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BUSINESS OF BOOKS: FIRST, LAST, EVERYTHING – BEST OF THE BEST, PART 1

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We’ve been given some wonderful advice from our First, Last & Everything guests this year, so here’s the best of it:

ON WRITING

There’s no magic bestseller formula (if there were we’d all be making millions of pounds!) – all you can do is write the best book you can. That’s it. Clare Swatman

Listen to the advice you are given but do not blindly accept it or reject it without consideration. Evaluate it, then adopt or discard it. There is no ultimate template of how you should write, what you should write, the rules you should obey or break. Sandra Danby

I have offered this advice to a few writers and they have all told me it is a good idea, so I am happy to share it with you here: don’t stop writing today unless you know how you are going to start writing tomorrow. For me, following this rule means that, when I hit a problem and the writing becomes difficult, I always keep at it until I have got past the hard bit and things are flowing freely again… so that when I stop, I know how I’ll start again next time. Susanna Bavin

 

ON EDITING

Once you’ve written and edited your work get in proofread by a professional. This is not your sister, who is an English graduate; not your neighbour, who studied law and is very bright and NEVER yourself. It’s impossible. Christopher Joyce

I follow a lot of writing blogs on Twitter, and many of them have wonderful snippets of advice, one of the most practical of which in recent months was about removing redundant words from your manuscript. I discovered there were plenty of lists out there, once I’d put ‘redundant words in your novel’ into Google, and soon I was working my way through my extremely long manuscript and culling them (thank you, Word, for the Search and Replace function). In the end, nearly 10,000 redundant words sailed off into the blue yonder; not one of them was missed! Cassandra Grafton

Two author friends, at separate times, said they were listening to their manuscripts for errors and suggested it was a good way to edit. It is easy to read what we expect to see rather than what is truly there. Our hearing is very sensitive. A misspelt word, repetition or a sentence that is far too long, is more obvious to our ears. Victoria Cornwall

 

ON PUBLISHING

Ebook jackets will be seen as thumbnails on retailers’ sites so you need to ensure that the title can still be read. A small, thin font in a colour that doesn’t stand out isn’t the best and don’t clutter your cover – try to keep it simple and avoid too much text. Megan Lockwood-Jones

 

ON LIFE

The one piece of advice that has helped me in both my personal and professional life is: treat others as you’d want them to treat you. So be polite and considerate and don’t take advantage of other people. Never say something behind someone’s back you wouldn’t say to their face and if you make a mistake, apologise and move on. And never try and attribute blame. Mistakes happen, learn from them. Sue Featherstone

Be kind to yourself. Set reasonable goals (if that’s the type of writer you are) and don’t beat yourself up if you don’t manage to achieve them. Also have breaks from your writing. Writing isn’t something to be forced but to be enjoyed and, if it isn’t, maybe it’s time to ask ourselves why we’re doing it. Wendy Clarke

It is never too late to begin to write. Morton Gray

 

 

 

 

BUSINESS OF BOOKS: FIRST, LAST, EVERYTHING – HISTORICAL NOVELIST VICTORIA CORNWALL

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The first piece of writing advice you were ever given

The summer of 2014 was an exciting time. I had submitted my manuscript to a carefully selected list of agents and was waiting to hear back. An agent requested a full manuscript and I felt I was finally going to achieve my dream of becoming a published author. By the time Christmas arrived I had been rejected by all of them and had received my first professional writing advice. “You have a gift for writing, but you need to edit it on paper.” I put down the phone confused by the advice. What did she mean? Grumbling to myself, I printed my novel on A4 paper and began to read it. This was a pivotal moment in my writing career. Multiple small errors, which were mysteriously invisible before, began to jump out at me. It was a valuable lesson and now I always edit a paper version at some point during my self-editing phase.

 

The most recent piece of writing advice you gave or received

Strangely this is linked to editing again. Two author friends, at separate times, said they were listening to their manuscripts for errors and suggested it was a good way to edit. A Daughter’s Christmas Wish was the first time I added this method of editing to my writing process. Once again, I was amazed. It is easy to read what we expect to see rather than what is truly there. Our hearing is very sensitive. A misspelt word, repetition or a sentence that is far too long, is more obvious to our ears. It is another tool to use to improve the standard and flow of your writing. All software have the option to have a voice narrating your text and it is normally free and easy to use. If you are unsure how to find the speaker option, search “How to” on the internet and there will be a step by step guide on how to activate it.

 

The piece of advice you’d most like to pass on.

Don’t let agents’ rejections stop you pursuing your dream. The reasons they reject you are varied. It might be related to your writing, but it may also be not what they are looking for at that time. Many successful writers have been rejected by agents and/or publishers at some point in their career. I was. Their rejection initially crushed me, but they also made me more determined to prove them wrong.

Four years after that summer of rejections, which I mentioned earlier, I have four traditionally published books out in the big wide world. All my books are released as ebooks and audiobooks, two have been released as paperbacks. I have been shortlisted for the New Talent Award at the Festival of Romantic Fiction, a finalist at the Joan Hessayon Award and reached number 21 in the paid kindle rank for Victorian romance. I was tempted to give up writing after I was rejected and I’m so glad I didn’t. Don’t let the rejections crush your joy for writing, just see them as part of the journey to get to where you want to be.

 

Victoria Cornwall is the author of the Cornish Tales series published by Choc Lit. Her novels are historical, Cornwall based fiction, with romance and drama at their core. She is married, with two children and is a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association.

 

BUSINESS OF BOOKS: FIRST, LAST, EVERYTHING – NOVELIST MORTON GRAY

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What was the first piece of writing advice you were ever given?

When I first began to write I attended a weekly writing course run by author Sue Johnson in the lovely town of Pershore in Worcestershire. Sue gave us a variety of writing prompts each week, such as poems, pictures, leaves, random objects, word lists and such like. Then she’d give up a time limit in which to write something. The idea was just to relax and see what appeared on the page from the stimulus of the prompt. I still use this technique to get started with stories, or if I’m stuck in the middle of a book. I am very grateful that this early training enables me to write quickly if I need to.

 

What was the most recent piece of writing advice you received or gave?

I went on an editing course recently and was advised to highlight the different points of view in my manuscript using different colours. The idea being that the distribution of the colour throughout the manuscript enables you to see if the balance between each characters’ points of view is even. This is an invaluable tip, as often I get fixated on one character’s view point and this enables me to present a balanced piece of work.

 

What piece of advice (writing or otherwise) would you like to pass on?

Oh dear … it is difficult to stick to one, so I’m going for three!

  1. It is never too late to begin to write.
  2. You should always stay true to your own work and not worry about what others are writing.
  3. Writing is such a solitary occupation that it is important to find fellow writers to speak to and share with, be that online or in real life.

 

Morton has been reading and writing fiction for as long as she can remember, penning her first attempt at a novel aged fourteen. Her debut novel The Girl on the Beach was published after she won Choc Lit Publishing Search for a Star competition. She is now writing a series of novels based in her fictional seaside town of Borteen. Her second novel The Truth Lies Buried is to be followed by Christmas at Borteen Bay out on 13 November 2018.

 

You can catch up with Morton on her website www.mortonsgray.com on

Twitter – @MortonSGray, her Facebook page – Morton S. Gray Author – https://www.facebook.com/mortonsgray/ and

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/morton_s_gray/

BUSINESS OF BOOKS: FIRST, LAST, EVERYTHING – ROMANCE AUTHOR CASSANDRA GRAFTON

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What was the first writing advice you were ever given?

If I think back to when I started to seriously consider writing full-length stories, the first piece of advice I recall was ‘just keep putting the words on the page’. After all, you can’t polish and edit a blank page, can you?

At the time, I’d only ever completed short stories, mostly co-written, for online communities. A solo writing project was a challenge in itself, but I didn’t really think of it as ‘writing a novel’ because of the serial nature of posting online.

It was the encouragement (and above advice) from those communities that helped me to get started, and it’s down to their on-going support and feedback that I managed to keep going, no matter what life threw at me. I just kept putting one word after the other, until eventually I’d finished telling the story I wanted to share.

 

Photo copyright is Adrea Scheidler Photography

What was the most recent writing advice you were given?

I follow a lot of writing blogs on Twitter, and many of them have wonderful snippets of advice, one of the most practical of which in recent months was about removing redundant words from your manuscript.

I discovered there were plenty of lists out there, once I’d put ‘redundant words in your novel’ into Google, and soon I was working my way through my extremely long manuscript and culling them (thank you, Word, for the Search and Replace function). In the end, nearly 10,000 redundant words sailed off into the blue yonder; not one of them was missed!

It turns out, however, that my biggest overuse of anything is not a specific word, but a punctuation mark. It was pointed out to me at a writing retreat last year that I need to ‘kill the exclamation mark.’ When I looked into it, I was appalled by how often I used them. I did, indeed, have a bit of a fetish going on. Hopefully, I’ve managed to keep them to a minimum in this blog post!

 

What is the piece of advice you’d most like to pass on?

There are variations on these words, but it boils down “don’t wait for your boat to come in; row out to meet it”.

It’s something I wish I’d taken on-board (if you’ll excuse the pun) earlier in my life. It can, of course, relate to all aspects of life, but with regard to my writing, it translates into this: Don’t let time slip away from you.

I’d wanted to write all my life, but always I made excuses: “no time, children to look after, piles of marking to get through, got to work late, too tired”. Even when the children were teenagers and didn’t need the same level of attention, even when I had an unexpected year of not having to work full time, always I seemed to have an excuse for actually sitting down and doing it.

I was 50 before the realisation struck that I needed to heed this advice – when it almost felt too late. I’d had a recent run-in with cancer, which led to a couple of rather unpleasant years, and as my milestone birthday approached, I started to re-evaluate my life. If I didn’t get my act together and produce a book sometime soon, perhaps I would never fulfil my lifelong dream?

It would be another year (2013) before I finally took the plunge into publishing my first novel. The story had been seven years in the making, for all the aforementioned reasons, but I did it.

It had still been a challenge. I was working full time, long hours, and any writing time was limited to weekends and holidays (thankfully I have a very patient and supportive husband, who would hoover around my chair at weekends as I sat at the computer, or read the paper in a pub when we were on holiday as I scribbled away at scenes in my notebook).

In more recent years, having moved to Switzerland and no longer having a day job, I have had the time to write, but still I procrastinate. My New Year’s Resolution this year was to treat my writing like a job, not a hobby, and I’m improving, but there’s a way to go yet.

So please don’t do as I do, do as I say: don’t let the time slip away from you!

 

Cassandra has published two historical romances and has co-written and published a contemporary cosy mystery/romance. She is currently working on a series of contemporary feel-good romances set in Cornwall. She loves traveling, reading, cats and dry wine and splits her time between Switzerland, where she lives with her husband, and England, where she lives with her characters.

 

https://cassandragrafton.com

BUSINESS OF BOOKS: FIRST, LAST, EVERYTHING – CHILDREN’S AUTHOR CHRISTOPHER JOYCE

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What was the first piece of writing advice you received?

I armed myself with How Not to Write a Novel by Newman and Middlemark, which is both hilarious and packed full of tips, and The Art of Writing Fiction a rather more scholarly book by Andrew Cowan. 

The first book covers plot, character, style and much more. Each tip is accompanied by bad examples with headings such as ‘The Gum on the Mantelpiece’ where the author makes much play about said-piece of confectionery and then NEVER refers to it again. Anyone else guilty of that? Another of my favourites is a section entitled ‘Said the Fascinating Man” where the author tells the reader what you think of his writing. “Was it a fish?” the girl said eloquently.

The section on what not to name your cat in your story includes:

  • after a composer (Bartok, Mahler)
  • Mr + adjective + anatomical feature (Mr fluffy paws)
  • Magnificat – or similar pun

I think I got away with naming the cat in my book, The Creatures of Chichester – The One About The Smelly Ghosts. I decided on Purrcasso as she lives at the art gallery. What do you think? Did it stray into Magnificat territory?

Mr Cowan’s book is more learned with lots of writing exercises he used with his students at UEA, I believe. These include exercises on creating great dialogue, using all the senses and many more. I created a special notebook to do them all. It’s mostly still empty but – one day.

 

What was the most recent writing advice you gave or received?

Sometimes it really is okay to tell not show. Every course I’ve ever attended and blog you read talk about showing not telling. It can become obsessive. At some point, it’s better to just say: ‘it’s midnight’ rather than: ‘Bats passed silently by the ancient metal hands of the church clock as they moved into a vertical position.’ This is particularly true in children’s books where most kids want action. I am, however, a fan of using show not tell in dialogue though. Better to write His clenched fist was inches from her face, “I Hate you!” said Bob then “I hate you,” said Bob angrily. In fact, part of my editing process is to remove as many adverbs as I can.

 

What’s the piece of advice you’d most like to pass on?

Once you’ve written and edited your work get in proofread by a professional. This is not your sister, who is an English graduate; not your neighbour, who studied law and is very bright and NEVER yourself. It’s impossible. I would add that Grammarly is great at picking up many obvious errors, and it’s free too.

If you can afford an editor then this will also make a huge difference. There are lots of good books and courses on this but, like the proofreading tip above, it’s very hard to do this objectively yourself. reedsy.com is a great source of advice on what you need to consider and also provide experts who can do this for you.

Finally, if you decide to self-publish (as Mark Twain and the Bronte sisters did) then pay for a professional cover designer. If you’ve taken a year or more to write the best book you can, then surely this must be worth it? There are also lots of good books and webinars on this but it’s like me downloading a book on how to play the violin. All the information is there, but I can assure you that my mother would testify that even though I passed grade 1 at junior school, it does not make me a member of the orchestra. If you’re a good writer then write. Leave the editing, proofreading and cover design to somebody else.

 

Christopher Joyce has written six books in The Creatures of Chichester series and produced The Alien Cookbook with out-of-this-world recipes for kids of all ages. He also promotes self-publishing through CHINDI a group of independent authors in the UK. www.creaturesofchichester.com. www.chindi-authors.co.uk

 

BUSINESS OF BOOKS: FIRST, LAST, EVERYTHING – NOVELIST SANDRA DANBY

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What was the first writing advice you were ever given?

As a young English graduate longing to be a journalist, I chose a bad time to graduate. It was 1982 and publishers were closing their training schemes. Only two courses existed; one at the London College of Printing, the other at Cardiff Journalism School. Out of the blue I received a job offer on a new graduate trainee scheme run by business publisher Benn Publications. It was there in September 1982, sitting around the boardroom table in the impromptu Training Room, that I was given the piece of advice I still remember today and still use. Training editor Val Williams taught us Rudyard Kipling’s quote: “I keep six honest serving men (they taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When And How And Where and Who.” It has stood me in good stead whether writing a news story, a feature, a press release or a novel. And the journalist in Connectedness, Rose Haldane, uses it too when she gets stuck in her research.
What was the most recent writing advice you were given?

That’s easy, it is something that had never occurred to me before until my copy editor pointed it out to me during the editing of Connectedness. It applied to the name of a character, Maud Nettlebed. I realise now I chose Maud’s surname because of a liking for the word, Nettlebed, which goes back to my days as a reporter writing about a furniture company called Brights of Nettlebed. The name stuck. However Dea Parkin, my editor, said it was an unlikely surname that took her attention off the page every time she read it. And that, she said, is a cardinal sin. Avoid anything that distracts the reader from the page, which breaks their concentration, which returns them to the real world, which stops them turning the page and reading another chapter. I guess this is a subjective judgement, but it appeals to the journalist in me who dislikes embellishments and sub-clauses in long sentences. So, I changed Maud’s surname to Nettles.
What is the piece of advice you’d most like to pass on?

Listen to the advice you are given but do not blindly accept it or reject it without consideration. Evaluate it, then adopt or discard it. There is no ultimate template of how you should write, what you should write, the rules you should obey or break. But, and it is a big but, you must listen to the advice and consider it before rejecting it. You must know the rules, before breaking them. You will be a better writer for it. We are bombarded these days with writing advice, never have novelists been so vocal about how they write, when they write, at what time of day. There is no right way and wrong way; there is your way. Be true to yourself. Listen to feedback and suggestions, be polite, be prepared to offer positive feedback and suggestions in return, always give the person giving the advice the respect of considering it. I have participated in many writing classes – as student and teacher – and watched as some students, whose minds were closed to advice, simply did not hear suggestions that could help them. I’ve also watched other students writing copious notes about how their work should be changed and I worry they would subsequently make changes without analysing why. Knowing who you are as a writer, having confidence in what you write, is not easily earned. There is a truth in Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 Hour Rule.

 

Novelist Sandra Danby is a proud Yorkshire woman, tennis nut and tea drinker. She believes a walk on the beach will cure most ills. Unlike Rose Haldane, the identity detective in her two novels, Ignoring Gravity and Connectedness, Sandra is not adopted. Follow her on Twitter @SandraDanby

 

BUSINESS OF BOOKS: FIRST, LAST, EVERYTHING – FREELANCE EDITOR J L DEAN

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What was the first publishing business advice you were given?

Be clear and be on time. There’s the myth of the maverick writer who delays and delays only to appear at the eleventh hour with a work of genius. Editors can’t do that. The role of the editor is to make a piece of writing the best piece of writing it can be. That can mean anything from a little judicious rephrasing here and there to hitting the alarm bell when a character inexplicably undergoes a personality change halfway through a novel. Editing is primarily a support role. Yes, it takes a lot of skill and yes, a good reputation will make for an excellent career. However, you’re not the star, the writer is. Editing someone else’s book is not an opportunity to rewrite it in your own writerly image. Respect their style and adapt your approach accordingly.

By being clear, I mean when the writer received their edited manuscript from you, the only queries should be regarding the suggestions you have made. It is fine if they disagree or want to challenge, but you should be concerned if they have to ask you to explain yourself. Again, you’re there for support. Don’t be cryptic, be helpful, encouraging and reassuring.

 

What was the most recent piece of publishing advice you gave or received?

I did a lot of academic proof-editing for German clients when I lived in Bonn. More often than not I’d have to go back to them and ask, “UK or US English?” A lot of the time, they wouldn’t know. I had a young client was writing an article on the Nuremberg trials for publication in England so I contacted the publisher directly and asked for their house style. My advice to him, at the beginning of his academic career, was always to ask the publisher or publication for which he is writing for a copy of their house-style. Most have them and failing to follow it can mean instant rejection or, if you’re lucky, a lot of extra work within a very short space of time. No editor, however brilliant, can save you if you overlook that piece of advice. Make life easier for yourself and make sure you get it right from the start.

 

What is the piece of advice you’d most like to pass on?

Graham Norton asked Michael Morpurgo the same question in an interview a couple of days ago. Michael’s response; “Live an interesting life”. That’s got to be my answer too. It seems to me that, at this point in time, there’s a lot of emphasis on academic qualifications in creative writing. Agents are even starting to ask for that information in submissions. I feel very uneasy about that; I think it’s the wrong route for the publishing industry to take but that’s another article! For me, writing comes from within and it needs to be fed from within.

So my advice would be; don’t rush to be the ingénue novelist who has known nothing but the inside of a university lecture hall. OK, you’ll look good in the publicity photos and the press will adore you for the full fifteen minutes, but what experiences are you drawing on. What are you really giving the reader, and therefore the world? Go out and live your life, meet people and challenge yourself. No matter if you want to write medieval crime thrillers or contemporary romance; stories are about people and people are the key to stories; even in their absence, there’s a story. You won’t learn about people in a classroom. Get out there, but take your notebook.

 

J L Dean is an a freelance editor and historical novelist, recently returned from three years living in Germany, she divides her time between work, law studies and that difficult second novel.

 

BUSINESS OF BOOKS: FIRST, LAST, EVERYTHING – CO-AUTHOR SUE FEATHERSTONE

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What was the first writing advice you were ever given

Truthfully, I don’t remember who gave me my first writing advice or what advice was offered but the first piece of advice that stands out came from a chap called Frank Littlewood, a tutor at Richmond College in Sheffield where I did my journalism training. Frank was a plump former Yorkshire Post sub-editor, who always wore a grubby knitted yellow waistcoat, and was absolutely passionate about good writing and correct spelling and grammar.

He could be a bit long-winded sometimes but he knew his trade and every rookie reporter who sat in his classroom learned a lot from him. I can see him now, in that virulently-coloured waistcoat, wagging a finger and telling us: ‘News is people.’ In other words, stories are about people and what happens to them and why? That applies to novelists just as much as journalists: good characters matter and it doesn’t matter whether readers love them or hate them so long as they want to read about them.

 

What was the most recent writing advice you’ve been given?

That’s easy: show don’t tell.

Easy to say, not so easy to do but the trick which I’ve learned from Rebecca Carpenter, my copy editor at Lakewater Press, is to replace what she calls ‘weak’ verbs with ‘strong’ ones that paint word pictures creating heightened mood and tension.

What’s a weak verb? A really good example is the word ‘looked’, which it is really easy to overuse. For example, consider this sentence: Sally looked at her father. Here ‘looked’ is a weak verb because it tells the reader nothing about the scene or Sally’s mood or her relationship with her dad. But, replace ‘looked’ with a stronger, more descriptive verb, such as peeked, and the scene comes alive because the writer shows the reader how Sally is feeling – clearly she is apprehensive or afraid.

Think about it: Sally peeked at her father. You could change the mood again by using a different word: Sally stared at her father. This time, it’s obvious Sally is surprised or incredulous. It’s a small change but so effective.

 

What is the piece of advice you’d most like to pass on?

Oh dear! This is a really hard question because there are so many pieces of advice I’d like to pass on. These include: the harder I work, the luckier I get, which has been attributed to, amongst others former US president Thomas Jefferson and movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn.

I’ve also learned that achieving your dreams is a marathon and not a sprint and that your first job may not be your dream job but it will be good preparation for the dream job.

However, if pushed, the one piece of advice that has helped me in both my personal and professional life is: treat others as you’d want them to treat you. So be polite and considerate and don’t take advantage of other people. Never say something behind someone’s back you wouldn’t say to their face and if you make a mistake, apologise and move on. And never try and attribute blame. Mistakes happen, learn from them.

 

Sue Featherstone is a former journalist and public relations practitioner turned academic then author. Together with her friend and writing partner Susan Pape, she has written two successful journalism text books and their first novel, A Falling Friend, was published by Lakewater Press in 2016 and a sequel A Forsaken Friend is published on March 21, 2018.

They now write about books at https://bookloversbooklist.com/