Nigel Jay Cooper's Blog, page 5
September 22, 2016
Can male authors ever write women well?
Can a male author ever write a female character authentically? It’s a question I naively didn’t even ask myself when Isat down to write my first novel, despite the fact that half of it is told from the female protagonist’s perspective.
A number of my reviews for Beat The Rain have focused on this aspect – a man writing a woman, more so because of the fact that in their relationship, Louise (my female lead) takes the traditionally ‘male’ role and goes to...
September 15, 2016
Toads don’t wear tutus
Mrs Toad wants to be a ballet dancer but is, by her nature, ugly. Mr Otter the surgeon has refused to work on her no less that seven times:
“Insert feathers into that skin? A beak? You’ve got a family, Mrs Toad. A wonderful husband. Go home and be thankful.”
“But I want to be beautiful,” she implores him.
“You’re a toad,” he always replies.
Back at home, she glumly watches the swans dance across the lake. Last week, she bought a pink tutu from Madame Beaudel the pussyc...
July 4, 2016
Things I’ve learnt since landing a publishing contract
The move from aspiring author to published author is a strange and sometimes unsettling one. Likepoking your head above the clouds you’ve spent years climbing towards, only to realise you haven’t actually got anything to stand on when you get there.
I’ve learnt a lot since last October when I got my first publishing contract but perhaps the most valuable thing is how important it is to be able to market yourself as an author – and how exc...
June 23, 2016
3 weird things you’ll recognise if you’re in a long-term relationship
So, you’re with the love of you life. Which means you’ve probably developed some weird habits and annoy your friends a bit. Except most of your friends are now ‘couple’ friends anyway…
1. You’ve argued about something that happenedin a dream“I had the weirdest dream last night… you kissed Jessica.”
“Did I? I don’t even like Jessica.”
“What do you mean you don’t like Jessica? It certainly looked like you like her when you h...
June 7, 2016
How do relationships really end? With a bang or a trickle?
How do relationships really end? Is it one momentous moment triggered by an event like an affair or betrayal? Or a slow decline, going unnoticed at first, building to a crescendo?
New novel Beat The Rain explores this topic. Told with alternating viewpoints from the main protagonists – a married couple – the novel documents the slow decline of a relationship that should work, but doesn’t.
“… it mattered. Listening to one another mattered. Perhap...
New novel explores how relationships really end
How do relationships really end? Is it one momentous moment triggered by an event like an affair or betrayal? Or a slow decline, going unnoticed at first, building to a crescendo?
New novel Beat The Rain explores this topic. Told with alternating viewpoints from the main protagonists – a married couple – the novel documents the slow decline of a relationship that should work, but doesn’t.
“… it mattered. Listening to one another mattered. Perhap...
March 19, 2016
Agents or publishers? Who should you approach first?
A friend recently asked me to meet up with his flatmate, also a writer, to give some advice on how to finda publisher.
As we chatted and he talked through his experience so far, one thing really hit home. Most writers think it’s easier to get an agent than a publisher and most go down this route first, then end up feeling dejected.
Agents are NOTan easier route to market than publishersThe truth is, it’s hard to get a publisher – but harde...
March 11, 2016
Should you include the end of your novel in Amazon’s ‘Look Inside’ feature?
My publisher has added the ‘Look Inside’ feature for Beat The Rain on Amazon, which is fantastic. But included in this is the epilogue of the novel.
Now, I’m actually happy with this – but I’m interested to know your thoughts as readers because it does give away something major.
Beat The Rain’s narrative is punctuated with the future thoughts of a main character as they fall to their death (this isn’t a spoiler, you l...
March 3, 2016
How I accidentally wrote a psychological thriller
I didn’t set out to write a psychological thriller. In fact, if I’m honest, I didn’t even realise I had written one. I was pitching Beat The Rain as literary fiction, general fiction, relationship fiction, but not a psychological thriller.
Then the first few people who read early drafts started feeding back:
“It’s so psychological.”
“I couldn’t put it down, I wanted to know what happened next.”
“It was so unusual, really psychological.”
Okay, so I knew I’d written something psychological, I suppose. Alternating chapters flip viewpoint between the couple in question, Louise gets chapter one, Adam chapter two and so on. And the reader quickly realises one of them isn’t going to survive the novel. Which, when I think about it, is a bit ‘thrillery’ I suppose.
But still the penny didn’t drop, it was just spinning in the air above my head, trying to catch the sunlight so I’d take some notice of it.
I was still pitching the novel to agents and publishers as ‘general fiction’ or ‘literary fiction’ – both of which do apply. But then I got a publisher and some book cover endorsements, one of which explicitly said: “Emotional rollercoaster, psychological thriller, Beat The Rain is both.”
In the end, the penny dropped. Not hard, it didn’t smash through my skull or anything. But it kind of rattled on the pavement by my feet and I had to concede that perhaps I’d written a psychological thriller after all – and I’m rather chuffed. It doesn’t have a detective in it. It doesn’t have a traditional ‘murder’ or ‘crime’ to solve, but I do think it’s a psychological thriller none the less.
It wasn’t intended, but I’m really happy about it. Time will tell what the general public make of it – but if it surprised its own author, I hope it’ll surprise you too.
Beat The Rain will be published in July 2016 by Roundfire Books.
January 28, 2016
The importance of book cover design – and it’s not what you think
The cover design for Beat The Rain has been a really interesting journey for me – and was a big part of the highs and lows of editing the manuscript as well as my search for an agent and publisher.
When I finished my first draft, I rushed into sending it to a chosen 8 agents. It was a bruising experience – all rejected me (see Go for 80 rejections like Marlon James for more on this).
In the meantime, the lovely Mrs Peate, one of the fantastic designers and illustrators I’ve had the pleasure of working with for many years, agreed to come up with some cover design concepts for me.
So, after my initial round of agent rejections, I spent about a few weeks thinking Beat The Rain was probably the worst novel ever written and that I’d been a blind fool to think I could write one, let alone get published.
Then Mrs.Peate sent through her first cover concepts – and they were so on point that they actually changed how I felt about my novel. They made me believe in it again.
You can see the original concepts and the final book design on her website: Mrs Peate
Reinvigorated – and armed with actual reader reviews gathered from letting people read the opening chapters on my website – I decided to approach 8 publishers – and 3 wanted it.
I have no idea what the moral of this story is – but I’ll be forever indebted to to the lovely Mrs.Peate and all of the work she did – simply for the love of creativity and because she’s nice.
Oh, and my publisher also loves her design and it’s going to be the final book cover for the novel when it’s published in the coming months. So she’s not only nice, but incredibly talented too.
You can see the final book cover designs here: Beat The Rain – a novel
