Sally Jenkins's Blog, page 7

Kindle Direct Publishing for Absolute Beginners – 2023 Update

I’ve just updated Kindle Direct Publishing for Absolute Beginners again. I first published this e-book back in February 2014 – nearly 10 years ago! Over that almost-decade it has continued to sell and I’ve continued to update it every 12-24 months in the hope of not misleading readers with outdated information.

This time, as I was going through the manuscript checking links, processes, new facilities etc., it struck me that over the years it has become much easier to self-publish on Amazon and no one should be frightened of the technicalities – because, mostly, it’s not technical!

Here are a few examples of the changes I’ve seen:

Product Description (on screen equivalent to the back cover blurb) – In the early days if you wanted to include bold, italics or other formatting it was necessary to use html coding. Now Amazon provide a facility similar to Word where you can select this formatting from a bar on the screen.Manuscript Format – In the beginning the self-publishing gurus advised uploading the manuscript in html format, however I now simply upload the Word .docx and find the results are just as good (applies to text-only manuscripts with no illustrations).Paperbacks – In the early days these had to be published separately using the Createspace platform and author copies were shipped from America, meaning extra expense plus a time delay. Now paperback publishing can be done via the same Amazon KDP Dashboard as the Kindle version and the books for the UK are printed in Europe, saving time and money. (By the way, if you use one of the Amazon-provided templates, I find formatting a print book is simply a copy and paste exercise).Amazon Ads – Those who want to get serious about marketing can now pay (according to the number of clicks on their ad) for the books to show up when shoppers use specific search terms.

Does anyone else think Amazon KDP is getting easier and more user-friendly?

If you’re contemplating self-publishing, Kindle Direct Publishing for Absolute Beginners does what it says on the tin. It will hold your hand and guide you through the various topics and processes you should know about before you take the plunge.

These reviews sum it up:

“My third time of re-reading this excellent how-to book and getting more out of it each time.” – Tektron.

“This book is clear and concise and is a very good guide for beginners. Topics are clearly explained and are well covered.” – John Parnham.

Staffetta Partigiana – A Different Kind of Hero(ine)

I wasn’t familiar with the World War II Italian Resistance movement until I came across author Kat Devereaux and her debut novel Escape to Tuscany. Her fictional heroine is a brave young woman who is part of this movement. Kat kindly agreed to share some of her research and knowledge with us (plus her top writing tip!). Over to Kat: 

When you think about the partisans who fought to liberate Italy during the German occupation, you might imagine Peppone. A communist hardliner with a red kerchief, a Stalin moustache and a fiery temper, Peppone (“Big Joe”) is the sympathetic antagonist of Giovanni Guareschi’s Don Camillo stories. He was played by Brian Blessed in the UK television adaptation, which tells you everything.

As with any caricature, there’s an element of truth to Peppone. Aligned with the Italian Communist Party, the Garibaldi Brigades were the heavy hitters of the resistance movement: organised, disciplined, and ferocious in battle. It’s not surprising that the image of the red-kerchiefed, gun-toting partisan is so iconic.

But there are many ways to resist. In my debut novel Escape to Tuscany, I chose to showcase another indispensable figure: the staffetta partigiana.

A different kind of hero(ine)

The resistance movements that sprang up after the German occupation of September 1943 had to work in extremely dangerous conditions. In the first months, partisan groups set up camp in the mountains, where local knowledge and harsh conditions worked to their advantage. As the war progressed and support for the partisans grew, the fight spread to the towns. And as Italy was liberated, city by city, partisan brigades played a leading role.

None of this could have been achieved without the staffette: the couriers who transported information, messages, supplies and armaments from place to place. Couriers needed to be inconspicuous and able to move easily even in crowded urban settings. They had to be able to pass through German checkpoints and elude the attention of sadistic Italian Fascist vigilante groups, such as the Black Brigades, who hunted partisans and their supporters. And they needed something to hold their cargo, something that wouldn’t stand out: a shopping bag, a school satchel, a bicycle basket.

So it’s no surprise that couriers were most often young women or teenage girls. My historical narrator Stella may be fictional, but she fits the profile of a courier perfectly. Just fourteen years old, she moves between her hometown of Romituzzo and the neighbouring towns of Castelmedici and San Damiano by train or bicycle, carrying intelligence, notes and even weapons. She has to fear violence from Germans and Fascists alike—sometimes she has to witness it. Stella operates in the shadows, unseen and undersung. But the stories she has to tell speak of tremendous courage.

Many women, many voices

I had a wealth of inspiration when writing Stella’s story. Thankfully for posterity, some of the women who worked as couriers during the occupation have left their testimonies behind. While most of these are in Italian, there are some English resources available. A wonderful place to start is the documentary Bandite, made in 2009 and available for free. You can find a subtitled version here https://youtu.be/iwJlwdBGBQ4.

For years after the Liberation, women partisans were denied the recognition they deserved. This has changed in the last decades, and now the staffetta on her bicycle is a symbol of antifascist resistance. That’s entirely as it should be.

My top writing tip

When researching a historical novel, it’s easy to get caught up in research and end up down a rabbithole. If you come across a book, video or other resource that’s absolutely fascinating but not relevant to what you’re writing at this precise moment, don’t get sidetracked. But don’t dismiss it, either: keep a note of it and store it somewhere easy to find. You never know what stories it might spark in the future.

Thank you, Kat!

Escape to Tuscany will be published on July 6th 2023 and is available to pre-order now. It is described as “A gripping and moving debut novel about two women, decades apart, whose fates converge in Florence, Italy. Perfect for fans of Patricia Wilson, Carol Kirkwood and Lucinda Riley.” Regular readers of this blog will know that I am a great fan of Lucinda Riley’s Seven Sisters series – so Escape to Tuscany sounds right up my street!

About the book:

Romituzzo, 1944
Just fourteen, Stella Infuriati is the youngest member of her town’s resistance network – a secret she keeps even from her parents. She works alongside her brother Achille to relay messages, supplies, and weapons to partisan groups in the Tuscan hills. Fuelled by courage and a fierce sense of purpose, Stella braves incredible danger and survives … but when peace comes in 1945, she vanishes.

Florence, 2019
Writer Tori MacNair arrives in Florence. Fleeing an emotionally abusive marriage, she’s come to build a new life in the city her grandmother taught her to love. As she digs into her family history, Tori uncovers decades-old secrets: the story of a brave young woman who risked everything to save her world.

Rosa – Kat’s Writing Assistant

 About Kat:

Born near Edinburgh, Kat Devereaux lived all over the globe before finally settling in Italy in 2019.
As a writer, Kat loves big, controversial personalities, spectacular settings and high-stakes conflict. The rest of the time, she likes being very quiet in libraries. In her everyday life, she is a freelance writer and translator with a special focus on Italian literature, history and religion.

Guest Post: Sally Jenkins – From Short Stories to Novels

This might interest the writers among you – Helen invited me on to her blog to talk about (& give some tips!) on how I combined a series of short stories together to create the novel that became Little Museum of Hope.

Blog About Writing

I’m delighted to welcome my writing buddy, Sally Jenkins, onto the blog today!

She’s got a new novel out – (congratulations!), ‘Little Museum of Hope‘ which started life as a series of short stories and in her guest post below, she explains how that came about and also gives some tips, in case you’re tempted to try something similar yourself.

I’ve not read it yet – although I have read some of the short stories involved – but I’ve just downloaded the audiobook and I shall be listening to it in the car as I zoom around and I’m looking forward to it.

Over to Sally…!

From Short Story to Novel – by Sally Jenkins

The leap from short story to novel writing is huge and it’s something that I, like many writers, struggled with. One technique that worked for me was turning a series of linked short…

View original post 851 more words

Listen Carefully!

Have you ever listened back to a recording of your own voice?
Weird, isn’t it? You never sound quite how you expected. I had a similar experience when I received an advance copy of the audiobook of Little Museum of Hope and listened to a random chapter containing a discussion between two of the main characters, Vanessa and Stephen. I’ve never listened to an audiobook before and it didn’t occur to me that the narrator would change her voice for each character. At first it felt intrusive to have this stranger injecting her own take on my characters, especially Yorkshireman, Stephen, the potential love interest. But gradually I relaxed into it and enjoyed the experience of my characters speaking aloud!
Many thanks to ISIS Audio and to the narrator, Jilly Bond.

While we’re talking audiobooks, I thought it would be interesting to look at some recent statistics, taken from headphonesaddict.com:

In the UK 24 million audiobooks were bought between June 2020 and June 2021The biggest share of listeners is the 18 – 29 year-old age group. 30% of this group listen to audiobooks.Science fiction is the most popular audiobook genre.The average audiobook length is 7 – 9 hours (Little Museum of Hope is 9 hours and 29 minutes).Women are more likely to listen to audiobooks than men.Most audiobook listening takes place on the commute (73% of listeners), when doing housework (33%) and when exercising (15%). I know that adds up to more than 100% – but I guess some people might listen when they do all three of those activities, especially if it’s a compelling book!

The audiobook of Little Museum of Hope is available on Audible from today. I hope it brightens up your commute, housework or gym experience!

About Little Museum of Hope
A jar of festival mud, a photo album of family memories, a child’s teddy bear, a book of bell ringing methods, an old cassette tape, a pair of slippers… These are the items that fill the exhibit shelves in Vanessa Jones’ museum. At first glance, they appear to have nothing in common, but that’s before you find out the stories behind them… Because Vanessa’s Little Museum of Hope is no ordinary museum – its aim is to help people heal by allowing them to donate items associated with shattered lives and failed relationships, and in doing so, find a way to move on, perhaps even to start again. The museum soon becomes a sanctuary for the broken hearts in Vanessa’s city, and she’s always on hand to offer a cup of tea, a slice of cake and a listening ear. But could the bringer of Hope need a little help moving on herself?

P.S. There is a free trial of Audible available if you’re not sure whether audiobooks are your ‘thing’. You can try it out for a month with no charge (including Little Museum of Hope) – and it might help you spend more time in the gym or crack on with the housework!

Two Competitions and Some Thank Yous

Little Museum of Hope was well and truly launched back in April with some magnificent branding and support from Joffe Books and their Choc Lit imprint. I went on tour and was humbled by how many invitations I received to do Q & A interviews and write guest posts. In particular I would like to thank:

The Book Shelf Cafe – who poured me a coffee and chatted through some interesting questions
Jan Baynham – where I spill the beans on which parts of the novel are autobiographical!
Karen Mace – who asked me to introduce the unusual and unique concept behind Little Museum of Hope.
Anni Rose – who read the book and then posed some insightful questions!
Chris Penhall – who wanted to know about my writing process
Kat Devereaux – who allowed me to wax lyrical about church bell ringing and dispel some annoying myths!
Claire Sheldon – who was interested in my writing inspiration
Portobello Book Blog – more probing questions including the book I’d take to a desert island!
… and still to come on 15th May 2023 is a slot on Morton Gray’s popular book blog.

Also, a massive thank you to all of you who have bought, read and reviewed Little Museum of Hope. It is such a relief (and a pleasure) to know that people are enjoying it!
” …  you feel the tenderness, as well as the turmoil of the protagonist.” – Arnie Witkin
“From the first page I was hooked.” – S. Copley
“I found this book really unusual, clever and heart-warming and a joy to read.” – Jan

That’s enough crowing about myself. Are you looking for something to get those writing juices flowing? The two competitions below might be of assistance.

The South Warwickshire Literary Festival is holding a Creative Writing Competition which closes at the end of June. Entry is a modest £3 and they require up to 800 words of prose (fiction or creative non fiction) or up to 40 lines of poetry. There is a £50 prize in each category, and the winner and two runners-up in each category will have the opportunity to read their work at the Festival.

The Jenny Brown Associates Over 50 Award has already been widely publicised but I thought it worth mentioning again because it’s something I would definitely have entered if I hadn’t yet published. There is nothing to lose and everything to gain. 
“Jenny Brown Associates is running an award for debut novelists resident in the UK aged 50 and above and invites submissions during May 2023. The winner will receive £1,000 and a placement on a residential writing course at Moniack Mhor Creative Writing Centre.”
Don’t forget to read the full terms and conditions.

Good Luck!

Books Fit For a King

On this Coronation weekend I am absolutely delighted to welcome children’s author Iona Chisholm to my blog. Iona’s books about royalty make perfect follow-up presents for youngsters who’ve been watching proceedings on the television or been involved in parties and activities at school. Here’s Iona to tell us about the books, her writing journey plus she offers some useful tips for publishing illustrated books on Amazon KDP:

It was an unexpected opportunity to write that led me to self-publish my first children’s picture book on Amazon. Isolating with Covid in 2022, I wanted to be productive and so I challenged myself to write a rhyming story about The Queen’s forthcoming Platinum Jubilee. ‘Jubilee Bee’ was born!
I experimented with collage illustrations using paper, card and magazines. I inserted photographs of them into my word document. It proved straightforward to publish this as a Kindle edition. However, I encountered teething problems producing a paperback and made several mistakes. Firstly, I selected an 8 by 6-inch book size and, secondly, I had issues because my word document didn’t convert properly into paperback through the Kindle Kid’s Book Creator.

By the time I produced ‘Jubilee Bee and the King’s Christmas Present’, I had learned that an 8.5 inch square book size was best. Further, if I transferred my word document into a PowerPoint presentation with 8.5 inch square slides and saved as a PDF, it converted perfectly into paperback.

I’ve now released my third book, ‘Jubilee Bee and the Coronation’.

Each storybook I’ve written contains suggested questions and associated facts for children, whilst promoting looking after nature, the earth and each other. The positive feedback that I have received always refers to these features.

I learned recently that Amazon picture books must be fewer than 43 pages to be able to retail at an affordable £5.99 and produce a reasonable profit. I’d done so much work for the Coronation that I ended up with an 87-page document! Therefore, I split it in half and published my fourth book, ‘The Coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla, The Queen Consort.’ This non-fiction text contains acrostic poems, illustrated anagram puzzles and journal space to make a personal souvenir. Self-publishing allowed me to quickly utilise all my work and ideas.

I am proud of my writing journey and the progress that I am making. I have now produced a second edition of ‘Jubilee Bee’ in an 8.5 inch size. Holding my set of 4 books in my hand was a real high point!

Wanting to make my family proud and improving with every project really motivates me and I am finding it easier to prioritise writing, dip my toe into social media and integrate into the online writing community where I have felt welcomed, supported and nurtured. Everyone has been so keen to share their experiences and I hope to be able to encourage other newcomers to press that ‘publish my book’ button!

As a mum of four, primary school Governor (with a focus on writing) and keen gardener, I strongly believe in the inspiration and well-being that we can all gain from words and the outside world. Therefore, I aim to promote nature, learning and positivity in whatever I write, whether it be an article for Garden News, a poem, a short story for a woman’s magazine or my next book! In the future, I hope to complete and publish a novel, but must remind myself to take things one step at a time….

Find out more about Iona at www.ionachisholm.co.uk or follow her on Instagram Ionachisholm01 for gardening and writing posts!

Publication Day for Little Museum of Hope!

Little Museum of Hope hits the virtual shelves today and if you’ve pre-ordered (thank you!), it should have already landed on your e-reader. It’s published by Joffe Books, who recently took over the original publisher, Ruby Fiction. Joffe (rhymes with coffee) is the UK’s largest independent fiction publisher by title count.

How will I be spending today? The budget won’t stretch to lunch and champagne in a swanky London hotel but there was a celebratory meal last night at my house with a couple of friends – and wine. Today I’m working my usual Tuesday shift in the library – which is at least a bookish environment!

While I shelve books and help customers, let’s talk about some of the unusual objects which make their way onto the shelves of the Little Museum of Hope:

Maxine brings a teddy bear which she and her boyfriend chose when Maxine fell pregnant as a teenager. Parental intervention meant the teddy never got played with.

Polly donates a pair of men’s slippers because she wants her husband to be remembered as he was, in the prime of his life, not as a dementia sufferer with the demands of a toddler.

Local news reporter, Tim, brings a jar of Glastonbury mud. The festival atmosphere, alcohol and freedom made him think he was in love. But afterwards the ‘love’ disintegrated into dust.

More About Little Museum of Hope
A jar of festival mud, a photo album of family memories, a child’s teddy bear, a book of bell ringing methods, an old cassette tape, a pair of slippers …
These are the items that fill the exhibit shelves in Vanessa Jones’ museum. At first glance, they appear to have nothing in common, but that’s before you find out the stories behind them. Vanessa’s Little Museum of Hope is no ordinary museum – its aim is to help people heal by donating items associated with shattered lives and failed relationships, and in doing so, find a way to move on, perhaps even start again. The museum becomes a sanctuary for the broken hearts in Vanessa’s city, and she’s always on hand to offer a cup of tea, a slice of cake and a listening ear. But could the bringer of Hope need a little help moving on herself?

Little Museum of Hope is available from Amazon now and the audiobook will be out at the end of May (don’t worry, I’ll remind you!)

What the advance reviews say:

‘This novel has, much like the museum opened by its main character, something special that’s bound to intrigue.‘ Isabelle D.

‘Fascinating, often emotional, addictive reading. Recommended.‘ Coco.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, someone wants help filling in a form to join the library. Maybe I’ll get the champagne lunch with the next book …

Bits and Pieces plus a Bookish Competition

I’m writing this in a coffee shop (hence the picture!) and there are a few things to share with you this time (not counting my excitement about this, which happens in exactly a fortnight).

Firstly, I recently heard from a writing acquaintance of mine in South Africa, Arnie Witkin, who has featured on this blog before. Arnie self-published It’s not a Big Thing in Life a couple of years ago. It’s full of interesting life lessons and was written originally for his teenage grandchildren, but the project mushroomed. Initially sales were slow but Arnie contacted me to let me know that The Western Cape Education Department is now distributing his book to each of its 6,000 Life Orientation teachers in the province. Life Orientation is a compulsory subject in schools in South Africa. Which just goes to show that, in this writing life, you never know what is just around the corner. And the only way to find out is to put yourself out there and give things a try!

Secondly, I have a couple of books to recommend. In my book group we’ve just read A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh. It’s the first Waugh that I’ve read and I was pleasantly surprised. It was written in the 1930s and is very easy to read. It contains both humour and darker moments. But the most interesting thing about it is the ending, which comes across as completely out of synch with the rest of the book. Further research indicates that Waugh took an earlier short story and simply appended it to form the ending of the novel (incidentally the short story is reputed to have given Stephen King the idea for his novel, Misery) but the serialisation of the novel has a completely different, tamer ending. I find writing endings extremely difficult – maybe I’m in good company and Waugh did too!
The second book is The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams. It’s one of those books where you get lost in the story but learn something new too – such as the origin of ‘bumf’ – a handful of paper used as ‘bum fodder’ in WWI in the absence of toilet paper. Set in the early twentieth century it’s a fictionalised account of the publication of the first Oxford English Dictionary. Well worth a read.

Thirdly, the 2023 Marlborough Literature Festival Love Books Competition has just opened for entries. You have until Friday June 30th 2023 to submit up to 750 words about a book that you love and would recommend to others. The winner in each age group (includes adults) receives £300 and the runner-up in each age group will receive £100.

Finally, I have reached the heady heights of being interviewed by the lovely people at The Bookshelf Cafe!

And that’s it for now. Happy reading and writing!

#HaveFinishedEditing

The editing of Little Museum of Hope is now complete. It is winging its way off to be proof read. Hurrah!

Daffodils in Chester

Sarah, my Ruby Fiction editor, was full of wise advice and suggestions to improve the overall story arc and pace. She also has eagle eyes that spotted several inconsistencies in the manuscript, such as ages of characters which didn’t tie in with the music I’d mentioned, plus I had someone being 22 in 1981 and 50 in the present day. And I spotted an engagement ring change from sapphire to diamond half way through a chapter. This has taught me that going forward I need to be rigorous in keeping a detailed timeline and lots of notes for each protagonist. Every day is a school day, as they say!

I’ve also been learning about Instagram. You can now find me on there as @sallyjenkinsuk. I don’t have many posts to my name yet but will get more familiar with the platform eventually. If you’re an ‘Insta’ person please drop by and say ‘Hello’.

Since I last posted I’ve also had a big ‘0’ birthday which involved family, gin, a weekend away in Chester with two schoolfriends both hitting the same age (obviously) and prosecco. This leads me to: Never think you are too old to write a novel or to be published: through all the ups and downs of my writing career I’ve never specifically been asked my date of birth or how old I am. But, if you meet me in the flesh, my face might give the game away!

Finally, I spotted a great blog post from Kobo Writing Life on writing a fast first draft. I like to get the first draft completed as fast as possible so that I know the whole story and can then go back and flesh out/delete/change as required. But writing 60 – 90,000 words is never quick. One piece of advice in the blog is to write the whole novel in bullet points in order to get the complete structure down on paper while it’s in your head and without getting bogged down in description, dialogue and all the other minutiae. I am very tempted to try this next time I start a new project.
What do you think, will it work?

Two Free Short Story Competitions

Green Stories Superhero Competition
In this competition your superhero must save the planet!

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It sounds a fun brief to play around with: ‘this contest challenges you to create an uplifting short story of superheroes that respond to climate change. Imagine your target audience to be teens and young adults that enjoy watching superhero films‘.
The prize is £500 plus a scene from your story turned into a 1 page comic strip.
The competition is open to adults, and teenagers aged 14+. The deadline is 15th April 2023.
As always, don’t forget to read the full terms and conditions.

Evening Standard Stories Competition
The theme for this competition is ‘belonging’ and it’s not limited to short stories. You can submit a piece of spoken word or performance, for example a monologue, a script or a self-contained episode of a narrative podcast. Entries can be submitted as written, audio, or film.
The winner will get a masterclass with Evening Standard Stories Editor, Lotte Jeff, a one year mentorship in their chosen field by management and production company, 42, plus the chance to perform their piece and other extras!
Closing date is 12th April 2023 and it is a 1,000 word limit. Again, read the terms and conditions, they do include: Work from previously published authors or writers cannot be accepted.  It doesn’t indicate what their definition of ‘published’ is.

Talking of short stories, I was delighted to be invited, last month, to talk to author Tony Riches and to give my top 6 tips on short story writing. Did I cover everything or have you got a tip to add?