*Next Book Title klaxon*

My hitherto untitled second book now has a title!!
I coould just tell you here, but that would be too easy and no fun. So instead I'm making it a treasure hunt.
It's revealed in the News section of my spanking new website, which you can find here. Go see!!
The ebook is out on April 12th and the paperback on June 27th.

PS. I announced the title in my first newsletter the other day. If you'd like to have the news hot off the press, can I invite you to sign up to the mailing list on the site? If it's book deals you're interested in, then also sign up to my Bookbub profile here or via the link in the website footer. 

It hurt, but it's here

Do you remember the post I wrote a couple of weeks ago, the one with the 2019 goals and intentions? It's just below or you can click here , but I wanted to squee about the fact I've managed one of them already, and it was one I have been hiding from for aaaaaaages, because I am scared of Tech.

Ta-daaaaaah, I made a website!! I am Queen of the Internets!!! It was similar to labouring out a baby, but with the benefit of my husband being able to bring me alcohol throughout, without being frowned at. You can view it at www.pernillehughes.com

There, that was all, just wanted to share, as I am still quite giddy from having done it. It still needs tweaking, but it exists and I can start building a mailing list, which every single writers thing says 'is absolutely key and OMG how can I not have set this up already?'. If anyone else if a Tech-lemming and having to go through this I can recommend this article for hand-holding, although I did go slightly off-piste with the providers (I registered with Ionos, hosted with Siteground, on Wordpress with Mailerlite for the mailing list.) And the world of tutorials is your oyster, (and lifeline,) my friend.

Eventually, I'll attempt to transfer this blog over there, but let's be honest it may well take me a loooong while to work out how to do it, and I'm a little web-exhausted. 

Please be invited to go and have a looksee!

Aims and Intentions 2019

Happy New Year Lovelies!

As per normal, this is my annual looky-backy to see what I had planned for past year, and what I actually managed, as well as declaring to the Universe what my aims are for the year going forward. For those who have been here a while, you know I do this every year, because it really does help. Once you've shouted plans from the rooftops you HAVE to at least have a go, as at some point someone will ask you how things are going and you'll feel a lot better being able to say that things are in progress rather than saying 'um.. yeah, well, that, not so much...anyone need another drink? Bye.'
  Personally, (as opposed to Politically, which appears to be a total s**tshow) 2018 was a bit of a year. Things happened! Dreams came true! My aims last year looked like this and I'll evaluate how they went below, but ultimately I GOT A DEAL AND HAD A BOOK PUBLISHED!!!!!!

  

Being published has been super exciting, but at times also felt like starting a new job in a new field and having to go through the standard 'Moron phase', only blindfolded, as things happen away from me most of the time. (So far I have yet to find a flow chart that explains the publishing process to me and that I can cling onto.) My aims and intentions for 2019 are now shaped by this too, there's a new landscape to deal with, in contrast to the previous writing without deadline, in the hope that someday something would happen.

So to reflect on the previous aims;

I did finish the first draft of Story Two. It has no name yet, but it's in the system.

I have started Story Three. It's not as plotted as I would have liked, but not starting was making me anxious, so it made more sense to simply launch in. I've just reached the Suckage Point (20k words) and it does indeed Suck. I have faith that this is part of The Process. It's worked before. I still felt guilty about taking Thinking Time on it. That probably won't ever change.

I'm still learning about Structure. I don't know if that'll ever change either.

I didn't do NANO, because I was was in edits and I didn't have a plan. I would possibly like to try again next year, but as before, ONLY ONLY ONLY if I have a plan. (I'm still scared I'll get talked into it without one and that would.)

I still don't feel I get to read enough, so that one is being carried over to 2019.

I never once referred to my writing as a hobby in 2018. Yay me! In fact, I got to write 'Author' when filling in forms which was a thrill.

I did go on another writing retreat. It gave me the headspace I needed to break the back of the edit of Book Two.

I still spend too much time on Twitter. That is a fact, but I excuse it as being marketing for my book. And I have to do Facebook too now, having resisted for all the years, and Instagram. So there was a point in 2018 where it felt like it had spiralled out of control, numbing my creative brain, and also losing my writing time, so that one is carrying over too, in the hope that I can find a way of being disciplined and controlling it.

Am still writing with four fingers. I suspect that won't ever change.

So what am I planning for 2019? 

I really must sort out my writing practice, as it is still all over the shop. I was supposed to have it honed by now, but I haven’t. I still haven’t worked out what works best for me, to fit alongside running my family. As mentioned with the social medias I have to learn to be far better disciplined as it is pitiful at times. I need to get back to turning up at the keyboard every day when I am in a writing phase. No excuses.

I need Book Two fully finished, but this is already in the publishing process, so I just have to hit the deadlines I’m given. It's slated for release in April (paperback in June). It can be pre-ordered on Amazon - but with no title, no cover and no blurb it's currently only for people who like to take a risk with their book selection, or my parents. 

I've got to get Book Three written and Book Four started or planned, with the view to another aim of Getting a new contract. My initial deal was for two books, so I’ll technically be out of contract this year. This is the bit where I learn that getting published was only the first step, staying published is a whole new ball game.

I have to get a grip on Marketing. Ah marketing….I have ideas, but it takes up so much time, and it that time comes from … my writing time, which feels like a bit of a catch 22 situation.  

I want to get a website and mailing list set up. Learning the techie stuff is my nemesis and I get scared and run away at almost every new step. Do you buy you domain name separately or from the webdesigner? Do you need the insurance they try to sell you? Is it a good price and a good deal? I DON’T KNOW THIS STUFF!!!! When you are a debut writer, you really don’t want to lose money on mistakes and to a tech lemming like me it feels like a minefield.

I'd like to go on retreat again, and this time be writing something.

That feels like enough to be getting on with.

Anyone have any goals they want to declare? I heartily urge you to do it.

All the best for 2019!!

Two things from this week

Two things happened this week, which felt rather enormous.

Firstly I went to BookCamp, a writing retreat, but I think I'll blog about that later. It was the same retreat that I went on last year, in Somerset. On the Thursday of that retreat, I got a call from my agent to say that Harper Impulse were interested in my book. This year, on the Thursday of BookCamp, Sweatpants At Tiffanie's came out in paperback. It's been quite an exciting year!

Having returned to my town, I popped into my local bookstore. I'd already been in to ask them if would stock the book, but seeing it on the shelf was an amazing moment. They even asked me to sign them, which I did, because, you know, now they can't return them :)

#AidAnAuthor Month

 

So October is #AidAnAuthor Month*, and I’m going to suggest exactly how you can do that, given that they can be elusive little critters, squirreled away at their laptops, spinning story yarns for the enjoyment of the general public. Perhaps you don’t know an author personally to whom you can offer your help. Perhaps you do know one but they might be ever-so-British and not know quite how to say “yes please, I would dearly love your help” as authors are also human and aren’t always very good at asking for or accepting help from others.

  In fact you can help an author- relatively anonymously if you prefer, without even putting them on the spot by asking them- very easily and often at no cost to yourself. Here’s how;

  

*Cue fanfare*    Leave their book a review.

  Amazon reviews for an author are gold-dust. Reviews give a book visibility. Browsers will take other readers’ recommendations and, most crucially, if a book gains 50 reviews, Amazon start giving it more attention. You can see how this is valuable, yes? For a newbie author, it means they have a chance of getting noticed and can start a career. For an established author it might mean their next books get picked up too.

-It doesn’t need to be a long review. Not at all. You can just hit the stars button, or leave a simple line. (Only about the book please. You don’t need to drop stars because the packaging was scuffed…)

-It doesn’t have to be 5 stars. Be honest (but remember authors have feeling too.).  

-You don’t need to have bought the book from Amazon. You might have received it as a gift. You might have borrowed it from the library. You’ve read it, you can leave your opinion.

-If you’ve already left a review on another retailers’ sites, or on Goodreads, NetGalley, or your library search pages, you can cut and paste them into an Amazon review. Recycling is absolutely acceptable. Life is busy, time is short, right?

   So, please, if you are feeling benevolent and have a moment to spare, please spare a thought for authors this #AidAnAuthor month* and leave a review. Simply find the book page on Amazon, and midways down there should be a Leave a Review button to click. Hit up the stars and leave some words. Easy peasy. (If you've read my book and want to have a try, here's the link to the page www.hyperurl.co/sweatpantstiffanie :) ) 

(*#AidAnAuthor Month might not, in fact, be truthfully accurate, in so far as I might have made it up. But there are many causes claiming months, so why not this one? Either way, the fact remains that Amazon reviews help authors. Thank you.)

Book sniffing

So my book is already out in ebook format, but I think there is a certain dream in any writer's head, which is to one day hold one's own book in one's grubby little mitts. That just happened to me. You can see how it went, my enormous eyeballs and some 

brazen book sniffing here;

Me on BXP!

I think I mentioned before that I recorded a podcast with The Bestseller Experiment (BXP). It's a podcast I listen to every week and have found both entertaining a hugely informative since it started. When they heard I'd signed my contract they were lovely enough to invite me on, as a listener-to-debut story, and you can now hear my half hour of non-stop talking to/at the delightful Mark Stay here. If you don't already subscribe to the podcast I highly recommend it. There's over a year and half's worth of episodes so you can properly binge.
Enjoy!