Off to a good start!
When the children come launched digitally on 8th January 2021, and by 12th Jan it had edged into the top 1000 books on Amazon US, and had a great first week, in Canada too. The Blog Tour led to some brilliant reviews, followed by more 4* / 5* reviews. Lara is the surprise hit character, though of course people want more of Sally. I’ve noticed that people are already searching Amazon for the sequel, so I had better keep cracking on with it. …
The writer’s manifesto
I fell asleep for 15 minutes, and woke up with this in my head.
The Writer’s Manifesto
I, the undersigned writer, understand and accept the following ten conditions:
- I will never be completely happy with my manuscript, because it always could have been just that little bit better.
- Even though I write something great, it may never find a publisher, its due audience, or sell well.
- It may not get the cover it deserves, or even one I like.
- I may have to do most, if not all of my marketing, and spend large sums of money and inexhaustible time on social media with little sales impact.
When is a novel finished?
This is a kind of zen koan – a mind-bending unanswerable question – for many authors. But as I’m getting ready to send off my next manuscript, these are the ten questions I ask myself:
- Prose – is it fresh, evocative, vivid, agile? Is it clean, with the occasional sparkle? Are the first five pages as good as they can possible be? Does it have a killer first line? Does the reader get a feel (or at least a hint) for the upcoming conflict in the first few pages?