Martin Pond's Blog, page 3

On the high street

So I've just delivered some copies of Drawn To The Deep End to the excellent Kett's Books in Wymondham, Norfolk so if you wanted to buy a physical copy from a physical (and lovely!) book shop, you now can.

More about Kett's Books: www.kettsbooks.co.uk

Breaking radio silence... for exciting news

A very quick note to say I have been in discussions with a local bookshop regarding them stocking Drawn To The Deep End. And it looks like it's going to happen!

More details to follow as soon as I am actually on their shelves...

100 days starts here

I've been slack of late. Very slack. I haven't written very much at all, and have disguised the fact by recycling old words and by trying to launch another project that will require me to edit but not write.

But writers write, right?

So, inspired by an excellent writer of my acquaintance, I'm going to try the whole #100DaysOfWriting thing. You know, where you try and write something (anything!) for 100 days in a row, and post about your progress, or lack thereof, on that there Twitter (hence the hashtagging).

Today is about to be #Day1 for me, which will make August 11th #Day100. Let's see how this goes.

Another review I'm quite proud of. Sorry.

Again, I crave your indulgence.

JC is a long-time and respected blogger, author of the excellent New Vinyl Villain blog, where he writes predominantly about music. There are few finer music blogs out there, in my view, so imagine my delight on discovering that, not only has he just read Drawn To The Deep End, he's reviewed it too; here's an extract:

Peter is a brilliantly drawn character, someone who will run the full gamut of your emotions and catch you off-guard every now and again; you will have empathy and sympathy one moment but it won’t be too long before you want to grab him by the throat and shout ‘what the fuck??’ into his face to get him to see sense. The book is also populated by a cast of wonderful co-stars, especially from the world of work where the sheer one-dimensional aspect of so many of them struck a chord, given my own experiences in different offices over the past 30+ years with colleagues who have displayed many of the traits on show across the 230-odd pages – I might even admit, with a sense of shame, of seeing something of my younger cocky and arrogant self in parts of the minor characters. It is a book that also contains some of the most moving passages anyone will ever read on just how difficult, draining, frustrating and ultimately heart-breaking it is to be responsible for a demented and elderly parent.

I'm a bit humbled by reviews like this, if truth be told.

You can read the full review on JC's always-excellent blog, right here. And, of course, Drawn To The Deep End is here. Cheers.

A Drawn To The Deep End preview

It's not perfect, in that some of the format is a little out of whack (why oh why does this display the first paragraph of a chapter with a hanging indent, for example?), but Amazon offer an embeddable preview of the e-books they sell. So ... here's an embedded preview of Drawn To The Deep End. Enjoy. Then buy. Then review (like this... or these). Hey, it doesn't hurt to ask, right?

I won't do this every time, but...

...I just wanted to draw attention to a review that I'm particularly proud of. Indulge me, please.

Rol Hirst is a long-time and respected blogger, part-time writer, comic-book author and all-round good guy. He's just read and reviewed Drawn To The Deep End; here's an extract from his review:

Drawn To The Deep End is an intense character study of Peter, a man driven to the verge of depression by the death of his girlfriend, trying desperately to claw his way out, grasping at any straw (often straw women) that bends his way. It's a book that has a lot to say about being a lonely 30-something man in this day and age... and as someone who was just that ten or so years ago (and maybe only my age has changed, in some ways), I related to it very much. It's also very funny - shot through with dark observational humour that makes you wince and nod and wish you'd written it yourself. You may end up screaming at Peter. He does make some very unwise decisions. But you'll understand why, every step of the way. What is "happiness", anyway?

I'm quietly chuffed with that, especially the bit in bold.

You can read the full review on Rol's always-excellent blog, right here.

If you're interested in Rol's own novel (and you should be, it's terrific), you'll be wanting this link to I Wish, Wish, Wish You Were Dead, Dead, Dead. And, of course, Drawn To The Deep End is here.

This just in... first reviews!

Reviews (and, gratifyingly, lots of stars) are starting to appear on Amazon for Drawn To The Deep End - you can hover over each review quote in the image below for a bit more info, and click the quote to read the review in full.

Read Drawn To The Deep End? Care to leave a review?

The reality of self-marketing self-published books

Sale now on...

Get a new device for Christmas? An e-reader or a new tablet/phone with e-book reading software on? Then you'll be wanting to fill it up, right? So lucky for you I'm running a bit of a sale, right now.

The e-book version of my novel, Drawn To The Deep End, is on a countdown deal - that means it starts off reduced as far as it's going to be and then gradually returns to full price. Here it is:

And if that's not good enough for you, some short stories (Turn Around Where Possible and Cold) and non-fiction essay (Tesc-No - living without supermarkets) are all free for a limited time. Look...

  

And, if Amazon isn't your thing, you can currently pick up a half-price e-book of my first collection of short fiction, Dark Steps, by buying it from Smashwords and using the promo code SEY50. That's five-zero, not five-o. Or, the paperback version is currently running with 15% off at Lulu.

Belated happy Christmas to you all.

These things I have learned

Don't get any big ideas

So, two months ago I self-published my debut novel, Drawn To The Deep End. That followed ten months of hawking it around agents and publishers, which in turn followed nearly a year of editing and five years of writing.

At the time of writing this, that novel has sold two dozen copies. Subtract the copies bought by family and close friends and you can probably halve that number. Subtract those bought by former colleagues and schoolmates who are curious, and you can probably reduce that number to zero.

So what have I learned from the whole, painful process?

If, like me, you take five years to write 80,000 words of novel, you've been prevaricating and, as Harold Bishop once said, prevarication is the enemy of achievement. I know it can be hard to find the time, but make time. There will always be other things to do, so prioritise. Writers write, right?Don't edit alone. Yes, do the first and second pass edits yourself but then you need to bring other people in. Not only will they spot things you don't, they're also not biased about your precious words and will have no issue with ripping up that para you think is the best thing since sliced bread (but really isn't).Target your submissions. There are only so many publishers that accept unagented works... so focus on agents. And revise. If your novel is a space-opera, don't waste the time of agents looking for historical fiction. And if the agency has more than one agent, take the time to read their profiles online, and then pick the one (i.e. don't carpet-bomb them all) whose interests align closest with what you've written.Be realistic when you get feedback. It's easy to be flattered by phrases like "whilst your story stood out" or "whilst this shows promise", but they still begin with a "whilst" get-out clause; you're still being rejected, as in that other phrase "I'm afraid this isn't for me". Realise that agents receive untold submissions and there's a good chance that the response you get will incorporate some boilerplate text.And now something specific to my attempted submissions: if you write a novel about a grief-ridden 30-something slacker who wants to die but can't kill himself, so instead sets off on a destructive path of increasingly erratic and reprehensible behaviour, surrounded by unlikeable characters, all doing unpleasant things, you might have to accept that this novel is not widely marketable and will not be for most people. And that most people includes agents and publishers.When you self-publish a novel and it sells two dozen copies in its first seven weeks, don't get too excited. That's your family, friends, and social media acquaintances being polite and/or curious. You can't give up the day job just yet...

What did I miss?