Ros Clarke's Blog, page 4

How to build an author website

Following a recent twitter convo, it occurred to me that this is a question which comes up again and again, and about which I have strong views. So here they are, helpfully gathered into one place in the hope that one day they may be useful to someone. Maybe you!

First, know yourself. The best way to build an author website will depend, in large part, on who you are and what you want to do. If you have no interest in learning how to do it yourself, and have money to throw at it, then find yourself a good web designer and let them do the heavy lifting. I think it’s worth getting them to walk you through the basics of updating content so that you don’t have to shell out more $$ (and waste time) every time you have something you want to add or amend on the site.

If you don’t have the cash for a web designer, or if you want to be more hands on, then there are several good options. These divide into two main groups: those which are all-in-one hosting and design services, and those which involve paying for hosting separately. In the first group are services such as Wix and Weebly, which offer great tools for site-design and which will then host your finished website for you (at a price, of course). In the second group, you’re looking at hosting sites such as GoDaddy, Hostgator, and the one which I use, Hostpresto. Then you’ll build your website, probably using one of the content management systems such as Drupal, Joomla or WordPress.

WordPress? But I thought they were a blogging site? They are. And they aren’t. More later to explain that.

There is a third way if you are really strapped for cash and are prepared to live with limited functionality. Set up a free blog at somewhere like Blogger or WordPress.com. With canny choices about theme and presentation, you can make these work for you. I would strongly recommend paying for your own domain name, however, so that your url looks professional and so that you don’t have to update all your promo when you become a bestselling author and want to upgrade your site.

If you pick method one, then I don’t really need to tell you much else. Look around at great author websites you love and ask them who designed them. Talk to the designers and find out what they offer in terms of ongoing support and training you to use the site yourself. Be clear with them about the functionality your website needs (e.g. newsletter sign up, contact forms, blog, printable booklist) as well as the tone and style you’re aiming for. As far as possible the brand of your website should match your author brand. Do not, under ANY circumstances, let them install autoplay music or videos.

If you pick method two, you’ll still need to be clear about the functionality, tone and style of your website. Then you’ll need to work out how to achieve that. My experience is with WordPress. I’ve heard good things about Drupal and less good things about Joomla, but I haven’t used either. If you’ve ever blogged with WordPress.com you’ll find that the WordPress.org system you can install on your hosted website has a very similar backend. The main difference is that there are many more themes available to you, and that you can install a huge array of plugins which add all kinds of functionality to the website. I use a theme called Suffusion which has a LOT of customisation options, and I also work with the html and CSS coding. YOU DO NOT NEED TO DO THIS. There is no reason to get involved in coding unless you want to. Many themes have their own customisation editor which will let you upload background images, set fonts, colours and other styles. You’ll have a range of page styles to choose from – full width, sidebar, magazine layout and so on. You’ll want to make sure that you have your homepage as a static page, rather than a blog page, and you’ll want it to include links to the top-level pages on your site (Books, About Me, Blog, etc.) RESIST THE TEMPTATION TO ADD AUTOPLAY MUSIC OR VIDEO.

Here’s why option two works for me:

I can’t afford option one;

I like messing about with coding;

I like messing about with design;

I like having control of my content.

That last point is the main reason I am wary of services like Wix and Weebly. While they produce great-looking sites, and my be more intuitive to use than WordPress, all your content is locked in to their service. So if at some point in the future you choose to leave (say, they change their TOS, or start charging ridiculous prices), you won’t find it easy to export any of your posts or pages to use on a different provider. I’ve also seen some reports of Weebly sites being blocked by ISPs in some countries, though I don’t know if that’s still true.

What about option 3? It’s easy to set up and it’s very cheap. You’ll need to do some work to make your site appear professional. Make sure you’ve set up a static home page, for instance. And choose your theme carefully. I had a quick look through the free wordpress.com themes and would recommend Motif, Bushwick and Confit as being worth a look for author sites. Or you could pay a few dollars for a premium theme. Be careful, though. By the time you’ve paid for 2 or 3 upgrades (domain name, premium theme, no ads) you might well have spent as much as a year’s hosting and domain name would cost you elsewhere, but you won’t have anything like the flexibility and functionality that would give. A lot of what you see listed as WordPress (themes, plugins etc.) will ONLY work on self-hosted WordPress.org installs, and not on the free WordPress.com sites.

If you register your domain name, the good news is that you can always take it with you if you decide you want to switch to a different service. That is by far the most important thing to do, whatever method you pick.

So, here’s the bulleted list (not necessarily in order):

Get your own domain name registered
Have a static home page
Choose a theme which is responsive (so it can be read on mobile devices)
Make the style and tone of your website match your author brand for your books
Think about accessibility for non-standard users (e.g. adding alt-text to images for visually impaired readers. I am bad at remembering to do this but I know I need to get better.)
Make a list of the content and functionality your site needs. Spend time looking at and using other author sites. See what works and what quickly becomes irritating.
You don’t have to have a blog, but if you do, I think it looks more professional to have it as part of your website rather than a link to blogger
DO NOT HAVE AUTOPLAY MUSIC OR VIDEO. I may have mentioned that before but it bears repeating. There is literally nothing more likely to make me and many other readers reach for the back button in the browser.

Most of all, I think, you need to remember that the website is not for you. It is for your readers. So yes, it should reflect something of you and your books, but your customer should be your priority. Give them a good experience.

The prisoner’s dilemma of self-publishing

I am not an expert in game theory but I have watched a lot of game shows. A few years ago, there was one on British TV which involved two strangers having to negotiate with each other before secretly selecting either to share or take all the money. If they both agreed to share the prize, they would do so. If one of them said they would share while the other said they’d take it all, the sharer would get nothing and the take it all person would take it all. If they both said they’d take it all, they’d both lose.

Classic game theory. It’s the prisoner’s dilemma. Of course they ought both to say they’d share. And of course, most weeks, one or both of them would get greedy and want it all.

Here’s a thing that self-publishers have to decide: to go exclusively with Amazon or not.

Amazon really want you to sign up to their exclusive programme (Select). If you’re in Select, they’ll let you run promotional days with your book available for free. They’ll let readers borrow your book and pay you for it. They’ll promote your book more via their own algorithms. And, as of today, they’ll sign your books up for Kindle Unlimited, their new subscription reading service. But if you’re in Select, you can’t sell your book anywhere else. You can’t give it away anywhere else. You’re not even really supposed to have excerpts on your own website, though I don’t think they enforce that one. You’ve agreed to make the book content exclusive to Amazon. That’s great for Amazon, obviously.

In the short term, it’s also been good for a lot of self-published authors. They’ve found that they can make more money from the Kindle lending library than they do in sales from other retailers. They like the extra boosts from the promo ops and the free days. They’ll probably make some money from the new scheme as well.

In the long term, I think it’s a disaster for self-publishing, and for most self-published authors. Amazon want to be the only game in town. They want exclusive content because they want to be the only online bookseller. That’s their end game. And once they get there, they’ll be in a position to dictate any terms they want to authors. Earlier this year they announced a drop in royalties on self-published audio books from 50-90% to a fixed 40%. For non-exclusive content, that dropped even lower, to 25%. They could do that because, for most self-publishers, the Amazon service is really the only way to get audio books made and distributed. Authors had no choice but to accept Amazon’s new terms, because they had nowhere else to go.

At the moment, I make about half my income on my self-published books from Amazon, and half elsewhere. If Amazon’s terms become too heinous, I can leave. I’ll lose out, but I won’t lose everything. If too many authors (especially the big name sellers) also found the terms too heinous and decided to leave, it could be enough to make them reconsider. Amazon needs content, especially for things like Unlimited, which means they need content providers. I don’t think they’re yet at a stage where they would risk dropping royalty rates on ebooks, or at least not by much. But if everyone were to sign their books up to Select, that would effectively put B&N and iTunes and Kobo out of the self-publishing marketplace. And that gives Amazon exactly what they want: power. Authors couldn’t pull their books, or threaten to, because there would be no alternative retailer to take them.

It’s in the best long-term interests of all self-published authors for there to be a competitive marketplace. Even if you don’t sell much at B&N, you are still better off because they are there. Even if your book is currently in Select, you are better off because B&N is still there.

And that’s the point about game theory. It’s true that you can make the quick grab now by giving Amazon exclusivity. But you can only do that because enough other people are sticking with the other markets and keeping Amazon honest (for some value of honest). If we all go for the grab, if we all throw all our books in with Amazon alone, we’re all going to lose out in the end.

Probably. I mean, I’m neither an economist nor a business analyst nor a game theorist. But I’m a farmer’s daughter. I know what it means to be a tiny supplier in a market dominated by huge corporate retailers. It’s bad enough trying to get a fair price for milk when there are five big supermarket buyers. But if there were only one? I shudder to think.

So, I’ll be keeping my books up on all available platforms, and I’ll be encouraging other authors to do the same.

What kind of happy ending?

I read Courtney Milan’s latest book last night and this morning. I really, really liked it. One of the things I like about it is the way it ends. I’m not going to spoil it for you but I am going to say what I did on twitter earlier. I think Free epitomises the ‘undiminished heroine’. That is, she ends the book with more opportunities and choices than she had at the start. She has her man, yes, of course. She has love, deep and fierce and real. She’s had to make choices and compromises. But when Edward says to his brother, “Haven’t you figured it out? I married her to unleash her on the world, not to keep her under wraps” we know that he means it, and that Free as Edward’s wife will be herself, only more so. He’s in a position to open doors for her at a practical level, but more importantly he doesn’t want her to change who she is, he wants to give her freedom to flourish. It’s not all about her, of course. He will be stronger and better with Free at his side than he would have been alone, and that is important too.

Something about the undiminished heroine trope speaks very strongly to me. It is the ultimate romantic fantasy for me. Not only that a woman should be loved so deeply and strongly, but also that being loved does not take away her choices. As Ridley put it on twitter, it’s a question of agency. The undiminished heroine does not lose agency by virtue of loving and being loved. She doesn’t always get to have it all, but she gets to make her own choices and compromises, and she will expect her man to do the same. Where there are compromises to be made, it won’t be assumed that she will be the one making them. Both parties will be stronger together and will work to give each other their dreams, whatever they happen to be. It’s not always about her getting the career or the external validation, but it is about self-realisation. She gets to decide who she will be. I want that. I want the fantasy that says I can be loved without giving up any of my dreams.

But there are other fantasies too and sometimes I want those. Miss Bates mentioned Betty Neels and it’s true, her heroines do not really fit into the undiminished mould. Whatever their aspirations are at the start of the book, however competent they are to achieve them, by the end they are given over wholly to the hero. A Betty Neels heroine always ends up as a wife, whose role is to run the house and have children. She’ll have gifts lavished upon her and all sorts of luxuries. She’ll be taken care of and provided for. She’ll be rescued.

When I’m tired. When life is hard. When I’m lonely or sad. When I’m not sure how I’m going to pay next month’s bills. That’s when I want a Betty Neels book. That’s when I want this sort of ending. To lie back and trust someone else to look after me. It sounds blissful, for about five minutes. And then I remember the sort of person that I am and realise that actually, I don’t want that life at all. I don’t want someone who’ll make all my decisions for me, on the assumption that he knows me better than myself. I don’t want everything that I am to be subsumed into my love for another person. I still want to be me.

How about a more realistic ending? One that does involve sacrifice. One that means making hard choices and giving up things that are important, because the relationship is more important. I like those books, too. I like heroes and heroines who have to talk about stuff like grown ups and can’t find an easy way to solve all the problems. I like that they have to commit to each other and forge a relationship based on compromise. I think those endings can be very satisfying, but for me, they aren’t quite the fantasy. They’re hopeful, because they paint a picture of what life might really be like, but they do leave me yearning for a better world.

That’s something that Free says, too. She isn’t turning the world upside down. It’s already upside down and she’s trying to set it straight. I think romance novels can do that, a little bit. At least they can show us what the world could be like, rather than what it is like.

By nature, I’m a hopeless idealist. I can’t get my head round politics because I just want to throw it all out and start from scratch. I’m not very good at working out the best way to deal with how things are, and I much prefer to think about how they ought to be. So I guess that’s why I like best the endings which offer me the fullest promise. I want to believe, at least for the time that it takes me to read a book, that the world can be re-made in order to make two lovers happy.

Category, continuity and familiarity

At the RNA conference I talked to several authors who write for the Harlequin Kiss/M&B Modern Tempted line. Or at least, authors who used to write for that line, since it’s being pulled. It’s had a chequered history, further complicated by the way it’s been marketed differently in different geographical markets. In a twitter discussion earlier, I wondered where writers like Kelly Hunter would now find their niche and several people said that her books used to be published as Presents/Modern. I was surprised by that, so I did a little googling.

I think her career is illustrative of the problems that Harlequin/M&B have had with marketing these younger, less angsty, less fantasy romances, so I’m going to take a little time to outline it.* Hunter’s one of my favourite contemporary romance writers and her books have won many accolades. I don’t know why she’s had so many rebrands, re-titled books, and moves across line but it sucks. She’s not the only one, of course. All of that contributes to the confusion surrounding the different lines and none of it is the author’s fault.

(The dates are UK release. Sometimes this was before the US release, sometimes later.)

2006:

Wife For a Week/The Trouble With Valentine’s: Modern Extra/Presents

Priceless/Bedded for Diamonds: Modern Extra/Presents

2007:

Sleeping Partner/Trouble in a Pinstripe Suit: Modern Extra/Presents Extra

2008:

Taken by the Bad Boy/The Maverick’s Greek Island Mistress: Modern Heat/Presents

2009:

Exposed: Misbehaving with the Magnate: Modern Heat/Presents

Revealed: A Prince and a Pregnancy: Modern Heat/Presents

Playboy Boss, Live In Mistress: Modern Heat/Presents

2010:

Untameable Rogue/Single Girl Abroad: Modern Heat/Presents Extra

Red-Hot Renegade/Her Singapore Fling/Single Girl Abroad: Modern Heat/Presents Extra

2011:

The Man She Loves to Hate: RIVA/Presents Extra

Flirting With Intent: RIVA/Presents Extra

2012:

Cracking the Dating Code: RIVA/Presents Extra

With This Fling: RIVA/Presents Extra

2013

The One That Got Away: Modern/Kiss

What The Bride Didn’t Know: Modern Tempted/Kiss

40% (6/15) of her books have had more than one title. That’s tough to deal with when you’re trying to build a brand. Fortunately, the re-titling seems to have mostly stopped.

In the UK, she’s written for Modern Extra, Modern Heat, RIVA and Modern Tempted. One of her most recent books, The One That Got Away, came out as a Modern. With that exception, all her books have actually come out in the same line here since Modern Extra, Modern Heat, RIVA and Modern Tempted are renamed, rebranded versions of more-or-less the same thing. At some points they have been branded to look very similar to the Modern line and at other times they have been branded completely differently. With the shift to RIVA, the line expanded to include some authors who had previously written for Romance, and thus had a lower heat level than the Modern Heat books. But the overall feel of the line was much the same. I’ve written before about the distinction between Modern and Modern Heat (and how it’s nothing to do with heat).

Four rebrands for that line in 8 years. That’s a LOT. No wonder readers are confused. There were periods when the line disappeared altogether. There were times when books with old and new covers were available simultaneously. You had to work hard to follow what was going on. And it seems, since the line is finally being pulled, that none of the re-launches had the desired effect of reaching a new (younger?) audience. It’s impossible to know what would have happened if they’d messed around with the branding less, but I can’t feel that the chopping and changing helped.

In the US, it is even more complicated. Several of Hunter’s books were Presents and several were Presents Extra. The One That Got Away was one of the launch titles for the Kiss line, which was somewhat unfortunate since it’s really much darker than most of Hunter’s books and didn’t suit the line at all. And was given a massively inappropriate cover.

The One That Got Away UK cover:

The One That Got Away US cover:



There are no yellow balloons in that book.

Presents Extra was always a mix of some books that were M&B Modern and some that were Modern Extra/Heat/RIVA. I think that must have been incredibly frustrating and confusing, since the two lines really are quite different. Kelly Hunter’s books and Lynne Graham’s books, much as I love them both, have virtually nothing in common. If you’re hoping for something Graham-esque and you get something Hunter-esque, you have every right to be disappointed.

So, I have no idea what the future is. It’s not obvious to me, from here in the UK, that Hunter would write for Modern, since she’s only had one Modern title before, and that was somewhat atypical of her style. I can see exactly why US readers might expect her to write for Presents, though, since her books have always been divided between Presents and Presents Extra. I’ve always thought of her voice as the epitome of the RIVA/Kiss/Extra line – it’s fun, it’s contemporary, it’s intelligent, it’s sexy but it’s not high-fantasy laden with dramatic emotional intensity. It’s not what I’m expecting when I buy a Modern.

And that’s the thing. Category romance is predicated on the idea of selling a consistent product. People want to know what they’re getting when they buy a Presents or a RIVA or a Modern Extra Hot Pepperoni. Rebranding and remixing the lines is ALWAYS going to have some negative fallout because it removes that confidence. When a category line is new – or looks new – it’s unfamiliar and it’s uncertain. So if you’re going to launch a new line, you’ve got to be sure the positive gains will outweigh that. You need – through your branding and your titles – to make it crystal clear what promise the line makes to its readers. And, I think, you have to give the new line enough time to settle in and become familiar.

I guess the decision will be different for all the Kiss authors. Maybe some will move back to Romance/Cherish. Others to the intensity of Modern/Presents. Maybe some will move to single title, or another publisher. A few have written Cosmo Red Hot Reads and I can see that being a natural home for some of these voices. I’ll read whatever Kelly Hunter writes next, but I’ll be a bit sad if there isn’t a home for books like hers in a Harlequin/M&B category line any more.

*I’m slightly worried that this post comes across as obsessively stalkerish and I don’t mean it to be! I thought it was helpful to talk about the category changes in terms of a single author’s career because it’s much easier to understand in concrete terms. And I picked Hunter because I’ve read all her books, I think she has a very distinctive voice, and she’s gone through a lot of the changes I wanted to talk about. It’s not really meant to be a post about Kelly Hunter. I’m sure she understands her own career better than I do! Also, because it’s a post about Harlequin/M&B, I haven’t included the details of her other books.

RNA Conference day 2

Up with the lark and over to the college in good time for my editor appointment. I re-read my chapter and synopsis and made some notes of things I thought I might want to emphasise that didn’t really come out in the synopsis. And tried not to panic.

Reader, I babbled. I babbled about cows and piglets. I babbled about my previous publishing career. I babbled about the book. Eventually I remembered to stop talking and let her say something. She said she liked it! She liked my writing. She thought it was exciting and hooked her from the first page. She pointed out that most of the conflict in the first chapter is external, and she felt that the hero in particular needed more backstory to beef up his emotional conflict. And she wants me to email her three chapters. So hooray!

After a cup of tea, during which I managed not to break any cups, I went to Jessica Hart/Pamela Hartshorne’s session on writing in two genres. She doesn’t write in two genres of romance, she writes in romance and non-romance historical time-slip. It was fascinating to hear about her career. She started writing category romance to fund her PhD… She’s written 60 M&B’s and 2 mainstream novels, and she was very honest about the differences between the two, including some of her assumptions about writing mainstream books that turned out not quite to be the case. I waited to talk to her at the end and she kindly signed the book I’d brought to send to Miss Bates.

We walked over to the plenary session on ‘The Future of Romantic Fiction’ featuring a panel which included the presidents of the RNA (Pia Fenton), RWAus (Nikki Logan) and the Historical Novel Society (Richard Lee). Also Katie Fforde. Mostly this was a Q&A session. Mostly it was a bit disappointing and discouraging, with quite an overtone of defeatism. The person who was really impressive was Nikki Logan. Australia, you are lucky to have her!

After lunch, I spent an hour wandering round the site to find someone who could tell me the security code for the swimming pool, during which time the sun disappeared behind black clouds. Eventually I did get the code and I did swim and it was nice, but not quite the warm, sunny time I had hoped for.

I made it back in time for a session on ‘The Future of Bookselling’. Apparently the panel were expecting this to be a Q&A session, though there was nothing to indicate that on the programme. No one was chairing the panel and as a result, the discussion was a mess. There were some great questions from the floor which the panel sometimes were unable to answer and at other times appeared not even to understand. If the future of bookselling really were in the hands of people like this, I would be worried. Oh, wait. The panel consisted of an agent, a Big Five editor, a small press publisher, and a major bricks and mortar UK retailer. Terrific. I was quite shocked, actually. I can get personal anecdata about reading an ebook and then going out to buy it in print anywhere. I was hoping for a bit more actual data from industry professionals. I don’t expect everyone to have precise numbers at their fingertips, but some ballpark understanding of the market would have been nice. The insightful comments mostly came from the floor – selling through subscription, through Blinkbox, bundling ebooks and paperbooks, and so on.

Anyway.

I caught up with a couple of people over tea and finally got an answer to a question I’ve been asking on and off for ages: why should I become a member of the RNA? Apparently, you get good discounts on rooms at the In and Out Club in London. That’s worth knowing. Also, they’d all been to much better sessions while I was swimming. Ah, well.

So, I’m glad I made the decision to go to the conference. I think two days is plenty for this introvert and I’m glad to be home in the quiet of my shed tonight. I met some great people I’d previously only known online and had some fun and very useful conversations. I had a good outcome from my editor appointment. I learned things from several of the sessions I attended.

I admit, I am still not really sure whether the RNA is worth joining. If I thought they had a vision and strategy for where the organisation is going, I would be more inclined to support them in that. I know it’s run by volunteers, but I don’t think that means it has to be amateurish. But as it is, money is tight and that £50 could be well-spent on other things, and I think I’ll be happy to pay the non-member supplement if I want to go to the conference again.

RNA Conference

Is happening. Today, tomorrow and Sunday. I am only going today and tomorrow and, since it is happening half an hour away from where I live, I am going as a day visitor. I write this from the comfort of my own home at the end of the first day.

It’s being held at the agricultural college where my brother was a student, many years ago, and which is now calling itself a university. I mean, it is a university and they are allowed to call themselves that, but it is still basically an agricultural college. I spent some happy minutes communing with the cattle and then falling in love with some tiny baby piglets that were only a couple of hours old. Outside, it smells like a proper farm, which makes me very happy.

Inside, there were no farm smells.

There was a LARGE goody bag. I have divided the contents into: readable stuff (7 books!), useful stuff (pens, paper, cards), edible stuff (chocolate, biscuits, tea bag), and other stuff (flyers, postcards, business cards). I was going to be really dismissive about the value of the ‘other stuff’ except I have already bought one book on the basis of the bookmark (Say it with Sequins). Whereas I have eaten all the chocolate and haven’t bought any of the books they were supposed to advertise. So there’s something. The teabag is a really brilliant idea for residential conferences, I think.

Anyway, I was loitering forlornly in the reception area when someone waved me over enthusiastically. To point out that I was wearing my cardigan inside out. Excellent. Turns out she wrote that fun re-telling of Much Ado About Nothing I read earlier this year.

And then, and then one of the people I REALLY wanted to talk to came over to say hello to me! Amy Andrews who was only there today, in the middle of a family holiday to the UK. We had a great chat and I only wished I’d had longer to pick her brains properly. But then we were joined by Fiona Harper and Lucy King and I started to get all starstruck.

The first session I went to was a Mills and Boon thing. The main take home message was: Everyone wants to be Sarah Morgan*, a sentiment with which I wholeheartedly concur.

Then I broke half the teacups by mistake. In the manner of a cutely klutzy romance heroine, perhaps. Though no dashing hero stepped forward to rescue me so I ran away. And then Jessica Hart asked me if I was Ros who did the funny tweets and I no longer cared about anything else.

After ‘tea’ there was the main welcome session which was a mix of tedious housekeeping and announcements of various achievements. I am ashamed to admit that I got the giggles at the announcement of a book which comes with accompaniment of folk music composed and performed by the author. Courtney Milan, your enhanced ebooks have some way to go to beat that.

I went to the M&B single title session next and spent the time outlining a book set on a cruise ship. And then I went to the drinks party sponsored by Amazon Independent Publishing. Thanks for the warm orange juice, Amazon! And then I had had enough of people so I came home. I bought fish and chips on the way and ate them out in the garden. Lovely.

Tomorrow I have to get up Very Early because I have an appointment with a M&B editor to talk about my sheikh book. The appointment is not that early but there is a local show happening two fields away from the agricultural college and I predict that the traffic will be vile.

But tonight I am giving books away! I already gave the Sarah Morgan book away on twitter, and I’m keeping a couple of the others, but I have these up for grabs. I’ll chuck in some of the other swag too, probably (unless you live on the other side of the world and it makes the postage extortionate). Just leave a comment and I’ll contact the winner of each next week.

*Okay, there was more to it than that. And possibly some people don’t want to be Sarah Morgan, more fool them.

Big Fat Book week one

I said on twitter a couple of days ago that I’m enjoying my BFB read so much it almost feels like cheating. After reading Wolf Hall in the spring, Bring Up The Bodies is wonderfully familiar and I am lapping it up. It’s not just knowing the characters and the setting (and indeed many of the events, since this is historical fiction). It’s also feeling comfortable with Mantel’s prose. These books are very different from my normal genre fare and it did take quite a lot of perseverance a the beginning of Wolf Hall. Miss Bates is reading Wolf Hall for this BFB challenge and she has some characteristically insightful comments about how she has found the exercise. I am happy that Miss Bates is persevering and being won over by the book.

Earlier today, there was a twitter conversation about the appeal of the familiar vs. the challenge of the new. I admit, familiarity is one of the main things which appeals to me about genre fiction. I love to know that I can find a particular reading experience, a particular emotional satisfaction, a particular kind of comfort. I used to be a big re-reader, and I am a bit sad that since the arrival of the Kindle I’ve mostly stopped re-reading. New ebooks are much cheaper and more readily available. If I want, I can buy a new book when I’m already in my pyjamas without having to leave the house. I am not good at resisting that sort of temptation, so I buy a lot more new books now. But even when I’m reading new books, I am choosing authors who are known to me, category lines I am familiar with, tropes that are tried and tested. I am a cautious reader and it takes a concerted effort to make me try something different.

So I’m glad for the BFB challenge which made me pick up Wolf Hall in March. I sort of wish I’d read Bring Up The Bodies earlier and chosen something else new this time. I won’t abandon my choice now, though, since I know I’ll be away with limited reading time from July 20th to 30th. I do think I am going to try to be more deliberate in reading outside my comfort zone in the future though. I’m going to compile a short list of non-genre books I want to read and try for one every other month.

How are you getting on with your BFBs? I know Sunita had one false start but is now racing away with her second choice. Feel free to check in with your progress (or lack of it) here, or link to posts elsewhere. But don’t worry if you haven’t got far, there’s still plenty of time.

Facebook and mental health

Facebook have a terrible history of over-riding privacy settings, of manipulating news feeds, of treating their users as commodities. Fine. That’s the price you pay for using their product. I don’t like it, but I get it. Up until now, that’s been a price I’ve been prepared to pay because I like what Facebook does for me. It’s the best way I know of maintaining long-distance friendships. I like the way that Facebook allows you to share the everyday, the mundane, the details that make up lives. To me, those things are at least as important for friendship as the big things of life.

Over the last few years, I’ve struggled a lot with my mental health. Social media has been a huge thing for me in coping with some of the most difficult times. When I’ve felt isolated from the world, internet friends have been consistently there.

It helps to know that other people are there. It helps to see what they had for breakfast, to hear the things their kids have said, to see the pictures of their pets, to know that life goes on.

It helps to know that other people are listening. To know that I can say how I’m feeling and be honest when things are tough, and know that people will hear and respond and love me.

It helps to know that I’m not the only one. To listen and offer words of love to other people who are facing tough times, and especially others who are suffering with depression.

It helps to laugh and be silly. To sort Heyer characters into Harry Potter houses, and to cast the Strictly Come Dancing team as Heyer characters (BOW STREET RUNNER). To forget the things that weigh me down whilst I’m having fun.

LiveJournal. Facebook. Ravelry. Twitter. Blog friends. These communities have been vital for me in recovering and maintaining my mental health.

So, you know what, Facebook, I don’t give my consent to be part of your psychology ‘experiment’. I don’t want you manipulating my feed in an attempt to manipulate my emotions. I daren’t take that risk. Because I know my mental health is fragile and I know how important my Facebook friends are. And if you decide that you’re going to show me the things that create negative emotions, I might not be able to cope. Maybe you already did that. Maybe some of the worst days I’ve had in the last few years were part of your ‘experiment’. How do I know?

I don’t want to go back on the medication. I don’t want to go back to the days where I couldn’t get out of bed. I don’t want to be sick again.

I don’t just feel used by this experiment. I feel threatened by it.

And not just me. There are people with much more serious mental health issues than me. Did you ever stop to think about them, Facebook? Did you ever consider that manipulating people’s emotions could do them serious harm? What about the person with suicidal thoughts? What about your bipolar users? What about the self-harmers? I don’t know how much damage you’ve inflicted, Facebook. I can’t bear to think about it.

I can’t leave Facebook immediately. I have some professional things there that will take a few weeks to disentangle. But I’m going. Because staying is too scary.

Summer Big Fat Book Readalong

Back in March, Sunita and Keishon planned to read big books from their TBR pile and invited others to join them. I loved the challenge and took it as an opportunity to pick up and read a book that I had started and laid aside several years earlier, Hilary Mantel’s wonderful Wolf Hall. I liked the accountability and fun of reading alongside others. And I liked having the deadline to aim for. I read a lot of shorter fiction, these days, and I don’t read much non-genre fiction either. Big books can feel burdensome when you’re used to finishing things quickly. If you’ve got a large TBR pile, it’s tempting to stick with the things you can cross off quickly, rather than the hefty tomes which can make it feel as though you’re making no progress. But there’s another thing going on for many readers, I think. Sunita’s talked about that too: The Way We Read Now. Digital content packaged in smaller pieces, with links enabling constant switching from one thing to another. If you’re reading a book on a tablet, are you also checking your email/twitter feed? I love immersive reading. I love sinking into a book and forgetting the world around me. I love reading for so long that I’ve no idea what time it is and I’m only brought back to the real world because I have to go to the loo or get a drink. That’s one of the things I love about LONG books: you can spend a long time with them.

So, with the northern-hemisphere summer, it seemed like a good idea to have another Big Fat Book readalong in July. The rules are the same as before: there are no rules. Well, okay, there is one rule: it has to be a book. Audio is fine. TV miniseries is not. It can be genre fiction, nonfiction, classic fiction, whatever you like. It can be the same book you started but didn’t finish in March, or it can be something completely new. There is no minimum page limit. If it feels like a Big Fat Book to you, it counts. I am planning to read the sequel to Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies. We’ll start on July 1st and aim to finish by the end of the month.

I found that having the book on my Kindle really helped in March. I could easily track my daily progress – read 3 or 4% each day and you know you’ll be done by the end of the month. Plus you don’t have to lug a big heavy book around. And if you have a dedicated e-reader, it minimises the temptation to just check twitter again… But you don’t have to do it my way. Some people find that audio books work well for them. Others love the feel of a beautiful hardback.

I’ll try to put up a check in post once a week so we can talk about what we’re reading and how we’re finding the experience. If you’re chatting about it on twitter, use the #summerbfb hashtag.

So, are you in?

What’s on my Kindle: cruise edition

I have been reading. A lot. Some great books and some not-so-great. Here’s the rundown:



Her Kind of Trouble by Sarah Mayberry

Fun, sweet contemporary romance with real emotional depth. I like Mayberry Superromances a lot and this was a good one.



What A Bride Wants by Kelly Hunter

I’m not sure I really believed the conflict in this one, but Hunter’s writing is always fun. It’s the second of the Montana Brides books I’ve read and while I enjoyed both, they didn’t make me rush out to get the others.



Her Client From Hell by Louisa George

Hmm. I think I’m about done with books about heroines who cook for a living.



Gambling with the Crown by Lynn Raye Harris

Secretary and sheikh story. It was okay, but there was a lot of sequel baiting.



Whisper of Scandal by Nicola Cornick

Loved the idea of the journey to the Arctic, though I wished there had been more time on the ship than in the preparations. I really liked the romance in this one and I was glad for Joanna and Alex to find their well-deserved happy ending. The plot moppet was even more of a cipher than usual.



Romancing the Duke by Tessa Dare

I admit I was put off by the premise of this whole series in which heroines suddenly inherit castles. Although it has long been a daydream of mine that I will unexpectedly inherit, say, Blenheim Palace, so perhaps I shouldn’t mock. It features a hero who is conveniently blind at times and can see things at other times. Also a ludicrous backstory for the heroine. Nonetheless, Dare managed to hook me in and make me cheer for the Knights of Moranglia against my better judgment.



Sweet Disorder by Rose Lerner

The knockout hit of the whole holiday. This was a delight from start to finish. I said on Twitter that it reminded me of Trollope’s wonderful Palliser novels, and of course it is not the same, but I could easily imagine Lady Tassell and Lady Glencora inhabiting the same world. There is a quite wonderful heroine and a hero who is worthy of her. There are plots and scandals and electioneering and a small town community that is perfectly realised. The best historical romance I’ve read this year, easily.

The Vicar’s Wife by Katharine Swartz (aka Kate Hewitt)

This is women’s fiction, rather than romance, and so it made me cry. I enjoyed it very much, with the two stories of women who both found it hard to move to the remote Cumbrian vicarage (modelled on the one Kate lives in). One story is set in present day and the other in the 1930′s-40′s. The connection between the two stories isn’t overdone but it’s enough to keep both narratives moving.

Things I still have on the kindle that I didn’t get round to reading:

Bring up the Bodies

Special Interests

Always a Stranger

I also bought a paper copy of Meredith Duran’s Fool Me Twice which I haven’t opened yet, and I have a pile of Jo Beverleys and also The Rosie Project which people have lent me. So although I have declared a book-buying embargo for June, I don’t think I shall be short of something to read.

What have you been reading lately? And what should I line up to buy as soon as the month is over?!!