Bethan James – Account Manager at PR Agency EDPR

Thank you to Ellie Holmes for this interesting interview with Bethan James. What an interesting career!

I am delighted to welcome Bethan James to the RNA Blog’s monthly series where we speak to book bloggers and reviewers and get an insight into their world. This month we are taking a slight departure by speaking to Bethan who is an account manager at PR Agency EDPR.

Welcome Bethan, tell us a little bit about yourself and your work at EDPR

My name is Bethan James and I am an Account Manager at publishing, lifestyle and entertainment

PR agency EDPR. I have previously worked in publicity and marketing for Accent Press and Oxford Playhouse, amongst others. I am an Earl Grey addict, writer and identical twin who can be found Tweeting (mostly about books) here: @thebethanjames

How long have you worked at ED PR?

I moved to London in February to start my new Account Manager role at EDPR, so it’s been nine months already. Time flies!

ED PR are described as a boutique PR Agency, what sort of authors do you work with?

One of the benefits of a boutique agency is you get to work closely with authors who write in an incredible variety of genres. I’ve enjoyed running publicity campaigns on literature in translations for independent publisher Belgravia Books, as well as titles from the ‘Big 6’ London publishers. A typical month could involve doing PR for authors who’ve penned nail-biting crime; gripping historical novels; gorgeous hardback non-fiction; trailblazing sci-fi; the latest celebrity releases (like Matt Lucas’ autobiography); and fabulous romantic fiction, of course! At the moment I’m working on lovely RNA member Elaine Everest’s heart-warming saga Christmas at Woolworths which is out on 2^nd Nov – perfect timing for a festive read.

Tell us a little bit about a day in the life of a Book Publicist

The great thing about being a book publicist is it’s never boring because no two days are ever quite the same! But in general, I’ll start my morning with a cup of Earl Grey at 9.30am  as I sift through my emails. Then I might have a PR meeting with my Director Emma Draude and the team to catch up on media coverage for titles I’m promoting. I’ll also spend some time on the phone following up with journalists about book reviews. Crafting email pitches to secure features and interviews for my authors is also a key part of the day. Other tasks can include meeting journalists, writing press releases, putting together mailing lists for book proofs, setting up blog tours, compiling PR updates for publishers, and delegating social media activity to our assistant. If one of my authors has a book launch I’ll look forward to heading along for wine, nibbles, and mingling that evening!

What sort of contact do you have with your authors before, during and after a campaign?

Ahead of a book campaign fully kicking off, a publisher will usually put me in touch with the author so I can get to know them. For example, it’s good to get a sense of how comfortable they are with broadcast interviews, what their availability is for press/ event activity, and any personal media contacts they’d like me to reach out to. It’s also really important for me to know if they have an interesting personal story they can talk about linked to the book. Is there a real-life experience that inspired your story? During the campaign, I’ll keep in regular contact with the author to set up interviews and keep them updated on coverage plus press cuttings. Afterwards, I’ll send a full round-up of all press and reviews secured. It’s nice to keep in touch and see how sales are going and hear how readers are responding to the book as well.  Communication with the author and publisher is key!

What’s the best part of your job?

The authors! Working with creative and passionate people who’ve poured their heart into a story, then helping readers to discover and enjoy it is incredibly rewarding. The buzz when you land them a big piece of national press coverage is fantastic.  (That, and all the books I get to read before they’re even out in bookshops…)

If you could give one piece of advice to authors what would it be?

Learn what goes on behind-the-scenes to bring your book-baby into the world, and gain an understanding of the wider publishing process. It all helps to avoid confusion and makes things smoother if you know the roles of different departments at a publisher and the key timelines for a book.

I’m cheating a bit here, but my second piece of advice is to communicate. This of course works both ways, but once an author forgot to tell me they were away abroad with almost no email or phone access for a month before publication! That was a bit of a nightmare publicity-wise…

What are your interests away from work? Do you ever read just to relax?

I’m a London newbie as I used to live in Wales, so I’m still enjoying everything the capital has to offer, from theatre, to art galleries, eating out, and exploring hidden gems. I’m also writing my debut novel, which is historical fiction with a dash of fantasy and romance – watch this space! That’s keeping me pretty busy, but I try and read widely as well. Sometimes it’s nice to wade through a novel without having to stop and get my notebook out to jot down a potential PR angle.

We often ask agents and publishers what they consider to be the next 'big thing' - what do you hope to see next?

I’m sure agents and publishers will roll their eyes when I say this, as in some areas it’s

already happening, but I’d love to see more cross-genre fiction making it mainstream and hitting the Sunday Times bestseller charts.  There can be a tendency sometimes for the industry to say that a manuscript that bridges genres is too confusing: What shelf in a bookshop would it go on? How could you market it and would it sell? What section of the book pages would a newspaper review it on?  I think readers deserve some credit – if it’s a good story they’ll champion and discover it. I’m sure many RNA members are already breaking the mould. Bring on that next big historical crime romance thriller…

Thank you Bethan for a very interesting insight into the world of publicity and well done for including a plug for Elaine Everest of this parish.

About Ellie:

Ellie Holmes writes commercial women’s fiction with her heart in the town and her soul in the country. Ellie’s debut release was The Flower Seller. A member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and the Alliance of Independent Authors, Ellie’s latest book, White Lies is out now.

http://Author.to/EllieHolmes    http://www.twitter.com/elliehwriter  www.ellieholmesauthor.com  www.facebook.com/EllieHWriter

Jenny Haddon: Planning With Other Writers

We welcome Jenny Haddon to the RNA blog today to tell us about her exciting project.

Last year Tule Publishing invited me, together with Liz Fielding and Jessica Hart (Pamela

Hartshorne) of the RNA together with Montana-resident Anne McAllister, who has spoken at the RNA Conference, to write a four book series. We had all written for Harlequin Mills & Boon, though both Jessica/Pam and I hadn't done so for some time. We knew each other

Imagine delighted. The drawback was that I'd never written one of a series before. I'd written a couple of novels which turned out to have sequels sitting inside them. But I'd never planned a Book 1 of 4 from the get-go. Jessica, however, was firm. An overall plan was essential. We concluded that we needed four key resources, held in common on Dropbox and Pinterest.

The story that emerged was built around a Royal Wedding, to be held in a classic English village church. So the world of the series required the invention of a royal principality and an English village.

RESOURCE 1 - Royal Seat

I mostly invented the principality, since my hero was the royal in question – His Serene Highness Prince Jonas of San Michele. I could show you place on the Slovenian coast where I imagined the capital. I prepared notes on the principality's history from the middle ages to the present day, economy, geography and language.

OK, I'm a bit of a nerd on things like that. But it did mean that we weren't suddenly going to be throwing up history or traditions which were different from one book to the next.

RESOURCE 2 - English Village

In the spring Anne came to stay in England and we all visited Castle Combe which inspired the village, the manor house in which my heroine and Jessica's hero were born and the church where the royal wedding took place. We inhaled the atmosphere. We lodged notes, maps and photographs in our resource centre.

RESOURCE 3 - Backstory, ages and appearance of characters

We'd agreed most of the details before we started writing, especially during our girls' day out in Wiltshire. We kept facts in documents held at Dropbox. Though we still had to negotiate sometimes, by email of course, when we suddenly found something we wanted to add. It was astonishingly harmonious. On Pinterest we pinned photographs of people who inspired our characters. (My Jonas, to my surprise, turned out be a David Tennant lookalike.) Liz found the wedding dress, too.

RESOURCE 4- Timeline Spread Sheet

We started with the earliest action that occurred on the page in any of our books. Backstory and ages

were for individual characters were we set up spread sheet showing the timeline of serious plot points, where the characters were, which books certain scenes occurred in and ended with the latest.

There was one killer weekend where nearly every key character in everybody's book was in one place at the same time. We had to break the timeline down almost by the hour for that!

I have learned an enormous amount during this return to category romance, in the company of some of the best in the business - including our editor, author Kelly Hunter. Planning, and then keeping readily accessible records of decisions on time and place, are lessons now well and truly learned. About time!

PUBLICATION DAYS

Charmingly, the publisher has co-ordinated the launch of our books as closely as we tracked our plot encounters.

13 October      The Prince's Bride, Sophie Weston

16 October      The Baronet's Wedding Engagement,  Jessica Hart

18 October      The Bridesmaid's Royal Bodyguard,  Liz Fielding

20 October      The Best Man's Bride, Anne McAllister

Series link        https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075SJ561Y/

Thank you for your interesting piece, Jenny and good luck to you and your fellow authors.

If you would like to write for the RNA blog please contact us on elaineeverest@aol.com

Sally Quilford: Writing across Genres

It's an absolute pleasure to welcome author Sally Quilford to the RNA blog today for an interview with Helena Fairfax, in which Sally talks about writing across genres, combining writing short stories and novels, and how she began her career as a prolific and successful author.

Welcome to the RNA blog, Sally. It's lovely to have you here!

Please tell us how long you've been writing, and about your published books and stories.

It’s come as a bit of a surprise to me that I’ve been writing for 22 years now! I started in 1995, around the time I took a GCSE in English Literature. I didn’t take it very seriously back then. I just wrote poems, stories, fan fiction. All those things helped me to cut my teeth as a writer and taught me a lot about story structure. It also taught me what I wanted to be. I decided pretty early on that I wasn’t bothered about being taken ‘seriously’ as a writer. I just wanted readers to enjoy my work. Then in 2007, I decided I would work a bit harder at writing, and I made a vow not to work for nothing anymore, unless it was for charity. In that first year I earned £10 for a letter in Woman’s Weekly. Things did improve and since then I’ve written around 25 novels and had nearly a hundred short stories published in women’s magazines. I’ve lost count of exactly how many novels and stories, and there are a few unpublished ones on my computer, which I never know whether to count or not. If I did count them, we’re talking nearer to 30 novels, and something like 300+ short stories!

You write in many different genres, including romantic suspense, crime and sci fi. Do you have a favourite genre to write in?

Romantic intrigue, always. This is because, as a child, my dad always had books by Jack Higgins and Frederick Forsyth in his house. And my mum’s best friend, who I called ‘Aunty Vicky’, always had Mills and Boon and Barbara Cartland books in her house. I devoured each genre whenever I was visiting either house. You can see how I might have mixed the two. In fact, though I doubt Higgins and Forsyth would admit it, they also mixed the two. There’s always a love interest. Even now, the brilliant Jack Reacher novels always include a romance of some sort.

Apart from the length - obviously! - what do you find most different about the process of writing a short story and writing a full-length book? Which do you prefer?

A short story has to be much more self-contained, and you can only deal with one issue. A novel, whilst reasonably self-contained, can have lots of issues to tie up by the end but also can leave questions unanswered. I think I prefer writing novels, because of the larger canvas. On the other hand, there’s nothing more satisfying than telling a whole story in 1500 words.

You've written a lot of stories and books. Do you have a favourite character? And do you find you're drawn to write about certain types of people?

My favourite characters tend to change as I write new books. But I think two of my favourites are May Tucker, from Bella’s Vineyard, which was my first ‘Western’ romance, and Bobby Harcourt from The Steps of the Priory. Bobby was very interesting, because he was only ever supposed to be a secondary character, yet he ended up taking a much more important role in the story. I tend to write about loners and people who don’t quite fit in, perhaps because I’m very much that way.

Who are your favourite romance authors?

I’ve already mentioned Barbara Cartland. I make no apologies for devouring her books time and time again. Admittedly they were of their time, but I always think we have to make allowances for that and not try to enforce modern day standards on old works of literature.  I love Kate Walker’s novels for Mills and Boon. Her characters always behave like proper grown-ups, and that’s what I love about them. And two authors who are sadly no longer with us. Penny Jordan, whose prose was just delicious, and Diane Pearson. Her novel, Csardas, is still one of my all time favourites.

Please tell us about your latest release, and how you came up with the idea.

The Curse of Lakeham Abbey is the follow up to last year's The Secret of Lakeham Abbey (you can probably see there’s a theme…) In the original novel, my young sleuth was just that. Young. He was a teenage boy in the late 1940s, and I supposed that if I wrote more about him, he would remain that age, or at least age gradually. So imagine my surprise when he appeared to me as a man in his eighties and said ‘Psst, I’ve got another story for you.’ I almost resisted, but Percy Sullivan is not a man to be ignored, so I wrote it. The novel carries on from the ideas in the first novel, where Lakeham Abbey is a place of darkness, and builds upon it, but in a modern setting. I like to think of it as modern gothic. If there is such a thing.

What are you working on right now?

I’m just about to start the second year of my MA in Creative Writing, so am working on ideas for that. Other than that, I can’t say. I find it very difficult to discuss ideas ahead of time. When I do, they tend to die a death. But my notebook, as always, is full of ideas and I’m hoping that one of them will be good enough to get me a pass, or at least another publishing deal.

Thanks so much for joining us, Sally, and for giving up some valuable writing time to talk to us!

The Curse of Lakeham Abbey is out now. Here is the blurb:

Everyone knows that Lakeham Abbey is cursed.

All the stories say so. Throughout the years, there have been mad women, murders, and a general feeling of misery that drives people away. When another murder takes place there, it only adds to the legends. 

Some seventy years after his first visit to Lakeham Abbey, Percy Sullivan returns. He has lost none of his truculence nor his thirst for justice. The Abbey has been turned into luxury apartments, of which down-on-his-luck Percy is one of the first new residents. 

When Julia Marsh is murdered and her husband, fading rock star, Jake, is imprisoned, Percy is determined to find the killer and free the grandson of his greatest friends. Tensions rise as secrets that threaten to destroy everyone are uncovered.

In a place where no one is entirely innocent, how will he ever find the guilty?

Links:

Amazon UK

Amazon US

If you would like to write for the RNA blog please contact Elaine Everest on elaineeverest@aol.com

Book Bloggers and Reviewers: Rachel Gilbey – Rachel’s Random Reads

 We welcome Ellie Holmes to the RNA blog with the latest in her series Book Bloggers and Reviewers. Today Ellie is talking with well known Rachel Gilbey.

Rachel Gilbey is a proud Londoner and lifelong reader who admits she feels naked without a book. 

Rachel with Helen J Rolfe

Since dropping out of university Rachel has followed a varied career path, working in IT and Brochure design for a travel company, qualifying as a Playworker, and working in after school clubs. She has also spent a few summers working abroad as a Children's rep.

When she returned to the UK her love of books grew to the next level and she started a book blog - Rachel's Random Reads, and has now launched Rachel's Random Resources too.

Welcome to the RNA blog, Rachel.

What made you start to review/blog?

I was always a prolific reader from an early age, leading Mum to have to take me to three local libraries on a regular basis to keep me in books. A few years ago, I was entering a large number of competitions, and discovered many fabulous book bloggers which I still follow to this day, and also Goodreads.

With any book I won from Goodreads, I went on to write a review, as it sounded like a condition on entry, and from there I discovered a few reading challenges some friends were running. At which point, I ended up reviewing almost everything I was reading.

Ultimately after a few others had suggested it, it was Laura Bambrey from Laura Bambrey Books that persuaded me I should blog, as I was doing 90% of the basics anyway.

Two and a half years on, I can barely remember how I filled my time without blogging, and adore being able to share my love of books to what I hope is an appreciative audience.

Are there certain genres you prefer to cover? Could you give us a link to your review guidelines?

Despite being a prolific reader, I'm rather narrow and set in my ways when it comes to the sorts of genres I tend to read, and thus cover on my blog.

I predominately read romance, women's fiction, chick lit with regular forrays over to the dark side of crime/mystery/thrillers and psychological suspense/thrillers.

My full review policy is available here.

Do you meet up with other bloggers and reviewers?

Given how solitary a hobby reading is, you may be surprised to hear that since starting my blog I have a far more active social life than I did before. I often attend the Blogger/Author Shenanigans events that the lovely Kim Nash organises, where I get to chat books with authors and bloggers.

I also attend book launches and panel discussions where there are authors or subjects of interest to me, and often bump into and other bloggers at these too. 

I have met so many bloggers and I love them all, it’s just that there are far too many to name!

What do you expect from the writer when they appear on your blog?

I'm not sure expect is the correct word. In an ideal world I would love an author to supply everything in a timely manner that has been asked for, which includes author bio, social media and purchase links, cover image and author photo, in addition to the guest post or interview.

The other thing in an ideal world would be some acknowledgement when the post is live, be it a thank you, a retweet, share just something.

What’s the best thing about being a book blogger?

Definitely the book events that I get invited too, some of them which appear to be completely star studded where I come over all fan girly and unable to string a sentence together, as I have met authors that I have been reading for 15-20 years in some cases. 

My other favourite thing about book blogging is definitely the direction my life is changing in, which I can answer best in the next question.

You have just launched an exciting new venture Rachel’s Random Resources. Can you tell us about it?

Rachel's Random Resources is my brand new business offering assorted services to authors to make their lives easier when it comes to publicity of their books, old and new.

I organise blog tours, shorter blog blitzes, 1 day publication day pushes, or Book Birthday Blitzes , to get a real buzz going on your special day, as well as cover reveals, which my growing family of bloggers will be eager to help out with.

I've got my Review Vault, which is where I will gain you potential reviewers without them having the pressure of a blog tour. This is open for reviewers that just review on Goodreads and Amazon too, to increase the exposure of the book on all the major outlets.

I'm also doing assorted graphic design for social media. This include header graphics for Twitter and Facebook, blog tour banners if you have organised your own, special offer graphics, images with quotes from the book or from your favourite reviews, all to enhance your social media, with a some variety.

Essentially, I am aiming to connect authors with bloggers, do the asking on your behalf, do the organising or graphic design on your behalf, freeing your time up to write the next book!

I saw on your blog that you are big West End musicals fan (a woman after my own heart). How else do you spend your free time when not reading?

Rachel with Sheryl Browne

I'm supposed to have free time when I'm not reading? Not sure I was ever told that!  As you spotted, I am a huge fan of musicals and will try to visit the theatre as much as I can in a year, although it’s a rather expensive habit to have. That does remind me I don't have any more shows lined up yet to see, I must go and buy some more tickets!

Cheaper than my other main love which is going on holiday, I love spending time abroad, sitting, relaxing soaking up the heat, and oddly reading at the same time!

I'm also a huge fan of sports, watching not participating, and events such as The Olympics or the Football World Cup will see me stuck to the TV no matter the time difference to soak up as much as I can.  I try to get to some live events each year.  I'm lucky enough to live near Wembley, and also within an easy enough journey of The Olympic Stadium (or The London Stadium, or The Queen Elizabeth Park, or whatever it is currently being referred to as). I was lucky enough to attend the World Athletics Championships recently, and had a wonderful time cheering on Team GB!.

We often ask agents and publishers what they consider to be the next 'big thing' - what do you hope to see more of in 2018?

That has to be the hardest question on the whole interview, especially tricky as let’s face it most of the lists for at least the first half to the year from traditional publishers are likely to be finalised already! 

So how to answer this question?

At the start of 2017, two other bloggers and myself embarked on a massive challenge, to between us see if we could read around the UK in 144 books, and see just how much of the UK we read about in books. Although we seem to have stalled, what I have discovered is a large amount of the UK just doesn't necessarily get featured in books often if at all.

I would love to see more variety of location in the books that I read. So often I spend most of my time virtually in Cornwall and Devon, despite there being pretty coastline all around the UK.

Thank you so much for inviting me to be interviewed today. It is a great honour and I really appreciate the opportunity.

It was a pleasure to talk with you Rachel. Thank you for giving us an insight into your world and good luck with your new venture Rachel’s Random Resources.  I’m sure you’ll have lots of RNA members beating a path to your door.

Links to Rachel’s Random Reads:

Website

Twitter

Links to Rachel's Random Resources:

Website

Twitter

Facebook

About Ellie:

Ellie Holmes writes commercial women’s fiction with her heart in the town and her soul in the

country. Ellie’s debut release was The Flower Seller. A member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and the Alliance of Independent Authors, Ellie’s latest book, White Lies is out now.

Links:

Twitter

Website

Facebook

Thank you Ellie and Rachel for a most enjoyable interview. Good luck with your new venture, Rachel!

If you would like to write for the RNA blog please contact us on elaineeverest@aol.com