Juliane Weber's Blog, page 3

I have to come up with a title for each book AND for the series?

I have to admit that I've never been any good at titles. I first realised this when I was writing articles for a health magazine. I would often agonise more over the title than the article itself, and not infrequently, my miserable attempt at a catchy heading would be swiftly replaced with something more suitable by the editor. I hadn't really noticed this defect in my writing skills before, probably because in more traditional science writing, titles are meant to be informative rather than eye-catching. The main aim is to tell other scientists what you did and how you did it, for example, An assessment of reader intelligence based on book choice. Or you might go a step further and state what you found, such as, Book choice is not an accurate indicator of reader intelligence. Either way, naming a research article is relatively straightforward.


Not so, of course, when attempting to name a novel. Ideally, you want something catchy and memorable that also tells potential readers a little about the story. No easy feat, at least not for me. It took me an age to come up with the title of my first book, Under the Emerald Sky, and I have absolutely no clue what I'm going to name the one that I'm working on now. Before I could even contemplate the title of my second book, though, I had to come up with a name for the series as a whole. I had been getting away with referring to Under the Emerald Sky as the first in a series of books set in 19th century Ireland, but that was to be no more. One of the author platforms I recently signed up to insisted on knowing whether my book was a standalone or part of a series, and further demanded that I include the name of the series when selecting the latter.


And so I agonised once more. What to call my literary creations? Something with the word Emerald perhaps? I liked the idea, but then broke out in a cold sweat thinking that this would leave me no choice but to include the word in each subsequent book title. The word green then, I thought? Too pedestrian, I decided. Something to do with hills? Or perhaps Ireland, or even Éire? My mind whirled with all these options and I turned to a few trusted advisers for help. After much, much thought and deliberation, I finally came up with The Irish Fortune Series. I hope you like it! Because if you don't, I'm afraid I've added it to all my sales platforms, which means that it can't be changed - well, actually, it can, but I choose to pretend otherwise!


by Juliane Weber (@UnderEmeraldSky) 10 March 2021

My guest post on The Writing Desk

One of the most enjoyable things I've been doing of late is connecting with other writers from around the world. Some, like me, are just starting out, while others are already well-established in the literary world. Besides being introduced to a whole lot of great books this way, it's also thrilling to be able to chat to highly successful authors, some of whom have sold thousands and thousands of books! And it turns out that many of these authors are actively seeking to help new and upcoming writers to make a name for themselves and find more readers. Imagine my surprise, though, when one of my Twitter posts attracted the attention of the very prolific, best-selling writer Tony Riches a few weeks ago. Not only did Tony start following me on Twitter, but he also gave me the opportunity to be featured on his wildly successful blog, The Writing Desk.

Of course I didn't say no to that!

Go check out my guest post here:

https://tonyriches.blogspot.com/2021/...

While you're there, be sure to scroll through the long list of Tony's books. He's written a host of historical fiction novels, as well as other fiction and non-fiction books, so you're sure to find something you'll love.

Happy reading!

by Juliane Weber (@UnderEmeraldSky) 4 March 2021

I have a plan! At least I think I do...actually, I have no clue...

At some point while working on Under the Emerald Sky, I started thinking that what I was writing might actually be palatable, and possibly even good. And so, once I had completed the story, I confidently (or perhaps arrogantly) set out to find a literary agent, who I was sure would then be able to arrange a publishing contract for me, thus providing me with all the necessary marketing strategies (and personnel!) to successfully sell my book. Unfortunately, however, that just didn't happen (for reasons I may go into in a later post).

So there I was, with a completed novel and a dozen ideas for the sequel. But as I agonised over my inability to secure an agent, I found that I could barely write a single word. I was undoubtedly stuck, not to mention feeling disheartened! But what to do? Should I sit around waiting for something to happen, not publishing, not writing, just stewing in my own frustration and misery? Since that didn't particularly appeal to me, I decided to do what I could instead, which meant self-publishing my book. It wasn't how I'd planned it, but it was thrilling, nonetheless, to finally see my novel available for sale, and to hold a printed copy in my hands. This was a tangible achievement, at last, and I revelled in my success! And as faithful friends and family members flocked to virtual stores in support, suddenly I could write again as well!

But of course, most published authors (myself included) want more than just family and friends to read their work - although I am very grateful to those of you who have! Convincing anybody else to even consider it, though...well that requires a good deal of marketing. And marketing a book is a sizeable job, indeed, particularly for someone like me, who has absolutely no natural inclination towards sales! With no agent or publishing house behind me, though, nor vast quantities of money to hire a publicist or other useful individuals, that job has now fallen to me.

Clearly, my initial plan didn't quite work out. But unless I want to watch my novel die by literary neglect, I guess I'd better embrace the challenge of having to do my own marketing!

by Juliane Weber (@UnderEmeraldSky) 25 February 2021

Publishing a novel...and other signs of madness

Once upon a time I had an enticing thought: perhaps I could write a book one day. It seemed like a reasonable thing for me to do. I had long been an avid reader and had done plenty of writing already, both during my years at university and later, working as a medical writer. I also knew a fair amount about research, and so I thought I could manage historical fiction, even if I wasn't at all sure that I had the imagination to invent characters and give them all personalities, much less develop a storyline. To my extreme surprise, though, it turned out that I COULD do all of these things and enjoyed doing so immensely. What's more, the ideas just kept coming - so much so that I realised early on that I wasn't writing just one book, but a whole series of them! And so I hammered away joyfully on my keyboard, envisaging myself selling thousands of copies of my first masterpiece.


Unfortunately, I had overlooked one minor detail: writing a book is one thing, getting anyone to read it is quite another! Far from being able to sit back while adoring fans showered me with praises, this was where the work actually began. The writing was easy in comparison! How to even get anyone to notice my book among thousands and thousands of others? Where to advertise, how to advertise, which piece of advice to take and which to ignore? These are the questions that now occupy my mind, not to mention my time, as I slog through social media posts and marketing strategies day after day.


"What madness is this?" I ask myself at least once a day, as I prepare the next sales pitch for my Twitter feed. But just as I've decided to give it all up and am about to delete my Facebook and Instagram accounts, there comes the reward for all my efforts: another sale of my book!


I suppose I'll be doing it all again tomorrow after all...


by Juliane Weber (@UnderEmeraldSky) 18 February 2021