Helena Halme's Blog, page 22

Five books for Mother’s Day

It’s Mother’s Day in the UK this coming Sunday and I thought I’d recommend a few books I think would make brilliant gifts. What could be a better present for a mother than a book? Here are the five titles that I think mothers (and grandmothers) will enjoy reading.

Marry in Haste by Debbie Young

I reviewed Debbie Young’s wonderful collection of short stories on this blog last week (link below this post), but if you

missed it, this is a clever and heart-warming book about the different stages of a relationship from ‘Seeking’ and ‘Committing’ to ‘Enduring’.

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

I’ve just started reading this novel by the Italian author Elena Ferrante, and already absolutely love the narrative. This is book one in a series called ‘Neapolitan Novels’, and takes the reader to 1950s Napoli – to the vibrant, dark and scary world of 11-year old Elena and her best friend Lina.

Finland Forevermore by Diana Webster

This is a second part to an autobiography by British-born Diana Webster, who moved to Finland in 1952 for nine months – and is still there. ‘Finland Forever‘, the first part of her life story,  deals with those first months, when she came straight from Oxford to teach English to Finns. This second instalment is set in the 1950s and early 60s, when Helsinki was teeming with spies, a fact everyone knew about but was never officially talked about, or mentioned. Just the sort of autobiography I will love.

Celebrating Grandmothers by Ann Richardson
Ann Richardson with her book, Celebrating Grandmothers.by Ann Richardson

This book is about the views and experiences of grandmothers, as told by grandmothers themselves. Ann Richardson has spent a life-time writing entertaining factual books about people’s experiences, and I think this, her latest publication, would be a perfect gift for a granny!

Three Wishes by Liane Moriarty

I have to admit to being slightly obsessed with Liane Moriarty. Her stories are all utterly engaging,

and once I start reading one of her books, I cannot put it down. Three Wishes came out at the end of January, and I’m saving it for my forthcoming skiing holiday to Sweden. (And I have to be very strict with myself so that I don’t start reading it before I leave).

The novel is about three sisters, who are all living very different lives. “Through everything, the bonds of the sisters are strong enough to withstand whatever life throws at them. That is until the night of their thirty-fourth birthday dinner, when home truths are revealed and things are said that can’t be taken back . . . ”

Here are my suggestions, hope you liked them.

Happy Mother’s Day!

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Marry in Haste by Debbie Young – Book review

Marry in Haste by Debbie Young is a lively selection of short stories around marriage, love and relationships in general. They are arranged in three sections, Seeking, Committing and Enduring.

And here I have to come clean: I don’t usually much enjoy short stories. And yet, I read Marry in Haste in two evenings flat.

I enjoyed the first part, Seeking, most, but then as a romance fiction writer, I guess this is the part of the relationship which I find the most exciting. There’s a short tale of a woman who finds love in a lunch queue, and an amusing story about two very different friends, Joanna and Clare, and their conversation about men.

Joanna, more of a cat person, never took much notice of Clare’s dog. She secretly regarded George as a poor substitute for the ideal man that Clare had yet to find. Joanna was never short of men.

The second part, Committing, has a hilarious story about a couple whose conversation about wedding lists takes a surprising turn. This section ends with ‘An Appetite for Marriage’, which recounts the effect different tastes in food can have on a relationship.

The third and last part of the book is called Enduring, with five stories on the more mature relationships. Out of this final collection one story stood out for me. ‘The New Coat’ features a man buying a new hiking jacket for his wife. It’s a clever juxtaposition of the attitudes of the young versus the old, and of modern political correctness.

And it is Debbie Young’s cleverness as an author and storyteller that shines through in this collection, which I highly recommend. Debbie Young may have changed my attitude to short stories for ever.

Marry in Haste is available on Amazon, click here for more information on the book, and here for more about the author, Debbie Young.

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Three small changes

I’ve talked here a lot about my daily writing routine, and shared with you how waking up earlier in the morning is a great way to get more writing done. (Doh!)

Buoyed by this experience, I decided to try out other changes to increase my motivation, and boost my energy during the working week. I thought I’d share with you three small changes that have made me a happier author/entrepreneur.

1. Treating yourself

I love flowers, but recently I’ve felt a bit reluctant to spend extra cash, and rather wanted to invest every penny into my new venture. But when The Englishman bought some daffodils, and there were a few too many for one vase, I popped the rest into a small Aalto one and brought them into my office.

Now, this may seem silly, but you’ve no idea how much pleasure the sight of those flowers slowly opening up over the next few days gave me. Each time I came into the office and settled at my desk, a little smile hovered over my lips when I saw the daffodils. I decided that even if money is tight, you need to treat yourself occasionally.

2. Networking is pure gold

While I never seem to have enough time for all the writing, editing, outline designing, keyword tinkering, marketing, blogging, posting on social media, or organising adverts, I’ve found that it’s important to take time to meet and talk with other writers and people in general. Writing is a very lonely profession, and the walls of the office can sometimes feel as if they’re closing in on me. Besides, a discussion with someone to bounce off ideas, or just to complain about the cost of fresh flowers can be more productive than one might imagine.

Me with the fabulous Danny from West End Lane Books in London

Visiting bookshops, for example, is an excellent way to both raise your profile, get your work into a shopfront, or just have a lovely day out of the office browsing books and seeing what is happening in the book world.

Today I met a fabulous woman whose career has taken her all over the world. Her eventful life story wouldn’t fit inside the covers of War and Peace. We met because we had friends in common, and she wanted to find out about my new writing life. Because one of her areas of expertise is PR, in turn I got some invaluable advice and ideas on how to approach a new project I have in mind. (Sorry, can’t talk about it yet!)

I’ve also noticed that if I have a meeting in town and it takes up a quarter, or half of my day, I am more productive for the rest of the time. As long as I actually do get back home and don’t get waylaid by happy hour cocktails….

The new books are here!

Holding a book that you’ve written in your hands for the first time is always magical. I can’t fully describe the feeling; it’s a bit like holding your newborn baby without the mess, or physical pain (although there is enough agony involved in producing a book). But obviously creating a new life cannot be compared to creating a mere romantic novel, however exciting it is.

To show you all how I felt when I saw final copies of The Navy Wife for the first time, here is a recording of the momentous event. The delivery today also included the first book in the series, The Englishman, in its brand new cover designed by Studio Emmi. Hope you enjoy my first attempt at making a video.

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Advice for New Writers Part 6: Traditional or Self-publish?

In this series of posts, I’ve talked about writing the 1st draft, about editing your work, how to increase the speed of your writing, how long it takes to publish a novel, and about ways in which you can learn your craft.

Today I’m going to talk about self-publishing versus traditional publishing

When I began to take my writing seriously, there was only one way to get published, and that was through being accepted by a literary agent. This agent would only take you on if she believed she could sell your work to a publisher. The publisher would in turn print your book, design the cover and market it through bookshops to the book-buying public.

The industry changed when the first popular e-reader, Amazon’s Kindle, was launched in late 2007

To meet the demand for easily available e-books, Amazon (and others such as Smashwords) made it easy and free for authors to upload their books online. Suddenly readers could buy self-published books directly from the online retailers without the need of a literary agent or publisher.

In May 2015, Amazon reported that it sells more self-published titles per day than it does traditionally published titles. In the last few years, large publishing houses have had a fall of revenue, while self-published books have seen an increase in sales. (See the complete May 2015 author earnings report here.) This shift is due to many factors, but it’s evident that these two ways of publishing now have an equally important role to play in the industry.

The May 2015 figures show self-published author earnings are significantly higher than those in the traditionally published sector

In November last year, I took part in an Author Conference hosted by The Bookseller magazine where both traditionally published authors and indie authors came together to talk about the publishing industry. I was shocked to learn of the decline in traditionally published author income, as opposed to the profits of the big publishing houses. Of course there are many reasons behind this decline in royalties, some of which are due to the changes the indie (self-published) sector has brought to the market. (We indies are called the industry disruptors). However, from that day, I am even more convinced that I made the correct decision in 2012 to self-publish. If you are interested to learn more about The Author Day, The Alliance of Independent Authors blog post on what was discussed during the day is here.

The distinction between traditional and self-published (indie) authors is blurring

Some traditionally published authors (if they are able) now self-publish some of their work, and on the other side indie authors sign up with traditional publishers to handle some parts of the process. Just a few weeks ago, (January 2016), a fellow indie author of historical thrillers was signed up by Blake Friedman to handle the subsidiary and foreign rights of her Roma Nova books. This seems to be quite a typical route to take if you are successful enough. To translate a novel is time and money-consuming and carries a higher risk, so it makes sense for the indie author to share the cost and profits of international rights.

Me with my latest (the fourth) self-published novel.
When I was first planning to publish The Englishman on Amazon Kindle in 2012, I was told by people in the traditional industry that no literary agent ‘will ever touch me’ if I went ahead

How times have changed.

Now I hear agents advising new authors ‘to have a go’ and ‘put the work out there and see what happens’. I wouldn’t really advise such a nonchalant approach to launching any book. Although difficult, and time and money-consuming, it is important to plan any book launch, self-published or not. I have made the mistake of rushing to market myself, but more about this in another post.

Finally, if you are in the throws of finishing a manuscript, or a novel, here is a brief summary on how the process of getting your book into the hands of readers goes in both ‘camps’.

Traditional publishing

Write a manuscript.
Edit the manuscript to as near perfect as you can get it. (With help from an editor if possible)
Find an agent, who will hopefully find a publisher, who will invest money in the book by paying for an editor, layout and cover designers, and for marketing.
Remember, all these up-front costs will be taken out of the earnings of the book, and the author will receive x % of the net income from the book. (The percentage depends on the contract your agent has negotiated on your behalf with the publisher, but it’s typically around 10%)
The agent will only take an author on if they think they can make money out of them. Literary agents are experts in the field, and have a good idea of what sells. They also have contacts with publishers in the correct genre.
If you think you are not able to deal with the editing, layout, cover design and the marketing of your book, it’s wise to hold out for a traditional publishing deal. But be warned, it may take a while to find an agent and/or a publisher.
If you sign with a traditional agent and publisher, you often have to sign away the rights to your work. This means you will lose some control of how the novel is presented to the readers. On the other hand, this will enable you to concentrate on your writing, even though as a traditionally published author you are also expected to do some marketing of your books, such as being active on Twitter/Facebook etc.
Write another book as soon as you possibly can. The more books you have out in the marketplace, the more readers will find your work. Your publisher and agent will most probably insist on a deadline for a follow-up to your debut novel before you sign a publishing contract.

Self-publishing

Write a manuscript
Edit the manuscript to as near perfect as you can get it.
Engage an editor. You can self-edit, but beware, it’s not easy.
Engage a proofreader. Again you can do this yourself with the above warnings.
Engage a cover and layout designer. Forget the saying, ‘You can’t judge a book by its cover’. When you are selling your book online, or in a bookshop, it is the cover and the blurb on the back of the cover which sell it. So this step is really, really important. Of course you can design a cover yourself, but if you do, make sure you do some research into what books in your genre look like.
Upload the book on your chosen platform (Amazon has 75% of the market but as with everything in the industry, this too is changing). Createspace (for sale on Amazon) and IngramSpark are the main players in the paperback publishing side. But there is no need to publish in paperback, if you don’t want to. A paperback does give some kudos to you as an author (there is something magical about holding a book you’ve written), and some readers prefer a physical book, but the income from a paperback is significantly lower than from an e-book.
Amazon, and other online publishing platforms, take a percentage of the sales. The royalties the author is left with are 35% or 70% depending on the sale price, but you pay for all the other costs (editing, proofreading, cover and layout design) upfront.
Market your book. Many authors consider this step to be the most difficult, and I will cover marketing in a separate post. All I’ll say now is that you can do a lot of the legwork of your book marketing while you are writing, working on the edits and the cover of the novel. You can build your online presence, or your author platform, or brand, whatever you like to call it. You can ‘tease’ a new readership about your forthcoming title by sharing parts of the book on platforms such as Wattpad, or on a blog, or by posting images on Pinterest, Instagram, or even running a Twitter and/or a Facebook campaign.
Write another book as soon as you possibly can. The more books you have out in the marketplace, the more readers will find your work, and the more novels you will sell.

The more you write, the more successful you’ll be

You may have noticed in the lists above that whatever method of publication you chose, it is the writing that is the most important part of the process. Without a good manuscript (or several), you will not make it as an author. It’s as simple as that.

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Join My Review Crew!

If you’d like to be the first to receive a FREE copy of my newest book, you’re in the right place. I’m setting up a list of readers who will receive my latest novel in e-format. In exchange for this generous offer, all you need to do is to post a review on Amazon within two months.

Helena’s Review Crew is a very exclusive list of maximum 50 readers, so hurry if you want to be in my crew.

Click here to sign up now and receive a free copy of my latest novel, The Navy Wife!

 

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NaNoWriMo and my new writing routine

Since I became full-time author/entrepreneur five months ago, I’ve settled into a routine to make sure I don’t stay in my dressing gown for the whole day (which is always a distinct possibility).

It was doing the NaNoWriMo back in November, which started me off in the right direction.

The task of writing 2,000 words every day for a month was a little daunting, so I decided to change a habit of a lifetime and get up an hour or two earlier than usual, and this habit has stuck – or sort of.

I don’t get up as early as I did during the marathon writing month of November, but instead of the five thirty wake-up call, I now get up around 6, or 6.30am, which means I’m at my desk with a cup of coffee by 7am at the latest. I know this is pretty lame, because I’m aware that many people get to work early, even those often hated bankers are usually at their desks by 6am.

But for me waking up early is a real life-changer.

Between 7am and 9am, for about two hours, I just write, trying (that’s the operative word here, trying) not to look at emails, Twitter or other social media. I manage this most days, and if I don’t, I try (again) not to beat myself about it too much. But if I don’t get any words down in the morning, because of some urgent email or online comment, I sit down in the afternoon and make up the day’s word count, or editing target.

I aim for 1,000 words per day, and usually manage that. With editing, it’s harder to define the target, but I manage about 1-2 chapters of 1st draft edits, more on a 2nd draft and so on. Lately I’ve taken weekends off (I know), but if I get a quiet moment when The Englishman is at White Hart Lane watching Spurs play (that’s soccer for my American readers), or appearing at one of his stand-up comedy gigs, I sit down and write.

Writing is my hobby, my job and my passion.

By around 9am the terrier starts to complain, so I take him for an hour’s walk in the woods, and when I’m back, I sort my emails, deal with marketing stuff, or work on editing, or perhaps design the layout of paperback copies of my books. I’ve just finished working on The Navy Wife paperback, as well as a new version and cover of The Englishman. (Both are now out, click here to get your copy.)

I often don’t get up from my desk until gone six, again it’s the terrier who rules my finishing time – his 2nd outing needs to happen before seven in the evening.

Now the month of November is over, NaNoWriMo are running Now What Month -initiative where you get help with the editing process, and even advice on how to publish your novel. Orna Ross from the Alliance of Independent Authors is here in discussion with Grant Faulkner Faulkner from the National Novel Writing Month. Have a listen, I learned a lot about the charity, as well about the editing process from theses two.

 

 

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Win a Free Book!

You’d like a FREE paperback copy of my latest novel, The Navy Wife? Of course you would! Well, now you have a chance to win one.

To celebrate the forthcoming publication of The Navy Wife in paperback, I am giving away 20 – yes twenty! – signed copies!

To enter, simply click the ‘Enter Giveaway’ below, which takes you to Goodreads site where it all happens.

Goodreads Book Giveaway


The Navy Wife
by Helena Halme

Being released January 31 2016

Giveaway ends in about 1 month (February 25, 2016)

20 copies available, 12 people requesting

giveaway details »

Enter Giveaway

Good luck!

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Don’t forget The Englishman, first in the Nordic military romance series, is now only $0.99 / £0.99!

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Feeling Homesick

This is a blog post I wrote three years ago about feeling homesick. Since I still feel very much the same, I thought you might want to read it

I’ve recently come back from Tampere in Finland, from a surprise trip arranged at the last minute due to a family crisis. I won’t go into what that was, but I ended up being in my hometown for a week, visiting areas of the city which I just haven’t had the reason to go to for a long time. Each day of my visit I drove past my old primary school, the woods where we cross country skied in the winter, and the area where our family home was, before we moved to Stockholm.

During this time in Tampere I also once again marveled at how the city has changed. The two main factories, Finlayson and Tampella no longer produce cotton or machinery, instead the areas have been developed into cultural centres and high quality residential areas. Many old apartment blocks are receiving facelifts; even the train station now has a set of escalators and some lifts. (I know, they’ve probably been there for a years, but it was the first time I’d noticed them).

When I got back London, after all was OK with family, I found myself thinking how I could arrange my life so that I could live in Tampere. This, from the girl who swore she’d never go back there, or who has for months now been considering applying for British passport (I’m coming clean – I haven’t done it yet!).

It helped that the weather in Tampere was glorious. The sun was shining every day, transforming the colour of the lakes into the brightest blue. Each way I looked there was water. One morning I went for a jog and ran past beautiful houses, into the woods along the shores of Lake Näsijärvi, and thought how wonderful it would be to be able to do this every day. The place was so peaceful, so calm, yet it only took a few minutes to reach the city centre by (a regular and not crowded) bus service. To think that I’d be able to have a sauna every day, or that no-one would ask me if I was in bad mood if I didn’t smile all the time!

When I came back to London, on the first morning the tube was hot and packed. On my way home the very same day, our local station was closed due to overcrowding, so I ended up, together with hundreds (perhaps thousands?) of other people, taking the long way round, adding an extra hour to my journey home. Why do I live in a sardine tin of a city like London, I wondered, as I tried to keep my nose out of a particular smelly armpit in another full-to-bursting tube carriage.

At the weekend I went to Harris and Hoole in Crouch End for a coffee and the girl behind the desk asked, after mishearing my name as Elena, if I was Italian. ‘No,’ I said, ‘Are you?’ ‘Yes,’ the girl answered, adding with sad look in her eyes, ‘I’ve just come back from Italy.’ I looked at her and replied, ‘I’m just back from my home town in Finland and keep wondering what an earth I’m doing living in London.’ She laughed and nodded.

So many of us displaced people feel the same homesickness. Yet, here we stay.

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Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith – Book Review

I’ve read and liked all three Robert Galbraith (aka J K Rowling) novels featuring the ex-army private detective, Cormoran Strike, and his aptly named side-kick, the young and beautiful Robin.

In Career of Evil, Robin’s role as Cormoran’s assistant is in jeopardy, when she receives a gruesome package in the post. The world-weary detective thinks the sender of the parcel is trying to get to Strike through Robin, and advises her to go home and stay there. But Robin Ellacott is not a girl who’s easily put off by the sight of blood. However, the violent attacks on women that follow force Robin to relive a pivotal event in her own past, increasing her vulnerability.

Cormoran has three candidates in mind for the attacks, all men who he has crossed in the past.  Strike’s previous career in the Army Vice Guard, and the circumstances surrounding his mother’s sudden death, all come to play as he investigates these men. Events take a serious turn when another young woman is found dead, brutally attacked in a dark alleyway in central London. The killer has to be stopped and Cormoran thinks he’s the only person for the job. Together with Robin, whose personal life is simultaneously combusting, they travel the length and breath of Britain in an attempt to find out the murderer’s identity.

This third novel in the Cormoran Strike series is the best yet. The relationship between Strike and Robin is almost as intense and intriguing as the complicated hunt for the violent killer. In Career of Evil we get a deeper insight into the two main protagonists, and this, as well as the ‘will they, won’t they’ nature of the relationship makes this reader long for the next instalment in the series.

In the acknowledgements, J K Rowling says that she’s never enjoyed writing a novel as much as she did Career of Evil. This shows. The prose is effortless, with beautiful and evocative descriptions of the places Robin and Comoran visit in trying to establish the killer’s identity. I particularly enjoyed the way Rowling sketched Edinburgh, with its ‘soot-black buildings’, ‘the spires and rooftops of the black and gold city’, and the ‘darkly forbidding’ castle.

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Don’t forget The Englishman, my Nordic military romance, is now only $0.99 / £0.99!

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