Anna Jones Buttimore

Boy, do I have egg on my face. I have been busily correcting people's punctuation, and writing about how important punctuation is ( http://annajonesbuttimore.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/punctuation-matters.html ) but I've just got my manuscript back from the editor, and it seems I've got it all wrong . Me! Specifically, em dashes. I hadn't heard of them until today, but I've just had to Google them to find out what they are and how I should be using them. Let me point that out again. I am the author of five books, and vast numbers of articles in the legal press, and I had not heard of em dashes before today. I certainly wasn't taught about them at school, and even now, having read all about them on Wikipedia and blogs and several other grammar sites, my co-author and I are looking in bewilderment at each other wondering whether we really do need to go through the entire manuscript replacing all our hyphens with a symbol which isn't even on our keyboard. (We...

Among the many writing tips I have been given over the years, my favourite is "Always be working on the next project." I've found it to be great advice and have always acted on it. Books can take a year or more in editing and publication, so I've always been working on the sequel, or a new story, and have, on occasion, been taken slightly by surprise when a book I'd largely forgotten about hits the shelves. (These feeling of "What, that old thing?" must be even more marked for actors, who can find themselves travelling around giving interviews and generally promoting a movie they finished working on years ago.) So I didn't sit around waiting to hear from agents about  Emon and the Emperor , because I was too busy working on The Saved Saint. That meant that when the rejections started rolling in, my disappointment was tempered by my excitement for my new project. And now that The Saved Saint  is being edited, rather than checking my email twent...

My husband brought home an unsolicited fax received at his office yesterday. It was advertising company workwear, and said: "We always send a visual proof and will not start production. Without your approval we keep your logo on file so you can repeat order year. After year prices exclude VAT and carriage." It took me a good five minutes to figure out what it meant. Why won't they start production after sending the proof? I think I would rather they sought my approval to keep my logo on file! So let me get this straight - tax and carriage are included for orders during the first year but not after that? Here's what it should have said: "We always send a visual proof and will not start production without your approval. We keep your logo on file so you can repeat order year after year. Prices exclude VAT and carriage." Someone at this company knows about full stops and capital letters. They just have no idea where they go, and sprinkle them randomly ...

A friend and I are launching a book next month. It's rather exciting, really, because it'll be my first self-published title (and her first anyway-published title) and I feel we really should mark the occasion with a party. Any excuse to get out the chocolate fountain. They seem to be all the rage these days -my Facebook events page tells me that I could go to one every day this week- so I suspect it really is de rigueur for the discerning author. But I'm not really sure how this celebration of our literary contribution is to be achieved. When my first book, Haven, was published I held a party. I booked a room in a local small hotel, and we had canapés, and I sat at a table with copies of my book which I offered to sell to the friends and family who attended. I think I sold two copies, and the cost of the party ended up being more than I made in royalties, but, it being my first book, I didn't suspect that at time. It ended up feeling like rather too much of a ...

The book which is currently flying off the shelves and creating a stir everywhere is by a British author who, inspired by the Twilight novels (which I love) self-published her book, and then saw it become just as successful as the books she was inspired by. Her trilogy has now sold over 31 million copies and been picked up by a major publisher. It's sold on a huge display in the supermarket I shop in. To such I aspire. But I won't be reading it. The book is "Fifty Shades of Grey" by E.L. James and it has sold the way it has because it is, essentially, pornography in print. Most of the book is about the characters (Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele - or Edward Cullen and Bella Swan in Ms. James's original manuscript) having sex. Not just any sex either, but sadism, dominance and other unpleasant and  twisted things. Now, call me a prude (no, please do, I'm fine with that) but I have never written a sex scene (and never will) because I happen to believe...

Bringing a book to life takes a whole host of very talented people. Here's who they are, and what they do. Alpha Reader : Reads the first draft of the completed manuscript and gives feedback. In most cases the Alpha reader is the author because most first drafts are pretty terrible and authors don't like anyone else seeing it. The first draft is often just a "getting the ideas on paper" exercise, and the author will then polish it. I tend to just do this once (my second draft being pretty close to the finished product) but other authors may go through many, many drafts. Beta Reader(s) : Reads the manuscript with a critical eye, and gives feedback to the author on things like style, plot, characterisation and even spelling and grammar. Authors may use several beta readers to get a rounded opinion. Beta readers are generally not paid for their work - the payment is getting to read an advance copy of the book, and sometimes a mention in the acknowledgements. Critique Gro...

Hubby Dearest and I had a jolly adventure this past weekend. We drove 30 miles to the beautiful ancient town of Great Dunmow and, as ambassadors of marriage, took part in a tradition so old that it is referred to in Chaucer's Wife of Bath's Tale  and the even earlier Piers Plowman. In fact, the Dunmow Flitch Trials are rumoured to go back to 1105, although the first recorded winner's name dates from 1445. The Trials are celebrated every four years in Dunmow. Over the course of a day five couples come before a judge, are cross-examined by barristers, and  have to s atisfy the Jury of 6 maidens and 6 bachelors that in  'twelvemonth and a day' , they have  'not wisht themselves unmarried again' .  If they can demonstrate that  their marital happiness is such that they are worthy of a prize, they win a flitch. That's half a pig, cut lengthways.  Prior to the day we'd applied (online) and been interviewed by the Judge. Our prepared statement had bee...