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Oh glory of glories, it’s election time in the UK, a summer election whose most notable emblem so far is a Prime Minister getting fabulously wet in the late spring rain.

Whichever way you're planning to vote (and this isn't an invitation to let me know who you're voting for because that's not what this email is actually about) something I haven't been able to help but notice as I've been watching the various parties campaigning is how they all use this time to come up with their sexy new offers. 

The Conservative Party have got their national service fairy tale, which probably would never even happen but is a good way to get lots of people talking (again, not an invitation to let me know your thoughts on this). I heard someone talking on behalf of the Green Party and, unless I was much mistaken, she got pretty close to promising the country more frogs. I haven’t in fact heard someone from the Scottish National Party promising us all better porridge, but they probably will.

(And, by the way, this isn’t a way to get you to vote one thing or another. I dare say that the Green Party probably would produce more frogs. My point is that the type of promises varies according to how likely they are to be called on.)

Which is all a roundabout way of talking about YOU.

What do you really want from writing? From this book that you are now working on? From the one after that and the one after that?

And what nature do those hopes and aspirations have?

Are you in the more frogs / better porridge zone, where you list hopes in the secret confidence that you’ll never truly be called on to deliver?

Or are you in the zone of grim realism about budget realities and overstretched public services, where your promises don’t really sound great, but they have a chance of actually being implemented?

It goes without saying that there’s just no point living in the more frogs / better porridge fairytale zone. It’s not just that these things won’t happen. It’s that if you tell yourself fairy stories, you’ll make worse decisions.

Take the tiny, but crucial, matter of book title.

If you simply avoid having to think about the commercial realities of what it will take to get published and sell books, you may end with a title that you love … and makes no commercial sense.

Now, I’m not in fact all that good at thinking of titles.

I think the working title for my first Fiona book was Cardiff Bay. Which is a nice title, in a way, but doesn’t tell the reader that the book is a crime novel and doesn’t allude in any way to the book’s basic USP which is weirdo-detective-who-used-to-think-she-was-dead. My agent suggested Talking to the Dead, which isn’t a brilliant title but ticks both those boxes very nicely. So we went with that. If I’d been living in more of a frogs-world, I might have stuck with the less commercial title that had greater emotional appeal. I’d have been less likely to sell the book.

Another example: I had a completely mad ending for The Strange Death of Fiona Griffiths, which I loved. But it was kind of mental, and my editor kept nagging at it. Frog-world? I’d have stayed with my mad ending. Real-world? I edited the damn thing into shape – as I always do, and always will.

So you need a hard commercial answer to the following questions:

1. Is your work good enough? Sorry, but it probably isn’t. I say that just because only 1 in 1000 manuscripts are taken on by agents. At digital-first publishers, who may have looser entry criteria, the ratio is still about 1 in 100. So probability says that you’re still in the 999 or 99. The way to jump out of that category and into the top echelon is simply work. Self-editing. Improving your craft. Being honest about what’s not yet good enough. Using Jericho editorial services as needed. All of that. But grim realism, please. This is the most important question to ask.
2. Is your basic idea strong enough? Too often, it isn’t. I’ve blathered on enough about elevator pitches, so won’t do so again here, but they matter. 
3. Does the basic commercial proposition of your book work? That’s similar to the question before, but it’s slightly different and it still matters. You have to be able to imagine your book in a store, or on an Amazon page, and competing with its peers on equal terms.
4. Is your book one that will sell most in e-form or via print? That question will surprise plenty of you, but it matters too. I’ve seen people trying to pitch books to trad publishers that are really digital-first books through and through.
5. Should you self-publish? These days, that’s a foundational question. You need to know the answer.
6. Do you know enough about the industry? On things like approaching agents, picking titles, writing blurb – and, in fact, more or less every decision you make outside of actually writing the book – some industry knowledge matters. When you write blurb, what is the point of that blurb? What is it there to do? What length is standard? What do your competitors do? Any serious pro author brings some real knowhow to those questions. You can’t avoid them.
7. Do you have realistic thoughts about marketing? Lots of people don’t. That matters less if you are being handled by a trad publisher. (Though even then, do you want to leave your career security in the hands of an editor who is handling 20 books like yours each year and whose life will not be much affected if your book fails completely? You do not.) But the more your route looks like indie-publishing, the more you have to have a grip on these things.

I could probably more questions there, but that seems like a decent set to start off with. And of course, Jericho Writers is on the Grimly Realistic side of things always.

Your porridge will not improve.

We will not deliver frogs.

No frogs, but … we will deliver a brilliant introductory course on HOW TO WRITE A NOVEL IN 6 WEEKS. Premium Members will get the whole course for free – course material, weekly tasks, and feedback via Feedback Friday. The first module will launch next week. This is ideal for people towards the start of their writing journey. (We’ll offer a more advanced course later in the year.)  If you aren’t a Premium Member and would like to be part of this course, this would be a good moment to join us.

Feedback Friday: Tools Season - Should you Self-Publish?

I said above that the question of whether or not to self-publish was foundational. And it is.

So watch this Is Self-Publishing Right For Me? masterclass.

And really, that’s the homework. Just spend a total of 9 minutes watching something that could push your career one way or the other. You need to make a smart, informed decision on this topic, so don’t put it off just because it’s scary.

That’s not much of a Feedback Friday type task though, so on this – the last week of our Tools season – I just want you to Ask Me Anything. Whatever’s on your mind, so long as it’s to do with the business of brand / platform / tools / marketing architecture. I’ll do what I can to help.

...

That’s it from me. Post your question here. There’s a Scotsman in my kitchen and frogs in my larder. My children are going to be snatched from me and turned into soldiers. It’s too much!

Til soon.

Harry

All authors need two brains.

The first (the lovely one) is the writing brain. This gives you your purpose, your depth, your flow, your joy.

In any really well-written book, any bit you care to pick will have multiple jobs to do. It’ll set the scene, show a glimpse of character, raise a laugh, allude to theme, move the story on a notch, and so on. The biggest task in writing, in a way, is not to do any of those things – they’re all, individually, easy enough to do. The biggest challenge is to do them all at the same time … and make it look easy as you do it.

But that’s writing-brain. It’s not the brain we’re talking about now. Because you also need to deploy selling-brain, and that one works very differently.

For one thing, you don’t get to write lovely, lovely stories. And you have to engage in tech things and explore dashboards and (yuk!) Live in the Real World.

But selling-brain does help you shift some books and make some money and create the space in your life to let writing-brain do what it does the best. So we need to help it do just that.

And one of the big, big rules when you’re in selling-brain mode is that (nearly always) you need to ask: what is the one single point of this thing?

Some examples:

The welcome email

Someone has just read your (paid-for) book. They loved it. They want more from you. They sign up to your mailing list because you offer them a nice free story if they do. You send them an automated email which has a download link for the free story.

What is the purpose of that email?

Most writers think they’re meant to pitch something. So they start selling. They try to sell the novel that the reader has in fact just read and enjoyed. Or they try to sell the future series. Or they try to push that reader to follow them on Instabook, or Facetok, or something like that.

All that misses the point.

The point of the email is to welcome that reader to your club. That’s it. It’s called a welcome email for a reason. Don’t sell. Just welcome.

And that means that you shouldn’t talk like some brochure for dodgy Floridian timeshares. You need to talk like you. (In welcome-mode, obvs, not shouting-at-a-broken-vacuum-cleaner mode.)

The point of the welcome email is the welcome. Achieve that, forget about everything else.

Your cover design

What’s the point of your cover design?

Most writers, if they start to design their covers (either solo, or with a designer), are worried about honouring the book.

There’s a key scene in a cave, right, where Elida comes face to face with a dragon that represents her past self? That’s key. So we need Elida (long red hair) and a cave and a dragon and obviously Elida’s serpent-sash, because that’s the key to the Elidian prophecy …

And that whole line of thinking is just rubbish. Sorry, but it is.

If you were designing a cover for yourself – ie: someone who knows your book intimately and adores it – then that would be the perfect cover. But the total audience for that specific cover is just one – namely you – and you’re not going to buy the book, because you’re the flipping author.

So again: what’s the point of your cover design?

It’s to get “warm” readers interested in buying your book.

(A warm reader is anyone looking to buy a book in your approximate genre, but who hasn’t come to this bookstore specifically to buy your book.)

That’s it.

The point of the cover is NOT to sell the book. It can’t do that. It can induce someone to pick the book up (if they’re in a physical shop) or to click through to the specific book-page (if they’re on Amazon.)

Once the reader is at that level of exploration, then it’s down to blurb, and price and reviews, and the text itself to make the sale.

The job of your cover is to get warm readers interested in your book.

Those readers don’t know who Elida is; they don’t know what the dragon represents; they don’t give two flying hoots about that serpent sash. They don’t know and they don’t care.

So a good cover is one that says, “I look like an exciting dragon-n-sword type fantasy novel. You’d better pick me up and find out more.” The cover needs to advertise mood and genre and entice more exploration. (It’s extra good, if there’s some useful reverberation with the title.) But it does not need to speak especially about the content of the novel.

Now of course, you can’t totally disregard the novel content. My second Fiona book (in the US, not the UK) had an image of a frozen landscape because a couple of the key sequences in the book involved the cold. But the allusion wasn’t very specific at all. The cover had a solitary tree in a snowy landscape. There was no solitary tree mentioned anywhere in the book and, in fact, the image on the front cover did not match anything referred to in the book. That didn’t matter. It was a great image. It invited exploration. It didn’t totally betray the content of the book. Job done.

Here's one more example before I finish:

The Facebook Ad

What’s the point of a Facebook ad?

Pretty obviously, it’s there to sell books. Except that on FB’s choice of options, you have to click the thing that says “website traffic”, where the website in question is Amazon. (You can’t click an option which says “make sales” because you can’t force Amazon to share sales data with Facebook.)

OK, so Facebook thinks you want to increase traffic to Amazon, and if you really want to do that, here’s a failsafe tip:

Don’t put a book cover in your ad.

That way when you have a brilliant image for your dragon-n-sword trilogy, you’ll attract readers … and people hoping for a movie … and people wondering if you’re offering a video game, or a T-shirt, or a set of fancy candles. The number of clicks through to Amazon will be impressive – and your sales will stink.

So you need to put a book cover in your ad to deter the clicks you don’t want. Facebook will make sad faces at you and your total clicks will go down and your cost-per-click will go up. And that’s fine.

The point of the ad is to make sales, not to maximise clicks.

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And that’s always true when you’re selling (especially digitally.) You need to know what the point of any particular element in your selling chain is.

The point of a welcome email is to welcome.

The point of a book cover is to invite more exploration.

The point of a Facebook ad is to make sales, and to hell with what Facebook might think the point of the ad is.

At every single touchpoint in your selling chain, you need to ask “what’s the point of this?”. Then deliver that objective to the absolute maximum of your capacity.

The more you load additional objectives onto a given link in the chain, the less well it will achieve its one true purpose. Forget omni-layered writing-brain. Go with uni-purpose selling brain.

You’ll achieve a load more. There’s some really good content in Feedback Friday this week, so don’t stop reading here …

Feedback Friday: Tools Season - Author Brand

OK, we’ve got some really brilliant content for you this week.

Go and watch this Establishing an Author Platform and Brand masterclass (This is Premium Member content only.)

Gwyn GB, our presenter, is a really capable marketer, who also happens to be a really capable author and self-publisher. You’re in very good hands with her.

This kind of material is critical if you’re self-publishing, but it’s also important if you’re heading down a more traditional route. And in any case: the more you know, the better your decisions will be.

To take part in Feedback Friday, you can either:

Give me a plan for your author platform and brand in 6-8 bullet points. Make sure that the first bullet point establishes very succinctly what you’re selling. What do you want to achieve in terms of cover design, mood, website, social media, and so on? It’s really fine (in fact, it’s actually positive) if your bullet points also cover what you’re not going to do. Is there an author out there in your genre who has a profile similar to what you want to achieve?

Alternatively:

If you have questions arising from Gwyn’s masterclass, then just ask. I’ll get to as many of your questions as I can..

...

That’s it from me. Post either your bullet points or questions here. Blooming Elida has got a dragon’s tail caught in that serpent sash. Again. I need to go and sort things out with my Scissors of Arandor and the Thimble of Ezagon.

Til soon.

Harry

Come on a journey with me back in time five years. I had just sat down to write my first novel (note – not the one I ended up getting published as my debut) and I was daydreaming, as you do, about the day I’d see my book in a bookstore.

Little did I know that publishing had other ideas for me. The book deal I would end up signing would not see my debut proudly displayed in the windows of my favourite bookstores. It wouldn’t take me on a tour across the country doing signings. It wouldn’t even involve the ability to sell my books at a launch party. That’s because I signed a digital first publishing deal.

What is digital first publishing?

There are lots of digital first publishers. In fact, more and more are springing up every month (and with good reason – but we’ll touch on that in a bit). Often, they are smaller ‘imprints’ of a larger publisher. Mine, for example, is called Embla Books, and it is a smaller imprint of the much bigger publisher Bonnier Books. What sets these smaller imprints apart is their main focus is on the digital world – eBooks and audiobooks. So, when I signed my book deal, I was entering into an agreement that, though they would produce my book in paperback via Print-On-Demand (AKA the book only gets printed when it’s ordered – there are no copies sitting in a warehouse somewhere like with a traditional publisher), the primary focus would be the eBook and the audiobook. This meant all those typical release activities I had expected from being a published author just didn’t happen.

Ugh. That sounds awful. Why would anyone want to go with a digital-first publisher?

If you’re sitting there thinking that, I wouldn’t blame you. I, too, felt a little let-down by the whole thing when I first started. I thought I was settling. Like perhaps I wasn’t good enough to get the window displays and the book tours and all of those lovely writerly things. What I didn’t realise in those early days when I felt like I was just playing pretend at being an author was that it would turn out to be the best business decision I could possibly have made.

Digital first is where the money is at.

Now, I’m not raking in millions as an author. Clearly. I’m still working full-time! However, I’ve undoubtedly earned more than I would have if I had gone down a more ‘traditional’ route of publication. The trouble with those deals is, unless you’re one of the magical unicorn lead titles who get all the publicity, you’re highly unlikely to make any decent money off of physical books. The reason for this is simple – people tend to only buy physical books from authors they already know and like. Because why? Because money.

The digital first strategy focuses on building your audience. My books were listed as 99p eBooks that were FREE for anyone with Kindle Unlimited or Amazon Prime. That’s a lot of people getting my books for free. But you know what? I still got paid. The way Kindle Unlimited and Prime Reading works is you get paid a (tiny) amount per page read. While the pay per page is tiny, the amount of people you can reach with a publisher who knows what they’re doing is not. Digital first publishers are typically much more ‘on it’ when it comes to advertising, and they have a much bigger budget for advertising because they’re not wasting it on printing costs. My debut has now been read by nearly 1 million people. How NUTS is that? 1 million x a tiny amount = a substantial paycheck.

Okay but… I still want my books in bookstores.

I know, I know. Me too. The good news is, now my books are. The reason I suggest digital-first publishing to debut authors is because it’s the perfect jumping off point. It’s a way to build your audience and your readership so that when your books do eventually get into bookstores and you do eventually move to that more traditional publishing model (it took me three books to do it, but I got there) you’ll have that audience who know you and are willing to spend the money to get a hard copy.

And you know what? My books are now in bookstores and I still don’t make nearly as much from paperbacks as I do from eBooks. Not even close. The world is changing.

.

If you want to know more about digital first publishing, why not watch the replay of our Ask A Publisher Anything event with Nia Beynon from Boldwood Books. They’re another digital first publisher that are absolutely storming the bestseller lists right now, so Nia is the best person hear talk about this exciting area of publishing.

This replay is available to Premium Members as part of our Masterclass library. Not a Premium Member? Join now and get access to masterclasses, events, video courses, AgentMatch and so much more.

With an impressive background in the finance world, Nuala's TUNE IN is a practical guide on how to make decisions in an increasingly chaotic world. We caught up with Nuala to chat all about her writing journey from first draft through to becoming a bestseller. Complete with new directions, lessons learned along the way and a little help along the way from one of our editors, this is the story of how TUNE IN was published...

Hi Nuala, thanks for joining us! Can you tell us a little about yourself and your writing journey that led up to the publication of your book TUNE IN: How to Make Smarter Decisions In a Noisy World?

As a former Chief Marketing Officer in the investment industry, I went back to school after 30 years and did a MSc in Behavioural Science at the London School of Economics. Although I always thought I would write a book, being able to make sense of the psychology of decision-making and apply it to real-world situations was the catalyst.

I think it’s easier to get decisions right and avoid regret than we think - and when we hold power, it’s an obligation to do so. As I sit on boards that span sport and non-profits, I see misjudgement impact people’s lives, I wanted to apply behavioural insights to set people up for success and provide a simple framework to prevent error.

What is TUNE IN about and why is it different?

Despite popular opinion, the most underestimated risk isn’t economic, technology or climate risk. It’s human decision risk, triggered by our tendency to tune out what really matters especially in high-stakes political or emotional situations – i.e. when we feel under pressure, crisis, conflict or uncertainty.  I draw attention to a neglected source of misinformation which is ironically a source of opportunity.

I make the case that human decision risk is an underestimated source of misinformation but also a source of advantage and opportunity. Every day we hear less and misjudge more. TUNE IN explores the rising threat of misjudgement and explains why so many feel unheard and tune out who or what really matters. I introduce a practical framework of ten traps to avoid regret and prevent error.

Can you tell us a little bit about the process your book went through from writing the first draft, through to publication?

I wrote the first draft of TUNE IN initially and looked for an agent and publisher. The final product was vastly different of course as the idea took a slightly different direction. I think this is the case whether fiction or non-fiction.  The agent search was tough as mostly focused on fiction rather than non-fiction so I engaged Jericho Writers to help refine the pitch. I eventually went direct to a publisher and secured a deal with Harriman House, an imprint of Macmillan. Then, I worked with a wonderful Jericho Writers manuscript editor. This was helpful before I submitted my first version to the publishers. From there, I had three different editors. I found all varied in terms of their focus, interest and attention to detail but together the product was enhanced. My final editor was especially patient interested in the topic, allowing more last-minute changes than I thought possible. Finally I pressed the send button in Dubai. And TUNE IN was born!

Is there anything you found particularly useful on your journey?

The process is a lot harder than it looks and can be really off-putting. I had read a book on how to make a pitch and found that incredibly useful as full of samples. I also scoured existing books to find agents from other authors. I found that made little difference as psychologically they compared you. The fact that I was in the Jericho Writers community was terrific for a debut non-fiction author. Scribes was also a very good resource for first-time authors which helped TUNE IN. By far the resource I valued most at this early stage was an editor who gave excellent directional feedback and confidence to keep going.

Were there any surprises along the way? Or perhaps anything you wished you had known earlier, or been prepared for?

I underestimated how much marketing the author needs to do for launch and thereafter; and how you can’t rely on publishers alone. It also costs. Part of this process requires securing endorsements which is very time-consuming. For TUNE IN, I secured 14 phenomenal endorsements from across business, sport, academia and even an FBI Investigator, including some well-known individuals who were extremely generous in their praise. I think it’s worth the effort to do this even though you’re getting tired, and it feels like a luxury.

What advice would you give to writers working on their first draft?

I had surprises throughout! I don’t think my idea was articulated sharply enough when I first approached agents. Now I think I know what they want. I tried to cover too much in an area people think they’re good at already. For the first draft, I would structure it better and also write the elevator speech. It focuses the mind better. I think it’s important to write the PR pitch in the beginning. If its not strong enough, don’t write at all as it will go nowhere.

After having spent years working on your book – how did you know it was time to submit?

I had a deadline, so I had no choice about when to submit. That said, once I was excited about the message and the fantastic breadth of stories, that was a signal that TUNE IN was good enough to submit. I had incorporated a lot of real-life characters that made it interesting, pacy and relevant. Most people now comment on the vast range of examples and are pleasantly surprised at the number of current industries and professions covered. I think I will enjoy listening to this again  - with so many facts and stories to make a serious point, I need to remember them all now too!

Can you let us know what are you working on now?

Within the first few days, TUNE IN was an Amazon #1 new release in six different categories, the most wished for and a top three bestseller in three categories. Of course, this changes regularly and can still get better or worse. I am now having a holiday then focusing on gathering reviews and spreading the word – this is the next stage of the journey!

We’re talking (mostly) Tools this month – and Feedback Friday is going to hammer relentlessly at that topic, even when these emails decide to go spinning off route, down some cedar-scented hillside.

And this week, we have an elephant to deal with.

The elephant is Amazon or, more broadly, the digital domination of bookselling.

The fact is that (so far as fiction is concerned) most books are digital. Ebooks and audiobooks together account for well over 50% of all fiction sales. The true total is probably over 70%. That’s not a stat that you’ll see bandied around by the big trad publishers – their digital share is a lot lower than that – but it’s the correct one, nevertheless. Big trad publishers account for the vast majority of bookshops sales, so their sales are skewed towards print. But that still leaves a ton of high volume digital-first publishers and the whole self-pub market which is, on its own, larger than the whole of Penguin Random House.

Furthermore, print vs digital isn’t quite the right way to analyse things, because a lot of print books are sold digitally and the paths that lead up to a digital sale of a print book are normally themselves digital. So, for example, I recently read a very positive review online of Tom Holland’s Dominion, and I ended up ordering it from Amazon. The discovery, investigation and purchase process all happened online; but I still have a (very fat) book to read in the bath, not a screen.

Non-fiction is a bit less digital-first than fiction. And children’s books are (thank the Lord) still mostly physical, but digital selling tools are huge no matter what.

The upshot of all that?

You can’t ignore the digital route to sales, no matter what you’re selling or who your publisher may turn out to be.

There are lots of things that you may well choose not to do. For example, you may decide you don’t want a Twitter account, in which case I don’t care and nor will your publisher. The same goes for pretty much all other social media accounts. Social media is not an especially powerful way to sell books (or at least not to readers. If you’re super-engaged in books chat with the editors, agents, booksellers, reviewers, etc in your niche, then having those relationships will only be useful to you. But you can’t fake that engagement. If you’re not engaged now, that’s probably because you don’t want to be.

But you do need a website. It can be simple. It can be one page long if you want. But you do need one. At the very least you need the following:

A domain name

This is the top-level web address – so in my case, it’s harrybingham.com.

If you happen to have a very common name, or one you share with someone better known, then identify yourself with the “author” tag:  so, mikejacksonauthor.com, for example.

Don’t name a website after your first book. That’s kinda fine for the first book itself, but the name will stale very quickly once we’ve written others. The exception would be if you KNOW you’re writing a particular long-running series. So, you could maybe call your website chroniclesofebradia.com, but in most cases, I think that’s an approach best left to experienced self-published authors. You can’t really go wrong with an author-led domain name.

Costs for domain names should be trivial – the Jericho writers domain, for example, costs us a little more than £10 a year. (But you do have to keep renewing your purchase, or your website will vanish. You’ll get reminders, so don’t panic.)

Hosting

This literally means that your website has to sit on a computer somewhere, and different hosts will look after that for you. (In fact, they probably rent space from Google, or Amazon or one of the other big cloud companies, which means you shouldn’t have to worry one whit about security.)

Your site will not make big demands of speed or memory or anything like that, so pretty much any web host will do for you.

Content management system (“CMS”)

Unless you fancy coding from scratch, you will need to build your website via an existing system designed for just that.

You have two basic alternatives here:

1. Simple / limited. Wix and Squarespace both offer affordable, drag-and-drop website builders. Pretty much anyone can use these, except my mother-in-law who comes out in a rash and starts swearing at things in German, whenever she has to deal with tech. If you are like my mother-in-law, then ask someone for help. They can do the drag-and-drop stuff. You can choose the pictures and get the tea.
2. More complex / powerful – or, in other words, WordPress. You need to be technically competent to handle this beast, or you need to pay someone.

Back in the day, WordPress was really the only way to go for people who wanted a powerful site (ie: one capable of handling a very wide range of functionality) but these days the simple options probably have enough power for 95% of authors, perhaps more.

Design

Yes, you’ve got a great cover design for your first book. Yes, everyone loves it. No, you cannot use this for the major images of your site.

The reason is that any such design ages rapidly as you write more books. So your design idea – pictures, colours, fonts, and mood – need to highly consistent with your book cover and genre, but shouldn’t be too closely tied in. You can go and take a look at www.harrybingham.com by way of example. No major element there is tied in to any one book, but the whole mood is very well synchronised with my US covers. (Which look different from those in the UK, because of the way the  books got published. I prioritised the US because the designs were better and because I sell more books there.)

Content

Unless you’re a real superstar – JK Rowling level, or almost – people aren’t going to spend long on your site. They’re going to use it, not read it, if you see what I mean. So help them – simple, clearly signposted blocks of content is all you need. Give readers what they need/want, then shut up. In most cases, less is more.

Here are the pages you need:

1. Home page
2. About me [ie: you the author]
3. The books [an in-order listing of what you’re selling]
4. Probably a page each on individual books, once you have more than 2-3
5. Contact
6. Maybe a set of blog pages, if you like blogging
7. Readers’ Club sign up page

With a simple site, you can have the first five items on that list as sections on your home page. You don’t have to have a blog under any circumstances – though it can make life easier when it comes to add pages. But you certainly don’t need to start your site with a blog. It’s easy enough to add it later.

The Readers’ Cub sign up page is essential for a properly run mailing list, but that page is delicate enough to deserve its own email.

Just do it

And finally – please don’t overthink this.

When I first sold my Fiona Griffiths stuff in the US, I flew out to New York to meet my publisher. At that stage, I didn’t have a website. I spoke to a junior marketing person who said, yeah, you need a website. So I sat in my hotel room and spent 2-3 hours building a site. When I saw everyone for lunch the next day, I had a nice site to show them.

I don’t turn red when I deal with computer things and I don’t swear darkly in bayrischce Deutsch, but I wasn’t especially skilled. I just got on with it. Nothing on this list costs much money. And the tools are now so developed that they’re super-simple.

Got that? Schön. Ende gut, alles gut.

Feedback Friday: Tools Season - The Freebie - Website

Two options for you this week.

Either – the freebie task again

Not many of you attempted or nailed the freebie task last week, so I recorded a short video to help explain a little more accurately how readers actually find and sign up to your mailing list:

Feedback Friday: Tools Season - The Freebie - Website

The key things to remember are:

1. Readers will find your “Join my Readers’ Club” message after reading your paid-for book. So you’re not seeking to sell that book. You are looking to cement your relationship with the reader. (And of course get their email address: you can’t have a relationship if you don’t have a way to get in touch with them.)
2. When they click the link that that message, they are taken to your website where they give you their email address. You have promised to give them a freebie, by way of reward, so …
3. You use automation tools to deliver the freebie to your reader.
4. The freebie is going to be read by readers who have read your paid-for book, liked it enough that they want to stay in communication with you, and have downloaded your freebie. You are not selling anything to these people – or not now anyway. You are cementing a relationship. Say that phrase fifty times every morning after doing your Salute to the Sun or your 10km Ruck-a-thon. Don’t sell to your mailing list sign ups. Welcome them.

If you want another go at the freebie task, then watch this video and give me:

• The title of your full-length novel and 2-3 sentences about it, so we know what the freebie relates to.
• The title of your freebie.
• 2-3 sentences about what that freebie will offer.
• Your welcome text. That’s probably only 150 words or so, but be warm and welcoming and personal.

Or – your website

If you have a website, give us the link so we can all laugh at you.

If you don’t yet have a website, tell us what you’re planning.

And obviously when I say, “we can all laugh at you”, I mean offer supportive positive feedback.

...

That’s it from me. Post yours here. 

Til soon.

Harry

We were thrilled to hear that Samuel Burr's debut had found a home with Orion books. We caught up with Premium Member and now Sunday Times bestselling author, to hear all about his writing journey so far.

Hi Samuel, congratulations on the publication of The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers! You've had a whirlwind writing journey that includes being a part of our community but also writing for TV, and now having your debut novel come out. Can you tell us a little bit about how you got here?

Thank you! It’s been a mad few years, but I’m thrilled to finally be sharing my Puzzlemakers with the world! Ever since I started dipping my toes into the world of novel writing, I’ve tried to embed myself into as many writing communities as I can - not least for the brilliant resources that are so widely available, but also to build my network and make friends with fellow writers. Writing a novel is no mean feat and it’s also a very solitary pastime, so having people to lean on for help and support is totally invaluable. Jericho Writers has been a brilliant for that.

I started writing my debut at the Faber Academy, having previously completed an online course with Curtis Brown Creative, but I realised quite quickly after graduating from Faber (and securing an agent) that I wasn’t done learning! In fact, I was hungry to continue developing my craft, and to meet more writers! So that’s when I joined Jericho Writers as a Premium Member, whilst editing Puzzlemakers, which ended up selling in an auction in Feb 2022. It’s being translated in 14 languages around the world, which is something I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to get my head around!

My role in television involved devising, developing and selling new unscripted TV formats, so I’ve always been someone full of ideas. During my career I’ve also learnt to develop my pitching skills. I understand that the most sellable ideas can be pitched in just a few lines, and so I've honed the Fellowship of Puzzlemakers elevator pitch over and over!

We’re thrilled to have been part of your journey, and, we’re always keen to talk elevator pitches. They are so tricky, but once you’ve nailed your book’s concept, they can be a secret weapon. If you’re up for it, could you share your pitch with us? (And anyone who isn’t familiar with The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers).

Of course! It’s the story of Clayton Stumper - a young man who is a bit of a young fogey. Clay dresses like your grandad and drinks sherry like your aunt. At 25 years of age, he finds himself as one of the surviving members of a very British institution. The Fellowship is a retirement community made up of some of the smartest minds in the country and it’s where he was abandoned at birth. Among the residents are a mazemaker, a quiz setter, and a jigsaw artist to name just a few.

But there’s a mystery at the heart of the Fellowship…. a puzzle that’s yet to be solved…. and that’s how Clayton came to be there, and where he came from. 

When the founder of the Fellowship – an esteemed cruciverbalist (or a crossword compiler) called Pippa Allsbrook passes away, she bequeaths her final puzzle to the young man she’s raised as her own. And so, we follow Clayton on a quest, as he pieces together the clues of his past, and finds himself at the same time.

At its heart, it’s a story about young man finding his place in the world. But it is also a celebration of the wisdom of age and the friendships that can exist between the old and young.

We know how much a manuscript can transform during the process of writing the first draft through to publication, what was that process like for The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers?

As one of my characters points out in the book, ‘…nothing worth solving is ever easy…’ and it was no exception with this book. I think editing any novel is a bit of a puzzle in itself – trying to work out where all the parts belong, searching for missing holes to fill in. I suppose what made my novel particularly challenging to write (and specifically to edit) were the interactive elements embedded into the story.  I knew I wanted to feature actual puzzles within the text for readers to solve – to make it a book you can read and play. After countless revisions and tweaks we finally got there! But it was anything but easy!

Were there any surprises along the way? Or perhaps anything you wished you had known earlier, or been prepared for?

Adapting the text for the audiobook was another very unique challenge as you obviously can’t see the puzzles while listening, but I’m thrilled with how it’s turned out. I think that’s something that doesn’t really cross your mind when you’re writing, at least it didn’t for me. It was only after signing the deal that I realised we’d be making an audio version of the book and that’s when I had to put my thinking cap on! I must say, our readers Dame Penelope Keith and Russell Tovey are just perfect and it’s a fantastic listen!

You were developing your craft for several years before you were published, is there anything you found particularly useful on your journey?

I’m always impressed by how many brilliant resources there are out there for aspiring writers. I benefitted hugely from plugging into the community as quickly as I could. Coming from television, I didn’t really know anyone in books, so I knew I needed to build my network of contacts in the same way I had done in TV. I attended countless events – in real life and virtually – signed up for courses, followed my favourite writers on socials, as well as the big influencers, publishing houses etc, just so I could understand how the industry worked, learn from other people’s experiences, and build my own writing tribe. It’s been completely invaluable, particularly in the run-up to publication. I’m so lucky to have people cheering me on, helping to spread the word. Of course, I’m now keen to pay it forward and do the same for other debut writers.

After spending so long writing and re-writing the same story, spending infinite amounts of time with your characters – how did you know it was time to submit?

It’s so difficult to know! Someone once told me a book is never finished, but it is ready, and I found that immensely helpful. I think by the time my agent and I were going out on submission I had reached a point where I knew I couldn’t continue without the input of someone else. I needed fresh eyes on it. I had done as much as I physically could with the story, honed every sentence countless times, and I felt proud of the story I’d created. I think that’s quite key. Are you comfortable sharing this with others? Do you feel good inside about it?

Do you have any advice for writers hoping to get published?  

Nail your comp titles! I really think this is key. There is so much competition and agents are so overworked that you need to be able to say where your book might sit figuratively on a shelf. I always encourage people not to go too literally when coming up with comps. Think about the core elements of your book – its identifying features – and find other books that have similar touchstones. If you can’t think of any, you might have a problem. Selling a book that is entirely ‘unique’ (i.e. It can’t be compared to anything else in the market) makes it almost impossible to sell. Publishers can be risk averse so make it easier for them to say yes. Nail your comps! 

Before we go, can you let us know what are you working on now?

I’m delighted to have the opportunity to write a second book with Orion Fiction, which is another standalone novel. While I can’t say too much at this point, I hope that anyone who has read and enjoyed The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers will also enjoy my second book. Nostalgic joy. That’s all I’m saying for now!

When I was a lad, and the sun shone hot, and water was bluer and the grass was greener, I used to do a fair bit of hiking and mountaineering. My slightly random claim to fame? I once climbed the highest mountain in Africa not to have been previously climbed. It wasn’t much of a mountaineering challenge, but there was a lot of very jungly jungle to get through first. 

One of the biggest issues in planning those expeditions was always: what to pack? What food, what camping gear, what clothes, what climbing kit? 

All those decisions, of course, operated under a hard constraint of weight and volume. The question wasn’t “would an X be nice?” but “can I justify an X, given its weight and given all the other things that are also needed?” 

Same thing with authoring, of course. 

You need to write a book. You need to edit it good and well. Then – publishing. 

Here the path divides quite sharply. Trad publishing calls for a fairly light day-pack. The self-publishing path is more demanding, more arduous. The cliffs are higher, the gear needed is more significant. You can’t load too much – weight isn’t a constraint, of course, but time certainly is. Either way, you need to pack with care. 

Now, last week I asked y’all about topics you’d like to see covered in these emails. I got back a lot of really useful thoughts and comments. The rough summary: 

• A lot of you liked the somewhat random nature of these emails, and I’ll keep that going. 
• But we will do more to cluster our Feedback Friday material by theme. 
• Specifically, we’ll be running 2 or 3 mini courses through the year. (A starter-type one on how to write. A more advanced one on getting your manuscript from good to excellent. Maybe something on getting published too.) 
• But we’ll also tend to cluster things into topic groups. We might have a season on character, for example. Or plotting. Or marketing things. 
• As far as possible, we’ll link these topics to Masterclasses and the like (available to Premium Members.) So there’ll be high quality tutorial material AND an assignment AND feedback by the forum each week – and those things will be grouped up into mini-seasons with rough thematic coherence. 

I got a lot of thoughts from you about specific topics you’d like to see covered, and I’ll get to as much of that as I sensibly can.  

This week – and for the rest of this month – I’m going to be talking about Tools. How to stow your backpack. 

That’ll be the themes for both the Friday emails and for the FF topics too. 

This week, let’s just list out what you need for your backpack. 

Trad Publishing 

What do you need? As in need-need? Well, arguably not much, as plenty of authors climb that mountain with only the skimpiest little bivvi bag for protection. I don’t recommend that though, much as I love a good bivvi bag. 

I think any serious 21^st century trad-published author needs: 

1. An author website 

2. An Amazon author profile 

3. A mailing list, probably MailerLite 

4. A Bookfunnel account 

5. A free gift to entice users to sign-up 

6. A bit of messing around with tax forms. If you live in the UK, you don’t want to be paying US taxes on US sales, and vice versa. What you need to do depends on where you and what your situation is, but unless you live somewhere quite exotic, you should be able to receive overseas income without significant tax. (You’ll pay the tax in your home country on that income, of course; you don’t win – you just don’t double-lose.) 

7. Social media accounts, if you happen to like that kind of thing. I have em and I never use em. 

It’ll surprise a lot of you to see my scepticism about social media, but SM doesn’t really sell books, or not directly. If you like interacting with bookish people – I mean, booksellers, critics, reviewers, agents, etc – then good. Do it. It’ll only be helpful. But yelling “please buy my book” on Twitter doesn’t work. Never has, never will. 

Digital first publishing 

Digital first is trad publishing, really – it’s still selective; entry is still controlled by gatekeepers – but it belongs in a different category because the kit-list is different. I do think that if you’re publishing digital first you need to add: 

1. Social media accounts – the ones you think you’ll actually use. There’s zero point having five inactive accounts. One good one easily beats five bad ones. For most authors, Twitter and Facebook will be the places to start. (And yes, I know it’s not Twitter, but I’m not going to use stupid names for things, just because a billionaire wants me to.) 

2. Maybe Booksweeps as well – but talk to your publisher about ways and means to build that email list. 

Self-publishing 

Here, you need the full works. As well as all of the above, you need: 

1. A KDP account (that is: the Amazon platform from which you upload and sell your books) 

2. A Draft2Digital account, if you want to sell your books beyond Amazon. (It’s not a given that you do, by the way. Tastes and experiences differ.) 

3. To make use of Amazon ads – probably. 

4. To make use of Facebook ads, almost certainly. This will mean that you do need a “Jon/Jan Jones Author” page as well as your own personal account. 

5. To be knocking regularly on Bookbub’s door (though access to that profitable beast has been harder for indie authors than it used to be.) 

6. To use promo sites in support of major activity, for example during launch. 

7. To use Booksweeps (probably) as a way to get your mailing list charged up to start with. 

That’s not an exhaustive list – plenty of indie authors will do more. At the same time, you could argue that this list goes beyond real essentials. The only things that you have to have as an indie are: (i) a book, (ii) an Amazon account, (iii) a mailing list and everything which goes with that, and (iv) one other source of traffic, probably Facebook ads. 

*** 

And that’s it. It all looks a bit daunting written down in this way – but expedition packing always does. The fact is that the tools have got so much better and slicker over time, and they’re built by people who know that their audience is not naturally techie. It’s all built to be simple. 

Do please take a look at the Feedback Friday stuff this week. Whether you’re a Premium Member or not, this stuff matters. 

Once, when climbing a different mountain, my climbing buddy used a dodgy petrol stove and set his head on fire. Luckily, we managed to put him out and there was a glacier not too far away, so we even had ice. Lesson of that story? Equipment matters. And, OK, glaciers. 

FEEDBACK FRIDAY / TOOLS SEASON / The Freebie 

All good email lists are seeded by a free gift. The offer to readers is “you give me your email address; I give you something you want.” That something is a free gift. For novel writers, it’s almost always a short story. For non-fictioneers, it could be an anything – a checklist, a case study, a questionnaire, whatever else. 

The actual setup of your mailing list is a relatively drab, technical affair. The design of your short story is anything but. It’s joyous, or should be. The normal specs for a free story is that: 

• The story is set in the world of your novel / character 
• It’s a decent length. I think that less than 6 or 7,000 words feels a tad lightweight. Anything over 15,000 words is more than you need to do for free. 
• The story should enrich your novel in some way. Add a dimension, not just content. I have two freebies available. One is a Fiona Griffiths prequel, and give us a glimpse of the younger, rawer Fiona. The other one is told from the viewpoint of an important secondary character and both enriches him and gives a third-person view of Fiona too. 
• And, critically, some welcome text. That’s the letter to the reader that goes right at the front of this free gift, which will say, in effect, “Welcome to my reader’s club. I’m your author and I thank you for joining and I really appreciate it, and I’m going to look after you.” 

So your challenge this week is simple: 

What’s your freebie? 

I want: 

• The title of your full-length novel and 2-3 sentences about it, so we know what the freebie relates to. 
• The title of your freebie. 
• 2-3 sentences about what that freebie will offer. 
• Your welcome text. That’s probably only 150 words or so, but be warm and welcoming and personal. You’re not selling anything and you shouldn’t talk like some AI marketing robot. Talk like yourself and be warm and welcoming. For some reason, people freeze at this part of the brief, but they shouldn’t. It’s easy and it matters. 

That’s it. 

Til soon. 

Harry 

Folks,

Mostly I write these emails according to whatever wind, breeze, draught or zephyr happens to be in my mind at the moment I start writing.

But what if … I was actually a little bit more structured? What if our Feedback Friday challenges were a bit more disciplined?

Here’s the vision:

I want to span the year with a collection of little courses, or themed blocks of material. So, for example, let’s say that we choose one month to be entirely on the topic of character. In that month:

1. My Friday emails will mostly talk about character. (I say mostly, because there’ll be times when it’s helpful to be able to wander around a bit.)
2. The Feedback Friday tasks will consistently hammer away at the exact same theme– so one week might be on character appearances, the next on dialogue, the next on knowing your character, and the last maybe on characters in relationship. Remember that anyone is welcome to post work in our Feedback Friday group. I’ll only be giving feedback to Premium Members, but the peer-to-peer stuff is massively helpful on its own.
3. For Premium Members, I want to send out supporting video tuition too. So it might be a ten minute video from me. It might be a whole Masterclass or course module. That material might be presented by me or by some other amazing person. But that means if you want to dive more deeply into a topic, you can.

The idea, really, is that if you just stick around, we’ll cover everything you need to know about writing & publishing & marketing your work. As always, these things are repetitive. It’s not like we can just ‘do’ character, complete the tasks and never think about it again. Writing isn’t like that. You encounter a topic one time and learn lots. Then you encounter it again when you have more miles under your belt, and you’ll learn more.

But this week, my question to you is simple.

What do you want?

What shall we cover?

I think we should assume that the maximum length of any course or mini-course is six weeks, but apart from that, anything goes.

Here are some ideas, together with some (very rough) guesses as to how long we’d need for each unit:

• A four-week (ish) course on planning a novel
• Two or three weeks on non-fiction
• A compact “write a novel in 6 weeks” course
• A 4-week season on Character
• 4-weeks on plotting
• A week or two on plotting software
• An advanced mini-course on making a good novel better? (4-6 weeks)
• 4 weeks on Getting Published
• 4 weeks on the basics of self-pub
• 2-4 weeks on agents (how to choose them, how to work with them)
• And of course loads of one-off things: how to use social media, author productivity, writing & wellbeing, how to source a book cover, choosing a title, writing a blurb, making the trad vs self-pub choice.

And so on!

In a lot of cases, I’ll create and film totally new material for this, so I do want to know what you want. We’ll also use your responses to shape things like our Festival of Writing and our programme of live events, so the more you tell us, the more we can shape things around you.

And that’s it.

What do you want? What would you most like us to help with? Please let me know.

You can either respond by filling out this form or by hitting the reply button, I doubt if I’ll be able to respond to every single-pingle thing that comes my way, but I will read absolutely everything.

Thanks very much.

May is genre month and the task this week ties-in with the upcoming events, both the Defining Your Genre workshop next Tuesday and the following virtual genre mixers.

Please pick a passage that you feel particularly encapsulates your genre. Please keep your feedback for my Friday emails and Feedback Friday to the form we mentioned above and in response to this email rather than sharing it on Townhouse. 

What I want is:

Title

Genre

A line or so of explanation, if needed.

A 250-word passage that conveys your genre.

That’s it from me. Post yours here.

Til soon.

Harry