Are reviews such a good thing after all?

Let’s face it, us writers thrive on praise. We like nothing more than when someone comes up to us and says ‘oh my god why haven't you been published before?’ or ‘that book made me cry, the characters seemed so real’. Feedback is healthy for us, let’s us know what works and what doesn’t. Rob, one of my dear friends read the original Summerset and ripped it to pieces, pointing out it was grammatically incorrect, filled with typos and generally a mess – but the story was astounding! I cried for ages thinking that now my book was on general sale, I would be considered the Ed Wood of the publishing world – the writer who made her name by producing really crappy books. However Rob did me the biggest favour. I went away, re-read Summerset and realised everything he was saying was true. When I got the chance I re-edited, got rid of the mistakes, made it read in proper English, not South London English and I feel comfortable now knowing it is in the public domain looking like a ‘proper’ book.

This is all well and good coming from a well-meaning friend who only wants to see you succeed and not look like an idiot. However, when you put yourself into the public domain you suddenly open yourself up to all sorts of crazy people with agendas of their own. Another writer friend of mine, Kelly Moran has recently fallen victim to a reviewer on Amazon.com who has printed lies about her for the whole world to see. He hated the book, but that’s irrelevant, we’ve all got to expect that not everyone will ‘get’ us. What you don’t expect is the sheer hatred that some people will feel towards anyone that is getting on with their lives and achieving something. It seems this person is waging some sort of vendetta against Kelly and her friends, so no doubt he’ll see I’m connected, so I’m expecting a crap review of Summerset on Amazon any day now. Ce la Vie, if his life is that sad, so be it. Sometimes bad reviews can spark people’s curiosity.

I recall writing a very honest review on the site youwriteon.com and it’s never in my nature to be scathing, so I would have been constructive to this particular woman, anyway, a few days later, she did a free will review of my book Teenage Kicks, completely savaging it. She had no reason to do this, she hadn’t been assigned it, it was purely because I’d not been nice about her awful book. I feel if you’re going to be that sensitive to criticism, get out of the game cos not everybody’s gonna love ya! However, to deliberately target people and wage vendettas against them is just sick. Still, I guess it’s a warped sort of flattery; at least you’re important enough to bother with.

Ciao for now

Karen

PS: New game – celebrity truths. Have you ever based a character in one of your books on a real person? I confess that Bertie in Mad About the Boy was based on Will Young – there, I’ve admitted it. There are others, but I couldn’t possibly reveal them yet!

Back to the boring stuff

Called my local Waterstones today and spoke to a nice chap who informed me they couldn't afford to take either of my books because it would be too expensive for them to stock and they wouldn't make any profit. Well thank you.

But I've been doing some thinking of my own and after speaking to another author friend (and lunchtimereader) who has published through a slightly different house and spent over a grand on it, I was thinking that seeing as I've spent practically zero in publishing my books maybe now I need to invest a little cash to start the publicity machine going. So, I have bought five copies of Summerset and I am going to donate them to libraries. Ah! I hear you say, but you won't make any money. No, but it will get people reading my book and I've cleverly targeted libraries all around Sussex as people love to read about their local area (albeit a fictionalised account). So with postage and the like, we're looking at £50 which is still a lot cheaper than a grand. I've already had a yes from Hastings Library and I'm hoping the others will agree too. Then maybe when people read it and like it and ask if I've written any other books, they will order more in. We can only wait and see, but at least one library in the UK is going to have a 'Karen Mason' on their shelves.

Any title

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Spandau Ballet

I'm bored at work so I thought I would put down a few of my musings and instead of going on and on about how hard it is being a writer - and let's face it, it is hard - I have decided to write occasional columns on this here blog on certain things that fascinate me (no there will be nothing about Chris Isaak or Living in a Box!).

Today's musings are about the ridiculousness of lyrics in early 1980s songs, especially those by Spandau Ballet. I'm in a particularly whistful mood today, and when I can't concentrate for some reason I always listen to Spandau Ballet and I think I know why. Like people took LSD back in the 1960s so their minds could wander and they could be creative and stuff. Well I listen to Spandau Ballet because the lyrics of their songs make no sense whatsoever and it's rather like listening to a Lewis Carroll book, you can sort of let your brain wander off.

Anyone reading this under the age of 30 won't have the foggiest what I'm going on about but hey ho. If anyone can tell me what the following songs are about I will give them a cameo in my next book because I for one haven't got the foggiest - Gary Kemp isn't allowed to enter, but I doubt he's reading my blog anyway.

To Cut A Long Story Short
The Freeze
Musclebound
Chant No 1
Paint me Down
She loved like Diamond (I think it's a love song - but who the fuck loves like a diamond?) Instinction - stealing cake to eat the moon?????

After that, I think Gary Kemp started to write more down to earth lyrics but gawd bless 'em, you've got to love the Spands. It's quite funny seeing Tony Hadley these days; he's very slick, white soul MOR and yet less than 30 years ago he was singing about standing in the dark waiting for a man to come (oo er).

Quick nod to Duran Duran, they too made some weird songs in the beginning but they were normally more album tracks than singles, although WTF Planet Earth is about I don't know.

I still want She Loved Like Diamond to be the theme tune to one of my book adaptations. I've yet to actually write a book that suits it but maybe I can make it a project for 2009, maybe it could be an Elvis O'Neill novel about a woman who cuts her lovers up with a semi precious stone she's bought on QVC.

So, there is my musing on Spandau Ballet. Next time I will be pondering some other obscure thing that fascinates me.

For now, ciao miaow

Ummmm????

I'm sending Two Become One to a literary agent called Lorella Belli tomorrow and I have to say it felt really weird doing all the prep work for it. Self-publishing then establishing lunchtime readers has made me feel like master of my own universe, now suddenly I am back to writing standard letters and stuffing SAE into my envelopes and stuff. A part of me asks why I'm bothering when I know I'll only get turned down, but if I'm honest, I need an agent, so I'm back on the treadmill. Think I'll also upload 2b1 onto lunchtime readers, so other people can read some of it too.

Aggghhh

I'm really pissed off. Today started off so well. I was looking on Amazon.com for books on Chris Isaak (I could create a whole new blog on my weird obsession with Chris Isaak but enough of that for now) when I spotted an advert for this thing called Amazon Kindle. Turns out it's an electronic book reading device where self-published authors can upload their work and set a price etc. A bit like Lulu I suppose but more accessible.

I spent the day in a state of high excitement thinking I was going to be able to finally get somewhere, came home, did all the work, uploaded Mad About the Boy, the artwork, set a price, the whole lot. Then discover that you need a US bank account, which means only American authors can upload work to the kindle. Why are us Europeans being left out? I'm so bloody annoyed.

On the positive side, Lunchtime Readers is going really well, we've now got eleven contributors and the work is so diverse that it's great. I seem to be spending more of my time administrating the site than I do writing.

I'm also pissed on with Borders, they reckon they take self-published books. I sent them MATB and they have sent a snotty standard letter back and kept hold of my book (what's the betting it's on Amazon in a few weeks time in the used section) utter gitfaces.

I'm so excited

Discovered last night that someone in the US has bought Summerset via either Amazon or Barnes and Noble or one of those sites. No idea who it is, but it's dead exciting.

I've also set up a new website called Lunchtime Readers for people to share their work on. I hope I get some responses.

Oooh

Great News. Took ebooks into the Oxfam shop and the chap in there informed me the tatty old copy of Summerset I put in there actually sold. He also says he'll have a look at the ebooks himself. How cool is that.

Is it all worth it?

I'd like to know if these feelings of self-doubt are normal. I'm not sure what else I can do to attract people to my book. I'm sending a copy to Borders because apparently they stock self-published books, but I'm so down I'm convinced they'll take one look and think it's crap. I am also worried because they haven't send my order for Two Become One. Lulu can be a bit rubbish at getting back to you and I'm worried that I've wasted ten quid.

I've done 5 CD Roms for distribution around Oxfam shops, but I'm so cheesed off and down on myself I'm convinced they won't even want my freebies.

Perhaps I should just go back to writing as a hobby.

A Brave New World

In the words of Jeff Wayne, this is indeed a 'Brave New World' (I am a complete War of the Worlds geek). Ever since my friend Alice suggested to me in 1993 that I should consider publishing my work, I have chosen the traditional route of writing, printing, packing in brown envelopes and sending off to publishers and literary agents who won't even read what I've sent. So this year (I think the fact I'm approaching forty is prompting me to get moving) I have decided to take matters into my own hands and have published my own books, Summerset and Mad About the Boy. Summerset was received quite well, but as with most self-published authors it was only bought by friends except for one e-copy that was bought by a nice lady on the internet.

Mad About the Boy is such a rocking book that I have decided to conduct an all out marketing campaign to make sure people are made aware of it and buy it for goodness sakes!!!! Not exactly being rich, I haven't got money to spend on fancy PR campaigns and I'm certainly not prepared to prostitute myself by hawking my work around uninterested radio stations and book shops. No, I am determined to make MATB one of the first books that receive a following purely from the net (except the copies I'm sending out to magazines, but I'm not talking about that).

A whole new world has opened up to me: Ebooks, viral marketing, blogs indeed. I have created a teasing trailer for Mad About the Boy and placed in on You Tube in the hope people will see it and be beside themselves with curiosity as to what it's all about and this will draw them to my site. So far I've had 50 hits and only about 30 of them have been me myself!! I've forwarded it onto all my Facebook friends and they say they'll put it onto people's funwalls, but I'm not holding my breath.

Today I have invested some of the money I've made with MATB on some blank CDs, labels and jewel cases and have decided that I am going to go down the ebook route. Unfortunately I'm not clever enough to sell downloads from my website, so people who want to read it in the US or wherever are going to have to go via lulu.com. But my UK customers can read Summerset on their PDAs wherever they go. I'm going to give away 10 free copies at work and secret another 5 in various second hand shops.

Let's see if it draws me the audience I deserve............