Jeff Senior's Blog

Just had an article posted on Yourworld. Read it at https://www.yourworld.net/yorkshire/n...

Writing a novel is the easy part. Getting published as a new author is much more difficult.
Literary agents and publishers don't usually won't to take a risk with unknown authors. So they routinely reject manuscripts, saying only they're 'not for them' or something equally unhelpful.
Steven King and JK Rowling were rejected several times so that gives us hope to keep trying. I did and the result is my first novel, "The Itch That Couldn't Be Scratched", available on Amazon and elsewhere.

Recent guest interviews for The Table Reads magazine (https://www.thetablereadmagazine.co.u...) and Rita Lee Chapman's author website (https://www.ritaleechapman.com/wwwrit...).

I'm giving away 10 copies (more if I'm feeling generous) of my book, 'The Itch That Couldn't Be Scratched', in e-pub format. This is in the anticipation that recipients leave a review on Amazon and Goodreads.
The book is about obsession, about one man's quest to seek justice for a woman he never knew, and the effect it has on those around him. It deals with how every decision we make and every action we take have consequences that we can't predict. There's a full blurb on Amazon and on my website (https://www.jeffsenior.co.uk/books/).
I'm hoping for prompt and, needless to say, good reviews. However, I'll leave the latter to your honesty and integrity.
If interested, leave a comment here with details for sending. Alternatively, contact via my website (https://www.jeffsenior.co.uk/contact-me/).
Thanks for your interest.

To achieve sales, authors need good reviews for their book, and hopefully plenty of them. But sales are needed to get reviews so it’s a difficult problem.
There are plenty organisations that will provide publicity and reviews for a fee. One of them is authorbooktours.com, which has an impressive website (https://authorbooktour.com/book-revie...) that offers various packages that promise an excellent service.
The problem is, once you pay your money, they do nothing. They don’t even reply to e-mails so I can only conclude this ‘service’ is a scam.
The message is to be very wary of people and organisations offering services because they’re not always what they appear.

There are plenty creative writing courses that teach us how we should go about things. I've never done one.
I'm thinking the proper way to do it is start with an idea, then create a plot timeline and a bunch of characters. Once that's done, the story can be written, starting at the beginning and working through in sequence to the end.
I didn't do any of that, other than starting with an idea. I wrote the first chapter followed by the last one, then filled in the middle in no particular sequence. I then had to be sure that everything worked properly. The outcome is my debut novel, "The Itch That Couldn't Be Scratched", available on Amazon and elsewhere.

I guess there's no real right or wrong way. It's really whatever works for you.

The general advice for any inexperienced author is to write about what they know. Which is okay if we know a lot but otherwise can be a challenge.

In my case, I've written a novel ("The Itch That Couldn't Be Scratched", available on Amazon and elsewhere from 1 March) that is loosely, very loosely, based on my own life and surroundings. Or at least it started that way and then diverged a lot. It had to because I don't lead the most interesting of lives.
I guess what all authors need to do is be observant of everything that happens around them. Take notes, record events and built up a store of experiences. Treat nothing as too trivial because you never know.

My new author website is now available to view (https://www.jeffsenior.co.uk/). I also have interviews on the Awesomegang.com (https://awesomegang.com/?p=1121123) and Book Reader magazine (You can see your interview here - https://bookreadermagazine.com/?p=72787).
The aim of these is to promote my book, "The Itch That Couldn't Be Scratched", which is available on Amazon (UK and US sites) and from other retailers. It's about obsession, of one man's quest to obtain justice for a woman he never knew, and the effect it has on those around him.
The book features in The Table Read magazine ("the best book magazine in the UK") (https://www.thetablereadmagazine.co.u...), which describes it as "a fast-paced thriller" with "a whole host of complex twists and turns" and "a welcome addition to the mystery genre".
If you happen to read the book, I hope you enjoy it. If you do, I'd appreciate a review on Amazon.

The Itch That Couldn't Be Scratched

What prompts us to write a novel? It's a question that's no doubt been asked of anyone who's committed enough (or stupid enough) to spend hours of their time producing something that may not be read by many. Countless hours locked away in isolation, slaving away at a hot keyboard with little encouragement save the vain hope that a best seller may be produced, or even something that's critically acclaimed. We're all optimists at times, I suppose.
Some people write because they want fame and fortune, for acclaim and awards, which rarely happen. The realists among us do it because we want to write. Simp!e as that. Any financial reward is an unexpected bonus.

The outcome for me is a debut novel, "The Itch That Couldn't Be Scratched", available on Amazon and elsewhere. It's a tale of obsession, of one man's quest for justice for a woman he never met.
The Itch That Couldn't Be Scratched

I don't do social media. In fact, I don't do many things and social media is just one of them. But I have a first novel recently published and I'm told I need to be on social media to give it even an outside chance of success.
This is the first of, hopefully, a series of posts about the process and problems of a writer. Of someone new to the business of writing, publishing and being successful - or not.
Many people have the ambition to write a book. Few do it successfully and I'm currently in both camps with the fervent hope that enough people will want to read my book to make it at least a partial success.
This will not be a hard sell because that will simply be an annoyance and probably breaks Goodreads rules. Instead, I'm hoping to provide words of wisdom that will be of interest. If not, you can simply stop reading.
"The Itch That Couldn't Be Scratched" is a tale of obsession, of one man's quest for justice for a woman he never knew. It's available on Amazon and from various other suppliers.