Dan Smith's Blog, page 12

Stop Motion and US Publishers!

OK, so I'm no film maker.

I can't draw either.

I'm not even all that good at cutting out paper 'n' stuff. But . . . and you knew there'd be a 'but', didn't you? . . . but I was messing about with istopmotion and thought 'hey, I could do a thing with paper cut-outs and make it look like the manuscript for The Child Thief has come to life and it'll be AMAZING!'

Well, all right, maybe it's not amazing. In fact it's a bit crude, but I had fun putting it together and there's a catchy tune, so if you've got a minute and 13 seconds to spare, you might want to have a little look at my modest attempt at stop motion with paper cut outs.

Oh yeah, and there's this little bit of news about AN OFFER FROM A US PUBLISHER, which is nice. I'll tell you all about it later, once everything's confirmed, but Orion has been busy pushing my book on foreign publishers, so a bite from the US is great news. And there should be printed finished copies of THE CHILD THIEF in time for the London Book Fair next month to tempt further offers.

 

That's all.

 

We Have A Winner!!

Hurray!

Last week I offered a signed copy of DARK HORIZONS to one lucky person who tweeted me the words 'Show me paradise' . . . and today we have a winner.

All fair 'n' square, it was – all the twitter @names were scribbled onto pieces of paper, scrumpled into little balls and dropped into a Mickey Mouse cup. It was then left to my daughter to pick a scrumpled ball at random and (ta-dah!) the winner is:-

 

@malrostan

 

So, well done and I'll be getting in touch via twitter to find out where the book is to be sent.

 

That's all.

For your Entertainment

I won't keep you long . . . I just thought you might like to have a quick look at this short film I put together with help from my little people.

And remember; just tweet 'show me paradise' to @dansmithauthor to be in with a chance of winning a signed copy of the paperback of DARK HORIZONS.

 

 

 

That's all

 

 

 

Dark Horizons Giveaway

A better class of thriller - The Independent on Sunday

At the end of last week I received a parcel from my publisher. Nestling inside the box were a few shiny copies of the paperback of DARK HORIZONS. Of course, they look lovely on my shelf, but I can't keep them all to myself can I? That would be greedy and senseless. Books need to be read, not left to languish new and unopened on a shelf. So I thought I'd have a giveaway, and I'm going to try it out on Twitter, so . . . one lucky tweep out there can win a signed copy of DARK HORIZONS, and you don't even have to do anything complicated.

All you have to do is tweet to me (@DanSmithAuthor) the words Show me Paradise #Dark Horizons and you will be in with a chance.

The deadline is Monday 27th Feb when one winner will be picked at random and I will sign and post the book to an address of your choosing!

That's all.

Don't miss out

Anyone use Google Alerts? I have a few alerts set up to let me know when something new is posted that contains my name + the name of one of my novels. It helps me to spot reviews etc. Usually, the hits I get for the searches are pretty random. Maybe there's a baseball player called Dan Smith who's having a bit of a dry season, or Dan Smith the smuggler's future is looking bleak so there's a dark horizon looming – that kind of thing.

But from time to time I actually get a real, genuine, honest-to-goodness hit on something to do with me. Which leads to me to the DARK HORIZONS review in the Independent on Sunday

Oh yes, there was one there this weekend in the wake of the mass market paperback publication. And the review isn't just online – it's in the hard copy of the paper, right next to a picture of the front cover.

It's not exactly gushing. It doesn't say that Dark Horizons is going to change literature as we know it. But the review DOES say it keeps you turning the pages and, more importantly, there's the very quotable last line of the review – no jiggery poker, no editing out of words to make it look better. Just one sentence from the capital letter to the full stop.

'A better class of thriller.'
The Independent on Sunday

(That'll do nicely, thank you very much.)

So, you see, you really need to read it. Because if you don't, you're missing out. In fact, you're missing out on 'a better class of thriller'.

That's all.

 

 

Buy DARK HORIZONS here

Get Thousands of Twitter Followers NOW!

I've been 'using' Twitter for a while now. I'm not the most prolific tweeter, but I get on there from time to time. I share some thoughts, I respond to the thoughts of others. I've even connected with a few fun people who I converse with on a fairly regular basis.

But – you knew there was going to be a 'but', didn't you? – but I sometimes wonder what it is that drives people to Twitter.

One of the most confusing tweets I see is the 'how to get 1000 more followers on Twitter' or  'my friend @XXXX is almost at 1000 followers. Please help by following him/her.' My question is:

'Why?'

Why would I want to follow someone just to make up their numbers? And, similarly, why are they so eager to have 1000′s of followers? I mean, what difference does it make? Does it make them feel  popular? More important? Better? Do they have something important to say that everybody needs to hear? Or is it the inherent collector in their personality that makes them collect followers instead of, say, stamps or thimbles or toby jugs? Or is it because – and this leads me to the second type of tweet that confuses me – they have something to sell?

Yep, I'm looking at you. You at the front. The one with your hand in the air shouting 'Me! Me! Pick me!' The one whose every second tweet is 'My book is avilable on kindle for $99,' or 'so-and-so loved my book, buy it here,' or . . . well, you get the idea.

I'm an author. I write books. I want to sell my books. Of course, I do. Occasionally I might tweet a link to where you can buy my books or, if I spot a review online I'll link to it. I link to my blogposts a couple of times or tweet if I'm doing a library event but that's pretty much it. I can't  imagine anyone would want to follow me just to read a constant barrage telling them where to buy the latest Dan Smith novel. The spam-sell approach just doesn't feel right to me and I have deep reservations about whether that kind of sales tactic works. If you kept seeing the same advert on the telly what would you do? You'd switch off or change the channel.

No one likes a hard sell and bombarding the Twitter stream with links to your latest book makes it boring to read. And this is, perhaps, where the two types of tweet meet. If you have 1000′s of followers and you follow 1000′s back, then you probably need to spam the stream to stop your tweets from becoming lost in the cacophony of other tweeters doing exactly the same thing. It's one of those vicious circle thingummies.

Anyway, if I'm following someone who only tweets about what they have to sell, I unfollow them. I don't use Twitter to read people's sales pitches, I use it to connect with people. To converse with them. To laugh or share ideas. I use it for a bit of fun, not for the hard sell.

What about you? What drew you to Twitter? What repels you from it?

Oh, and as an experiment, I'm going to give this blog post a tempting title and see how many hits I get.

That's all.

Time to Celebrate!!

Close your eyes and imagine trumpeters. Rows and rows of them, lifting their trumpets high and blasting a fanfare.

Imagine fireworks. Thunderous, brilliant fireworks. Whizzing, banging, screaming, bursting. Showers of all colours.

Imagine champage glasses overflowing with bubbles.

Ticker tape, party streamers, colourful hats, people celebrating in the streets. Dancing.

All that you just imagined? That's for the paperback publication of DARK HORIZONS, that is.

Oh yes. Today's the day, so you'd better get out there quick. Get down to your local bookstore, fire up the computer, get online. Avoid disappointment.

Actually, this is where it gets a bit confusing, because DARK HORIZONS has been out for a while in hardback and in trade paperback. But now it's available in the smaller format paperback. Y'know, a normal paperback. For the life of me I don't know why the likes of Amazon can't make this distinction. Otherwise people will look at the 'paperback' of DARK HORIZONS and say:

'Ooh, that's a bit pricey at £10.99′

But NO! Stop right there. What you've been looking at is the large format paperback. Come back. Sit down. Have another look.
The normal paperback is a mere £8.99 (£5.75 on Amazon.co.uk).

So waddayawaitingfor?

DARK HORIZONS. Out now in Phoenix paperback.

That's all.

Point of No Return

There's no turning back now. End of the line. Point of no return.

THE CHILD THIEF proofs are done. I've read through; I've gritted my teeth whenever I've seen something I want to change but can't; I've dotted the t's and crossed the i's . . . no wait, is that . . .? oh, you know what I mean.

Anyway it's done and now I have that feeling of helplessness. Reading the typeset page proofs is usually the last time I read my book (I haven't read DRY SEASON or DARK HORIZONS since they were published) and it's always a difficult read. I've been over the manuscript dozens of times. I know the story inside out. I know the characters inside out. But that last read-through is the one where I start to wonder . . . 'could I have told this differently?' 'Have I done enough?'

But only you can tell me that now.

THE CHILD THIEF is out of my hands and soon it will be in yours.

 

Be vigilant . . . it's coming.

The unbound page proofs have arrived. It's not much to look at – just a pile of papers. No pretty cover, like the book proofs, but this is it. The final stage.

No going back.

So I'm going to submerge myself in the harsh world of THE CHILD THIEF one last time. I'm going to scour those pages for errors while, somewhere across the country, a proof-reader will be doing the same. And then it's ready for printing; ready for you to read.

Be vigilant. The Child Thief is coming. And I think you're going to like it.

 

That's all.

 

 

 

How to be a best-seller

So, how do you become a best-selling author? Well, you write a great book, loads of people buy it and you hit the best-seller list, right?

Wrong. There are lots of best selling novels that aren't really all that great, and there are lots of great novels that aren't best sellers, so that can't be it.

Come to think of it, how do authors manage to sell any books at all?

Imagine Mr Debut Novelist. He's been working hard and has written his first novel – well done – and he's managed to secure himself an agent (no easy thing) and now he has a publisher (amazing). The book is published to no fanfare and no marketing at all. It's one of a zillion other books published that year and Mr Novelist begins his online campaign using his website, Twitter, Facebook, Blogging etc.

Wow. This is fantastic. The novel floats to the surface and bobs there for a while. There's a quote from a best-selling author! There's a nomination! There are a couple of good reviews in national publications! Real life proper bookshops buy some copies in!

But that's not enough. Readers glance over those reviews because they've never heard of Mr Debut Novelist. The bookshops stick their copies in the A-Z shelves, spine out, where no one will find them unless they're specifically looking (which they're not, because they've never heard of Mr Novelist, remember). So people buy, but there's no mass stampede at Waterstones, no clogged servers at Amazon. People aren't jabbing at their Kindles or hurrying out to the bookshop.

So what is it that gets people worked up? What is it that brings a certain author's name to the public eye? How do they become known? I really am intrigued by the ability of some novelists to shift huge numbers of their books – particularly debut authors who become instant hits.

Think of Audrey Niffenegger. Tom Rob Smith. Steig Larsson. Regardless of whether or not you like their books – how did they do it?

Is it word of mouth? Is it advertising? Is it witchcraft? Is it a combination of those things, all mixed in with a sprinkle of pixie dust and a fistful of luck?

So, Audrey, Steig, Tom, don't walk away. We're looking at you. C'mon. Fess up. Is it alchemy?

 

That's all.

coming soon