Tag Archives: Harper Impulse

BUSINESS OF BOOKS: TAKE FOUR WRITERS – DIVIDING, EDITING, DREAMING AND TOURING

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CLAIRE DYER: DIVIDING

This month I’d like to talk about my ‘other’ life. I see myself as both a poet and a novelist and people often ask which I prefer being. My answer is always that I like them both the same. However, there are big differences in the way poetry and fiction are published and so this does inevitably alter things.

For a start a poem is a constantly changing thing. Even when it’s been in print, a poet can change elements of his/her poem when it’s republished or collated in a collection. Secondly, putting together a collection takes YEARS! Novelists think it takes an age to get a book published, but collections of poetry can take mini-lifetimes. My last one, ‘Interference Effects’ kindly published by the very wonderful Two Rivers Press took five years from being a spark in my eye to a book in my hand.

The collection I’m working on at the moment contains poems first written in 2014, the manuscript is due to be delivered to the very wonderful Two Rivers Press in June 2020 and it will be a further year or so before possible publication. And this is fine because it takes patience, love and a whole heap of courage to be a poet. However, all this fades to nothing when a line comes that sets your hairline fizzing or you stand in front of an audience and read something that makes them laugh, gasp or (even better) weep.

Poetry books may be slim, time-consuming, delicate and easily lost in the noise of mass paperback sales, but they are things of beauty nonetheless.

 

LUCY COLEMAN: COUNTING

Finally welcoming in the good news this month, as a loved one is out of intensive care. It feels like a dark shadow has been lifted and the sun can shine again. Miracles can happen!

I’ve hardly moved from my desk with line edits and a cover reveal for A Greek Affair, in preparation for its release on the 28 December 2018 by Harper Impulse. And copy edits for The Writing Retreat on the Italian Lake, due for release on 5 February 2018 by Aria Fiction.

And my first audio book, for The French Adventure, is due out on 29 November 2018.

The good news keeps on coming and there’s even more, but authors get used to sitting on things for a while. So, my lips are sealed. But after the darkest of Octobers, I feel that Christmas has come early and I’m truly counting my blessings!

 

ANGELA PETCH: DREAMING

What about a monthly report starting with:  I’ve been dozing in my hammock on the island of Zanzibar, wondering what to do next. Ha ha! More like – I’ve been wondering how on earth to tackle my to-do list.

“Mavis and Dot” are on a blog tour and I’m relieved my two ladies/babies are appealing to readers. When you read comments from complete strangers like: “I could really see this gem of a book as a fantastic movie…”; “A must read…”; “This book was a total joy from beginning to end…” your heart has to sing. It justifies hours of sitting hunched over a pc. This month has been a mine-field of formatting issues but lovely authors have helped.

But I’m a hybrid and have just come off the phone from a chat with my editor at Bookouture. No peace for the wicked: I have major edits to carry out on my re-write of “Tuscan Roots”.

Where’s that hammock?

 

JACKIE BALDWIN: TOURING

November has been fairly busy as I have been on a Deadly Intent tour around some of the many libraries in Dumfries and Galloway with my partner in crime, Lucy Cameron. It’s been a lot of fun getting out and about to meet readers and some of the libraries have totally spoiled us. In Wigtown, for example, we were all treated to freshly baked scones with jam and cream!

As part of Book Week Scotland, we’re reading along with some other authors at a gin/rum night at The Selkirk Arms in Kirkcudbright, which, coincidentally, is where my second novel, Perfect Dead, is set.

On 29th November, I’ll be on a wee jaunt to Edinburgh for Noir at the Bar which is always a fun night and a chance to discover some great new crime authors.

Finally, I’m pleased to report that my third novel is firmly back on track after all the thrashing about with it last month. I’ve now nailed down the plot which nearly got the better of me and I’m pushing on through the first draft.

See you next month!

 

 

 

BUSINESS OF BOOKS: TAKE FOUR WRITERS – INTRODUCING LUCY COLEMAN

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New year – new opportunities and a new name! Life doesn’t get much better, does it?

My first book – The French Adventure with Aria Fiction (Head of Zeus) – is due for release on 1 February 2018 and I’m elated! The launch of a new book is usually the culmination of more than a year’s work from penning the manuscript, going through the editing and proofing processes and preparations for the marketing to begin.

Now, this isn’t my first book – it’s my twelfth, full-length novel – throw in a couple of non-fiction titles and three novellas and that’s my writing career in a nutshell. But Christmas 2016 was a turning point for me. I remember going to a Romantic Novelists’ Association chapter meeting in Hereford a few months beforehand and someone raised the subject of submitting to agents. Had it crossed my mind before that? Well, yes, but I didn’t feel ready. I had successfully submitted and signed contracts with Endeavour Press, Harper Impulse and Choc Lit at that stage. The turning point for me was triggered by two things. The first one is that contracts aren’t easy to read and secondly, I was beginning to feel more and more like a team of one doing the best I can to steer my career. But secretly I was longing for a little professional guidance.

Now, I have a fantastic relationship with my editors and their support, nurturing and constant pushing to get me to up the bar has been a blessing. But I felt it was time to find that elusive someone who could help me look at my career on a longer-term basis. Up until that point I’d only considered it one manuscript at a time.

So, literally a couple of days before Christmas 2016 I submitted to three agents and by early March 2017 I had signed with the awesome Sara Keane, from the Keane Kataria Literary Agency. It wasn’t long before I was signing my first, four-book deal with Aria Fiction. As I’m still writing for Harper Impulse as Linn B. Halton, my books for Aria Fiction will go out under my new pen name of Lucy Coleman.

Having Sara in my corner, helping me to work on my finished manuscripts to make them the best they can be and introducing my work to Aria Fiction, has sharpened my focus. I’m no longer thinking one book at a time, but forward planning. As each day passes I’m feeling more and more like a Lucy, as well as a Linn … and 2018 promises to be frenetic, fun and fabulous!

It just took a little over a year in the planning, but it was a year well-spent and I can’t wait to begin promoting ‘The French Adventure‘.

Oh, and throw in the added little flurry of activity as my husband and I moved to a new house, in a new area, on 19th December 2017. A paint brush is never far from my hand these days, so it’s handy that I’m good at multi-tasking. The next stage of the journey is about to begin.

Happy New 2018, all!