With fellow author Stacey Lannigan:
https://www.authorstaceylannigan.co.uk/post/spotlight-with-stacey-1
Enjoy!
Category: Uncategorized
Publication delay – Pendragon
2026 will be a good year for dragons, they said. Someone said. Or perhaps I saw it on TikTok? Dragons of the Chinese zodiac; not actual dragons. The year of the fire horse was meant to be great for us. Professionally. That’s the problem with the internet these days; a lot of shallow statements without the deeper exploration of facts.
Despite my severe lack of professional achievements this year, I am focusing on the wins: first edit of Pendragon done, second edit done, new readers for The Future King series (who have been propelling me through the ball pit that is writing a novel – you know who you are, thank you!), book cover designed – and the realisation that I just need to enjoy this process. I am, after all, attempting to accomplish what I previously accomplished in a timespan of about 5 years in 2 (and now also with children). And, as a more in-depth astrological dive tells me, in the year of the fire horse dragons need to beware of burning out.
At least my current unemployment has given me more time than I otherwise would have had to actually work on Pendragon (despite, of course, the endless job applications). Fuck you, AI. Though perhaps it’s unfair to put all the blame on the thing that the fuckwits say will either be our saviour or our doom; it’s people who are choosing to throw others in the bin for the sake of this new snake oil machine whose sole purpose (as far as I can tell) is to steal words and faces and lives and to fuck the planet and make sure you will never be able to think again at all.
All this is to say that Pendragon is unlikely to be published in what little is left of 2026; I am just starting my next major rewrite (this one will get every scene and chapter “book ready”, and I will also recklessly cut even more words I spent the last two years or so writing). It’s likely to take at least a month and a half, which lands us in November, and then my manuscript will need to go to my beta readers, be edited again, be formatted and proofed… you get it.
Onwards and upwards, as they say. It would be foolish to rush the final stages of the editing process just for the sake of avoiding a 7-year gap between Logres 2 and Pendragon. I apologise, though, to anyone who is eagerly awaiting the next book in The Future King series – you’ll have to wait a little while longer yet. But I can assure you this – when the book does finally come out, I’ll make sure it’s bloody good.
Cover reveal – Pendragon
So I finally got my act together and made the final tweaks on the cover for my upcoming release, Pendragon.
Not to say that the cover is finished. No doubt I’ll fiddle with a few small things when I get to the formatting and publishing stage, but this is what it’s going to look like.
The eye motif of Logres 2 has consumed the white space around the New Moral symbol, and has evolved into the form of a dragon (Pendragon), which is wrapping around the New National eye-cross and consuming the space around it in a storm-like fashion. (Plenty of clues what’s coming up in Pendragon in that alone.)
Every time I think I’m going to do a redesign of my book covers (or pay someone more talented than myself to do it for me) I come right back around to loving them – the simplicity stands out, and is separated from any current book-cover-art trends. I’m not delusional, however – the covers do work better in paperback than on the screen, as the white space is often lost in the white space of the internet, but never mind.
In other news I’m trying to figure out if my (sudden) desire to go and study cosmology is enough to pull me through going back to university to do a physics degree. Plan A, make enough money from writing The Future King series to do it for a living; Plan B, continue it as a hobby and work to pay the bills. The thought of continuing to coast through admin role after admin role for the rest of my working life, however, is no longer so appealing. I saw a MA in cosmology at the KU Leuven which looks AMAZING, and if I’m going to have to work on something other than TFK, then I’d rather it be something related to that. But to do THAT I need a degree in physics, so…
Twenty hours a week around a full time job, children, writing, (and I’d also like to learn to play the piano) sounds a little unachievable. But then I’m already a workaholic for TFK anyway. The idea of learning something completely new to give my arts-and-humanities-leaning brain a workout also sounds appealing to me. (I feel I should mention however that I just about scraped a C in my GCSE maths.)
This week I finally finished editing my first draft of Pendragon, which left me sitting at about 320,000 words. Too fat to publish, and I wasn’t planning to split this volume into two. I’m now butchering it in Pages and slicing whole scenes – last word count was 309,000. I think I can get it to just under 300,000, and then it’ll be another paper edit, and more slicing and streamlining. Whether or not I’ll get Pendragon out later this year, or early next year, is not yet decided. Did I mention I created the cover for Pendragon in a 20-year old version of photoshop on a broken laptop with no keyboard and a dodgy mousepad? Can you tell?
I already know what the cover will look like for the next book in The Future King series, Excalibur (three guesses? It involves a sword).
Thank you to everyone who’s following my writing journey – I hope to have Pendragon released for you soon!
New Release – The Future King: Logres 2
It’s here! The second book in The Future King series is now available on Kindle Unlimited, and the paperback version will be live on Amazon in a few days.
I’m particularly pleased with this book. I learned a lot when I wrote and published my first novel, and this time round the editing, formatting and proofing was certainly easier. It helps when you know how to format in Word and what sort of errors to look out for. This didn’t make the process any shorter, but I’m confident that this novel is in better shape than my initial first release (which I have since re-proofed). It also makes some exciting advances in the plot and overall story, too, and is finally a satisfying conclusion to the cliffhanger that ended Logres (1).
So what next in The Future King series? Like any author, I am hoping this sequel and the promise of more to come will encourage sales, perhaps giving me justification to prioritise my writing more than I already do. I would like to make a start on the next two books as one, hopefully to allow a closer release date between the two once they are finished. They will be challenging instalments to pen, however, as the world Gwenhwyfar, Arthur, and Morgan know is about to undergo substantial and radical change. Challenging is fun, however, and I can’t wait to get started.
In the meantime, if you enjoy Logres 1 & 2, it would be great if you could leave a review (if you haven’t already!) and recommend the series to your family and friends. Seeing the occasional feedback trickling in is encouraging, and reminds me that I have someone (other than myself) to write for.
Another update.
Success! It’s working! Or at least, it feels as if it is working as I finish writing for the day and head to the homepage to update my ‘live word counter’. It’s not really live – to actually do that would require some sort of link between my website (the inter-web) and my 2009 version of Word – and that terrifies me. Anyway, now that my word counter has evolved into a ‘live word chopper’ it is safe to say I am making some progress.
Slow progress; mind you. At the moment I’m squeezing 238,722 words to fewer than 130,000 so I can stuff in all the scenes needed for the narrative to form some semblance of novel. My method requires it: I pour it all in, everything – all the brain-mess and the overused words like looked, interjected, exclaimed, gazed, shifted – it’s all about the body language in my first draft. Then, horrified by my bloated document, I force a temporary end so I can throw most of it away. The parts where I get to bin whole pages are the most satisfying: away you go, small talk, here’s some plot advancement instead. These alterations to conversation, timing and place get me thinking about the nature of real life – does free will exist, or are we bound to some plot arc with small details that may change, but that never ultimately affect our final destination?
You can tell I’ve been watching too much Doctor Who. Every evening, storming through time and space with the Doctor in the TARDIS – when episodes are watched in close succession the disruption the Doctor inflicts upon his companions seems darker than before. Comparing the series I would definitely rather travel with Tennant or Smith – so far all of Capaldi’s companions seem to have ended up highlight for spoiler>indisposed<highlight for spoiler. Despite my many distractions I am confident I will get a decent first draft done by the end of the summer, which will (with a lot of hard work) set me on course for publication in 2018. Hopefully. I announced it on Twitter so it has to happen. I’ll show you the cover as soon as it’s ready – it incorporates the New Moral eye-cross in a way that is quite sleek.
Anyway, plans for this year: still many. My Resolutions To Do list has birthed two more: To Do This Week and To Do In The Flat. As you can tell from Twitter I’m following UK politics closely – the offer from the EU guaranteeing citizen’s rights seemed fair: it would have guaranteed (for life) freedom of movement for those that have already used it. Whilst too many would still miss out, at least those who rely on freedom of movement would have their roaming protected in future. Of course the UK came back with the suggestion of fewer rights in Britain for EU nationals (and one can assume also for Brits abroad). Given that so far during my adult life I’ve had to move every two years, the default ‘five-year residency equals potential long-term residency rights’ wouldn’t work for me. I estimate this will be a significant problem in my future.
I opened up Word to do some editing and I wrote a blog post instead. Details. Keep watching the homepage for updates on the ‘live word chopper’ – and if you haven’t read the first instalment to The Future King yet, where have you been? Pick up your copy here.
Beware the keen reviewer!
I learned this one the hard way. Hopefully by sharing my experience I will spare a few indie authors the sting of the keen reviewer – you know, the Goodreads reviewer who has some sort of ranking, a blog, and seems to get an awful lot of novels for free; the reviewer who messages you and asks if they could pretty please have a free copy of your book in exchange for an honest review. Some want PDF formats only (my e-reader is broken, so I’m having to use my computer), others insist on paperback (my computer is broken, I can only accept paperback), and the ones that will accept .mobi or .epub just, somehow, never get round to reading it (my life is so busy right now, I just can’t cope with all these novels I’ve requested).
Despite any reservations about dishing out your novel for free (and not only that, but in the case of paperback, paying for it), it’s impossible not to consider the what-ifs of sending out your novel to unknowns because, if they do review it, it will hopefully generate book sales. There may be the added risk of the reviewer disliking your novel and slating it (or worse, leaving you with a DNF), but that’s the part of the deal referred to as ‘honest’. The latest obstacle is Amazon’s updated Terms of Service – Authors can no longer send out their book for free with the agreement of a review, only with the possibility of one (they can’t demand, or expect, or request it: only hope). I gave away copies of my novel before these ToS came into force, and have yet to actually see a review from a reviewer who requested to review my book.
At first I only sent out .epubs and .mobis, refusing to distribute PDFs. Anyone with a phone or a computer can read PDF, and if the only version you have is the one you formatted to print, you’d be giving them free rein to print and sell your own novel for you. Ebook files feel more controlled, excluding when it appears in a ripped version, helpfully created by the people who make their living converting self-published ebooks into PDFs for distribution around pirating websites (side note: society demands to be constantly entertained yet bemoans actually paying authors, artists, writers, directors and musicians fairly for it). The ebooks went out to two or three people early last year, and I’m still waiting for the promised reviews a year later.
Not yet stung by the above agreements involving ebooks, and still believing the reviews would materialise in time, I sent out a couple of paperbacks. I’ve come to admire the cheek of the emails essentially declaring that the person can’t be bothered to pay for your book themselves, but that they would like to read a hard copy, and can you please send it to them posthaste. Usually accompanied by the excuse of a broken e-reader, a few do have the honesty to admit to just preferring paperbacks. Telling them a paperback is currently impossible due to lack of funds, I offer an ebook instead – but no – they brightly insist they are happy to wait until I have more money. After a bit of research to determine that, yes, they did have a reviewing blog, and yes, they were regular reviewers on Goodreads, I decided I was willing to shoulder the cost for the promise of a few more reviews, and sent them the paperbacks.
The reviewers received their paperbacks last year. If a review doesn’t materialise within the first six months the whole process feels like a waste of money – yes, the review may happen eventually, but once you approach the one year mark the reviewers could have arguably just bought the book themselves.
One particular reviewer sent me an email telling me there would be an extra charge to pay if I wanted my book read within a year. They had received my novel a few days before, and were just too busy to read all the books they had requested. I wasn’t the only author stung by this – several complaints appeared on Goodreads from other affected authors. Not only was this reviewer essentially ransoming books for money, they were suddenly declaring themselves a paid reviewer (which is against Amazon and Goodreads’ terms of service), so if a review did materialise there was a very real possibility that Amazon and Goodreads would assume I had paid for the service (I hadn’t), and that I might then be banned.
Three months pass, then six, then nine. Ever hopeful that a review may still appear, you send polite emails prompting for updates, only to be met with radio silence. The ones that do get back to you seem to all be reading off the same script – this year has been manic – I’ve been unwell – your book is next on my review pile – I started reading it but something came up – I’m hoping to get back into it soon. Reasonable excuses, if given the once. Less so, and less believable once given again, and again, and again.
These reviewers need to be aware that when they are asking for a free paperback, most writers probably can’t afford it to send them one, even if they agree to send it anyway. Margins will already be minimal, if there are any profits at all. Just because a book is published does not mean that it is selling, and just because a book is selling does not mean it is profitable. If the reviewer receives the free book as discussed but then doesn’t produce the honest review in return, as discussed and agreed, it is essentially stealing.
Of course this doesn’t apply to the legitimate reviewers on Goodreads, of which there are many. I’ve sent paperbacks to several reviewers who were gracious, kind, prompt and considerate – all of which I, or a friend, approached. If someone approaches you, however, and asks to review your book in exchange for a ‘free’ copy, my advice would be not to do it. It may be tempting, but my experience so far shows me that the review will never materialise. If they’re trying to build their portfolio as a reviewer there’s no reason why they can’t start with free books in promotions, offers from Kindle Unlimited or even just purchase the novels themselves.
If you’re one of the reviewers I sent a free copy to and you happen to read this – I’m still waiting hoping.
10 things I have learned whilst promoting my novel
- Advertising works, even when you are not getting clicks. Spend sixty dollars on a Goodreads campaign and play with the text every now and then to test the traction. Link straight to your retailer page – you want people be directed to where they can buy your book. If they click, the fund goes down. If they don’t, they’re seeing the cover of your novel, even if they’re not directly looking at it. Thousands of people will see your book advertisement each month. Never underestimate the power of the familiar subconscious.
- Get on Goodreads. Without Goodreads my novel would be sitting sadly on Amazon, all alone, with two or three reviews. Granted, it only has six now but lots of people are seeing it through my regular giveaways and over 1,400 people have added it to their ‘to read’ list. That means something, right?
- With reference to the above, run regular giveaways. Just list one copy of your book, make the eligibility worldwide and let it run for a couple of months. Then when a winner is chosen put the next one up. It’s not exactly free advertising but it’s pretty cheap advertising – your book is being continuously advertised in the giveaway section. People’s friends will see when they enter thus spreading the word.
- Tweet! I do not Tweet nearly enough, but I try. If you’re doing giveaways or Kindle Countdown Deals let the users of social media know. Make a Facebook event, mention it in blogs, email group organisers on Goodreads and (responsibly) ‘spam’ the relevant folders in the forums. Just let readers know what’s happening, when; and share your excitement about your book as often as you can.
- It seems to be the thing for authors to follow five thousand people on Twitter in order to get five thousand people to follow them back. Except at some point they start to unfollow those five thousand people to make themselves look established. If they’re all doing it, it probably works, but it’s entirely false. Mostly they’re all just DMing each other asking one another to read their currently free book (yes, I know they’re probably selling more novels than me).
- Time is money, money is time. Do you have the money to splurge £500 on your latest advertising campaign? Can you pay for verified reviews from top reviewing/endorsement agencies? No? Do you have 36 hours a day to make the posters and find the reviewers/endorsers yourself? No? Do you have the money to get someone else to do it all for you instead?
- Promotion is time consuming and time spent not writing, but it works. 17 ratings on Goodreads may seem a low amount to most authors (shh, I’m going somewhere with this), but there are plenty of self-published (and agency-published) books out there that go their whole first year without. one. single. review. Oh, the horror.
- Visual aids help even the most learned of readers. Have a promotion? Then declare: FREE EBOOK! Now let’s try something more visual:
FREE EBOOK!
Slightly more eye-catching? no?
- Free ebook giveaways are better than discounted ebook sales. Whilst this is true for unknown authors like myself, someone like J. K. Rowling would probably benefit more from a discounted ebook giveaway bonanza. When I ran my Kindle Countdown deal with a discount on my novel, I achieved a grand total of 3 downloads. Better than none, obviously, and those people are probably more likely to leave a review. When I ran the free equivalent I got over 500 downloads. Have any of those people read my novel yet? There’s no way to tell. But it got me in the top five of the Arthurian books category for a couple of days at least (side note: Harry Potter is NOT ARTHURIAN!).
- Try to keep up with your social media appearances. Homely images of your novel next to coffee on Instagram will draw attention, or pen a declaration of how actively you are living the life of a writer. Share something like: New ideas for new scenes today. Writing from the heart, with a picture of you gazing out of a coffeeshop window. I haven’t tried it yet, but I see other people posting such stuff on Instagram and they get more likes than me, so they must be doing something right.
An update.
Hello, hello. Yes, it has been horribly long since my last blog post or update. I suppose this is the point where I rattle off the relevant excuses – work and life in general – reasons why I have not penned anything much of late. Blog posts are usually low down on my list of priorities and I do admire those authors who manage to fire one off daily (monthly would be an achievement for me). They are important, but when you have your next novel pushing to be written or artwork needing to be produced, it’s difficult to fit them into a routine.
So, a quick summary of where I’m at. Logres Volume One: Book Two – still not fully drafted. My children’s book – where it was about 6 months ago. I think it’s safe to say that 2016 was not a good year for me creatively. There was far too much going on and not nearly enough time to focus on the projects I wanted to see finished. Being knocked into the cycle of ‘working to afford somewhere to live close to where you work so you can afford to live somewhere you can work‘ absorbed more recourses than I anticipated, and any free time that I did have left me feeling uninspired and unable to produce anything of any real substance.
It’s been over a year since I self-published The Future King: Logres, and though reviews are still trickling in it’s been tough accumulating them. I’ve learned a lot about self-promotion and advertising this year, have been burned by one or two ‘reviewers’ (be weary of the ones who approach you asking for free copies of your work), and understand well why people prefer to have publishers. Had I not had to do all the promotional work myself I’d have had more time for writing. Well, no excuses this year – I’ve done what I can. The reviews will hopefully come in eventually, more (with some luck) once I publish Book Two. This year it is my goal to kick myself past my own goalposts.
My new year’s resolutions list is expanding and ever-changing like some organised hydra (scratch one thing off, three more appear), but the core aspect of it is that I need to write, I need to draw and I need to get my next novel properly drafted. It has to be extracted – no ifs, no buts – and it needs to happen sooner rather than later.
The first step is to be more transparent about my writing progress, it’s the only way to hold myself to my new goals. It worked the first time round, posting word count updates on Facebook like some race against myself, so I’m hoping it’ll work this time if I update my homepage with daily (being optimistic here) word counts.
So you’re aware I’m starting my next draft from scratch, starting on Monday (that’s the 16th), working with what I already have and refreshing myself by reading The Future King: Logres from a new viewpoint. If you’re feeling impatient and think I should be working faster – you’re probably right, but in the meantime you can help by spreading the word about The Future King if you enjoyed it. Then if the reviews keep coming in while I’m writing my next draft, it’ll be at least one thing from my new year’s list that will be taken off my mind.
Author Interview: M.L. Mackworth-Praed
Brilliant in-depth questions by Read Watch And Think. Very pleased to have taken part in this interview conducted by the lovely Merril Anil! Check it out!
She is an artist, a model and an even brilliant author. Where usually people would prefer light and breezy romance for their first book, M.L. Mackworth-Praed had brought out a strong content that will not only make you stop and think but force you to take a look at your surroundings and urge you to question the world we live in and start noticing things that on any other day we would have happily avoided. A book with various layers, THE FUTURE KING: LOGRES is a true reflection of its creator, who herself is not far behind in intrigue level. Her words just unravel the amazing person she is. Catch M.L. Mackworth-Praed in a wonderful chat with us.
Q1
I happened to notice that you had the mention of both illustrator and model as being part of your career. So from that arc to being a writer. Was that something that happened…
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BOOK REVIEW
Great read to review by Nishtha on her review blog, The Best What To Read Next!
THE FUTURE KING – LOGRES
Blurb –
Britain, 2052. In a world of war, disease and hunger the UK stands alone as a beacon of prosperity under an all-powerful ruling party. Life at new school Logres seems promising for fifteen-year-old Gwenhwyfar, and quickly she falls for the school’s handsome catch, Arthur. When Arthur’s rival, Lancelot, returns after a suspension, her heart is soon divided. Realising that behind the UK’s prosperity lies unspeakable cruelty, Gwenhwyfar sets off on a path to dismantle everything the government stands for. Suspenseful, raw and awash in a dystopian setting, The Future King: Logres is a story of identity and discovery against this backdrop, the second coming of the Arthurian legend.
My Review – I had two books in hand when I started reading this week. One of them was “ A Game of thrones (A song of ice and fire Part 1)” and another…
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