Snippets and Jamaica Inn

Today I'm thinking Viking Magic  might be a good title, but I haven't checked to see how many books - if any - have already used it. I thought of it just before I fell asleep and it has stayed with me overnight. Most good ideas disappear into thin air while you sleep. Viking Magic can refer to so many things in the story, not least the plain old magic practiced by Karli Olafsson.

Today is a good day for getting on with some work as the clouds are so  low they're just about sitting on the lawn and Tim and I made trails in the dew as we walked across the field. We met Dan the lurcher this morning, and he seems to accept us now. Initially he chased poor Tim and wouldn't come to me in greeting. He was a rescue dog and no one knew his history, but he was scared of other dogs. We first met him at puppy school last year when no other dog could get near him. So, great strides are being made there.

DH is busy making sourdough bread. Paul told us about it when he came at Christmas, and since then we have been eating it instead of "ordinary" bread. The big Kilner starter jar stands on the bench above the radiator, and every couple of days dh takes some of the yeastless dough and makes bread with it. Then he feeds the dough left in the jar and it grows and expands until there's enough to make another loaf. Suits us perfectly. Tastes good, and is so much more filling than bought bread. He's also promised to make some Florentines. We both adore those. Yum.

I am one of those people who sat down ready to watch Jamaica Inn, episode 1, and gave up 3/4 of the way through. I'm not surprised it attracted 2,182 complaints about mumbled dialogue by the end of the third episode. I'm amazed that 4.1 million people tuned in to watch the third and final episode.Two million decided they had something better to do.

The sound engineers came in for some stick, but really, there was nothing wrong with the sound levels. I could even hear the wind blowing around the house. Perhaps they relied on microphones within cameras? Perhaps actors think that turning aside and speaking into someone's pocket is real life - it may be so, but in real life we get the chance to  say What Did you Say?? In drama, actors should speak to be heard. The actors mumbled - that was the problem. Especially the vile uncle Joss.

Ben Stephenson of the BBC, later said the problem was partly down to the actors.
"Actors not being clear is obviously one part of it but my understanding about the complaints about Jamaica Inn was more complex than that," he said. "I think it's probably not right to just single out that, but clearly we want actors to speak clearly. Of course we want them to give brilliant performances and you've got to respect that but if no-one can understand what they're saying then there is a problem."

The pic? The Hebridean Princess turning up outside the Crinan Hotel. Possibly the ship the Queen hired for her 80th birthday trip.

Kindle Covers

They say you can change your book cover on any Kindle title, and I'm wondering about doing it. Sometimes a cover seems good and right for the book, but a year later it seems drab and dreary - definitely not exciting.
So how easy is it to change that cover? I'm looking into it.

When brand new books are published with different covers in different parts of the world, you have to wonder why. The answer has to be that different populations respond to different images, and since the professionals who commission the covers know what they are doing, it would be silly not to take note of how they operate. The cover I did for Victorian Beauty has not caught anyone's imagination. If I changed it, would I change both the cover and the title?

I chose the original title because I was writing about a heroine who was not deemed beautiful after the accident she suffered at the hands of a brutal husband. But it has suddenly dawned on me that no one but me knows that until they have read the book. The irony doesn't work. Why has it taken this long to realise such an obvious fact? (Because authors are too close to their work to see the thing objectively. I can hear you all saying it!)

Melanie and ... Lord Jarrow's Secret might be more intriguing as a title. Certainly it gives a better flavour of the story. And since the title isn't selling terribly well, I have nothing to lose by trying a new cover and a new title if I want to bother fiddling about with it. I could make it a feature of the book in that every so often, the cover changes. If I keep an eye on numbers, I might gain a clue as to how the cover affects sales - if at all!



 When I get this photograph to the right size and shape, it may become the new cover. At least I have no copyright worries, as it is a photograph I took myself. Are the colours more inviting? I think so, yes. Does it need the addition of a figure or does the cover stand well enough without one? Is it the title change that works better than the change of cover? Difficult decisions I need to mull over.

If you have any views, do comment and let me know what you think!

Titles - Joy or Torture?

Are you good at thinking up titles for your book? Next to writing all the bits that go with the submission, I find coming up with a memorable title almost the hardest thing of all.

I’ve always understood that the publisher, or more accurately the marketing department, has the last word on this, but even so, you want a good title when you send something out to an agent. I’ve always considered it as a working title that may later change, but this alone can make you feel it’s hardly worth slogging away for hours when what you’ve dreamed up may not last.

But the title is part of the package that will hopefully catch an agent’s attention, so … remember it will set up an association of ideas in the agent’s mind, perhaps even at a subconscious level, before they finish reading your cover letter. Think about it: you only have to see the words Cruel Mistress, Considerate Lover and you know you can’t be far from the category romance. Cloud Atlas, and you know you are moving into the realms of literary fiction. Words, even single  words, have great power and depending on your perception and their context, words convey whole volumes of meaning. a good example would be Revelation. Others might be Heretic, or Heresy, Treason. Look at them, and see what filters into your mind. Those few small words, when applied to your book, will set up a whole raft of expectations in your reader.

If you thought up a good, strong title that captures the eye, the chances are good that the publisher will keep it, and that will give you a nice warm little glow in the days when your book is for sale. So the first step is to decide what sort of a book you’ve written. Romance? Thriller? That gives you a handle on the sort of titles you should consider. Then start thinking of any ad every title you could possibly use. I check them against Amazon, because one thing you don’t want is a title that  has already been used – and possibly used more than once, for more than one genre.

Rachelle Gardner, Literary Agent, recommends free associating at this point: write lists, she says.  Put all the words associated with your book "in columns: nouns, verbs, adjectives. Describe or suggest the setting. Then think about each of your major characters and write down words that relate to them. Think about the action in the story and write down verbs that capture it.” Keep going until you have at least 100 words.

There has been a fashion (it may even be passé now) for single word titles, which can be powerful. If not, put combinations of your words together. If you have a thesaurus, use it. to jog your memory. From this point, you should be able to winkle out perhaps 20 possible titles. Then go away and do something else for a day. The following day, add any ideas you’ve had in the intervening 24 hours to your list. Then select the five that appeal most and try them out on other people.

A couple of days later, consider how your potential titles would sit in among the lists you’ve seen on Amazon – or your local bookshop if that’s handy. Are you happy to make a final choice? Does the selected title match your book? Does it suggest right away that this book is Romance, Historical, Thriller? Is there any sense of a time period within the words? Will it attract attention from the buying public? If you are planning a series, can your title be adapted or made to fit and match with later volumes? Dunnett connected six of her titles in the Lymond series to chess, and the idea worked beautifully.

Rachelle has more to say on the topic.

The joy of titles

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Cold weather starting to bite now. Down to minus 6 Centigrade in Yorkshire overnight, and we weren't far behind. Today it is raining, my least favourite winter weather. Damp and cold. Ugh.
Time to be indoors snuggling up to my computer and thinking of travelling through France in the summer of 1544 with my trusty hero.
I'm thinking of sending out a new partial sub. for Matho One even though it's only a few days to Christmas. The literary agents can't be at parties all the time, and surely most authors have better things to do than submit to agents at this time of year? Maybe my sub. will sneak in and catch people by surprise when they're in a good mood and with time on their hands!
I tentatively titled this story Treason, but as someone pointed out, Matho may not actually be committing treason simply because he crosses the border from England into Scotland. As a foreign national, what he sets out to do in Scotland is more properly an act of war. So I'm back to no title again.