Networking and Publicity events come in all shapes

Early Birds enjoying the pre-event refreshments

A big thank you to all those readers and would-be writers who yesterday joined a group of East Yorkshire novelists at the Beverley Treasure House for The Romantic Fiction Read Dating event. You were attentive, laughed in the right places, and asked plenty of questions. A dream audience.

It was also a reminder of why I should participate in these events more often. Did I sell masses of paperbacks? No. Did I expect to? No. For the novelist it's a networking and publicity opportunity. Anything else is a bonus. 

My fifteen minute talk and reading of an excerpt from Beneath The Shining Mountains was a little too rusty for my liking, though no one seemed to notice. Perhaps they were intent on the reproduction Medicine Woman's hat I'd brought along. I do believe in props; they can mask a multitude of sins. I'd also distributed postcards of my titles grouped by genre - the reverse carries three lines of information on each including a shortlink to its Amazon page - and I may pick up a few ebook sales. Best of all, hardly any were to be found left on seats when the room cleared.

The event also acted as an injection of enthusiasm for my writing. Life can't help but impinge on occasion, and chatting with attendees about their reading preferences, and explaining how I went about my research, has given me the impetus to crack on with the current work in progress. 

The event also complemented the Authors North meeting I attended in Leeds the previous Saturday. The focus there had been on industry trends, what publishers were looking for, how agents specialise and interact, while the attendee networking concentrated on publicity and marketing. 

Two very different events, but all part of the same whole. And we do need both.

#Romance Fiction Read Dating Anyone?

A novelist giving talks to groups is one thing, being one of six novelists giving a fifteen minute background chat and reading, will be...  interesting.

But which sort of Romance will we be talking about?

As any reader of the genre knows, it comes in all shades, from baby-blush pink to red in tooth and claw. With laughs. With tears. Always with heart-thumping moments, though not necessarily due to the most expected reason.

For more information click the Authors' links to jump to their individual websites:

Rhoda Baxter writes Smart Romantic Comedy, and as Jeevani Charika she writes multi-cultural women's fiction.

Sylvia Broady's 20th century family sagas are set in Hull and Yorkshire.

Ellie Gray writes contemporary romances using settings as different as the Nile and the North Yorkshire coast.

Annie Wilkinson writes pre- and post- World War I family sagas across a swathe of Northumbrian, Hull and London settings.

Jenni Fletcher's Historicals are spread cross time periods as disparate as Roman, Medieval and Victorian.

Linda Acaster - yes, me - writing Medieval and Native American Historicals, and Fantasy Romance set in Hull and North Yorkshire. As I said, red in tooth and claw.

So note it on your calendar: Saturday 18th May at the Treasure House & Art Gallery, Beverley, 12.30-3.30pm. Come make a day of it. There is a very good cafe on hand.

Art in Bridlington - Nick Coley

Now here's something not seen very often on this website: Art - blue in tooth and claw.

Nick Coley is a friend of long-standing who at one time wrote anarchic humorous Fantasy, which is how our paths first crossed. Like most creative people, he has never been creative in just one field, and he has always innovated. Painting on canvas and board soon gave way to glass and, more impressive, to etching on sheets of steel and aluminium. Seeing him give an outdoor demo was something to behold. Who would have thought a standard angle grinder could be used to such light-altering effects? The paints he uses merely enhances the marks, the colours magically changing in hue depending on the angle of view and the cast light. Alas, the internet does not do the artworks justice, but click the image for a larger size.

Although many of his subjects are East Yorkshire landscapes, from the hidden valleys of the Wolds to the North Sea shore, he also creates mystical images - one of which was based on our discussion about my research on British water dieties, used in the Torc of Moonlight trilogy. 

The Exhibition We Live In Hope is hosted by Gallery 49 in Bridlington. There's a preview and a 'Meet The Artist' on Saturday 30 March, noon-3pm, when Nick will be talking about his work. The gallery is open Thursday-Saturday 11am-4pm and his exhibition is on until 20 April.

If you are in the area, go do something different. You can enjoy Bridlington's famed fish & chips afterwards.

Pinterest for Authors?

Infographic pin on Writing Tips

I’ve recently initiated a Pinterest account:
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/LindaAcasterAuthor/ 

I know, the site has been around long enough, but when a writer is supposed to be creating the next novel, just how many social media sites can she handle?

This was my first mistake. Pinterest is, or is akin to, a search engine. Like a lot of people, my go-to search engine is Google, and when Pinterest URLs kept appearing in its first-page results I decided to take notice.

The big difference between Google and Pinterest is that Pinterest is a visual medium. It truly believes a picture paints a thousand words. It is the image that catches the eye, but it is the embedded link that leads to… wherever you want it to lead: your novel’s Amazon or Kobo page, your blog post, your newsletter sign-up, your book launch competition…

As with Twitter, keywords and hashtags are most useful in the short blurb sitting behind each pinned image, enabling it to be found in a search on the site, or any search – see mention of Google above. Unlike Twitter and Facebook, the image and blurb stays put on a chosen Board and is not suffocated beneath an ever-increasing deluge of newer pins.

Boards act as directories for ease of organisation and can be named however you want. I currently have five public boards:

• My Books - showing my book covers and linking to their relevant Amazon pages.
• Book Thoughts - for memes and associated images that catch my eye (I drool over book nooks).
• Writing Tips: I’ve written a lot of posts over the years and I now make info-graphic pins to link back to them - see one above.
• Research:Viking – information from other sources I want to find easily for a future project.
• Research: UK Historical Sites – a new board to consist mostly of pins leading to posts on this blog.

I also have a couple of private boards for my eyes only, including a fledgling World War 1 board for a future project. You can be very private on Pinterest and have all your boards for your eyes only, but the idea is to share via repins so that interesting information gets a wider audience. Among my boards, Writing Tips and Book Thoughts currently contain other people’s pins along with my own. My own pins show, to me only, how many people have looked at each pin, re-pinned it, clicked through to read the blurb, and clicked through the URL. All fascinating stuff.

Pins have to be visual, even if the content is totally text - an infographic such as above. Unlike other social media sites which tend to concentrate on horizontal images, vertical images work best on Pinterest, ideal for book covers.

Consideration has to be given to the aim of the pin. Whereas my book cover pins aim to send readers to a buying site, most of my own non-book pins aim to bring readers to this blog for further information. To that end I add my blog URL to every pin for visual recognition, and the Writing Tips infographics will carry my name, logo and background colouring to complement this blog as part of my brand awareness. Obvious when you think about it, and study the Pinterest site.

Might you be interested but haven’t a clue where to start? Every research project begins with Google. There’s a wealth of how-to articles waiting. It’s where I found the website belonging to Visual Marketer Louise Myers. Her site carries many useful articles and her free course Pinterest Basics For Business was very helpful in getting me going.

Finally… once you have a Pinterest account, search your own name. Oooh, that can be interesting.