Help for Fellow Writers

My Compromise

Right - since I'm still trying to get the old bod back to peak fitness, I'm trying not to get too involved with writing and take a bit of a break but... I can't help myself! I'm obsessed. Given that the writing addiction won't leave me, I've set myself a slightly easier restriction to stick to. For a few days/weeks ('weeks'?? who am I kidding?), I'm not going to guest blog or write any articles or even write any of my new novel (might edit my second one a bit though... no? Fine. No editing. Humph.) Instead, I'm going to help other writers out. I'm nice like that.

Jamie Ford - 'Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet'

Right, first things first. Followers of the blog will know that my new online chum is Jamie Ford. As he has been so sweet in shamelessly promoting my author blog - http://rebeccawoodhead.blogspot.com - it's only fair that I do some shameless promoting in return. Here it is. Buy his book.

The Tricky Scenario

Followers will be aware of the current minimalist appearance of my bank balance. Very Zen. Anyhow, with hubby's redundancy and what-not bringing down the income further, it is a sad fact that books have become a luxury. The local library is now my best chum. Put simply: if it ain't there, I can't read it. Here's the problem. Jamie's debut novel is not in my local library. Why? Not published in England yet.

This puts me in the tricky position of promoting a book I have yet to read.

The Cunning Plan

My following is almost exclusively American. YOU can read it and report back. What do you say? If you are English, buy it from Amazon and tell everyone you know about it so it gets published over here super-quick and I can get it out of the library and say:

'I was right - work of genius.'

My guess is that it's a great book because:

1. It's on the New York Times Best Seller List
2. Everyone else says it's a great book

Don't forget; this is Jamie's debut novel so he's effectively almost still one of us. He is just opening the glittery door into the world of fame and ushering one foot out, but his other foot is still in the gutter with the rest of us. It is our job to assist him in freeing that foot from its ordinary status and promoting it to greatness so that we can stare at it - all glittery and star-like and say 'we knew that foot when it was ordinary.'

I've officially dropped into the realms of mentalism. Forgive me. He's probably got it all sewn up anyhow but it's nice to help isn't it?

Help for Following Fellows

Since the majority of my followers are authors or authors-to-be, here are a couple of places you may find useful in your quest to further your writing and meet other writer-people.

The first came to me from 'Moolisa.'

Authonomy

Basically, this is the HarperCollins slush pile in Brechtian format - the mechanics all laid open for you to see. From what I can gather, your work is assessed by your peers and once HarperCollins see there's a market for it, they snap you up. That's the theory anyway. In practice, depending on the writer you speak to, it is either the best thing in the known universe or a giant time and energy-sapping nightmare. I've dunked my toes into the water but not jumped yet. The water seems warm and I'm intrigued. If anyone wants to leap in and tell me to grab my swimming cozzie go ahead, I'm all ears.

goodreads.com

Thanks to Brian for this one. I only went on there for the first time today and I'm already a fan. Essentially it's social networking for readers/writers. You put up books you've read/are reading and rate them; other people comment on your ratings; you put up lists of books you hope to read; readers recommend books to each other... You get the idea. You can also upload your own stories and have them reviewed. Think that might be of interest to some of the writers on here.

Incidentally, Jamie Ford's on there. If nothing else, click 'fan' when you find him. :)

I like the privacy policy. The main reason I have nothing to do with Facebook is that their privacy policy is the work of some evil troll but goodreads' reads good. Give it a go.

Rebecca