Anna Jones Buttimore

A couple of years ago a friend asked for advice on writing and publishing his book. I told him all I knew (not much) and wished him luck. And a few months ago he gleefully posted on Facebook that he was now a published author. How I rejoiced as I followed the link to his masterpiece. How my heart sank when I saw "Authorhouse" across the top bar on my screen. You know how I feel about self publishing. I can't help feeling he sold out. Which is more than his book will do. I asked him, in that wheedling way of mine, "Why?" Why did he give up? Why did he fund the publication of his book himself, and forego any possibility of profit or royalties, not to mention any sense of achievement, affirmation or accomplishment. "I got fed up with being rejected," he replied. As much as you are warned that rejection is part and parcel of being an author, it still smarts.  I'm  fed up with being rejected.  Emon and the Emperor  has now been rejected by fift...

I've got a new book coming out shortly. It's called No Escape  and it's a romantic thriller about a newly widowed New York cop who tries to escape his grief by taking part in an exchange program and going to rural North Wales. There he meets a tough single mother who hates everyone and trusts no one, and finds himself charged with protecting her as she becomes embroiled in some nefarious activities through her drug-dealing brother. I started writing the book about fifteen years ago when I was working in an office next door to Bangor Police Station and met a couple of the drugs squad officers there. The book describes the local area in considerable detail and yesterday, mid-way through editing, I decided it would be fun to remind myself of the place I lived for so long via Google maps. You can imagine my disappointment as I discovered that the police station, bus station and Students' Union, which all feature heavily in the book, are no longer there. In fact, where the...

My next book, No Escape, is due to be published within the next couple of weeks, so I'm busy editing it at the moment with the help of my wonderful editor, Linda, at Walnut Springs Press. I started writing  No Escape  in 1993 or 1994, I think. I was working as an Estate Agent (realtor) next door to the police station in Bangor, North Wales. A couple of the drugs squad officers would occasionally drop in to look at the houses available and we - my colleagues Debbie and Karen and I - got to know them. I can't remember how it happened but Debbie came up with an idea for a book involving a Welsh woman and a New York cop on exchange to Bangor, and I started writing it. (You may be interested to know that I promised Debbie I'd pay off her mortgage with the royalties. Unfortunately with so many years elapsed from inspiration to publication I suspect her mortgage is long since paid. Sorry, Debbie!) In many ways editing is the most fun part of writing because the difficult par...

I've gone and done something reckless and foolhardy. I've signed up to NaNoWriMo for the first time. For those not in the know, that's National Novel Writing Month. It should probably be called IntNoWriMo because there is a group right here in Essex holding parties and write-ins in the local library. Last year I resisted joining because I thought it was an American thing, but it seems that across the world there are people who have committed to write a full 50,000 word novel in a month. Gulp. Now that I write it that seems like an awful lot. I should have signed up for Movember instead, it would probably be easier. It's not the most convenient month for me, you see, because I will have to spend the first few days of it editing my forthcoming novel, No Escape. And I'm trying to finish two cross-stitch baby samplers for a friend. And I have a job, two blogs and three children, and a weekend away booked, and...  well, it's going to be tough, but I am determin...

Jewel very kindly sent me several of her books to review. With limited time, I picked one at random. Boy, did I choose the wrong book! Don't get me wrong, Legacy is a great book, but it is very, very long. Almost 150,000 words, so a real epic to rival War and Peace. It's also a romance - several romances in fact - and I'm really not a fan of that particular genre. I could have done with a whole lot less of our couple going googly-eyed over each other (and cutting half of the declarations of love and counting of blessings would have shortened it considerably) and rather more actual action and events, but if that's what you enjoy, then this is beautifully done and the characters really are people the reader can love too, and be happy for, if rather jealous of. Jewel has taken some risks with this book. It's written in the present tense, for one thing, and the narrator changes at intervals from first to third person. And yet she pulls it off perfectly. It comes acr...

Some comments on my Facebook page made me realise that many people out there - and some reading this - may know very little about the business of publishing. Many of them may look at JK Rowling, Celia Ahern and Dan Brown and figure it's an easy way to make lots of money - see my tongue-in-cheek previous blog on  http://annajonesbuttimore.blogspot.com/2011/08/i-think-ill-write-book.html . So here are some things which may seem obvious to anyone who has been involved in the business, but which many others don't know about publishing: Write your book first. Or at least, write most of it. Most agents and publishers are going to ask for a completed manuscript, not a proposal. This means that you may be writing it not knowing whether it will ever be published. Accept that the only person who ever enjoys your book may be you.  A full-length novel should be between 75,000 and 100,000 words. Once it is written, you have a choice about how to publish it. The traditional route invo...

I've read all of Stephanie's books, and even though this was her first it was just as good as the others. When did she learn and hone her craft? It seems Stephanie just exploded onto the LDS literary scene fully developed and with as much talent as many writers who have spent years improving book-by-book. The Believer is set in a dystopian society, "New America", set up three generations ago by revered men of high ideals and great ambition. Those who have to live in the society they created strive to be "patriotic" even if this means shunning anyone who has fallen even slightly below the required standard, not making a fuss when your mother is euthanised because the state doesn't have the resources to treat her illness, or even turning over your family for torture, imprisonment and execution for the crime of believing in God. Stephanie creates a very effective and disturbing atmosphere, partly by having the protagonist, Ian Roshek, someone very ordin...