How To Make An Author Happy

Seriously, the amount of emails I'm receiving from book reviewers, book clubs or book marketers etc about promoting my book(s). And it's got worse as most are now generated by AI.

If I thought for one instant it would boost my book sales... but sadly it just lines their pockets, not mine!

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Readers are authors book reviewers. No author should pay for their book to be reviewed!

So if you do read a book, and you enjoy it, please leave a review.

It doesn't have to be war and peace. Just say in one or two sentences why you enjoyed it. And ideally leave it where you bought the book and maybe on Goodreads if you have an account.

If you hated it - you are only allowed to tell the author if they're filthy rich, famous or dead (ha ha!)

The Neighbour on Post Office Lane is out in paperback and eBook on 30 August 2026 - available to pre-order the eBook here: https://amzn.to/45GNJro

Tweaking Book Covers - The Neighbour on Post Office Lane

It's a little like spot the difference, but here's the two book covers I've been working on, one tweaked slightly for more prominent font and a couple of differences. 

Does it look better? 

Cover 1

Cover 2

Do you prefer Cover 1 or Cover 2? 

Now available to pre-order: https://amzn.to/4f3ScZD

Sneaky Peak inside The Neighbour on Post Office Lane

(Still working on the cover!)

The Neighbour on Post Office Lane isn’t quite who they seem. Rosie soon learns you shouldn't judge a book by its cover. Writing my hero felt like peeling back layers... some tender, some unsettling, all deliciously human.

Here's a sneaky peak...

A squeak across the patio window made her jump with fright. A man, wearing a dirty boiler suit with the sleeves cut off, was cleaning the window. Rosie realised it was the scruffy guy who’d dropped off John’s parcel earlier. His face and arms were dirty, and the water running down his arms left black streaks. If John hadn’t mentioned his name, Rosie would have thought he was a homeless guy Margot had taken pity on. So, he was Daryl? He spotted Rosie, and with an expression of surprise having arrived on his face, promptly dropped the wiper blade into the bucket and entered via the patio door, opening it with a swoosh, letting cooler air into the room. He did at least take off his well-worn leather boots and leave them outside, so not completely lacking in manners.

‘Margot said nothing about a window cleaner,’ Rosie blurted at him, hating immediately that she sounded defensive and abrupt. Her heart was still pounding in her chest from the fright.

‘Oh, I’m not a window cleaner…’ he said. There was that gruff voice again, like he smoked twenty cigarettes a day, but gentle too. It unnerved Rosie. ‘I clean Margot’s when I’m doing mine.’

‘Oh.’

‘So, you must be the granddaughter.’ He scratched his unshaven jaw. ‘If I’d realised earlier, I’d have introduced myself. I thought you were arriving tomorrow.’

So had Rosie but when Abigail had asked if she could start Friday, the hire car was loaded, and so she thought why the hell not just go. She couldn’t face Anthony turning up with her father at the house for a work meeting.

‘Yes, sorry, I changed my plans. I arrived yesterday evening.’ For a moment they both stood there awkwardly. ‘So, if you’re not really the window cleaner, who are you and how did you get in?’ She frowned, folding her arms. Parcel or no parcel, she wasn’t sure she liked that he could just walk in whenever he wanted. Admittedly, she hadn’t checked if she’d locked the patio doors this morning…

‘Yeah, sorry,’ he conceded, ‘I’m Daryl.’

‘Yes. I know,’ she said tersely.

‘I’m Margot’s neighbour.’

Available to preorder ebook here: https://amzn.to/4f3ScZD

I am working on the paperback too.

Self-publishing The Neighbour on Post Office Lane

I'm in the process of giving my novel one last read through - you'd think I was sick of it by now, but I LOVE reading this book, even if it is mine. So I REALLY hope you'll love it too.

 
As it looks like I will have to self-publish it, and this is all very new to me, I want to make sure I'm getting the pricing right. 

The Neighbour on Post Office Lane is now available for pre-order... and on Amazon is a draft book cover currently, as KDP needed me to upload something.

 
I'd love to know your thoughts on the blurb, the pricing... I'd like my readers to help me on my journey. 

Take a look at what it'll look like on Amazon! 

And here are my working projects for the new cover... Which is your favourite? 

1

2

3 (My favourite)

The Goodreads Review That Got Away

Firstly, can I say that this blog post is not because I'm a jealous writer. I am all for writers selling books - that's how they make money. In fact, generally, writers are very supportive of one another. I have nothing against self-published authors either. However, as a parent, I was angered how this author targeted his books at children in their primary school. I found it inappropriate.

Maybe I wouldn't have minded if it had been a better book... but it wasn't. My book review below, which was approved by my (now) eleven-year-old, tells it all.

I can't remember if I did post this review on my blog previously, however, as the full review got taken down from Goodreads, probably by the request of the author, I am reposting it here.

I wrote this review because I felt that if schools were allowing this author in to talk to their children, and actually did some research on him (unlike my sons' school... grrrrr....), then hopefully this will be the view of an informative parent.

This is my full review for Bradley Baker and The Curse of Pathylon by David Lawrence Jones:

Finally my son (who is 10, nearly 11) has finished reading this book, having bought it from school in June 2015.

I am not overly impressed how the author sold these books within school – and I stressed this at the time with the staff at the school. He went in “free of charge” to talk about writing, reading, and his books to all the pupils. He basically used targeted marketing on school children. We all know how children work; with a bit of peer pressure from their friends, they all want one. He could have gone in selling a cheap plastic toy – they all would have wanted it!

Based on a school of 400 pupils, if every child bought one book from him that day, he made good sales. I can only hope that this author at least provided the school with a free set of these books for their library so that every child could read them if they chose, for those parents who can’t afford to adhere to this kind of pressure. (But I don’t think he did – even the school had to purchase them.)

My son came out of school that day wanting all four books. As a single mum, I couldn’t justify £28. I told him he could buy one. Thank God I did, because (recently) when I asked my son how he felt about the book, he said, “It’s not as good as he made out, Mummy. It’s a lot slower, and in fact quite boring in places.”

Angered with the pressure put upon me by my son, I did my research prior to allowing my son to buy this book – to be honest, the reason I let him buy it was because I wanted to see the quality of it for myself. I only wish I’d done this research before the school had let the author do his talk.

Please be aware Avocado Publishing has been set up by the author to make it look as if his books are by a publisher. They are not. They are self-published. I even emailed Avocado Publishing to see who their other authors were. I never got a reply.
I have nothing against self-published authors, however in children’s fiction, I do wonder if there is a certain criteria books must meet to get published. And do these particular books meet it?

Looking through this book when my son brought it home, I instantly could see the unprofessionalism of this book. The easiest way is to notice the avoidance of the word “said”.

The characters in Bradley Baker never say anything, they reply, confirm, mumble, exclaim, growl, etc.

This book may have a good story within it. But unfortunately it needs a good edit. It’s 342 pages. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is 224 pages. (Well, my paperback copy is).

My son is an avid reader and loves all the David Walliams books, and I’ve encouraged him to read J K Rowling’s Harry Potter series now. With this book, I’ve had to nag him to finish it. As my son did not enjoy this book, we will not be purchasing another Bradley Baker novel.

By the way, I'm still waiting for a reply from Avocado Publishing....

Am I Being A Grumpy No-So-Old Writer?

Today was productive in the writing sense. I finished my first fiction assignment and sent it off to my (new) tutor and I even sent off a letter to Writing Magazine.   But to be honest this letter, and the article it was related to, also prompted me to want to blog.

This morning I had some time to read through April's issue of Writing Magazine - yes I know, May Issue will probably arrive tomorrow and I still haven't finished this one yet. I fail at reading magazines!

I read the Grumpy Old Bookman column (p35 Writer's News) by Michael Allan, and funnily enough, after all the commotion over the past couple of days of self-published Jacqueline Howett and her unprofessional approach to critiques, the subject was on self-publishing and those making money from it.

He discusses how self-publishing is working for some, and the potential money writer's are making.  He then goes on to talk about Ms Vianka van Bokkem who has 15 books published, but actually they are short stories, ranging from around 5,000 to 13,500 words and the prices are between $2.99-$3.99.  She's sold around 2,500 ebooks in December alone!  Vianka has had reviews such as "The worst book I've ever read", to the other end of the scale giving praise.  I assume she hasn't acted like Ms Howett when given negative feedback or we may have heard about it

Then Allan quotes some of her text, proving she isn't a polished writer - and that some readers (considering the reviews) simply can't care, it hasn't bothered them in this new digital age.  I'm an easy going reader, but I really do care about good presentation of the written word, especially as it's something I'm striving for in my own writing.  (Whether I'm achieving it is another matter!) 

He ends on a note of good luck to her, she's having fun, making friends and money.  However, although yes, in someways I don't want to scoff at someone else's success - yes, good luck to her, if people are prepared to buy her stories, and she's not doing anything deceitful to sell them.  But is she improving her skill?  Is she another writer giving self-publishing a bad name?  Has it become too easy to get published (and sell) with the likes of eBooks?

I've been trying to think up a suitable analogy, because as usual I fear I'm not getting my point across in the way I want - something as a writer I need to work on, but I've always been like it in life - I really do have trouble spitting my words out at times!  So here goes;

Imagine I turn up on X-Factor, singing badly (because I can't sing - I only sound good in the car, on my own) something like "I Will Survive," and I have no intentions of trying to improve.  In fact I think I'm brilliant! Simon Cowell says I can use his recording studio to get my stuff out there (for a small fee).  I then put it on Amazon and make money by selling my badly sung song.  (I imagine there could be a lot of con-artists in the record industry preying on wannabe-singers, yet we never actually get to hear the music.)


Is it happening in the record industry?  I'm not in that line, so I haven't heard about it.  The thing is, everyone can actually write, or type, but it's not necessarily good.  I imagine it's a lot harder to get a song on iTunes and actually make money from it than it is to get an eBook out there.  The equipment you need to record a song is a little bit harder to come by than what you need to write - that's what I'm trying to say!

Writing is a craft, a talent, a skill, an art, like singing - isn't it?

Yes, I do see the need for self-publishing, even if thanks to the likes of Ms Howett who give it a bad name, and the vanity press that prey on wannabe writers.  But I suppose what niggles me now is that there seems to be readers out there that don't mind this slack approach to writing.  Part of me is annoyed that society is getting lazy in all sorts of ways, and now it seems we're getting lazy in what we expect in good writing.  Or am I wrong?

I've tried to write this as diplomatically as I can, and not sound out of turn - I apologise now if it seems that way.  I don't want to sound like some snobby writer - I'm not.  As an unpublished writer trying to find my way, I'm interested to know what others think.  Are you frustrated that people actually can make money out of bad writing?  Who are the con-artists really?  Are readers being duped?