FREE 27th MAY

I heard about this author who self-published through a self-publishing company, and once he got his book into a book store, visited the store with a plate of biscuits, offering one to those who picked up his book. Another self-published author featured a real hotel in her novel and then was able to enter her readers into a competition for a meal for two.

If only I was this clever at marketing. But my creativity does not seem to extend into this arena. So this bank holiday weekend, I'm promoting Beverly the old-fashioned way - with money.

Both Beverly and Orla's Code are exclusively e-published on Kindle which allows me to do a free promotion every three months. But I have found this isn't enough. Amazon is a noisy market and getting into the top 100 free books doesn't have a lasting effect on my overall sales ranking.

On looking about the internet, I have found some good advice on book promotion sites and where to invest. There are a lot of sites that will give your book a shout out during a promotion. I ended up enlisting Beverly here:

https://yourbookpromoter.com I paid $121

http://booksends.com I paid $165

http://www.ebookbooster.com I paid $35

http://awesomegang.com I paid $10

The more expensive sites offer services like tweeting, exposure to book review clubs, promotional emails to subscribers and a featured page. The cheaper ones just advertise your book during the freebie time. I'll be sure to provide pre-promotion sales numbers and post-promotion numbers. We'll see if the investment works. As the heading of this post says, Beverly will be free from the 27th May, for five days. Don't be afraid to distort the numbers - remember to download your copy!


Helpful Sources:
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Paperbacks for Christmas?

Are you looking for Christmas present ideas? Is it too early to mention? Well, to help you out, Orla's Code and Beverly are FREE this week on Kindle. So why not download these Awesome Indie Approved, London based tales, and if they meet your personal approval, you can buy the paperback for a loved one...

Orla's Code on Kindle
Beverly on Kindle

Orla's Code on paperback
Beverly on paperback

"Orla’s Code is well-written, with a fresh style, and subtle and insightful humor."

Awesome Indie Review. Read review...

"I would recommend [Beverly] to anyone who loves a character driven novel."

Go Book Yourself read the review...

Beverly in Paperback!

OMG! Beverly the paperback is here AND it's in a Goodreads Giveaway! Starting September 3rd and running for one week, enter for your chance to win 1 of 10 signed copies.

Over the last few months I have been sending Beverly out to book reviewers and have been so chuffed to receive these great reviews, which I have added to the paperback:

"I would recommend this book to anyone who loves a character driven novel. With Beverly, Fiona's unique voice has shone through again."

Go Book Yourself read the review...

"I connected deeply with the characters, I felt each and every dramatic moment."

Awesome Indies read the review...

"This is an entertaining read from an indie author who has immense talent as a story teller"

Tuck Magazine read the review...

Of course, if you want to skip the giveaway, you can always go straight to Amazon to get your copy:

Beverly, Stuttering and Me

About a year ago I went to a writers' talk on social media and book promotion. A woman I've become friends with through these events was there too and I made my way over to her after the talk, as she is always, what my English friends would call good value and my Irish friends would call good craic. For the sake of this blog post, we'll call her Tallulah.

As writers do, we greeted each other with writing progress reports. Tallulah is working on a romance/whodunnit. It's shamefully flowery, she says, with a dismissive wave of her hand. And me? I'm working on a book about a woman who has a falling out with her best friend over a guy. She also happens to have a stutter.

"Oh, wow," Tallulah replies, like I have ignited her interest. I should point out here that what Tallulah doesn't know is that I have a stutter too. The reason she doesn't know this is because:
 
a) My stutter is very mild; it was strong when I was young but since adulthood it has faded each year so by now it's only occasionally problematic.

b) I'm what we refer to as a 'covert' stutterer (as apposed to an 'overt' stutterer). A covert stutterer can anticipate when they will come to a word they're going to get stuck on, and swap it out for another 'easier' word. Sometimes this happens smoothly and you would never know such lexical acrobatics were going on behind the eyes. Other times an alternative word can't be found quickly and a pause is in order - so there'll be some "Er.. what I mean is..." and there might even be some feigning of forgetfulness, until an appropriate word can be found.

This is why Tallulah feels free to continue along these lines:
 
"I went out with a guy with a stutter once. Moaned about it all the time. He was really self-pitying, you know?" She's making a painful face. "I mean, put it in perspective. It's just how you speak, right? It's not like a real problem..."
 
As Tallulah expanded on how this chump couldn't get himself together, I was thinking, how can I make someone with this point of view sympathise with Beverly? When she has no experience of what it's like to not be able to express herself and to constantly fear humiliation, how can I show her how that feels? She became my target audience and in subsequent edits of Beverly I carefully went through scenes trying to capture this discomfort, show Beverly's focus on her speech and its dominance over her identity.
 
That is why it has been hugely gratifying to receive early reviews with these comments:

"I could feel myself holding my breath with Beverly every time she struggled to say a certain word."
Go Book Yourself review...

"I was worried with the main character having a stutter that it might affect the formatting and readability of the book, but it actually flows pretty well, and allows you to get a strong sense of the character and her struggles."
Awesome Indies review...

I know Beverly will not be for everyone, of course, but it's beginning to feel like I have reached my goal, of bringing the reader into this obscure world. So thanks, book reviewers, you make it worth while for us writers. And thanks, Tallulah. I hope you have found a man of courage.

Beverly on Kindle!

I am very excited to announce that Beverly is now available on Kindle! And it has been awarded a place on the Awesome Indies list of quality independent fiction! Awesome Indies identify and promote independently published books that meet the standard of books published by mainstream publishers. Their reviews are known for being tough, so I'm really proud to be included on their list.

 

Check out their review on Amazon. My favourite part is: "I connected deeply with the characters, I felt each and every dramatic moment." Then why not download an original story about two best friends in London whose codependent relationship is set to implode as soon as they make a quid pro quo kind of deal.

The Do's and Don'ts of the Hook - Part 2

Time flies! It was January when I wrote this post The Do's and Don'ts of the Hook. My super writing group had a similar event again this week, and it was fantastic to get more agency feedback on my updated first page. This time we welcomed DKW Literary Agency who gave brief feedback to everyone who submitted, so there was no singling me out this time - though I did sit right up front, in case I was going to be picked on.

To recap, here's the initial draft of the first page and the feedback from Greene & Heaton:

Beverly woke up as if arriving from another world. The image from her dream came with her, and for a moment, before moving, she imagined her bed was in a playground. It was a memory, that she had been reliving in her sleep, of being on a roundabout and trying to say stop to the children pushing it – lightly tapping the bars that whizzed around – but only being able to say the ‘S’ and the ‘T’, while the rest of the word was snapped away by the wind. The spinning settled and Beverly shifted to let air in under the covers. Her lungs billowed and a headache began. She was properly awake now and the childhood memory was replaced with memories from the night before. Singing in the taxi – taxi drivers had a hard job – they opened a bottle of wine when they got back – who came home with them? She jerked, reaching a hand out to the cold side of the bed. There was no one there. She retracted her arm with relief.       Other things came into existence: coffee, a clean tracksuit. She dressed herself with a heavy, detached feeling and then opened her bedroom door. No noise. The T.V. wasn’t on so Ella wasn’t up yet. And no voices from Ella’s bedroom. Beverly moved to the bathroom and then the office. She sat at her desk and shook the mouse to waken her computer. The fan started humming. Beverly checked her email, which was already open on the screen, and then clicked over to Facebook – a shoe ad; a baby picture from Dave; A cat with a human expression from Lucy.       She knocked on Ella’s bedroom door. The voice was muffled but strong: ‘It’s your turn to go.’     ‘Shit.’ Beverly whispered, shrinking slightly.

• The waking up beginning is a cliche. 
• The dream doesn't seem to link to the subsequent action.
• Who is Ella? A friend, a daughter?
• Where are they? At home? Why is there an office?
• The hook, which is "what does Beverly not want to do?" comes in too late.

Now here's the new first page which attempts to address the above issues, and the related feedback:

Beverly opened the door of her bedroom but instead of stepping out, creating the usual creak underfoot in the hallway, she listened. A bitten fingernail went to her mouth. No sound was coming from the living room – the TV wasn’t on. That meant her flatmate hadn’t surfaced yet. Probably Ella’s new friend had stayed over. Beverly couldn’t remember his name. It was 10.30. She couldn’t wait any longer.      She dressed as fragments of a dream returned to mind. It wasn’t a dream really, more a memory that sometimes visited her sleep, of being on a roundabout and trying to say stop to the children pushing it, but only being able to say the ‘S’ and the ‘T’, while the rest of the word was snapped away by the wind.      Now the childhood memory was replaced with memories from the night before. Laughing in the taxi, opening another bottle of wine when they got back. Beverly just had half a glass before leaving the pair alone – she could see Ella was putting on her moves. She crossed the hallway, letting the wooden floor announce her presence. Hopefully the noise would wake Ella.      In their office, she sat at her desk and shook the mouse, watching her computer screen come to life. The fan started humming. She checked her email, which was already open, and then clicked over to Facebook – a baby picture from Dave; an endangered monkey from Lucy; a suggested post about local gigs. She didn’t mind Facebook intruding on her timeline – it knew her well. She was stalling but a hangover was kicking in.      She raised herself out of the leather seat and knocked on Ella’s bedroom door.      No sound. ‘Shit,’ Beverly whispered, shrinking slightly. She would have to go by herself.

• One scene is focused on, opening up slowly, which is the right thing for a first page. We don't want a sense of information being crammed in quickly.
• No cliche's. For example: a character waking up!
• Segue from recollection of dream to memory of the night before is relatable. 
• Understanding immediate - Beverly is trying to wake up her flatmate.
• Tension is built in a subtle way through Beverly's actions and the fact that she doesn't want to go somewhere.

As you can see, according to this agent, all the previous issues have been fixed! There actually wasn't any negative feedback at all. So a relief for me, as the next submission scrolled up on the screen, for review. My gratitude to London Writers' Cafe, Greene & Heaton and DKW for their support!

BEVERLY is coming soon!...

Beverly sidesteps the need to interact with co-workers by working from home. When she must venture outside, she wears earphones so no one will bother her. Social niceties are designated to her best friend and flatmate, Ella. 

Beverly would be jealous of Ella's gregarious charm and high-life, if she didn't have the security of her long-term boyfriend, Roland, who spared Beverly from the dating scene and gave her a future. Beverly won't speak for herself because she has a stutter. This is how she carefully arranges her life, until Roland breaks up with her... to date Ella.

Soon-ish. After getting a fantastic copy-edit with SilverWood Books, I finally have some time off from my busy job to work through changes (see my previous Beverly blog post). 

I was surprised, reading the copy-edit, to find character traits coming across that I had not

realised were there! It is as if I unconsciously brought forward these traits and needed someone else to point them out. With this fresh perspective, I can see some small changes can shape the character dynamics further.

But never mind small changes. Check out the book cover! I had a great experience working with 99designs. If you're not familiar with the site, what happens is you launch a competition for your design and set your prize money. Then, designers submit their entries and you can work with them, asking for changes, until you decide on a winner. I chose four designs for my final round which were all strong covers, I thought, but this one by Wild Women Designs has captured Beverly and how she interacts with the world. It also ticks all the boxes I'm learning are necessary for a good book cover: the title and author name are clear, the image will stand out in an Amazon line-up, the idea is communicated simply, and there is space for a quote.

So I'm looking forward to the final shaping of Beverly and sharing it with you! In the meantime, check out Beverly's page and stay tuned.