Sally Jenkins's Blog, page 19
July 27, 2018
The Promise at 99p plus a Bookbub Promotion
Today marks the six month anniversary of the publication of The Promise on January 28th 2018. Coincidentally, the publishers have lowered the e-book price to only 99p for a VERY limited time and also secured a Bookbub promotion to publicise the price drop.
Bookbub is a service which helps e-book readers to discover free or discounted books in their favourite genres – so if you like a bargain it’s worth signing up to their newsletter which is circulated in the UK, Canada, Australia and India. Bookbub promotions are a paid for service, open to self-published books as well as those published by large and small publishing houses. It is a competitive submission procedure and Bookbub receive far more promotion applications than can be used in the newsletter. In order to choose the featured books Bookbub considers things like reviews, sales, the cover, the formatting and other variables – so I’m excited and pleased that The Promise has been selected and is getting this coveted exposure!
If you fancy putting your own book forward for a Bookbub promotion have a look at this checklist to see what sort of thing the selectors are looking for. There is no charge to submit to Bookbub, you are only invoiced if the book is selected.
To take advantage of this less-than-half-price 99p offer on The Promise, be quick (I don’t know when the price will go back up!) and grab it from one of the following retailers:
If you’re ‘real book’ person, the cheapest place I’ve seen the book is WH Smith where it you can also do click and collect to save the delivery charge.
July 18, 2018
Seriously Awkward Campaign and Competition
Do you remember being sixteen or seventeen years old? How did you find it? The best of us find the transition from child to adult difficult, there’s the pressure to conform with our peers, the pressure of exams and the pressure to decide on the next step in our lives. Imagine how much harder this time of life must be for those more vulnerable than ourselves, those suffering mental health problems, domestic abuse and worse.
The Children’s Society is running the Seriously Awkward Campaign to urge the Government to do more to help vulnerable teenagers through this transition time. Part of this campaign is a short story competition. Entry is free and is in two age groups: 16 to 25 year and 26 years plus.
First prize in each age group is “expert advice and feedback from a top literary agent and writing gifts. Young winners will receive exclusive advice and feedback with literary agency Darley Anderson and adult winners with David Higham Associates. The runners-up will receive a selection of writing gifts.”
Stories must be on the theme of 16 and 17 year olds. This brings to mind Young Adult fiction but the competition doesn’t appear to be restricted to that, the website suggests you can write from an adult point of view too such as parent, teacher or social worker.
The word limit is 2,000 and the closing date is 31 August 2018. Don’t forget to read all the terms and conditions!
July 10, 2018
Orion on Tour
UK publishing is London-centric – the majority of our big publishers and agents are in the capital. This year Orion Books attacked that problem by going on tour and taking publishing to other parts of the country. At the beginning of July they were in Birmingham and I went along to see what they were doing.
[image error]
My book swag!
The event was held in a smallish function room in the Cosy Club. It was busy, noisy and (given our current heatwave) very hot! There were complimentary drinks and nibbles plus a table heaving with brand new books. The latter were free for the taking, as many as we wanted – guess who was glad they had a fold up shopping bag to hand!
I talked to Orion publishing, editing and marketing staff. I renewed my acquaintance with historical fiction author Joanna Courtney I said hello to the presenters of the Brum Radio Book Show and chatted to book bloggers, readers and the manager of a Waterstones’ branch.
It was definitely worth going and not just for the books! I learned that some books published by a company as big as Orion have a zero marketing budget but that social media, used in the right way and with the right contacts, can work wonders. I learned that book bloggers are really nice people with a genuine passion for books but are often drowning under the number of review requests they get! I learned that authors with big book deals still get anxious about their writing ability and crave company during the long days of being a full time writer.
Finally, I noticed there were far more women than men in the room – does that mean more women than men love books?
July 1, 2018
Brexit Poetry
The word Brexit can elicit strong reactions from the calmest, most even-tempered of people but it rarely inspires poetry. Now is your chance to convert your own feelings on the UK leaving the EU into verse.
Holland Park Press is running a Brexit poetry competition. It doesn’t matter on which side of the fence you stand or even if you’re still sitting on that fence. You can write about what being a European means to you, you can be angry or you can play devil’s advocate. The important thing is to touch, inspire or even frustrate the judges with your poem.
First prize is £200 and the winner and runners-up will be published online.
Poems can be up to 50 lines long. Entry is free and the closing date 31st December 2018 – so there’s bags of time to perfect your masterpiece! Don’t forget to read the full terms and conditions.
June 24, 2018
Titles and Trademarks
There is no copyright in titles. A quick search on Amazon has shown me that there are at least ten novels with the same title as mine; The Promise.
However, difficulties can arise if the words in your title have been trademarked by someone else. I came across two incidents of this recently.
Firstly, I met someone to whom this had happened. The author’s publisher was contacted by the lawyer of a company who had trademarked a phrase very similar to, but not exactly the same as, the title of this writer’s book. The company used this trademark to identify a series of books rather than a single book. The company’s lawyer threatened legal action if the title of my acquaintance’s book wasn’t changed. This meant my author acquaintance and their publisher had to decide whether to get into a legal battle, which could be costly, or whether to change the title of the book, stand the cost of destroying the existing copies and reprinting.
Secondly, I came across an article about a romantic novelist who has trademarked the word ‘cocky’ for use in book titles. Faleena Hopkins has self-published a series of romance novels featuring the Cocker brothers and each has the word ‘cocky’ in the title. Following her trademarking, Faleena has asked several other romantic novelists to remove the word ‘cocky’ from their book titles. This hasn’t gone down well and a petition has been started to ask the US Patent and Trademark Office to cancel the ‘cocky’ trademark. See the full Guardian article for more details.
I am not a lawyer and if you have any specific questions or concerns in this area you should seek professional advice from a qualified person or a reputable organisation such as the Society of Authors. However, from some internet research, it seems to that:
Individual book titles cannot be trademarked but the name relating to a whole series of books can e.g. Chicken Soup for the Soul
Trademarks are generally registered at a national level but there are mechanisms to register them in multiple countries.
Trademarks are generally registered to apply only to a certain range of products or services such as chemicals, vehicles, printed matter etc.
More information can be found at:
June 18, 2018
Heritage Travel Writing Competition
The next Senior Travel Expert writing competition is now open for entries.
The competition calls for original travel articles on the theme ‘Heritage’ up to 750 words in length. Historical, cultural and natural heritage are all included under this theme.
Unusually for an article writing competition, entertaining fictional entries are also allowed. Entry is free.
The author of the best entry will receive £100 cash. Ten runners-up will each receive £10 Amazon UK Vouchers. The winning entry and runner-up entries will be published on the Senior Travel Expert website. Closing date is October 31st.
When writing your entry don’t forget that the Senior Travel Expert website is aimed at travellers aged 55 and over. And, as always, make sure you read the full terms and conditions.
June 8, 2018
Focus on Your Own Path and Goal
I recently walked the West Highland Way. This is a 96 mile path from Milngavie (a suburb of Glasgow) to Fort William, at the foot of Ben Nevis. The walk took seven days and on the eighth day we climbed Ben Nevis and walked in snow on a blazing hot day. All along the route the scenery was terrific: mountains, hills and lochs. We heard cuckoos and saw feral goats.[image error]
We chose to go in the middle of May, which is supposed to be the best time for both weather and minimum midges. We had sunshine and few insect bites but there was a lot of people. On the more open stretches of path they could be seen snaking in front of and behind us like a colourful bendy reptile. When the path was narrow and terrain difficult, there was a constant tapping of walking poles and a search for passing places to let those walking faster than us overtake. At first this unnerved me; I felt as though I was in a race and being overtaken by everyone else. I worried we were going to be last to finish the day’s walk and my competitive spirit kept trying to kick in and make us go faster. Eventually I relaxed and realised everyone has their own pace and there are merits to going slower and enjoying the views.
What has this got to do with writing?
Social media makes us all very aware of what other writers are doing. We know when they get an agent, when they sign the publishing deal and when the book hits the shelves. Or we know who’s on a winning streak in the womag short story world. Or competition winners are shouted from the roof tops. Celebration is good and, after the toil of writing, well deserved. But as a result we are constantly measuring ourselves against the success of others, just as I was measuring my walking speed and ability against the other boot clad walkers on the West Highland Way. This is not a good thing. Everyone’s path to success is different. We have different talents, different starting points and face different obstacles along the way.
Instead of comparing yourself to others, focus on your own route to your goal. You may find it beneficial to take a detour into article writing or to pause and clear your mind. Domestic issues might slow you down or a surge of ideas might push you forward. Take the journey at your own pace without comparing it to others (but do give them a little cheer when they succeed!) and you’ll enjoy it all the more.
And when you stand on that mountain top we’ll all be cheering you and your achievement – however long it might have taken to get there.
May 31, 2018
eHarmony Romantic Novel Writing Competition
eHarmony and Trapeze Books have launched a competition to find a great love story and any type of romance is acceptable, for example gothic, speculative, dark etc.
First prize is a publishing contract with Trapeze worth £10,000 and mentoring from Trapeze author Anna Stuart. Shortlisted entries will receive books and a group mentoring session.
Judging the shortlist will be representatives from C&W Agency, Trapeze Books, eHarmony plus editor and journalist Sarah Shaffi.
Entrants should email the first 5,000 words of the novel plus synopsis and biography before the competition closing date of 30th July 2018. I couldn’t see anywhere that said the remainder of the novel had to be already complete – so that may be something the winner can work on after receiving the mentoring from Anna Stuart.
Even if you choose not to enter the competition. eHarmony provides some useful tips on writing a synopsis.
Don’t forget to read the full competition information before starting to craft your entry.
May 16, 2018
Association of Speakers’ Clubs 2018 Speech Competition
At the end of April I was in York for the ASC’s 2018 Conference and National Competition Finals. [image error]
I’ve never attended before and was only there this year because, to my surprise and shock, I won my way through the Club, Area and District rounds of the speech competition. When I entered the Club competition last November, I didn’t anticipate that five months later I’d be representing the Midlands in competition against seven other contestants from all parts of the UK. My anxiety levels were sky high and further increased by having to use a clip-on microphone for the first time and face my biggest ever audience.
But what has this got to do with writing?
I needed a subject for my speech. It had to be something I could talk about enthusiastically, something most people would have an interest in and something I could structure logically into a speech.
So I ‘taught’ the audience how to write a romantic novel (how many people have you heard say – ‘I could/would like to write a novel?’).
I only had eight minutes to speak so it was a quick and dirty ‘lesson’ based on the following points:
Choosing a genre
Choosing a setting
Naming characters
Obstacle to the love affair
Event that brings the couple back together
To drive each point home I concocted a romantic ‘novel’ about Tony and Janet falling in love and having a date at the hotel where the conference was being held. I concluded by revealing the absolute peanuts that most authors get as financial reward and asked the audience the question, ‘Is it worth it?’
[image error]I didn’t win and wasn’t placed in the top three. I was up against some fantastic speakers. The winner was a sixteen-year-old girl who was extremely confident and gave an excellent performance, talking about the scourge of selfie-taking complete with props of a mobile phone and selfie stick. However, we all received a lovely paperweight as a souvenir of the occasion.
Later at the event, I was talking to a lady and she told me how members of her party had been having fun in the bar dreaming up their own spoof romance based on my speech. I was delighted to hear this – it meant people had listened to me and had absorbed and remembered what I’d said. And isn’t that what public speaking is all about?
May 8, 2018
Royal Wedding Poems Wanted!
The Sunday Times are asking for poems to commemorate the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
There is no prize but the winning poem will be published in The Sunday Times the day after the wedding, on Sunday May 20th.
There’s also no length or style/format stipulation – so you poets can have fun creating whatever you like! But be quick, entries must be received by Tuesday May 15th.
Email poems to royalpoems@sunday-times.co.uk or send by snail mail to Royal Poems Competition, The Sunday Times, 1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF.
I’ll be hoping to open the paper on May 20th and see a poem by a name I recognise. Good Luck!
