When You Can't Please Everyone

I have a confession. I've been sitting on my hands for a few months now. Yes, I've been writing, but not as much as perhaps I ought to be. I get so far, put the story aside, and start another one.

After writing several half stories I had to ask myself what gives? Then it finally came to me. Each day I begin my writing day with one glaring thought—I'm not good enough. I mean I can't please every reader, so that must mean I'm really not that good, right? Sure, lots of readers love my stories, but I still lack total faith in my talent—much like every other author out there.

Recently I started looking at reviews for the authors I admire. I won't name names for the simple fact that I discovered, much to my surprise, all of these authors fail to please all of their readers. They all have hundreds of reviews which range from five stars to one star reviews. The one star reviews usually come from disappointed readers who bought the book on the strength of the five star reviews then found the books lacked what they were looking for.

This made me realise that if even the big name authors can't satisfy every reader of their books, why do I think I should hold back until I can achieve this impossible task? I may be slow in coming to this raw fact but it is indeed a very real reality that you just can't please all of the people all of the time. You can only hope to please some of the people some of the time and, for me, this is a freeing insight. I can only push ahead and do my best. And pray that my stories bring joy to the majority of my readers.

It's liberating to forge ahead with the decision that I'm only aiming to please some of my readers. Those who love my work will come back and those who don’t will find someone they love instead.

I'm finally okay with that.

This sounds simple, but I like people to like me, so to come to the acceptance that not everyone will is indeed a huge physiological step to scaling the wall I’ve been running into for a while now.

If the big name authors can put out book after book even though they know their books aren’t well received by everyone who reads them, what makes me any different?

The only difference is they are doing their job and putting out books while I am not! Time to change that I think cos I discovered something—when you find you can't please everyone, it's okay just to please yourself!

The Scary Beast Called Book Marketing

With four months to go until my little girl is finally finished chemo I find myself looking at my writing career once again. It was in 2009 that Meg was diagnosed with Leukaemia. Needless to say the diagnosis totally turned my priorities on its head. Before that, I had a great plan--which fell by the wayside for the last two years.

Now I can see light at the end of the long chemotherapy tunnel I realise life will soon return to normal...what's that again? Before I know it, she'll return to school fulltime and back to her independent self which will leave me free to get some serious work out into the world.

And with that comes the need to market. I am the world’s worst self-promoter. As an introvert I always feel vain talking about my books and operate under the belief that people will somehow happen upon my books, read the excerpts and of course buy the books--cos, well, after all...they're brilliant...as is every other books out there, right?

Since this belief system hasn't worked for me up to now, I've decided I need to learn how to market my books and myself. I've been learning lots from Joanna Penn of The Creative Penn. This woman is amazing in her diligence in providing the information she has for writers. Right now, she is my number one resource and I absolutely love her! She has tons of audios on her site, which works for me since it allows me simply to listen rather than having to read hundreds of posts. Did I mention I love her?

If you get a chance, pop over to The Creative Penn. You won't regret it.

On the other hand, if you have any great marketing advice you wouldn't mind sharing with me, please leave a comment. Thanks :)

NOTE: The links take you away from this site. If you pop out to visit Joanna, please pop back here and leave a comment. I'd really appreciate it--thanks again.

If It's Good Enough For Films, It's Good Enough For Books!

Recently I found myself appalled by the stuff that's making it onto the book market. There are certain things I don't want to read. I'm not speaking of genre--we all have our preferences--I'm speaking of language. For many years I stuck closely to Harlequin Mills & Book Modern Romance because I knew when I picked up one of those romance novels, I was assured a clean read. I loved the sexual tension, banter, emotion, characters etc and I knew I could relax and simply enjoy because I felt assured I wouldn't encounter my absolute pet hates--the use of the F word or having to read blasphemies. I can't stomach the use of my Lord's name as a curse word!

So you can imagine my shock when I happen across not one--but two! HMB romances which used Jesus' name in this way. Needless to say, it ruined two stories I'd been enjoying and I instantly stopped reading the novels. I can't bring myself to purchase any of the new stories for fear of the same thing happening.

That said, I've been looking at the indie stuff at Amazon and was amazed by some of this stuff--and not in a good way. Thankfully, as I read the reviews of one particular book I was about to purchase, I noticed a couple of readers complained about the over use of the F word. These reviews saved me wasting my money.

Don't get me wrong. I have nothing against authors who feel they lack the necessary vocab to express themselves or their characters; I just don't want to read that sort of stuff. I am aware some authors cater to the market and I'm sure these books sell by the ton.

But there are still a few of us who like clean reads. I'm not jumping on a soapbox to blabber on about flooding the market with bland books. I won't buy them either! Cos I like my books sizzling, emotional and feel-good. What I am saying is: please, oh, please can we find a way to give books a rating?

As I inspect my DVD shelf, I see BBFC ratings on every single one!

When you look at any DVD case you’ll see a rating symbol on the front and back of the case. This is the film’s classification or rating. In the UK films are rated by The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC). And in America it’s The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).

Film classification gives viewers a guide to the age requirement of the viewer and an idea of the film’s content. Why can't we have something like this on our books? And, like DVDs, give a reason for the rating.

I grabbed a few random DVDs from my shelf and had a look. Here is what I found:

Knight And Day {(12) Contains moderate violence and one use of strong language}
What Happens In Vegas {(12) Contains moderate sex references and language}
Cougar Town {(15) Contains frequent moderate & crude sex references}
Dream Girls {(12) Contains one use of strong language and hard drug references}
Something's Gotta Give {(12) Contains infrequent strong language and moderate sex references}
The Lake House {(12) Contains mild language and accident scene}
Red {(12) Suitable only for persons of 12 years and over}
Two Can Play that Game {(15) Suitable only for persons of 15 years and over}

I can keep going, but I'm sure you get the idea. The fact is, I can read the DVDs' blurbs, look at the ratings, and decide whether I wish to go ahead and purchase/watch these films.

I then look at my bookshelf and grab a novel. I read the blurb and it looks like a fantastic story. I can't wait to snuggle down and start reading! I want to get lost in this story and it does not disappoint. Then bam!! Without any warning, I'm knocked sideways by something I consider to be offensive. Had that book a rating/warning I would've been able to decide whether I wanted to read it or not.

I'm not asking writers to change what they write, I'm simply asking for the opportunity to buy or leave books based an informed choice. I feel we seriously need to have books rated. If it's good enough for films, why, pray tell, isn't it good enough for books!

Do You Want Writing Romance Question Forum To Return?



I've noticed I'm getting a lot of hits on the WRQ Forum post. I wonder whether this is out of curiosity, or because writers are genuinely interested in this forum.

I started the forum because I had a brainwave and thought it would be something every aspiring writer would be interesting in, but it didn't go down as well as I'd hoped.

We had some fabulous authors, editors and agents on the board to answer questions and more amazing authors, editors and agents scheduled. I ended up shelving the forum because only the same few writers bothered to participate and it was stealing way too much of my time.

I am, however, willing to get the forum up and running again if enough writers are interested in participating.

Please note, I've made every effort to keep the board private. Meaning the various forums are password protected. Therefore, everyone who joins must let me know--via private message on the board--which forums they are interested in joining and I will forward the relevant passwords.

This must be done in good time to allow you to be added and your passwords sent.

In the past a few members would join, don't bother to read the instructions, then complain when they couldn't get into the forums. This boggled my mind--what part of This Is Important Information You Need To Know translated as Please Ignore Then Bellyache!

If you are interested in having the chance to talk directly to your favourite authors, editors and agents. To have the opportunity to ask them everything you wanted to know about the world of writing, I urge you to leave a comment letting me know. If enough writers are interested, I'll start that baby up again! :)

Left Brain Interruptus

"Pat you head and rub your tummy!" said my little girl to me.

An instant memory of my playground days flashed to mind. I used to be brilliant at this feat. Somehow I doubted I'd still be able to do it. I mean, it's been more years than I care to admit since I'd attempted to pat my head and rub my tummy at the same time.

But if it entertained her, I'd give it a go. To my amazement, it was like no time had passed at all. With easy dexterity I patted and rubbed, then reversed direction and, just to check, I swapped hands and got the same smooth a result. 

Needless to say, Meg was very impressed and I was so shocked I had an epiphany!

For years I've been bemoaning the fact that I just can't shut up my internal editor (what I call left-brain interruptus) and spend all of my writing hours fighting and resisting the need to make sure each word is perfect, every sentence constructed clearly, and all the other editorial tasks that ensures a great read, which, let me tell you, slows output right down. I'm not talking about the editing, simply the resistance that grinds creativity to a halt. 

It was only while patting and rubbing that something dawned on me. To achieve this simple childhood exercise you must be able to use both sides of your brain simultaneously. So while I'm completely right brained, I am super-capable of multitasking--to the point where I get compliments for it. In case you don't realise, you use both sides of your bran when multitasking.

Anyway, back to the point. 

The point I'm making is, it's possible to write and edit and still write fast IF you embrace left-brain interruptus as you natural way of writing. I've always had to write and edit before I can move on--you can see where the trouble came in if all I did was fight myself. I was convinced I had to write an entire first draft before starting all over again with a second draft and on and on until I had my story polished to a high sheen--well that's what the experts would have us believe, isn't it?

But what if we go crazy and write and edit as we go? We may not finish a first draft in six weeks, but when we do finish the MS in two to three months it will be completely finished and polished! To my way of thinking, we can have two authors: Author A and Author B. Author A writes at a cracking pace and finishes an entire novel in no time at all. But she has to start all over again and write another draft and another and another and... Then we have Author B who writes--to her mind--at an excruciatingly slow pace and finishes a novel in three months. But once she types The End she's finished. Perhaps she'll go back and tinker-- because that's what she does--but her novel is finished.

By this time Author A is also finished.

Both authors took the same length of time to write their books, they just took different routes to get there. So whether we write one draft after another, or accept our super ability to polish as you go, chances are two authors starting from the same point, but travelling in opposite directions to an end point, will finish at the same time.

This is my theory, anyway. <*grin*> 

Want to know what I learned while trying to entertain my daughter? I learned not to fight myself ever again--to embrace my natural ability to multitask and allow myself to write the way my mind works! I bet this alone will increase my output. 

Do you suffer from left brain interruptus?

Perhaps you, too, might consider embracing your gift and using it to excel. At the very least, your writing day will be a LOT less stressed!