Ruth’s Blog
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Recognition, reputation and expectation
I read something recently about how many readers will only buy books from an author they already know, and how much harder that makes it for people like myself who are just starting off. There are so many books available, and some of them are so poor, that you do need...
Flogging the new book, but not a dead horse?
Well the books are here, 400 plump pages in each one, fresh from the printers in Cornwall, boxed and shrink-wrapped and fork-lifted into the storage space, ready to be sent out again as feverish demand mounts. I wish, but we did ship out six boxes straight away to...
Hopeful anticipation or more self-doubt?
I veer between positive and fearful anticipation from hour to hour in this final run-up to the publication of 'Cruel Tide'. Very occasionally I imagine what it would be like for it to be a runaway success, with sales off the scale and a rushed reprint. But most of the...
Waiting and worrying
Of all the stages of self-publishing the worst, for me at least, is the one I'm at now - waiting for the books to arrive from the printers. It's too late to change anything, and I dread the possibility that I've got something wrong that will haunt me until the...
New book cover ‘Cruel Tide’: I think it’s pretty good
At last! I've worked out how to add an image to my blog - the front cover of the new book. I think it's an arresting image, and pertinent too. See what you think.. It'll be available from around the end of November 2015, from any good bookshop, from Amazon as a...
Remembering what really matters
A good friend and colleague of mine died yesterday. She was an inspirational educator and only fifty two. An aggressive cancer killed her, just over a year after the first diagnosis, despite surgery and chemotherapy. I did what I could to help her, but it could never...
How much does price matter?
This week I designed a poster to promote the new book 'Cruel Tide' in bookshops around Cumbria. I used a template provided by an on-line printing company, which was generic and didn't prompt you to include a price. I uploaded the cover image and some text and the ISBN...
Fads and fashion in the book business
We know how fashion works in clothes. Someone - usually one of the big fashion houses - decides that the coming season's colour will be 'ecru' or orange, or whatever. Or that women's hemlines will be high or low, trousers wide or narrow, or whatever. The new 'look' is...
Can you think straight at 3am?
Here's the thing. I'd been in New Zealand for a couple of days and was feeling quite emotional when I fell asleep, then woke up at 3am. I thought the iPad by my bed was on mute, but the volume was just loud enough for me to hear the ping of an email as it came in. So...
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