Last week, I attended one of the most useful and inspiring writer-focused events I've ever been to: The Self Publishing Show Live. It was two-day event organised by the team behind author Mark Dawson’s Self Publishing Formula (SPF). For those who don’t know, SPF is a 'one-stop shop' for all things self publishing, offering courses covering a range of subjects as well as lots of free resources, including the hugely popular The Self Publishing Show podcast. I simply wouldn't have been able to independently publish my sci-fi romance series without these guys. 

But while the show and SPF as a whole is officially aimed at indie authors, much of what's on offer is super useful for traditionally-published authors too. I saw that first-hand at the show last week as I bumped into lots of familiar faces from the trad world. Like me, many are considering the hybrid route. Some are even looking to go 100% indie. Others simply attended the show to get tips and tricks from the indie world to help with their traditional releases.

Either way, all the authors I spoke to agreed on the same thing: The show was AMAZING! I could do a whole series of blog posts about what I learnt there but I haven't got time for that! Instead, I want to share some of the highlights I took away which might be useful to authors who have trad publishing contracts too... 

1. Writers need to trust their instincts more

Did you know I’m a bit of a data geek? I love trawling through sales figures to learn what works in which genres. So I was in data heaven during the talk by Alex Newton, the guy behind K-lytics, a data crunching company focused on the book world. There is so much great stuff I could share about his talk (including his tongue-in-cheek prediction that Amish Cyberpunk is going to be the Next Big Thing 🤣). But I’d end up having to dedicate this entire post to his presentation.

So instead I'll focus on something that really struck me as I looked at the stats he was presenting: If you're told a certain genre isn't selling, don't let that put you off. Instead, go check out the raw data yourself via a service such a K-lytics so you can make your own judgments. 

For example, a recent report by Nielsen would give you the impression digital sales are on a slippery slope downwards. I saw a bit of panic on Twitter from authors about this. But the simple fact is, the raw data actually shows income from ebooks sales is going up and up and up.  And that's ultimately what keeps us in our writing jobs, right? 

I've also been hearing that the domestic thriller market is saturated and nosediving. And yet the stats from K-lytics actually suggest it’s still a ‘hot niche’ for digital sales and this is backed up when you check out the top 100 digital bestseller charts.

Of course, this is all very digitally focused and these 'whispers' in the industry about genre sales are usually based more on physical book sales and / or about a publisher or agent's  priorities (eg. their lists and whether they have too many authors already covering your genre). YOU need to think about where the majority of your income comes from. Should you be making decisions based on physical book sales... or digital? What is important to you? It's worth digging deeper.

So my first takeaway from SPS Live is… don’t always blindly listen when people tell you not to write in a certain genre. Do you own research.

2. TikTok works… if a popular BookTokker recommends your book

Oh no, not another book person banging on about TikTok. Yeah I know, there’s been soooo much talk about TikTok lately. 

But there IS a reason for it. It's very clear now that TikTok can shift sales, particularly in genres like romance. I've seen it myself with my sci-fi romance (seriously. When one of my videos got over 22k views, I literally saw sales go up on my KDP dashboard an hour later). But before I add to the 'TikTok is amaaaaaaaazing for sales' chorus of excitement, what I learnt during SPS Live is that the big successes mainly happen when a popular BookTokker recommends a novel. So it's less about devoting time to making TikTok videos as an author and more about getting your books into the hands of popular BookTokkers.

This was highlighted during the talks by Lucy Score, the contemporary romance author taking the Amazon charts by storm at the moment, and Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti, the sister writing team behind the multi-million copy selling Zodiac Academy series. Though these authors are on TikTok, they confirmed the videos that helped their sales rocket tended to come after popular BookTokkers raved about their books.

Of course, author videos that go viral definitely give your books more chance of getting noticed by these BookTokkers, and SPF co-founder and author James Blatch did a superb presentation to help with this. But what’s important is either getting your book into the hands of popular BookTokkers (tough when the good BookTokkers are inundated with proof copies, but then hasn't this always been the case with bloggers too?), or writing books that evoke passionate reactions so they’re talked about on TikTok.

My second takeaway from SPS Live is… get on TikTok if you enjoy making videos. But it’s more important to ask yourself, or your publisher, what the plan is to get your books into BookTokker’s hands.

3. Check your contracts

Joanna Penn, known as The Creative Penn, is a much loved figure in the indie world thanks to her popular Creative Penn podcast, her super useful books and courses too (oh and her awesome dancing skills, as I learnt at the show's evening event which was also attended by EL James, author of the Fifty Shades megaseller series. Thanks, Joanna, for encouraging us all onto the dance floor!!)

Something Joanna is super hot on is looking to the future, and what particularly struck me about her talk is how important it is for authors with contracts to check any clauses about digital rights. Why? As Joanna says, a new wave of change is on the literary horizon, a wave with exciting creative developments in  areas such as Article Intelligence (AI), for example. Think this sounds a bit 'out there'? Well, the fact Spotify has invested in AI voice platforms around the same time they're focusing more on audiobook plans shows just how important this is going to become. Still not sure? Remember when people scoffed when they were told the Kindle was going to revolutionise reading and writing all those years ago….?

While Joanna is not suggesting all writers engage with these new developments if they're not comfortable with them, one thing that’s worth doing right NOW is being careful about giving away too many digital rights in your contracts . So lines like ‘All formats existing now and to be invented’ isn’t too great for us authors long-term if we want to explore new digital opportunities in the future. Or when signing away audio rights, we should think about whether our contract should specify ‘human voice’ so we can do exciting stuff with AI voices down the line. 

What Joanna also demonstrated in her talk is that as daunting as these 'futurist' things might seem at first, they're actually quite easy to get to grips with... and creatively exciting too! 

So my third takeaway from SPS Live is…look to the future and check your contracts.

4. Look after your body

Important one, this. But also something many authors (I’m looking at me in particular here!) ignore. Watching mega-seller Lucy Score's interview at the show reminded me of how important it is to make health a priority. When Lucy's sales really took off and she was getting ridiculous royalties every month, it didn’t just allow her to ‘build and buy the perfect house’ (she has a writing room accessed via a secret bookshelf!). It also allowed her to invest in her long-term health. As she said ‘I want to be my best self so I can continue doing what I love for as long as possible.’

So my quick 4th takeaway from SPS Live is… investing in your health is just as important as investing in a secret writing room! 

5. Write what you’re GOOD at writing

Bestselling hybrid author Suzy Quinn did a great talk at the show on how to write a bestseller. And by bestseller, she was quite clear on how she defines that: selling 100k copies of your novel (not novels all together, but one novel).

I got SO much out of her session. But what really struck me is how important it is for us as authors to, as she put it, ‘know thyself’. So when we read our work back, what are we particularly proud of? What do our readers love about our stuff? It might seem so obvious but I honestly don’t think we authors truly focus enough on that. Sure, we might focus on writing what we love, or writing to market, but what about really delving deep into what we’re bloody good at?

This really made me think. I'm blessed enough to have some of my novels achieve that 100k bestseller status. But it isn't a consistent thing. So this week I've not only  signed up for the ‘How to write a bestseller’ course Suzy runs with SPF, I've also had a good look at my reviews to get to grips with what I’m good at. And what really stood out to me was that my readers love the ‘twists and turns’ I write. So surely it’s best to capitalize on that?

The fifth takeaway from SPS Live is… learn what you're good at writing and write it

6. Do it your way

Thriller writer Rachel McLean gave a brilliant talk on how she launched a multi-platform advertising campaign to sell hundreds of thousands of copies of her books (Bestseller! Bestseller! Bestseller!). Not only did I come away with a marketing strategy to follow for my indie books, she also highlighted something I've been thinking myself a lot lately: not one size fits all. 

So for example, some authors will find a particular approach to Facebook ads works wonders for them. They'll share their 'secrets to success' with other authors and those authors will assume it's going to work for them. But that won't always be the case. As Rachel said, we need to find our own ways as authors. And yes, she shared what works for her (and I am SO going to copy it!), but she made it very clear that we need to take her advice onboard but then experiment, tweak, reject and accept as we go along.

I feel like this applies to writing too. The more we write and experiment, the more chance we have of finding that sweet spot that will get us onto those bestseller lists.  

So my 'sweet spot' sixth takeaway from SPS Live is... do your own experiments to see what works for YOU

7. Lockdown = more authors

During the show, I saw so many new faces and met SO many ‘new’ authors who finally wrote that novel brewing inside them during lockdown. For some, it was because they had more time on their hands, no longer chained to the office desk. For others, it was pure necessity after they found themselves in such financial dire straights, they had to find a way to make money and writing was that way.

But they aren't just throwing books out there and hoping they'll stick. Thanks to the services and advice offered by teams like SPF, these authors are not only writing amazing books but they're packaging and marketing them in such a professional way, readers can't tell (and don't care about) the difference with trad published books.

This means there are more awesome books out there crowding Amazon and other online stores. It might, in some cases, explain why sales are stubborn for some authors. But this shouldn't be seen as a negative. It should be seen as an opportunity. You just need to worker smarter and harder to get yourself noticed...and that's why events such as SPS Live are so important. 

So my final takeaway from SPS Live is... 'competition' for space on the bestseller lists is tougher than ever so you need to get more savvy... but also: yay, more writer friends to be made! 

To sum up, for me personally, SPS Live injected a much-needed shot of clarity, ambition and excitement for a future where I can take more control of my career... and maybe get a secret writing room installed, too! But it also really showed that the myth about indie authors trying to catch up with the trad world is just that: a myth. And maybe, maybe, it's the other way around. Trad authors, and the trad publishing world as a whole, needs to catch up with the indie world. 

Want to learn more? Head on over to selfpublishingformula.com to learn more about what SPF can offer you. If you want to listen to these talks for yourself, get yourself a digital ticket by clicking here. 

As a side hustle, I’ve been dabbling with a bit of independent publishing. It's been something I've wanted to try out after chatting to authors who've done brilliantly with it. But I just never found the time as I had so many commitments on the trad side (which for now will always come first for me). Maybe the delay is also because I grew a little cynical about indie publishing too. As well as the success stories, I also began to hear less successful stories. I was worried about taking something on which might turn out to be a waste of my  time.  

But then late last year, I had this insane urge to write a sci-romance that's been buzzing around my head for years. Maybe it's because after a VERY tough couple of years, I needed to do something... a little different. A little out of my usual lane. So in-between writing books for my publisher, I wrote up my story. It only took a few weeks and it was such FUN! And I knew, I just knew, it would be the ideal project to test the indie waters. I mean, the chance of getting a trad publisher in this genre are slim anyway, and I'd seen other authors in this particular genre (hello Ruby Dixon!) do wonderfully. 

So I used all the knowledge I've accumulated over the years to finally independently publish one of my novels. And I won't just be publishing one either... I'll be publishing two more. My learnings told me that in this genre, it really is best to have at least three novels in a series out before delving whole-heartedly into marketing them. I also decided I needed to publish them quickly. Another thing my research into indie publishing and this particular genre taught me is how successful the 'rapid release' approach can be. After all, the romance genre is dominated by what are known as 'whale readers', people who devour ebooks at a crazy speed. If they like your first book, they want the next one, stat! So the plan was to write at least the first two books quickly, and aim to release them two to three months apart. This is reasonably easy for someone like me, who can write like a demon plus earnings from my trad writing career mean I write f/t, so I've been able to juggle this hybrid career with some evening and weekend work thrown in too.

It's now been a couple of months since I self-published book one in this sci-fi romance series and soon, I'll be publishing book two. I'm not (yet) here to share the results of my indie experiment as, like I mentioned, I don't plan to really push the books marketing-wise until at least three are out. But already, I have learnt a LOT! So I thought I'd share the three things that have really been rammed home to me over the past few months...

1. I really don't have a clue

It doesn’t matter that I've had a career in PR, social media and marketing. It doesn't matter how many podcasts on indie publishing I listened to, or the courses I've done and the books I've read. Nothing could truly prepare me for what's involved in self publishing my own book. I realise the only way to truly know is just dive right in and learn as I go. Maybe this shouldn't have surprised me. I honestly (arrogantly) thought I'd done enough reading and learning for it to be a breeze. I thought I was organised enough too. But the truth is, you really have to be the king or queen of organisation. From dealing with all the different editorial rounds (hats off to editorial teams at trad publishing houses for their ninja skills on this) to the ad side of things, it's a complicated juggle of so many different parts. And I haven't even delved into the ad side properly yet! It really has made me appreciate the teams I work with in my trad published life. The fact is, in the same way we're told the first ever novel we write is a learning curve, so is the first novel you independently publish. You almost have to go in with the mindset that this is another step in your learning and appreciate it for that alone, even if you don't end up making much money with that first novel. 

2. It's costly

I don't just mean in terms of money, I mean time too.

Yeah, sure, you can indie publish for peanuts. Design your own cover. Get a friend to edit your novel. But can you really do this in a way that makes it look as professional as a trad published novel? Unlikely. So the fact is, there is some initial outlay. To give you a little insight into what I've spent so far just for book one, here's a list:

Cover: £150
Dev edit: £550
Copy / line edit: £730
Blurb advice: £25
Amazon ads: £200
Pen name email: £50
Subscriptions to tools like BookSprout and BookFunnel: £300
Marketing tools: £100
Web domain: £100

Of course, some of these items won't need to be paid again for book 2 and 3 (eg. dev edit as I've decided it won't be needed now I've got to grips with the genre, and subscriptions). But equally, I've saved money by doing things like designing my own website. Overall, I reckon I'll be spending about five thousand pounds on a three-book series, and that doesn't include advertising. I actually think this is reasonably conservative compared to some indie authors, and I've been a little more free-spirited with spend as I've been reinvesting some of what I've earned from my trad career.  I mean, sure, I could save money by doing some of this myself. But if one thing is clear from the research I've done, indie published books need to look as professional as possible–from a professionally designed cover to a carefully edited manuscript–in order to have their best chance. You don't want readers to be able to distinguish your novel from a trad published novel. 

And then there's the time you spend publishing your own stuff. Not just the writing, but the admin. Oh the admin! Yes, of COURSE I knew there would be a LOT involved. I don't want this post to come across as a whiny 'but nobody told me how difficult it would be' because I honestly did try to prepare myself for the hard work involved. But remember what I said in point one? Until you dive in, you can’t truly know just how much is involved. Even adding a friggin’ book to Amazon via a form can be a time suck. What has been super enlightening for me is that I now get just how much work my trad publishers do on my behalf. I mean, I’ve always known how hard they work, but until now, haven't really understood the whole process from start to finish. Editorial. Marketing. Admin. It’s a SLOG! When you're traditionally published, this is mainly handled by the publishers, allowing you more time to write. So yeah, big respect to publishing staff,

3. People can be... unreliable

This has been the biggest challenge so far. Not just for me but chatting to other indie authors, it's 100% a widespread issue: the nightmare and unpredictability of relying on others. It's easier when trad published as your editor does most of the liaising and organising of the team, such as editors, cover designers, marketing. But as an indie author, you're the boss. This can be great. You're in control. But it can also be super frustrating, especially when freelancers go MIA at crucial times which is an all-too regular occurrence from what I've heard from other indie authors (sounds harsh but it's the truth). It's not always due to pure unreliability of the freelancers' parts of course. Life can get in the way. But it still leaves you with lots of problems if, say, your final cover isn't delivered. It's so stressful! 

4. It can make you even more enthusiastic about the trad publishing side of your life 

For some, dabbling with indie publishing makes them want to dive right into the indie publishing world whole-heartedly. They might make lots more money with their indie stuff. They might adore the control. They might feel disillusioned with the trad publishing world, especially if their books aren't selling and / or they're not able to secure a new contract. There can be a multitude of reasons.

But for me, it's given me an even deeper appreciation for the trad publishing world. This is not at the cost of my appreciation for indie publishing. I can see the good in both and in a few months, my indie books might take off and I'll be rolling in the indie money, ha! But it's definitely shown me even more how much my publishers do for me, and also the challenges they face in shifting copies and building reviews, liaising with freelancers, and juggling the many, many balls you need to juggle to do it all properly.  

5. It has taught me even more about how to help my trad published books 

There are so many more things I now realise I could be doing to help shift copies of my trad published books. I thought I'd picked up lots of tips already from indie authors but being in the thick of it has given me a whole new level of insight. And yes, this is insight I will share eventually.

Overall, it's so far been a challenging, insightful and stressy experience. Will I will independently publish more books after this series? Let's see when I get book three of the series out!  Watch this space in a few months to see what I think then! 

I started posting videos on TikTok in earnest at the weekend after hearing more and more about how important it might become for authors, and I've learnt a few things. Whether you're a complete newbie or you're on TikTok but not sure sure what you're doing, I hope this post is useful for you. Clearly, with only a few days' worth of posting under my belt, I'm no expert. But I've done a lot of research and I've jumped in the TikTok pool, and while I'm faffing about in the training pool, I thought you might want to join me on the journey to the deep end.

A caveat: if you feel overwhelmed by the idea of this and feel like it's just another social media platform to add to your already huge To Do pile, don't feel pressured. I'm not saying you *have* to be on TikTok. But if you enjoy trying new social media features and love to experiment with creative marketing, then read on. If you're not sure, still read on. You never know, it might be the social media platform you finally end up loving and not seeing as a chore...
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So here goes, just click on the headings / plus signs below to read more

(This accordion menu can be a bit glitchy on mobile devices, pushing you down the bottom of the page so just find your way back again if that happens).... 

I really hope this all helps! I will be back with some updates on how videos around my book launch went and if ever I 'blow up'. But at least this gets us started! If you do get on TikTok because of this article, or up your TikTok game, please come say hi on TikTok and let me know :-) 

There’s a strange conflict we writers face. On one hand, creatives are told not to sell ourselves short by producing content for free. On the other hand, it’s common practise for authors, especially debuts, to be expected to write free stuff as part of their ‘PR’ plan.
 
So no wonder it can be quite the dilemma when authors are asked to write for free, whether it be via their publicist or direct from a publication. I remember when I first started out, I didn’t think twice about saying yes to everything. I worked in PR for many years so know the way it works. You do stuff for free to get publicity. Any exposure is good exposure, right? I was also keen to please my publicist and publisher. 
 
But with some experience, I'm now a lot more choosy. As a rule, I don't write free articles for book blogs or more obscure websites unless a friend is asking. But if an opportunity to write for a national publication or high traffic website comes up, I'll more than likely say yes. It's interesting that some of the more innovative digital publishers don't even bother with PR campaigns any more, believing even articles in larger publications don't ultimately sell books. 

But I believe it's more nuanced than that. How do you decide whether to say yes or no? Here are some steps to take:

First, find out how many people read the publication   

It’s pretty easy to get circulation figures for larger publications via a web search. For example, the Press Gazette runs articles about circulation figures of many publications. Or check a publication’s website for the area aimed at selling ads for stats. Similar Web is great for websites in particular, just do a search.
 
It’s not so easy to get these figures for smaller publications though, the very ones where you might be in two minds about contributing.
 
A way around this is to simply ask your publicist to find out, or the publication itself. You’re being asked to write for free after all, you have every right to ask (as long as you’re polite and charming when you do!). Even small bloggers should have access to stats via the platform or Google Analytics.
 
But how do you know if the figures are any good?
 
This is a difficult one to answer, especially when it comes to websites. But as a rule, over 10k unique visitors a month isn’t bad, 100k plus really good.
 
For comparison, here’s the traffic from the past 28 days of three of the most common websites where authors' ‘free’ articles appear:
 
Express.co.uk 125.26m 
Femalefirst.co.uk - 917.43K
Writing.ie – 50k
 
As for the printed press, the UK’s most popular newspaper, the Daily Mail, had a circulation of 984,043 in March 2021, and The Sunday Express was at 212,025. For what is referred to as ‘Women’s Lifestyle’, after the supermarket magazines, it’s Good Housekeeping at 410,241k.
 
Personally, I think 100k+ is the kind of figure I'm looking at if a publication is to perk my interest. 

 But you also need to ask what kind of people read the publication?  

What kind of readers are you trying to attract? If you’re not sure, ask your publisher or check out your author dashboard for stats if your publisher has one.
 
I know, from my own author dashboard stats, for example, that my average reader is mainly female, aged 56+. There are no niche interests I need to cater for (more on that later). So while writing an article for a high circ publication like Top Gear magazine would impress my husband, it isn’t going to be a good bet for me. Whereas an article in a high circ lifestyle magazine or national newspaper could be useful. 
 
If you’re not sure of a publication’s demographic, you can usually find out in the advertising section of the publication’s website, or just read some of the articles to get a sense. Are these people likely to be potential readers?
 
(As an aside, you might not always be aiming to target readers. Sometimes, you might want to raise your profile in the writing community. You might even find readers there. Are your readers the type of people who might be writers? All something to consider.)

So you know the publication's circulation figures and target readership. What now? The way I approach it is as follows: 

100k+ circulation + target readership = yes 
 
If you learn that the publication is one of the The Big Ones then it’s probably worth writing a free article. As you can see from these figures for the nationals, you can get a decent wedge of exposure for that free article you might write for them, not to mention the kudos and the fact advertising in these publications are often worth their weight in gold. Plus there’s content marketing to consider: high profile media brands are more likely to be read and shared online.

BUT... no harm asking
 
Seeing as they are so big, there’s no harm asking for some kind of payment anyway and certainly pushing for as decent a book plug as possible (eg. a thumbnail cover image to go with that title mention). I mean, some deem it as being unethical to ask people to work for free, so you really shouldn’t be frowned upon for simply asking the question as long as you're polite and charming when you do. 

What about the smaller publications? 

Should it be a default no? Now this is where it gets a little more complicated as there are caveats:

• Are you trying to target a niche audience?  

For example, does your main character have a particular hobby / job which features heavily in the narrative? In which case, it may well be worth writing an article for a niche low circulation publication because their target market are almost guaranteed to be a captive audience. 

• Does it sound like fun?  

We authors love writing and sometimes, the joy of writing something for a publication is worth the effort anyway. If you have the time and enthusiasm, and maybe you want to see it as a chance to hone your writing skills even more then why not?
 
Take an article I did for Dog’s Monthly about writers and their canine companions. To be fair to the magazine, it does attract an average monthly readership of 80,000 so not to be sniffed at. But as an example, they were asking for 1500 words sharing the importance of canine companions for authors. Though it took a while to write and research (not to mention the at-home photoshoot I arranged for me and my dog with my husband as photographer!) I loved the fact I’d got an article into a dog magazine! Plus the book I had out at the time featured a vet as a main character.

However, I was also once asked by a website with less than 10k monthly visitors to write 2,000 words about my average writing day. Look, I love talking about writing but the day itself… in 2k words? It just felt like too much. If, say, Good Housekeeping asked me to write it then sure! But this was a request from a small website. So yeah, I turned it down.

• Is it for a charity?  

I know many authors who are happy to contribute their time for free to publications like the Big Issue. I have contributed articles for cancer charities. I’ve also written an article or two for friends. If you feel comfortable doing it and have the time without stressing yourself, then go ahead. Speaking of time...

• How much time is it likely to take?  

This is a big question and one that is a little more complicated then it first seems. You see, some articles with a long word count may not actually take so long to work on and vice versa. It also depends on your own preferences. So for me, I find Q&As super easy so they usually only take about 30 minutes. General advice which is at the tip of my tongue is similar too. But when it comes to more researched items where I need to talk to other people then that can take a few hours. Or emotional first person accounts. So it’s worth thinking about that.
 
They key thing is, don’t overstretch yourself. If you have a busy life and / or a looming deadline, or you’re going through something challenging. Is it really worth adding a burdensome task on top of it all if there is no monetary return and even worse, book-selling return?

So how do you say no? 

Saying no can be uber difficult for authors. You feel like you're letting people down, especially if it's your publisher. But saying no in a polite, sensible and reasoned way can sometimes be what turns you from being a slave to publishing (sorry to put it bluntly) to being their equal. I often talk about the harm that comes with being a 'grateful sap'. It's important your publisher sees you as an equal. In fact, it ups your negotiating power and standing in the industry. 
 
An example: as I said before, I said yes to everything as a debut. But I published my second book while on maternity leave. Life was crazy! During a conference call with my lovely editor and publicist at the time, I was brutally honest with them: I would only write for free for high circulation nationals, and even then, I’d take it on a case-by-case basis.
 
They were totally cool with it. I think if I’d said the same with my debut, that may have been a little harder. But still, I think they would have understood and in fact, respected me even more for my savviness. 
 
And I guess this is what it always comes down to here: your savviness. As I always say, know your worth and stop being guilted into doing stuff... you’ll be respected even more for it.
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And finally, many writers report being asked to take on copy-writing gigs for free. Not just for the press but for companies. ‘It’ll help raise your profile’ or ‘the exposure will help sell books’. If you find yourself in this awkward position then here are some handy responses.

Guest Post from Virtual Assistant, Sarah Garnham 
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Aren’t we lucky in this day and age to have such wonderful, creative apps at the tips of our fingers? As a Virtual Assistant specialising in supporting authors with their social media management, research and an array of other tasks, I’m so thankful for these resources.

So, where do you start? In a sea of apps and software designed to help you manage your workload and get creative, how do you even begin to decide which ones to use first?  Well, it just so happens that I have picked out my absolute favourites that have helped me to drive forward a successful business and podcast, ensuring that I provide the most professional service, while still juggling school runs, homework and maintaining the family home (just about!)

So without further ado, here they are:

Productivity apps
We all have so much to do and as writers, you all have your targets to meet, whether that means committing to a dedicated daily word count, a busy social media schedule, or perhaps you’re juggling a job alongside your writing journey. As a self-confessed post-it note Queen, I needed a better way of managing my time and organising my days. Enter free project management tools. I wouldn’t be without them and I highly recommend 2 specific tools that have single-handedly improved my clarity of mind and enabled me to sleep at night without the worry of forgetting something.

1. Trello – introduced to me by my wonderful client, Tracy Buchanan, I wouldn’t be without it. This is my go-to project management app. It has clear boards and lists that act as a visual aid to see in front of you on one page what you have coming up, over the course of a day, a week and even a month. Its user-friendly approach allows you to drag and drop tasks into different lists and you can add members to your Trello board. This means that you can communicate with others about your tasks. For example, if you have a VA, you can write a message to them on Trello by adding them as a member. There is a free version along with various paid plans, but I must confess, the free version is still working wonders for me to this day. Visit www.Trello.com to see how this can work for you.
2. Asana – this is a similar project management tool that works on the premise of lists, tasks and the ability to communicate with others via the app. You can allocate a date, time and task owner, as well as organising different tasks to pre-planned projects. It’s a rather pretty app and it even treats you to a flying unicorn to congratulate you on completing a task. It’s strangely exciting when this happens! To find out more, you can visit www.asana.com.

Visual Content
If you’re using social media as a promotional tool (which I highly recommend!) then there are plenty of apps available to you that can be used to create visual content. From beginners to those with an eye for graphic design, each of these apps will cater for your needs.

1. Canva – I’m sure many of you have heard of and have even used Canva as a tool to create eye-catching images to promote books, or even just to make your own pictures even prettier than they were in their original form. It is full of unique templates for all social media platforms. If you want to make things even more personalised, there are many free stock images, great fonts, filters, elements and the ability to animate your artwork as well. I wouldn’t be without it and once you get the hang of it, you’ll find that it is particularly user-friendly. There is a free version, which suited me very well for a long time, but if you do wish access to even more resources, then there are various paid plans. You can visit www.canva.com to sign up.
2. Book Brush - This is one that serves me very well when I’m creating visual content for authors. As the name would suggest, it is a content creator specifically for book promotions. I adore Book Brush because it has a variety of book templates including physical books, e-books and audio books. It has a bank of stock images, as well as quite a large selection of templates for all different genres. You have lots of elements, such as the logos for Amazon, BookBub, Goodreads and many more. Adding all of these features together creates professional looking visual content. There is a free version, but it doesn’t allow for lots of downloads. However, I found it to be a very reasonable investment considering the quality of images that it produces. To find out more, visit www.bookbrush.com
3. Fliptastic – If you like creating slideshows, this is such a cute and extremely user-friendly app. I have it on my iPhone and you can upload images and create lovely slideshows with it. There are various transitions and music available to layer over the top of your finished piece. I’ve created slideshows for different occasions and have always had positive feedback. To find out more, just search for Fliptastic on your app store.

Audio
With the number of podcasts in circulation recently topping 1 million, it is no wonder that authors and creatives are turning to podcasting as a way of communicating with their readers and fellow authors. I, myself have a podcast called Virtually Minded and it’s a really effective medium, as well as being extremely fun! So if you’ve been thinking of doing something like this, but you’re worried it will require quite a financial commitment, fear not. There are loads of free apps and software, which make it a very cheap pursuit!

• Anchor.fm – I’d like to introduce you to my favourite podcasting app. Not only can you record and edit the podcasts via this platform, but Anchor.fm will distribute your podcast to all of the major platforms, including Spotify, Google Podcasts and Apple Podcasts – all for free! For anybody reading this in the US, you can also make a small earning from your podcast by recording a short advert for Anchor on your show. You can upload artwork (enter Canva to create this) and write descriptions of each show. This is better suited to podcasting newbies and the recordings are limited to 30 minutes. You can split the recording if you want longer episodes and splice them together at the end! To sign up, you can visit https://anchor.fm.
• Zoom – If you want to interview guests on your podcast, or have a co-host, then Zoom is a great way to record this. I’m sure most people are now familiar with Zoom since its popularity and usage sky-rocketed during the lockdowns. Once you’ve recorded, edited and downloaded your episode, you can upload the MP3 file to Anchor.fm ready for it to be distributed on the publish date. If you haven’t already downloaded Zoom then you can do so here: https://zoom.us/.
• Audacity – This is a FREE piece of audio-editing software that you can download onto your computer. You can upload a number of different audio files simultaneously and edit different pieces of audio together to create a seamless end product. If you want to add music, you can add a royalty-free music file from somewhere like YouTube audio library and have it play over the top of your voice recording. There are various special effects on Audacity that will allow you to create a polished episode. You can download Audacity here: https://www.audacityteam.org/download/.

​
So, there we have it, my absolute favourite collection of apps and software that are fundamental assets to the running of my business. With regular use, you’ll become better and better at creating content and your confidence will grow! If you’d like to find out more about my Virtual Assistant business and how having an VA may help you with time management, then please visit www.vitruallyminded.co.uk – I’d be happy to have an informal chat to answer any questions you might have. You can also listen to my podcast here: https://anchor.fm/sarah-garnham. If you enjoy listening to inspirational stories about people who’ve risen to success (often after overcoming adversity) then this might be for you.

 
If you could sum up your attitude to where you want to go with your writing in 2021 with one word, what would it be?
 
This is the question I asked members of the Savvy Writers’ Snug  I run on Facebook on New Year’s Eve. The words they chose were varied and inspiring, as you can see from the word cloud above (and yes, you'll notice the Platypus addition from one author! I mean, why not?).
 
I found some writers needed to enter this year carefully and take their foot off the acceleration pedal. Others were buzzing with energy and a real determination to take their writing life up a gear.
 
I’m usually like this. Take 2020 for example. I leapt into the year with goals galore. I even wrote a blog post about it using an array of boating metaphors, ha ha! Like previous years, I was fizzing with anticipation and expectation. I had a new book out with a new publisher. I had plans to write more than I ever had. I’d even planned an event to look forward to, the Savvy Writers’ Fest.
 
But then… well, you know what happened. A global pandemic hit. A global pandemic that is still here, nearly a year later (in fact, as I type this, my daughter is in the room with me as her school has been closed again).
 
So thank God I chose the word I did to describe my approach to 2021: healing.
 
Why healing? 2020 has dealt me a few blows (not just the pandemic) so this year, I want to take it slowly and softly.

Have a think. Which camp are you in? The buzzing with energy camp, or the ones that need a bit of softly, slowly approach?

If you're in the buzzing camp, then I have a host of blog posts here to help you out. But for those of us who want to go softly and slowly, here are three tips:

      1.  See writing as therapy

The reason I really got into writing in the first place was a form of therapy to get me through years of struggling with infertility. My debut novel The Atlas of Us was the result. I was blessed enough to have my daughter and my focus turned to making enough money with my writing to leave my day job so I could juggle family life better. As a result, I became more ‘savvy’ and looked at writing through more of a commercial lens (while still adoring the writing itself and finding comfort in it).
 
When the horrors of 2020 came along, I started to feel the need to write to heal again. But I had deadlines and a new book out so combined with everything else - including the need to just DO NOTHING on some days - there simply wasn’t space to be slow, to be soft.
 
And when I mean being slow and soft, and luxuriating in the healing process, I mean things like taking time to think, to research, to visit places and do things as a form of inspiration. Now it’s time to return to that. I will still be busy in many ways: my latest novel Circle of Doubt is out, and I have a summer deadline for the next. But I’m going to make myself play more with ideas without imposing a deadline on myself for those ideas.
 
How can you do this? Have a think about something you’ve been longing to write but haven’t for various reasons. Or if you don’t have an idea, spend some time inspiring yourself. This doesn’t mean you neglect your contracted deadline. I will still write my contracted novel but I will also give myself permission to luxuriate in a ‘passion project’. The difference is, I won’t aim to finish it this year. Slowly, softly isn’t about that. Instead, I’ll tell myself to enjoy the process. The research. The thinking. No deadlines. It will be written when it’s ready to be written. When I’m ready for it to be written.   
 
      2.  Routine 

Routine went out of the window in 2020, especially with school closures here in the UK. I’d become used to my weekday routine, pre-pandemic: dropping my daughter off at school, going for a walk, then writing / dealing with admin stuff until I had to pick my daughter up again and embarking on the family side of life for the rest of the day. My days were neatly compartmentalised.
 
But then 2020 happened. And even when my daughter returned to school in September, my mind wouldn’t let me settle back into that routine. I was all over the shop and frankly, didn’t work as much as I should have, choosing some days to just lie in bed, hiding.
 
I needed that. It was fine.

Now, in the original draft of this blog post, this was the past where I was going to tell you about how I was going to make sure I returned to routine because a routine means you don't have to think too much about the necessary parts of the day, you just do them, which in turns frees up headspace to be creative. But then in the UK, we were thrown into another lockdown and my daughter's school is closed. So sticking to a routine is about as likely as a me laying off the chocolate this month! 

So I've had to re-think. Did you know the word 'routine' in part comes from the French word for 'road'? So I'm seeing it like this: each week is a journey and as long as I pass some regular sights along the way - a daily walk, any home learning I can manage, specific work tasks to tick off the list and some 'slowly, softly' thinking, researching, creative time, then that's enough.

But (and please let this be soon!) when lockdown eases, I've promised myself I will get some semblance of a routine back.
 
How can you do this? I found this blog post from the author of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck on using routine to guide your way through this pandemic, so insightful. While you’re there, check out another of his posts where people share their life lessons from the pandemic. 
 
      3.  Energy 

Like a lot of people I know, I have punished my body in 2020 with lethargy, over eating and over-drinking. Like so many others, I told myself I shouldn’t be so hard on myself, I needed to do all this to cope. But the truth is, by doing all that, I actually ended up doing what I wanted to avoid: I ended up being hard on myself as it made me feel naff. 
 
So now I must remember that and I need to stop telling myself it’s fine to eat rubbish and be lazy because of what I’ve been through. I’ve had months of it. Time to change, to move more, to eat better and in turn, that’ll surely have an impact on the way I write too? I might have less work hours with my daughter being at home but by making some changes in my eating and moving habits, maybe I’ll have more energy to make the most of the writing hours I do have available?
 
How can you do this? Each person will have their own ways of approaching this. I’m not here to dish out health advice. But I have found Joanna Penn to be a brilliant inspiration when it comes to being a healthy writer and guess what? She wrote a whole book on it! More about it here. She also talks a lot about walking, and her experiences with lifestyle changes such as intermittent fasting. Have a listen to her podcast for more. I'd also recommend listening to the Virtually Minded podcast which my virtual assistant runs. It is so insightful, in particular her second 'Mindset' episode. 
 
I hope this helps. Remember, we will all have our different approaches as authors to 2021. Whatever approach you take, I hope it’s a good year for you and your writing. 

Watching the US presidential campaign unfold has made me think a lot about giving up.
 
Specifically, how do we as authors know when there’s a wrong time and a right time to give up on our writing careers?
 
Giving up is a topic that’s often brought up in the Savvy Writers’ Snug group that I run on Facebook. Maybe an author hasn’t been re-contracted due to low sales figures, or they can’t get a new contract.
 
They will post and ask the question: is it time to give up, or should I persevere regardless?
 
It’s tempting to tell these authors not to give up. And many people do. But it’s more nuanced than that and the two presidential candidates can give us an interesting insight into just how nuanced.
 
First, take the president-elect, Joe Biden. This isn’t the first time he’s tried to become president. The last two times were in 1988 and 2008, but for various reasons, he didn’t make it. That’s over 30 years riding the political rollercoaster of ups and downs, with personal tragedies in-between too.
 
Most people would have given up.
 
But not Biden and now he finally has what he’s been striving for all this time, despite all the obstacles and stumbles along the way.
 
Now take Donald Trump. He too sought office before becoming president in 2016, just once in 2000 when he created what he called a ‘presidential exploratory committee’. But for the purposes of this article, let’s look at right now and how he’s reacted to losing the presidency. Is he giving up? Hell no! Despite all the facts telling him otherwise, Trump is persevering by constantly insisting he won the election and launching lawsuits too.
 
You could say that like Biden, Trump refuses to give up.
 
But the truth is, Trump's form of perseverance is completely different from Biden’s. Apart from the obvious – it’s deluded and not based in fact –  it is a blind kind of tenacity which refuses to bend or adapt to reach a goal. He is going down a straight road of litigation and refusing to veer off or adapt his message, which is: voter fraud and I won.
 
Biden, however, did veer off track, adapting to change when needed. For example, after witnessing the summer’s racial tensions in the US, he made what some deemed a controversial decision by taking on Kamala Harris as his running mate, a key figure in the civil rights movement.
 
He also adapted his campaign as the horror of the pandemic unfolded, running it entirely online despite all his natural instincts telling him to be out there, hand-shaking and hugging, something he's known for.
 
This is what makes the difference between the two types of 'not giving up'. On one hand, you have someone who is so stuck in their ways, you can pretty much guarantee they'll have the rug pulled out from beneath them eventually. Then the other version, someone with a flexible realistic approach which ultimately, will offer them the best chance of success. 
 
How does this apply to authors?
 
There will come a time in most authors’ lives when they will feel a sense of hopelessness. Maybe it’s because of declining sales or they’ve been dropped by their publisher. When authors share their worries and ask their peers whether it's time to give up, the natural instinct of other authors is to always say don’t give up. Sure, take a break but persevere, it’s a long game! All it takes is one breakout book to finally get there, just as all it took was one election victory for Biden.
 
And I get it! I have my own story of nearly giving up after I received nearly a hundred rejections from agents. In the end, I didn’t and thank God for that! Same with Joe Biden (ha! Look at me comparing my experience with the president-elect!). Imagine if he’d given up, he would have missed out on finally achieving his dream of being president.
 
But blindly telling an author not to give up can do them a disservice. First, we need to question how they're dealing with any obstacles in their way. Are they just ploughing on with what they’ve always done, despite all the signs telling them it’s not going to work, as Trump is doing? Or are they willing to adapt and change like Biden is?
 
The truth is, if an author is not selling enough books to keep them in contract, something needs to give. They need to change, to adapt, to experiment.  And yes, that can mean switching genre.
 
But many authors aren’t willing to do this. They argue that they must 'write from the heart' otherwise what’s the point? They tell themselves that their readers, even if there are a small number of them, love their work, after all. Plus they got a publishing deal, didn’t they? Surely, that tells them they have some talent.
 
Absolutely! All of this shows an author has some kind of talent. But in this business, talent alone isn't enough. It just isn't! Truth is, if an author isn't bothered about having a long-term career in writing – and by career, I mean earning enough money from their writing to focus on it part-time or full-time – then they should crack on. It might work. You hear the stories of it working when a genre suddenly takes off.
 
But these cases are few and far between. The truth is, a few months down the line, an author in this position will probably find themselves still struggling to keep afloat as they continue to write into the void, telling themselves it’s fine because it’s what their heart desires, when the truth is, despite telling themselves over and over as long as they're writing from the heart, they're happy, in reality they find themselves steeped in misery as their writing career stalls.
 
What makes me so sad as I watch this happen is they haven’t even tried another way. Not properly anyway. They’ve assumed it just won’t work. They haven’t played and experimented with genre to see if another glove might fit just as beautifully as the first. It doesn’t even have to be a complete change. I was writing women’s fiction but when sales struggled, I decided to make it a little darker That doesn’t mean I still don’t dabble with the lighter women’s fiction I once wrote in the background too.
 
The key is making tweaks before your refusal to give up just results in you having the choice taken from you, like no doubt Trump will find happens in the coming weeks. 
 
So what if you're reading this and you're at that crossroads now? My advice is, don’t blindly plough on. Instead, become informed enough to twist and turn with the tide of publishing and who knows? You might not be President of the United States, but you sure as hell might be able to save your chances of the successful writing career you dream of.

​Netgalley is an online platform which aims to connect publishers and authors with 'readers of influence' such as librarians, booksellers, educators, reviewers and bloggers. Unlike websites like Goodreads, you can only see reviews if you're a member, so Netgalley shouldn't be thought of as review site for ‘normal’ readers to access. 

The hope from the publisher and author point of view is that by sending free review copies to these 'readers of influence', their resulting reviews can be used for blurbs, and create word of mouth. Plus they should also appear on platforms outside Netgalley, such as GoodReads and Amazon. Not to mention, it might help publishers when selling a book into retailers. Eg. '2k people requested an ARC, this book is going to be huuuuuuge!’

When it works, it can be quite useful (though as discussed in my previous post about blog tours, there can always be the risk all you’re targeting is the echo chamber).

The problem comes when it doesn't work. Specifically, when people treat Netgalley as a 'free books' website. And many people do. I call these people ‘book blaggers’. They see legitimate book reviewers receiving free books and think ‘yeah, I’ll have a piece of that.’

How do I know these people are blagging? 

I’ve seen this myself in book groups on Facebook. Other authors regularly report seeing the same too. I’d love to share screen shots here but I don’t want to cross a line! So here’s how a conversation will usually go:

Blagger A: Does anyone know where I can get free books? I’m off on holiday soon and need some new books.

Blagger B: Netgalley! It’s a great website where you can request FREE books before they’re published in exchange for reviews. Just make sure you give as much info in your bio as possible for publishers.

Blagger A: Ooh, this sounds great, thanks. What sort of info should I include?

Blagger B: Mainly the kind of books you like but also where you will leave your review. It helps if you have a website too.

Blagger A: What do you mean by website?

Blagger B: Like a reviewing blog.

Blagger A: Oh, I don’t have one of those.

Blagger B: No worries, they’re easy to set up for free using a site like Wordpress.

Blagger C: Sorry to butt in, but that’s what I did. It was easy. You don’t even really need to leave a review to be honest, I don’t always leave reviews and still get freebies.

Blagger A: Awesome! Going to check it out now.

These people aren’t ‘readers of influence’. They’re purely doing it to get freebies. Even worse, they’re passing on their tips to other aspiring book blaggers! Ergh. 

It’s pretty easy for book blaggers to play the system, pretending to be reviewers just so they can get their hands on a free book. As Blagger A said, anyone can set up a blog for free these days and make it seem legit. If we’re ‘lucky’, they’ll post a quick badly written review on Netgalley, maybe even duplicate it on their low traffic blog too. But most of the time, there will be no review at all.

Of course, if vetted properly, the book blaggers shouldn’t get a look in. As Netgalley states, anyone requesting a book to review should ideally have:

‘a history of providing feedback for books they’ve accessed, and can demonstrate their reach as an early influencer or reviewer. Members improve their chances of getting approved for more books by providing meaningful reviews, by connecting their accounts to verified industry organizations (ALA, ABA, Booksellers Association (UK), ALIA (AU), and others.), and linking to their blogs, social and Goodreads accounts.’

I know many publishers work super hard to vet requests via Netgalley and chase up reviewers. And yet somehow, book blaggers still manage to slip through the net. I hear it all the time from other authors who are members of the Savvy Writers’ Snug I run on Facebook. Many notice a lot of their Netgalley reviews do not end up on a website which will actually benefit readers, like Amazon.

Authors also often complain about the fact that some of the reviews on Netgalley offer no constructive or useful feedback either. The review might be less than a paragraph, or a vague plot overview with no insight at all. 

I recently did a bit of an exercise on one of my own books to get a sense of how many people getting my books via Netgalley are there for the freebies or there for the love of reviewing books.

My most reviewed book on Netgalley is my sixth novel The Family Secret. This is what I discovered after a bit of research: 

• 86 of the 130 reviews didn’t seem to appear anywhere else, such as Amazon, GoodReads or a blog. That’s 66%.
• 58 of the reviews were less than one small paragraph long. That’s 44% of reviews.
• 44 reviews were both super short AND didn't appear on a site like Amazon. That’s 33%! 

So a THIRD of the reviewers who posted some kind of review on Netgalley didn’t do a proper review nor did they seem to place it anywhere useful. That doesn’t include those who requested the novel and then didn’t even leave any kind of review on Netgalley itself!

I'm not alone. Many authors report a disparity between the number of free copies requested (sometimes in the hundreds) and the subsequent number of reviews received on Netgalley itself and elsewhere. Sure, life can get in the way. Plus a reviewer might absolutely hate a book and rather not post a review at all (better to say nothing at all to say something nasty, right?).

But I suspect a lot of the time, the ‘reviewer’ never intended to post a review in the first place. 

That, frankly, is unethical. How would they feel if the same happened to them?

Ironically, one of the reviewers who posted a pointless review of The Family Secret on Netgalley and nowhere else  actually sells products themselves from what I could gather when Googling them. Imagine me knocking on their door, asking for a free product in exchange for a review and then not publishing that review? How would they react? 

The question is, how is this allowed?

The publisher I worked with on The Family Secret are one of the best when it comes to getting reviews. They offer incentives for reviewers, send reminders on publication day to encourage them to transfer their review to Amazon and try their best to vet reviews.

And yet still, blaggers have clearly slipped through the net.

I imagine when super busy, it can be tempting to just approve requests without doing too much digging, especially if it’s a digital copy. Even the cost of sending a physical copy can be negligible when you’re trying to save time.

You might argue what’s the harm in this? Publishers bulk print ARCs anyway, better getting them into the hands of readers, any readers, than have them stay in a warehouse.

But it’s the principle. Freebie grabbers do nothing for authors. They’re the same as the people who download books from piracy sites. They are undervaluing the hard work we put in. This is made even worse when they post about their freebie and encourage others to try and get one.

(And by the way, this is completely different from free books via programmes like Amazon First Reads. This helps drive books up the Amazon ranks and get it noticed.)

To sum up, I think Netgalley can be useful when utilised professionally for all the reasons I listed above. Genuine reviewers and bloggers are skilled writers who offer essential insight for readers and great blurbs.

But I worry many publishers’ focus on this platform don’t justify the benefits. Is a quote from a reviewer who's unlikely to be recognised by your readers going to stand out compared to a quote from a normal genuine reader sourced from Amazon or GoodReads?

If you struggle to get that bulk of reviews on release day on, say, Amazon, then it might be better for you or your publisher to hold their own database of reviewers and bloggers with a focus on quality over quantity.

Regardless of what your publishers do, think about taking it into your own hands. Set up your own street team of readers, create a Facebook group for readers, begin building those relationships yourself so you can ‘own’ them.

Netgalley isn’t the be all and end all when it comes to reviews.

I hope this provides some insight! 

PS. Just to add some extra insight, my latest book Wall of Silence received 24 reviews on Netgalley with a 3 star average. The reason for the low number of reviews is that my publisher Lake Union don’t focus on Netgalley reviews. On Amazon UK, it has 1423 reviews with a 4.5 average, and is the most read of all my books. Interesting, hey?

A blog tour is where your book features on a different book blog every day for a week or two. Content will range from a review of your book, to a guest post from you, the author. This content will then be shared on social media. 

Some publishers will run a blog tour for you, usually in the lead up to publication day. They will liaise with bloggers, get dates sorted, let you know any content you need to write, send out your book (physically or digitally) and chase bloggers.

Often your publisher's publicity team will sort this. Sometimes, they will pay a blog tour organiser to arrange it all. 

If a publisher isn't doing this, authors can choose to pay a blog tour organiser to run one themselves. The cost is usually a one-off fee of under £100. You could just run one yourself but this can be a challenge without the contacts and experience.

(A note: this isn't to be confused with people who charge to do reviews of your book, something that is frowned upon and red flagged by the likes of Amazon.)

The question is, are blog tours worth it for authors? I don't just mean if you pay to have one organised, but also in terms of the time spent writing guest posts and sharing content on social media. 

My answer: in terms of actual sales, probably not. In terms of brand development, yes. 

Let's delve a little deeper by looking at book bloggers. I think they're great! Their enthusiasm, support, professionalism and dedication for authors is amazing. They can actually be a lifeline for authors. A community to hold onto when an author feels unloved, devalued, alone. 

And damn, they work hard! Many bloggers spend a huge amount of time drafting posts, scheduling blog tours, liaising with publishers and authors, and publicising their posts. Most do this in their spare time, while holding down a job. And all for the 'payment' of a free book. Hours of work for less than a tenner, basically.

Thanks to bloggers' enthusiasm and hard work, if a blog tour is done well, it can result in a lovely buzz around your book. But even with all that online excitement, can you guarantee all those blog posts will reach beyond the publishing world bubble?

My first experience of a blog tour was when my debut novel, The Atlas of Us, was published back in 2014. It was organised by my publisher at the time and played a big part in their marketing strategy. I spent hours writing content for book blogs, doing interviews, organising a virtual book launch and more.  The resulting 'buzz' on social media was amazing. Such an ego boost. Plus I got to 'e-meet' some amazing book bloggers. It made my debut experience extra special. 

I was so pleasantly overwhelmed with the response, I began to dream it might be reflected in lots and lots of sales. So I was confused when it didn't go straight into, say, the Kindle top 100. 

But looking back, the people who shared any blog tour content online were doing so to a follower base mainly made up of other book bloggers, publishing staff and authors… not necessarily the people who would actually end up buying my book. 

Before I became a full-time author, I worked in PR and social media for many years. I learnt one of the biggest challenges publicists face is getting messages ‘outside the bubble’.
 
So a social media campaign can appear to be hugely successful because it gets lots of engagement and shares on, say, Twitter. Mentions of your book bounce back and forth between people, generating an exciting cycle of retweets and likes, creating a real ‘buzz’ in the air.
 
But the truth is, that message might never quite penetrate the walls of the echo chamber to reach the people that count… the ones who might actually buy the product you’re trying to promote. 
 
The book world is a great example of an echo chamber. This is for the loveliest of reasons: the community is truly one of the most supportive I know on social media. But the evidence the buzz created from a blog tour converts into actual sales isn't easy to come by. 

This can be because it's hard to drill down into the specifics when looking at web stats.  Authors can ask bloggers to use trackable links, like bit.ly or Amazon affiliate links, to see how many people have actually visited their book product page from a blog page. Affiliate links will even show you if that visit converted into a sale. You can keep an eye on Amazon rankings and see if there's an obvious jump after a blog post is publicised. You can check your own website stats to see how many unique users were referred to you by a blog post. 

Simply asking readers can be useful too. I did a poll in The Reading Snug group I run on Facebook to find out. A tiny proportion said they read book blogs but that might be because I don't engage with book blogs as much as I used to. But the authors I run the group with do so who knows?

Of course, it can depend on genre too. I think if I wrote, say, fantasy, book blog tours would be more likely to feature.

What's telling is that authors and publishers are running less blog tours. Bloggers simply don't have the time any more. Publishers aren't always seeing the sale benefits. If a publisher does run them, it's usually more an author relationship exercise to show they’re fulfilling the publicity side of the deal. 

So while blog tours aren't always the best sales generating tool, book blogs themselves can be excellent for building content and connections in the community which in turn can help build brand recognition. 

Remember I mentioned word of mouth as one of the main ways of drawing attention to your book? Book bloggers can play a big role on this. If a blogger loves your book, they can be your best advocate, talking about your book at reader events and to any influencers they meet. I know one author who got a film deal after a book blogger gushed about her book to a film producer she met. 

Blogger reviews are a great source for blurbs too, those lovely sentences of praise that appear on your book’s product description and inside the front cover.  Not to mention the fact the professional bloggers will make sure they add their reviews to platforms like Amazon and Goodreads. 

Then there's that buzz of reading a great review of your book and seeing it mentioned on social media. It’s a fab ego boost! 

Finally, you should never underestimate the value of content. It can be used as an asset on social media for years to come (if it’s not too dated) and the more content you as an author have online, the more likely you are to appear in searches.
 
They key is to weigh up the benefits against the time or money spent. I'm aware of several authors who have spent a considerable amount of time writing content for a blog tour to then feel disappointed when they don't see a notable uptick in sales as a result. If you're busy or you just don't enjoy writing anything other than novels, it's important to know you shouldn't feel you have to take part in a blog tour. There are many ways to connect with book bloggers, whether that be through offering your book for review or simply connecting on social media, ways which take up less of your writing time but still mean you can support the community and they in turn can support you. 

It's all about weighing things up, asking the right questions and not saying yes to everything. 
 
Next time, I’ll be discussing whether sending out hundreds of free books via platforms like Netgalley is worth the effort...

Today, my seventh and latest novel Wall of Silence reached the milestone of 50,000 units sold in the first two months of publication. That doesn’t include the huge number of Amazon Prime members who had the opportunity to download it for free before it was published. Overall, the number of people who have Wall of Silence on their Kindles, whether paid or downloaded for free, blows me away and is highlighted every day by the many many messages I receive from readers.  
 
I don’t share this to boast (okay, maybe a little bit). Fact is, many will have seen much better figures than this. Many will have seen less. 

I share this milestone with you because honestly, I have been on one hell of a rollercoaster the past few years and I want other authors to understand this milestone in its context, rather than just throwing it out there... and maybe you'll learn a little something along the way too. 

So some background. My debut novel The Atlas of Us came out back in 2014. It got some lovely reviews and sold OK. A year later my second novel, My Sister's Secret, rocketed to the top of the overall Kindle charts and has sold hundreds of thousands of copies since with foreign deals around the world. Similar for my third novel, No Turning Back.

But then my fourth novel, Her Last Breath, came out in 2017 and sales floundered. Since then, until now, sales for my books haven't been much to write home about even though I think the two books that followed Her Last Breath - The Lost Sister and The Family Secret - are the best books I've written. 

Fact was, I was in book sales free fall. Many other authors who had great sales in the 2013/14 boom have also seen a slump as the bubble began to burst a little (for those who don't know, the 'boom' was when ebook sales really came in their own as some more savvy authors and publishers began to understand the value of ebook price promotions before everyone caught on). But I felt it was more than just that and was worried the decline would just continue.

But it didn't, thanks to Wall of Silence bucking that trend.  

So what helped? Three things: 
 
1. A hook
2. Changing publishers
3. Promotions that actually work
 
Let’s tackle these one by one.
 
A hook
 
When Her Last Breath didn’t sell as well as the last two, I thought long and hard about it until I came up with what I thought was the reason: my writing had gone too dark (I blogged about it here). 
 
So I thought if I returned to the character and emotionally driven approach of my first two novels, I could see great sales again. But while I did see an improvement in sales for my next two novels and great reviews too, sales were still so-so. I won’t go into detail but basically, they’re the sort of sales which don’t invite an exciting milestone email from your publisher. The kind that lead to those regular sales update from your editor (if you get them) dwindling after a month.
 
That’s fine, it happens. But three books in a row with no clear upward trend in sales? Alarm bells went off for me. When you write commercial fiction like I do, it can mean book deals (home and overseas) are harder to come by... or not at all.
 
(Side note: sorry if you’re an author who's in that position now. I feel for you, I've been there, but it’s the hard truth. Read on for tips.).
 
So I realised something needed to change. What was selling well? I did some research and I realised what connected bestselling novels in dark women’s fiction was a strong hook.
 
Take the hook of Sunday Times bestseller Our House by Louise Candlish:

When Fi Lawson arrives home to find strangers moving into her house, she is plunged into terror and confusion.

Or big seller The Rumour by Lesley Kara:

When single mum Joanna hears a rumour at the school gates, she never intends to pass it on. But one casual comment leads to another and now there’s no going back...
 
So easy to sum up in a sentence. I realised my next novel absolutely had to do the same. It had to be summed up in a sentence that was so enticing, so thrilling, that perspective readers would just have to read it.
 
So that’s how I came up with the idea for Wall of Silence:

A mother comes home from work to discover her husband stabbed, their three children standing around him. Which one did it?
 
This didn’t mean compromising my value or ‘writing to numbers’. Great characterisation and the best writing you can muster are always just as important. But it all needs to start with the hook… the promise of a story.

What else helped?
 
A new publisher
 
Now onto publishers. My previous publishers are wonderful. I will always recommend them. They are a savvy caring professional bunch who helped me create two bestsellers and took a chance on me with my debut. They have done wonders for so many authors.
 
But I began to wonder when my sales started dwindling: maybe it was time for a change? Maybe getting a new publisher would be that nudge I needed.
 
I’d had my eye on Amazon Publishing for a while. Yep, Amazon has its own publishing arm offering many of the advantages of a trad publisher – an advance, an editorial team. More info here: https://amazonpublishing.amazon.com/
 
I’d seen what they’d done for authors like Imogen Clark and Teresa Driscoll, and the unparalleled success of programmes like their First Reads programme. And which other publisher could have the kind of insight they have into what makes a book sell?

I told my agent I only wanted to chat to them, plus my current UK and US publishers, about my next book.
 
You might wonder why I didn’t look at other publishing imprints, especially those that would give me a much better chance of being placed in supermarkets and bookstores like Waterstones. My answer? Honey, once you’ve done one shelf, you’ve done them all. 
 
In other words, I got the whole ‘ooooohhh, there’s my book on the shelf!’ vanity trip out of my system yonks ago. Truth is though, no matter how lovely that all was, those supermarkets and physical bookstore sales hardly make me money. Whereas even before I was published by them, Amazon as a retailer was where I found the bulk of my readers. So why not be published with them and get the advantage of their insider knowledge? 

I've also learnt since setting up the Savvy Writers' Snug for published authors on Facebook that the big glitzy imprints don't always treat their authors the best.
 
So I was delighted when the Lake Union imprint of A-Pub offered me a two-book deal... and now I’m even more delighted with how it’s gone. It’s not just the fact they’ve helped me get to 50k sales (though it does help), it’s also the fact they have…
 
1.Great vision for my novel (they knew exactly where and how to target my novel)
2.Encourage author collaboration with detailed pre-publication questionnaires and involvement with front covers and titles
3.They have a dedicated author relations team for any niggly questions
4.Each book goes through intense and detailed editorial round with a dedicated structural editor alongside your main editor (and this shows as my reviews have been fab) 
5.Awesome programmes for promotions (First Reads is the nuts)
6.Access to live sales figures
7.Monthly royalties statements with money paid quickly (NB. I've already paid my 'very nice' advance off and learnt from my most recent April statement that I earned five figures in royalties)
8.They don’t faff about with pointless publicity
 
Promotion that actually works
 
On that last point…
 
I learnt the hard way that cover reveals, blog tours, hours of social media and more don’t really make a difference to the bottom line: sales. In the past, I’ve spent far too much time writing guest blog posts and getting het up about cover reveals. Sure, it doesn’t harm. You get a nice buzz off these things, other authors see your name, you accumulate content you can use for future posts. But is the time spent on it all worth the sales you get as a result?
 
Sorry but I don't think so. 
 
Often with these things, you’re talking into a bubble of the same people, not your readers. Unless you get a piece in a national magazine or newspaper, or a really high traffic website, I don’t think blog tours and cover reveals sell books. Publishers seem to be cluing up on this too with less and less of these promotions around nowadays.
 
So now, rather than focusing my time and energy on launch publicity, I concentrate on building a long-term rapport with my readers. I guess in marketing terms, this is about creating ‘brand loyalty’. How do I do this? I run a Facebook group with two other authors and post regular engaging content on my Facebook author page. I’ve found my publicity focus – Facebook – and I stick to it.
 
The main thrust of my launch publicity comes from my publisher. In Amazon's case, it's using all the tools at its disposal to bring my latest novel to the attention of its vast customer base. Those tools are promotions like First Reads, Kindle Daily Deals and more.

These are things that make a real difference which you can see in actual book sales (literally... when I check in on my live data, I can see what a difference it makes when I'm on promotion and not). 
 
Some might argue why the hell I’d want to  ‘devalue’ my work by giving it away for free (First Reads) or at a reduced price (Kindle Daily and Monthly deals)?
 
My answer? Exposure. Huge exposure.
 
Let's take the First Reads programme as an example. This programme gives Prime Readers the chance to download Kindle books for free in the month before they're due out, or get the paperback at a reduced price. New novels by A-Pub authors can be put forward for this (at this stage, this isn't open to other publishers). If an author is lucky enough to be chosen, it means their ebook will be free to Prime Readers for a whole month. All readers signed up to the programme receive an email alerting them to the new deals that month. There are no figures about how many subscribe to the programme but it must be in the hundreds of thousands,  maybe more, judging by the downloads I got for Wall of Silence that month. 

Maybe some authors reading this feel it might devalue their work, giving their books away for free. But the truth is, as someone who's been on the programme, it has exposed me to a whole host of readers who may never have heard of me before. These readers downloaded my book, most left great reviews, many sought me out on social media and should now be hooked enough (I hope) to pay for my next novel which they will quickly learn about as they now follow my social media accounts and have signed up to my enewsletter.
 
It also gave me more exposure on Amazon. First Read books can appear on the main rankings so usually shoot up the charts as Wall of Silence did, hitting the overall number one spot in the UK and number 2 in the US, meaning when Wall of Silence officially published on 1 April, it remained in the top 10 for a while (you can see how consistent sales have been from the graph at the end of this article) and garnered lots of paid downloads as you can see from this 50k milestone I'm celebrating today.
 
It will be interesting to see what happens with my next novel, Circle of Doubt, which is due out in Jan 2021. Will these healthy sales continue? Or will this be a one hit wonder? I’m hoping the new exposure will create a sense of momentum for future books as well. Only time will tell.
 
But what I do know is that I’m going to make the most of this 50k milestone in a career that has been a rollercoaster of emotions so far. After all, when the good times come, as we've all learnt the hard way lately, it's important to revel in them, right?