Tag: Fiction

A giveaway backfires

~ Jennifer Barraclough ~ 1 Comment

I recently gifted a print copy of my novel Fatal Feverfew to the winner of my latest Goodreads Giveaway. Soon afterwards she posted a rating on the website, giving it 1 star and commenting “the writing was dull, the plot was poorly written, and the characters were extremely unlikeable and boring. I really struggled to finish this book.”

In my younger days I would have been depressed for weeks after reading a review like that. Now I am more philosophical, reminding myself that you can’t please all of the people all of the time. All the previous novels that I put through the giveaway programme received 4 or 5 star ratings, and I can’t believe this latest one is so much worse than the rest. I do wonder whether someone who has to “struggle to finish a book” would do better to abandon it and move on to something they enjoy reading – this is my own policy now, and I don’t write a review unless I can say something positive.

So, my latest giveaway has backfired as a marketing method – or has it? A day or two after that damning review was published, a little peak in sales of both Fatal Feverfew and some of my other books showed up online. Maybe this proves the truth of the saying that there’s no such thing as bad publicity.

Here are some suggestions about how to cope with bad reviews.

The lure of the murder mystery

~ Jennifer Barraclough ~ Leave a comment

I’ve always enjoyed reading crime fiction, especially the more benign kind of murder mystery epitomised by Agatha Christie’s books. Old-fashioned though these may be, they are still popular today. I think several elements contribute to their enduring appeal: An intriguing puzzle, with a credible solution that is not too obvious, although it could in theory have been worked out from the clues hidden in the text. An ending that demonstrates the triumph of good over evil, and the restoration of justice. Descriptions of crime and criminal psychology that manage to be both sympathetic and entertaining, and never sordid or sensational. Perhaps the universal fascination with death. I could never aspire to anything near the standard set by Agatha Christie, but her influence may be apparent in Fatal Feverfew, one of the books I wrote about thirty years ago but did not publish until now.

The main action takes place in an isolated healing retreat in England’s west country. Lucia, accompanied by her husband and cat, arrives there to recuperate from a recent illness only to find that she is suspected of poisoning their hostess. Lucia reluctantly takes on the role of detective and, with the help of the local doctor, succeeds in uncovering the true course of events.

It can be purchased online as an ebook in various formats from Smashwords.com; and also from the Amazon website for your country of residence, either as a paperback or for a Kindle device.

 

ff-cover-smashwords

The portrayal of illness in fiction

~ Jennifer Barraclough ~ 1 Comment

I spent most of my working life as a doctor, so it is not surprising that medical topics often find their way into my fiction writing. Looking back at my completed novels I recognise the themes which have arisen, sometimes more than once: conflicts between mainstream and alternative medicine, overlap between “organic disease” and “functional symptoms”, how serious illness can bring about changes in mood, attitudes and relationships for better or worse, the scope for weakness and corruption in the healthcare professions.

Books, films and television dramas with a medical theme have a widespread appeal. In addition to their entertainment value, when well researched and sensitively presented they serve an educational function, and help to reduce the fear and stigma associated with certain diagnoses whether physical or mental.

There is a risk that fiction with a medical content will distress some readers, especially those who suffer from the conditions in question themselves. Information which was accurate at the time the book was written may have become out of date later on. The use of labels and stereotypes, black humour, or gratuitous sordid detail which promotes morbid fascination with sickness and disability, may cause offence. If the characters are based on real people, or even if they are not, medical authors may be accused of breaching patients’ confidentiality, or of libelling their colleagues.

I don’t know how far I have managed to avoid these pitfalls in my own novels. Most of the illnesses mentioned are ones which I felt entitled to write about because I have experienced them through family, friends or patients, or in myself.

Accentuate the positive

~ Jennifer Barraclough ~ Leave a comment
I’ve recently been visiting sites such as https://bookreviewdirectory.wordpress.com/ and http://www.theindieview.com/indie-reviewers/  in search of bloggers who might like to review my novels. In their guidelines for authors, some of them state that they will only post about those books to which they can give a good rating, while others warn that they may include negative reviews as well as positive ones.
I tend to favour the first policy, although I do think that an honest and helpful review usually needs to include a few points of constructive criticism. Reviews which consist of undiluted praise may have been paid for, or written by friends or relatives of the author.
Negative reviews can be devastating for authors, especially sensitive or inexperienced ones, but they are often highly subjective. Even prizewinning best sellers are never universally admired, but receive a handful of damning comments and low ratings. From the reviewer’s angle it can be a waste of time and energy to read through to the end of something boring, distasteful or poorly edited, though there are a few who derive perverse satisfaction from trashing a book. A strongly worded negative review can actually attract readers, whereas if the book was really all that bad it would have been kinder to ignore it and let it lapse into obscurity.
For all these reasons, I prefer not to post ratings of less than 3 stars or reviews which are predominantly negative, even though I do find that negative reviews can be the the easiest sort to write. When I dislike a book I can usually give a specific reason for my opinion. For example, novels containing descriptions of cruelty to animals are my pet hate (no pun intended). I recently gave up on a thriller in which the F-word appeared several times on almost every page. And an autobiography which should have been fascinating was, in my opinion, marred by the self-pitying tone of its author. In contrast, when I do like a book I am often unable to explain exactly why, and find myself reduced to using bland general terms such as “interesting”, “original”, “gripping” or “uplifting”.
For the record, looking back at my list of 5-star ratings on Goodreads, a few of the titles which I have enjoyed reading or re-reading lately have included psychological thrillers (The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins, The Children Act by Ian McEwan, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn), biographies (Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven by John Eliot Gardiner, The Last Enemy by Richard Hillary, Bomber Boys by Patrick Bishop, Noel Streatfeild by Angela Bull), and books about holistic healing (You are the Placebo by Joe Dispenza, Dying to be Me by Anita Moorjani).

Quality vs Quantity

~ Jennifer Barraclough ~ 3 Comments

Indie authors are often advised to “keep adding new content” by publishing three or four new titles per year, as well as writing frequent posts on their blogs and social networking sites among other marketing activities. There may be a commercial justification for this – “the more books you have published, the more you are likely to sell” – but is it in the best interests of the profession in the long term?

Few writers can really have enough talent, or time, to generate such a large output without compromising the standard of their work. The market is already flooded with self-published books, many of which are poorly written and edited and contain recycled material. As a result some of the more excellent and original ones, which deserve to be widely read and have the potential to become classics, are easily overlooked.

It’s wonderful to see so many opportunities for today’s indie authors to get their work “out there”, but the process is so easy and affordable that it is tempting to use it too casually. “Keep on writing” is certainly sound advice for those wanting to develop their skills, but “keep on publishing” may not be.

Having said all this, I admit that I published three books of my own in 2014 and have another coming out soon. However, they had been many years in gestation, and I won’t be continuing with this rate of production.

Reviving forgotten manuscripts

~ Jennifer Barraclough ~ Leave a comment

Although the market continues to be flooded with self-published books, I understand that the torrent is slowing down. Maybe this is because, having realised that indie authorship does not provide an easy path to best-seller status, many less committed writers are giving up. Another reason could be that the backlog of old manuscripts, which had been rejected for traditional publication but can now be published by authors themselves, is starting to clear. Having taught myself the basic ropes by self-publishing Persons not Diseases and my trilogy of Three Novellas I am now looking at reviving my own backlog.

The first adult novel I ever wrote is over thirty years old. I recently rescued its faded typescript from the drawer where it has been languishing all this time, and have been converting it to electronic format. It is a gently satirical mystery / romance set in an English mental asylum in the 1980s, and in many ways it describes a forgotten world, for so many aspects of life have changed. Today’s readers may find it hard to believe that, for example, staff used to smoke and drink on duty, did not have computers or mobile phones, or that orders from male doctors were so readily obeyed by nurses and patients alike. Parts of the text seem quite embarrassing or outrageous to my more sedate older self – should I defer to political correctness and tone them down? Should I publish the book at all?

Even after all these years it is difficult for me to look objectively at this first novel, remembering so clearly as I do the passionate enthusiasm with which I wrote it and my bitter disappointment when a series of rejection letters arrived in the post. I am hoping that a few trusted people will agree to read it and give me some kind but honest feedback.

Discounts and giveaways?

~ Jennifer Barraclough ~ 1 Comment

I have mixed feelings about self-published books being given away free of charge. This practice seems to devalue all the hard work of their authors, and can perpetuate the belief that they are inferior to books from traditional publishers. Although a free ebook will usually get far more downloads than one which carries a price tag, many of these will be from undiscerning readers who are not really interested in the content and may never even look at it at all. But in some circumstances, offering free books is worthwhile.

Some of the authors who write about self-help, educational or spiritual topics have altruistic motives, and would rather reach the widest possible audience than make any money. My little Bach flower book, which has always been free, continues to get thousands of downloads per year.

Turning to the profit motive, free books can be a “loss leader” to promote sales of other titles. This easy-to-use method of marketing is particularly recommended in the case of a series; readers who download the first one for free, and enjoy it, may go on to purchase the later ones too. For the reasons given above I am reluctant to use this strategy, though I may change my mind one day. But when sales of my own fiction books were flagging after Christmas, I decided to experiment with reducing their prices: currently the three novellas are just 0.99 USD each, and the box set is 2.99 USD. Details can be found on my Smashwords and Amazon author pages.

A variant of free promotion which I do like using is the Goodreads Giveaway programme, in which the print version of my Three Novellas will be included until 11th March. ( Click here to enter the draw for a free copy.) Winners in this programme are encouraged to post reviews on the Goodreads site, and they often do – hopefully these will be positive reviews, though even negative ones are better for publicity purposes than none at all.

Lastly, there is the option of sending free copies to journals and book blogs for review. One of the things I miss from my traditional publishing days is having this done for me, and I have only just started to explore it in my indie publishing career. I know that many professional reviewers are overwhelmed with submissions and cannot deal with them all, so I prefer to approach those who will accept ebooks. Sending out print copies without any promise of a response can prove a costly and futile exercise.

 

Box set

~ Jennifer Barraclough ~ Leave a comment

A box (or boxed) set is a group of related items – books, recordings of music or films, games – packaged together and sold as a single unit. With traditional book publishing these collections are literally presented in a cardboard box. With modern print-on-demand and electronic publishing the box is a virtual concept, though some ebook sets do have 3D covers. The set may contain either a series of titles arranged in the correct order, or a selection of related titles by one or more authors. Usually costing considerably less than than the sum of their individual parts, they are currently very popular. My own first (and last?) box set Three Novellas: Carmen’s Roses, Blue Moon for Bombers, The Windflower Vibration combines the three short books which I published last year and is available in paperback or ebook versions from Amazon and other online stores.

It can be very easy to create a box set just by combining the original files, and I would certainly advise against making non-essential changes to their content. But when I made mine I did take some time to merge the front matter and back matter; to correct a couple of typos which I had missed before; and to adjust for any discrepancies in formatting. For example I found that my use of italic script as opposed to quotation marks, and of UK as opposed to US spelling, had not been consistent between the three books.

In Carmen’s Roses, an Englishwoman visits Auckland in the hope of recovering from a serious illness, and of finding forgiveness for an incident related to a love affair from her past. Blue Moon for Bombers is set in middle England, and tells the story of a World War Two airman coming to terms with his repressed trauma, interwoven with a modern romance. In The Windflower Vibration, featuring some of the same characters and settings as the previous books, a sudden death on an Auckland beach sparks off a quest to unravel a complex web of mysteries spanning two centuries and two hemispheres. Many people have asked me if they are autobiographical, and the answer is “not exactly”, but they do reflect some of the themes from my own life: moving from England to New Zealand, practising both orthodox and alternative medicine, interests in animals, music, aviation and the paranormal. Here again is the link to the Amazon page – if you are interested please have a look, and share with your contacts – thank you.

 

The joys and challenges of indie authorship

~ Jennifer Barraclough ~ 2 Comments

Three years ago I made the transition from traditionally published writer to indie author, and have now self-published three non-fiction titles and three novellas. There were plenty of mistakes and frustrations, especially to begin with, and I still have a lot to learn. But, overall, being an indie author has brought me as much satisfaction as anything I have done in my previous careers. New Year seems a good time to review my personal perspective on self-publishing, and some of what follows may be useful to others just starting out on this path.

I like being free to write what I want, without having to fit into an accepted genre or follow a formula. This does however make it more difficult to choose the most suitable categories and keywords through which potential readers can discover my books.

I like being able to upload my books as soon as I am ready, without having to wait several months for the traditional publishing process to run its course. But because modern self-publishing is so fast, cheap and easy it is tempting to go into print too soon without taking time and care to make both content and presentation the best they can be, thereby adding to the glut of mediocre books which give self-publishing a bad name. So I try to be patient, asking several other people to review my draft manuscripts and point out the errors which I have missed, and disciplining myself to check through the final version several times in the vain hope that not a single typo slips through the net.

I like being able to choose the layout, cover image and price of my books. Though I don’t have either the skills or the software to handle all the technical aspects myself, I have found an expert formatter and an expert cover designer to help, and it is a pleasure to work with them both.

I like being able to check my sales figures frequently, even if there are not very many paid ones. With literally millions of books available, readers are spoiled for choice, so I count every sale as cause for celebration. Free books are a different matter – thousands of people have downloaded the free e-books which I have offered from time to time, though I do wonder how many of these free copies have actually been read.

I still can’t really say that I like marketing, which seemed a huge challenge at first, alien to my personality and training. Exploring ways to publicise my work has been a steep learning curve and I have found some methods which I do enjoy, for example creating a proper mailing list and email newsletter. But I find that marketing takes up too much of the time which could have been spent on actual writing. My one experience of paying someone else to do it for me proved an expensive failure.

The world of books has been transformed in the last few years, and it will be interesting to see what the future will bring. My hope is that self-published titles will be fewer in number but better in quality, though I don’t know how this can be achieved.

Completing the trilogy

~ Jennifer Barraclough ~ Leave a comment

I tend not to plan much ahead in my life, and back at the beginning of this year I had no idea that I was going to publish a series of three novellas during 2014 – marking the launch of what I hope will be an on-going career as an indie author.

The Windflower Vibration, the third book in the trilogy, has just come out. Please read on for the blurb, and details of a free offer on the e-book version.

“A man dies while swimming off an Auckland beach. Georgina is out walking with her grandson when the rescue helicopter arrives, and they become involved in the aftermath of the event. Was this man’s death due to natural causes hastened by medical malpractice? Or was it one strand in a complex web of events, spread over two hemispheres and two centuries, involving homeopathy, Elgar’s violin concerto, forbidden love affairs and a sick dog? Georgina’s life has seemed empty following the loss of her husband, but by the end of her quest to unravel these mysteries she has found a new purpose. Set partly in England and partly in New Zealand, The Windflower Vibration can be read on its own or as a sequel to Jennifer Barraclough’s earlier novellas Carmen’s Roses and Blue Moon for Bombers.”

The Windflower Vibration is available in both print and ebook versions from Amazon and other online stores. Between now and the end of this year, I can offer readers of this blog a free copy of the e-version from Smashwords: if you are interested, click on this link and enter the coupon code GP73W at check-out.

I would hugely appreciate your help with marketing; please consider posting a star rating, writing a brief review on Amazon or elsewhere, sharing this message with your contacts and/or asking your local library to buy a copy – thank you so much.