Getting bad reviews? I've got the answer.

Myself and my novel, 'A Graveyard Visible', had... well, we had a falling out. We've been on an extended break. I couldn't take it any longer. The abuse, the emotional turmoil. I had to get away. Somehow it had all turned so sour.

But now I'm back. And I've got some things to say...
(This is an update to an earlier post regarding reviews. Take it as proof that I haven't thrown myself off a bridge.)

This damn book!

Are you like me?

Have you written a book? Perhaps it's just come out or is coming soon. Either way, you've got your reviews trickling in, and all of a sudden a couple of absolute howlers land. It's bad. Real bad. The world has caved in. It's the end of the road for your precious novel. You worked so hard. So many hours. So many words. So many edits.

What do you do?

You want to give up, that's the first and most overwhelming sensation that hits you. It's beyond hope. There's no point. Why bother promoting the bloody thing when everyone will see the terrible things being said by actual readers?

But wait. I've got the answer.

Be brave.

Seriously. Chin up, chest out, deep breath, and smile.

I wanted to give it all up. I looked at those reviews, then looked at my book and considered playing a game of Can I Throw This Pile of Crap Out Of My Bedroom Window and Over the Roof Opposite? No one will blame you for feeling like that. But... think of all those hours, and words, and edits. All that effort. All that belief. You have written a book! And - this is especially true if you have a publisher or some kind of external backing - you don't give up on belief.

I spent days wondering - Why bother? Then one day I finally got myself bothered. The book was out, no matter what.
So, chin up, chest out, deep breath, and type. I got to work. By the end of the day I had another 8 reviewers lined up. It seemed scary, it seemed risky, it seemed totally worth it.
It's been a real mixed bag, and it's so easy to focus on the bad reviews, on the negatives (really, really, really easy!!!). But there's good stuff in there as well, and when I give those positives the attention I've been giving to the negatives, I start to see my book in a different light. Here's some quotes - and I'll paste an equal amount of good and bad here, for the sake of balance (if not my sanity).
All review quotes taken from the fantastic Netgalley.

Way back at the beginning, all those years ago...

I really struggled to get through this book. The premise was good and similar in many ways to Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children which I loved, but I just couldn't follow parts of the story. I found the plot confusing and it was just missing something for me.

(This is fair enough, can't win 'em all.)

First of all: it was clear that this is not a happy story from the cover and blurb, and I was certainly not expecting sunshine and rainbows. But the level of constant hate, self-hate, bullying and just negative emotion was incredibly frustrating to read.

(Another one that's fair enough, it's down to personal taste. I didn't think it was that much about constant hate in the novel. But you know, I'm taking this stuff way, way better than I did a few months ago. Personal growth! Go me.)

Of course, we can’t all be Neil Gaiman, 

(Ouch. Just give it to me real and raw.)

An odd duck of a book. Every time I thought I knew where it was headed it changed directions on me.

(Ha ha! Odd duck. This pleases me.)

(Next snippet is one of those that gives me a real boost. Can't thank the reviewer enough.)

What looks like an odd, quirky mystical read on the surface unfolds into that and far more, like a dismantled creeping skeleton reassembling as it reanimates. Claustrophobic with much left to the reader's imagination and assumptions, Steve Conoboy's book pairs a steady dry-mouth dread of the supernatural with all too universal themes of childhood pains and fears.

(The next one was actually a three out of five star review, but I still really appreciate that they got this out of the novel.)

They were some supernatural and creepy things about this book and I loved that part of it. The story was a little sad, but I know all about losing a parent. I think this story was a little about dealing with the sadness that comes with that.

Whatever else I say about 'A Graveyard Visible', it definitely has it's own personality. It's incredibly individual. Some parts drag my reading and viewing history with them, but as a whole it is unique. I can look at the novel now and, from that angle at least, be happy with it. I honestly believe it would be difficult to find anything quite like it. That feels like quite the achievement, that after hundreds of hours of work, I've created something that is recognisable as mine.

Your book has its own voice too. It will sound like you. Friends and family who read it, they'll recognise you, it will have imprints of your personality all over it.

Reviews (real ones from real readers) can be bruising, but take heart from them! Don't focus on one single review, because there isn't only one view in the world. Everyone has their own. Take all the reviews as a whole. Give the positive as much attention as the negative - this is so very important! If you've got a lot of reviews and only one says a particular aspect is bad, then that can be ignored. Most reviews will be constructive. Take on board what they say, reflect on it, apply it as you see necessary. After all it's your writing.
And move on! Write the next thing. Learn from the constructive criticism, but make sure you keep your voice.

But you must write. Do it for the reason you did it in the first place: the love of it.

Laters.

A Graveyard Visible is out RIGHT NOW and RIGHT HERE

Why you really should be doing author interviews

Hey.

I've been a big moan in the past (we know, says everyone ever, we know), but there is one aspect of self-promotion I enjoy: author interviews and spotlights. They tend to be good fun, and they are an aspect of promotion that should not be overlooked. If you haven't done any yet, get involved. It's a chance to talk directly to your readership, to give them an opportunity to learn a little bit about what kind of person you are, about what drove you to write your crazy book in the first place. Yes, reviews and promo spots are great, but a lot of readers want to know if the author is similar to any of the characters, of if the author found her or his self in similar situations in real life. Young social media savvy readers in particular will want to reach out and connect - so give them the opportunity to do exactly that.

Everyone's a winner here. The author gets some positive exposure, the blogger gets some good content to post and tweet about, driving traffic to both blogger and author. An added bonus - this content isn't time limited. It stays up until the blogger decides to take it down (and we all hope they don't!).

As you do more and more interviews, you'll end up with a vault of answers you can give to a wide range of questions - although you might not need an answer to If you were a box of cereal which one would you be? very often in your career. You never can tell, though.

Plus, if you're a bit reticent like me, interviews will give you increasing confidence to talk about your work, and you should be talking about it because you should be proud of what you've achieved.

A great big thank you to the guys below. They truly believe in indie authors, and do their very best to promote those they showcase on their blogs. I enjoyed doing every one of these interviews and spotlights. Visit them, read them, follow them.

And if you get featured on someone's blog, make sure you re-tweet them. And link back to them. They've done you a favour - do the same for them.

https://teripolen.com/2017/12/08/indieauthor-friday-steve-conoboy-ya-horror-ghosts-steveconoboy/

Twitter handle: @TPolen6

I did an interview with Teri Polen on her great blog. This is a little sample of how that went:

What’s the most constructive criticism you’ve been given in your writing career?

There’s two things, the first of which I’ve heard time and time again, most clearly from Stephen King’s legendary ‘On Writing’ (I reference King a lot in blogs and posts and I just don’t care). Drop the adverbs. Don’t be afraid to just say ‘she said’. Honestly, I think this piece of advice makes writing a lot clearer. Going through a passage a few times and taking out adverbs goes far in the removal of clunkiness.

The second thing, and slightly more abstract, was my introduction to General Semantics. Look it up, seriously. It’s where we get the notion ‘the map is not the territory’. I learned about it from this sci-fi editor who was attempting to get my short story writing up to the point where I was worth printing. He nearly managed it. But GS can teach you a lot about clarity, word usage and meaning. Basically, I was throwing too many words at the page without considering if they were getting my message across (there are those who say I over-extend my sentences now – I was way worse back when I started out). Writing stories is fundamentally an attempt at communication between myself and the reader, and I want them to get the image I’m trying to transmit to them as clearly as possible.

General Semantics is meant to bring clearer thinking, peaceful interaction and greater sanity. This is the complete opposite of my home life. Daughters and cats result in none of these things.

writerdmayall.wordpress.com/2017/09/17/authors-spotlight-steve-conoboy/amp/?__tw

David put together a great Author Spotlight for me, covers both my books in detail with large cover images. Really appreciative of this one.

Twitter handle: @writerdmayall

Hit David up if you fancy something similar for yourself.

authoranthonyavinablog.com/2018/01/28/interview-with-author-steve-conoboy/amp/?__twitt

Twitter handle: @AuthorAAvina

And finally, this is an extract of an interview I did with Anthony Avina, who not only gave me a great review for my first release, but he's also going to read my next novel A Graveyard Visible. A hard working guy doing a lot for indie authors.

7) What advice would you give to up and coming authors?

Do it for the love. Really, that’s the most important part of the whole process. If you’re enjoying what you’re writing, then there’s a chance that someone else will enjoy reading it. If it feels like a slog, something’s wrong. I’ve dumped a couple of novels partway through the writing process because they felt so off.

8) What’s next for you in the world of writing? Any new or upcoming books on the horizon?

I’m currently gearing up for the release of A Graveyard Visible on 27th April 2018, so there’s a lot of promotion work and pulling together some reviews (which are proving to be very divisive so far – that’s either incredibly worrying or a great marketing tool). It’s being published by Lodestone Books, and the cover and the layout of the paperback look absolutely fantastic, so pleased with the result. On the writing side of things, I’m playing about with a possible tone change for an AGV sequel, as well as being deep into the writing of a story about the political activism of a pig. Yeah, it’s something a little bit different.

That's my highlights from the last couple of months. You know what? I've been enjoying doing little blog posts about upcoming indie books in recent times... Maybe I'll start posting some author interviews as well. After all, everyone wins. And it means I get to mess with other authors' heads by setting them weird questions about what cereal they would be and why. Yeah. Revenge.

Laters.

#NaNoWriMo - real horror at Halloween

It's Halloween, so it's time to talk about something really scary - this NaNoWriMo business.

(I know - I'm a YA horror writer (for now), and I'm publishing a blog post that's pretty much not even slightly Halloweeny. Sue me.)

First off, I'm going to hold my hands up to something. The day after I published my last post, I was shown up for the doofus I am. I made a somewhat blaze comment about how nothing good ever came of this mad writing contest. I questioned whether anything had actually been published as a result of it. Well, something has been published. Quite a few something's. Some of them are in my house. One of them is the favourite book of one of my daughters. (That last sentence is terrible.)
Here's the link: www.goodreads.com/blog/show/1072-24-books-that-won-nanowrimo

She bloody loves this book.

It came out of #NaNoWriMo! Shows what I know, eh?

When you're blogging, research my friends. Research. A regular feature of this blog is 'don't do things the idiot way, like what I do'...

Back to business.

This Goodreads post shouldn't change your expectations. As always in the world of novel writing, those 24 are a teeny tiny percentage of the amount of books actually written. The odds are still stacked way against you (sorry to be discouraging). Honestly? I still think that the first and ONLY reason you should write is for yourself. Like any art, it should be an expression of yourself. Yes, secondly it should be for others - plenty will ask the question 'Why write if not for it to be read?' I agree with that. You paint a picture, it should be seen. But unless you have done it as an expression of your true self, then what is the point of that work of art? It must be something only you could produce for it to be worthwhile. Attempts to sell that work should come much later, when the writing is done.

An example: me. I've written for a couple of decades now. Fifteen years of them, not one single novel published. It was discouraging, I vowed to give up a million times or so... but I couldn't. Writing is my second life. I have stories I need to see through to the end. There are characters... no, people in those stories, and I want to know how things turn out for them. There's no way of stopping it. I have to know.

And that's the biggest part of why I'm chucking myself to the lions of #NaNoWriMo. There are so many stories, and November gives me an excuse to dive into another one, see how it turns out. It's the curiosity.

There's a box. There's something shiny at the bottom, that's all you can see. There's something rattly in there too. Why not stick your head in, have a look?

One other thing that's tickling me: there's so many other NaNoWrimers out there, pinching their noses and jumping in at the deep end. All of those potential stories, all of those opening lines, all of those furious streams of creation, all of those frustrations, all of those wonderings at where things are going... and everyone supporting each other on Twitter, on the www.nanowrimo.org website, on wherever else they meet... Brilliant.

Look out for them in your local coffee shop. You'll recognise them. They'll be the ones bashing their foreheads against the laptop, hoping the words will just fall out.

Oh, you know in my last post, how I said I was almost definitely probably writing that story about a boy and his strange jigsaws, and how I've been waiting years to write it? Might have almost definitely probably changed my mind.

Never saw that coming.

Laters.