Changes

Autumn is here. One of my favourite seasons, possibly the favourite. I took  some photos yesterday and then lost them in transferring them to my PC. Ages since I've done that, and so annoying but I don't suppoe the fields and hedgerows will change much in a day or two, when I can take them all again. Since I came back from France I've had the fields mostly to myself, which is good, but it also surprises me. The weather has been so brilliant this year, and yet people don't seem to have been out and about exploring. Or if they have, the have not been where I've been!

The internet is desperately quiet, too. People say it is because  of all the changees to Facebook and it does seem less hectic than a year ago. Time was when new posts would go flying by with barely time to see what they were; now the same post stays for ages. It is becoming boring. I assume that this means posts promoting books will be so much less effective and wonder if it is a ploy to get authors to use Facebook Ads. Paid, of course. I heard today that Amazon, which now owns Goodreads, is using the GR friends page to find and delete "friend" reviews on Amazon. Way sneaky, I think.

Reviews are hard enough to get without this sort of nuisance fiddling, and since Goodreads and Fb both count mere contacts as "friends" this is likely to mean reviews will disappear. One way round it, I've read, is to mark your friend pages as open only to yourself. That way Amazon cannot read them. I don't know if it is true, but I pass it on for what it is worth.

A new beginning, or An overhaul

If you are like me, you write a profile biog to Facebook or Twitter and promptly forget about it. The same goes for book blurbs on my blog, not to mention cover photos that ought to have been updated. Something I read on Facebook yesterday jabbed at my (guilty) conscience and partly because it was New Year's Day, I looked at some of the old information about myself and my books and quickly decided it needed up- dating.

It is such a quiet time of year now that the festivities are over and guests have gone on to other countries that it is a good time to reconsider how I present myself. Unfortunately while I have gained in writing experience over the last decade, and learned various ways of attempting PR, I have also gained a few more lines and wrinkles than I used to have, so I am not so keen on putting up new photographs of myself unless I go for the misty, half veiled approach - which might work!

They (those pundits who know so much about these things) keep telling me that paper books are on the rise again, and certainly my e-book sales have slowed this year. It is hard to get a definitive view of what is really happening with so many conflicting reports from journalists and the various publishing and book bodies out there. I often wish I had started  writing a lot earlier than I did, but I can't change that. I enjoy what I do, so I'll keep on doing it,and try to be a little more pro-active with my PR stuff. I'm fit and healthy as we embark on 2018 and the only thing that gets between me and my writing is the time I spend with my husband and my dog. Oh, and Facebook. And Twitter. And probably a few other things I've forgotten....

Promotion

New month, new targets.
Rule no 1: I must remember to promote my books.
It's difficult. There's no natural talent for promotion in any bone of my body and every tweet seems like a plea rather than a promotion. The fact that the way to do it seems to change every few months. Once yahoo groups seemed to be the answer but now they seem to be fading fast. Then it was Facebook and Twitter - much to the horror of certain people who thought promoting one's books on Twitter was beyond the pale. Didn't they realise Twitter was all about promotion, even if it was promotion of self? Funny how they rush to tell everyone how much they've drunk, eaten, spent and then condemn authors for promoting a good book.

So I shall have to do a little investigating and find out where the best people promote these days. If only I had Aidan Turner to promote for me, I'd be certain of success!

A world of books

It is tricky to get definitive numbers, but let’s say that 100,000 new fiction titles are published every year in the English language. What then are the chances of a particular book reaching the best seller lists? Mathematicians among you can work out the odds. I daren't even try, for they must be frighteningly high.

For new or wannabe authors, and these days there are many, it’s a daunting prospect. Good books will simply be crushed in the rush. Being ignored is bad enough, but Professional reviews – if a writer can get them – can be caustic, and the comment section of Amazon is noted for driving struggling new writers to contemplating suicide.

 I've read that publishers tend to concentrate the PR budget on perhaps half a dozen books and the rest are left to fend for themselves. That means the author has to roll up his or her sleeves and do what they can via electronic technology, for without some sort of exposure, the book will remain unnoticed and unread. Unhappily, Amazon algorithms aid and abet this by taking the most popular books to the front of the list. Reviewers tend to review the same titles, bookshops stock the titles they thiink will sell, and usually they’re all choosing the sort of read you would expect to find in the top fifty books of the year. None of this is geared toward finding the debut or middle list author.

The reader takes few risks in this burgeoning market. Some, spending almost £15 on a paperback that is too large to handle comfortably in bed and which turns out to be not such a great read after all, may go so far as to ignore that author in future. They may even write an unfavourable review. But then, readers are so very subjective in their tastes. I’ve read an awful lot of books in my life, but these days there are many books I pick up and return to library shelves unfinished. I often complain that I cannot find anything I like, which sounds as if I must be the pickiest person in the world when the numbers published are taken into account. I’m attracted by a good blurb, but often the book doesn’t live up to it.

Trying to find a good read for me means stalking the libraries, bookshops, listening to friends and dodging about the many internet  sites but eventually, even for the most dedicated, (which I am not!) the search begins to pall. There is so much on offer! How can I make a choice? It seems to me I either buy an armful, or I buy nothing. What kind of choice is that? Perhaps, just perhaps, too many books are published these days.