Chatting with Publishers: Oliver Rhodes

I’m delighted to welcome Oliver Rhodes in this year’s first post in our Chatting with Publishers series. Oliver is the founder and managing director of Bookouture and winner of our very own Publisher of the Year Award for 2016.

Starting one’s own company is a huge venture. May I ask about your personal journey in publishing and what decided you to establish Bookouture?

Prior to starting Bookouture I was the head of marketing at Harlequin UK.  I’d worked in publishing for more than ten years and I was incredibly excited about the opportunities for digital publishing. 

I had a vision of an author-centric digital publisher with a strong marketing focus and realised that could be achieved just as effectively by a start-up as by a larger organisation.  It felt like a ‘now or never’ moment and I decided to take the chance.

How long was it in the planning stage before the company became established?

It was something that I’d been planning for around a year before Bookouture officially started.

How do you think the industry reacted to a new publishing company?

I’d say the initial reaction was very positive – we had a very high standard of submissions from authors.  I was always aware though that it was important for us to build on that initial interest and to establish a reputation for successful publishing.  That doesn’t happen overnight, but with everything that we’ve achieved in the last four years – and over 8 million sales – I think we’re getting there.

The award must surely be affirmation of your success. How did you feel when you learned you’d won?

Absolutely.  It was a wonderful surprise, and it was particularly heartening to hear so many positive comments from authors in the room.  My aim for Bookouture was for us to be a very author-focused publisher, so it was really encouraging to hear that we’re heading in the right direction.

What are you looking for at present and what do you think is next for Bookouture?

We’re looking for authors who create page-turning stories that will keep readers coming back for more – whether that’s romance, women’s fiction, thrillers or historical novels – or indeed any other fiction genre.

In terms of what is next for Bookouture, we’re in the process of adding to our publishing team, which is very exciting for us.  Jenny Geras has just joined us from Arrow, as Publishing Director, and we’re expecting to add several new faces over the coming year.

Expanding the team will allow us to increase the number of titles that we publish, so we’re also actively looking for new authors right now.

You cover many genres. Do you have a personal favourite?

I’ve always enjoyed working on a broad range of genres – I think having variety across the list is very important – I wouldn’t say I have a particular favourite.

You’ve built quite a team. Should submissions be made to individuals or initially to the company?

We ask authors to send submissions through our website at: www.bookouture.com/submit

We have a new system which makes it easy for us to share submissions internally and make sure they find the best home.  We’ve also improved our turnaround time, so all submissions should receive a response within four weeks.

What one particular piece of advice would you give to anyone submitting a manuscript?

Really just to focus on the quality of the story – that’s what we’ll be judging submissions on.  I always say that there needs to be a clear reason there that people will want to read the next book from the author. 

Thank you for joining us today, Oliver. It’s easy to see why you received the award for you ‘vision, drive and passion’. It’s infectious.

Natalie Kleinman writes contemporary and historical romantic novels and has thrown a bit of a mystery into the mix in one of her current projects. She is accumulating a nice collection of Regency works to help with her research. She is also working on a new contemporary novel.  You can follow her blog at http://nataliekleinman.blogspot.co.uk/

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

Vivien Hampshire: A successful route to publication

It is such a pleasure to invite Vivien Hampshire to the RNA blog. Viv is known to many of us due to the years she’s spent as a successful published writer. Viv, tells us about her journey to becoming an author and how she wrote for her living along the way.

Thank you for inviting me onto the blog today.

Although ‘How to Win Back Your Husband’, published by Harlequin HQ on 18 January, is my first

commercially published novel, I have actually been writing for a very long time. I won the annual ‘Best Opening to a Novel’ competition run by the Mail on Sunday way back in 1994 and then came second two years later. Both of those were just short 150-word pieces written to draw readers in and make them want to read on. Having beaten around 5000 other entrants to make it to the winners list, I had clearly got that bit right, but sadly the full length novels that grew out of them never made it to publication.

With young children at home and limited time to myself, I turned my hand to short stories. They were quicker to write and far more likely to bring some more immediate financial reward. I sold my first – an emotional family story based at Christmas - to Woman’s Weekly in 1997, and have continued to write and sell stories to all the usual UK women’s magazines on a pretty regular basis ever since. I have stories in issues of both Woman’s Weekly and The People’s Friend Special this month, and usually manage to get one into the People’s Friend Annual every year too!

As my confidence as a writer grew, I also ventured into poetry and non-fiction. Several funny poems for young children found their way into school anthologies published by Macmillan, and I won a few minor poetry competition prizes, including an all-inclusive weekend hotel break, only spoilt by the fact that they misspelled my name and had me living in the wrong home town in hundreds of printed copies of the love poetry booklet they gave away free to all their hotel and wedding guests! 

By day, I was working with young children in libraries and children’s centres. So I started pitching article ideas to nursery and childcare magazines, got myself regular commissions, joined the editorial board of one of them, and have now had over 250 articles and children’s book reviews published in that field. I also drew on my hobby of tackling cryptic crosswords and wrote my first book, ‘How To Crack Cryptic Crosswords’ (How To Books), and started a small business compiling my own personalised crosswords as gifts, with all clues individually tailored to the recipient. 

Joining a creative writing evening class and then a local writers’ group early in my career was probably the best move I ever made. I came across like-minded people, learnt a lot about technique, found out about markets, and began to share my work and receive criticism. Within a few years, I ended up both teaching the evening classes and running the local group! Writers’ holidays at Caerleon followed (I went eleven times!) bringing me into contact with some lovely writers who have remained good friends, and I joined the Society of Women Writers and Journalists, where I now serve on Council and administer the Society’s competition programme.

With the children grown up and gone, I made the decision at the end of 2013 to quit my job and write full-time. I had self-published an e-book novel which had some very good reviews, but I lacked the marketing expertise to make it a sales success, and the urge to get a novel accepted and published by a ‘real’ publisher had started to rear its head. I had a feeling it was now or never… so that’s when I turned to the experts, the RNA. 

I spent four years in the New Writers Scheme and, despite briefly having an agent who didn’t manage to get me a deal, two of the novels I submitted to the NWS have now found publishing contracts. The first, ‘How to Win Back Your Husband’, is out now as an e-book, with the second to be published by Harper Impulse under my married name of Vivien Brown in the summer, and another contracted for 2018. The original contacts with both my editors were made as a result of short but very successful one-to-one meetings at last year’s conference in Lancaster. No agent. Just me chatting to the right people, and showing them the right manuscript at the right time. What a result!

Vivien Hampshire xx

Links:

Facebook

Twitter

Amazon

Thank you, Vivien, and good luck with your very busy 2017.

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

BOOK BLOGGER & REVIEWERS: ROSIE AMBER

Welcome to our latest blog series, Book Bloggers & Reviewers. Author, Ellie Holmes will be chatting each month to the wonderful industry bloggers who love to read books and do so much to promote our work. Welcome also to Rosie Amber the first in the series. Over to you Ellie.

I am delighted to welcome Rosie Amber to the RNA Blog. Nearly five years ago, Rosie decided to

use her love of reading to help promote authors and their books through her blog.  She is now in the top 1% of Goodreads reviewers and has been a runner up in Sacha Blacks’ Bloggers Bash awards for the last two years. Rosie says one of the best things about her blog is that it has allowed her to meet some lovely people.

Inspired by “A Year of Doing Good” by Judith O’Reilly. Rosie decided to undertake her own challenge of doing one good deed a day for a year. She enjoyed the challenge so much she decided to carry on and wrote about it on her blog. You can check it out by following the link at the bottom of this article.

Welcome Rosie. What made you start to review/blog?

I began blogging nearly five years ago, both my children had reached their teens and it was a way of legitimately entering the huge social media scene to keep up with them and more importantly an eye out without stalking them. I’ve always loved reading so writing reviews for the books I read was an easy step.

How has your blog developed over time?

Rosie Amber

At first my reviews were only one or two sentences. Clearly this wasn’t enough, I studied other book bloggers and soon took a pencil and paper with me when I read and made notes as the book progressed. I was rather shocked when I was first approached to review a book from a “real“person.

My first review copies were read on my computer screen, I didn’t even own a kindle. Next came the kindle, I found out how to upload mobi files. I made a point of learning my craft from the bottom up, researching and teaching myself. I had a friend show me the basics of Facebook and Twitter, I’d have a lesson from her and then she’d send me off to experiment. My first blog was on Tumbler but the platform didn’t work for me and I made the switch to Wordpress.

To develop the blog I offered a book review and then an author promotional piece on the next day. I ran my own themed book tours – “Romancing September” was popular, I co-hosted with a blogger in the States giving a double opportunity for promotion each day of the tour. I also took part in the April A-Z challenge, it opened my blog to lots of bloggers from different walks of life.

Soon I had too many books to review of genres I wasn’t always keen on, I created a book reviewing challenge to reach out to get more people writing reviews and I made lots of new friends. On the back of that I created a book review team. We can now offer the possibility of multiple reviews of an author’s book all from one place.

What are your review guidelines?

I read books across a range of genres, both fiction and non-fiction.

I enjoy romance, paranormal, humour, murder mystery, mild thrillers, spiritual, a bit of fantasy, reading about other cultures and places all over the world and YA/NA books.

I don’t read blatant erotica, political or strong religious themed books, nor do I enjoy a book with a lot of violence. I’m afraid poetry isn’t my thing and I can only take a little sci-fi, please no short stories.

I prefer to accept books in paperback, I love their feel, but I’m also happy to work with Mobi files which I download to my Kindle.

Before I accept a book a few lines about it should be sent along with your details, plus a link to where I can find the book. The final decision to review the book, is mine. Upon acceptance I will provide a mailing/e-mail address.

Book review team guidelines:

The book review team gives you access to a wide range of reviews. I have reviewers from around the world who read and review books, posting reviews on several platforms.

Authors should decide how many copies of their book they could donate for a review. Accepted formats are e-formats;  Mobi , e-pub, vouchers for Smashwords or Amazon, Gifted books from Amazon. I then post the book details on my team book list. They will request a book and I will then get you to send them the book direct in their chosen format.

Reviewers have been asked to post a review on a minimum of 2 sites such as their blog, Amazon or Goodreads, etc. Plus they are asked to send me a copy of the review which I will post on this blog.

If a reviewer has taken the time to read and review a book I shall post a copy of the review on my blog. We write as we see a book in our own personal reading experience. If you put a book out in the public domain, expecting only positive 5* reviews from all readers it is unrealistic, the top authors all get a range of star ratings.

Full details here

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

The best type of author is one who supports my blog, I do this as a hobby and don’t earn anything from it, an author has the potential to earn money, so repaying mine and my team’s time in kindness is important, social media shares are my “bread and butter”. So this means following the blog posts and sharing them on their own social media, not necessarily every day but as a regular supporter would be lovely.

How important is social media to you and your blogging team?

Social media is huge for us. If we are posting a review of a book we’ll never post under a 3*. An author can get a lot of publicity if they act on the day, posts go out on my blog, Facebook, Google+ and Twitter. As a group the review team are very supportive and most share these on their own social media. One of our favourite hangouts is Twitter and if authors pick up and share all the tweets they’ll get about their book then the message really gets out there. On Tuesdays we use #TuesdayBookBlog for book related blog post tweets and we get it trending nearly every week. Anyone can use it, here are our guidelines.

What are your interests when not blogging?

I live in Hampshire and I’m a farm secretary, I run bookwork and accounts for three farmers. I’m also keen to keep fit and try to walk most days for at least an hour, often longer.

Do you ever read a book purely for enjoyment and not with an intention to review?

I try, but most times, I’ll end up reviewing it too. One of my favourite authors is Louise L Hay, she writes non-fiction self-help books. I’m very interested in alternative health, past lives and the spirit world.

We often ask agents and publishers what they consider to be the next 'big thing' - what do you hope to see in 2017?

A million dollar question! I work with a lot of indies and self-published authors, rather than a next “big thing” guess I’d like to see Amazon iron out the removal of precious real reviews for good small time authors.

Thank you so much for inviting me today.

Links:

Blog   

Twitter

  My Year of Good Deeds.

Ellie Holmes:

Ellie Holmes

Ellie Holmes writes commercial women’s fiction with her heart in the town and her soul in thecountry. Ellie’s debut release was The Flower Seller. A member of the RNA and the Alliance of Independent Authors, Ellie’s latest book The Tregelian Hoard, set in Cornwall, is the first novella in her Jonquil Jones Mystery Series.

Links:

Twitter

Author Page

Facebook

Thank you, Rosie and Ellie, for such an interesting blog.

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

The Romantic Novel of the Year Awards: The judges are...

It’s just three weeks until the RNA announces the books that have been shortlisted for the RoNAs – the Romantic Novel of the Year Awards - and we are now unveiling the judges who will decide on the Goldsboro Books Romantic Novel of the Year 2017.

The RNA gives seven awards for different types of romantic novels. The categories are: Contemporary, Epic, Historical, Paranormal or Speculative Fiction, Romantic Comedy, the RoNA Rose for a shorter romantic novel and Young Adult. In the first two rounds of the contest the entries are judged by a panel of readers who choose the winner in each category.  These seven winners then go forward into the overall Romantic Novel of the Year Award for excellence in romantic fiction.

The four independent judges who will read each of the category winners to decide the overall winner are:

Matt Bates, the Fiction Buyer for WH Smith Travel, writer and journalist Fanny Blake, bookseller and publisher Ron Johns and Caroline Sanderson, writer and books journalist.

 RNA Vice-Chair and Award Organiser, Nicola Cornick said:  ‘We are thrilled to have such an enthusiastic and knowledgeable panel of judges with such a commitment to the romantic fiction genre.”

Matt Bates is the Fiction Buyer for WH Smith Travel. In 2013 he judged the HNS International Award and has contributed to book-related articles in Daily Telegraph, Daily Express, The Bookseller and Writers Forum magazine. In 2015 he was named Bookseller of the Year by the RNA.

Fanny Blake was a publisher for many years before becoming a freelance journalist and writer. She is books editor of Woman & Home and has written five novels including Women of a Dangerous Age and House of Dreams. Her new novel Our Summer Together will be published in in July 2017.

Ron Johns opened his first bookshop in 1974 aged 20. He now owns several bookshops and also created Mabecron Publishing, which publishes books with a West Country flavour and to date has published 23 titles. Ron has been a Costa Prize judge and is a council member of the Booksellers Association and the Independent Booksellers Group.

Caroline Sanderson is a writer and books journalist, and Royal Literary Fund Fellow at the University of Worcester. She is Associate Editor for The Bookseller, and the editor of ALCS News. Caroline is the author of five non-fiction books, and co-hosts a monthly book club on BBC Radio Gloucestershire.

A total of 300 books were entered for this year’s Romantic Novel of the Year Awards.

The shortlisted books will be announced on the RNA website on February 7^th and the RoNA Awards will be presented in London on March 13^th. For tickets

For more information about the RoNA judges, visit our website news pages

http://www.romanticnovelistsassociation.org/news

To learn more about the awards, go to http://www.romanticnovelistsassociation.org/awards

For more details on the RoNA Awards event, or to buy tickets, visit our website activities pages.  http://www.romanticnovelistsassociation.org/activities 

FOCUS ON: Chelmsford Chapter

It's a great pleasure to welcome the Chelmsford Chapter to our series. Carrie Elks was kind enough to answer Jean Fullerton's questions.

Welcome to the RNA blog, Chelmsford members!

Where are you based, Carrie?

We are the Chelmsford Chapter, based in Essex. You don’t have to live in Chelmsford to join us though, you just have to get here by train, plane or automobile!

How long has your chapter been running?

Around ten years. We began as a casual group of romance writers meeting for lunch, and only later became a chapter of the RNA. Since then, the chapter has grown, but some of our founding members still remain. 

How often do you meet?

We meet on the last Thursday of each month. The dates are published in advance, but we also send out an email reminder (because we’re all busy writers!)

Where is your regular meeting place?

We’ve just moved to a new venue. We now meet in A Canteen in Chelmsford, a delightful delicatessen and café. 

How many members attend your meetings?

It varies from month to month. Sometimes there can be only six of us, and other times (especially at Christmas) we can number up to about twenty. There’s no pressure to attend monthly, just whenever you can. 

Do your meetings include a meal?

Yes, the food in A Canteen is very nice, and the atmosphere is lovely. We find chatting over lunch is a great way to share our thoughts and news. 

Is your chapter open to non-members of the RNA?

Though we’re primarily members of the RNA, we do have a few chapter members who are no longer part of the organization. We are all writers though – whether at the start of our careers, or well-established.

                How long are your meetings?

This varies, too. We meet at 12 noon, though some members arrive a bit later due to public transport restrictions. We’ve usually finished around 2:30pm (perfect if you need to pick up children from school) but nobody worries if you need to leave earlier. We’re very relaxed! 

Can you give an outline of speakers/guests you’ve had in the past year?

We’re primarily a support group, so haven’t had any speakers in 2016. However, we did help to organize the Colchester Cream Tea in April this year, which was a lovely event for all involved. 

What do you have planned for 2017?

I’m just working on that now. We’ve had a fabulous new bookshop (Foyles) open up in our city, and it would be good for us to forge some closer links with them. Apart from that we’ll be doing our usual plan of eating, talking, and having fun!

What would you say makes your chapter of the RNA so special?

Probably the same as all chapters – the people. We are a varied bunch. We range from authors on the New Writers' Scheme, to those who have been published for decades. Each of us brings something unique to the group, whether it be experience of the publishing industry, knowledge of digital marketing, or connections that might help a fellow writer. I only joined a year ago, and I immediately found the chapter to be very welcoming and generous with their support. It’s great to spend time with like-minded people. 

Does your chapter have a website, Facebook page or Twitter account?

We have a Facebook group, but haven’t yet made any other social media accounts. One to work on in 2017! 

Who is the contact for new members?

Me! (Carrie Elks) I recently took over as the organiser for our chapter, and am enjoying it immensely.

I can be contacted by email: Carrie.Elks@mail.com or by telephone 07530 859769

Thanks so much for joining us, Carrie!

About Jean:

Jean was born in East End of London and spent all her career as a district nurse in East London but is now a full-time writer. Wedding Bells for Nurse Connie, is her current release. Her next novel Pocketful of Dreams, set in the turbulent years of WW2, is due for release in June 2017 and is the first in next East London series.

Her first series with Orion Fiction was set in the Victorian period after which she jumped forward to post-war East London.

She is a proud graduate from the NWS and passionate about the local chapters, which is why she has taken on the role of Chapters Liaison. 

This blog was prepared by blog team member, Helena Fairfax