Self-googling Part 2: The Joy of Feedback

So yesterday I was talking about the terrible form of self-abuse that writers indulge in – googling themselves and their books. I worked out the other day that it’s all about feedback. If you do almost any other job, then you get feedback all the time. My boyfriend works in the construction industry and every night when he gets home, he'll tell me all about the latest crisis over scaffolding or curtain walling (eh? I still don’t know what this is but it is VERY serious). They have lots of meetings where people thump tables and get cross. And then they all make it up over a beer. Very alpha male. Every day has its triumphs and disasters. He is never in any doubt about how he’s doing.

Contrast that with me. I haven’t been a full-time writer for all that long but what I have realised is that there are many, many benefits of this dream come true. The ability to work in tracky bottoms. The freedom to choose your own working hours. The lack of a commute. The fact that you are doing something you love.

The downside: no feedback. I have NO idea how I am performing from one day to the next. This is disconcerting: as humans we need feedback. We have it from birth – would we ever have gravitated from nappies if someone hadn’t been cheering us on and rewarding us for using the potty? Would you show up for work on time if you didn’t have a boss breathing down your neck and threatening a terrible appraisal if you’re always late?

Well, authors (and in fact, most people who work from home, especially mothers of young children) don’t get that feedback. I write my 1000 words a day (this seems to be the industry standard among authors) and I am so close to it that I have no idea whether it’s good or rubbish. Most of the time it feels rubbish, to be honest.

Of course, you do get feedback on the book when you send it to your agent or publisher – but that’s after six-nine months work without any sense of whether it’s a turkey or a triumph. Yes, you also get phone calls and emails when there’s good news on sales or whatever. And I do understand why publishers aren’t in touch all the time – they have important things to do like have meetings (where they DEFINITELY don’t thump tables) and discuss literature and choose covers and read other authors’ manuscripts and a million other things. But now I think of it, maybe publishers are missing a trick by not employing people as ego-strokers for authors. At a push you could give this role to the work experience person. If there was a rota to ensure that every author received a weekly email or quick phone call saying ‘you’re so talented’ or ‘how do you do it?’ or even an occasional ‘step on it, girl, that book won’t write itself’ then our productivity would increase dramatically.

But until this happens, we are looking to cyberspace as a boss-substitute. Thumbs up or thumbs down? That’s why I go on lovereading. Or on amazon. Or on Waterstones, because the store organised for some advance copies of the book so readers could review the book early.

*OUTRAGEOUS PLUG ALERT WARNING* I was so thrilled when I saw that people liked it: in fact, when the first review appeared late last year I was convinced it was someone I knew posting a fake review for a laugh, because I hadn’t realised that advance copies had gone out. *OUTRAGEOUS PLUG ALERT ALL CLEAR*

But on the downside, still no-one has bought a copy on amazon (you can tell because if they had, there’d be a ‘rating’ showing how you compare with the other squillions titles available via the site). Which makes me very nervous.

Have you ever emailed an author? Or posted a review? I hadn’t, before I became a writer myself. I do it all the time now – and I am always thrilled to receive a reply, or alternatively cheesed off if I don’t hear back. Go on, if you love someone’s book, drop them a line. We all need the feedback…
Tomorrow: the Science of Love Part One.
Lots of Love,
Amy

18 days to go: Think Pink

My publisher, Orion, sent me the very first copies of The Bride Hunter last Friday – and it looks even more as gorgeous in the ‘flesh’ as it does as a computer image (which I attach here as the weeny pic by my profile doesn't do it justice). I fell in love with the cover as soon as I saw it, even though I’ve never been that keen on pink books. I guess it’s the fact that it’s such a lovely shocking pink, rather than a feeble girly rose pink. And the image was so simple and so striking – it’s the perfect Spring accessory, even if I do say so myself.

These last days before publication feel very weird. There’s no way of knowing how the book’s going to sell (if, in fact, it’s going to sell), whether everyone else will like the cover or the story itself. I spend an awful lot of time googling myself and the book title, seeking clues to its likely fate. With more than 200,000 books published in the UK every year, the risk of literary oblivion is quite high – so I am keeping everything crossed.

On the plus side, I have hit the heady heights of Number 5 in the Lovereading charts, based on the number of people who’ve downloaded the opening extract. On the negative side, no-one has bought the book yet on amazon.co.uk. Having now studied the Lovereading charts extensively, I am pleased to be holding up well against Diaries of an Internet Lover (typical phrase: “beautiful French stallions with fixations for performing oral sex”) and The Butcher, the Baker, the Candlestick Maker (typical phrase: “being spanked by his overweight dominatrix partner”). What I particularly like about the Lovereading site is the little icons that tell you what to expect in the book. Both of the two titles above feature this one:

This signifies 'provocative prose' (and I DO love a bit of alliteration with my erotica). What's fun about this icon is the way it's like those funny pictures which change as you look at them. Depending on your predilection, this could either be a tight black corset with a pair of disembodied boobs spilling out over the top. Or a heart in a corset. Or a pair of buttocks in a corset. OR, if feet are more your thing, perhaps these are two lace-up kinky boots with chubby, sunburned knees at the top. I think, to be fair, that it's probably the heart in a corset but on balance I prefer the idea of the knees, don't you?

The Butcher one also features a heart with headphones, meaning that it's available as an audiobook. Having read some more of the extract (and the typical phrase above is actually rather tame), I can see that some readers would definitely prefer the 'hands-free' experience while 'reading' this particular book.

Now, if you have found your way to this blog by searching for either of the typical phrases on Google (oh, I can imagine the web traffic trebling as I type), then you are probably barking up the wrong tree. Neither domination nor French stallions feature in The Bride Hunter. Though there are some very nice rutting deer in it. And lots of French artisanal bread.

This lack of smut may explain why I have slumped to number 9 in the charts.

*OUTRAGEOUS PLUG ALERT WARNING* You have the power to change this, however. Go on, download the first chapter. You might like it!

*OUTRAGEOUS PLUG ALERT ALL CLEAR* So, 18 days left. I am fighting to reduce the instances of self-googling to one a day, while making a start on my second rom com. This one is less rom than com, as it features a heroine who does not believe in love. If you’ve ever watched a Richard Curtis movie, you’ll probably be able to guess that she may change her mind in the course of the book. But that’s half the fun, surely. We all want to believe that Mr or Ms Right can be life-changing.

My own particular Mr Right is currently mashing potato for dinner so I shall stop there. More tomorrow,
Lots of love,

Amy