 A recurring theme amongst would-be writers is “How do you start a story?”. For some people this is no problem. An idea pops into their head, they sit down at the place they do their writing and off they go. 80k to 100k words later they have the first draft of their book completed. But for others it doesn’t work that way. For others, getting started is the difficult bit. Sometimes they have an idea in their head, but sometimes they don’t. They just want to write, but how do they get going? Which is what this week’s blog is about. How to start your writing when you haven’t had that spark of inspiration to set you on your way.  Even I need somewhere to start, so I’m going to start with “prompt phrases”. This is simply taking a few words that already exist and then continuing on from where they leave off. I’ll give you an example. “The door opened and …” continue writing from there. Where the writer goes from there is entirely up to them. It may end up as a short paragraph that leads nowhere, or it may end up on the shortlist for the Booker prize. Who knows? But great work always has a starting point and that could be it. So, here are a few more prompts for you to think about.
 It may be that by the time you stop writing, you will actually be able to remove those prompt words and you will still be left with something that stands up on its own. The great thing is that you can use the same prompts over and over again but just continuing with a slightly different set of words to create something entirely new. You can even create your own prompts or take the opening words from favourite books and use those to inspire your own work. “Call me Ishmael” may have started Moby Dick, but it didn’t have to. There could have been a million different stories that emanated from those three words. And, providing you remove “Call me Ismael” from the starting sentence, no one will ever know you used it. If you search “writing prompts” on the internet you will come up with hundreds of articles with thousands more suggestions, some of which may be better than mine.  The important thing about writing prompts is that they actually get you writing, and once you have started, it is easier to keep going. The point about those prompts isn’t that they will lead the writer directly to a story. But they may give the writer a character, a location, a time, an incident or something else that then takes the writer to a story. It’s a bit like wanting to get to a certain street, but you don’t know where that street is. So you stop someone and ask for directions, or you go into a shop to do the same. That then gets you to the street where you want to be. The prompt phrase is the person you ask for directions. (For younger readers, people used to do that before we all had Google Maps). Then there is the “I remember” technique.  Write the words “I remember” then follow it with three sentences. For example: I remember I went to the pub last week. Harry was there. We talked about football for a long time.” At the end of that you can remove “I remember” and you’ll be left with “I went to the pub last week. Harry was there” etc. Where you then take that is where the story will lead you. It may not lead anywhere, and you may abandon it. But there are many exciting and unexpected prospects that can emerge from a trip to the pub. One writer I know gets her inspiration from her favourite songs. She uses them to tap into her memories and emotions and they then give her a starting point for a story.  Pick out a favourite song and listen to it. But while you are listening, ask yourself some questions and jot the answers down.
You might want to listen to the song several times to get more answers or to trigger fresh memories. Once you have that, you can start to assemble the words into sentences. Some words you may use several times and some you may not use at all. They’re your words, do with them what you please. But when you’ve written those sentences, don’t stop. Keep writing, perhaps taking one sentence and writing a second, related sentence, much as you did with the “I remember” technique discussed above.  You can do that with other media as well. A painting, a sculpture, a book, a poem, a TV show, a film, or a play. All of them have etched themselves into your memory for a reason and those reasons can be your source of inspiration. Photographs, like music, are another good source of inspiration. We all have favourite photos, but you might want to dig out your albums and start looking at the ones you took years ago. Or, for our younger readers, access your cloud storage to find your old photos. Use the same techniques as suggested for listening to music. Museums have archives of photographs, many of which are available on the internet. Browse those photos and pick out the ones that call out to you and use them to stimulate questions for which you can provide written answer. Remember Kipling's 6 friends: Who, what, where, when, why and how. Do remember that you can’t use the photos in your book, unless you have the copyright owner’s permission, which often requires you to buy a licence.  Then there’s TV, radio or your news feed on the internet. The basic idea is the same for all three. Turn on your TV or radio or select your news feed on the internet (you might also use social media channels). Make a note of the first thing you see, hear or read. Don’t go searching for ones that may be more interesting. That becomes artificial and removes the spontaneity that is crucial to creativity. It doesn’t matter what it is. It could be a news story, it could be an advert, it could be someone discussing buying a house or selling an antique. Just write it down. Then, using the techniques discussed earlier, elaborate on what you have written. Try to reach around 500 words before you stop. Then imagine a character who is involved in whatever you have written and start to describe them. Some of the things you might want to include are: 
Combining the first 500 words with the character description should allow you to build even more. For example, the character may have friends, an enemy, a lover, a helper and so on. How do these characters know each other? How did they meet? How is each one connected to the original 500 words?  The final suggestion I have for getting started with your writing is the “what if” question. Viewers of “The Big Bang Theory” may remember the episode in which the character of Sheldon Cooper imagines what The Hulk would be like if he was made for different materials, eg what if The Hulk was made of sponge? This is the same sort of thing. So, what if the old lady I saw on the bus yesterday is actually a serial poisoner?” So, you start writing “I saw an old lady on the bus today. She looked so sweet and innocent, but she had a deadly secret?  To change it into a third person narrative the sentence is started with “The old lady was sitting on a bus. She looked so sweet and innocent ….” So, here are some more “what if” ideas for you to play around with.
If you have particular concerns (poverty, social justice, climate change, animal welfare, health, wealth etc), they could be turned into some excellent “what ifs”.  Turning what you have written into a story is just a matter of technique. Short story writer E M Forster describes a story as “‘a narrative of events arranged in their time-sequence’ and a plot as ‘also a narrative of events, the emphasis falling on causality.’ To put that into context “The puppy howled piteously.” is a story. “The puppy howled piteously because it was hungry” is a plot. Turning that simple line about the puppy into a longer story is matter of asking some questions and then answering them, but again focusing on causality.
You may be able to think of more questions. None of the ideas discussed here are a universal panacea. Whatever you start out with may not lead anywhere. But it doesn’t have to lead anywhere every time. All it needs to do is get you writing.  Hold onto whatever you have created (I still have a box file from the days when I still used pen and paper) and go back and revisit these jottings from time to time. Perhaps they’ll provide fresh inspiration.
But, importantly, just because one prompt didn’t lead anywhere, it doesn’t mean that the next one won’t. Ultimately writing is about imagination and these prompts are designed to stimulate your imagination. The rest is down to perseverance. And if you have neither an imagination nor perseverance, you aren’t a writer. You may be thinking “That’s all fine, but this is all about the here and now. I write fantasy/sci-fi/horror/westerns etc and those prompts don’t help me. Wrong. There is nothing that those prompts produce that can’t be transposed into any genre. Those genres are just a set of tropes that tell the reader what sort of book they are reading. The rest of it can exist in any time period or location – real or imagined. To think otherwise is to reveal a lack of imagination. To use the example of the puppy, discussed above, it could live in Middle Earth, on the planet Gargelfarch or in a Native American tipi in 1879. It doesn’t even have to be the young produced by a dog. It could be a baby that has turned into a werewolf puppy and it’s howling because it can’t get out of its cradle to find a leg on which to chew. (Editor’s note: That idea is now copyright, Selfishgenie Publishing 2025). All writing should be fun and fun comes from playing. Anyone who has ever studied the processes involved in creativity and innovation will know that “play” is a big part of it. What this blog is about, really, is playing with words. It serves two purposes. The first is you learn by doing it. The second is that the ideas generated through this sort of play can be turned into something useable. It won’t happen every time, but it will happen. If you have enjoyed this blog or found it interesting, be sure to sign up to our newsletter by clicking the button below, so you don’t miss future posts. We’ll even send you a free ebook for doing so.
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 I once made a claim to the effect that there were only seven basic plots for books. It appears that I was right. Experts think that there are seven basic plots for books. I would throw in an 8th, but I’ll get to that later. The idea was developed by someone called Christopher Booker, who carried out research across a wide selection of books and then published his results in a book (what else) entitled “The Seven Basic Plots: Why We tell Stories”, published in 2004. This was no passing fancy. It took him 34 years to write. Amongst his other credits is that he was one of the founders of Private Eye magazine. He has nothing to do with the Man-Booker Prize which is awarded for literature. As well as the 7 basic plots, Booker came up with the idea of the meta plot, that is the basic structure which the majority of books follow. This breaks down into four distinct phases.  Phase one is the call to action, in which the protagonist is drawn into the adventure to come. Some go willingly, like James Bond, while others, like both Bilbo and Frodo Baggins, go less willingly. Phase two is the frustration stage, where the protagonist struggles against the forces arrayed against him (or her) in order to resolve the problems he is faced with and win the day. During this stage they discover their weaknesses, which they must overcome and also, usually, unexpected strengths. In the nightmare phase all hope is lost and all seems to be doomed. The protagonist may come close to death and is certainly in despair, though quite how this works for plot type 5 (see below) I’m not sure. Finally, we reach the resolution stage, where the protagonist, against all odds, wins the day and earns the title of hero. Again I’m not so sure that this works for plot type 6 (also see below). Readers of Jessica Brodie’s “Save The Cat Writes A Novel” (recommended) may recognise those four phases, though she breaks them down into 15 “beats”.  It doesn’t matter how many other characters there are in the book, it is with the protagonist that the reader’s thoughts and emotions ride. If he or she doesn’t succeed, then the story doesn’t succeed. Even if the protagonist dies at the end, their death must be a sacrifice to gain their success. Do you recognise those four phases (or 15 beats) from the books you read or write? I must admit that I find it hard to think of any book that doesn’t conform to that pattern So, what are the 7 basic plots that Booker identified?  Plot 1. Overcoming the monster. This might be a real monster, such as the Minotaur favoured in Ancient Greek literature, or it may be a figurative one: Big Business, Corrupt Government, Rogue CIA agent, etc. It can also include internal demons. A lot of Greek literature focuses on battling monsters, but it has stood the test of time. H G Wells used it in War Of The Worlds and Michael Crichton in Jurassic Park. And British readers can't overlook the story of St George and the Dragon. The ‘monster’ is also present in stories such as George Orwell’s 1984 and the Jason Bourne and Jack Reacher books. Just because it doesn’t have horns or a tail it doesn’t prevent it being a monster. Plot type 1 is, of course, a staple of the horror story genre: Frankenstein, Dracula, Halloween, Friday The Thirteenth. However, our author Robert Cubitt uses it in his World War II series, Carter’s Commandos, where the monster is the Nazi regime in Germany.  Plot 2. Rags to riches. The most obvious (for me) examples are Cinderella, Dicken’s Great Expectations. Aladdin, The Prince And The Pauper etc. First of all, the protagonist comes into great wealth before losing it all and then having their fortunes restored after they have learnt a significant lesson. Plot 3. The quest. This is much loved by the writers of fantasy novels, and Robert Cubitt used it in his Sci-Fi series. With the search for the magic sword, or whatever, also comes personal growth. The protagonist never comes out of a quest unchanged in some way. Its origins are as distant as Homer’s Iliad and progress through history with A Pilgrim’s Progress, Lord Of The Rings, Watership Down, etc.  Plot 4. Voyage and Return. Similar, in some ways, to the quest, the protagonist must leave his home (or comfort zone) in order to achieve something and, again, returns changed in some way. One of oldest versions of this is Homer’s Odyssey, but perhaps the best known of these is the Lord Of The Rings prequel The Hobbit. Other examples include Gulliver’s Travels and The Wizard of Oz. It is the principal feature of this genre that the protagonist isn’t (necessarily) financially enriched by the journey but is spiritually enriched.  Plot 5. Comedy. Is this really a plot in its own right, I wonder? Comedy can be inserted into almost any plot, even a tragedy if it’s handled correctly. That’s why we refer to “black comedies”. The protagonist is usually a light, cheerful character to whom life frequently hands the dirty end of the stick: a good person to whom bad things happen. However, they stumble along and emerge triumphant at the end, often through luck rather than judgement. Mr Bean or any Norman Wisdom film provides examples. Plot 6. Tragedy. In Ancient Greek theatre this was the partner of comedy as the Greeks only did two types of theatre. Again, I would dispute this being a plot in its own right. Most stories can include a tragedy or two. The protagonist either has a major character flaw which they are unable to identify in themselves or they commit an act for personal gain which has unforeseen consequences, and which spirals out of control. Either way it doesn’t end happily. There are many stories that fit this genre: King Lear, Macbeth, Bonnie and Clyde, Anna Karenina. This isn’t so popular in modern fiction and film as the public prefers a happy ending, so nowadays the inherent tragedy turns to success in the final chapter. While it was always normal for the protagonist to die at the end of a tragedy it is far more normal, now, for them to live. Not only will they live, they will also get the girl (or boy).  Plot 7. Rebirth. This is the plot for any story in which a villain or an unlikeable character ends up as the hero. It involves the protagonist going through an experience that changes them radically in some way, making them a “new” person. There can also be an element of this in some of the other plots, particularly 3 and 4. Here we find A Christmas Carol (not our alternative version), Beauty And The Beast and Despicable Me. Now we come to my additional plot, Plot 8: Romance. Boy meets girl, boy loses girl for some reason (OK, girl can also lose boy), boy and girl either struggle to get back together, or fight against the inevitable attraction, and finally get back together again at the end of the book (and, of course, there are LGBTQ+ equivalents). This is the territory of Mills and Boon and Barbara Cartland, but has been used by many other authors. In which other genre would Pride And Prejudice fit?  Here is the challenge. Can you think of any book that doesn’t fit into one of those 7 (or 8) categories? I have tried and I can’t think of any. If you are an author, have you ever written a book that doesn’t fit into any one of those categories? Would you even try? An interesting thought is that we might each be living our lives in one of those ways. In other words, there are only 8 life stories. That sounds a bit scary, as we all consider ourselves to be unique in some way. However, much as that idea both scares and appeals to me, I have no evidence to back it up so I’ll leave it there. What is of considerable interest to me is this idea of change. All those plot lines require some form of change to be undergone, in order for there to be a happy ending. This is where the story and real life part company. As a species we aren’t good at changing. If we were we wouldn’t keep repeating the mistakes of the past that lead us into all sorts of messes, up to and including war.  So, if there are only 7 (or 8) basic plots for books, why do we keep buying books? After all, once we have read one book from each plot type we have read them all, haven’t we?
This is where the skill of the author comes in. He or she makes us believe that their story is both unique and original. Firstly, they will mix and match the plot types to give variation to them. As I suggest above, a quest can also be a journey, and frequently is. Sling in a romance and a bit of personal growth and you tick the boxes of another two types. However, that still limits the number of stories available (Just over 40,000 by my calculation). Yet literally millions of books have been written. It is the author that makes the difference. The skilful author makes you believe, through his or her mix of character and plot, that their story is unique. All the great authors have done this. It is called “finding one’s voice”, in other words saying something different. It is hard to say which authors will find their voice and which will never be heard, because this is down to the reader to judge. But what is clear is that if the reader wishes to find a new voice to listen to they won’t find it by reading what everyone else is reading. A new voice can only come from a new author. If you have enjoyed this blog, or found it informative, then make sure you don’t miss future editions. Just click on the button below to sign up for our newsletter. We’ll even send you a free ebook for doing so. This week we are pleased to welcome Beth Harris as our guest blogger. As the founder of businesstipscenter.com, Beth Harris knows a thing or two about making smart business decisions. She founded her company with the goal of providing entrepreneurs with an all-access platform full of business resources and tips. Beth understands that every day brings new opportunities to make the best decisions possible for your business. That’s why she’s dedicated to making it happen.  Like it or not, being self-published author is the same as running your own business. And, like any other business, it helps if you know what you need to do to make your business a success. Many blogs focus on the importance of book marketing, but there is more to running a self-publishing business than just marketing your books. This blog takes a look at some of those other business management issues in order to allow your business to grow. When you decide it’s time to expand your business, you’re not just scaling operations—you’re reshaping your entire ecosystem. Growth doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It touches every corner of what you’ve built, from team dynamics to the way customers interact with your brand. Before you hit the gas, you need a grounded, thoughtful approach that ensures your next chapter doesn’t derail the momentum you’ve worked so hard to build.  Hiring Beyond the Résumé (CV) At some point you may need to hire people to help you with your business. It may be that you only hire them as freelancers, for a specific task, but you may need longer term help at some point. Adding new people to your team isn’t just about skillsets—it’s about culture, adaptability, and alignment. When you're growing fast, you need employees who can evolve with you, who won’t get flustered when job descriptions change overnight. Prioritize candidates who show initiative and a willingness to take ownership over those who simply tick boxes on paper. You’re not just hiring for what your business is today; you’re hiring for what it will become six months from now.  Funding That Doesn’t Cost Your Soul Expansion needs fuel, and that usually means cash. Whether you’re pulling from reserves, seeking investors, or applying for loans, the key is clarity. Know exactly what you need, what you’re willing to give up, and what strings come attached to that money. A funding partner can open doors—or drain you dry—so be picky, even if the offer looks great on paper.  IT Security Whether it is protecting yourself against scams, protecting your hardware against viruses or protecting your work from getting lost, you need to understand what is happening in the world of cyber security. Undertaking some form of professional qualification is probably your best bet, but just keeping up to date with what’s happening in the world of IT is essential. There are numerous blogs available on the subject and you will do well to subscribe to them. But there are 3 key things. 1. If something seems too good to be true - it probably is. Step back and look for the possibility of a scam being perpetrated. You could lose a lot by rushing in - but you will lose nothing by being cautious and checking things out. 2. Have good anti-virus software - and keep it updated. Yes, it costs money - but it will cost you more to get a virus removed. 3. Back up your work regularly. It doesn't matter if you use the "cloud" or a USB stick, the day your computer crashes is too late to realise you should have backed up your work.  Marketing with Fresh Eyes Marketing during expansion is about more than just making noise; it’s about reshaping perception. Your audience is changing, and you need to evolve your message to meet them where they are. That might mean pivoting your brand voice, exploring new platforms, or telling your story in a different way. You’re not just trying to reach more people—you’re trying to reach the right ones, with a message that sticks.  Adding Value with Purpose, Not Pressure There’s always temptation to launch new books, new products or new services when you’re expanding—just to show growth. But if those additions aren’t rooted in real customer needs or clear data, they can backfire fast. Instead of chasing trends, look for gaps: what are customers asking for that you’re not yet offering? Innovation should feel like a natural next step, not a desperate reach for relevance. Forming Partnerships That Pull Their Weight Strategic partnerships can offer reach, resources, and credibility—but only if the relationship is balanced. Don’t jump into deals where you're doing all the heavy lifting or compromising your brand identity just to chase short-term wins. The best partnerships feel like multipliers, not band-aids. Set clear expectations, get everything in writing, and remember that synergy doesn’t happen by accident—it takes planning and trust.  Tech That Grows With You
You may just be selling your books through Amazon today, but who knows where you might be selling them in 6 months time? Your current systems might work fine today, but will they still hold up when your user base doubles or your inventory triples? Evaluate your software stack, automation tools, and internal workflows before growth exposes the cracks. Scalability in tech isn’t a luxury—it’s a necessity. Upgrading ahead of time can save you from breakdowns when it matters most. Growing your business isn’t a moment—it’s a mindset. Every decision during expansion sets the tone for how your self-publishing business will operate moving forward. You can’t afford to rely on old habits or guesswork. Instead, you need a strategy that’s rooted in self-awareness, backed by data, and led by people who believe in where you’re headed. Done right, expansion doesn’t just scale your business—it deepens its impact. Discover a world of captivating stories and talented authors at Selfishgenie Publishing – your next great read is just a click away! If you have enjoyed this blog, or found it informative, then make sure you don’t miss future editions. Just click on the button below to sign up for our newsletter. We’ll even send you a free ebook for doing so.  In our blog a couple of weeks ago I posted a table (the one to the left) that showed the way read through rates for books in a series declined the longer the series ran. I said at the time that there were reasons for that decline – some author driven and some reader driven – and that the explanations were really the subject for a whole different blog. This is that blog. This table shows the “benchmark” average read through rates for a series. The average is probably skewed by series with very high read through rates, such as the Harry Potter books, Jack Reacher books and others. I suggested that read through rates of 70% from book 1 to book 2 for the average Indie author probably weren’t to be expected. But I also suggested that a read through rate of less than 50% was a matter for concern.  Let’s start with the reader driven reasons why the read through rate for a series isn’t 100% every time. Firstly, not every series is going to appeal to every reader. They may enjoy book 1, but they may decide that 1 book is enough and they want to find something different to read. That’s fair enough. I have enjoyed many a book but not gone on to read anything else by the same author, because I fancied something different. The next reason is “reader fatigue”. This is readers who have read book 1 and maybe also book 2, but are starting to get a little bit bored with the series. Like the first cause above, the reader is hankering after something a little bit different and book 3 of your epic saga is not going to provide that - or so they believe. I have experienced that with the Jack Reacher books. Having read several, I have taken a break, and I haven’t yet gone back to them.  The final reason is distraction. The reader has every intention of reading the next book in the series, but they just happen to see a “shiny object” on Amazon, or maybe someone recommends a book to them, and they decide to read that instead. They feel sure they will return to your series later, but they never seem to get around to it because there are always more shiny objects and book recommendations. eBooks make distraction so much easier to interfere with sales, because a hard copy book sitting on a table or bookshelf is hard to ignore, but one hidden away on a Kindle is far less intrusive. I am as guilty of this as anyone. I have actually returned to a series downloaded through KindleUnlimited only to be told that the reading date has expired and I’m going to have to download it again. So, I go onto Amazon to do that, only to be distracted by another shiny object. There is nothing much you can do about any of these reader behaviours. The best you can hope to do is make your series so compelling that boredom and distraction can’t find a way in.  Now we come to author-based reasons for poor read through rates. These the author can fix, but they have to realise that they have a problem so that they know they have something to fix. First of all, there is optimising the series to improve read through rates. It has to be set up on Amazon (and elsewhere) as a series. If it isn’t then read through rates will suffer because people think they are buying a standalone book. It also has to have a series blurb that is every bit as compelling as the blurbs for the individual books. The easiest book you will ever sell is to someone who has just enjoyed one of your books and wants to read another. This means setting up your “back matter” at the end of the book to make it easy for the reader. Include the opening chapter of the next book (perhaps more than one chapter if they are short). I would suggest at least 5k words. It is normal for readers to read those and once they have started, they find it difficult to stop – so you don’t really have to do anything else except make it easy for them to find the rest of the book.  Which means putting a link of the extract in the ebook so that they can click straight through to the sales page and hit that “buy now” button. Make it a universal link so it goes to the right page for the territory in which the reader lives, because the more times they have to click the less likely it is that they will buy. Make sure the link goes to the series page – not to the individual page for book 2 (or whatever book it is). There are very sound reasons for linking to the series page. First of all, there are no adverts on that page – so no shiny objects to tempt the reader away. Secondly, there is a great big button that allows the reader to buy the whole series at once – which some readers do. Even if they don’t buy the whole series, they may buy more than one book. It is a smart button, so it knows which books in the series the reader has already bought and doesn’t include those in the price. It even knows when you are running a Kindle Countdown Deal so it will adjust the price for the series. One important thing to know about series pages is that every time you add a book to the series, Amazon changes the ASIN. That means that you have to create new universal links for it and change them in all your marketing and your backmatter. If you don’t the reader will see a “page not found” message and you will lose the sale.  Next up is category selection. Some readers only read a single genre of book. They have seen yours, thought it was in the genre they like and bought the book. They may even enjoy it up to a point. But they won’t buy the next in the series because it isn’t in their favoured genre. Book covers are the usual cause of the reader being misled, but if it shows up in a category search under the wrong category, that will also cause the problem. So, choose your category or categories with care and make sure the cover is appropriate for those categories. You may think that is a pretty obvious point to make, but some authors mistakenly think that listing their book in the most popular categories will be good for sales. It isn’t, because the readers who buy by category alone don’t like being misled. It can also screw up your advertising strategy big time but that, again, is the subject for a different blog  But the main reason for poor read through rates is a bit more difficult for authors to accept.
It may be that readers just don’t like the first book, so they aren’t interested in buying the second. There can be many reasons for that dislike: poor quality writing, uninteresting characters, poorly structured plot, too many typos and a whole lot more. You have to identify those issues and fix them, or you will never get good read through rates for the series. It is the major reason for the benchmark read through rate from book 1 to book 2 being only 70% in the first place. For the Indie author that rate (as explained above) is going to be lower anyway, but you can improve it if you can fix the worst issues. So, to summarise. There is nothing much you can do to change reader behaviour when it comes to improving read through rates, but there is plenty you can do to fix author behaviour. You can either accept your poor read through rates – or you can take action. It’s over to you. If you have enjoyed this blog, or found it informative, then make sure you don’t miss future editions. Just click on the button below to sign up for our newsletter. We’ll even send you a free ebook for doing so.  One of the perks of enrolling your ebook in Kindle Select is that you can also register them for Kindle Monthly Deals. These are like Kindle Countdown Deals, but they run for a month rather than the normal maximum of 7 days. And you can't just ask for it. Your book has to be selected for a deal - The author has no idea when they will happen, they just get an email saying their book has been nominated and, if selected, they get another email saying when the deal will start, which is usually the 1st day of the following month. But the author doesn’t have to accept the deal and whether they should or not is the subject of debate in some Facebook groups. Authors aren’t sure if they are worth the loss of royalties inherent in discounting their book to 99p (or 99c, or whatever), The time authors normally want to provide discounts is when they are launching a new book and want to garner some interest in their existing books by running a promotion, in the hope that new readers will buy into the new book as well. It’s a well-established marketing strategy and is known to work.  But if you are being offered a Kindle Monthly Deal at a time when you aren’t marketing a new book, is there any point in accepting the deal? That was what we wondered when a book by one of our authors was selected for a deal for February. It was actually a second bite at the cherry, because the same book had been nominated for a deal in January but hadn’t been selected for the deal that month. That was convenient because it had given us some time to consider the pros and cons and advise our author accordingly.  The selected book is Book 1 of a 9 book series and if the deal created enough interest, we could hope for some good read through rates further down the line. Unfortunately, while Amazon are happy to discount the book for a whole month, they do little or no marketing for it, so it is up to the author or, as in our case, the publisher to invest in the marketing in order to make the best out of the opportunity. And this is the dilemma faced by most Indie authors when offered a Kindle Monthly Deal. Can they afford to invest in marketing in order to capitalise on the deal? For us it wasn’t too difficult a decision. We had run Kindle Countdown deals for the same book on several occasions and always got a good read through rate, so we believed we would get a good enough read through rate this time to justify the marketing costs. But it wasn’t guaranteed. There was still a risk. Running a marketing campaign for the 28 days of February wasn’t going to be cheap. But we decided to take the chance anyway.  So, we set up some Facebook ads for the book to start on the first day of the deal and run for the full month. We already run ads for the book on Amazon, so there was no need to do anything additional there. In addition to the ads, we put together some social media promotional posts as well, using our usual channels, as they are free, so we may as well use them. And then we waited to see what would happen. The most obvious thing was that we got significantly more sales for the book during the month than we would usually get. To be precise it was 5 times more than we would get for the same book in an average month and double what we got for the month when we ran our last Kindle Countdown Deal. But what about payback – would we get the read through levels we needed to pay for the marketing and leave us in profit? The answer to that was immediate.  Sales of Book 2 of the series started to increase above the average level from about halfway through the month, as early readers finished Book 1. Towards the end of the month, we started to see an increase in sales for Book 3 and, as we moved into March, we started to see the same trend for books 4 onwards. As this blog post goes live, I can tell you that we have run into profit and sales are still rising. But there is a knock-on benefit that has to be taken into account. As we have mentioned before, the Amazon algorithm loves an upward sales trend, and a Kindle Monthly Deal provides that. If the algorithm sees a book that is selling, it does its best (within the rules laid down by Jeff Bezos) to help it sell more, because that helps Jeff Bezos to make more money. What the algorithm does is include the book in the “recommended for you” and “also bought” carousels that a lot of readers use to find their next book. So, the Kindle Monthly Deal has created momentum that is going to carry the book forward for several weeks into the future. And the other thing that the algorithm does is push the book towards KindleUnlimited readers, so you get an increase in KENP reads off the back of the deal.  If you are the author of standalone books, you will be wondering what this might mean for you. Unfortunately, as we were marketing a series, we can’t answer that.
But if you have more than one title in your catalogue, it would make sense for satisfied readers to go looking for more books by you if they have enjoyed the discounted book. But if you don’t have any other titles, then there isn’t really any way to make a profit on a Kindle Monthly Deal. You might be able to break even during the campaign if your marketing budget isn’t too extravagant. But you may also gain from the momentum that we mentioned above, which may mean you make a profit further down the line. However, we wouldn’t want you to think that the profit is guaranteed. Much will depend on how much you spend on your marketing and how targeted it is. If you only have one book out, this is not a time for a “throw it at the wall and see what sticks” approach to marketing (if there is ever a time for it nowadays). So, if you are offered a Kindle Monthly Deal, please do give it serious consideration, but make use of data to inform your decision. We would not have been so confident about accepting the deal had we not previously seen such good results when running Kindle Countdown deals, or if we hadn’t seen good read through rates for the series in general. If you have enjoyed this blog, or found it informative, then make sure you don’t miss future editions. Just click on the button below to sign up for our newsletter. We’ll even send you a free ebook for doing so.  How much can you afford to spend to promote a series when you have a new book coming out? Let’s say Book 1 has been out for a while and you have Book 2 coming out shortly. You decide to run a discounted price promo for Book 1 hoping to get sell through for Book 2. It’s a common tactic and it is known to work. We use it quite regularly. But people have to know about the discounted promo, so you decide to either run some ads focused on Book 1, run some stacked promos with some of the reputable sites (BookBub, Fussy Librarian etc) or a combination of the two. But how much can you afford to spend on those promos and ads?  Because of its discounted price, Book 1 isn’t going to give you much of a financial return (in fact, we’re going to totally ignore it), so you are going to be relying on Book 2 selling well in order for you to end up in profit. Unfortunately, you don’t have any sales data on which to base any assumptions about sales for Book 2, so you could spend a lot of money on your promos and ads but end up making a loss. That is what this blog is all about. We have come up with a calculation to allow you to forecast your royalties for Book 2 so you can make an informed judgement. But first some “health warnings”.  1. This method provides a forecast, not a prediction. It is not guaranteed that the reality will match up. 2. You will have to base some of your calculations on historical data which might not be replicated in the future. 3. It makes some assumptions based on industry benchmarks and your books may not perform to the benchmarks. 4. Because of 1 – 3 above, the figure you end up with is “ball park”, an estimate. It may not be 100% accurate. But that is a limitation we feel is acceptable. Please bear those health warnings in mind when you do your own calculations.  Your first step is to gather data on the cost of your promos (before you actually pay for them), which means looking at the promo sites and identifying the cost of the packages you want to use. Add those costs together to give you your promo costs, which I shall refer to as PC. Next decide what daily budget you want to set for your ads and for how long you wish to run them. So, if you want to set a £5 daily budget and run the ads for 5 days, that’s a total of £25. We’ll call that AB for advertising budget. Add AB to PC to give you an overall cost for your marketing, which we will call MC for marketing cost. Next you need to look at your historical sales data. If you have run a discounted promo for Book 1 in the past, how many books did it sell? If you are running a Kindle Countdown Deal, you may have to go back 90 days or further to find that out. If you haven’t run a discounted promo before, work out your average daily sales for the previous 90 days (total sales over 90 days divided by 90). A discounted promo would be expected to sell more copies than the 90 day average, but we don’t know how many more so we have to stick with data that we know is accurate. Whichever figure you are using, we will call it SD for sales data.  The benchmark for “read through” from Book 1 to Book 2 is 70%, which means that for every 100 copies of Book 1 you sell, you can expect to sell 70 copies of Book 2. So, work out 70% of SD to predict how many copies of Book 2 you can expect to sell per day during the promo period, then multiply by the number of days over which you are going to run the promo (PD), so the sum will be SD x 70% x PD. That will give you your forecast sales (FS) for Book 2. Now you have to calculate your royalties for Book 2. The amount per book is displayed on the pricing tab of your KDP pages for the book, so it is FS x R (for royalties) to give FI (forecast income). If you divide FI by MC you will get a number. If that number is less than 1, then your promos and ads are forecast to run at a loss. If you get a number greater than 1, your promos and ads are forecast to give you a profit.  If you have forecast a loss you have some decisions to make. 1. You can decide not run your promos, not to run your ads or both. 2. You can reduce the number of promos you run, select cheaper packages if there are any, or reduce your daily budget for your ads or a combination of all of those. 3. You can go ahead as planned, hoping that the forecasts are wrong, and you actually sell more copies of Book 2 than expected. But that is much riskier. If you are going to take risks like 3, then you may as well not do the calculations in the first place. If, on the other hand, you have forecast a profit, you could increase your marketing budget in the hope of generating even more sales for Book 1 which should translate into even greater sales of Book 2. What if you have more than two books in the series? OK, that means you will have to forecast sales for Book 2 to Book N, where N is the number of books in the series. First of all, you have to know that it is normal to lose readers after each book, so the audience gets smaller the longer the series runs. There are a variety of reasons for this, some of which are reader related and some of which are author related, but those are the subject for a different blog. I have already told you that the benchmark read through rate from Book 1 to Book 2 is 70%, but the readthrough to Book 3 is 90% of that 70%. The read through to Book 4 is then 90% of that 90% etc. Below is a table showing how many copies of each book in a 9 book series you can expect to sell if you sell 100 copies of Book 1. You can extrapolate those for however many copies of Book 1 you actually sell (figures have been rounded to the nearest whole number). Using the table, you can calculate your total FI from read throughs using the method described above, to work out whether your campaign will make a profit or loss. You will notice that I haven’t mentioned KENP reads from KindleUlimited. That’s because they would muddy the waters quite a bit. If you have solid income data for those page reads which relate directly to previous promos, you can add that into your FI if you wish, but it is a simpler calculation to leave them out.  OK, we will be the first to admit that this method is a little bit “rough and ready”. But ask yourself this question: “Is it better to have a rough and ready calculation, or no calculation at all?” We think you will conclude that rough and ready is better than nothing when it comes to risking your money. Before we end this blog, we have one more thing to say about those benchmark figures. They are based on industry averages for read throughs for a series. However, we don’t know what the shape of the bell curve is that produced those benchmarks.  It is highly likely that bestselling series like Harry Potter, Jack Reacher, Game Of Thrones etc are skewing the figures and producing a high average. That means that it is possible that your Indie pubbed space opera or dark fantasy series isn’t going to achieve a 70% read through from Book 1 to Book 2.
That is a reasonable assumption to make. However, if your series is achieving less than a 50% read through rate, you need to be asking yourself why. What is it about Book 1 that is discouraging readers from reading Book 2? Is it a marketing thing? Or is there something wrong with Book 1 and readers don’t like it, so they aren’t buying Book 2? You have to decide that for yourself. If it’s something wrong with the book, your reviews will probably tell you, but that is by no means certain. But something is definitely wrong, and you need to find out what it is, or you are going to be spending a lot of money on promos and advertising for little or no return. If you have enjoyed this blog, or found it informative, then make sure you don’t miss future editions. Just click on the button below to sign up for our newsletter. We’ll even send you a free ebook for doing so.  Creativity is a basic skill for being a writer. Your imagination is what creates stories. Every best-selling book started with an idea popping into the head of the author. The author then nurtures and feeds the idea until it starts to gain form and flesh, in the shape of sentences, paragraphs and chapters. No two authors are alike, so the techniques that each author uses to create their story will be different. We are familiar with the terms “plotters” and “pantsers”, but those are only two types that form the extremes of a very broad spectrum. Sometimes, regardless of whether they are plotters, pansters or somewhere in between, authors run out of ideas for taking their story forward. They may call it writer’s block, or they may use another term, but for some reason they just can’t come up with what is going to happen next in their story. But all is not lost. You don’t have to sit there looking at a blank screen (or a blank sheet of paper if you are more “old school”). There are tools and techniques that can be used to stimulate creativity.  I would love it if creative problem solving techniques were taught in schools, as they have a direct application in any workplace. But they aren’t. What you can do, however, is take a few of these techniques and maybe make them work for you as an author. The best creativity comes from working with others. By combining brains and “bouncing” ideas off other people, the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts. However authors are, by nature, solitary workers. That solitude presents a challenge, but one that is not insurmountable. Last week we heard from Gene Ramsey about how to unlock some of your creativity by taking control of your writing environment. This week we would like to take things one step further and suggest some practical techniques you can use to create new ideas. So, enough preamble, let’s get into the details.  “What if” scenarios. This does what it says on the tin. If you are stuck thinking about what your character should do next, asking “What if they did this …” allows you to test ideas out. The basis of “what if” scenarios is rule breaking. You are going to make your character do something that may be physically impossible, morally or ethically wrong, might get them killed, might get someone else killed and a whole lot of other things that might, normally, prevent you from considering taking the character in that direction. But that is OK. Having created the scenario, you can then challenge the idea not in terms of not doing it, but in terms of still doing it, but in a way that will make it work. You are building up, not knocking down. In creativity it is always about building up, not the other thing. My character can’t do “that” because they would burn to death. OK, how about I find a way of them doing it without burning to death? Can I give them a fireproof suit? Can they find a way to extinguish the flames? Can I use magic to protect them? You get the idea. So, the character will still take the path you imagined with your “what if” scenario, because you have found a way of making it possible. But the key barrier to the what if scenario is assumptions. We make them all the time, sometimes without thinking about them. You have to learn to not only identify assumptions, you have to learn to challenge them. You will be surprised how often assumptions are actually wrong. Scientists and engineers find that out every day. And if you doubt me, remember that only 120 years ago it was assumed that it was impossible for humans to fly.  Quantity, not quality. This is the basis of one of the best-known creativity tools, brainstorming. Basically, you generate idea after idea, without worrying whether they are good, bad or indifferent. Normally this is seen as a team activity, but you can do it yourself. All you need is a pad of sticky notes and a surface on which to stick them. Write your ideas on the notes and slap them on the white board, wall or whatever. Lots of them. They don’t even have to have anything obvious to do with your book. The whole idea is to get your brain spewing out ideas in a constant stream, because amongst the thousands of bad ideas that may come out, there will be a few golden nuggets. When you have finally run out of ideas (you should try to keep going for at least an hour) you can start to group the ideas together in terms of common themes. Those themes can then be examined more closely to see what they have to offer. Maybe you didn’t come up with “the” idea, but perhaps by combining ideas a, b and c together, you may have something you can work with. A similar technique involves writing the ideas on a pad, page after page of them. Then tear up the first two pages, because they will be too “normal”. The real gold will appear on the later pages, when you started to get desperate for ideas and your brain had to keep going, drawing more and more from your subconscious mind.  Flip the Point of View (POV) Authors sometimes get so hung up on what their protagonist is doing (or not doing) that they sometimes forget that there is more than one character in the book. By switching your point of view to see the problem through a different pair of eyes, you may see the flaws in your character’s (your) thinking (the paradigm they (you) are working within) which will allow you to break them out of the status quo. For example, if your protagonist is a cop and the paradigm for a cop (an honest one, at least) is that they can’t break the law, then the way forward for the protagonist might be blocked But if you view the problem from the POV of a lawyer, you might find that there is a loophole in the law that would allow your protagonist a route out of their problem. But you won’t see that loophole if you are still thinking like a cop, so you have to think like a lawyer. You can also look at the story from the antagonist’s point of view. What is the thing the antagonist would least like the protagonist to do? That is what you should have your protagonist do. You can look at the problem through the eyes of several other characters, to see how they would deal with it. Shifting the paradigm in this way is a fundamental in organisational problem solving.  Use Analogies I’ll start this section by asking you a question. What has Formula One (F1) motor racing got to do with the airline industry? The answer is very simple when you think of the question as an analogy. A feature of F1 racing is the speed at which pit crews are able to get a car in and out of the pits for tyre changes etc. It depends on two things: (1) having everything where it is needed, when it is needed and (2) having well practised drills, so everyone does their job instantly without having to think about it. Back in the late 1970s, when cheap air travel started to become a thing, airlines were looking for ways in which they could get more flying hours out of their aircraft, because an aircraft sat on the ground isn’t earning any money. They looked at the problem from the perspective of F1 racing, and realised they could adopt some of the same techniques to get their aircraft turned around at airports far more quickly, saving several hours a day in some cases. Now all the budget airlines use the same techniques to get their aircraft back in the air as quickly as possible. Businesses use analogies of this sort a lot to come up with new ideas to streamline their performance. And you can use the same technique to come up with new ideas for moving your plot forward. So, in terms of solving your character’s problems, what sorts of analogies might you use to stimulate your thoughts?  Zoom Out From The Problem How often have we heard the expression “can’t see the wood for the trees”? We are so stuck down in the weeds of the detail of a problem that we can’t see the bigger picture. So, the solution is to “zoom out”, so we are no longer able to see the individual trees, but we can see the whole forest. And if we can see the forest, we can also trace all the possible paths through it. I’ll give you a hypothetical situation. Your character is stuck at the bottom of a well. There is no way for them to climb out and the rope that holds the bucket is rotted through, so they can’t climb it. They are shouting for help, but there is no one to hear them at the top of the well. Because you are so close to the problem, all you can see right now is a deep dark hole with no way out of it. But if you were to zoom out, you might see a church with a belfry. And the rope that attaches to one of the bells in the belfry is broken. You might also see that on the other side of the forest lives the chief bell ringer. They know about the bell rope and they have a replacement. So, they cross the forest and their path takes them close to the well, where they hear the protagonist calling for help. So, you now have a rope and someone to drop it down the well to rescue your character. But you only got to that point because you zoomed out from the well to take in the wider picture. OK, that is a literal interpretation of the theory. But it does work. If you can detach from the detail of the situation in which you have placed your character and look at the bigger picture of the story and imagine what else COULD be happening, you may well find the solution to your problem. Incidentally, you can combine "zooming out" with the "what If" scenario to make it even more effective.  Mind Mapping
Again, this is a long-standing technique that works for many people. Basically, you place the problem in the centre of the page and then map all the different aspects of that problem, to see where the barriers are lying. For example, one branch of the map may relate to your character’s family constraints. Another may relate to their skills and knowledge. A third might relate to the resources available to them. Another may be their emotional entanglements. Another is the mental baggage that they are carrying around. As you explore each branch you should be able to make smaller branches that deal with other aspects of the same problem and you may be able to link some of the issues in one branch with some of the ones in other branches, because they are connected in some way. Once you have a detailed mind map, you should be able to identify possible solutions to what is causing your creative blockage. Mind mapping makes use of the key questions we always ask: who, what, where, when, how and why. Here’s a link that describes mind mapping in more detail. This technique isn’t just useful for overcoming writer’s block. It’s also a great way to get a new story idea worked out in more detail. Conclusion I have only been able to scratch the surface of the wide-ranging subject that is creative problem solving. Enough, I hope, to get you started. But if you go online and search “creative problem-solving tools” you will find a wealth of information. Some resources you may have to pay for, but others are available for free. Images credit: pexels.com If you have enjoyed this blog, or found it informative, then make sure you don’t miss future editions. Just click on the button below to sign up for our newsletter. We’ll even send you a free ebook for doing so. This week we are delighted to post another guest blog by Gene Ramsey. This time he takes a look at how to refresh your creative juices when they are flagging a little. All images courtesy of Pexels.  As a writer, the ability to tap into your creative wellspring is indispensable, yet there are times when the muse seems elusive, and your imagination feels as barren as a desert. In these moments, the need to recharge and revitalize your creative spirit becomes paramount. This article explores practical strategies tailored to help writers and authors break free from creative stagnation, ensuring a vibrant and fruitful engagement with your craft.  Disconnect to reconnect In this digital era, it's essential to consciously detach from the ever-present screens of your smartphone, computer, and tablet. Allow your mind the freedom to meander through thoughts without the interruption of incessant notifications and the relentless influx of information. In the tranquillity of this newfound mental space, as you gaze out the window or simply let your thoughts roam, your next ground-breaking idea might subtly make its presence known.  Establish a Sanctuary for Creativity As a writer, your craft demands undivided attention. Designate a sanctuary where you can isolate yourself from the world's distractions. This dedicated space should invite tranquillity and allow for uninterrupted flow of thoughts. Whether it’s a quiet corner of your home or a secluded part of a local park, make this space your own. Regularly spending time in this creative haven can help you establish a routine that, over time, will signal to your brain that it’s time to engage creatively.  Play Your Way to Innovation Remember, creativity is not all about stern expressions and furrowed brows; it's also about play and exploration. Reconnect with activities that light up your spirit and make you feel alive. Whether it's sketching, playing board games, or crafting, these playful acts can subconsciously stir up ideas and inspire innovative thinking. Allow yourself regular playtime; it’s not frivolous but a fundamental part of nurturing a creative mind.  Harness the Power of Video Creation Venture into the dynamic world of digital storytelling by creating your own videos, opening up a vibrant avenue to communicate your narratives. With a free video creator online, you can experiment and enhance your projects without any financial strain, providing a cost-effective way to bring your visions to life. This tool not only allows you to add audio and animate elements but also enables you to manipulate video speed, enriching your storytelling with a professional flair that captivates your audience.  Revisit Childhood Joys Reengage with the activities you loved as a child to tap into pure, unadulterated creativity. Childhood is a treasure trove of imagination and wonder—qualities that are often muted in adulthood. By revisiting these past joys, whether it’s reading comic books, doodling, or building model airplanes, you can reignite the imaginative spark that once came so naturally and infuse your writing with renewed passion and enthusiasm.  Art as a Pathway to Creativity Use art as a therapeutic way to explore tools to unlock new creative realms. Artistic expression transcends words, allowing emotions and ideas that might be difficult to articulate through writing alone. Engage in painting, sculpting, or drawing to visually express what lies beneath your conscious mind. This not only provides a therapeutic release but also deepens the well of creativity from which you can draw as a writer.  Write Freely and Fluidly Dive into the realm of free writing; unleash your inner stream of consciousness directly onto paper without the constraints of perfect syntax or punctuation. As you write without stopping, you'll navigate past the barriers of writer's block and discover hidden ideas that lurk beneath your structured thinking. This technique not only refreshes your mind but also enriches your narrative skills by revealing unexpected insights and themes.  Dream a Little Dream
Your dreams are a direct line to your subconscious, where much of your creativity is housed. Make a habit of keeping a dream journal by your bedside. Upon waking, jot down as much as you can recall about your dreams. Over time, you may find that these abstract and often bizarre dreamscapes serve as excellent fodder for creative projects, offering unique imagery and plot twists that can set your work apart. Recharging your creative batteries as a writer involves a blend of structured solitude and unstructured play. By adopting these practices, you not only enhance your creativity but also enrich your life, making each written word a reflection of a fully lived experience. Rediscover your creative spirit and watch as your writing transforms from mere words to vivid worlds that captivate and inspire. If you have enjoyed this blog, or found it informative, then make sure you don’t miss future editions. Just click on the button below to sign up for our newsletter. We’ll even send you a free ebook for doing so.  A recent post in a writers’ group on Facebook asked for “tips on marketing” and I wept. The person making the post might as well have asked for tips on building a space rocket. Yes, they would get a few tips from people with some knowledge of building space rockets, but they would not provide sufficient depth of information to allow the questioner to build an actual working space rocket. Marketing is something you have to learn from the ground up. If you don’t understand the basics you are probably doomed to waste a lot of time (and possibly money) doing the wrong things, before you eventually discover the right thing to do.  I’m not going to try to write a blog about the whole subject of book marketing. It would require a whole series of blogs to discuss that, and we have written them before (see our blog archives). No, this blog is about one small, but very important, part of book marketing. One of the things that I have never seen anyone say in Facebook writers’ groups, when discussing book marketing, is that the very first marketing decision that has to be made is actually made before a word of the book has been written. It may not seem like a conscious decision, but it is one that is being made anyway. Each author decides whether they are going to (a) write to market or (b) write something truly original.  This is a crucial decision when it comes to marketing a book. A book written to market has a far higher chance of finding an agent and, if self-published, of selling a lot of copies. Writing to market is about riding the current trends in books. For example, according to this article, a rising trend in 2024 was romantacy. This is a mix of fantasy and romance. So, if you like writing fantasy or you like writing romance, then conflating the two stands a good chance of success right now. The author of the article talks about it as though it is a genre, but it isn’t. Romance is a genre, fantasy is a genre, but romantacy is a subgenre of the two. It will generally be listed under the fantasy heading. But that is a technicality. If you want to make a quick buck out of writing, then that is one of the subgenres to head for.  However, the book will only do well so long as it adheres to the norms for the subgenre. It must contain the sorts of tropes that the readers expect to see in a romantacy novel, or the readers are likely to post unfavourable reviews and that will kill the book. Some people (not us) would describe that as “formulaic” and turn their noses up at the very idea of writing to market. Many authors choose not to write to market. They don’t like their creativity being curtailed in that way. They want to be free to write their story their way. So, many authors eschew writing to market and concentrate on trying to find something original to write about. And there is a market for originality too. There always has been and always will be. But it isn’t quite as attractive to agents who want something they can take to publishers which the publishers are actively seeking.  To use a metaphor, it’s difficult to sell fish to someone who wants to eat fowl. And it is even harder to sell a species of fish that no one has ever seen before, even to people who like eating fish. But all trends start somewhere. No one had ever heard of romantacy until quite recently. The earliest articles discussing it that I have been able to find were in early 2024, it is that new. So, your new original novel may be the big “write to market” subgenre for next year. But in marketing terms, the two approaches to writing are very different, so they require different marketing strategies. Yet no one is mentioning that in social media posts about marketing. Which means the Indie author can spend a lot of time using an unsuitable marketing strategy to sell their books. We are not advocating either approach to writing. If someone were to submit a written-to-market romantacy to us we would give it due consideration because we are a business and we like to make money.  But part of our mission is also to discover new creativity, so we would also consider something that isn’t written to market and to give the author a start in the business.
But we would use different strategies to market the two different books. If you have enjoyed this blog, or found it informative, then make sure you don’t miss future editions. Just click on the button below to sign up for our newsletter. We’ll even send you a free ebook for doing so.  Disclaimer: The views expressed in this review are those of the reviewer and not necessarily those of Selfishgenie Publishing. The reviewer was not paid or offered any inducement for this review but was provided with a free review copy.  Cooee Baby is a book that works on many levels. If you just want an adventure story, then great. Five stars all the way. It really works as adventure. But on the deeper level, as a story about a neuro-divergent young woman, there is a lot going on. I’ll cover some of the nuances later in this review. Athena Fernandez is the neuro-divergent young woman. Her real first name is Awhina, but she doesn’t like it because people don’t know how to pronounce it, so she changes it, and to everyone other than her parents she becomes Athena. Early in the story Athena is diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome*, which is one particular syndrome on the much broader autism scale. Not only is Athena neuro-divergent, however, she is also a brilliant scholar, with a particular talent for maths and sciences. This takes her to Cambridge University where we start to get a real insight into her personality. This is something I will again return to later in this review. After graduation with an honours degree, and starting to prepare her PhD proposal, Athena’s mother offers her the opportunity to go on a five-week cruise around the islands of Indonesia. This is not your normal “floating gin palace” type cruise but is on a much smaller ship where more time is allowed to experience the diverse cultures that will be encountered. I don’t want to give any away spoilers, but I can’t tell you about the key story point without revealing some of what happens, but I’ll try not to tell you too much. Athena is involved in a swimming accident that threatens her life. It also disfigures her. She is rescued and taken to Papua where she is treated by the shaman of a local tribe, the Walukek. She is then kidnapped by a neighbouring tribe, the Suamu, who are in a perpetual state of war with the Walukek.  The author, Charles Moberley There is always a risk in placing a European in a situation like this that they succumb to “white saviour” syndrome, trying to modernise the indigenous people for their “betterment”.
This was common in 19th and early 20th century literature as it reflected the colonial values of the day. Fortunately, author Charles Moberley doesn’t succumb to this in Cooee Baby and Athena does nothing that would change the culture of either of the tribes with which she lives. Indeed, the culture of the Suamu is central to the plot. So, having said at the start of this review that I would award 5 stars for this book as an adventure story, why have I only awarded 4 stars? The answer is in the development of Athena’s character within the story. Asperger’s Syndrome doesn’t make the person intrinsically unlikeable, but Athena’s character I found very hard to engage with. Her overbearing mother and emotionally absent father must, therefore, account for a lot of her behaviour, rather than her neuro-divergence. Because, despite all her bravado, Athena is also very vulnerable. Her outspoken and sometimes obnoxious behaviour is, in part, motivated by her feelings of vulnerability and this isn’t explored in any depth. It means that the picture we get of Athena seems to be incomplete. She behaves like a spoiled brat a lot of the time, but her neuro-divergence doesn’t account for that. While Athena may suffer from Asperger’s, she is also capable of analysing both her own behaviour and that of others, which means that beneath the surface she does understand emotions and their functions, but we are offered too few glimpses of that part of Athena’s personality, which means that she remains, largely, unlikeable. I didn’t expect some damascene conversion from Athena, in which she changed her behaviour significantly. That would not fit with her neuro-divergence. However, she is portrayed as a person in possession of complex analytical and reasoning skills, so I would have expected her to develop an understanding that the way people act towards her is a reflection of how she acts towards them. But that insight is lacking. There is also Athena's resilience. People on the autism scale are not known for dealing well with the external environment. They often try to shut out the world. But not Athena. She may be frightened, but she stares down her assailants with a bravery that Jack Reacher would nod his head towards. That too, I feel, speaks of something deeper in her character than can be accounted for by her neuro-divergence. It was this quality that finally won me over and kept me reading the book. But, if you can get past that characterisation, this book has a great deal going for it. As I said at the top of this review, it is great as an action adventure and if you can read it that way then you are likely to enjoy it immensely. To find out more about “Cooee Baby” by Charles Moberley, click here. * According to the charity Mencap, Asperger’s Syndrome is no longer a term used by the medical profession to describe Athena’s form of neuro-divergence. The person after whom the disorder was named (Hans Asperger) had strong connections to the Nazis, which is why the term has fallen out of favour. If you wish to be politically correct you would now describe the condition as an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) If you have enjoyed this book review, be sure not to miss out on future blogs by signing up for our newsletter. We’ll even give you a free ebook for doing so. |
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