More #Writing & #BookMarketing Tips

While this blog is a portal for Hornsea Writers, as well as ploughing on with their works-in-progress, individual members continue to do their thing on their own websites.

How to handle Twitter image sizing?

Stuart Aken has available No 15 of his grammar and word choice tips Cut the Fat: Make Your Writing Lean - this time highlighting how empty phrases and repeats can be overlooked.

Linda Acaster has uploaded the second in her series E-Book Marketing Doldrums? Her attention turns to Twitter - how to come to grips with scheduling, using images, and choosing hashtags.

#eBook Marketing Doldrums?

Lone indie author or within a publishing house's stable, authors have to promote their own titles and market their own brand-names. Pick up a pen and it comes with the territory. 

It is also easy to take one's eye from the bouncing ball. Let's be honest, life happens. 

After an unexpected lay-off, Linda Acaster is ready to upload a Supernatural Suspense... into a bit of a vacuum. Join her on her website as she considers the dilemma, and plans her way to a resolution.

Short of Success?

Stuart Aken, who recently had a short story competition entry shortlisted and published in the winners’ anthology, writes about the benefits of entering writing contests. Short fiction is popular with readers, but almost impossible to have published. The contest route can be a way of gaining recognition and publication. You’ll find his post on the subject if you click this link.

The relevance of the picture of the Humber Bridge will become clear when you read to the end of the post and click on the final link there!

A Far from Conventional Convention.

Stuart Aken was invited by his publisher, Fantastic BooksPublishing, to attend FantastiCon 2015 to sign copies of the hardback edition of his science fiction novella, The Methuselah Strain. The event took place over the weekend of 24/25^th October in a hotel on the banks of the River Humber. As Stuart spent a good deal of his youth in the village where the hotel is located, it was something of a treat for him to return. He gives a full account of the event on his blog, highlighting the benefits of attendance for a writer. You can find that piece by clicking here.

The unexpected mountain and does it matter?

Most publishers (in my experience anyway) ask for some input from the author on the book cover although they retain the right to a final say. I'm happy with that. Marketing and covers are more their area than mine. The exception for me has been the US market. I get no say at all. I don't even get to see the covers until I receive my author copies of the book. Is that a problem? Not for me. Every cover has been spot on. Here are the previous ones:

Ok, it's not a problem for me, but should it be?

Those moors look like the wrong end of Yorkshire, and that castle is certainly the wrong bit of Scotland and the white cliffs of ... ahem ... Withernsea... but you know what, in each case the scene and the mood are just perfect. These people are actually reading my books! They must be or they'd never get the covers so completely spot on. And now number 4 has arrived. Here it is:

Again we see the rolling hills of the famously flat East Yorkshire coast, but just look at that water, the hanging mist, the boat, and the wonderful colours on the lamp. It's the essence of the book in a single image. Do I care that I get no say in these covers? Not a jot.

CLICK HERE for the Annie Raymond mysteries

A Fantastic Showcase for Hornsea Writers

Next week FantastiCon 2015 lands in Hull, lights flashing, space ships circling, aliens and androids descending. Get a feel for the event by watching the TV advert HERE. 

It’s an international event, and Hornsea Writers will be there.

FantastiCon is a huge Sci-Fi / Fantasy extravaganza featuring actors and writers from Dr Who, Star Wars and Elite: Dangerous. As well as an array of virtual reality experiences, full-sized Daleks, live gaming and an indie cinema, attendees will see five books launched.

Dr Who actor, Simon Fisher-Becker, is releasing the first volume, My Dalek has a Puncture, of his 3-part autobiography with an exclusive version of his one-man show. Keeping him company will be Hornsea Writer Stuart Aken who will be launching the hardback edition of his novelette, The Methuselah Strain.

The other launch books, two fantasy tales and one Sci-Fi are The Boy in Winter’s Grasp, Till They Dropped and Shadeward: Emanation.

The works of Hornsea Writers Penny Grubb and Linda Acaster will be featured at the Fantastic Bookstore within the convention.

CLICK HERE for details of FantastiCon.

Hull Book Fair

The Hull Book Fair was held on a Saturday in mid-September. An initially rainy day cleared up in time for hordes of readers to pour into Hull’s central library to feast their eyes on the best of local writing.

The Fair was opened by Mike Ulyett and Library Services Director, Michelle Alford. 

Hornsea Writers’ stall was sponsored by Fantastic BooksPublishing. 

The picture shows (L to R) authors Madeleine McDonald, Ann Wilkinson, Sylvia Broady and Penny Grubb standing behind their collection of 28 different titles – books from Hornsea Writers themselves plus recent publications from local publisher Fantastic Books. The stall featured crime, fantasy, paranormal, saga, autobiography, historical and writing guides. 

A Shameless Demand for Your Hard-Earned Cash!

I'll be uncharacteristically brief. I took part in the Great North Run last Sunday. That's a run of 13.1 miles for those who don't know. I'm 67 and undertook the run to raise funds for the charity that helped me defeat the pernicious condition commonly known as ME/CFS, from which I suffered for 10 years. Now recovered, which in itself is an unusual event, I wanted to give something back to the community that supported me. So, please visit my blog here to discover how you can gain a free eBook as a reward for your generosity. A look at another post, here, will give those of you who are interested full details of the run itself (it's a long post). But, if I've caught you at your most busy and generous, you can bypass it all by simply going to my JustGiving site here and donating a couple of quid, dollars, euros, or any other currency you happen to have on your person.

Thank you for you attention and your generosity.

Three books at a time

Hornsea Writer Penny Grubb recently found herself reading three books at once and wondering how this came about. The books were a crime novel, an autobiography and a romance. 

In the normal course of events Penny would put these genres in order of preference as first the crime, second the biography and lastly the romance. In the case of this triple read, the order upended itself and became romance, crime, then autobiography. 

The reasons were varied, touching on a doctor demanding a cigarette on a hospital ward, a peer of the realm being not quite as irritating as he might have been and a rather clever mirroring of a favourite classic. Follow this link for more detail of Penny’s take on Sayers, Tennant and Bard.