Rhoda Baxter's Blog, page 48

After #TenThingsNotToSayToAuthors – what SHOULD you say?

I was looking through the #TenThingsNotToSayToAWriterfeed a couple of days ago and came across this:

I propose that readers don’t talk to authors at all. Or at least that’s what I get from the #TenThingsNotToSayToAWriter hashtag

— DearAuthor (@dearauthor) July 28, 2015

I can understand the sentiment behind the tweet, but my first thought was ‘but genuine readers never say any of the things the authors are tweeting about’. I’ve heard a lotof the comments tweeted under the hashtag in real lif...

Goodreads Book Review: The Lie by C.L. Taylor

The Lie by C.L. Taylor

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I started reading this book on the train on the way to the Romantic Novelists Association Conference. This conference is the highlight of my year (wait, this IS relevant, I promise). By the time I got to my destination, I was most of the way through this book, but I had to put it aside to go and do conferencey socialising type things and all I wanted to do was go find out what happened to Emma and Co!
In the end, I stayed up very, very late so th...

Goodreads Book Review: 25 Ways to Sell More Romance Kindle Books

25 ways to sell more romance kindle books: use these 25 advanced tactics to become a bestselling author on amazon by Nina Harrington

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I found this book very useful. There are some very well thought out tips and the analysis of the best seller lists (it’s not rocket science, but it does take time to think it all through) is very interesting. It’s aimed at indie publishers who have complete control over their books, but it would be useful for trad/small press authors too...

#RNAConf15 notes on How to Organise a Blog Tour and how to limit Google searches to recent results

I gave a talk at the Romantic Novelists Association conference this year on ‘Organising a Blog Tour; A Guide For the Terrified’. I promised the people who came to my talk, that I would post my notes on my website. So Ta-dah! You can download them by clicking on the pretty picture below – it should download as a Word document.

How to organise a blog tour

I mentioned in my talk that you could limit your Google searches to the most recent results. Here’s how you do it:

Put the name of the author...

Part Six: In The Romaniac Sparkle Spotlight Is …

Originally posted on The Romaniacs:

Rhoda Baxter, Clare Harvey & Catherine Miller

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Emotionally abusive relationships in fiction

I’ve been watching the whole thing about #AskELJames with interest. I haven’t read 50 Shades. I read the first chapter and decided it wasn’t for me. So I can’t comment on the books. What interests me is the discussion about abusive relationships that it’s raised (again).

As I mentioned, I haven’t read 50 shades. But I have read Twilight, and I find the relationship between Bella and Edward very disturbing indeed. Firstly, Bella talks the talk about wanting to be independent and not get marrie...

Inheritance Books: Liz Harris

This week’s Inheritance Books are from my fellow Choc Lit author, Liz Harris. I’ve known Liz through the Oxford chapter of the RNA from way before either of us were published, so I’m delighted that she finally made it to the Inheritance Books sofa. I’ve baked a chocolate cake especially for the occasion.

Hi Liz, welcome to Inheritance Books. While I get us some cake, why don’t you introduce yourself.

Thank you very much for inviting me to chat about books with you today, Rhoda; it’s a lovely...

How do you know where to end your novel?

How do you know if it’s the right ending?

I’m not naturally a plotter, nor am I able to just sit down and magically create. I’m somewhere in between. So I always start off with a plan. It’s usually a proper story, you know, with a beginning a middle and an end and turning points and all that. I know the big stuff that happens. The rest… well, I have to write to find out the rest. Mostly,I write the thing and realise that the story the characters want to tell doesn’t actually fit very well wit...

Inheritance Books: Suzanne from Lavender Librarian

It’s a huge pleasure to have one of my favourite book bloggers on Inheritance Books. Suzanne’s Librarian Lavender blog not only showcases great books, she also showcases some amazing Etsy shops on her blog. (I blame her for my out of control Etsy habit).

Hi Suzanne, welcome to Inheritance Books. Would you like a biscuit – fresh from the oven? While they cool down, why don’t you tell us a bit about yourself?

My name is Suzanne and I’m 34 years old. I’m living together with my husband in a seas...

Six things I was wrong about six years ago (and Happy Birthday Choc Lit!)

Six things I was wrong about six years ago.

My lovely publisher, Choc Lit is six years old today. Yay! As part of the celebrations, we Choc Lit authors are blogging around the theme of six.I was going to write ‘six reasons I like having Choc Lit as a publisher’, or ‘Six books published by Choc Lit that I love’*, but decided to write this oneinstead. Don’t ask me why. It was late at night.

So here are six things I believed in six years ago, that I’ve subsequently realised are not true:

Publi...