Harriet Now and Then

March 13, 2022 / Susan Barrett / Leave a comment

Susan’s thirteenth novel is about two women who share the name Harriet. Alternate chapters tell their individual stories. The first Harriet lived in the west country in the second half of the eighteenth century; the other is alive today. The first Harriet wrote poetry and married a man who had a good reputation as a poet. The second Harriet is a cellist and, through meeting an American professor of literature, becomes involved in research into the life of the first Harriet. The circumstances of the two women’s lives may be different but the challenges they face as women artists are similar. The 18th century Harriet does as well as she can, within the confines of a woman’s life at the time. Today’s Harriet was widowed young and left with an emotionally disordered son. She might have become a talented composer and concert cellist but has to gain a steady income while giving her son, now adult, a home and care. Both Harriet meet men who may make a difference to their lives but fail to do so, for different reasons.

Now available on Amazon in paperback and as an ebook. Follow the link at the start of this blog.

How can readers discover the well-written fiction in the self-published whirlpool?

August 3, 2020 / Susan Barrett / Leave a comment

Novels reach the hands of their readers through reviews, recommendations, bookshops, libraries and readers’ groups. Naturally enough, readers want books that have the kind of objectively-awarded, quality hallmark that comes from being published by a traditional publisher. There is no such hallmark for self-published books.

Ever since I took a ten year break from writing and fell off my perch with mainstream publishers, I have tussled with this question: how can writers of thoughtful, well-written fiction assure potential readers that their work is worth reading? We swim in the vast ocean of self-published material, which has no arbiter of quality at all.

When I set up writersreadersdirect.com, I hoped to help myself and other skilled writers of thoughtful, entertaining novels to reach a readership. But the business of selecting the better from the worse was tiresome and time-consuming. Marketing and publicity were impossible on no budget at all. I now just look after myself, bringing out my recent novels on Amazon and contenting myself with a very small readership among my known contacts.

Every so often my mind reverts to my headline question. I know of Goodreads, of course, based in the US. For an outlay on review copies, you can get your novel reviewed but where do the reviews get you? Nowhere very much. Today I’m thinking of the many readers’ groups in England whose members read literary novels of a good standard. I wonder if it would be possible to marshall the support of these keen readers? Trouble is, they like to borrow the books on their lists from libraries, rather than buy them. So they don’t actually support the writers of those books, leaving aside the small sums that come from PLR to the authors who are most read in any case. If each group agreed to include one self-published novel a year in their reading list, chosen from a small selection circulated by … but here the mind fogs over.

We need something on the lines of an apple-sorting system. If there was a way to run novels down a shute which only let the well-written fiction drop into the collecting box, we’d have the necessary quality control in place! Has anyone out there got any ideas? And/or fellow feeling?

Reflections on reflections

March 4, 2019March 4, 2019 / Susan Barrett / Leave a comment

Do we see an accurate reflection of ourselves in a mirror? I think it’s a two-way process. If it is you yourself who is looking at the reflection, a lifetime’s doubts about what you look like get in the way of how you see yourself. So a mirror’s reflection of ourselves cannot be how others see us.
It struck me today that it’s the same with writing. It is hard, if not impossible, to form a faithful picture of anything you’ve written yourself – well, at least I find it so. For that reason, I always want to hear readers’ views. It is not a matter of longing for praise. Somehow, praise can be dismissed, in the way that ‘how beautiful you are’ is seldom believed even by beauties. Any praise must be descriptive and valid to be heard. Easiest to believe and appreciate is reported enjoyment. I write to entertain a reader as well as to leave them with some thoughts about the underlying theme, which is usually about a quirk of human nature. If I didn’t need occasional validation, I would probably continue to write so long as I have fresh ideas, but the work would stay in a drawer.
As it is, I do need to hear what people think of my work. That’s why I’ve continued to publish, despite not having an agent or a publisher. It’s become easier and easier to self-publish. CreateSpace is now part of Kindle Direct Publishing who produce ebooks for Kindle but also paperbacks to sell on Amazon. After an initial, stupid mistake on my part which resulted in my latest novel, Greek Gold, coming out in proof form in far too large a size, I corrected this fast and just a day later, up came the novel in Amazon’s book pages, right size and right format.
A plea to anyone out there who reads this blog … please consider shelling out £5.50 plus postage to read this latest Susan Barrett novel and tell her, i.e. me, what you think. Compliments are welcome, of course, but make them credible. Severe criticism would be hard to bear, and maybe best kept to yourself! The crux of it is that I’d like to know if the novel works. It’s like a soft-boiled egg. Until it’s cracked open, you can’t be sure you’ve got it right. In the case of Greek Gold, I hope it’s not like the proverbial curate’s egg …

Greek Gold is available on Amazon co.uk as an ebook and in a paperback edition.

Available on Amazon as a paperback and on Kindle

How did I do?

April 29, 2017 / Susan Barrett / Leave a comment

There may be people who never feel the need for feedback. Perhaps even Trappist monks occasionally feel let down when they spend the day in prayer and no-one says at the end “Well done.” If you cook a meal, and I don’t mean just heat up a readymade, you’re encouraged to repeat the performance if it’s greeted with appreciation. Even as the daily cook in our household of two, I know I like to hear some kind of response, even if it’s just the question, “Is there any more?”

Yesterday, 26th April, I received the consultant’s report after a CT colonoscopy on March 31st. During the wait, I’d felt reasonably confident the result would be clear. Yet it is all too easy to fill silences with imaginary bad news. So I was relieved to learn that the scan showed up nothing untoward. Better than this was the consultant’s style. His letter read like a kindly schoolteacher’s summing up of the term’s work: “the bowel was well prepared” … “this is a reassuring investigation”. It made me feel like a praised pupil and led me to think about feedback, how useful it can be, not just for morale but for guidance.

This morning I played around with something that turned up in the (possibly) haphazard way that happens when we log onto our emails. Google suggested I create a form. So I’ve come up with a feedback form for “White Lies”. Whether this will be useful or not remains to be seen. I’ve had good reviews posted on the novel’s Amazon page but many readers don’t bother. Others are given the book or borrow it, so they are not ‘verified purchasers’ and therefore not entitled to post a review.

The form may be a way of capturing the response of more readers. Or I might ditch that form and compose another one for all my novels. Here’s the link: https://goo.gl/forms/IJoDTVzRVZJdNKwm1. If anyone has a view on the questions I’ve chosen to put on the form, I’d appreciated feedback.

At the same time I became involved in a LinkedIn book group discussion. Someone asked how he could get reviews for the short story he’d just published on Amazon. His request was not worded well. He wrote, “We’re there any funny parts.” I found myself eager to point out how the apostrophe altered his intended meaning. Later, I worried that I’d been harsh on a newcomer. I hope he can accept what I consider was constructive feedback.

How to be your own PRO

November 30, 2016November 30, 2016 / Susan Barrett / Leave a comment

I’m just at the beginning of this lesson. I’m not even sure if the job title is still Publicity Relations Officer. But I have learnt one or two things since I began hoping to sell my books this autumn.

First of all, it’s necessary to have the confidence that what you are selling is worth selling. This is not easy when it is your own work.

It’s like looking in the mirror. Do you count the lines on your forehead? Those will surely have increased just by looking at them with a critical eye. Those of us who regard our own image with lasting satisfaction are few and far between. The same applies to writing. Of course it’s right to be self-critical while you are doing the writing. But if you want to sell your own book, then you have to squash that impish little self-doubting critic and concentrate on what is good.

The next imp that jumps in is the one who tells us not to boast. I wonder if this imp pesters people of my (elderly) generation more than others. I know I was brought up not to draw attention to myself. This attitude is a severe disadvantage if you want to sell your work.

But an advantage we have nowadays is the way we can easily communicate with the world without leaving the safety of our own rooms. I have decided to run an advertising campaign on LinkedIn. I’ve placed an ad, with the image of the cover of “A Home from Home”, on a pay per click basis. Clicks will come through to this website, but will any click on this site result in another click to the Amazon page of the novel? And will that further click result in a sale? It seems a long chance.

My early career as an advertising copywriter prompted me to write FREE in big letters in the headline. The only thing I could offer free was the ebook edition on Kindle Unlimited. So no royalties there. But it may bring me new readers. And that’s my biggest aim.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1537014838