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Best Endeavours Endeavouring To Surprise: Jane Cable on what happens once that publishing deal is in the bag

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Jane Cable’s blog about what happens once that digital publishing deal is in the bag continues.

ENDEAVOURING TO SURPRISE

I was just about to sit down to write this – and to tell you all about my marketing plans for the new year – when I was distracted by my inbox. Hard to ignore an email from my publisher Endeavour Press though. Hard, and probably not a wise choice.

This one was short and to the point: ‘Please find attached the cover that we have designed for Another You – I do hope you like it. Many thanks for returning the manuscript as well, all going well we are hoping to publish it at some point this week.’ Argh… and ARGH!

Seeing the cover for the first time was always going to be one of those make or break moments and I fingered the ‘download attachment’ button nervously. But I could see a thin slice of the title in the preview pane and the vibrant red script drew me in.

First impressions? I loved it. And first impressions are the most important on a crowded page of thumbnails on Amazon. ‘Open me! Read me!’ it screamed. “The past is never dead…” it told me – and instantly I wanted to know why. Well, I would have if I didn’t already, but you get my drift.

The cover works on so many levels. The GIs in sepia in the past, the modern woman with a touch of colour in the present. The sea, the colours, linking them both. Boy oh boy, am I one happy writer.

There is one proviso though, but I am undecided about whether it’s important. Marie would never wear a skirt that short and while she’d love the hat, she probably couldn’t afford it. When she isn’t in her chef’s whites she almost invariably shoves on a pair of jeans – or if she has to dress to impress, a pair of tailored trousers. Now if you’re the sort of reader who likes to imagine their own characters you won’t care a jot, but if you like to refer to the cover to see what they look like then it could be just a little bit irritating… although overall I suspect I am splitting hairs.

More important is the strap line. There were a few different ones flying around. In the original blurb it was ‘What happens when you reach out and touch the past?’ which I replaced with ‘When the present is unbearable, can you be saved by the past?’ (Amazon loves a question). But the line on the cover is snappy and succinct. Job done.

And it’s just as well one job is, because if the book is going to come out this week then I’m way, way behind. My website updates may have gone to the designer, but they’re still in her in tray; my blog tour is only just beginning to come together; Lisa my PR sent me a draft press release a few weeks ago but I haven’t even had time to open it. And this week is pretty well fully booked… even if I believed that just a fraction before Christmas was a good time to promote a summer read.

A new marketing strategy beckons. Sshh – don’t tell anyone it’s out there. Yet.

 

Jane Cable is the author of two independently published romantic suspense novels, The Cheesemaker’s House and The Faerie Tree, and a sporadic contributor to Frost. Another You tells the tale of how two young American soldiers born sixty years apart help forty-something Marie Johnson to rebuild her shattered confidence and find new love. Discover more at www.janecable.com.

 

 

Best Endeavours Critical Endeavours: Jane Cable on what happens once you get that publishing deal continues

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BEST ENDEAVOURS

Jane Cable’s blog about what happens once that digital publishing deal is in the bag continues.

CRITICAL ENDEAVOUR

A few weeks ago I mentioned I’d visited a book club who’d been reading The Cheesemaker’s House. Now I love being invited to book clubs because they’re a great opportunity to meet readers and talk about books – mine and other people’s – for ten minutes before the wine starts flowing anyway. But this time we talked about books most of the night.

This club was the one my friend Becky belongs to and was held in the familiar surroundings of her kitchen. The amount of food (everybody brought a plate) and the number of women squeezed onto and around her table had to be seen to be believed. By the time the late arrivals fought past the chairs nearest the back door it was difficult to see any part of the floor at all.

The lovely woman sitting next to me told me the club had started in January 2000 when their children were small and she showed me a list of every book they’d read. The fact mine was on the list at all was entirely due to Becky’s enthusiasm and I felt very humble – and suddenly really worried I was going to let her down.

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In fact it was a wonderful discussion. Most people had enjoyed the book but it had clearly been read with a critical eye as well and there were a few points of contention. There is one scene where a rather drunken suitor goes a bit too far with Alice after a party: did it border on sexual assault, or was it just the sort of thing most women have had to contend with at some time or other? Some had noticed there was perhaps an element of possession (in the ghostly sense) involved, so did that make it all right?

Favourite characters is also a great topic for debate and is a question I’m always asked. Because the book is written entirely from Alice’s point of view I obviously became very close to her so it was really interesting for me that Becky wasn’t very keen. What I did love was the way that people related to my secondary characters; Adam, the gay (but in no way camp) best friend and Margaret, the sage but lively elderly neighbour. When I first started writing I was told that my minor characters were like cardboard cut outs so it always pleases me when the care and attention I give to them now shines through.

We also talked long and hard about charmers. The main love interest in the book, Owen, is known as the village charmer (although he denies it) and before the story starts I give the following explanation:

‘Charmers work largely with non-herbal cures for complaints. Secrecy surrounds their work, which must not be done for gain, and while men or women may be charmers, the gift must be passed contra-sexually, man to woman or woman to man; charmers often receive their powers and word charms from old persons anxious to pass their skills to a worthy successor.’

The concept is a fascinating one and we fell to talking about whether such people exist today. My researches seemed to indicate they died out in the West Country in the 1950s but one member of the group knew different: her husband (who is French) had been given a charm by an elderly lady from his home village just before she died. Her story sent shivers down my spine. There’s nothing better than finding an extra kernel of truth in your fiction.

Read Frost’s review of The Cheesemaker’s House here: https://www.frostmagazine.com/2013/12/the-cheesemakers-house-book-review/

Jane Cable is the author of two independently published romantic suspense novels, The Cheesemaker’s House and The Faerie Tree, and a sporadic contributor to Frost. Another You tells the tale of how two young American soldiers born sixty years apart help forty-something Marie Johnson to rebuild her shattered confidence and find new love. Discover more at www.janecable.com

Best Endeavours, Painstaking Endeavours: Jane Cable on what happens once that digital publishing deal is in the bag continues

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Jane Cable’s blog about what happens once that digital publishing deal is in the bag continues.

PAINSTAKING ENDEAVOURS

This week has been proof week. Proofs, edit notes, and blurb. But mainly proofs – and more proofing, until my eyes were out on stalks. Luckily I was able to escape to Cornwall where the phone doesn’t ring and normal domestic distractions don’t seem to apply. Plus it was raining.

I dealt with the edit notes first. As I said before, they were nothing major but required me to clarify a family tree a little, consider whether a character over-reacted to a certain situation, and make slightly better sense of some of the supernatural elements. The third one took the most time because I had to track through the manuscript until I found just the right place for an enhanced reveal.

The proofing took most of my time. Endeavour provided me with two pages of notes of the changes they’d made or wording they were unsure about and going through these was fairly straight forward. But I believe the responsibility for a perfect manuscript can’t be delegated and so I decided to do my own proof read as well. It’s a painstaking process of considering every sentence in and out of context – and even at this stage I discovered some missing words. It’s incredible what the brain will fill all on its own – but that’s my brain, and it knows this story inside out. For a reader even the smallest of errors is hugely off-putting.

Jane Cable, publishing, writing

Then there’s consistency: punctuation, capitalisation, presentation of texts and quotes. Holding these things in your head is like juggling – copious notes are needed and I found it’s so much better to do the proofing over a short period so that you can actually remember what’s gone before. My mind was fair boggling by the time I’d finished and stocks of paracetamol were running low.

On the third afternoon I’d finished and miraculously there was a let up in the storms. Pulling on our wellies we climbed up to the cliff path, the stiff breeze blowing away any remaining cobwebs. Our part of Cornwall is mining country (think Poldark!) and the ruined stacks split the landscape against a backdrop of scudding clouds and dark turquoise sea. Just the headspace I needed.

But the break didn’t last long… then it was back to deal with the blurb for Amazon. But to do so I felt I needed to know if I had a title yet. Had Amy (the publishing director) had time to consider my proposal? Should I give her a little nudge? Well, she could only say no, so I sent off the email. And she came back almost immediately: yes, they’re happy with (small but important drum roll) Another You.

Great news, so I turned back to the blurb – only to realise that I didn’t know the Amazon categories and keywords Endeavour are proposing. And I still don’t. The ever-patient Amy told me not to worry, they’ll add the metadata separately. This, I think, is what I am going to find most difficult; as an indie author I was in complete control of the marketing of my books (although I was helped immensely by the ebook team at Matador). Now, although I know I’ll need to get stuck in and market my socks off when the time comes, it isn’t me who’s making the decisions. Something of a steep learning curve ahead I think.

 

Jane Cable is the author of two independently published romantic suspense novels, The Cheesemaker’s House and The Faerie Tree, and a sporadic contributor to Frost. Another You (formerly known as The Seahorse Summer) tells the tale of how two American soldiers born sixty years apart help forty-something Marie Johnson to rebuild her shattered confidence and find new love. Discover more at www.janecable.com.

 

 

Best Endeavours Best Bib & Tucker: Jane Cable On What Happens When You Get That Publishing Deal

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Jane Cable’s blog about what happens once that digital publishing deal is in the bag continues.
BEST BIB & TUCKER
Parties, it seems, are like buses; writers’ parties even more so, with two in one week and a book club sandwiched between them. A book club which was incredibly interesting, but will need to be deferred to another blog to do it justice. 
Regular readers will know that I belong to two writers’ organisations (well, three including the Society of Authors) and both held events last week. Wednesday was fun and networking with the Romantic Novelists’ Association and Friday was the serious business of raising money for Dyslexia Action with Chindi Authors.
I had discovered three important things in advance of the RNA Winter Party; that drink would be taken (beforehand and during), that it would be incredibly noisy, and incredibly hot. On no level did it disappoint, although the fact that a rather nice New Zealand sauvignon blanc was only £10 a bottle in the restaurant beforehand meant I spent the whole party sipping a single increasingly warm glass of fizz, thankful that over the years of drinking I have learnt when to stop.
The wall of sound was unbelievable; a high ceilinged room filled to the brim with almost exclusively female voices meant it was practically impossible to hold a conversation with softly spoken fellow Endeavour author, Maggie Greenwood. I soon discovered that the best way of catching people’s names and making the link permanent was to find them on Twitter on my phone. It felt terribly modern after years of swapping (and losing) business cards. I was only sorry I didn’t meet more authors because in true RNA style the whole evening was incredibly friendly and sociable.
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 Back on home turf on Friday was Chindi Authors’ #LovetoRead party. To be fair, before the doors opened not everything went smoothly. Husband lost count of the number of times he moved tables from one end of the hall to the other and re-arranged chairs. The phrase ‘how many writers does it take to set up a room’ came frequently to mind, despite organiser Helen Christmas’ best attempts to impose order. It must have felt like herding cats. And that was before one author turned up so late that three others had split his table space between them. 
As usual I buddied up with my close friend and children’s author Christopher Joyce. It makes sense when you’re sharing a table; Chris has five Creatures of Chichester books, including ‘The One About the Edible Aliens’, which he was launching. I have only two, so I can squeeze into a corner. We’ve become good at selling each other’s books over the years – and our other halfs well used to enjoying a pint together.
But this time I was one of three authors lucky enough to be reading (Chris having been a perfect gentleman and given up his slot to a dyslexia specialist). I chose the first chapter of The Faerie Tree – the book starts just before Christmas so it felt right. Luckily four of my closest friends sat in the front row so I could pretend I was just reading to them and it must have worked; it’s an amazing feeling to hear people in an audience gasp when you reach a certain point. That, and the fact we raised over £700 for Dyslexia Action, made my night.
Jane Cable is the author of two independently published romantic suspense novels, The Cheesemaker’s House and The Faerie Tree, and a sporadic contributor to Frost. If you’d like to read the first chapter of The Faerie Tree you can find it here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Faerie-Tree-Jane-Cable-ebook/dp/B00UTI27AY/.
The Seahorse Summer (or whatever it ends up being called) tells the tale of how two American soldiers born sixty years apart help forty-something Marie Johnson to rebuild her shattered confidence and find new love. Discover more at www.janecable.com.

BEST ENDEAVOURS: what happens once that digital publishing deal is in the bag

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janecablepublishingagreementThe first in a series of blogs about what happens once that digital publishing deal is in the bag!

BEST FRIENDS

If you write, it’s a moment you dream of – the moment you learn that a publisher wants to buy your book. There’ll be champagne, fireworks, violins playing sweet music… Actually – when it happened to me – I didn’t believe it.

I read the email my agent, Felicity Trew, sent about three times and then she called me. I don’t remember much about the conversation to be honest. Then I went downstairs, told my husband, and drove into town to do some last minute pre-holiday chores.

It was only as I walked from the car park that the news began to hit home. Just fifteen short months earlier I would have been straight on the phone to my mother, always the biggest supporter of my work, but who could I share the excitement with now she’s gone? Who would understand? Another writer, that’s who; someone who’d been on the same journey – someone who was a good friend I could rely on to keep quiet. Even though she actually screamed when I told her: “Jane – oh my god – that’s amaaaaaaazing!”

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Bookish bestie and blogger Becky Edwards (walkingnormally.blogspot.co.uk) is the person who’s kept me sane during the two months it took for the contract to be finalised and signed. You need someone to do that. I kept thinking it was all some terrible joke and that Endeavour would change their mind. Every delay… even when the final contract got lost in the post… was agony. But it’s over now: the contract is signed and I can go public.

Part of going public involves writing this blog. Endeavour is one of the new breed of UK digital publishers and must be the biggest in the game, bringing out 25 new titles each week. This deal isn’t going to be like working with one of the ‘traditional’ houses – there will be no waiting a year or more for a book to appear – things are going to happen fast and furiously from here on in.

Digital is a route that many authors seeking publication will be looking to take and so this blog will not only be of interest to the reading public but also to other writers. The intention is to share the reality of the hard graft, sweat, and maybe even tears along the way as I embark on the latest phase of my writing career. I want it to be useful; I want people to comment and ask questions. I also want to give Becky a break!

Jane Cable is the author of two independently published romantic suspense novels, The Cheesemaker’s House and The Faerie Tree, and a sporadic contributor to Frost. Find out more at www.janecable.com.