CLARENDON HOUSE PUBLICATIONS

It’s sometimes a struggle to convince some writers of the realities of the industry in which they are working. The common belief amongst some is that all they have to do is complete a novel or a collection of short stories, offer it around to publishers or publish it themselves, and then the rest will somehow take care of itself: the reading world, unknowingly craving their work, will detect and pursue it upon its appearance, volume sales will follow, and the writer can the

I recollect being very angry about something many years ago. I don’t remember what it was that had made me so annoyed, but I remember storming out of the place where I was working at the time and marching at full pace towards where I was living, dismissing any idea of catching a bus or getting a lift from anyone. I needed to be alone, but that suggests that a mental computation took place when in fact I was simply so enraged that I had to be alone - the company of another p

Which of these five kinds of marketer are you? 1. The Non-Marketer You are a writer, so you write. You don’t plan to market your books - that’s someone else’s job. You haven’t even bothered to learn much about marketing because you want to go down the traditional route and have a publisher deal with all of that for you. To be frank, the idea of marketing a book is somewhat perplexing and a little frightening to you, and that’s not what you signed up for. What did you sign

As a writer, working of necessity alone, even when you manage to defeat your primary enemies of Lack of Time and Procrastination, there’s one enemy you will come up against again and again. This enemy will make you question yourself and doubt your every move. It’s as real as another person in the room with you; you can almost feel it breathing down your neck. This enemy is Doubt itself. Most writers suffer from doubt. In my case, doubt has taken on many disguises over the

Once a book is launched, there are some actions that will count in making it a success, and some that will be a waste of time. The ones that are usually a waste of time include: 1. Pasting a direct link to your book all over social media. This probably sounds like something that you should do, based on the conventional myth that the number of people you can get to look at your book determines how many people will buy it. But just ask yourself: How many such links from

I have argued that the central reason why you’re not being a writer right now is that you don’t place enough importance on it, and that’s true. But that alone, as a statement, doesn’t quite give you the whole picture. The reason why you’re not placing enough importance on writing - given that your heart burns to write - is that you are giving importance to other things. Those ‘other things’ fall into two categories: those things which you distract yourself with when you k

Writers trying to sell their books often fail at converting prospects to readers because of one simple aspect of the marketing process: they are going for numbers.When you’re at the mercy of numbers, it can seem as though marketing is impossible. Prospects, whoever they are and wherever they may be, seem to be in control. You are the hunter, pursuing your quarry, without a clue of where to look, except on the wide open plains of Amazon, perhaps.To get control back, you need t

Continuing on from yesterday's article, here are some more perhaps slightly unpalatable truths: 7. Don’t depend on inspiration. Work regular hours, whether that means writing new chapters or stories or doing the promotional work you need to do to sell your material, and accept that it’s all part of the experience of being a writer. ‘Waiting for inspiration’ would be like a doctor or fire rescue worker only turning up for work ‘when they feel like it’. Treat writing as a