Your writing MUST bring you joy!

From my own observations, I would say that the absolute best and ONLY way to have a lasting success as an author, is to KEEP WRITING! If you look at some of my independent author friends, or some of those contracted to Harlequin Mills & Boon, one immediately apparent thing is their amazing literary fecundity!! Some of the HMB authors and many Independents are producing 4 or more books a year.

The more books they write, the more they can give away for promotion. Their marketing becomes a creature with its own life-force, and their marketing invariably involves ENGAGEMENT with their readers.

If you look at some of the more successful authors in contemporary fiction, and as examples, say, Carole Matthews and Marion Keyes, both engage extensively with their readership through Social Media. Long may they continue!

Moving towards the shallow end of the enormous pool of writers, there are two things that we can all do to further our sales goals.

1. Keep expanding your circle of friends and acquaintances both in real life (i.e. at conferences, talks, signings, book-launches, writing events and the like) and on-line through those old favourites, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram  - to which we can now add TikTok. Every time you post in ANY of these you are tossing a pebble into the pool, and are keeping those ripples moving.
2. Keep sharing THEIR news! It’s not a competition, and there is no limit to the amount of goodwill we can show to other writers. Then, hopefully, they will share YOUR good news when you have something to share. What goes around tends to come around.

So Keep Sharing, and Keep Engaging.

And now – News about Hedgehogs!!🦔

They are back! They are now beginning to wake up from hibernation. We leave food out for them through the winter in case they feel like getting up for a quick snack. As I write, we are having a series of gales, but this doesn’t seem to have any effect on them.

A few days ago, I put the camera out just on a whim – and was very pleasantly surprised to find some hedgie pics in the morning. Now a regular occurrence. We seem to get 2 calls every night, one between midnight and one a.m. and the other between three and four o’clock. 

****** As I finish this, Ive just seen an article in the Guardian making a very similar point! Sadly, the message is the same in the world of music as in our world of writing! We are not alone, so keep the faith, and keep Engaging!

‘Making music is about making assets for social media’: pop stars battle digital burnout https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/feb/18/making-music-is-about-making-assets-for-social-media-pop-stars-battle-digital-burnout

Awards and Engagements!

For this week’s Blog Post I thought I’d say a few words about the Joan Hessayon Award of the Romantic Novelists Association. Many of you know about this, but it’s fallen to me, as the “local rep in York” to organise the actual event where the Award is made for the last couple of occasions.

This year’s event is different for a couple of reasons. Foremost it’s the first live RNA event for a year and a half! Because of the dreaded Covid everyone is feeling their way, getting used to meeting real people and actually talking to friends old and new in real life, and not on Zoom!

Our event takes place at the Merchant Taylors Hall, one of York’s three extant guild halls. The Merchant Taylors Guild still very much exists today, as a benevolent charity. They do a lot of great stuff, although it’s a long, long time since any member picked up a needle in earnest. We have a few less attendees than normal this year because of Covid. This does make social distancing easier, of course.

RNA Chair, Alison May, 2019 Winner, Lorna Cook,
and the previous winner, Hannah Begbie.

A candidate is any RNA member who has had their first novel published having come through the Romantic Novelists Association New Writers Scheme. I came through this scheme myself and cannot recommend it enough. As a start-up writer the support and feedback that you do get is amazing. This year there are eleven candidates, and I wish them every success this weekend.

The candidates in the 2019 Award Ceremony.

Nobody goes hungry at the York Tea!!

And THIS years winner is: Caroline Day, 

 And now on to part 2. I’ve Just Got Engaged – and So Should You!

 No, not to anyone you know, but rather Engaged With…. Yes, the word is ENGAGEMENT.

The people who read this blog will – in the main – be writers. You can divide these into three classes.

• 1.       Conventionally published, with one of the “Big 5”
• 2.       Conventionally published with one of the new, Small Publishing Houses,
• 3.       Independently or self-published.

If you are Independently published, you know you must do all the publicity, sales, and marketing on your own.

If you are with a Small Publishing House, you will also have to do all your own publicity, sales, and marketing by yourself!

And, if you are with one of the “Big 5”, you are STILL expected to do a lot of your own publicity, sales, and marketing!

So the word-of-the-day is Engagement. i.e., Engaging with your readers, your followers and the general public. In short, with anyone that you think might buy, borrow from the library, or download your book. 

And how do we find them? Social Media, I’m afraid.

People either love social media (i.e., me) or hate it. However, this is not about your feelings of distaste, its about SELLING YOUR BOOKS!

This post is going to look at just part of 1 facet of it. Facebook and Facebook Groups. Why? Because Facebook is the LARGEST social media platform by far – nearly 3 BILLION users!

And –1.8 billion people use Facebook Groups, and there are tens of millions of groups on Facebook.

https://blog.hootsuite.com/facebook-statistics/

Facebook Groups are your way of expanding your reach. The trick is to be selective, and only join those groups that contain fans or users of your kind of work, be it any of the different writing tropes or genres.

Big group or small group? If a group is getting 60 posts an hour, then your post is likely to be visible for a minute, tops. If it is getting 3 posts a day, then your post will stick around a lot longer. Facebook itself wants more activity directed to Groups.

“But I don’t have anything to say!”

Of course you do. Your news includes:

• 1.       When your cover comes out.
• 2.       When you get a publishing date.
• 3.       When you sign a contract with a publisher
• 4.       When you are signed by an agent.
• 5.       When your book appears in the best seller lists.
• 6.       When your book is referenced in the press.
• 7.       When you get a review.
• 8.       When you work up a new advert for your book.
• 9.       When you are having a launch party
• 10.   When you are having a blog tour
• 11.   When you are appearing in anyone else’s Blog, or on their page.
• 12.   When you are going to a writing event
• 13.   When you have been to one (especially with photos)
• 14.   When you have a new entry on your own blog or page.
• 15.   When you are meeting writing friends socially
• 16.   When you are starting your edits
• 17.   When you are finishing them.
• 18.   When you see your book on a shelf for sale.
• 19.   When your cat does something extra cute.
• 20.   Your dog, ditto!

 Always – with any of the above – include a link to the event / page, etc., and to your book.

On the hedgehog front, they have abandoned us! Hopefully they will be back in the New Year. In the meantime, we are leaving food out, just in case. We now have the fattest magpies and pigeons IN THE WORLD!!