Book Launch - 'Confessions of a Webcam Model' is Now Available

I am very proud to announce that my 4th book is now ready to download on Amazon.

Amazon.com:  http://amzn.to/1inN8um

Amazon.co.uk: http://amzn.to/1opgJLe

In the midst of the worst recession the world has ever seen, Cindy Smith is strapped for cash.

But while other people chase down menial jobs without success, Cindy suddenly finds herself staring at a lucrative career.

Before she can say ‘webcam modelling,’ Cindy meets all sorts of weird and wonderful people with the most bizarre fetishes she can ever imagine.

Written in a humorous style, Cindy’s story will take you on a most remarkable journey full of fun and frolics, shock and horror and she’ll show you what life as a webcam model is really like.

This book contains the candid truth of what goes on behind closed doors and the reality of where knitting needles can be inserted.

This book is about a fictitious character. However, all her experiences are taken from real life webcam models that have chosen this career as a way of life.

All names and personal details have been changed. See for yourself, the details are eye-watering.

I’ve wanted to write this book for a while as I’ve missed my confessional style of writing which is present in my first two books in the Secret Confessions of a Backpacker series.

The sex industry features briefly in my first book and in my 4th book I wanted to take things a step further.

As you know, the world has been gripped by a severe recession during the past couple of years, so I wanted to write a book that would reflect this character’s bravery and integrity facing life today in the modern world.

My research into this topic has been extensive. I’ve spent a whole year liaising with webcam models and watching countless documentaries. This career is certainly eye opening and it’s inspired me to think about future books around this theme.

The book is witty and written in a way that will surprise even the most un-shockable reader. I hope you enjoy it.

To celebrate my new release you can also grab a free copy of my chick lit book A Step Too Far. It will be free from Amazon on Tuesday 27th May until Wednesday 28th so grab your free copy while you can!!! :)

Happy reading!

#webcammodelling

My Blog Tour - Confessions of a Webcam Model

My 4th Book Coming Soon!

In the midst of the worst recession the world has ever seen, Cindy Smith is strapped for cash.

But while other people chase down menial jobs without success, Cindy finds herself staring at a lucrative career. 

Before she can say 'webcam modelling,' Cindy meets all sorts of people with the most bizarre fetishes she can ever imagine.

Written in a humorous style, Cindy will take you on a most remarkable journey full of fun and frolics, shock and horror and she'll show you what life as a webcam model is really like. 

This book contains the candid truth of what goes on behind closed doors and the reality of where knitting needles can be inserted.

For a change, I thought I'd participate in a good old blog tour this week. I haven't been involved in one of these for the past couple of years, so I should really get back into them as they can be advantageous in gaining new readers you otherwise wouldn't have had.

Now I've just finished my fourth book: Confessions of a Webcam Model. I've been keeping this book under wraps but seeing as it will be out soon, I want to make an announcement. This book is written in the style of a memoir but its protagonist is a fictitious character.

I've been wanting to write this book for a while as I've missed my confessional style of writing. The sex industry features briefly in my first book and in this book I wanted to take things a step further. As you know, the world has been gripped by its worst recession during the past couple of years, so I wanted to write a book that would reflect this character's bravery and integrity facing life today in the modern world.

My research into this topic has been extensive and eye-watering. I've spent a whole year liaising with webcam models and watching documentary after documentary. This career is certainly eye opening and it's certainly inspired me to think about future books written around this theme.

So without further ado, here are my answers to the four questions.

1. What am I working on? At the moment I'm plotting my fifth book, my second chick-lit novel: Second Time Around. Although it's my second chick-lit, it's my first romantic comedy set in Edinburgh, Scotland. My protagonist, Ruby Roberts or Phoebe Philips ( I haven't decided what to call her yet, what do you think? ) is a thirty-two year old librarian with no self-confidence and down on her life. I don't want to give too much of the plot away but let's just say she's dying to meet her Mr. Wonderful and is willing to look everywhere for him.
2. How does my work differ from others of its genre? Er, because it's written in an extremely candid way and no other author dares to speak the truth like I do? Well, this may be true for books one, two and four but for A Step Too Far, this question is really difficult to answer. I wanted to write the book as chick-lit but I didn't want to have the usual romantic themes woven through it like most chick-lit novels these days. There, how about that? I've saved all the romantic themes for my fifth book.
3. Why do I write what I do? Well, I think this is the easiest question to answer of all. I write what I do because I love to read these genres. I have quite an eclectic taste in books and if I enjoy reading something, I'll always want to write around these particular themes and styles. During my time in New Zealand, I read Belle de Jour's books. For those of you who don't know, Belle was a high class call girl turned research scientist. I loved her candid approach and humour and she's always been an inspiration to write these sorts of books. Her books did so well they turned them into a T.V. series starring Billie Piper.
4. How does my writing process work? My fourth book took the shortest amount of time to write. I started in January and finished in April so that's only four months. It's 60,000 words so it's by no means my longest book but I am very proud of myself for achieving this. I hope to write my fifth book in a similar amount of time. I aim to write for several hours a day at least five days a week. Sometimes if life allows and I'm not too tired, I'll write on weekends.

Thank you very much to Dr. Carol Cooper for this blog tour opportunity. Carol is another talented chick-lit author and you can view her blog here: http://pillsandpillowtalk.com/

I wish Carol much success with her novels.

How to Avoid Over-use of He Said, She Said, I Said.

I love to read books of various different genres and styles but one particular thing gets to me and if I'm honest it's an issue which I see over and over again.

The overuse of he said, she said, I said.

Memoirs and chick-lit are my favourite type of books and anything else that's written in first person. Maybe the problem is prone to first person narration but after a while the issue starts to bug me and more often than not I end up putting the book down.

If you put he said, she said, I said after every line of dialogue it becomes tedious and I find it distracts the reader away from the storyline. Instead of focusing on what the book is about the reader is more involved with the actual writing itself.

In most cases you don't have to say who is speaking as the reader should be able to work it out for themselves. But here's a clever little tip that I use and this technique will give your book an added dimension.

Instead of writing he said, she said, I said all the time why not add a line of description to tell the reader what the character is doing. By doing this not only are you avoiding the repetition that these tags can bring but you're also keeping the story in the present tense.

For example:

'But I don't want to go to the park today.' I walk over to the window and point at the rain on the glass.

This way you're not taking the reader out of the story by telling them who is speaking but you're letting the story run its natural course. You're eliminating unnecessary words and therefore making the text a much tighter read.

'But I don't want to go to the park today,' I say. I walk over to the window and point at the rain on the glass.

Which one reads better? You're saying the same thing without the unnecessary words which detract from the story.

Is it a Good Idea to Call Yourself Indie?

Something struck me last week when I was in one of my writing groups. Most writers there call themselves indie when they talk about their books. And although they all write not all of them produce professionally published work.

There is still a lot of stigma attached to independent authors. Outside the writing world people think you only have the right to call yourself an author if you're backed by Penguin or Random House. People think that only those authors can produce such professional quality works.

But this is not true. Indies who are serious about treating writing as a business will be professional. They will take the time to make sure they produce quality books and they will spend the money to ensure a polished result. Their main goal will be to get their book into the hands of a reader who'll think this book is such a high standard they'll have a difficult time in telling it apart from a traditionally published book.

Unfortunately though not all self-published writers are like this. Many can't afford professional editing and cover design. Many still think they'll earn their fortune just by rushing their book and releasing what some would still consider a first draft. And unfortunately it's those kind of people who give the rest of us a bad name.

Trad-pubbed authors will already have a team of people behind them to ensure their book will reach a certain high standard. They will write their book and won't have to worry about finding money to pay their copy-editor as this is already included in the package.

So if you're an indie who takes writing seriously, why go to the bother of declaring yourself as self-published? If you're a writer then your goal will be the same as any other author. And that goal is to publish books.

Readers will look for a book they want to read. If it catches their eye then they will buy it. Readers won't care if you're backed by Penguin or not. If they want to read your book they'll read it. Whether you're an indie or not is not the point.

The Success of Failure

Recently I've seen a lot of blog posts about 'failing' as a writer, but to me the only way you can fail is if you give up.

When they first start out failure is in the minds of most writers. They fear they will fail to finish their first book, fail to promote it and fail to sell a single copy. There is such a lot of negativity around this art.

But now I'm going to put a spin of failure. I'm going to turn it round into something positive.

My question is: Have you failed enough to succeed?

No matter where you go or which profession you choose, you're always going to fail at something. It's what we do. After all we're only human - we're not robots.

Imagine you're taking your driving test without taking the lessons first. You're sat behind the wheel of your car absolutely blind with panic. How can you possibly pass this test?

The fact is no one expects you succeed if you haven't had any practise.This is why people go to university to study for their chosen career.

But writing is different. You can have a degree in creative writing or a BA in English but if you want to write you're still going to have to write your first novel.

And that takes practise. If something doesn't work try to reach the desired conclusion from a different angle.

It's very, very rare for any writer to create their first book and have it go viral. Successful writers write books for years without much thanks and then suddenly they find people are buying them.

So, how many times are you going to try? You never know next time could be the time you succeed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I10vxL0VJO0

It's Normal Not to Sell a Lot of Books

I came across this post: It's Normal not to Sell a Lot: http://bit.ly/1eqnq4X in the Writer's Café in Kindleboards the other week and thought how true it is.

People are influenced by the tales of overnight success many writers seem to have. So when someone decides they want to write professionally they are often stung by the cruel twist of reality. This feeling is made worse when someone asks how well your first book is selling only to be told you have yet to sell even one copy.

Most writers feel embarrassed or even mortified when the book they've worked so hard on doesn't sell a thousand copies overnight. And this is true whether you've just written your first or tenth novel. Sales are not guaranteed - ever. It doesn't matter if you've been writing for a month or twelve years. Sales are so random and unpredictable that if you let things get to you you'll be so miserable you'll have no energy to write the damn book in the first place.

Avoid people who have no insight into the business of writing and publishing for their unrealistic expectations will do you no favours. Just because J.K. Rowling has made more money than the Queen doesn't mean you will too.

So the message of this post is to be happy with what you have achieved. Not many people have the willpower to write even one book, so if you're writing your second then you've achieved far more than the average person.

If you desperately need money go out and find another form of income or hook a rich guy or gal. Don't spend hours wishing you could be Danielle Steel or Dan Brown. You are not them. You are you. Even though their money is nice there's definitely more to writing than the currency you're used to dealing with.

Expectations are a funny thing. When you start writing achieving one sale per month makes you feel like you've just climbed Mount Everest. Then you're selling ten books per month and the following year that goes up to fifty. But once you start selling and you get used to a certain number anything below that just isn't enough.

When I first started writing of course I had big dreams. But now I've learnt to tailor those dreams with a huge chunk of reality. Most books don't sell well and that's fine. Most books don't need to make the best seller charts. As long as writers keep writing I believe their books will one day earn enough to make a living.

If you're serious about making writing your career please remember this. Write as many books as you can and then write some more. Do not get obsessed with sales figures. Keep your perspective at all times. It doesn't matter how another writer is doing. Put all of your energy into you.

My Marketing Results and Why I'm Going to Spend More Time Writing.

As promised here's my blog on my marketing results I said I would do last month. In order to see any significant changes, I've allowed a month to pass from when I first started to advertise.

Are your hearts beating with anticipation? Do you think I'm going to reveal a site that's guaranteed to sell 100,000 copies of your book flat out in a week?

If you are you're going to be bitterly disappointed because I'm now going to say that despite my best marketing efforts with these relevant sites, I have not seen any significant changes in my sales results.

This does not mean I haven't had any sales at all. Far from it. It's just unfortunate that I can't see any direct correlation between sales and advertising.

Advertising with these sites might have had a slight impact on sales, so I'm glad I spent time promoting my book. But the results aren't high enough for me to be certain. One factor in my poor sales results is the sites I've used aren't big or well known. Perhaps I would have had better luck if I had used sites like BookBub. Unfortunately my book hasn't generated enough reviews to submit it to them.

And that's the problem. When you first release a book it can be near impossible to get reviews that are required for so many of these well known advertising sites. It's a Catch 22 situation. You want to use these sites to get the word out about your new release, but unless your book already has a certain amount of reviews you can't do this.

So what's the answer? Maybe I will try to get reviews before my next book is actually published. As of yet, I haven't gone down this route but I figure it must be worth a shot so watch this space.

I think until you have a few books out in the same genre it's pointless to waste your time and money concentrating on pushing just one book. Instead your time is better spent writing. After all, the majority of successful writers have quite a few books and a large proportion write in the same genre. Nothing sells books like writing more books - or so I've been told.

I'm going to listen to this advice from now on because it's all come from writers who have a large number of books.

I'm not knocking these advertising sites but I do believe I am not far enough along in my career to get the most out of them. To be a known writer you have to write more than one book. Then your readers will be more likely to take a chance on you because they will get to know your writing style and the book's content. Readers are more likely to take a chance on a writer who has a number of books.

Of course I could be talking a load of fluff for who am I to know what really sells books?

I'll wait another couple of months before I advertise again. Maybe my change in book cover will have some impact but who knows? Only time will tell.

This is where I'd love to hear your experience. What works for you when it comes to selling books?

My goal is to have readers who are loyal and committed just like my two dogs.