Book reviews are great to have. The more you have online, the more your books are noticed. I do read reviews when I come across them but I don’t go looking for them like I did when I published my first novel.
Obviously it’s great to receive five star ones but I know my books aren’t going to appeal to everyone out there, particularly the humorous ones. I’m fine when someone says the book wasn’t for them in a review. A recent one I saw said just that, but they went on to say that they could understand why others would like it and gave me three stars. That was great.
What I don’t appreciate is when someone leaves an angry review. There’s no need for it. My books are sold online and they can all be previewed before buying. If you buy it without previewing it and then get angry because you don’t like it, that’s your issue, not mine. Even then, say you didn’t like it but don’t tell me I should be in a different profession and start moaning at the other reviewers, saying you can’t understand how they could possibly like it.
To be honest I pity the writers of the angry reviews. I think many must be insecure. They didn’t understand the humour of my novels but see that others did from their reviews. Instead of accepting that and moving on, they become defensive, and the best form of defence is attack and so they attack the author. It’s a shame but fortunately, they are in the minority.
I think there was a worry when ebooks came out that it was going to end traditional publishing but both exist side by side. If anything is shutting physical bookshops it’s internet sales, but people are still buying physical books online.
I read physical books as well as ebooks on my Kindle. An e-reader means you can carry hundreds, or even thousands of books with you and you can change the print size of the text to accommodate your sight.
The biggest effect on traditional publishing is timing. An e-book can be uploaded and sold the same day, a traditionally published book can take a year before it is available. An ebook doesn’t go out of print either.
Ebooks have also allowed people like me to be published. I have tried to obtain a literary agent and, while some have been interested, they haven’t taken me on because they have limited space. Creating my own ebooks means I can publish my own works very cheaply and there are millions of us doing that, which is great. Writers are colleagues, not competitors.
All of the time. Thoughts and feelings can be given to characters as well as experiences I’ve had. I have a notebook where I will write down experiences I’ve had, or phrases I’ve heard, or funny situations others have told me about that I think might prove useful in a future book.
As an example, my one and only experience of horse riding made it into DRIVEN TO DISTRACTION.
It’s so important. The title and front cover are the first things potential readers see. Obviously the title has to make sense to what you’ve written otherwise readers will feel short-changed after they’ve read it.
A cover has to look good both on a physical book but also as a thumbnail image online, and the title has to be readable.
I can’t remember a time when I haven’t wanted to write. I’ve loved reading books since I was a child and always wanted to write them. Stories written as a child usually involved anthropomorphised animals.
As I got older so my stories became longer but I struggled to write while also working as an accountant in the banking industry. I had the opportunity to take some time out from my career eight years ago to write my first novel. At the time of answering this question my fifth is about to be published with more planned in the future. I absolutely love doing what I’m doing.
