Putting Sam’s house in order

Tags

blurb, cover, design, drafting, Heir Apparent, plotting, retreat

I bet you’re all wondering how I’m getting on with “Heir Apparent”.  Well I don’t mind telling you that’s its going to be a close-run thing.  It’s Wednesday morning and that means I have today and tomorrow to finish my first draft – with two chapters to go.  My husband reminded me that with “Portraits of Pretence”, I finished early and spent the last day of my retreat swanning around on the paddle-steamers on Lake Léman.  This time, I’ll be packing with one hand and typing with the other.

On the plus side, I am pleased to report that the story works, which is a huge relief.  Until I get pretty much to the end, it’s not a done deal: it could still fall apart.  My great fear is that twenty chapters in I’ll realise that something I wrote in the second chapter makes a nonsense of it all.  And indeed I had a difficult day on Monday when I decided that I just had to rearrange the order of various events in the book – so when I print out the draft I’ll have to read it really, really carefully [beta readers, that’s a heads-up for you too!] to make sure that I don’t talk in the past tense about something that now happens later in the story.

And thank you for your thoughts and comments on the back cover blurb.  I’ve made a few adjustments as a result – great improvements, all of them – and now that’s off to the cover designer.

The next time you hear from me, Sam and I will be back in Blighty – and, just to put you out of your misery, it’s Suffolk.

Honing the sales pitch

Tags

Amazon, blurb, cover, design, Heir Apparent, plotting, sales

Today is something of a red letter day for me: after months of writing (and a fortnight of my writing retreat) I finally know how “Heir Apparent” will end.  To be clearer, I always knew how it was going to end, but now I know how it is going to get there.  It’s a mighty relief, I can tell you.  And to celebrate, I am allowing myself to think about life after writing, i.e. publication.  And the task that is occupying me now is preparation of the text for the cover.

The Sam covers – entirely deliberately – conform to a template.  Each has a background image of a document (usually a bit blurry), then a foreground line drawing of a person.  The title goes across the middle of the cover, with my name beneath it.  Across the top of the front cover is a banner identifying the book as “A Sam Plank Mystery”, and across the bottom of the front cover is a complimentary quotation from a reviewer.  And on the back cover is the dreaded blurb – that some authors say is harder to write than the book itself.  I have written a draft blurb and would very much value your views: would it make you want to buy the book?  What can I do to make it more “grabby”?  And please bear in mind that, for continuity and consistency, I use the back cover blurb elsewhere too: it’s the text that appears on Amazon as the “product description”.  So here goes:

In the final weeks of 1828, a young man returns from the family plantation in the Cayman Islands after an absence of six years to be at his father’s deathbed – and to inherit his estate.  But is the new arrival who he says he is, or an impostor?  Anyone who doubts his identity seems to meet an untimely end, but his sister swears that he is her beloved brother.

With their investigations leading them into the complicated world of inheritance law and due process after death, Constable Sam Plank and his loyal lieutenant William Wilson come face to face with the death trade and those who profit from it – legally or otherwise.  Among them is an old enemy who has used his brains and ruthlessness to rise through the ranks of London’s criminal world.  And as plans progress for a new police force for the capital, Sam and his wife Martha look to the future.

Fingers crossed, please

Tags

blurb, BookBrunch, competitions, Faith Hope and Trickery, London Book Fair, Mslexia, sales, synopsis, The Selfies

Nothing daunted by previous failures – Mslexia, I’m looking at you – I have entered another competition.  This one is specifically for self-published books, which is an interesting development as several competitions explicitly exclude self-published works.  This competition is being sponsored by BookBrunch – “the daily online news service for the book industry” – and is called (wait for it) The Selfies.  I was in two minds about applying, as it costs £25 and takes a couple of hours to put together the application, but in the end I reasoned that I certainly wouldn’t be shortlisted if I didn’t enter (unassailable logic) and took the plunge.

As well as supplying the book itself – I’ve gone with “Faith, Hope and Trickery” because the competition is for adult fiction published in the last year – I also had to supply a synopsis.  I haven’t written a synopsis since I first hawked “Fatal Forgery” to publishers and agents, as the synopsis is basically a summary of the plot and is used to persuade publishers/agents to take you on.  It’s not the same as a blurb, which goes on the back cover or on sales websites to tempt readers; by contrast, the synopsis gives away the whole plot including the ending.

I also had to provide information about my marketing efforts and plans, and – deep breath – ‘fess up to my sales figures across both editions (paperback and e-book) to evidence (according to the competition website) “an effective and creative marketing and publicity strategy [and] great sales potential”.  We in the self-publishing community had a discussion about the significance of this question: would the judges simply choose the best-selling book?  Would they take into account that a book that had been published eleven months ago would have more sales than one published in November?  Are sales figures any indication of quality anyway?  I thought about fibbing, but in the end told the truth: 86.

At least the waiting period is mercifully short: the competition closes on 21 December 2018, the shortlist will be announced in late February and the winner revealed at the London Book Fair on 12 March 2019.  So as not to tempt fate, I have put a light, squiggly pencil line through the whole of that March week in my diary, with “LBF” written in the most casual way – you’d barely notice that I even care.

And the winner is…

Tags

blurb, cover, Faith Hope and Trickery, Plank 5, plotting, title

As you have probably guessed from the countdown clock on the left, “Plank 5” is now officially to be known as “Faith, Hope and Trickery”.  There were thirty-three votes cast in total in the title poll, and “FHT” garnered fifteen of those.  “Faith Undone” came second, with eight votes, then “Dearly Departed” with six, and “The Confidence Trick” and “Riches Beyond Belief” trailing with only two votes each.  I did not vote, although my husband did and won’t tell me which one he selected.

I am delighted with the choice – of course, I make sure that I like all five options so that I am always happy with your selection!  But I am very grateful to everyone who took part, as I am hopeless at making decisions and am pleased to be able to palm one off on other people.

I am particularly grateful to be able to focus on something other than editing, as I am waiting to hear from my plot reader – tense times in the Grossey household!  This weekend’s task is to finalise the back cover blurb.

I name this book…

Tags

ACX, audiobook, beta reader, blurb, editing, Fatal Forgery, Portraits of Pretence, Samuel Plank, title

Thank you all for taking part in my title poll for “Plank 4”.  The poll has now closed, and I can report that 39 votes were cast (I didn’t vote myself, in case you’re wondering – after all, I was able to choose the candidates so in effect I had five votes).  And the winner, with sixteen of those votes, is “Portraits of Pretence”.  In second place, with eleven votes, was “The Art of Perfection”.  This was my husband’s choice and he is in somewhat of a grump about it, but The Poll Has Spoken.  I would have been delighted with any outcome, as I didn’t offer any titles that I didn’t like.  Today’s job is to finalise that back cover blurb so that I can give everything to the cover designer.

And in case you’re wondering about the inside of the book as well as the outside, I have now heard from beta reader Roy.  He likes the plot!  Big relief.  He has of course made some excellent suggestions for improvement, and that’s my goal for this coming fortnight: edits.  Sadly, now that my writing retreat is over, I can’t dedicate myself full-time to it (real life will intrude, with its demands for money and food), but I will do my best.

Quick update on “AudioSam”, as we’re now calling the audiobook of “Fatal Forgery”: the recording is all done as far as the narrator and I are concerned, and the files have been submitted to ACX for technical approval, which will take at least a week.

Back cover blues

Tags

blurb, cover, editing, writing

It’s that truly awful time of year again: I have to write the back cover blurb for my new Sam Plank novel. Heaven only knows why I can write thousands and thousands of words in the actual book but can’t put together two good paragraphs for the back cover, but there it is. Anyway, I’ve had a go for “Plank 4”, and would REALLY appreciate any reactions/suggestions/thoughts. Here it is:

An elderly French artist is found dead in his rooms in London. Clutched in his hand is the thing he died to save: a beautiful miniature portrait of a little girl. Intrigued, Constable Sam Plank delves into the world of art dealing and finds himself navigating the fragile post-war relationship between England and France. And then someone starts attacking customs officers in London Docks – supposedly the most secure place in the country.

In the chilly spring of 1827, Plank and his junior constable William Wilson meet charming Frenchmen in London and shadow daring blockademen in Kent to uncover smuggling and even more dangerous plans, while Sam’s wife Martha has to put aside her own matchmaking hopes when Wilson falls in love.

A cast of thousands

Tags

ACX, audiobook, blurb, Fatal Forgery, marketing, Martha Plank, Samuel Plank

In the terrifying gap between submitting the first draft of “Plank 4” for beta reading and receiving the resulting comments, I am distracting myself by listening to the audio version of “Fatal Forgery”. I explained a while ago about the marvellous ACX – which puts authors and voice actors together and enables them to undertake projects on the basis of a 50/50 profit split – and how I found my perfect “audio Sam”, Guy Hanson.  Guy is now reading “FF” aloud, chapter by chapter, and sending it to me for approval.

It is a really weird experience, hearing your own words read aloud to you – it somehow makes them seem more official and approved.  And Guy is (to my ear) 100% perfect as Sam: mature, warm, slightly wry, a bit rough at times.  It is also fascinating to hear him tackle the other characters.  As he explained at the outset, he is not trying to mimic anyone, to sound like an impersonator doing a series of skits, but rather intends to give the impression of each person.  And although I think of my cast list as being quite small, there are in fact dozens of roles to tackle, from a fourteen-year old prostitute to senior presiding judges.  Most of them are spot on – a particular favourite is the self-satisfied Foster at the Bank of England – but I wasn’t happy with my first encounter with Martha, as she sound too posh and a bit affected.  Guy had another go, having understood perfectly what I meant, as by then he had read the whole book and had much more the measure of Martha, and now she’s just right.

We’ve nearly finished the audio editing, so my next distraction project will be to research the marketing of audio books.  And lurking at the back of my mind is the worst duty of all: the writing of the back cover blurb for “Plank 4”.  But thankfully I can procrastinate on that one, reasoning that the beta reading might demand so many plot alterations that any blurb I write now would be irrelevant.  I’m not sure which thought scares me more: the blurb or the re-writes!

Back to the cover

Tags

blurb, cover, editing, Fatal Forgery, Martha Plank, review, Samuel Plank

Many thanks to everyone who sent me suggestions about the back-cover blurb, either via comments on this blog or through email.  You have all been so generous with your time and your thoughts.  I have made some changes accordingly, and this is how it’s looking now (although it will be centred on the cover):

In the stifling summer of 1826, the death of a young man in Hyde Park uncovers a web of blackmail and corruption so far-reaching that even the redoubtable Constable Sam Plank is shocked.  A Quaker charity hides a terrible secret, a dangerous enmity is growing between London’s hackney carriage drivers and its watermen, and fraternal loyalty is tested to its limits.

Susan Grossey’s third Sam Plank novel plunges the magistrates’ constable, his protégé William Wilson and his determined wife Martha into a dark and desperate world.

“Historical crime fiction at its very best.” – Janis Pegrum Smith, author of The Book Ark series

(My only concern is that it could be read that Martha is William’s wife, so perhaps it should be “…the magistrates’ constable, his determined wife Martha and his protege William Wilson…”, but should Martha get higher billing than Wilson?)

I have also gone back to the text of “Fatal Forgery” and added a couple of excerpts from reviews – again, mooching around bookshops suggests that these now appear on the very first page of the book, so that’s where I’ve put them.  Thanks to the miracle of print-on-demand publishing, anyone who orders a copy of “FF” from now onwards will get the extra page!

I’ve got it covered

Tags

blurb, cover, Fatal Forgery, review, The Man in the Canary Waistcoat, title

As promised, I have spent the day working on the cover of what-is-almost-certainly “Worm in the Blossom”.  My task is made significantly easier by the fact that this book is part of a series with an established “look” to the covers, but there are several elements to those covers.  And they are:

• colour – I’m thinking a deep, rich red
• background image of a document – banknote on “Fatal Forgery”, share certificate on “The Man in the Canary Waistcoat”, and now chosen for “Worm in the Blossom” (what a tease I am)
• foreground line drawing of a figure – Sam Plank on “FF”, the man in the canary waistcoat on “Canary”, and yes, now chosen for “Worm”
• title – 95% certain it’s going to be “Worm in the Blossom”
• upper strapline – “A Sam Plank Mystery”, as on “Canary”
• lower strapline – “A fascinating and engrossing read – an emerging historical novelist to watch” – Editor’s Choice, Historical Novel Society Indie Review

I am also planning to put more lengthy excerpts from reviews inside – two each for “FF” and “Canary”.  And, thanks to the joy of print-on-demand publishing, I can go back and add reviews to “FF” and “Canary” too – as well as putting a puff in them for “Worm” (once the title is 100% rather than 95%).  I’ve emailed the reviewers to ask for permission.

So now we turn to the trickiest part of the cover: the back-cover blurb.  I’ve already had a few comments from a writer friend, and now we’re working with this: “In the stifling summer of 1826, the indefatigable Constable Sam Plank is pulled into another baffling case. A fatal fall from a horse in Hyde Park sets in motion a series of revelations that will shock even him. Blackmail, corruption, lies and secrets – and at their dark heart the most shameful crime of the age.”  Any thoughts?  Does it tempt you?  Do you mind that the final sentence is not a complete sentence?  (Ex-teacher – I just can’t help worrying.)

The Killer Blurb

Tags

blurb, Fatal Forgery, marketing, proofreading, Samuel Plank, self-publishing, Susan Grossey, The Man in the Canary Waistcoat

Yes, yes – we all know the importance of the back cover blurb.  You have only to watch people in bookshops, picking up books, glancing at the back cover and then putting them down again to see how vital it is.  Which makes writing one Very Scary.  And I need to get a wriggle on with mine for “The Man in the Canary Waistcoat”, as the cover designer needs it before he can, well, design the cover.

I have reached the end with writing “Canary” – proofreading and very minor editing only from now on, so there is no excuse for not knowing enough about the story to be able to write The Blurb.  Curses: I was rather enjoying having that excuse.  When I wrote the blurb for “Fatal Forgery”, I showed it to several people and blogged about it here too, and got some really excellent suggestions for improvement – so I am going to be cheeky and do the same again.  As I understand it, the blurb is meant to tease and intrigue without giving away too much.  It is meant to show the flavour of the writing and suggest the type of book it is (so the reader should get fair warning of gory violence or graphic sex), and certainly should not mislead the reader in anyway.  Bearing all of that in mind, and quaking in my boots, I offer this as my very first draft (she says, so that you won’t be too harsh):

“In this new Sam Plank mystery, the curious constable struggles to find the link between a self-murderer, an embezzler, an arsonist and a thief.  No corner of Regency London is untouched by these crimes, as Sam travels from the aristocratic mansions of St James Park back to his own boyhood haunts among the dank alleyways of Wapping.  He pits his financial wits against the greed and determination of some most unsavoury characters – one of whom Sam had hoped never to see again.”

So, what do you think?  Interesting?  Intriguing?  Would it make you want to read it?  Any comments will be so very, very helpful, so thank you in advance.