Dedication

By Ian Mulville

(Author Full Circle, released 1st May 2014)

 

5th May 2014

 

Previously I have written about how the catalyst for beginning Full Circle was the sudden and unexpected death of a close friend. It was a case of “if I don’t get this book written now, it might never happen”. We all think we have time, but in reality, we never know when our number’s up.

 

As I began writing, the same friend featured heavily in the book, which presented a potential problem for me: of the two main characters, he was the ‘darker’ of the two. I certainly didn’t want to sully his name in any way, and of course didn’t want to upset his family, so I wrote to them and explained that I wanted to dedicate the book to him, and that the ‘Dave Williams’ character in the book was loosely based on his personality.

 

They gave me the go-ahead. I handed over a couple of sample chapters and kept the family members involved throughout the writing process, still slightly worried that I might somehow offend them. Let’s not forget that this is a work of fiction, but some of my late friend’s mannerisms would clearly identify him to those who knew him.

 

I made the Dedication, and the book was launched on 1st May.   So it was with great trepidation that I opened an email a couple of days ago from my departed friend’s sister, containing the following message:

 

 

Hey Ian,

 

I wanted you to know my hardback copy of Full Circle arrived today. It really is bizarre that we were having a family get together. I wasn’t expecting it to arrive so soon and always think there maybe an outside influence controlling these things. Mum and Dad and all the kids were here and it literally dropped through the door!!

 

It is the greatest gift you have given us, and I really mean that. To see his memory immortalised in print means an incredible amount to us and I can’t thank you enough. I am literally tugging my earlobe as I write!!

 

I am about 75 percent of the way through and loving every minute of it, I cannot wait to see how it pans out in the end. Well Done, my friend, I am in awe of your achievement.

 

Ian, I can only reiterate how much it has meant to me, not only will I hold Dave in my heart forever but also there will always be your dedication to him and when all of us who remember him have gone, he will always be there in your words.

 

Thank you so much

 

 

When I read the message, I was speechless for a long time. I couldn’t have asked for more, and requested permission to pass the message on. I just wanted to share it with anyone who is thinking of either dedicating their work to somebody, or who is about to portray somebody – perhaps not in their best light – in print. Be sensitive, seek permission and in the end, hopefully, you’ll be rewarded, as I was.

 

I hope you enjoyed this post.

 

Many thanks

 

Ian

Literary Agents: Self-Screening?

By Ian Mulville

Author: Full Circle (Crime/Fiction, Launch date 1st May 2014)
Hello, and welcome back. It’s been a little while since my last post, and one of the main reasons is explained below. I hope you find interesting.

Recently, a well-known Australian literary agent gave me some valuable feedback after receiving a manuscript of my debut novel, Full Circle, for his review.

He said that whilst the writing is good and the story has merit, he wouldn’t be able to represent me because the story ‘isn’t Australian’. He went on to explain that publishers are being squeezed from all sides, and are – by necessity – becoming ever more risk-averse. With the number of books they’re able to publish each year being reduced, along with the associated marketing budgets, they are tending to stick with very ‘safe’ projects: known authors, topical subjects, Australian-based or themed. Nothing too controversial.

Although I’m Australian (I can officially say that now), the story of Full Circle begins and ends in London, with the characters weaving between France, Spain, Germany and Holland as the story progresses. Therefore, the advice given was that I try and secure a London-based agent, as the storyline was likely to resonate with UK/European-based readership more readily than an Australian audience. Books which are successful in the UK are routinely picked up by publishers in Australia, but the opposite is not often the case.

The feedback was honest, made sense and was very much appreciated, so I made up my list of twenty reputable UK literary agents. And that was where the fun started.

A key part of my criteria was that the agents I selected must be willing and able to accept an electronic version of my manuscript, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that that most of them did. The majority, in fact, will now only accept e-manuscripts, though many will still accept either electronic or hard copy, and there are a few stalwarts who still insist on hard-copies only.

Something I was not prepared for though, was the time which would be required to prepare my submissions. There’s no such thing as a standard submission format. Each agent has their own criteria, and it can be a painstaking process to prepare your submission in order to meet their rigid requirements.

As an example, all the agents require a synopsis of the novel. Fair enough, but their requirements range from 500 words, one page, 5,000 words and even – in a couple of cases – a chapter-by-chapter synopsis. In the case of Full Circle, with so many chapters, that was an 8,000 word document. Now for a new author, that’s quite a task.

In addition, some of the agents required the first 5,000 words of the novel (or 10,000 words), or they wanted the first three chapters, or the first, second and last chapters. Some requested my biography, my marketing plan for the book, my social media links and coverage, my inspiration for writing and for the book, etc., etc. That’s without the widely differing format specifications such as font and size, package, pdf, document size and naming protocols.

Whilst I fully appreciate that all this information is relevant, and I’m under no illusion regarding the volume and widely-varying quality of the submissions which literary agents receive, nonetheless I found the whole process daunting, time-consuming, frustrating and – ultimately – off-putting.

And then something occurred to me: maybe, in some way, that’s the point.

As an HR professional, one technique used in the recruitment process is self-screening. In online recruiting, the more questions you ask the candidate to complete, the higher the drop-out rate of the applicants tends to be. The thinking is that if candidates can’t be bothered to stay the course, invest some time and effort, follow the criteria, etc., then they effectively ‘screen themselves out’, and they probably wouldn’t fit into the organisation anyway. Quite often, even if a completed online application is received, despite clearly asking for relevant information to be inserted in a particular place, or expanded upon, candidates will simply write ‘please refer to attached resumé’. It’s an immediate red flag that the candidate is either unable or unwilling to follow clear instructions.

As with recruiters and their CV’s, how many manuscripts must literary agents receive on an average day? Often, an overwhelming number. Too many for them to have the time to go through each one and pick out the relevant data, which is why they ask the author to do it. If the initial data is of interest, if it really leaps of the page and grabs their attention, only then will the whole manuscript be read. Just like with resumés.

So, although the temptation might be, after the umpteenth manuscript submission, to simply cut-and-paste from the previous one, bear in mind that you might well be screening yourself out.

Cheers

Ian

G.S.O.H.

By Ian Mulville

Author:  Full Circle (Crime/Fiction, Launch date July 2013)

 

 

I was once at an International HR Conference in Dublin.  (That’s Human Resources, or ‘Human Remains’ as some people refer to it).  The main speaker was the HR Director of a greenfield, billion- Dollar biopharmaceutical facility which was just about to open after four years development.  It was on-time, within budget and with all specifications met.  A remarkable achievement.

The HR guy talked passionately about the challenges he faced in attracting the highly-skilled scientists and technicians required to run such a sophisticated operation, plus all the many hundreds of support staff, contractors and consultants, and here it was all finally coming together.  It was an incredible story, full of changing priorities, obstacles overcome, stress and pressure, but – as a team and despite the odds  – they’d done it, and exceeded all expectations.

After all the stats, facts and figures, he paused and, with a glint in his eye, delivered the final line of his presentation, his punchline:

 

“But of course, we couldn’t have achieved any of this without a healthy dose of (the) Craic”.

 

As anticipated, this drew a very mixed response from the assembled audience:

The Irish, and some of the British, laughed and some even applauded. The Europeans smiled politely, not quite sure what had just been said, and why people were laughing.  But best of all, the Americans present all froze with a “did he really just say that?” look on their faces.

He then went on to explain that ‘the Craic’ in Gaelic, is a generic term for banter, jokes or storytelling, usually in a social context; a good sense of humour.  So they had used humour to keep their spirits up in the face of adversity.  The Americans breathed a sigh of relief, and the Germans nodded.  Humour.  Ja.

The Craic is deeply ingrained in the Irish culture, and if there’s one thing I inherited from my father, it was his sense of humour (although watching my YouTube clips, you wouldn’t necessarily be able to tell that!).  In my new book, Full Circle, I’ve tried to let that ‘sense of humour in the face of adversity’ come through, though there are plenty of stand-alone stories and incidents which will also make you smile.  Or wince.  (A ‘final draft’ version of Chapter One is available to read on my website http://www.ianmulville.com and might give you a little flavour of what follows…).

Humour is very subjective.  What some people will find amusing, others may find upsetting or disgusting, or may simply not ‘get’ at all, especially when different languages or cultures are involved, as evidenced by the example above.  Eddie Izzard is especially inspirational in this regard, and has managed to successfully perform a stand-up comedy routine in France, in French, to rave reviews.  Not content with that, I recently read that he’s determined to now do the same in German, Spanish, Russian and Arabic.  How’s that for a challenge?

I cannot claim to be the inventor of the following joke, but I was fortunate enough to be able to try it out first-hand, and still laugh about it now.  I met two Austrians in a bar (in Sumatra) and asked them.

“Who was that famous Austrian racing driver who nearly died in a crash, back in the eighties?”.

“Lauda”, they responded.

So I raised my voice a little and said “you know, the one who got badly burned.  Lost his eyebrows and his ears”.

“Lauda”, they again responded, in unison.

I pushed on, raising my voice still further “I think it was Nikki something-or-other”.

By now they were both wondering who this dumb guy was in front of them.  “Lauda!”, they said.

So I really shouted to them “I think he started his own airline”.

“It’s Lauda.  Nikki Lauda!”, they roared, exasperated.

Then they saw that I was nearly peeing myself with laughter, and the penny dropped.  Could have gone either way, but at the time it was perfect.

Anyway, enough of this humour stuff, and let me leave you with a quote by Winston Churchill, who apparently offended a lady with a badly-timed joke and, after having been accused of being drunk, reportedly said:

“I may be drunk madam, but you are ugly.  At least in the morning I shall be sober”.

Thanks for reading.  Be back soon.

 

Cheers

 

Ian

Write. Now.

By Ian Mulville

Author:  Full Circle (Crime/Fiction, Launch date July 2013)

 

Hi,

 

In this post, I wanted to explain what my inspiration and motivation were for writing Full Circle.

Three or four years ago I read The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, and it had quite an impact on me.  At the time I thought “I can do that.  Here’s someone who’s gone out and done what I’ve been threatening to do for years.  Time to get off the fence and put pen to paper “.  That provided the inspiration for me, though where on earth that ego and naïvity came from I have no idea.  However, as usual, other commitments conspired to hold me back.

Shortly afterwards, I met a numerologist in Bali who told me that my ‘direction’ was to be an artist.  Well, I don’t paint, sculpt, compose or play music, so I figured that maybe she was talking about the writing (rather than my drinking).  Still, I couldn’t find the time or the will to commit.

Finally an event occurred which gave me the push to write seriously and I knew I just couldn’t ignore the ‘messages’ anymore; it was the passing away of a close personal friend, far too young.  His death brought my own mortality into focus, and I decided there and then that if I was ever going to write this book, now was the time.  I’ve dedicated it to his memory.

Things fell into place after that, and I somehow created the space to write the novel.  I did some research and discovered that the guideline for a first book is around 120,000 words, which equates to approximately 300 pages in printed form.  That was a pretty daunting prospect, especially as I didn’t know how many words I’d be writing in a day, or even if I had a story!

It was like preparing to take the first step in training for a marathon; the psychological pressure was enormous, and yet again I was presented with 1,001 seemingly valid reasons why it was always a good idea to start writing the following day.  Or the day after.  Or never.  Eventually, less than a month after my good friend passed away, I said to myself “enough”, then cleared the decks, took a deep breath and started writing.

Just to write the first paragraph was a huge breakthrough, but once I’d taken it, and the many others that followed, there was an enormous sense of relief.  After the first chapter it already felt like quite an achievement; only another thirty to go.  Not much later, I was thinking “why didn’t I do this years ago?”

As it happened, once I settled into a pattern, my raw output was between 3,000 and 4,000 words a day (on an uninterrupted day…  Life can tend to get in the way, especially when you’re in full creative flow).

I believe that once you make the decision to write a book, you should have an over-arching reason for doing so.  Maybe it’s a moralistic tale you feel you must share, or you have visions of being the next big author.  For me, primarily, I want to entertain.  Pure and simple.  If I can give even one reader the kind of pleasure – the escape – I’ve experienced when in the grip of a good story, then I’ll have achieved my goal.  The close circle of people who’ve been kind enough to read my manuscript and offer me their feedback and thoughts have all, without fail, given me the confidence to continue and to reach out and entertain an unbiased audience.

In terms of influence, one of my heroes is Ben Elton. He started out as a stand-up comedian, then went on to write scripts, screenplays and books, several of which have been turned into successful movies, stage and TV shows. His books are funny, but usually have a real message within them.  I haven’t set out to copy his style, but even though much of the material in my book is fairly dark, I’ve tried to add a touch of humour to lighten the mood and there are a couple of not-so-thinly disguised messages in there, without any attempt at being moralistic.

Returning to the Stieg Larssen books, between them they contain elements of crime, suspense, pursuit, political intrigue, revenge and many other genres, and are woven together seamlessly, whilst touching upon contemporary and often controversial areas such as abuse and incest, bisexuality, people trafficking, cyber crime and sadomasochism.

When writing Full Circle, if I ever felt that a subject might be contentious or uncomfortable, I was reminded that what may have been regarded as too shocking for mainstream consumption twenty or even ten years ago, has now been rendered less shocking by the availability of internet access and the willingness of authors such as Larssen to push the boundaries.

Of course, I have to ask the question “how do I get published ?”.  Now that I’ve poured my passion into creating this story, I need to get it out there and of course I’m hoping that the book will get noticed by a literary agent or a publishing house so that it can find the widest possible readership.

On that note, please keep following the Blog and I’ll be updating you on how the project of ‘launching a debut novel using social media’ is proceeding.

Thanks again for joining.

 

Ian

Site For Sore Eyes

By Ian Mulville

Author:  Full Circle (Crime/Fiction, Launch date July 2013)

Welcome back to what’s evolving into a beginners guide for launching a book using social media.

Today I want to talk a little about the website, mainly because of the links back and forth to the social media platforms.  So what have I learned from putting the website together?

Of course, you have to pick a theme.  What am I trying to portray?  Is it about me, or about the book?  It was tempting to make the site solely about the new book.  In fact, I went and bought the domain name fullcirclenovel.com, but I am taking the long-term view: there will be more than one book.

So I have gone with www.ianmulville.com, and it has officially launched today.

The first page is about me, the author, with a link to YouTube in which I explain about my background, inspiration for writing a novel, etc.  I’ve also included a hard copy of the Q&A session I did with Seed&Sprout PR (more about them later…).

At this point, it’s worth noting the importance of Key Words in the text on each page of the site.  It’s these key words which will increase your SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) rankings on the various search engines and help your site to get noticed if somebody types in those particular words.  For example ‘New Book’, ‘New Author’ or, in my case, things like ‘How Do I Get Published?’ and ‘Literary Agents’.  Keywords are equally important on your blog, and should be included in every post.

The second page is titled ‘Books’.  There the visitors can find out about my first book, Full Circle, and also briefly about my forthcoming projects.  I’ve attached Chapter One as an animated book, which really helps the reader, and I’ve invited comments to be posted on the blog.  There’s a link from the Books Page to the Blog, and there’s also a separate page called ‘Blog’, which of course links straight to this blog site.

Talking of links, I’ve also learned about ‘back links’.  These also help with your SEO rankings.  Basically these are any sites of platforms with a link to your website.  So this blog for instance, or Facebook.  There’s a programme called Stat Counter which can show you how many hits you’re getting on the site, who is looking which pages they visit and how long for.

There are also other links to consider such as blog-to-email, so that if somebody either follows your blog or leaves a comment, then you receive a message in your inbox.

The next page is ‘Reviews’.  OK, the book hasn’t been launched and I don’t have any reviews.  However, as visitors are able to read Chapter One, they might feel inclined to leave a comment or provide some feedback, so there is a link to blog which allows them to do so.

The final page I have chosen is the standard ‘Contact’.  Here, Publishers, Literary Agents, Reviewers or anyone else with and interest in the book can make contact with me.

Of course, there are links to each of the social media sites from every page.

In the next posting, I’ll endeavour to show a map of how all the platforms – FB, Twitter, Instagram, Blog, YouTube and the Website – all link up.  Scary stuff, but hopefully effective.

I hope that you’ve found some of the above useful.  It’s very basic but as I explained in earlier blogs, I am a complete novice, so it’s intended to be!

To sign off, I’d like to thank you once again for reading, and would just like to leave you with my writer’s quote of the day:“If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead, either write something worth reading or do things worth writing”. Benjamin Franklin

More Platforms than Grand Central

More Platforms than Grand Central

 

By Ian Mulville

Author:  Full Circle (Crime/Fiction, Launch date July 2013)

So what have I learned this week?  Social Media platforms can be grouped into roughly three groups depending upon whether you want to network, share or promote.  I want to do all three, so my team have helped me set up the following six platforms:

Network

Facebook and Twitter

Share

Instagram and Hootsuite

Promote

Blog and YouTube

They’re all ready to go, and will be linked to each other and to my website, www.ianmulville.com

For this blog, let’s look at one platform from each category.  I am one of the few who have stubbornly resisted using Facebook.  I love it, but know that if I had my own account, another hour of my already stretched day which would vanish into the ether.  But this is networking, and not just social networking, so we have set up a Fan Page, so that people can find out a little bit about me, be introduced to my new book Full Circle and, hopefully, some of them will like me.

Over the coming weeks I’ll be running a couple of competitions so that people can start to get a ‘feel’ for the book. I’ll release some of the content for review and feedback, and put a cover design concept out there, asking for comment and input.  The final stage will be requesting book reviews from like-minded authors, bloggers, professional reviewers and maybe even some literary agents, who knows?

Instagram is new to me, but we have some great images to work with and to share.  Again, I’ll start by introducing Ian Mulville the author, and then introduce the new book.  I have the manuscript cover, then the first and second concept cover designs, and I’ll be soliciting a response; feedback and suggestions on how we can maybe develop the cover.

Of course, you’ve now found the blog, and I will be using this as a forum for ‘my writing journey’ from the completion of the book, through the pre-launch activities, the launch, getting reviews, finding a literary agent and answering the question of “how do I get published?”.  The first chapter of the book will be made available for review and comment as an animated book.  This will be linked to the website.

I’ve invested in having some quality clips created for YouTube, which will be drip-fed to my potential target audience following the model of ‘About the Author’ and then ‘About Full Circle’.  Edited versions of the clips will be released on Twitter and the blog, with a link from the blog to the site and vice-versa.

The content has to be in a consistent and keyword-rich format for SEO purposes.  Rankings, likes feedback and comments are all important in the lead up to the launch and publishers will want to know that I’ve have connected to, and engaged with, my chosen audience; you!

So your comments are really valuable not only to me, but to anyone else who’s following my journey.  Have you found the blog interesting?  Any advice for other new authors who are planning to launch their new book?

Please watch out for the next instalment.  By then I’ll have put up the various platforms and linked them, and I’ll be able to share the experience and give you all the links so that you can see them for yourself.  Again, any comments, feedback, tips or advice you might have will be welcomed.

Thanks for reading, and I’ll be back soon.

Ian