My Blog
What does a book cover really mean?
This is a bit complicated. Just to start things off, here are the covers of the two crime fiction books I've published, last year and last week. I think they're quite good, but what they indicate more than anything else is the setting - Morecambe Bay in 'Cruel Tide'...
Algorithms for Marketing? What?
I was talking self-publishing with an old friend who writes and publishes in a different genre to me, and does very well. Most of his sales are on Amazon, both paperback and ebook formats. 'It's all about algorithms,' he said, and I nodded sagely. I should have said...
Does it matter that a title’s been used before?
There's no copyright on book titles. I didn't realise that to start with and fretted that I couldn't ever use a title that had been used before, but I can, although it's still needs thinking about. The easiest way to check is to do what I did yesterday - draw up a...
The book title dilemma
My editor and I are having a disagreement about the title of the new book. The first title I chose sounded fairly dull, and I wasn't convinced. Then I opted for a phrase 'Seize the Day' which appears once in the book, and quite significantly, but right at the end. She...
Here’s to the Society of Authors
I love the Society of Authors, for all sorts of reasons. For a start, they let me join, which for an independently published author is a real bonus, as most of the writers' groups won't let me join regardless of how many real, well-produced and well-written novels I...
What’s in a name?
I always struggle with titles, and then with the cover image that should illuminate the title and engage the reader: as an independent author/publisher, these decisions are all mine. The image on the cover of 'Cruel Tide' developed before I even started the book. It...