Described as ’One of the world's top ten creative writing holidays’ by The Daily Telegraph, we were delighted to hear about two new courses just announced from our company members. The Novelry.

The Bridport Retreat 5-11 November 2019. £695.

The 6-day writing retreat. (Includes The Complete Novel Course to take in advance of the retreat.) Enjoy peace and plenty and the like-minded company of other writers in the Manor in rural Dorset. Luxurious bedding and soft pillows for serious slumber. Includes breakfasts and home-cooked dinners, and homemade cake at tea time. After-dinner readings. Benefit from a one to one session with author and tutor Louise Dean to make a plan for your path to publication. Rest, and write. Just ten places to guarantee writers pace and the attention their work deserves. Enjoy a trip to Bridport and the scenic coastal walks. Book now.

The Full English Course 2-9 February 2020. £975.

A 7-day coached course with daily lessons and guest speakers to take your writing to the next level.  Guest speaker - Sophie Hannah. Morning lessons with an award-winning author  will remind you of the obvious and wonderful and help you focus on realizing your highest ambitions. One to one afternoon sessions with author Louise Dean to explore your plot and concept and give feedback on your writing. Evenings of food, fun and chat with like-minded writers. Includes home-cooked meals. Crack your novel and find new inspiration. Book now.

Ahead of her 7th October, Byte Breakfast Bookbusting: How Do you Find or Become a Ghostwriter? Hannah Renier, gives us the lowdown on becoming a Ghostwriter.

So You Want to Be a Ghostwriter? Then let’s talk about you.

Maybe you’re already a published writer and your agent has asked you for a celebrity’s ‘autobiography’. If your agent is competent, the publisher’s advance, the royalties and all the legal commitments should be satisfyingly agreeable to you. All you have to worry about is: first, whether or not you feel competent to write this, and second, whether or not you and the celebrity can share space on this earth without fighting like cats in a bag.

Competence isn’t always straightforward. I, for instance, would be wary about writing for a musician. The ghostwriter has to bring a story to life, in part by riffing on whatever she’s told - adding the telling detail which most people don’t notice and therefore won’t share with you. This may come from your own experience, your sense of humour or from research into specifics, but it has to sound authentic and if you can’t relate sufficiently to the subject matter you may be the wrong writer.

Cats in a bag? Every ghostwriter is approached by a manipulative narcissist at some point. Beware. Meet your subject face to face and talk before you commit to anything.

For the semi-published… Many would-be ghostwriters I’ve come across haven’t had a book accepted by a traditional publisher and don’t have an agent; or they have and do, but they want to work on a private project. The advice below is for you if you’re simply considering writing a book for, and about, the experiences of a living person whose celebrity alone won’t dazzle HarperCollins. It’s based on my opinion, which can change, and it’s not comprehensive. But here it is.

As a ghostwriter, you are not a journalist. You are telling the story as your subject/client sees it and in that sense, you’re a cab-for-hire.

Please protect both parties with a legally approved contract. Figure out the payment structure and conditions you want and need, and have a short letter contract drawn up by a specialist media lawyer. (Yes, £££; but it’s imperative.) Figure out how you propose to work with the client, how long the book will be, and when you’ll be free to do so – your start date and deadline for delivery will be in the final contract. Describe, in the contract, the kind of book it’s going to be. Protect yourself against defamation suits. Protect the client by including a confidentiality clause. Decide whether or not you want your name to appear along with your client’s (this has implications for Public Lending Right payments). Undertake to supply work of a publishable standard. Insert something about supplying work in progress at some point, and express a willingness to make changes after the deadline up to an agreed limit and within a certain time. Make it clear whether you want a share of copyright or not – it’s a decision that will make a difference to your fee and should be considered along with tax and overheads when you’re working out what to charge. Define who’s going to pay for any travel costs or research fees and whether the client undertakes to supply you with documents, photographs or any other material.

Make a rough draft of your requirements before you visit a media lawyer and take it to your meeting. (Time is money, and their time can be loads of money.) You’ll receive a draft and if it’s not what you want, discuss alterations with the lawyer. It is important.

Be honourable. People will tell you their secrets and your confidentiality clause should protect all concerned.

Should you be approached by a client with his/her own contract, be careful; it may have been drawn up by a non-specialist. Society of Authors members have access to an experienced team who advise on contracts for free. Conditions of membership are at societyofauthors.org. If you don’t qualify, you can still read their guidelines on ghostwriting - free to members, and cheap for everyone else.

Consider the fate of your work. As a writer you don’t have to get involved in submission of the manuscript or publication, but you do (I hope) undertake to provide work of a publishable standard. If you know you write well but your spelling and punctuation are weak, it’s up to you to hire a proof-reader before the final draft – and to consider that cost as an overhead when setting your fee.

If you cede copyright and waive moral rights, so far as I know (I’m not a lawyer) you can’t stop the ‘Author’ (the person for whom you’ve been writing) from adding, pre-publication, a clichéd paragraph that ruins Chapter 11, a lie based on ignorance, or an Introduction which is three pages of drivel about the meaning of life.

It happens. Comfort yourself, if you’ve written anonymously, that your name won’t be on it. Move on to the next book.

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From her armchair in the middle of London, she's produced action-packed memoirs, one of which is now a Netflix film, plus how-to books, self-help, funny stories and a dog blog. Ghostwriting has also meant travelling – all over the place, from Djakarta to Rochdale via Texas – for stories about real-life dilemmas and conflicts in business, the law, television, popular science and marriage. (And much more. But never music; she's clueless about music.) Right now she's writing a fictionalised account of certain business dealings for a client. 

You can contact her via http://ghost-writer.co.uk, by text at 075 0088 7514. On Twitter she is @nearlyapalindro.

Finally if you are interested in the world of ghostwriting either thinking of working as one who want to employ one, come join us for Byte Breakfast Bookbusting: How Do you Find or Become a Ghostwriter? The event runs from 8:30am to 10:30am on 7th October at the Groucho Club, London. Ticket are £25* for members and £35* for non-members and include a buffet breakfast. All tickets can be booked here.

*Plus VAT and Booking fee.

It was a hot day in Egypt. The dry heat left every fold of skin sticky with sweat.

My body was heavy, my abdomen swollen with blood. It was my time of the month and I could taste the iron in my saliva. My lower back ached. My womb pulsed with the effort of discarding the unfertilised egg. And with the heat I was fighting nausea.

We were going on a ride through the Sahara, skirting the edges of the pyramids of Giza, dipping in and out of the heat into villages clinging to small tributaries of the Nile. My head was filled with stories of female genital mutilation from a book I had slipped from my mother’s bedside table. The cutting and taming of female desire. Sewing thorns between labia so that pain could speak its morality even if a husband was the first to use its words.

I was on holiday from school. We were in a large group, but on my stallion, whose skittish energy had already nearly thrown me to the ground, I was deliciously aloof, alone in the self-absorbed way so particular to youth. I was imagining a future in which my dreams would be realised and I would be recognised as someone of value, someone whose beauty and opinions held worth.

Sand peppered my senses but now and again the whiff of something moist, slowly desiccating in the heat to the accompaniment of flies, brought the sharp vinegared scent of death across the sweet familiar sweat of the horse beneath me.

I was in love with the elder son of my father’s colleague. Looking back it was probably painfully obvious. He didn’t seem to care. His brother was riding a donkey, his legs comically splayed around its back, struggling to stay upright; he needed to be the comedian. His brother had leached the genes of all their good looks. So unfair that one sibling should be blessed with all the bits society deems attractive leaving the other with the rest. He was so tireless in his attempt to amuse us that we had developed a refrain in response: it’s not funny anymore, Richie. He rode between me and the group, a colourful rag rug as a makeshift saddle beneath him. The beloved brother was several horses in front, the haunches of his steed covered in raw pink patches of whipped skin whose yellow weepage was surrounded by flies. His cruelty repulsed and attracted me; my desire naively masochistic and easily influenced by the harsh cloudless blue of his eyes. 

We had already passed lesser pyramids, the stones smaller and of a redder rock whose edges had been worn rough by time and the harsh particles of sand thrown at them in the wind. We had seen the bright shine of a buffalo skull half buried in a dune, its horns surprisingly pale, the empty holes suggestive of what could never be refilled. 

The heat was increasing with the passing hours and we turned towards the shade of a patch of trees, darkness growing with the nearness and scent of slow flowing water. There were huts in the distance. Children scratching at dirt - their eyes and stomachs wide, flies crawling at the corners of their eyes and massing in the folds of their cracking lips - turned their attention in our direction. Baksheesh, baksheesh. The guides shooed them away, but like insects around a wound they insisted. They ran alongside us. They chased at our horses’ hooves and dared to slap the flats of their hands on the donkey. 

That was when she appeared, her red scarf framing skin the colour of oak bark. She looked about my age.

She was standing across the bridge - a short wooden path covered in dirt - that spanned what could really only be called a stream, though the depth from the path to the water suggested it was once a healthy flow. The path beside the stream was narrow, more like a track, its passage uneven, muddy in parts.

She shouted at the children rushing around us - I did not understand what - and in the exchange that followed, she looked over at our party and caught my eye. Everything seemed to fall silent. No trickle of water, no snort of horse breath, no buzz of fly, or thud of hoof, or child’s shout sounded in an air that was suddenly gelid with an immobility of time. There was space, regardless of distance, to see the flecks of green within the brown of her eyes. It seemed as if we were speaking in the silence of our mutual glance - sharing an exchange of memory, a swapping of bodies, a slippage of self into other that found thought enlivened by unfamiliar flesh. I imagined her childhood, her responsibilities to the household, her childcare, the feel of her matted hair upon my scalp and the roughness of the cloth about my head and around my body; how it was to ignore the tickle of a visiting fly, what it meant to lie down at night without a bed and with an ongoing gnawing hunger that stole from thought, the movements of my bare feet, the effort of lifting water from a dwindling stream, the stolen moments of peace, the feel of my mother’s hands, the sting of the khol drawn around my eyes, the pleasure of tearing flat bread with my teeth. And I was sure she imagined me, saw right into the beast of me where the wind blew the sand through my bones.

And then Richie fell from his donkey. The girl called the startled children away and the ride ended in an expat barbecue with the pyramids as its backdrop, us teenagers jumping into our parents’ jeeps and riding over the sand dunes as if we ruled the world.

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If you are interested in showcasing one of your short stories  please get in touch at info@bytethebook.com

Rebekah runs membership of Byte The Book and is also a prize-winning writer, editor and creative writing teacher. Her novel Home, about a corrupt care home, was published by Red Button Publishing and Glitches, her short story chapbook, is published by Acorn Books.

Rebekah has worked as a creative writing lecturer in several settings for nearly ten years, devising and delivering workshops for City University, City Short Courses, Bishopsgate Institute, Emmanuel College Cambridge, Pembroke College Cambridge, the Guardian and the Graham Greene Festival. Passionate about literature, Rebekah’s second novel is currently being considered by agents and she writes a blog reviewing a different novel every week. You can find out more about Rebekah and her work on lattin-rawstrone.com.

She can be contacted at rebekah@bytethebook.com.

In this month's Byte Experts Softwire's' Andy Smart, gives us his six steps to choosing the right partner for your development project.

Andy has worked in technology since 1996 and joined Softwire in 2008 to help promote their fast growing software development capability. Softwire has a strong track record in delivering high quality software and application solutions. They work with the likes of BBC, Channel 5, David Lloyd Leisure and Royal Opera House.

He tells us:

Outsourcing digital projects or application development isn’t easy. These initiatives typically have a lot riding on them, so it’s vital you pick the right partner for the journey.

When you dip into the market, you’re presented with an almost bewildering amount of choice: countless businesses large and small making compelling but all slightly different promises on their websites. Unless you’ve got a personal recommendation or have worked with someone before, how do you sift through the many suppliers to find the right one?

We’ve put together six things to think about as you choose a partner for your next digital project.

1. Meet their people

You and your colleagues are going to be working with a variety of people in this organisation on a regular basis, and trusting them to be part of your important initiative.

So before you select a digital partner, get to know their employees and the company’s ethos when it comes to recruitment and retention. Because as well as affecting continuity on your project, high staff turnover could be an indicator of low morale and poor engagement, which can be reflected in people’s work.

Where does the business recruit from? What is its attitude to continuous improvement, mentoring and career development? What is its employee retention rate? How happy do its people seem?

To help answer these questions, pay a visit to their offices and ask to meet the most junior and senior team members. Bring the right people from your business along at appropriate times – different individuals will notice different things.

2. Does the partner understand what you’re trying to achieve?

It’s important to test how well the partner understands the purpose and overarching goals of your project. Do they ‘get’ where this piece fits in your bigger puzzle?

For example, the new application you want may be key to a wider drive to better communicate a highly complex message with a knowledgeable audience. Does the partner genuinely understand this need and the nuances it brings, or is this ‘just another identikit web app’ to them?

If the partner understands what you’re trying to do at a high level, drill down to find out how they’ll gather requirements and translate these into estimates and actionable chunks of work. User epics and stories are a great way of doing this, because they can be reviewed by your non-technical stakeholders.

3. Have they got the technical expertise?

Some digital projects require deeper technical expertise than others. If you’re building a relatively straightforward website, for example, most digital agencies will have the capabilities and experience to do this. But be aware that even seemingly simple projects can have technical complexities. And if you’re doing something more sophisticated, or indeed, breaking new ground in any way, you’re likely to need more specialised digital engineering skills and experience, which a generalist agency may not have.

4. Are their processes flexible?

As your digital project progresses, needs and understandings can evolve, new technologies emerge and, let’s face it, things don’t always go to plan. You need to be working with an organisation that offers the flexibility to innovate and deal confidently with changes, risks and uncertainty.

Does your partner have a flexible and reliable process for incorporating changes, without compromising the overarching purpose? Do their people have the knowledge, experience and authority to know when and how to apply this process?

5. How will they communicate?

Closely linked to the previous point is how the partner will communicate with you during delivery. How will they report current status? How do they manage dependencies? Will they stay on the front foot by proactively notifying you of issues, risks and challenges?

One size doesn’t fit all, so be clear about what’s important for you and your colleagues to see and hear.

Be sceptical of a partner who isn’t transparent, or wants to force a very rigid process on you. You’re the customer, and it’s important you get the information you need, when you need it.

6. Are they commercially flexible?

Lastly, there’s the question of how you’ll pay the partner for their efforts. The obvious options are fixed-price or time and materials (T&M). There are also hybrids, such as ‘price per point’, where you assign each feature a points score based on the relative effort required to deliver it. This makes it easy to see where time is being spent, and is a huge help when it comes to prioritising features in an informed way.

Talk to the business about how they’ll measure success – some will be genuinely committed to delivering business value for you, where others may see getting paid as their number one aim. The former are likely to be more flexible, which is incredibly important, given things are likely to evolve as the project progresses. You want a commercial setup that allows for this. Be wary of inflexibility, because this is likely to harden if the project runs into difficulties.

Take the time to get it right

Put together, these things will give you a good idea of whether the organisation you’re talking to is going to be a good fit for your needs.

If the first few organisations you speak to don’t feel like the right match, keep looking. The importance of what you’re doing means it’s best to take a bit of time now to find the right partner. It will almost invariably result in a quicker and/or more pleasant digital journey.

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You can also find out more the genius that is Softwire on their site www.softwire.com. if you’re interested in discussing a digital project, please call them on 020 7485 7500 and ask for Andy Smart or Helen Jeffers.

Words by Chris Russell, photos by Craig Simmonds

Returning to the Groucho Club for its June event, sponsored by Frankfurter Buchmesse, Byte The Book asked the question: “What Does The Future of Culture and Storytelling Look Like?” Tortoise’s Michael Kowalski chaired the three-strong panel, which comprised Alex Holmes of Mostly Lit, Ines Bachor from the Frankfurt Book Fair and Pan Macmillan’s James Luscombe.

The Panel, from left to right: James Luscombe, Michael Kowalski, Alex Holmes and Ines Bachor.

“Humans are generally quite bad at thinking about the future,” began Michael. “For instance, if you’d asked people ten years ago to predict what would happen with audio, very few would have anticipated the extraordinary rise of podcasting.” So what, he wondered, were the panel’s thoughts about where storytelling is headed in the coming years? “Immersive storytelling is becoming a big thing,” replied Ines, and podcaster Alex agreed. “Stories are nothing new,” he said, “but nowadays people are looking for immersive stories, for ways to be engaged and entertained all the time. Many rarely leave the house without headphones on.”

Representatives of our sponsors, Frankfurter Buchmesse, Ines Bachor and Alex Hippisley-Cox.

James, meanwhile, shed some light on where Pan Macmillan have been focussing their efforts. “We’re always looking to innovate,” he explained, “and we’ve recently been playing around with chatbots. We’ve been working on a voice app too, although it turns out they’re incredibly hard to get right!” He also put his money on the ‘next big thing’ being AI and machine-learning, but added that “this does kind of terrify me, because it has no governance. At PM we’ve talked about the idea of an AI slushpile, but in reality, because of bias, it might end up missing lots of great writing”.

An attentive audience, packed in tight, listening to Alex Holmes.

The discussion then moved on to the concept of narrative itself. “It’s always been a huge problem with life that it has no plot,” joked Michael, “but are we now moving towards more storied lives?” Ines was unequivocal: “Everyone in this room is on some kind of social media,” she asserted, “and social media makes everyone a storyteller … so in that sense, we already live in a highly storified world.” The rest of the panel agreed with this, but expressed their concerns about the negative connotations of the trend. “We produce millions of stories every day via Instagram, Snapchat and so on, and I do worry about the quality of all this marketing ‘content’,” said James. “It’s important that there’s still a way to find the good stuff.” Similarly, Alex warned of the misleading nature of social media. “The wellbeing factor in the UK is very low because people are searching for human connections, and while they think they’re getting these through a screen, they’re actually not. In the future we need to find ways to turn these digital connections into real-life ones.”

Great networking, as always at Byte The Book.

The evening reached an interesting conclusion when author and Byte The Book member Rohan Quine asked the rest of the audience how many people were regularly using voice recognition technology, and only around a quarter raised their hand. “We’re in a bit of an in-between phase with AI,” commented James, “and it’s difficult to predict how things will pan out.” Even so, amidst the uncertainty, there was a consensus that the important traditions die hard; or, as Ines put it: “We live in a highly technical world, and yet more and more of us are being drawn back to oral storytelling … and that’s been around forever.”

If you enjoyed this report and want to keep up with the latest happenings in publishing as well as network with publishers and authors alike keep yourself posted by visiting our events page here. You can join us from £36 a quarter here.

More photos can be found on our Facebook Page.

Ever wondered what our events are like? Want to catch up on what was said.
Take a look on You Tube for a full filming of our April 2019 event at the H Club here.

Introducing a new section to our newsletter: Job of the Month. This month we're highlighting the Editorial Assistant role at pebble magazine. If you're interested in sharing job opportunities with our network, do get in touch at info@bytethebook.com.

Pebble  magazine launched 2.5 years ago and has fast become the authority for stylish, sustainable living.

This is a rare role in a fast growing digital publication. As part of a small team you will be exposed to every aspect of running an independent digital company.

The role is full time and based in Margate. It is a 12 month contract role, with the opportunity to extend for the right candidate.

Please send a covering letter, samples of any published writing and your CV to editor@pebblemag.com

Pebble is an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status.

You can see the full job description and full details here.

Words by Chris Russell, photos by Craig Simmonds

In an increasingly crowded marketplace, authors are constantly searching for the most effective ways to market their books. For its April event, Byte the Book returned to Covent Garden’s h Club to tackle this topic with a four-strong panel, comprising chair Hermione Ireland (Little, Brown), literary agent Julia Silk (Kingsford Campbell), publicist Truda Spruyt (Four Communications) and author/publisher Kit Caless (Influx Press).

Our panel from left to right: Hermione Ireland (chair), Julia Silk, Truda Spruyt and Kit Caless

Hermione opened the floor with a single question: what is the most important thing an author can do to market their books? “Build a community online,” responded Julia, a keen social media advocate who attributes much of her career progression to the networking power of Twitter. “But remember,” she added, “it’s not about selling your product so much as it’s about promoting yourself. Randomly tweeting your book link at people is rarely a good idea”. Interestingly, Kit entered the conversation from the opposite perspective, theorising that we may be at a tipping point for authors on social media. “I think it was very relevant five years ago,” he said, “but maybe not so much now, or in the next five to ten years”.

Another packed house at the h Club

What practical marketing tips, continued Hermione, did the panellists have for authors? “Seek external help,” advised Truda, “but don’t wait until your book is already out, because it’ll be too late. Approach people three to six months before publication”. Julia, meanwhile, extolled the virtues of local bookshops, particularly for literary fiction authors. “Locate twenty or thirty bookshops in your local area,” she suggested, “and visit them in turn. Even if you only manage to sell five books in each, you’ll have achieved a decent chunk of sales”. Kit raised the issue of price points, referencing his own book, Spoon’s Carpets, as a case study. When pricing Spoon’s Carpets: An Appreciation — a tongue-in-cheek celebration of the carpets found in Wetherspoon’s pubs across the UK — Kit was careful to consider his audience. “You can’t have a book about Wetherspoon’s that costs more than three pints in a ‘Spoon’s pub, so I fought hard to keep the price point low”.

Plenty of great networking as always

Related to price points, the panel also discussed the significance of digital algorithms and meta-data. “Meta-data is hugely important,” stressed Julia, “and in fact, some big publishers have whole basements full of tech people working on these things”. Truda pointed out that Facebook advertising has become much more targeted and effective in the last few years — a fact that many publishers and self-published authors are using to their advantage — and Amazon’s micro-categories were also praised, since ranking highly in these niche categories can boost a book’s visibility in the more mainstream charts.

We learned a lot and had fun too!

Next, an author in the audience, currently around five months from publication, asked the panel what he should be discussing with his publisher at an upcoming marketing meeting. “Ask for communication,” replied Julia. “If you don’t know what to expect or what’s expected of you, you can end up feeling as if promises haven’t been fulfilled”. Finally, in a soundbite that was on Twitter within seconds, she added: “Publishing is alchemy at every stage. You never know quite what’s going to happen”.

You can access full video footage of the event here.

If you enjoyed this report and want to keep up with the latest happenings in publishing as well as network with publishers and authors alike keep yourself posted by visiting our events page here. You can join us from £36 a quarter here

More photos can be found on our Facebook Page

Simon Appleby runs Bookswarm, a digital agency dedicated to the world of books. Bookswarm specialises in creating wonderful websites for book publishers, authors, agents, bookshops and others in the world of publishing.

Since founding Bookswarm in 2008, Simon has worked on websites for numerous authors, from household names like Stephen King and P.D. James to debut authors, poets and self-published authors across a wide range of genres. Bookswarm are currently working on new websites for Jonathan Coe, Dorothy Koomson and Holly Bourne.

All this experience has given Simon a lot of ideas about what makes effective content for author websites. We asked him to share some of them with Byte The Book readers.

Be honest with yourself

When designing a website, it’s vitally important to consider your ability and inclination as an author to create relevant, interesting content.

We know that the thought of having to constantly feed a website with new material can be off-putting for some authors. If blogging is not a realistic proposition, then look for alternative ways to update content that suit your writing style and schedule. Possibilities include news, bulletins or quarterly letters from you to your readers.

Tailor the site content to your interests. There might be a particular angle on your writing that you find particularly exciting. Perhaps you want to talk about your research, your inspiration, your writing process or your wider reading within your genre of choice. Those are all valid approaches. Remember: it’s important that you’re comfortable with the content that you share, and it doesn’t have to be deeply personal to be effective and interesting.<

Don’t allow sections of a website to sit empty, out-of-date or rarely updated, whether they contain a blog, an events section or a news feed. It’s better to start without these sections than have a website which doesn’t meet the user’s needs. Most website builders and Content Management Systems are flexible, so these sections can usually be added later if needed.

Be social but smart

Social media can be both a blessing and a curse to modern authors. It’s a way for you to connect with readers and raise awareness, but it’s also another thing you have to remember to do and a distraction from the day job. However, social media feeds can be a great way to keep a website fresh and engaging, especially if you’re not in a position to blog or create other content. There are plugins that offer easy and attractive displays or feeds from Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and more. And, for the truly sociable, plugins like Tagregator and Twine Social consolidate updates from across a selection of platforms.

However, don’t embed social media channels in a website if all they do is promote new content on that website. It’s circular and potentially a waste of valuable screen real estate.

Make sure that you are clear about the unique strengths of each social media platform, and that the social media platforms you choose to embed complement your style and your personality.

Feed the thirst for insider info

One of the main attractions for visitors to authors’ websites, especially those of established authors, is information about their books. So it’s vital to offer content to visitors that they can’t get on any book retailer site or publishers’ sites. This content can include extra information about the background to a book or how it came to be written, photos of locations, research notes or other insights. You can also add contextual metadata, such as series reading order or character profiles.

You may also want to include information about out-of-print books and overseas editions and translations, depending on your market. Under no circumstances should your website offer less information than readers can find on mainstream retailers’ sites. And try to make sure book information is never incomplete or missing. The user will have little incentive to come back.

For help with your websites Simon can be contacted via:

Email: simon.appleby@bookswarm.co.uk
Mobile: 07847 912989
Skype: simonappleby77

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FOLLOW @BOOKSWARMBARK ON TWITTER