Monthly Archives: March 2013

Pitch your novel across the Pond and Beyond. Oxford Author Courses tell you how to do it

OxfordYou’ve written your novel, and you want to sell it into the biggest and most prestigious markets in the world. But you don’t know how to begin, or what to do. Attend Oxford Author Courses’ day-long crash course, Pitch Across the Pond and Beyond, at St. Hilda’s College, Oxford on 13th April and you’ll come away knowing exactly what you should do.

You’ll hear from a very savvy and highly successful US agent who’ll tell you what’s hot and what’s not.  Christine Witthohn is founder of Book Cents Agency, which she started in 2006. Her approach is simple: she loves a great story, but more importantly wants to be the one to sell it. She represents both published and unpublished authors.

Stéphane Marsan, founder of successful, independent French publisher, Bragelonne will talk about the kind of books that have made his company such a force within the French publishing industry. Fresh from the Paris Book Fair (held late March) he’s actively looking for books in romance, horror, fantasy and young adult genres. Come and hear what he’s looking for now and how to submit your novel to his company – and don’t worry, Bragelonne do the translation!

Lynne Connolly is a British author who sells almost exclusively to the American market. She writes sexy, sophisticated romance in contemporary, historical and paranormal genres. Lynne writes mainly for digital-first publishers in the USA. It was her agent who suggested she try America when her first book was turned down in England. She it to the USA, it was accepted and she’s never looked back. She’ll tell you how she made herself successful in America with tips and hints of how to approach this biggest and richest of all English speaking markets.

Other bestselling British authors, who specialise in pitching, selling and marketing their work abroad, will tell you their secrets: how they do it – and continue to do it.

What works for other countries?

Which way to go – traditional, independent or self-publish?

Enjoy a fact packed day and come you away buzzing with ideas and enthusiasm for venturing away from the UK’s shores and into larger, more profitable markets. Broaden your horizons for just £120* with Oxford Author Courses Pitch Across the Pond and Beyond day.

For more details and booking form go to http://www.oxfordauthorcourses.com.

*Discount available for writers’ groups as detailed on the website.

For further information please contact: Maggi Fox, Press Officer, Oxford Author Courses, maggi@oxfordauthorcourses.com, 07770 754811

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Inheritance Books – Sue Moorcroft

Inheritance Books – Sue Moorcroft.

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Goodreads Giveaway

AllThatMullarkey_Cover:Layout 1If you want to win a copy of All That Mullarkey, you can enter the Goodreads Giveaway here.

Choc Lit are working with Goodreads – just follow the link and click ‘Enter to Win’.

 
All That Mullarkey is about Cleo, who discovers that the writing’s on the wall for her marriage – the bedroom wall – and hurtles off for a bit of an adventure …

The lovely Justin is happy to benefit from her moment of wildness and their encounter sets off a series of events that turns life upside down for both of them.

Tempted? Just enter.

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What happened at the RoNAs

Jane Wenham Jones introduces Judy Finnigan and Richard Madeley

Jane Wenham Jones introduces Judy Finnigan and Richard Madeley

Well, I had an excellent time!

I didn’t win my category – that honour went to the lovely Katie Fforde – but I had an absolute blast at the party at the RAF Club in London’s Piccadilly. It’s a gorgeous venue and the staff kept the canapes and wine coming all evening.

And almost as Jane Wenham-Jones introduced the guests of honour, Richard & Judy, someone tripped or something and sent me absolutely flying. So I arrived on my bum pretty much at the feet of Richard and Judy to begin the proceedings with a bang. You’d think they’d have given me the RoNA just for that, really, wouldn’t you? But no …

Here’s the full list of winners:

Contemporary Romantic Novel winner – Katie Fforde
Epic Romantic Novel winner – Rowan Coleman
Historical Romantic Novel winner – Charlotte Betts
Romantic Comedy Novel winner – Jenny Colgan
Young Adult Romantic Novel Winner – Victoria Lamb

And the winners above go forward now to the Romantic Novel of the Year Award in May.

RoNA Rose – Sarah Mallory

Sophie Kinsella presented with Outstanding Achievement Award

Congratulations to them all. You can find photos on the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s website here.

My thanks to everybody concerned in the running of the RoNAs. I know a huge amount of hard work went into it and the event was just amazing, honestly. Slick and controlled (apart from the odd person flying through the air) and joyous.

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Happy Publication Day Alison Morton!

INCEPTIO_front cover_300dpi_smToday I welcome the lovely Alison Morton to the blog to talk about her debut novel – Inceptio – published today. Congratulations, Alison!

For Sue Moorcroft’s blog 1 March

AMM_right_sm2Thank you for welcoming me to your blog, Sue.

Today, is a very special day – my debut novel, INCEPTIO, is published. Hooray! Three years of slog – researching, writing, and polishing – have led to this exciting moment of holding my book in my hands. But it started when I was eleven years old with a day-dream under a hot Spanish sky.

Not many Year 6 children are obsessed by ancient peoples, history or archeological sites. But I was that sad kid. Fascinated by the mosaics in Ampurias (huge Roman site in Spain), I asked my father, “What would it be like if Roman women were in charge, instead of men? If it was now?” Maybe it was the fierce sun boiling my brain that day, maybe it was just a precocious kid asking a smartarse question. But clever man and senior ‘Roman nut’ that he was, my father replied, “What do you think it would be like?” Off went my brain on a dream…

Real life intervened (school, university, career, military, marriage, motherhood, business ownership), but the idea bubbled away in my mind and INCEPTIO slowly took shape. Three years ago, in a ninety day burst, I’d written the first draft of 95,000 words. Of course, like many first drafts it was raw, but since then it’s been edited, tempered and burnished. And I’ve learned what the craft of writing demands…

Does dreaming still help me write books? I know that if I’m trying to work through a glitch in the plot or develop dialogue between two people, I’ll often wake up in the morning with the answer. Sometimes I’m aware I’ve been dreaming, more often not. And it usually takes until I’ve finished in the shower for the new words to exit my brain in a coherent form.

In popular culture, Romans believed dreams were messages from the gods sent to reveal their wishes and took them very seriously. Emperor Augustus – cynical and politically adept – ruled that anyone who had a dream about the state was, by law, to proclaim it in the marketplace. The Roman writer Artemidorus (c. AD 150) concluded that dreams were unique to the dreamer and that the dreamer’s occupation, social status and health affected the symbols in their dreams.

Stories with Romans are usually about famous emperors, epic battles, superstition (back to dreams and their interpretation!), depravity, intrigue, wicked empresses and a lot of sandals, tunics and swords. But imagine the Roman theme projected sixteen hundred years further forward into the 21st century. How different would that world be? Transferred from a dream into reality, this is one of the things INCEPTIO explores…

New York – present day, alternate reality. Karen Brown, angry and frightened after surviving a kidnap attempt, has a harsh choice – being eliminated by government enforcer Jeffery Renschman or fleeing to the mysterious Roma Nova, her dead mother’s homeland in Europe. Founded sixteen centuries ago by Roman exiles and ruled by women, Roma Nova gives Karen safety, a ready-made family and a new career. But a shocking discovery about her new lover, the fascinating but arrogant special forces officer Conrad Tellus who rescued her in America, isolates her.

Renschman reaches into her new home and nearly kills her. Recovering, she is desperate to find out why he is hunting her so viciously. Unable to rely on anybody else, she undergoes intensive training, develops fighting skills and becomes an undercover cop. But crazy with bitterness at his past failures, Renschman sets a trap for her, knowing she has no choice but to spring it…

INCEPTIO is released today as both paperback and eBook, in the UK

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Inceptio-Alison-Morton/dp/1781320624

and in the US: http://www.amazon.com/Inceptio-Roma-Nova-Alison-Morton/dp/1781320624

And next? I’m working on PERFIDITAS, the second book in the Roma Nova series where it all turns into a bit of a nightmare.

You can read more about Alison, Romans, alternate history and writing at:

http://www.alison-morton.com, http://www.facebook.com/AlisonMortonAuthor and follow her on Twitter @alison_morton

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