Does Jonathan Franzen have a point about Twitter?

Jonathan Franzen, author of The Corrections and Freedom, hasn’t been happy with technology for some time. He uses it, of course, but has warned that it is ‘a weird, compulsive, almost addictive thing which doesn’t seem to have much to do with what were thought to be the great benefits of it.’ Recently he’s been talking about Twitter and sounding almost apocalyptic. He finds it ‘particularly alarming’ that freelance writers are now forced into ‘constant self promotion’ instead of ‘developing their craft’. New authors, he claims, are being told they must improve their social network presence before their manuscripts can be considered and cites 250 followers on Twitter as the point at which a new writer’s work will warrant notice. For him, this is terribly wrong. The act of writing is the antithesis of Twitter’s shared communal ethic. ‘The whole definition of literature is that people go off by themselves and develop a distinctive voice. It’s not a communal enterprise.’

It’s tempting for me to agree wholeheartedly with those sentiments. I’ve always had problems understanding how Twitter can work for a writer. I’ve seen the social network portrayed positively as a conversation between ‘friends’ - people contributing their thoughts, responding to others, supporting followers. Yet that hasn’t been my experience. It has seemed far more like a crowd of disparate voices shouting into the void. Only when individuals actually know each other through some other medium - email, internet forums and dare I say it, face to face – is there likely to be any response, any attempt at a ‘conversation’. Maybe it’s just that I’m woefully inadequate on Twitter. In over a year I’ve managed to amass the princely sum of 93 followers. Sounds pathetic? But it’s the result of only following people who interest me and when I see someone who notches up five thousand followers, I’m stunned. How can any one person be interested in five thousand different individuals?

So if you’re a writer and use Twitter, what’s the benefit to you? There has to be one. As Franzen intimates, time spent tweeting is not time spent ‘developing your craft’. Does it help authors sell their books? I’m dubious. How many people respond to the ‘Buy my latest Novel’ kind of shout. Very few I imagine. Does it lead to useful discussions on the craft of writing? Occasionally a tweet has taken me to an interesting blog post that’s been worth following up but that’s rare. Or is the site’s sole benefit to raise a writer’s profile? I think this must be the case, though I’m not even sure it does that. Still, I’m willing to be converted on Twitter’s virtues so here I am, waiting to be persuaded. Somehow, though, I think I’ll be hanging in that void again!

A New Name

I’ve just signed a contract under a different writing name and ‘met’ my new editor for the first time.

A new name for a new genre. I’m leaving pure romance behind – at least for the moment – and embracing mystery, though the book still involves romance of a kind. I’ve been scratching my head over how to name what I’m writing and ‘romantic suspense’ is the nearest I can get. In the US romantic suspense is a recognised genre but it seems little known here in the UK. That may be one of the many challenges ahead!

Over the last few months, I’ve been debating whether or not to carry on writing as Isabelle Goddard. I talked a little about changing writing names on my blog in January and the discussion there is still a valid one. It would make sense to continue with my existing name - after four novels, and two more being published very shortly, it’s a name that’s beginning to get known and it would be helpful to capitalise on that fact. On the other hand, the new book is definitely a different genre and if people buy it without looking too carefully at the book description – and they sometimes do – they could end up disappointed customers. In the end, after much humming and hawing, I’ve decided to go for a new name. So meet Merryn Allingham!

The decisions don’t stop there though. The next one is whether or not to build a new website or whether simply to ‘share’ the existing one between two author names. And then, of course, there’s a new facebook page to consider and a new twitter address. I’m beginning to realise that it’s going to mean a complete restart. But then writing is always a challenge, so why not set myself one more?

 

Highgate Cemetery - Is This Where My Heroine Will Meet Her Doom?!

It looks fairly innocent, doesn't it, basking in the sunshine and seen from this angle, but once you're down those steps and surrounded by high walls on either side, it's pretty creepy. The West section of Highgate Cemetery is wild and overgrown. The photo below was taken in bright sun, but imagine what it might feel like at dusk on a cold, overcast day. Graves line every pathway and stretch into the distance wherever you look. Some of the graves seem to pop out at you when you're least expecting them, some have cracked open, and some are tilted at odd angles because of land slips.

I've just begun the second part of the 'Indian' trilogy I'm writing - although this book, in fact, is set in wartime London. My heroine, Daisy Driscoll, is due to face dire peril in the book's finale and I've been wondering just where that should take place. I had thought of the London sewers but a recent visit I made to Highgate Cemetery may have sealed her fate!

I know I’ve been picky about the book covers I’ve been given, so when the North American cover art arrived for my next Regency, I thought I should redress the balance. The book is called The Major’s Guarded Heart (no, not my title!) and is due be published on Nov 1. I can’t say I love this image but for once I quite like it, though I’m not entirely sure about the chap’s expression. Still, he is dressed in correct Regency gear and the hero he’s playing, Justin Delacourt, does have a library just like the one pictured. His hair is roughly the right colour too. In the book I describe Justin’s hair as ‘abundant and gleaming, challenging the dreariness of the place and the day. Even the dim lighting could not suppress its bright glory, catching at highlights and dancing them in the air, until it seemed the man’s head was circled by a veritable halo.’ I suppose it would be asking a bit much to find the right image for that! So I’m reasonably content - though this is only the North American cover and there may be a nasty surprise in store when the UK one arrives!

I’d be interested to know what you think. And all you writers out there, do you get some say in your covers and if not, how do you rate the ones you’re handed? 

Making the Most of the Media

Despite trying very hard, I’ve never been very good at social media while everyone else seems  supremely confident. But how about other kinds of publicity, the sort that was around long before social media  – using newspapers, for instance, or magazines or radio to trumpet how wonderful I am! Might I be any better at that? I thought I’d give it a whirl and recently attended Making the Most of the Media, a course run by Miranda Birch, miranda@mirandabirchmedia.co.uk. For many years Miranda was one of the journalists behind Woman’s Hour and Desert Island Discs, so she certainly knows her stuff. It was a day long course and I wouldn’t attempt to distil all I learned into a few words but here are several tips I picked up on the way. I’ve summed them up under the three Cs of Context, Consumers and Contact.

Context:

·       Before you even begin writing a press release, do your research. Which media outlets are likely to be the most relevant for you? Read the magazines/newspapers you’re thinking of contacting and listen to the radio programmes. If your likely prey writes a blog or is on Twitter, be sure to read and to follow.

 

·       Keep a keen eye on the zeitgeist and be topical. If your writing touches on issues currently being discussed, wang off that press release.

·       Think seasonal. Summer can be a good time to strike with Parliament in recess, publishing slowed and people on holiday. Journalists are looking for new material. Ditto for the Christmas and New Year holidays.

·       Download a calendar of National Awareness weeks – does your writing connect to any of them?

·       And are there any umbrella organisations you might link to which would be glad to use  your material? Romantic novelists, for example, have the RNA blog.

Consumers:

·       It sounds basic but you need to work out who your audience is and what they want. Will they be interested in an angle that focusses on human interest or is their concern more with factual information? If you’re a writer, I imagine (though I could be wrong) it’s likely to be human interest that wins the day, whether it’s an interest arising from the actual book or from the author’s own story.

·       If you’re targeting a range of media, you need to consider their different ‘lead in’ times – radio works 4 to 6 weeks ahead, newspapers less, magazines sometimes six months in advance.

·       Don’t forget that sometimes journalists actually ask for material. You can check this out on Twitter if you type #journorequest into the box.

 Contact:

·       Once you’ve decided on the media outlet, make sure you target the right person. If it’s a magazine, for example, look down the list of editors on the title page and choose the right one. Always address your message to a named person.

·       Make your press release stand out. The title line should be eye catching. In the body of the email, always put the most important/interesting feature of your press release first. Be sure to send your message as part of the email and not as an attachment. You can add a photo if you think it might help!

·       Once you’ve sent the press release, don’t decide to leap aboard the Trans Siberian railway for a holiday. Make sure you’re easily contactable and available.

·       If you get no response, be brave and pick up the telephone. Check politely that the person has received your email and offer to provide more information if it’s needed.

So there it is. Simples!

Is There a Novel in Your Family?

As everybody tells you ideas for novels can come from just about anywhere – news items, magazine articles, films, music, other books, conversations overheard – and crucially from families. A story from my own family gave me the inspiration for the novel I’m currently writing.

My parents met when my mother was sixteen and my father two years older. They both lived in London, my mother in Acton and my father next door in Ealing. They met at a local dance hall which was not unusual at the time. I suppose they must have known each other four years or so before my father, who had joined the Royal Artillery as a fifteen year old boy, was posted with his regiment to India. He was stationed on the plains at Allahabad. The two of them wrote to each other - I’m not sure how often - but over the next six years my dad gradually climbed the army ranks to become a sergeant at the age of twenty-eight. At last he could afford a wife and he asked my mum to come out to India and marry him.

To our 21^st century minds, that sounds simple. But my mother was a highly nervous woman and had never travelled further from London than Southend or on anything more exciting than a train. The fact that she found her way to Southampton, boarded a troop ship there, and sailed the seas for three weeks to a country that could only have been a word to her, still amazes me. And don’t forget she hadn’t seen her new husband for six years! My father met her in Bombay/Mumbai and they were married on the 18^th April, 1937, at St John’s Afghan Church in the leafy suburb of Colaba with two soldiers as witnesses. I have their marriage certificate in my desk drawer.

 

These are photographs of St John’s. The church fell into disrepair, I believe, after Indian independence but has now been restored to its former glory. It gave me a thrill to see how beautiful it was and to imagine my mum and dad walking down that aisle together. It was a story I couldn’t resist.

My heroine, Daisy Driscoll, is a working class girl – as my mother was. She embarks on the same journey to Bombay and she marries a soldier in the same church in 1938. But that’s when the similarities end. I can’t allow Daisy to enjoy the forty-seven years of happy marriage that my mother did - that wouldn’t make a good mystery/crime novel!

An exciting week

This week has been an exciting one. I've sold two Regency romances, one to Harlequin, Mills and Boon who have published four other titles of mine and one to a US digital publisher, The Wild Rose Press which is a whole new venture for me. I've no definite titles or publication dates as yet but it's great to know that the books have found good homes!

Writing is always a solitary pursuit and often angst inducing, so validation is always welcome whether it comes from a publisher, editor, agent, or best of all, a reader. But I've a particular joy in seeing my last two Regencies sailing off into the sunset and that's because I'm taking a break from the period and the genre. It may turn out to be a short break - I really don't know at the moment - but I'm currently embarked on a whole new path and 40,000 words into a novel set in 1938 in the British Raj. The working title is An Inconvenient Marriage. I'll probably need to think again about that title since it could suggest to an unwary reader that the novel is a romance. Sure, there's a little romance in it (when isn't there?) but it's primarily a mystery, crime fiction even, though not a thriller or police procedural. As always, when I'm enjoying myself, the book doesn't quite fit any set category. It's a novel about finding one's feet, gaining confidence in a strange world as well as battling that mystery, and a book that includes quite a bit of social and political detail too. Ambitious, in fact, but I'm loving writing it. And if it's successful, then I'll commit to that trilogy I've already talked about. Yes, really!