self-publishing – Page 2

Farm and Family Life, Inspiration, Our Barn Conversion

Sorting the chaff from the wheat

May 22, 2016August 4, 2017by Sam Russell1 Comment

The chaff house door, and I wonder how many farmers have grabbed that rusty handle and pushed the rickety door. Although it wasn’t always rusty and rickety of course, it was a new barn once, built to house the hand-worked chaff machine, to strip the chaff from the grains grown on the farm.

The barn is charming, romantic and rustic, but that must have been back breaking work. Back in the days when the farm employed most of the men in the village, and a land army of women when the men were sent to war. Heavy horses working the land alongside them, and then the steam engines came along, moving from farm to farm to power the threshing and baling machines. Still loaded by hand of course.

Quaint in the photographs, great to watch at a country show, but my nostalgia isn’t such that I would want to live the farming life of the days before mechanisation and combine harvesters.

We watched a steam engine working a baling machine at our local steam-up. That particular engine had broken records for hay baling, back in the day. The hay it was baling then went to France, to feed the horses who who were fighting alongside the men. That makes you think.

In my time on the farm, our chaff house has stored hay and straw, the clay pigeon pull and an odd collection of random wood and bits of farm machinery. I think there’s some furniture in there too. Right now, it’s a store for the plastics; the spray cans and fertiliser bags which are waiting to be recycled. Which may be it’s least romantic job yet, but that’s progress for you.

Farm and Family Life, Uncategorized

Changing hats and waiting for sunshine

April 9, 2016by Sam RussellLeave a Comment

Mercy, it’s a while since I’ve been on here. So long that my rustic romance link has dropped right off of my ‘frequently visited sites’. It’s been replaced by pages from my other, less interesting life; HMRC, bank accounts and office supplies. How I love the end of the tax year.

I’m still a frequent visitor to Pinterest though; this year (and next, and probably the one after that…) we’re converting a barn on the farm. My input so far has been looking at pretty pictures. I’m good at that. This is what our house-to-be looks like at the moment:

Oodles of rustic romance, the inside isn’t so pleasing to the eye – yet.

Ditch clearing on the farm this week, and stocking up the woodstore. I’m beyond happy that my new hip lets me walk far enough to check up on progress…

And still editing of course, lots of red pen marks on the final draft and I really need to get it finished before the sun comes out, those chairs on the decking are calling.

Happy April guys.

Writing Romance

Springing into March, and still editing

March 10, 2016by Sam RussellLeave a Comment

So, I’m still editing, although I had hoped to be launching A Bed of Brambles about now; a year after A Bed of Barley Straw hit the shelves. Ho hum, it’s got to be right. Deadlines and launch dates are secondary to the life of the story, so I’m letting myself off the hook. But I’m still working hard, setting deadlines, but avoiding naming a launch date yet.

I’m editing on the sofa, because the new hip complains if I spend too many hours at a desk. Painting scenes with my pen (keyboard actually, but pen sounds more poetic), creating characters for you to meet, hoping you love them enough to want to dive in. Telling stories to make you laugh, gasp, cry (and get a bit hot under the collar). That’s important stuff. I sweat over the detail so you can be swept along, without being tripped up by disbelief, clumsy words, wonky timelines… That’s the hope, anyway.

I’ve got an editing mate with me, he’s just chillin’ in the warm.

By coincidence, in Chapter 25B (rewritten/edited from chapter 25draft1, 25draft2, 25A), the chapter I’m currently working on, they are heading into March at Draymere Hall too. They’ve had snow, (so we’re doing better in the real world), Alexander is lambing, and Hettie… well, I won’t tell you what Hettie is up to, three quarters of the way through the book, but here’s a sneaky scene setting excerpt…

Hettie was at her mother’s old house, to clear out her bedroom. She’d been putting the job off for weeks, but the ‘for sale’ sign was up now, she really couldn’t delay it any longer. She found the key in the usual place; third flowerpot from the left under the larder window. Easy to find in daylight hours, she remembered it being more of a challenge in the days when she had stumbled home in the dark, from whichever pub her and her mates had spent the evening in. Her mum’s absence was obvious, even in the garden. The paths hadn’t been cleared of snow, shrubs bent underneath it. Hettie shivered. She had to give the door a shove to make it open. Empty room, squares on the walls where pictures had hung, undressed windows. Swept and hoovered of course, but the house looked sad and worn out. Someone would buy it as a renovation project. Hettie wandered through the rooms, reached her old bedroom. The furniture gone, most of it to the bungalow, but the floor stacked with boxes; old clothes, school books and knickknacks. It could probably all go straight in the bin. She sat on the floor, cleared space around herself for three heaps; rubbish, charity, keep, and got to work.

At the bottom of the last box she found her old diary; pink and grey stripes, broken padlock, dog-eared cover. “HETTIE’S DIARY – KEEP OUT!!!” She threw it on the rubbish pile, scooped the heap into an empty crate, picked the diary out again and shoved it into her shoulder bag. It was cold in the house, and the dogs would be wanting their dinner. Hettie carted the boxes down to the Landy, wrenched the back door shut. Slid the key into its hiding place; third flowerpot from the left, under the larder window.

… A Bed of Brambles, coming soon, I promise.ps If you haven’t read the first one yet, it’s free on Kindle at the moment.

Writing Romance

Writing romantic bad boys

February 17, 2016by Sam Russell8 Comments

Rogues and scoundrels, womanisers, damaged souls. Tall, dark and brooding… there are almost as many clichés to describe our romantic bad boys as there are bad boys in fiction.

And it’s a conundrum isn’t it? That characters in stories can get away with murder (literally, or should that be literarily) and yet still win our love.

From Heathcliff to Rochester, Rupert Campbell-Black to Christian Grey; romantic bad boys have drawn us in since stories began. Personal tolerances vary, but if you have loved fiction, film or theatre I’d be willing to bet that you have loved a bad boy too.

“Mad, bad and dangerous to know” these guys are not always easy to love. They’re not easy to master as characters either. Writing a bastard is simple, asking readers to fall in love with him…not so much. Clearly it can be done, and when done well the lovable bad boy is a wondrous thing. The fictional scoundrel can be gloriously addictive, and its an addiction which you don’t even need to feel guilty about.

There are degrees of badness; from the endearing Lothario through to the downright criminal badass. If the writing is good enough there are few ‘crimes’ that cannot be forgiven. But therein lies the rub of characterisation; a badly written bad-boy can easily become just a nasty bastard. No one loves a nasty bastard.

There aren’t any rules, but I’ve got some thoughts on writing that most elusive of creatures – that frustrating, unattainable but heart-breakingly desirable hero, the romantic rogue who will carry us away on a carpet of magical fantasy.

The scale of the sins or crimes: It would be a brave (or foolish) writer who asked their hero to commit the unforgivable. There are acts which shouldn’t be forgiven lightly, and they don’t belong in romance.
Physical beauty: With romance it’s all about the desire, and if you’re already dealing with emotional flaws a flawed appearance would add a layer of challenge to the writing. I’d read it though. If you’re up to this please write it.
Why are they bad? Be it history, trauma, betrayal or misfortune, do make the reasons for their behaviour believable, and adequate excuse for their misdemeanours. I recently read (part of) a series where it was revealed late on (after much hinting and allusion that our hero was justified in behaving like a royal wanker) that his sins were due to a virus he’d caught or somesuch nonsense. I’m still miffed about that.
The good, the bad and the ugly; There must be redeeming characteristics – sufficient to match the ‘bad’. And the reader has to know about them. We’ll forgive his dark brooding if we know in our hearts that he’d jump in a freezing lake to save our drowning puppy.
Can he be saved? Well as writers we must have hope! And mainly we hope that despite our rogue’s bad behaviour, our readers will really want to save him. He may be bad, but he’s got to be good enough to deserve his happy ever after.

I’d love to hear about your favourite fictional bad boys, or if you’re writing one yourself let me know how you go about developing their character.

Marketing and Promotion

Book Promotion – what I got up to in 2015

January 29, 2016January 29, 2016by Sam RussellLeave a Comment

So, here’s the book promo chart which I linked to in my earlier post ‘So does the marketing work?‘ – my efforts to make my book visible over the last ten months, and the chequered results. Read and enjoy, and if you’ve got any better suggestions please drop me a comment below.

ps The link was there last time because I hadn’t worked out how to insert a table into a WordPress post (without a plugin). Well I have now, sort of, but if anyone knows a tidier way of doing this I would love to hear from you!)

and a pps to The Sister – so yes, everything is possible if you try hard enough! Not perfect, but possible 🙂

Promotion	Cost	Time consumed	Enjoyment/ bad taste in the mouth	Result	Profit
Start a blog	£0ish (I got led astray with domain names and pretty backgrounds but it doesn’t have to cost)	Quite a lot	Great fun! I’m a writer, of course I want to write. WordPress & HTML sometimes do my head in	Met lots of nice people in the blogosphere. Learnt new skills and generally enjoyed myself. Had some lovely feedback from readers Recommended	No idea. Probably not, but I have sold a couple of books to people who were able to contact me through the website
Twitter	£0 no ifs, no buts	Ate up my life in the early days but I’ve got a grip on it now	Some laugh out loud moments. Bad taste in the mouth? Depends who you follow!	Met a lot of nice people in the twittersphere. Even made friends – yes really. A lot of generous sharing going on out there. Recommended (if it’s your thing)	Would have to be, because it didn’t cost me a penny and I have sold books to twitter pals.
Facebook Page	£0 to £Any limit you set (if you pay FB for ads or boosted posts)	As much as you want to give it, but you will disappear if you don’t keep at it	Meh. I don’t spend enough time on the page – no real interaction with followers	Boosts and ads can be directed to people who are likely to read your books, but you are paying for it	No idea, but somehow I doubt it
Feature in Good Housekeeping Magazine	£0 + A lot of luck	1 Day	Bloody brilliant. Best day out ever (read all about it in This Weeks Shenanigans)	A trip to Londinium, a make-over, posh clothes to try on and a free lunch. What’s not to like? Recommended 🙂	Definitely sold a number of books, and it cost me nothing
Visit the local bookshops	£0	Roughly half a day begging, ongoing sucking up	Great once I’d talked them round. Lovely people. Sticking the neck out was uncomfortable. Bookshops hate Amazon	Sold lots of real, paperback books. Great buzz seeing my book on the shelf. Became the ‘local bestseller’ (briefly!)	Absolutely. Or it will do when they pay me for the books…
Feature in the local press	£0	Roughly half a day finding photos, talking to reporters and writing a press release	Mild embarrassment when the headline read ‘Saucy Farmer’s Wife’ (or something like that)	People stopping me in the street. A run on the local bookshop (which of course I mentioned in the feature.	Yes. Bookshop and Amazon sales
Kindle Free Promotions	£0	15 minutes to fill in the form	Fun watching the download graph rocket. Not so fun that you’re giving the book away.	Hundreds of downloads, gets the book seen by readers.	Yes and no (the download is free) but it cost me nothing and I’m hoping the same readers will buy the next book. More pages read on Unlimited, which I do get paid for.
Goodreads Giveaway	£0 for promo, cost of books + postage to mail the books to winners	15 minutes to fill in the form, a trip to the post office	Another chart to follow!	A few reviews of the book	Not sure/not really BUT reviews grow interest in the book. Postage costs can be high if you run worldwide (you don’t have to)
Public speaking	£0 (some authors charge, but I’m not there yet)	3 days stressing + however long the event is	More fun than you would think (or more fun than I thought it would be) once you get over the nerves. People are nice.	A good laugh, and usually good sales.	Yes – best sales day ever of the paperback was after my talk to the WI!
Paid email subscriber lists (I’ve done BookBub and Fussy Librarian)	££ depends which countries you target. USA is spendy, I went UK – less than £100	An hour or so submitting (with a good chance you will not be accepted) A fair bit of time faffing with time zones and price drops	Watching the money roll in… … oh wait, I’m giving the book away again.	Lots of lovely downloads	Yes when I price dropped to £0.99, no when I priced at £0.00. But there’s always that second book that their tongues are hanging out for…
Start a newsletter/ email sign up	£0 so far	I reckon quite a lot, but it’s early days for me with this.	People really need more crap in their inboxes… … luckily for them my Newsletter rate is scarce/non-existent	I’m told the potential is huge…but how the hell do you persuade people to sign up? Ps – do please sign up for my Newsletter here 🙂	Watch this space. The idea being that every faithful fan who has read your book will be running for the shops the minute you tell them a new one is out.

Marketing and Promotion

So does the marketing work?

January 23, 2016January 29, 2016by Sam RussellLeave a Comment

It’s hard juggling all the balls when you’re a self-published author. Writing… to editing… to cover design. Formatting, proofing, and uploading the finished (you pray) book. That’s a lot of hats…and then there’s the marketing. The bit that many (most?) of us find painful and frustrating.

It often, but not always, costs money. It’s time consuming, trying to keep both your name and your book out there (without pissing people off by banner waving). In a perfect world, you want a gaggle of followers AND your book to be seen by new potential readers… over and over again.

We all know that isn’t easy, and when I’ve spent half a day submitting the book for promotions, twittering, posting, sticking my neck out and generally shouting about how GREAT-WONDERFUL-UNPUTDOWNABLE my book is, I start to feel like a grubby billboard. If the promo cost money, I wonder is it worth the dent in my purse (and the nasty taste in my mouth?)

So is it actually worth it? Well yes, I’m afraid it is. I know that because over the last few months I have been running an accidental experiment. Ok, I’ll be honest, I took my eye off the ball. My target of one promo a month dropped to… none in the last three months. An operation, Christmas and 100k words begging to be edited… The result of my lack of effort? My first and only month with ZERO book sales. Hey, it’s not so bad. I still had pages read on KDP select (Kindle Unlimited to readers, who can download the book for free. The author gets paid by the number of pages read. A great incentive, if you didn’t need one already, to write that story which keeps readers turning.) And then there’s Volume II which, when it hits the shelves, will be the next big push. It just isn’t happening fast enough.

Ten months now since I published the début, and my ‘next book within a year’ is almost on schedule. But it would have been published sooner if it weren’t for the time spent on marketing. It could be out there, sitting smug… in total anonymity because no one would know that I, or the books, existed. As it is, I’ve got readers nagging, and that has to be a good thing.

Those ten months have kept me busy; here’s my tongue-in-cheek summary of how I went about selling my ~~soul~~ book: Promo Chart 2015 …

…and in the meantime do please sign up for my Newsletter, find me on Facebook, Twitter and Goodreads! And watch this space for Kindle and Goodreads giveaways coming soon! Or even buy the book….

…sorry, sorry, I’ll stop now. It’s all or nothing with me.

Self-publishing, Writing Romance

When you can’t see the wood for the trees

January 10, 2016January 29, 2016by Sam RussellLeave a Comment

I am editing. Argh!

I’m deep in the thicket, with 100k words between me and the timber of my finished novel, and every one of them has to be tested to earn its place in the manuscript.

Do my characters have, well, character? Is the plot believable? Am I consistent with point of view? Have my scenes got structure and motivation. Shit…am I actually writing scenes at all?

If you thought that writing a novel was hard, try a substantive edit. I believe I could knock off 20k words in the time it takes to edit a paragraph (10k of those words will be cut later of course). I’m learning on the job, and I figure I always will be. There may be writers out there who find it ~~a piece of cake~~ (cliché) easy, and wield their cutting pen with stern, ~~orderly~~ (adjective+adverb) precision. Who get that perfect story arc and place their reactions/dilemmas with ~~pin-point~~ (you work it out) accuracy within it.

I’m not one of them (she ~~sobbed~~, ~~wept~~, ~~cried~~, ~~sighed~~ SAID!). This is damn hard work, and right now I really can’t see the wood for the trees (yet another cliché slipped in there).

But it’s also exciting. I’m writing, I’m learning, and learning is good isn’t it?

I’m off to find the path through this forest now.

Farm and Family Life, Inspiration

Sparkle and fizz, a cracking start to the year

January 2, 2016January 29, 2016by Sam RussellLeave a Comment

Champagne, friends and fireworks at the seaside!

That takes some beating. Now the holidays are over and and I hope to channel that sparkle and fizz into the final edit of the new book. A busy January, and a second novel for 2016. I’m excited.

As for the rest of the year, well I’ve already started writing book three and my resolutions are sorted – go crutchless (that’s crutchless, not crotchless), publish book two and get myself back on a horse 🙂

A HAPPY, HEALTHY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL

Farm and Family Life

Hippy adventures

December 12, 2015January 29, 2016by Sam Russell2 Comments

My but the body is a resilient tool, and the mind’s capacity for adaptation is a wonder!

Three weeks on from my hip replacement and my skill on crutches has developed apace. I’ve almost got used to having no free hands, shuffling items from pillar to post until they reach their final destiny (I WILL position that cup of coffee next to my easy chair). I can use the crutches like chopsticks to move some things along, but the greatest amusement in my day is had with my long handled gripper. I’ve been honing my gripper skills with determined ambition; knickers from ankles to washing basket with one sweep of the arm. Target practice at the dustbin for extra sport. I can pet the dogs, or even prod them when they’re scratching at my carpet. What fun! A comedy of terrier confusion as they try to work out that one.

Life isn’t without frustrations. Tell me I can’t bend over and I instantly start dropping every thing I touch (not to mention a few that were sitting around minding their own business until that sweep of the gripper got them). I have been known to drop the gripper too, and my crutches. Proper stymied in those moments.

Support stockings have driven me close to madness. The surgeon chopped my leg in half, but it’s those bloody stockings that bug me. Erotic they aren’t. When I have taken the time to imagine a man kneeling at my feet freeing me of hoisery, this wasn’t the scenario I dreamt of. The only release I yearn is escape from their deadly boa constrictor grip.

I long for the loo to be a haven again, where I can sit in comfort. I learnt the hard way that slow progress to the dunny+lack of scissor leg action+more wasted minutes reversing onto the bog and dropping my troos (not too low!) is a receipe for disaster (especially if someone has put the lid down – thirty years of marriage when he didn’t drop the lid and suddenly he’s Mr Diligent.) Oh how we laughed.

Every cloud has a sliver lining. Housework has gone out the window, swiftly followed by the ironing. My mother filled the freezer with delicious home cooking. A joy for the first fortnight, but we’ve now fallen prey to a sordid ready-meal habit. The sister has been on dilligent standby duties, instinctively absorbing all the gritty jobs which I couldn’t ask anyone else to do (I won’t abuse you with detail). I baulked at calling even her when the terrier puked on the carpet. It was a weird sort of torture, observing the glorious mess from my seat, unable to clear it up. Now I never thought I’d miss the skills to do that job, but at least the farmer learnt something: don’t give old dogs eggs for breakfast without anticipating consequences. Even if we are out of Chappie.

As I type said farmer is washing the kitchen floor. Unasked and unprompted. And that my friends is an indication of just how low this house has fallen.

Self-publishing

The devil makes work for idle typists

October 27, 2015January 29, 2016by Sam RussellLeave a Comment

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it here before, but at the same time as I publish my sequel I’ll be re-publishing Barley Straw as a second edition.

There were a couple of things which led me to make that decision. The actual manuscript hasn’t been massively altered, some minor text changes and additional material that I either didn’t have or didn’t think to put in the first time around (author bio, chapter one of the sequel and a plug for the new book). Edition two will get a brand new cover which will sit nicely with the sequel (If you follow me on facebook or twitter you might have already seen my cover for the sequel A Bed of Brambles). The new cover for A Bed of Barley Straw in on my book page here…but it isn’t actually on the book yet and won’t be until I release edition two, so it shouldn’t be there. I was playing on WordPress and suddenly lo – there it was. Tech tinkering is a dangerous pastime for me. I ought to remove that cover (I don’t want to be accused of mis-selling, am I breaking any laws?) but in the meantime I’ve done even more tinkering, to build a book page with both of my books on it (ooh that sounds good) which is currently lounging in cyberspace on WordPress auto-save. I fear if I update anything I may launch the sequel by accident (and you may also notice that the heading on the page now reads my books, with one poor friendless novel featured below it.)

Doing the second edition is a logistical nightmare. Four manuscripts to format and upload (2 x paperback, 2 x Kindle) along with their respective front matter/back matter and the right covers. I see the potential for cock-ups, and I promise I will embrace that potential. I’m fearful of losing sales and reviews on Barley during the change over, and right now I’ve got no idea when I should take edition one out of publication (I’ll ask my mates at ALLi, they’ll know the answer).

This week I’ve been reading Self-Printed: The Sane Person’s Guide to Self-Publishing by Catherine Ryan Howard. Great book. Everything you need to know about self-publishing in an entertaining package which flows as sweetly as a novel. My copy is riddled with turned down corners to redirect me to the legion of useful tips (sorry Catherine Ryan Howard, but I was reading it in bed and I’d run out of tissue bookmarks). A lot of delicious lures back into techno-tinkering, don’t read it if you’re fighting a habit. Lord knows what you’ll see on my website next week. You may have noticed that, on Catherine’s advice, my blog has a new, more enticing name – welcome to Rustic Romance. Does it tempt you in?

I won’t tell you how many colour theme changes I’ve made this week. I’ve updated my header image too (my idea, not Catherine’s). Carried away by autumnal romance…pic taken out of the window of the tractor this morning while I was grass cutting (it’s a long climb down for a shorty, that’s my excuse. You can pick the blackberries from the cab too!)

My editor needs to send that manuscript back, and fast, to bury me so deep in edits that I haven’t got time to be led astray with this tinkering lark.