Don’t mute the messenger

I appreciate that this may have passed you by – mainly because it’s all still in my head rather than actually happening – but now that I am giving being a professional author a go, I am revamping my communications with readers.  I have a very minimal Facebook and Twitter presence for Sam Plank (nothing yet for Gregory Hardiman), and then I have this blog and my monthly research updates.  And there’s my website for me as an author, which covers my fiction and non-fiction writing.  My husband has kindly volunteered (that’s not a euphemism – he genuinely did) to update my website, which is looking a bit tired; like everything, websites have their fashions, and my rather static, page-driven one is now the website equivalent of the Ford Granada.  So I’ll leave that to him, and weigh in with praise/complaints/biscuits as required.  But my job now is to think about my more proactive engagement with readers.

This blog has always been ad hoc – in other words, I make a post when I feel I have something to say.  But again, this seems to be a bit passé: looking at the output of other, much more successful authors, the trend these days is for regular newsletters sent to subscribers.  Some of you will already receive my monthly research updates, and I am wondering whether to unite the two – in other words, to send out a monthly newsletter that contains some background research information as well as other updates on (for instance) how my current book is going and who has agreed to play Sam in the Sunday evening drama commissioned by the BBC (well, an author can dream…).  So the blog would cease, and only newsletter subscribers would hear actively from me.  (Signing up to the newsletter would of course be free.)

And so I wondered whether you had any views on the subject.  To make life simpler I have put together a few questions – but you are more than welcome to go off piste and ignore them completeley.  Here goes:

1. Would you be interested in receiving a monthly newsletter from me, which would focus on my historical crime writing (i.e. both the completed Sam series and the new Gregory series, and whatever comes after that)?
2. Looking at possible content, are you interested in:
   • The research that I do behind the writing – my current monthly update has only 46 people signed up, so perhaps it’s not as popular as I think
   • My progress on my current book
   • The writing process
   • The self-publishing process
   • Me as an individual and not just as an author – some writers share their holiday photos and pet photos, for instance
   • Anything else?
3. It is likely that I will work out how to sell my own books – in e-formats only – via my new website.  Would you prefer to buy this way (for about the same price as on Amazon, but with a larger percentage of the sale price going to me)?  And would the promise of special subscriber discounts interest you?

I think that will do for now.  As you can see, what I am trying to do is gauge whether this is the right approach, and – if it is – what would tempt you to become a newsletter subscriber.  Thank you so much for any thoughts.

Horse artists and bird stuffers

With a whole weekend of social isolating at my disposal, I allowed myself the luxury of a deep-dive into Pigot’s.  What, you’ve never used this amazing resource?  Let me enlighten you.  James Pigot started out as a publisher of general directories and in 1811 he began publishing trade directories for Manchester.  His big project – the Commercial Directory – was first published in 1814, and in 1823 he expanded to other cities, including London.  And in 1830 our hero brought out his “National Commercial Directory; Comprising a Directory and Classification of the Merchants, Bankers, Professional Gentlemen, Manufacturers and Traders of the Cities, Towns, Sea-Ports and Principal Villages of the Following Counties, viz Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire”.  Catchy title!  But it does what it says on the tin: it’s basically the forerunner to the Yellow Pages.  And for getting the flavour of daily life at the time, it’s fantastic.

For instance, in 1830 Cambridge was the place of business for four artists (including one “horse artist”), two bird stuffers, four breeches makers, thirty-three butchers (four of them women), several chymists [sic] (including “Isaiah Deck, practical chymist to the Duke of Gloucester, and mineralogist”), numerous “coal and corn merchants” (not a combination we would imagine today), plenty of (non-university) professors and teachers (including the polyglot Frederick de Boetticher, who offered lessons in Italian, Spanish, French, German, Dutch and Russian), 110 pubs and taverns – and one dentist, one piano tuner and one coroner.  It certainly tells you a great deal about people’s interests, concerns and priorities.

I am also taking this opportunity to plan ahead with my monthly behind-the-scenes research newsletters, so do sign up if you’d like more fascinating detail about life in the 1820s, in both London and Cambridge.

Juggling constables

I rather fear that my blog posts at the moment are a bit dull – there’s not much to say when you’re knee-deep in research.  But I am finding it a mental challenge to live with two constables at the same time.  There are six Sam Plank novels out there and I want to take every opportunity I can to promote them and acquire new readers.  In this endeavour I have help from all sorts of lovely people, including – today – Helen Hollick, who has featured a conversation with Martha Plank on her historical fiction blog Let Us Talk of Many Things.  In an imaginative departure for her blog, Helen periodically features conversations not with authors but with their characters, and today it is Martha’s turn.

At the same time, I am ramping up the research for my new series – the Gregory books – which will be set in Cambridge (but still in my beloved 1820s).  This involves long hours in the library (don’t feel sorry for me – it’s my version of paradise) and even the outlay of £20 on a comprehensive and chunky history of the university (I figure that I’m planning five Gregory books, so it’s a bearable investment of £4 per book).

But what should I do about my monthly updates?  These go out to subscribers on the first of each month (do sign up – I’m currently writing for a very select and loyal audience of thirty-one!) and so far have concentrated on the research that underpins the Sam books.  Indeed, all nineteen updates have been called “Sam Plank update”.  Shall I re-brand them?  Or keep that title and just explain each time that the research – although still late Regency and therefore equally of interest to Sam fans – is being done to furnish Gregory with his life and backstory?  It doesn’t matter one jot at the moment, I suppose, but when the Sam books are picked up for a blockbuster Sunday night telly drama and I’m having to beat journalists off with a stick, I want to have my author profile and presence all neat and tidy.  In the meantime, turn away now if you’re squeamish: I’m off to research facial and eye injuries caused by muskets in the Peninsular Wars.

Sign up, sign up!

It’s all a bit quiet, isn’t it?  There’s always rather a lull after the publication of a new Sam Plank book, but please rest assured that I am not resting assured: I am working on the next two books.  The immediate project is my book on being a one-person business – almost certainly titled “The Solo Squid” – and the follow-up, to be embarked on fully in January, is the first book in my new Cambridge-set series.

However, my aim for this week is to beef up the number of people subscribing to my monthly update on the research behind the scenes of the Plank books (and, soon, the Gregory books).  The theory is that I do so much research for the books – both while I am deciding on the plots and while I am doing the actual writing – that it seems a shame to leave it to languish.  So I choose a theme each month and write an update, for your delectation and amusement, and perhaps to help other writers with their research.  It takes a bit of time to put it together – each update takes about a half-day to write – and so I am keen for them to be read by as many people as possible.  But I’m stuck on twenty-five loyal readers.

I’m very grateful for you all, of course – except for that twenty-sixth person who unsubscribed after I published an update on contraception (I think she expects the Regency to be all fluttering fans and dainty suppers, but of course we wouldn’t have had the Victorians if they hadn’t had sex in Regency times).  So please, if you know anyone who might be interested, do point them in the direction of the monthly updates (the sign-up ink-splatter appears on the left of every page of this website) – new subscribers get a free Regency glossary as a welcome gift, and I do regular competitions and giveaways.  Here’s a taster of what was in the November update, on education in Sam’s time:

As for girls, you’ll note that Sam talks of the two sons of the family being sent to school – their sister Lizzie was not given the same opportunity.  Charity schools did accept girls but they were offered a different curriculum, concentrating on Bible reading, needlework and singing.  Their upper- and middle-class sisters suffered a similar fate: most of their education focused on the skills that would make them attractive wives, such as embroidery, music and drawing.  Martha has the basics of letters and numbers – from when her father needed her help in his tavern – but it is only when she meets Sam that she learns to read properly, and for pleasure.  Indeed, it was not until the nineteenth century that reading gradually became a private rather than a public act; in the first three decades of the century, if you could read you were expected to read aloud and share your reading with family, friends and workmates.

Guiding light

As I mentioned, I went to the Hawkesbury Upton Literature Festival at the weekend and as well as taking part, I also had time to attend a couple of sessions as an audience member.  And at one of those I picked up an excellent tip, to create a free guide to the Sam Plank series.  The idea is that people who have never heard of me or of the books might – quite rightly – be uneasy about parting with their money but might be willing to download a free taster guide to see if it’s to their taste.

So today’s task has been to create said guide.  What I have included is the cover blurb and first chapter for each book and a shortened glossary at the end, as well as plentiful links to encourage people to sign up to my monthly newsletter and/or actually buy a book or five.

My remaining problem is listing it on Amazon for free; they are understandably not really in the business of offering free books (as they can’t retain a royalty percentage of nothing) but apparently there are dastardly ways and sneaky means of doing it.  But while I research that, there is no reason why I can’t start handing out the guide anyway – so here it is!

The Official Guide to the Sam Plank Mysteries book series

It’s in the form of a PDF (albeit formatted for Kindle-ish dimensions, hence the small pages), and I’d be delighted if you would download it with gusto and forward it in a wanton fashion to friends, family and even slight acquaintances.  And I’ll keep you posted on my Amazon endeavours.