The books that are our teachers – and 5 of my favourite reads (at @muddysurrey )

Today I have a guest spot at Muddy Stilettos, talking about five books I can read again and again. I read them chiefly for pleasure, but also with awe and envy.

Writers learn from reading as much as from writing. I can’t tell you the number of times I have advised an editing client: read more. The problems I’ve found in your manuscript would be solved by tuning your awareness through reading. This goes for problems with style, use of back story, dialogue, descriptions, interiority…

Writing prose is not just storytelling, or plotting, or worldbuilding, or character development, or structure management. It is also a performance, like an elaborate magic trick, enacted on the reader’s mind through your use of words. To do it well, you must understand how your reader thinks, what they are interested in, how they are second-guessing you, how they are responding to the visual shape of every sentence, every comma. Some of this can be taught, but a lot is picked up by constant exposure, by reading like writers.

How do we do that? Here are a few recent posts.

Reading as a duty and reading for pleasure.

All about reading groups and writing groups – an episode of So You Want To Be A Writer.

Are you a writer? Don’t neglect your reading – post at Writers Helping Writers.

Reading vs watching and The Night Manager – why I prefer the book.

How to read like a writer – another episode of So You Want To Be A Writer.

Why you should read poetry as well – 11 poets to help you polish your prose, an interview with poetry evangelist Joe Nutt.

Three books I wish I’d written. And another five.

Circling back to the top, here are the five books I nominated at Muddy Stilettos (which I always want to spell with an e, stilettoes). These books were milestones for my latest novel Ever Rest, and they will continue to influence and inspire me, whatever I write. Which books are your eternal teachers? (And do come over. High heels are optional.)

PS If you’re quick, you can enter this giveaway to win a signed print copy of Ever Rest.

PPS If you’re looking for writing advice, my Nail Your Novel books are full of tips. If you’re curious about my own creative writing, find novels here and my travel memoir here. And if you’re curious about what’s been going on on at my own writing desk, here’s my latest newsletter. You can subscribe to future updates here.

So You Want To Be A Writer? New radio show to get you started

Every week, my bookseller friend Peter Snell gets customers who ask him nervously: ‘how do I write’ and ‘how do I get published’? Sometimes they give him manuscripts or book proposals. I get emails with the same questions.

So we decided to team up for a series of shows for Surrey Hills Radio. If you’re a regular on this blog, you’re probably beyond starter-level advice, but if you’re feeling your way, or your friends or family have always hankered to do what you do, this might be just the ticket.

If you follow me on Facebook you’ll have seen the various pictures of us goofing with a fuzzy microphone, recording in the bookshop while customers slink past with bemused expressions. (Yes, that tiny gizmo is the complete mobile recording kit. It’s adorable.) So far the shows have been available only at the time of broadcast on Surrey Hills Radio (Saturday afternoons at 2pm BST), but the studio guys have now made podcasts so you can listen whenever you want. Shows in the back catalogue have covered

• giving yourself permission to write
• establishing a writing habit
• thinking like a writer
• getting published 101
• how to self-publish.

This week’s show will be on planning a non-fiction book and the show after that will be outlining a novel – and will also include sneak peeks of the advice I’ve been cooking up for my third Nail Your Novel, on plot. So you want to be a writer? We have the inside knowledge. Do drop by.

 

How to get into bookshops Part 2 – at Independent Authors Alliance

When you’re getting your books into stores, there are certain practicalities to consider. Will the delivery costs eat your profit? Are you on the database they order from? How long will they keep your books for?

I’m still new to this, but there are a few guidelines I’ve established that might help if you’re approaching bookshops to sell your work. And if there’s any advice you’d add, do please jump in! Every shop is different and I’m sure my experience is merely the tiniest visible part of a very large berg. Here are my tips at the Alliance of Independent Authors…

And I just made another bookseller friend this afternoon! Cobham Bookshop in Surrey @Cobhambookshop will be ordering my titles from Gardners!

Getting into bookshops, part 1 – post at Independent Authors Alliance

If you follow me on Twitter, Facebook or in Google’s Confusing Circles, you might have seen me celebrating when a bookshop reviewed My Memories of a Future Life – on Amazon. ‘I was so impressed’ (it read) ‘that I persuaded Roz to hold a signing…’

That’s a bit astonishing in the current climate, and the Alliance of Independent Authors were soon wanting the story of what I’d done to get into their good books.

Much of it was luck, I have to say – I clicked with their tastes. And I’ve had a hit and miss relationship with other bookstores. But if you’re contemplating approaching bookshops with your print editions, you might find my experience useful…

And tell me here: have you approached bookshops or other retail outlets with your work? How did it go?