Fifteen Days and Fourteen Nights

It’s two weeks since Escape to the Cotswolds was published, and what a two weeks it’s been.

The build-up was amazing enough with pre-sales going along nicely. The blog tour began three days prior to publication and I don’t think my feet have touched the ground since. But what about the dreaded P word. Promotion! My publishers, HQ Digital, provided me with some eye-catching shareables which certainly enhanced many of my posts and even made me want to read the book.

But promoting oneself isn’t something that comes naturally, either to me or, as I understand it, to most other writers. My biggest problem was where to draw the line. If you don’t advertise yourself then no-one will know you are there. That’s undeniable. But is there also a danger of over-promotion? Being irritating? Prompting people to think ‘Oh no, not again’! If this has happened to you I apologise here and now, and wholeheartedly, if I have been guilty of over-egging it.  

So what have I learnt? Amazingly that I like Twitter! I’ve always enjoyed Facebook. To me it’s a friendly place where I’ve met many people, writers and others, and it’s truly a sociable medium. Members of groups I belong to who have nothing to do with the writing world have been incredibly supportive. Some have even bought my book! But I’ve struggled for some time with Twitter, knowing that my knowledge wasn’t sufficient to take full advantage of its possibilities. I still have much to learn but I’m getting better, finding it easier to negotiate my way around.

Yesterday I ran a campaign on Twitter. Well, it felt like a campaign. There was the opportunity to win a free copy of Escape to the Cotswolds – all you had to do was retweet to be in with a chance. Not having participated in anything like this before I was staggered at the response. I carefully noted and cut up the names of all who hit the RT option and put them in…a shoe box. Here’s me picking out the winner.

For me this blog post is an opportunity to say a huge thank you to all those bloggers, reviewers, Facebook pals, Twitter supporters and anyone else who has taken the time and the interest to become involved.

See you next time.

Natalie

Diary of a Writer's Week

It’s been a week of many parts. At times it felt like having all the ingredients to make a cake but not being sure what the outcome would be.

Saturday: Strictly speaking this was the previous week but as we went out to celebrate my daughter’s birthday I couldn’t resist an excuse for posting this photo.

Sunday: I wrote 800 ish words of my work in progress and then went to Dulwich College (magnificent place) to a concert celebrating music as experienced by different faiths. The Old Library was filled to capacity. I believe it only holds approximately a hundred people but there wasn’t a spare seat to be had. I mention this here because (a) it was an amazing experience and (b) my husband wrote a piece for a local publication which we edited together – my writing input. 

Monday: I have a writer friend who has a publisher interested in her manuscript. It’s her first book and to date social networking hasn’t been her priority – she’s been writing a book, dammit! However, as writers no longer live in ivory towers and self-promotion has become a part of the whole ‘deal’, it was imperative that my friend got herself onto Twitter and Facebook, where she had a page but not a presence. We spent four solid hours with just one cup of coffee each. So intent were we on what we were doing, I didn’t even think to offer her another (we were at my house, not hers). I apologise for my bad manners here and now, I don’t think I did at the time, but we were both exhausted by the time we stopped. That said, she embraced it fully and is now actively using social media.

Tuesday: This was the day I went to Rye Harbour where a member of my Tuesday writing group has a static caravan. There are three of us and we spent a lovely day on the nature reserve (saw an avocet – a real treat) and did no writing whatsoever, but sometimes one uses these things at a later date so guilt was not involved here. Well, maybe just a little.

Wednesday: Had my hair done which took up much of the morning. A very interesting evening though at The Write Place Creative Writing School http://www.thewriteplace.org.uk/ where, in the light of my Monday friend’s experience, tutor Elaine Everest chose social media and how to use it as her topic for the evening. Several of us are quite active in this respect but others have little or no history and while some of us are published others are not. When their time comes it will be much easier if they are already established on Facebook and Twitter. Otherwise it can be a very steep learning curve at a time when all they might want to concentrate on is getting their book published.

With Lisa Eveleigh last month
at the RNA Summer Party

Thursday: A splendid day. The weather was glorious, the best day so far this year, and I met my

agent, Lisa Eveleigh, at the Royal Academy for lunch. I’ve lived in London all my life and never cease to marvel at its beauty. In the past I’ve travelled abroad and admired architecture, ancient and modern, with gaping jaw and a hot camera. It’s so easy though to take one’s home town for granted. Thankfully I’m not guilty of this. As I walked along Piccadilly, watching tourists and indigenous population alike, where the pavements were crowded but not uncomfortably so and there was a smile on every face, or so it seemed, I felt real joy. Resisting the temptation to walk into Burlington Arcade – I didn’t want to be late – I met Lisa and we had what I can only describe as a lovely chinwag. We did talk about writing, which was the only writerly thing I did that day, and when I went home I sat in the garden with a book. Hey, that’s writerly too isn’t it? Good. Exonerated.

Friday: I am writing this piece. It is my intention to take the weekend off.

Initially I was going to entitle this ‘My Non-Writing Week’ but as it turns out there’s no such thing for me, nor I imagine for most writers. It’s been an interesting exercise though. I don’t usually keep a diary and this has made me realise that even on those weeks when I think I haven’t written there’s a lot that goes on that doesn’t get noticed. Of course I’ve spent some time on Twitter and Facebook, ‘meeting up’ with friends, oh, and playing a few online games of Scrabble. But even that involved words.