CRABBIT'S LITLINKS 5

Crabbit's Friday Litlinks bring you topical bits and bobs from the world of words.

IF IN DOUBT, LEAVE IT OUT

If a word or phrase doesn't add something important to your book, cut it. If it's there because you think it's pretty, rather than helping the story and the reader, cut it.

If in doubt, leave it out. Your book will be better.

In order to do this properly, you must read every word aloud.

Please.

Thank you.

That is all.

CRABBIT COMP WINNER

You may remember that the Awfully Big Blog Adventure recently had a fabulous online litfest. (All the archived posts are at that link, by the way.) During it, I ran a competition and I'm now announcing (although she already knows) that the winner was Rebecca Clare Smith. Well done, Rebecca!

The task was to say what makes you crabbit, anything book- or writing-related. Luckily for me, I had the foresight to decide that this would be a matter of my picking a winning entry at random, rather than my actually having to judge them! I had originally said that I would show the entries on my blog but in fact I didn't have the foresight to realise how many there would be, so instead I suggest that if you'd like to see what made people crabbit, you follow the link, where you can peruse them to your heart's content.

I have to say that some of the things are not things I get crabbit about and other are. You will probably guess which is which.

Don't forget that if you have something you'd like to be grumpy about, you can suggest yourself for a Crabbit-Box Spot on this blog. Go to the Over To You page, for details. Come on - unleash your inner crabbit!

Picture by Andrew Culture

Meanwhile, a copy of Write to be Published and a crabbit bag will soon be on their way to Rebecca.

Latest review comment for WTBP

Author, blogger and publisher, Scott Pack: “I receive a lot of emails from authors asking for guidance on how to take the next steps to publication. In future I will just point them in the direction of this book.”

There is also a fabulous one in the next issue of The New Writer, by Merric Davidson. Hooray!

SELLING BOOKS IS NOT A BONUS

Those of you who have heard me do talks about Write to be Published recently will have heard me say this. It needs saying again. It is fundamental to getting published.

A few weeks ago, I put a message on Twitter, asking something like, "Aspiring writers: what is your goal, your personal definition of what would be success for you?"

Replies came back along the lines you'd expect, comments such as, "I want to move people with my words," "I want to see my books in print," "My dream is to go into a bookshop and be able to buy a copy of my own book." But one reply struck me:

"I want to hold my published book in my hands. Selling copies would be a bonus."

Noooooo! Selling copies is not a bonus - the ability for your book to sell copies is utterly central to its chance of publication. If your book won't sell enough copies, a publisher will not publish it. End of. And how could we expect it to be otherwise?

Yes, we're artists, and the idea of selling, of commerciality, can be something that makes us uncomfortable. That's fine. We don't have to lose that passion for our art. That's why we write. But, if we want to be published, we must, unavoidably, aim to write a book which enough people will pay to read.

So, yes, hold onto your dream, but don't forget that your book must sell copies. It's not a bonus.

CRABBIT'S LITLINKS 4

Crabbit's Friday Litlinks brings you interesting, provocative and amusing links related to the world of books. I promise you no high-profile resignations or arrests in this batch of links.

ROCK OF AGENTS

Today I blogged about agents, and one in particular, over on the Awfully Big Blog Adventure. Do go and see what I've said.

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So, yes, watch out for more news of that brand new and exciting venture, in which I republish Mondays are Red and Sleepwalking with the help of my agent.

Separately, I will also be publishing a brand new non-fiction list, starting with Tweet Right - the sensible person's guide to Twitter. There will even be a new name for this venture, to be revealed soon. Complete with logo, which is being designed by Andrew Brown of Brown Media. 

And I will be revealing another piece of major special news - something which I guarantee none of you know. The Crabbit Old Bat will be making her bid for world domination. Hear it here first!

PITCH PITCH 2

A Pitch Pitch gives you a chance to develop the pitch of you work in progress and to have readers make constructive comments. See what happened last time for a sense of how constructive and helpful the comments are. If you would like to offer your pitch to the scrutiny of your fellows, see the instructions under Over To You. Oh, and while you're there, check out the other ways you can appear on or influence this blog! I'm particularly looking for people who'd like to do a Job Spotlight or Writer Blog Spotlight  - good chance to grow your platform.

My thanks to the two brave writers whose pitches follow:

QUERY LETTERS DISSECTED

Food for thought from Query Shark here. And then from Lynn Price here. Both American viewpoints but little they say is different over here. For "query letter" read "covering letter" - it's just that a US query letter is scarier to write because it has to sell your book and you on its own, without the recipient seeing your sample chapters at that stage.

I particularly draw your attention to Lynn's point about the pointlessness of saying "I chose your company because..." This habit has come about because of writers' genuine and well-intentioned efforts to prove that this is an individual query and the product of great research. However, think about it:

a) as Lynn says, it really doesn't matter why you chose them
b) it's a tad cocky, because there is a flavour of "how lucky you are that I chose YOU"
c) what if this is not the first agency you've tried? Or even the fourth? What you're hiding is, "I chose your agency because although you weren't top of my list of agents, you were at least on the list of agents who might in a million years consider my sort of book."

While searching for Lynn's link, I found this post of hers, containing more query letter noes. The woman is good. When she's not being bad.

The lesson from both Janet and Lynn's posts is: put yourself in the shoes of the recipient and read between your own lines. Hear your own subtext.

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BLOG BABY: CAROLINE GREEN

Blog Babies are writers who contact me to tell me of a publishing deal after (but I make no claim that it was caused by...) reading my blog. Today I am delighted to bring you Caroline Green. Did she stuggle? Did she suffer for her art? Find out!

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Caroline is the author of Dark Ride and here is the blurb:

A mysterious boy. A haunting secret.

A shiver crawled up my spine. It felt like the loneliest place in the world. For a second I thought I caught a snatch of music in the air, but it was just the wind whistling through cracks in the fairground hoardings. My instincts screamed, ‘Run away, Bel! Run away and never return!’ But instead my fingers closed around the ticket in my pocket. Admit one.

 

Bel has never met anyone like Luka. And the day she follows him into the abandoned fairground, she is totally unprepared for the turn her life is about to take.

NM: Tell us something about your early writing history, before you successfully submitted your novel.

CG: Dark Ride is actually the third novel I’ve written. The first, an adult book in the WF genre, got some positive rejections but was really a learning exercise. It felt a bit like falling in love. I couldn’t wait to work on it and the words just poured out of me in a way that was really exhilarating. This meant, naturally, that the plot was pants! The second book was for children aged 9-12 and was written initially for my eldest son. Despite winning a prize at the Winchester Writer’s Conference, and being briefly touted by Cornerstones, it didn’t go anywhere and I know now that it had some serious flaws. I forced myself to move on and write what became Dark Ride. This time I had lots of call in from agents and lots of interest that made me feel as though I was ‘almost there’. But none of them came to anything and they all ultimately rejected me.

NM: So, you decided to stop subbing to agents and go straight to publishers. What happened then?

CG: Feeling very battered and bruised by the process by this point, I had one last ditch attempt at publication by sending it directly to a publisher, Piccadilly Press. They asked to see the whole thing, then wanted to meet to suggest some changes. I was asked to come up with a revised synopsis, replacing a storyline that wasn’t working. My editor then came with a few queries and just wanted to know in a line or two  how I would handle certain sections. I had a week of horrible limbo when I didn’t really know what was going on. Then, one afternoon, I received the best email of my life, offering me a book deal.

NM: And you now have an agent! I presume that once you had a publisher that was easy? Can you take us through how that worked? And what has your agent been able to do for you that you couldn't have done yourself?

CG: I had also written a short book for my now eight year old son that Piccadilly Press passed on. I approached a bunch of agents about this and received very fast responses when they knew I already had a deal! Catherine Pellegrino at RCW surprised me by asking if she could see Dark Ride as well. I asked my editor if it was OK and she said fine, but obviously it’s gone beyond stage of an agent having any editorial input. Catherine had initially rejected it on three chapters and remembers it coming in. She is quite honest about the fact that she wasn’t very taken with it in that instance. But when she read the whole thing, she loved it and was horrified that it had slipped through her grasp! She invited me in and we just hit it off straight away. She offered to sign me and I said yes instantly. I’ve sort of given up on the younger kids’ book for now. Has an essential structural problem and I don’t feel strongly enough about it to address at the moment. I was subsequently offered a further 2-book deal by Piccadilly and Catherine was invaluable at this stage. She negotiated the contract to the nth degree. She has also helped me to secure a contract writing a book under a pseudonym for Working Partners.

NM: You'd been reading my blog for a while before you were picked up - what do you remember learning?

CG: I vividly remember you once writing about how many rejections you’d had and how you’d got where you are the hard way. It helped to bolster my desire not to give up, however battered I felt.

NM: You said, "Dark Ride has just come out and the whole thing is a total and utter dream come true." Go on, tell us about the dream! Tell us what it feels like!

CG: Being published feels incredible. It’s better than I imagined. Standing at my launch party, surrounded by family friends, publisher and agent was one of the best evenings of my life. I’ll never forget telling my husband and family about the book deals, especially dancing around the room to very loud music [Blink 182!] with my youngest when we were alone here and the first email came in. Just last night a friend’s daughter ran up and breathlessly told me she’s loved Dark Ride, all eyes shining. You really can’t put a price on how that feels.

NM: Has anything surprised you about being published? What do wish you'd known before? Anything you could have prepared for better?

CG: I’m not sure...I think I’d been around the houses so long and been part of online writing communities where other writers have had both good and bad experiences galore, that I was actually quite well prepared for how it feels. If anything is surprising, it’s just how brilliant it DOES feel. More so than I even imagined. I guess I could add that I perhaps thought that if I made it over that mountain, subsequent books would be easier to write. And I’m finding that’s not the case at all!

Hooray for blog babies! Good luck, Caroline and thanks for letting me know of your news!

CRABBIT'S LITLINKS 3

Crabbit's Litlinks is a weekly slot bringing you interesting, provocative or entertaining snippets from the world of books. I've been away all week and had to schedule this post a week ago so forgive me if anything has been superceded by events!

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WEIGHTY LITLINKS
1. Is it essential for authors to have blog/Twitter etc before the deal? Before you get all uppity about this piece, note that they don't say "if you don't have a blog", only "if you won't have a blog". In other words, this is about willingness to engage, and they will help you. Frankly, it seems fair enough to me, and it's for particular types of books. I like that they are up front about it.

2. On, the other hand, Cory Doctorow has this to say in Publishers Weekly about blogs and bookselling, and he should know: “...the biggest lesson I've learned is that, while a popular blog is helpful in launching a self-published work, it is by no means sufficient for selling one, and if I wanted to generate interest in paperback sales of With a Little Help, I'd have to go where the traditional book buyers are.”

3. Illustrating the power of Twitter, YA author John Green’s unfinished book has gone to No. 1 in the US Amazon chart (WSJ) But don't get the idea that anyone can do this. John Green has a lot of followers.

4. And if you haven't been listening to the Guardian podcasts, do! I am normally useless at listening and never tune in to the radio but I'm hooked on these. You get serious, informed, leisurely, book-related news and debate. I can't recommend them highly enough. Star quality.

LIGHT LITLINKS

1. n a survey carried out to mark the start of National Crimewriting Week, we found out how many people crime writers killed in 2010 (and how) (nationalcrimewritingweek.co.uk)

2. If you like pretty book covers, this website will be a delight and a time black hole. (bookarchive.com)

3. You'll know some of these but the 30 harshest author-on-author insults in history are always good for a wince. (Suggested by Vanessa Garden @literarycitizen)

4. American poet Heather Christie has an innovative way of promoting her new poetry collection.

5. A video of Kurt Vonnegut giving tips for short story writing is worth it for his commentary alone. “Write for one person: if you open a window and make love to the world, your story will get pneumonia”

Have a great weekend!

A CONFERENCE FOR YOU

I'm delighted to be able to tell you about the Society of Authors in Scotland conference, taking place on Saturday September 17th. This is the SoAiS's second ever conference - the first was when I was the Chair and I have vivid memories of the buzz of that day. We'd put a vast amount of effort into making it just right and I've no doubt that that the same will apply this time.

It's open to anyone and I recommend it to all writers, published and unpublished - including self-published, because the content is very relevant to anyone who wants to sell more books. It will not have a specifically Scottish slant, so please do come, wherever you are.

I'll be doing a session on building an online platform - in which I will not be haranguing everyone into some kind of compulsory social media nightmare. I will be seeking to show the positive, sensible side to creating a platform, ideal for those who are reluctant and nervous, as well as those who are keen. I'll try to show why, how, and how not.

The conference will also be a wonderful way to meet other authors, as well as publishers and agents. Especially at the drinks reception in the evening.

The venue, the Royal College of Surgeons, holds a special place in my heart, because it's where I first heard the story that became Fleshmarket. Also, if you want a really irrelevant fact, the building was designed by the same architect, William Playfair, who designed the street where I live and a whole load of other New Town streets.

It's £65 for non-members, which includes lunch, other refreshments and the evening reception. I think, considering the opportunities to learn, develop, and meet people, that's a very reasonable price. Yes, for many of us, £65 is not something we can just spend without thinking, but I know it will be worth it. It's the cheapest they could make it after considering the high costs of catering at this venue, but the venue is perfect - central, historic, accessible, and geared up for events like this.

Will I see you there? I hope so! Do sign up and book your place.

CRABBIT-BOX GUEST: Dan Holloway Channelling Ginsberg

It's time for a Crabbit-Box slot, in which someone gets to shout and stamp about something that really gets under his or her skin and induces crabbit behaviour. If you have something vaguely writing- or book-related that you want to rant about here, please see the Over To You page at the top for instructions.

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My crabbit guest today is a wellknown participant on this blog, always good for a passionately-held view: Dan Holloway. Take it away, Dan.

THE BIG WTBP COMP - RESULTS

You have been waiting with varying degrees of patience to discover the winners of the Big WTBP Competition, for which the first prize is a first-chapter critique and Crabbit bag, along with three runner-up prizes of Crabbit bags.

And today, all is revealed!

There were many entries and standard was very high. I did what all sensible people do when faced with a daunting task: had a glass of wine. This didn't help. So I did an even more sensible thing: delegated. I delegated a trusted reader - someone who knows books as well as I do, in fact better - to choose the shortlist and to present them to me without identifying names. Then I delegated again, though I confess I did haul another entry onto the shortlist, because I'd seen it when it came in and I really liked it.

With a huge reminder that very much (but not all) of this is about personal response and is at least partly subjective, here goes:

WHIPPED INTO SHAPE: WRITE FROM THE HEART and HEAD

Whipped Into Shape is a series featuring readers saying what they learnt from Write to be Published, and me responding with extra advice or tips. See the Over To You page above, for details of how you can contribute to Whipped Into Shape, and many other ways for you to appear on this blog.

AN AWFULLY BIG ONLINE LITFEST - NOW

Do head over to the fabulous and hectic Awfully Big Blog Adventure litfest - there's such a lot going on! It's the first ever online litfest organised by children's authors and you'll find loads of "events" from yesterday and a load more today. My post is at noon today.

Click the pretty picture on the left.

CRABBIT'S LITLINKS 2

Crabbit's Litlinks is a weekly slot bringing you interesting, provocative or entertaining snippets from the world of books.

SHORT STORY WORKSHOP SHOUTOUT

I want to draw your attention quickly to a short story workshop that I suspect will be really good. Helen Hunt has had lots of short stories published in women's magazines and she's a very sensible, nice person with lots of integrity, so I'm confident her workshop will be great: expert and generous. She's going to be running more workshops later.

By the way,

PITCH PITCH 1

Introducing the Pitch Pitch feature, in which you get the chance to pitch your book to readers of this blog for their comments. If you would like the chance to do this, instructions are on the Over To You page above. 

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I have three different pitches for you today. These writers are being brave but they also do want comments to help them hone their pitches. So, please be constructive, objective, fair and decent, please. If you don't normally read or like books of the sort described, either don't comment or else make it clear that you're speaking from a position of unfamiliarity.

MARY HOFFMAN ON HISTORICAL FICTION AND DAVID

I am delighted to welcome the award-winning and highly intelligent writer, Mary Hoffman, on publication day for her new historical novel, David. But I don't have people on here only to launch their books - I make them teach us something. So, my questions to Mary are all based around the idea of historical fiction, how it works, what it needs, what the pitfalls are. It's one of my favourite things to write - and for a children's or teenage author, as Mary and I both are, it's full of extra possibilities, unconstrained as we are by the bounds of mobile phones, social services and interfering parents.

A little bit about David, first:

Aged just eighteen, Gabriele sets off from his home in Settignano to make his fortune in Florence. He plans to go straight to the home of renowned sculptor Michelangelo, who is also his ‘milk brother’, but instead finds himself in the house of a wealthy widow. Before he knows it Gabriele’s plans of living a simple life as a stonecutter have disintegrated and instead he has become an artist’s model, embroiled in Florentine politics and spying for the frateschi. Gabriele is playing a dangerous game and will be lucky to escape Florence with his life.

And a little about Mary:
Mary Hoffman is an acclaimed children’s author and critic. She is the author of the internationally bestselling picture book Amazing Grace. Her Stravaganza sequence for Bloomsbury has a huge fan base and Stravaganza: City of Secrets was nominated for the Carnegie Medal. She has also received award recognition for her stand-alone historical titles: Troubadour was nominated for the 2010 Carnegie Medal and shortlisted for the Costa Book Award and The Falconer’s Knot was shortlisted for the Guardian Fiction Award and winner of the French Prix Polar Jeunesse 2009. Mary lives with her husband in Oxfordshire.

Right, you lot, settle down and listen to Mary opening the door to historical fiction.

NM: When you hear a true story that you want to turn into a novel, what are the ingredients you look for which make it work?

MH: The three "straight" historical novels I have written have all begun in a different way:

The Falconer's Knot had a "mother" and a "father". My editor at Bloomsbury asked me if I'd like to try writing "The Name of the Rose for teenagers" and my husband came back from a falconry day, talking about how to tie "a falconer's knot" and the two fused together to make the novel.

Troubadour began with a single word. I just could not get the word "troubadour" out of my mind. I was sort of haunted by it. So I knew I had to start researching it. Then I found out that the flourishing of the troubadours - and women troubadours too (called Trobairitz) - came at the same time as the most ghastly massacres and mutilations of the Albigensian Crusade in the early 13th century. Courtly Love and hideous slaughter: hence the subtitle, a story of love and war.

NM: What attracted you to David? [Apart from his, erm, physique!]

MH: Funnily enough, although I am a massive fan of Michelangelo's sculptures, David is not my favourite. But he is just so "there"! [NM: Indeed!] You can't ignore him. I suppose I felt bound to write about him. But what really attracted me was that the historical facts were there as a sort of scaffolding but that no-one knew anything about the model of the David - or even if there was one. That's an irresistible challenge for a novelist.

David is so well known that he needs no explanation but the other two are about much obscurer events and practices. I can't find anything in common across the three or with the next historical project; I can only say "I know it when I come across it"!

NM: Sometimes we have to alter or ignore historical details. Can you define what sort of things you feel you can alter and what do you feel you can't?

MH: I don't change anything! What I do is add and insert and elaborate. But, possibly because I don't have a history degree, I try to be as accurate as possible. And I always put a historical note, to show which characters and events are historical and which invented.

NM adds: I've also never had to change anything such as dates or events, but I have an example to show the sort of thing we could change. When I was writing Fleshmarket, I needed a fire to have happened in a certain part of Edinburgh's Old Town in 1824. Now, there were often fires in the Old Town, so I could just have invented one, but, as it happens, the biggest fire of that era happened in exactly the part where I needed it, in 1824. But if it hadn't, I'd have invented it.

MH: Having just said that I don't change anything, I did change the leader of the pro-Medici faction in David! The real historical one was called Doffo Spini - great name isn't it? - but I wanted him to play a specific, quite unpleasant role in the story, so I made up a different leader, called Antonello de' Altobiondi, and then clad all his followers in purple and green. But I play fair and say that in the Historical Note.

NM: Are you more research fanatic or impatient to get the story down? Can you tell us something of your research methods?

MH: I research madly, fanatically, for months and make copious notes. Then I put it all away in a box, write the story and just trust that, when I need it, that bit of detail I researched will come back to me. And if I'm lucky I'll be able to find the right note and check on it. [NM: Sounds just like me.]

And of course, while writing, I am bound to come across something that I didn't anticipate needing to know. Then I stop writing and find it out. But ultimately it's the story that matters; you could stop and check a dozen times on every page but you need to reach a point where you can trust your ability to tell a story and hope that you've done enough homework not to make any mistakes that will require a complete re-write.

I make timelines and card indexes and family trees and love all the supporting apparatus of writing a historical novel.

NM: Do you have a favourite period or setting that you like to return to?

MH: I write about the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, mainly in Italy (though Troubadour begins in the south of France). I don't think I would write about anything earlier than 1200 or later than 1620-ish. But that's still over 400 years so quite a big span. At the moment I'm researching some Plantagenet novels set in England for a change, beginning about 1389.

NM: Apart from familiarity with that period, what makes it so wonderful to write about?

MH: What makes it wonderful to write about is partly not having to live in it! Imagine having toothache, or giving birth or having to have an operation in my favourite period! [NM: I felt that while describing the mastectomy without anaesthetic in Fleshmarket...] And as a vegetarian, I would probably starve. There's a wonderful book by Ian Mortimer, called The Time-Travellers Guide to the Middle Ages, which makes it very clear I wouldn't have survived five minutes.

But what attracts me about those periods is that in medieval and Renaissance Italy art was revered and considered part of everyone's life. When a great new altarpiece was made for the cathedral in Siena, it was carried through the streets of the city and practically mobbed. That's connected with the role of religion too, which fascinates me. Everyone in Europe understanding the iconography of great religious painting and sculpture. Everyone knowing the stories behind them.

I like the idea that people believed there was more to life than getting your daily bread. It doesn't have to be religion (although it pretty much did have to be then) but they accepted there was a spiritual dimension to life; they took that for granted and we seem to have lost that.

NM: How do you approach the historical "archaic" language problem, especially when writing for young people who might have less tolerance for old word usage? Any tricks?

MH: Ah the old "forsooth" and "gadzooks" trap! I try to keep dialogue very plain but without much elision. "I cannot" in dialogue immediately gives an older feel. But I use the "right" word in narrative, even if its occasionally a hard one, like "psalter" "unshriven" "flagon," even if they are not part of modern teenage vocabulary. The context always gives it to the reader and I'm not going to say "book of psalms," "without being absolved" or "vessel for holding wine." I think
readers LIKE unusual words, as long as there are not so many of them as to obscure meaning. And it gives the right flavour to the story, a sort of richness of detail in the language, which matters to me.

NM adds: I completely agree. Another trick I use is occasionally to alter the modern order of words. for example, instead of saying, "I don't know," I might say, "I know not."

NM: Sometimes in historical fiction, it's the secondary, (often truly fictional), characters who are the most fun to create, perhaps because we have total freedom with them. Who is your favourite character in David? 

MH: What an interesting question! My favourite characters CAN be historical; I loved writing about the painter Simone Martini in The Falconer's Knot. In David, it really is Gabriele, the main character, who most engaged me because I did have almost total freedom with him but I also enjoyed writing about Leonardo's retinue of "boys" especially Salai, his favourite in every sense.

Fabulous answers, Mary! Thank you, and I wish you the hugest success with David. It's a wonderful story, very expertly and grippingly told.

Mary also told me that there'd been some discussion on Twitter about what the Italian for Crabbit Old Bat would be. They settled on "vecchiaccia bisbetica", which apparently has no bats in it at all but I do think it sounds suitably irritable and snappy, so I graciously accept the title. Even though I can't pronounce it.

By the way, Celia Rees and I are speaking together about historical writing for young people, at the Edinburgh International Book Festival - Sunday 21st August. Do come!

Also, DO head over to the brand new and already wave-making History Girls collaborative blog, where Mary, Celia and I, along with many others, can be found keeping the past alive.

TWEET RIGHT- update and gosh I'm good to you

EDITED TO ADD:
Please note that Tweet Right will be published as an ebook very soon and will cover this information much more clearly and elegantly and in much more detail. Details at the top of the blog.


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Many of you know that I'm writing an ebook (Tweet Right)on how to use Twitter, for all "nice, sensible people". And you know that the book came from some earlier blog posts I did, giving step by step instructions. Well, I took the posts down because I was rewriting everything and improving it hugely but some of you want them back! There's been major clamouring. The other night I was doing an event about publishing and some in the audience were very keen to know how to get going. Such was the plaintiveness that I promised to help.

So:

1. I have just reinstated the original scrappy blogposts about it. The main ones are as follows, and 2, 3 and 4 will not make sense if you don't read 1:
Part 1 - Why
Part 2 - Begin to follow
Part 3 - Tweeting in the void
Part 4 - New followers

2. AND I will now give you, free and everything, because I'm so bloody good to you, despite the fact that my eyes are going spinny from too much computer work, the draft extract from Tweet Right about getting followers, because that's what everyone was so angsty about at the event the other day.

NB1: this is a DRAFT. that means it has mistakes and will change. ALSO, it is only the central part of the advice on how to get followers and does not include a load of other stuff, including Follow Friday or the etiquette of following.

NB2: you need to use Tweetdeck. The instructions are in one of those earlier posts. Sorry - can't remember which and am exhausted.

Here goes.

Chapter Three: Following and followers

If you just want to use Twitter to listen and watch, as a news gathering machine, all you need is the right people to follow. If you want to be more interactive, making friends and contacts, you need people following you. The first thing leads to the second, as long as you do a few things right.

So, first, you need to follow some people.

Instructions, as before, are for Tweetdeck but once you can do it on Tweetdeck you can do it anywhere.

3.1  How to follow someone

I’m telling you how to do this before you’ve found anyone to follow, but bear with me: there is method in my madness.

If you already know their Twitter name: on Tweetdeck, hover your cursor over the icons in the top left of the screen until you find the one called Quick Profile. (I can’t describe it except to say that it’s a weird symbol vaguely like a torch with a bit of red on it.) Click this. In the box that appears, type the Twitter name and click Find profile. This then brings up the person’s Twitter profile. (Note: this will be in your internet browser, not actually in Tweetdeck itself, so you may have to bring the page up from your bottom menu bar.) Here you will see an option to follow them. (To do this, you may be asked to sign into Twitter if you’re not already signed in.) Hey presto.

If you don’t know the Twitter name: go to their website (internet search if necessary), where you will probably see a button or link saying something like, Follow me on Twitter. Go find and click the relevant button. Anyone who has a website that doesn’t give their Twitter name probably isn’t on Twitter. If they are but don’t give their Twitter name or include a link on the website, they are very silly. Or else need a copy of this book.

3.2  Finding people to follow

There are various ways of finding people to follow. Here are my main suggestions:

You probably already know a few people on Twitter. If you do, follow them first. For a start, you know me –@nicolamorgan

Go onto my profile and the profiles of anyone else you’ve followed, and see who we follow. Follow any that interest you. For example, if you went to my Twitter page (twitter.com/nicolamorgan) you would see on the right-hand side an option to click on the list of my followers. You then click on any name to see who they are. There is a button to allow you to follow any you choose. (You can also find out what recent tweets I or any followers have recently made, so that you can see how we behave and whether we might be fun, friendly or useful.)

Visit blogs you like and click on the Follow on Twitter link which you will very often find there.

If someone follows you (see that New Followers column I asked you to create), you will see that you now have the chance to choose whether to follow them back. How to decide?

First, read the biog. Does this seem like someone you’d like to interact with?

Then, hover the cursor over the person’s name (bottom left of the entry), and you’ll see it says View xxx’s profile. Choose this and a new page comes up showing the person’s recent tweets. If all you see is spam-type stuff and attempts to sell, don’t follow. Otherwise, I recommend you do, at this stage. It’s easy to unfollow later if you decide to.

So, if you decide to follow them, click the option that says Follow.

Some people (silly people, bad tweeters) get all narky if they follow you and you don’t follow back. When you’re starting out, I recommend that you err on the side of following rather than not (unless it’s clearly a spammy, nasty person who you really don’t want to have anything to do with). You do not have to follow anyone back if you don’t want to – if you don’t, you may lose some followers but frankly people who would stop following me just because I forget to follow them are not people I care about. But for now I recommend you give people a chance and follow them back.

3.3  Getting people to follow you

Many people will follow you when you follow them. However, as I said above, it’s not compulsory and you should never be cross if someone doesn’t. It could easily be that they didn’t know you were following them, as they may not have the New Followers column, or they might have a lot of followers and want to be a bit selective. Don’t ask any particular person to follow you, unless already an actual friend. It’s regarded as needy and bad form.

So, after you’ve followed some people, how do you encourage them to follow you if you’re not allowed to ask them to? I call it “tapping them on the shoulder” – essentially, you write a tweet with someone’s name in it. There are several ways of doing this:

Tweet me: For example,“Hello @nicolamorgan - just arrived here after reading your FAB twitter book - looking forward to getting the hang of it!" Then I’m very likely to follow you. Any message that includes @nicolamorgan will arrive in my Mentions column and I’ll usually see it. However, please, please note: I can’t reply to everything because people who are active on Twitter, as I am, get a lot of traffic. Also, I might be away or extra busy and may not have seen it if I had lots of messages. But I’d always try to be helpful to someone new here so if I haven’t noticed you and followed you back, I apologise. Also note that I only follow people who a) I think are going to be interesting, and remember I’m a writer not a particle physicist b) I think are not going to transmit at me or self-promote incessantly. And that includes writers who I thnk are going to over-promote – and I will make this judgement from your biog. So, see Tips for Biogs.

Reply to a comment or join in a conversation between some of the people you follow. To reply to a comment, there are two methods, a simple reply or a retweet. For a simple reply, hover over the person’s avatar on their actual tweet, where you’ll see four smaller squares appear; choose Reply. This brings up a new box with just the person’s Twitter name at the beginning. Add your message and click send. The advantage of this is that you have lots of room to write your message. The disadvantage is that in the melée of tweets and the time-lag that might happen before the person sees it, he or she might have forgotten what you are replying to. (Though it’s possible to find out by tracing things back.)

To join in by retweeting, follow the instructions under Retweeting, below. The advantage is that you leave in at least part of the original message, so the conversation is easier to follow. The disadvantage is that you get very little room to add anything.

If someone sees you having a friendly conversation with someone they follow, they will probably follow you too. You then need to maintain those contacts by continuing to tweet in a positive, friendly and/or useful way.

Once you have a few people following you, start tweeting yourself, so that people can see what you’re like. In a minute, I’ll come to the sort of things we say when we tweet. 

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That's it! I hope that helps. Meanwhile, I've got to finish the book.

CRABBIT'S LITLINKS 1

Introducing Crabbit's LitLinks, in which I (with the research help of my charming assistant, Becky) bring you a selection of pertinent links. Each week there will be a mixture of thought-provoking and entertaining, something to set you up for the weekend. If you have something you think I might like to include, please email Becky: rzhearne@gmail.com.

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WEIGHTY LITLINKS

1. The first self-published author joins the Kindle million-seller list. His books are priced between 49p and 70p, which begs the question whether he would have sold a tiny fraction of this volume if the price had been closer to even half the standard price of a trad-published book. (Ahem, or if the cover wasn't so, erm, interesting.) But so what? It's his choice and he achieved what he presumably wanted and I don't knock that - far from it. One thing I'll say, though, is that (except in a temporary promotion or introductory offer) I don't buy books priced so low that they leave me thinking, "Is that all the author thinks those words are worth?" Nor, for the same reason, will I price my books so low when I self-publish. (I don't have the choice with those books that are with my publishers.) I believe in authors taking control of their careers, yes, and making whatever decisions they can, including on price. But what goes through my mind when I see something too cheap is that if it looks cheap it may not be worth much. I think my words and my work are worth more and if readers don't agree, I'd prefer they didn't buy my books. This is absolutely not a criticism of anyone else, simply a statement of my position. And I might change my mind one day!

2.  Every e-book needs a good editor, by Harriet Evans (in Guardian BooksBlog). Oh yes, completely and utterly. But... She says, "I firmly believe there's a big difference between a book published online by the author and one prepared for publication by a publisher, and it goes to the very heart of what books and literature mean to us." Yes, but she's missed something: what about those authors who know this (all trad-published authors, I venture) and who, if and when they choose to self-publish something, will absolutely use proper editors? No self-respecting author, no author knowledgeable about books and readers, would dream of publishing an unedited book. And thereby will the reviews hang. 

3. Philip Downer, formerly CEO of Border in the UK, has a great piece on the daunting task faced by James Daunt - see what I did there? I bet no one thought of that - in his new post as managing director of Waterstone's. We need a strong Waterstone's, one run by a genuine bookseller, and I'm full of optimism that Daunt can do this.

4. I'm not known for having anything interesting to say about Harry Potter, but you will have heard of the Pottermore announcement this week. So, is Pottermore a game-changer, asks the Bookseller?

5. No, says Publishers Weekly, speaking much sense. See, my point about the JK Rowling phenomenon is that, whether from plotting to merchandising, it has very little to teach us because it is exceptional and largely (though not entirely) inexplicable. [Edited to add: for the avoidance of doubt and because people get terribly upset if they think anyone is doing JK down - I have the most enormous respect for her work. And I was until recently a near-neighbour! I think she may on some level be a kind of genius. But that's part of the point - that exceptions don't teach us what we think they do.] Yes, the Pottermore development is interesting but for the reasons given here it means much less than you would think for authors, agents and publishers in general. The sea is shifting but this is not the beginning of a tsunami.

LIGHT LITLINKS
1. For all Jane Austen fans: a guaranteed giggle (Austenbook)

2. For awww factor: father and daughter bond over books: a father reads his daughter a bedtime story for 3,218 nights (The New York Times)

3. How to drink like your favourite author  (Flavorwire). Mine's a large sparkly one.

4. And now, free your artistic side with a little penguin drawing. And awww, again. I found slide 9 fascinating - identical pictures except for the position of the eyes, and what a difference that makes.

Comments, please.

Have a good weekend!