Robert Scott-Norton's Blog, page 3

Famous author on the radio

Ha. Maybe one day.

But, until then, you'll have to make do with an interview I gave to Sean Styles on BBC Radio Merseyside yesterday.

The interview starts at 2:05 and is about 6 mins long.

http://bbc.in/1L3cm4L

Lady's Slipper - Alison Gray

Much as I enjoyed reading Abby Foulke's last mystery, Hibiscus Fruit, I loved seeing Abby in her native environment even more. Abby is still recovering from the events of the last book and still in mourning for her husband, but with her family around her and a new case to get stuck into, she's getting through life.
The new case has all the vibes of a Broadchurch mystery and I loved it for that. An old case with questionable evidence; a new witness; remote settings, all made for a confident coherent story, full to the brim with atmosphere.
There are enough suspects to keep you guessing until the end and with a growing sense of unease building in the last half of the book, I read the last half in one sitting.
You can pick up the book at Amazon and follow Alison on Twitter.

5 lessons from my week of fame

Discoverability is a huge hurdle for indie authors. You can have the best story, immaculate editing, an astounding cover, but if no one ever finds your book you might as well not have tried.

For most of us want readers. Not all of us want fame, or to make our living solely from writing, but if no one is going to read your work, there's no point in publishing at all.

So, how do we get our readers?

The first step is easy, or at least is something in your control.

Write the best story you can possibly write.
After that...

I've had a lot of help in the last few weeks from an unexpected source. I recently used acx.com to produce the audiobook version of The Face Stealer. One of the options in the production process is to enter a royalty share with a narrator. This has tremendous benefits for the writer, who doesn't have to pay anything up front. And slightly less benefits for the narrator who's only going to receive money when the audiobook sells.

I know I've gotten lucky with my narrator, Paul Cram. Paul is awesome. Seriously.

But, there's another benefit for the author in that from being the sole champion of your business—and I do consider what I do a business—to having two of you championing your work. This is awesome. I can't understate this enough. Having a second person championing my work has spurned me on.

Whilst I've been working furiously on the edits to my next books, my narrator has been seeking out opportunities for promotion. And with the beauty of the Internet, he's been able to do this in the US whilst I'm based in the UK. I've written about stepping out of my comfort zone several times, and if it hadn't been for Paul, these opportunities would never have happened.

Opportunity 1 - PodcastsThe SciFi Geeks Club on Galactic Netcasts. No way would I have thought I'd be able to talk on a podcast for over an hour but you know what, I did. And it was excellent.

Off the back of this, another opportunity may have presented itself. Wait and see.


You can also listen to the podcast here.
Opportunity 2 - Local paperA piece in the local paper. Not to be sniffed at, the Southport Visiter is the only paper worth reading in the area. The Face Stealer had a good angle in that it's set in the town so it became a local interest story.


With Paul's help, I created a media kit on this website so could direct enquires to it. This has made it so much easier to reach out and demonstrates that I'm taking this seriously.
You can read the article online.
Opportunity 3 - Online magazinesAn article in a print and online local magazine Southport Shine. Now, I'd never even heard of this so it shames me to say that Paul found it, contacted them, and provided copy for them to include.


You can read the article online.
Opportunity 4 and 5One more podcast and an interview are scheduled this week. I'll say more in a future post once they've happened. Both of these are super cool.
SummarySo, this was the week I became famous.
And what about you?If you're a writer looking for publicity, take heart in that there are opportunities out there. I hadn't heard of the podcasts I'm appearing in but am so excited by them.Don't dismiss the desire from local journalists looking for a local news story. Reach out.Have a media kit ready. This will make it so much easier when reaching out.Prepare a press release. No, it isn't silly. Journalists will treat you seriously if you make their lives just that little bit easier.If you're in a royalty share for an audiobook, you're in this together. Communicate and let each other know of successes and opportunities. Paul has put himself forward to appear on shows without me. This absolutely shares the load.
Good luck!

When will I ever learn?

I used to love going for a run. As a man nearing his forties it's not a bad form of exercise and has the advantage of being free (apart from the new trainers that I was treated to this year).

Ten years ago I wouldn't have batted an eyelid at getting up at 5 am for a morning run before leaving the house for work. Now, though, it's a struggle. It's a double struggle to get up early as my head is always telling me that I need to get sat at my desk as soon as possible and get writing. These novels don't write themselves after all.

So, when a friend suggested signing up for the Seaside 10K again this year, I was initially reluctant, then optimistic, then reluctant, and now am just praying that I can make it round without collapsing in a big blog of redness.

If you've a spare coin or two, please consider donating it to Galloway's Society for the Blind.

Words written this year

After hitting my word count tonight, I started playing around with my word count spreadsheet. I use this to track daily word targets and basically to keep me on track.

Graphs are what I need. More graphs. So, I found myself adding this little beauty. It shows the various projects and word counts on each over the year so far.

March and April looked pretty fallow, and I'm not sure why. I was just starting a new novel, and I suspect I hadn't planned it as thoroughly as I should when I started.

Anyway, thought I'd share.

How many calories in a packet of smarties?

How many calories in a packet of smarties?

Just noticed on the packaging this message:

A tube of smarties is approximately two portions so why not share yours with a friend.



On the front of the packaging, in a nice big design:
Energy 392kj 93kcal (5%)



So you'd be forgiven for thinking the tube had 93 calories. But, in very small lettering above this design, it says this is for 17 sweets.

Has anyone with a child ever noticed this?

Hmm, I can't find anywhere on the tube that says how many sweets were in the tube to begin with. I'm sure the nutritional information panel will explain. But, no. That gives the nutritional value per 100g or per 17 sweets.



I could make a leap and assume that 17 sweets is one of the two portions that the packaging is talking about, but since it doesn't explicitly say how many sweets in the packet, nor how many in a portion, that's still guessing.

So, time for some maths.

For 17 sweets there is 93kcal. That's 5.47 kcal per sweet.100g is 462kcal. That's 0.22g per 1kcal. So, in the entire 38g tube there are 173kcal.173kcal divided by the 5.47 kcal per sweet gives us 31.6 smarties per tube.
Why does the nutritional value in this case need to be so complicated?

And by the way, why use 17 for their calculations? 16 sweets is closer to half that 17.

In fact, why give us a tube with two portions in to begin with? Why not make the tubes half the size?

As an interesting aside, I found this from 2005 when they redesigned the tubes. Back then they were reassuring us that there would still be about 48 sweets per tube!  That's the equivalent of 3 of today's portion sizes!

The Tombs are rising

Wooo, spooky stuff. The Tombs ARE RISING. But, what the heck are the Tombs? Why should you care? I'll tell you in a moment.

Last month I released a collection of short stories. The Drifter has surprised me by doing well without much help from me. It was always meant as a little something to help introduce the Tombs series and I think it will continue to do that. Although my focus is still very much on novels for the forseeable future (possibly forever), I've still got a fondness for shorts and do occasionally get that itch to write one down. Maybe when I'm in my next editing sprint I can write one or two.

But, anyway, my current work in progress is nearing the final stages. Tombs Rising is my next series which I'll be releasing in late Autumn and I'm mega-excited about it (do people still say mega?). There will be three books initially, probably released very quickly and they're set in the near future. It's the kind of thing I love to read—you're going to love it to.

And, I don't really do cover reveals. Not my thing. Not sure what the point is....so this next thing isn't that...no, it's more a cover...tease. Yes, that's what it is, a cover tease.

The Drifter and other stories

It's been a fun but hectic week getting this finished.
You can get a copy at Amazon UK or Amazon US (or wherever there's Amazon).
Here's the description on Amazon:
Lock the door. Then check it again. This first spine-tingling collection of short stories from Robert Scott-Norton will trouble your sleep and question your reality.
The Ticking Blackbird - When the cat brings Mark a special gift, he starts to question his own existence.
The Girl who Jumped - The lights are on again in the school. But, it's supposed to be empty. Echoes of the past reach out to avenge.
Rose Vandals - Crazy Larry loves his flowers and would get very upset if he thought anyone would mean to harm them.
Man on the Moss - One man learns the perils of hitchhiking. Whatever happens, don't slow down.
Working the Dead - A heroic gesture, an old lady, and a packet of biscuits. Keeping a low profile when you're dead isn't as simple as it used to be.
The Drifter - A Tombs short story - When Laura sees the lights in the sky, she has to investigate. But what can one girl do when the drifter settles into its new home?

Doctor Who Festival

There are moments when I hesitate. Today at 10am was not one of them. Tickets bought. Family coming whether they like it or not. Can't wait.

Puts things in perspective

After a bit of a 'meh' week, seeing this sunrise on the way to work helped me realise some things are more important than others.