Mila Gray's Blog, page 4

The Pros & Cons of being a writer

I recently wrote a post about the pros and cons of being a writer for a website called We Heart Writing.

Here’s a little excerpt

Many people dream of being a writer and seeing their books on the shelves of Barnes & Noble. And believe me, the moment you get the call telling you your book has sold to a big publisher is a life-altering moment. ♥

People glamorize and fantasize about the lives of writers. Personally I like to imagine Hemingway-style excess; empty wine bottles littering the deck, the clack clack of keyboard keys, a view of the French riviera, literary shindigs where the glitterati meet and mingle and get up to all sorts of lovely mischief. And though there are shades of this (empty wine bottles, keyboard keys clacking, mischief) the reality is much less glam.

I’ve published six books with major publishers (a mix of Young Adult and New Adult) over the last four years. My story is fairy-tale like. I quit my job in London, took off on a round-the-world trip with my husband and daughter, decided to try writing a novel to finance it and landed a two-book deal instantly with Simon & Schuster (for Hunting Lila and its sequel). I live on the tropical island of Bali. From outside it’s a dream life. From inside it’s a dream life most of the time. But let’s be clear on a few things.

The pros of being a writer

1. I have the best work environment ever invented

I get to write in bed, wearing my pyjamas, eating chocolate and drinking coffee / wine all day. I wrote Losing Lila on the beach in Goa. I wrote Fated during a road trip to California. I live in BALI.

I don’t have to commute or buy work clothes. I can drink gin & tonics for brunch and people laughingly excuse it as a charming author quirk. I can get out of any social engagement by telling people I have a publishing deadline.

2. I get to travel for ‘research’

For the last eight weeks I’ve been travelling the world – all in the name of research. Being self-employed gives me so much more freedom. No more 20 days vacation a year. No more commute. No more days spent hiding my Facebook page from my boss! Now I AM the boss.

 

To read the rest (and the cons) click HERE.

 

On top of Brad Pitt

I’m on top of Brad Pitt and he is Furious about it! If you picked up a copy of Hello the week after George Clooney got married you’d have seen that I made it to the book of the week slot! Yay. So exciting. It’s also charting in WHSmith at the moment and getting rave reviews!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Buy your paperback copy now from ASDA, WHSmith or Amazon

6 things I can’t write without

1. Ryan Gosling



mmmmmmm I based Jay in Out of Control on his character in Drive…though a little less violent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. My aeropress coffee maker

No need for fancy coffee makers, this is the best coffee maker in the world. Hands down. And totally portable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Cake

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Goes without saying no?

4. My bed

OK, this is not my bed but I wish it was my bed…

 

 

 

 

 

Despite all ergonomic experts’ advice, I write cross-legged on my bed. It’s comfy. What can I say?

 

5. My laptop

 

 

 

 

I touchtype about 80 words a minute. This is how I manage to write three books a year. I heart my macbook air.

 

6. My spotify subscription

 

 

 

 

 

I have to listen to music when I’m writing. It’s essential. All my playlists are public on Spotify. Username: SarahAlderson

 

 

Win copies of Come Back To Me

Win a signed paperback of Come Back To Me – my new adult novel (out now, published by Pan Macmillan).

The lovely Sarah over at Feeling Fictional – one of my favourite book blogs (and bloggers) is running a fab giveaway at the moment. She has a signed copy of Come Back To Me to give away. To enter the competition just click here.

This is the blurb for the book:

Come back to me. That was the very last thing I said to him.

Always. The very last thing he said to me.

Home on leave in sunny California, Marine and local lothario Kit Ryan finds himself dangerously drawn to his best friend’s sister, Jessa – the one girl he can’t have.

But Kit’s not about to let a few obstacles stand in his way and soon Jessa’s falling for his irresistible charms.

What starts out as a summer romance of secret hook-ups and magical first times quickly develops into a passionate love affair that turns both their worlds upside down.

When summer’s over and it’s time for Kit to redeploy, neither Kit nor Jessa are ready to say goodbye. Jessa’s finally following her dreams and Kit’s discovered there’s someone he’d sacrifice everything for.

Jessa’s prepared to wait for Kit no matter what. But when something more than distance and time rips them apart they’re forced to decide whether what they have is really worth fighting for.

A breathtaking, scorchingly hot story about love, friendship, family and finding your way back from the edge of heartbreak.

I’m also giving away a copy over on Goodreads in a contest that will be running until October 23rd when the paperback is finally out! Watch this space for more exciting contests.

Remember I’m also entering people into a contest to win a Swag bag of goodies, including a signed copy of the book and other things – to enter you just need to review the book on Amazon and send me the link!

 

Self Publishing vs Traditional Publishing: Which is better?

Author Becky Wicks and I are guest speakers at the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival this week, where we’re discussing all things “marketing” as well as YA and NA books. We’re also taking a look at traditional versus self-publishing…

Being a successful author these days means knowing how to market and promote yourself and your book, and let us tell you, it doesn’t matter whether you’re traditionally published or going the indie/self-publishing route – you’re going to have to work your booties off to get noticed. With our latest new adult novels, I published with Pan Macmillan and Becky chose the indie route. What we discovered was that the PR and book marketing efforts required to make our books a success was pretty much the same.

1. Marketing your book is going to take TIME. LOTS OF IT.

It sounds crazy, especially if all you really want to do is write, but you should be investing as much in your PR and marketing as you do in actually writing the book. We were both spending 15 hours a day on social media in the month before our books launched. Now we both spend on average 2 hours a day scheduling Tweets, connecting with readers and bloggers, and writing posts.

You might loathe the idea of having to spend so much time on marketing, but if you want to sell books and you aren’t JK Rowling or Lena Dunham, with a publishing house throwing gazillions in marketing support your way, then you’re going to need to bust a move to make it happen. And if you’re signed to a mainstream publisher, forget it if you think they’ll do it all for you. You will still need to do 99% of it yourself.

2. Create a website with engaging content

Your book might be the greatest on the planet, but who cares? There are millions of books out there. You need to prove yours is worth your readers’ time. How? By making sure everything else you put out there into the world is top quality. Blog every day, offer interesting insights and make sure your website is SEO optimised. Your website is the gateway point for publishers and fans to find out about you and your books. Once you start offering the good stuff, trust us, people will be back. They’ll ditch you quick-smart however, if you simply talk about yourself, which brings us to the next point…

3. Do NOT just talk about your book

There’s nothing more annoying (or boring) than an author who talks about nothing but their amazing/bargain/99c/5-star reviewed book. Intersperse your online plugs with interesting blog posts and Tweets. These can be about anything – your life, your interests, your thoughts on other books and current events, Justin Bieber (hey, he gets a lot of clicks). Once you start offering content that people enjoy on a regular basis, they’ll be more likely to support you when you start selling your new book. Why? Because you have become a source of wisdom and superiority (ahem). We made a few fun YouTube videos for kicks that mixed things up a bit. Don’t judge us.

4. Build your mailing list

A mailing list is your number one tool for selling books. In an ideal world, these are the people who love your work, who can’t wait to hear from you, who will support you till the end of time. But building an email list of this type of reader takes a while. The best way to build a mailing list is by writing a book that’s so good, people beg for more by emailing you and ordering you to inform them of all updates. Another way is offering free content. We both have a download link on our homepages, giving away extra stuff, like bonus chapters and excerpts of new work. This allows us to capture emails. Running a Rafflecopter contest also helps you gather email addresses. However, make sure that the prizes you offer are things that people who read your books would like eg; Amazon vouchers, signed books and swag. Otherwise you’ll end up with a mailing list of people who are outside of your sales demographic and they’ll simply unsubscribe.

5. Make your mantra “Give give give“.

Social media should be 90% giving. We found a lot of success and support through offering free content to our readers. We also interact a lot. We re-Tweet people’s Tweets. We share their blog posts. Creating interesting posts on specialist subjects or just sharing stories that entertain or inform helps you become a useful resource for others. It helps to do a free or discount promo with your book, too. If you’re self-published this is easy with the Amazon’s KDP Select option, but if you’re with a publisher it may be tricky as they won’t want to lose sales. Talk to them about a marketing plan that incorporates giving away some kind of free content. Connect. Communicate. Entertain. Inform. Share.

6. Build your online relationships

Both of us have spent a lot of time building relationships in the reading, blogging and authors’ communities out there. It’s fun as we’re talking to people who love the same things we do, and there’s nothing better than forming new friendships with likeminded people all over the world. If you want your books to sell, you need to start building relationships 6 months to a year before release, with key reviewers/influencers on blogs, Twitter, Facebook and Goodreads.

Engage every day. Use Tweetadder or Hootsuite to schedule Tweets. Add their pages to your social media feeds and start getting involved. Interact with fans. Follow back. If you constantly self-promote you’ll soon lose followers.

7. Know your audience

Focus on just one or two social media platforms so you don’t spread yourself too thin and make sure you know who you’re trying to reach before you start. If you write Young Adult novels, focus on Instagram as many teens don’t have Facebook or Twitter accounts. Likewise, if you’re writing erotica, it’s pointless writing to Young Adult book bloggers or targeting teenagers, as they won’t be buying your sexy masterpiece. Do your research and then get involved.

8. Get reviews before your book goes on sale

Next to your mailing list, this is the most important thing for a new author to remember. Amazon is often the first point of contact for readers looking to buy new books. How often do you buy a book with no reviews? It’s a good idea to send Advanced Reading Copies to bloggers/key influencers a month, or even further in advance, and ask them to review you on Goodreads. The day the book is listed on Amazon contact them and ask them to paste their review to Amazon. If you can send them the URL, even better (make it easy for them). Don’t waste time asking friends to read and review. Personal experience taught us both this is a huge waste of time. Your friends aren’t your readers. Remember, know your audience. I offered a signed, limited edition bookmark to fans who reviewed the book on Amazon. You need 25-30 reviews (good ones) on Amazon within the first two weeks ideally.

9. Make the most of external resources

Whether you’re a self-published or traditionally published author, there’s a myriad of awesome people out there with skills to help you create and market your books. Going solo? Becky worked with a great cover designer to help her make her new adult books eye-catching and easily convertible to all formats. When it comes to shouting about it, advertise your promos with sites like Kindle Nation Daily and BookBub, and read sites like BookMarketingTools who offer countless free videos packed with information from social media and marketing experts, and best-selling authors. With help for formatting and admin tasks like organizing your mailing lists, sites like ODesk and Fiverr are invaluable.

10. Be yourself

This might sound obvious, but when you’re marketing your book, you’re selling a piece of yourself and you’d be surprised at the number of authors who sound like robots, sending plug after plug out into the Twitterverse. The last thing you want to be in the public realm is a nuisance to anybody, or to come off as an uninformed amateur. A little preparation goes a long way. Don’t just re-Tweet if you can add something to it yourself. Don’t just copy what others are doing when you can create your own twist or niche to a story/article/comment thread. Let your brilliant, creative self shine through in everything you do and hopefully with some time and effort, success in the publishing world will be yours.

See you out there, scribblers!

Becky Wicks and Sarah Alderson have published over a dozen books between them, with three of the biggest publishers in the world (Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins and Pan Macmillan). Their latest joint venture is a comedy romance – The Extraordinary Life of Lara Craft (not Croft) is coming soon under the pen name Lola Salt. (Subscribe to my newsletter for updates – it’s on my homepage).

For more tips on writing and publishing follow Becky and Sarah on Twitter.

SALE NOW ON!

Hunting Lila is just £1.49 right now for Kindle UK so if you haven’t yet grabbed a copy now’s the time. BUY NOW! And then tell all your friends to buy it too…

 

And in case you still haven’t bought a copy of my latest novel COME BACK TO ME then get thee to Amazon right now (I say Amazon rather than your local indie bookseller because right now it’s only available on Amazon Kindle… it’s out in paperback in October). It’s just 99p for a few more days and it’s getting totally mind-bogglingly lovely reviews which make me squeal with delight (and then freak out about how on earth I’m going to write the follow up).

How to write full time / make money as an author.

Five years into my career as an author and I’m finally at the stage where I write full time and I need only submit an opening chapter and synopsis to my publishers in order to get a book deal. I make money as an author. I don’t take that for granted. I’m aware that next year I could be in the position of not being able to sell a book to any publisher (this doesn’t scare me that much as I’ve already self-published and would do so again).

It’s become harder than ever to get a book deal. I’ve seen my advances shrink over the last four years. And they were never exactly big to begin with. Publishing is a difficult business to be in. It offers very little in the way of security or certainty. Between worrying about reviews, sales, whether your next book is going to be any good and whether you’re going to be dropped by your publisher there are days I find it hard to summon enthusiasm for writing.

And let’s not glamorise being a writer. It’s a job. It’s how I pay the bills. It’s my only source of income. I work 12-15 hour days a lot of the time, mainly on PR and marketing. My writing takes up less and less time as I struggle to make a name for myself in an increasingly saturated market place.

Someone asked me yesterday how it’s possible to quit the day job and become a full-time writer. My advice would be not to. Don’t quit your day job. Not unless you –

- Have a private source of income to sustain you during the lean months.

- Are the one in a million author who signs a seven figure deal for your first book, alongside a major film deal.

- Have a partner who can pick up the slack in the months you are waiting for your advance to get paid.

- Can move somewhere like South East Asia where you can live on a lot less (this is what I did!).

How do I manage to write full time on an author’s ‘salary’?

- I live in Bali. There is simply no way that I could live on what I earn in the ‘west’.

- I have a husband who earns more than me and who can pick up the slack when I’m broke.

- I earn extra money by running workshops on writing and retreats.

- I sold the option for Hunting Lila to a film production company (highly recommend this!).

- I learned screenwriting and was paid to co-write the screenplay for Hunting Lila.

- I got myself a film agent off the back of spec writing several scripts and my rep as an author and am now moving more fully into screenwriting (that’s where the real money is and I enjoy telling a story through this medium).

- I stopped providing free content or giving my time away unless there was a valuable return (fundamental lesson: value your time).

- I write books that are as ‘filmic’ as possible in the hope that they get optioned (you’re looking at between $5000-10,000 a year just for option rights, so if you can get it this is a brilliant passive income stream).

- I write fast. I am prolific. I write 3-4 books a year. And I now have two publishers, meaning that I can publish around 3 books a year (remember a publisher will normally only publish one book a year). If you are going to spend ten years writing a book then forget being able to live on the advance.

People are always remarking on how successful I am. Yes, from the outside I am successful. Eight books in four years with major publishers, worldwide translation deals, a film deal, a life in Bali. I’m incredibly blessed. I love my life. I travel, I have no ‘boss’, no 20 days holiday a year, no working for ‘the man’. But I also have no security and no savings. Would I change that? No. Never. I love my life and my job.

To anyone who wants to become an author though and visualises a life of glamour and riches I hope this post has given a more truthful look at the reality. I do live an amazing life. What people aren’t seeing however are the evenings when I lie on my bed crying and demanding to know from my husband that everything is going to be OK. They also don’t see the 15 hour days spent slogging.

To be a writer requires not just the skin of a rhinoceros, it also requires nerves of steel and the ability to accept uncertainty and thrive on that (oh, and a talent for social media). ☺

Sarah writes young adult fiction for Simon & Schuster UK & US. Her novels include: Hunting Lila, Losing Lila, Fated, The Sound, Out of Control and Conspiracy Girl.

She also writes adult fiction for Pan Macmillan under the name Mila Gray.

Follow her on Twitter.

Follow her on Instagram.

 

COME BACK TO ME is just 99p!

Grab it quickly while it’s on sale. COME BACK TO ME – my smokin’ hot new adult novel is reduced from£4.49 to £0.99 for a limited time only on Amazon Kindle.

‘A heartbreaking, captivating love story’    ‘The perfect summer read’    ‘A must for fans of Alex and Lila.’

What’s stopping you?! And if you review it while it’s on sale I will send you a limited edition, signed bookmark!

GIVEAWAY! Win signed copies & ££

OUT OF CONTROL is getting really lovely reviews on Amazon and Goodreads… thank you to all who’ve reviewed it! I so appreciate it.

When 17 year old Liva witnesses a brutal murder she’s taken into police custody for her own protection. But when the police station is attacked and bullets start flying it becomes clear that Liva is not just a witness, she’s a target.

Together with a car thief called Jay, Liva manages to escape the massacre but now the two of them are alone in New York, trying to outrun and outwit two killers who will stop at nothing to find them.

When you live on the edge, there’s a long way to fall…

BUY IT HERE! It’s out in the UK and AUS and out in the US in May.

To celebrate I’m running another giveaway… WIN A SIGNED COPY & £40 IN VOUCHERS OF YOUR CHOICE

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Drive, Terminator, New York & human trafficking

I’m at a kids birthday party when a woman I barely know grabs me by the arm and declares: ‘I have an idea that you should write about.’

I glance over her shoulder for the exits, my smile fixing into place, wondering if I should tell her it’s not ideas I’m lacking just hours in the day. ’Human trafficking,’ she announces, ‘you need to write about it.’

I tell her with an apologetic shrug that I write young adult fiction; ‘lots of car chases, hot boys and kissing. That sort of thing.’ Even as I say it, I can feel myself shrinking in her estimation, and, it must be admitted, my own. She’s talking about human trafficking and how it affects over thirty million people worldwide and I’m talking about girls with mind powers and shape-shifting demons.

I left the party with a niggling feeling, which was compounded when I got home by the sight of a post-it stuck over my desk with ‘make your words count’ scrawled on it.

With my first four books, all published by Simon & Schuster, I had established a name as a writer of fast-paced thrillers. When asked about my inspiration I frequently cited Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Sarah Conor from Terminator (Yes, I am that highbrow).

While I’d always prided myself on the fact my female protagonists were kickass and intelligent, now I was confronted by the fact I could be writing something with real power, something that could have impact, something that could potentially help change lives.

‘No,’ my agent sagely advised. ‘A book about human trafficking is very hard to sell.’

She was right of course and there was also the fact that I had no real authority or knowledge of the subject. True, I had no knowledge about telekinesis or secret military units either and this had never stopped me writing about them (Wikipedia, Google and my imagination are my best friends) but human trafficking was something else entirely.

So I sat down to write my next novel – inspired by a combination of Ryan Gosling in Drive, the police station scene in Terminator and a trip to New York – and had an epiphany. I could write about human trafficking after all. I would slide it sneakily into the book. It would still be a young adult thriller, with all the chases, action and kissing required, but at the heart of it would be a human trafficking conspiracy. Immediately I started researching and chatting with friends who worked for the UN, discovering that more people today are enslaved that at any other point in history and that human trafficking has fast become the third largest criminal industry in the world.

Instead of writing about a victim, something I didn’t feel confident enough to do, my protagonist became the teenage daughter of a man who runs a government task force tackling gang-related trafficking and I set her in the midst of a conspiracy involving her father and the New York gangs he’s up against.

The book was eagerly received by my publisher in the UK and snapped up by Simon & Schuster in New York too, making me realise that just because I write young adult fiction doesn’t mean I have to write about sparkly vampires and love triangles. But neither do I have to sacrifice thrills and action in order to make a serious point.

As an author I’ve learned that empowering teenagers isn’t just about giving them strong role models, it’s also about using the medium of storytelling to open their eyes to issues that we all need to take a stand on.

Out of Control by Sarah Alderson (published by Simon & Schuster) is OUT NOW.

http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/

http://www.antislavery.org/english/

http://www.stopthetraffik.org/

This feature originally appeared in The Big Issue (may ’14)