Ruth’s Blog
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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...
Facing the second draft:head vs heart
Do other writers share my ambivalence about the need to go back to the first draft of a new book and make it much better? I want to make it as good as it can be, but it's hard to go back to the text and start over. I just want it to be finished. My head knows that I...
Meeting readers
I'm spending the weekend at the Holker Hall Garden Festival in Cumbria, which is a great place to meet loads of people- existing readers, future readers, possible readers- and sell and sign books as well. They put me in the 'Floral Art' marquee for some reason, and I...
‘Viral marketing’and local success
Last night at a local Women's Institute meeting I heard a young man talk about how he and his wife have developed a plant nursery over the past seven years or so. Dull? It was rivetting, a saga of enthusiasm, aspiration, challenge, set-backs, perseverance, commitment,...
The power of reading aloud
Following the kerfuffle (great word isn't it?) about the typos in 'Cruel Tide' I decided to take more care with editing each chapter of the new book as I'm writing it, and leave fewer errors to picked up in proof reading later. I've found the best way to do that, if I...
Proof-reading: a wake up call
The reader who approached me at a recent library talk waited until the end of the event and spoke to me quietly. "I really enjoy your books," she began, and I could tell there was a 'but' on its way. "But, I've noticed a few mistakes, nothing major, just little...
How do people know your book exists?
If you click on the link below you'll hear an interview I did with Paul Teague about my 'self-publishing journey'. http://buff.ly/1VT4rKB Part of that interview, towards the end, deals with the business of 'promotion' - how do people get to know your book exists? That...
Planner or ‘pantser’: is it really one or the other?
In the past few weeks I've been getting into the next book, the fifth one. When I began the first one A Good Liar seven years ago, I had no idea of the implications of being a planner or a 'pantser' (it's a ghastly term, isn't it, but aptly described the exercise of...
Self-publishing with pride and integrity
Last week someone whose name I've already forgotten wrote a piece about all the reasons why she couldn't possibly self-publish her 'literary' fiction. I read it expecting to find the usual catalogue of poor information and ill-disguised intellectual snobbery, and...
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