Self-publishing: mixed emotions

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Mary Stewart, self-publishing

 

Holding your published novel in your hands for the very first time is supposed to be a thrilling moment for an author. But the thrill is shot through with a brimming dose of alarm.

Some authors may be immune from the quaking fear that their book is, after all, a muddled affair, full of mistakes and should never have got itself printed. Learning that Mary Stewart, that brilliant writer of romantic thrillers, burst into tears when her first novel was published (see September’s post ‘Her publishers refused to pulp it’) is a great comfort. She can’t have worried about mistakes or the quality of her writing – her novels were published by Hodder & Stoughton – but even the validation of a traditional publisher wasn’t enough to overcome her dread of being exposed.

With self-publishing, the unnerving sensation of ‘putting oneself out there’ is inevitably more intense. However much valuable feedback is offered by a helpful and talented writing group, this is not the same as the confidence-giving validation of an agent and traditional publishing house. Thoughts that belong to two o’clock in the morning creep into the mind: might sympathetic, friendly groups become deluded, thinking members’ work is better than it is?

But I am still glad I have taken the plunge to self-publish my second novel Of Human Telling. I hope that it is at least good in parts, like the curate’s egg, and brings pleasure to its readers. It certainly looks and feels as nice as All Desires Known. People might even like to buy it for the cover alone, with its beautiful painting by London artist Anne-Marie Butlin.

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A Poem that was Published in The Times

In 2010, Jane – our resident poet – took part in a competition held by The Times to write a love poem for Valentine’s Day. Her entry, Fragments of Love, was among those chosen for publication in the newspaper. Quite an achievement.

In the spring of 2015 ninevoices held its own short story competition to raise funds for Jane’s chosen charity PMRGCAuk, which supports sufferers of linked rheumatic conditions that cause severe pain and can lead to sight loss. Few people have heard of either the condition or the charity, so it is greatly in need of funds and we were delighted to be able to send them a cheque for £500 raised by our efforts.

Ninevoices subsequently published a ‘slender tome’ of ten of Jane’s thought-provoking poems, copies of which were also sold in aid of this ‘Cinderella’ charity.

We are currently offering copies of this attractively illustrated booklet for sale at £5 each, to include postage and packing (UK only, we’re afraid). Payment can be made by PayPal (our preferred option) or by sending a sterling cheque, made out to ninevoices, to: Poetry Book Administrator, 53 The Boundary, Langton Green, Kent, TN3 OYA. We would also need your address details (which we won’t keep) sent either to the address above or to our email address: ninevoices@ymail.com

Most of us have a friend or relative for whom it’s difficult to find a modest Christmas present that’s a bit different. Why not give them Fragments of Love and Other Poems to read while they’re digesting their Christmas pud? You will also be donating in the region of £4 per poetry booklet to an exceedingly worthy cause.

Buy with PayPal:

 

If you click on this link to Fragments of Love , on YouTube, you will be able to enjoy hearing Jane’s poignant poem, which is sensitively read by Val, another member of ninevoices.

Children’s Christmas Story Competion by Amazon

Amazon has launched the search for a modern day version of Twas The Night Before Christmas, as a gift to families for bedtime reading this Christmas Eve. The winning author will win a prize package including professional illustrations of their story that could be read by millions on Christmas Eve, a £2,000 Amazon gift card and a top of the range Fire tablet.

Details here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/b?node=11875736031&linkId=31308657

Alexandre Dumas – man of action

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Action sequences, Alexandre Dumas, Catherine de Médicis, Charles IX of France, French Wars of Religion, Henry of Navarre, Lionel Davidson, Marguerite de Valois, Raymond Chandler

He can write a mean story, that Alexandre Dumas.

Action scenes – they can be difficult to write, for some of us. How to construct them, how to keep them going? Raymond Chandler said that if you don’t know what should happen next in your story, have a man come into the room with a gun. Advice from the master.

Dumas père was another master. And could use his own version of Chandler’s Law to great effect! I’ve just read Dumas’ Marguerite de Valois (La Reine Margot in the original French). A gripping 460 pages of adventure, fighting, skulduggery, plotting, deception, murder, amours and heroism. When one dastardly plot has been foiled, that’s no problem, Dumas just starts another. One action scene follows another.

It’s set in the 16^th century Wars of Religion in France. It starts with the Massacre of St Bartholomew in August 1572, graphically related. Thousands of Protestants have come to Paris for the wedding of the Catholic King Charles IX’s sister Marguerite (she of the book’s title) to Henry, King of Navarre, the leader of the French Protestants. The wedding will, they think, start a period of religious peace. The wedding does indeed take place, but is immediately followed by a massacre of Protestants, instigated by the weirdo King Charles and the villainous Queen Mother Catherine de Médicis: the lowest estimate of those killed was 5,000.

The novel then shows us Henry of Navarre a virtual prisoner in the royal palace of the Louvre and relates his efforts to survive and escape numerous plots against his life. In this he is aided, remarkably, by his Queen Marguerite, despite his open passion for another woman (with whom he spends his wedding night). In the foreground of all this Dumas creates two heroes, young noble gentlemen (La Mole and Coconnas) who during the Massacre do their best to kill each other but who become the firmest of friends, friendship which proves itself in the most desperate of situations.

Other notable characters include King Charles’ jealous and unscrupulous younger brothers, a perfumer-cum-poisoner, an accomplished assassin, and the public executioner whom Coconnas befriends (most usefully, as it turns out). The novel has a splendid selection of the apparatus of adventure stories, such as secret passages, people hiding behind curtains in bedchambers, ingenious methods of poisoning people, a skeleton key, an oubliette, a dangerous boar-hunt, a torture-chamber, lovers climbing in through windows, etc, etc. Wonderful stuff.

One device I see in an exciting thriller I’m reading at the moment (The Night of Wenceslas, by Lionel Davidson, published in 1970) is to have the hero escape from one danger but then almost immediately to find that in fact he hasn’t escaped it … More danger looms: the sigh of relief is short-lived and is replaced by renewed alarm.

So careful plotting is called for. Or, if you haven’t done that, have a man come in with a gun.

How to Make Absolutely Sure That Your Novel Gets Rejected

Reading a somewhat belated obituary today about the legendary agent, Carole Blake, I was stunned to learn that a desperate author once posted a manuscript to her UNDER THE DOOR OF THE LOO CUBICLE IN WHICH CAROLE WAS SITTING at a Book Fair.

 

 

Free Novel Writing Workshops

Sarah’s excellent post of November 2, A Helpful Rejection, made me take a close look at the Myslexia website – where I discovered that the magazine ‘s site generously offers free Novel Writing Workshops.

Workshop Three, currently available at the flick of a finger, suggests how to help your reader focus on your leading character in the opening pages. If he’s a baker, for example, might there be a puff on flour on his clothes when he gets undressed?

Why not check out myslexia.co.uk – under the heading Workshops? And although the magazine has its focus on women writers, there’s plenty of relevant stuff for you guys out there as well.

It might also be worth re-reading A Helpful Rejection. I’ve run a copy off to keep in the front of my reference notes folder.

We Have a Winner!

Congratulations to Nicole J. Simms, who is the winner of our 50-word Halloween story competition. Her entry, inspired by Elizabeth’s spooky photograph of the gravestones at Whitby Abbey, is reproduced at the close of this post. Her magnificent cheque will be in the post to her shortly.

Choosing this story was a lesson in how subjective such exercises are and we eventually had to resort to creating a spreadsheet, with scores, to select Meeting the Parents from a strong field. We loved so many of the other entries that we felt we must also mention six commended writers, in alphabetical order: Patsy Collins, Em, Alva Holland, Kathy Schilback, Mandy Shearing and Katherine Slater.

Meeting the Parents by Nicole J. Simms

‘Is this a joke?’ Sarah studied the gravestones before her.

‘No, we’re here.’ Tom grinned. ‘My folks will love you.’

‘Where are they?’

‘Behind you.’

Slowly, Sarah turned. She shrieked and jumped back.

‘Mum…Dad, this is Sarah.’ Tom’s parents stumbled towards them, arms outstretched. ‘Please don’t eat this one.’

…………..

We especially liked the macabre humour, though we’ll not be walking alone through a graveyard any time soon.

Our thanks to all who took part. Hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. We were tempted to make the commended list twice as long. What imaginations some of you have! Don’t have nightmares, guys…

An Impoverished World

Our world is suddenly impoverished, diminished and bleak. My husband’s beloved grey mare, Calypso, had to be put to sleep at the end of this autumn afternoon.

Nearly There!

We’ve been sitting up late, whittling down the entrants to our Halloween Competition, and have finally narrowed them down to a handful. This Thursday, at our fortnightly meeting, we will make the final choice and publish the name of the winner on this blog on Friday.

It’s been an incredibly difficult task, so if you don’t turn out to be our winner this doesn’t mean your submission wasn’t impressive. There’s a huge amount of talent out there.

A helpful rejection

Some ‘generic’ rejections are a lot more constructive (and encouraging) than others. Mslexia Magazine’s recent letter to writers not longlisted for their children’s novel competition was, I thought, particularly helpful and (with their permission) I’ve reproduced it below. In case you don’t have time to read the whole thing, I was particularly struck by their saying that many more women than men give up submitting their writing after just one rejection:

Our judges commented on how challenging they found the challenge of whittling down submissions for the longlist. ‘My “yes” pile kept growing and there were far too few on my “no” and “maybe” piles, so I ended up having to eliminate a lot of good material,’ one told us. ‘There were so many “nearly there” manuscripts,’ said another. ‘So I hope those that weren’t longlisted won’t feel too dejected.’

Most submissions featured female protagonists; often feisty, or geeky, or bullied or with some kind of superpower – sometimes all four! One judge suggested a more complicated central character might have been more effective. And those written in first person, with a strong and idiosyncratic voice, often grabbed their attention. Where a boy was the main character, he was usually ‘rambunctious’; so, again, a bit more complication would have been welcome.

Another comment concerned the depiction of magical, fantasy or dystopian characters. Our judges wanted to stress that it’s not enough for someone to have a strange name and a special power – a believable personality is far more important.

Many of the novels were set in the familiar terrain of school or home. Where the story was also set in the past, or the future, this worked well. But by and large the more unusual settings were the ones that stood out, especially those in which the setting was integral to the plot. ‘Historical stories tended to be better explored, more original,’ was one comment. ‘I liked it when the writer seemed knowledgeable about the strange world they were creating,’ was another. These comments suggest to me that a light rewrite with a fresh setting might be something you might consider.

A lot of novels began with a prologue, which often consisted of a dramatic and intriguing scene. Unfortunately this was sometimes followed by a rather ponderous Chapter One, occasionally with a different set of characters – so ‘the momentum of the beginning was lost’. Our judges wondered whether the writers could eliminate the prologue altogether and substitute a first chapter that catapulted the reader immediately into the story. ‘Mysterious openings worked from the word go,’ one told us.

I am so sorry not to be able to give you specific feedback on your entry, but I hope that these comments, general as they are, will be of some help if you decide to redraft your novel – which I hope you will. I’m sure you’re aware that the vast majority of published novels are the result of a huge amount of rewriting – changes to the order, the tense, the narrative voice, the main protagonist… What feels like a finished draft is often just the beginning.

That’s not to underestimate what a huge achievement it is to complete an entire manuscript – a survey we conducted a few years ago found that only 24 per cent of women who start a novel have managed to finish it. So we salute you for getting this far.

We also found out recently, in another survey, that many women – many more than men – give up submitting their writing after just one rejection. I do hope that this letter won’t have that effect on you, and that you will see it as an almost inevitable part of the writer’s life. And that, when the dust has settled, you will let us see some more of your work.