Robert N. Macomber is the author of Code of Honor, the 16th book in the “Honor Series.” A former Dept. of Defense consultant and an accomplished seaman, he was named Florida Writer of the Year in 2020 by the FL Writers Association.
Toni Mount is the author of The Color of Rubies, the 10th book in the “Sebastian Foxley Medieval Murder Mystery Series.” A Medieval historian, she is the author of several non-fiction books and writes regularly for The Richard III Society and The Tudor Society.
Nancy Jardine is the author of Before Beltane. A former teacher, she spends her retirement writing historical and contemporary fiction, focusing on Roman Britain & Victorian and Edwardian mysteries. She won the Scottish Association of Writers Best Self-Published Book Award in 2017.
Sophia Alexander is the author of Tapestry: A Lowcountry Rapunzel, part of The Silk Trilogy, a Southern Gothic family saga set in the Lowcountry of South Carolina at the turn of the century. Sophia is a graduate of the College of Charleston and lives with her husband in Savannah, GA.
Joyce St. Anthony is the author of Front Page Murder, a Homefront News Mystery featuring a young, small-town editor during WWII with a nose for news and an eye for clues. A native of Pittsburgh, she lives in the beautiful Laurel Highlands of Pennsylvania with her husband and two cats.J.C. (Jacky) Harvey is the author of The Silver Wolf. She was born in the wilds of Suffolk, and grew up surrounded by farms and animals. Her first book, Red: A History of the Redhead, was a NY Times bestseller. She commutes between London and New York.
First off, please tell us a little about yourself. How did you
start writing historical fiction?
M.K. Tod: I began writing historical fiction while living in Hong Kong as an expat. Accustomed to working full time and spending time with family and friends, moving to Hong Kong was not only a cultural shock, but also a personal shock. My husband travelled almost every week to one or more of the fourteen countries under his oversight, while I tried hard to find activities to keep me busy. After several months, I conceived the idea of researching my grandparents’ lives and the rest, as they say, is history. This led to a fascination with WWI and a historical novel titled, Unraveled.
Robert Macomber: I planned the “Honor Series” to be a new niche in the established genre of historical naval novels to include the private life and career of an American naval (intelligence) officer, illuminating the real places, people, and events in world history from 1863 through WWI, which still shape our world today.
Toni Mount: I’ve always adored historical fiction since discovering Jean Plaidy as a teenager. Sharron Penman’s Sunne in Splendour inspired me to write my first epic trilogy. Later, in 2009, I signed up for a creative writing course with the Open University and enjoyed it so much, I did the advanced course the following year. When the course ended, a few of us formed an on-line forum to complete our novels. At the time, I was also writing courses for an online history publisher, and during a lull in production, they asked me if I had anything that might interest them. Cheekily, I said I had a novel ready to go. He asked for the first three chapters, loved it, and the rest, they say, is history.
Nancy Jardine: While I was a teacher, I was asked to write a couple of projects on local history which turned into books that became very successful locally. It was when I retired in 2011 that I became serious about writing historical fiction.
Sophia Alexander: I’ve always had a passion for genealogy, but progress on my granny’s side was stymied with rumors of her adoption, which she denied. As I unearthed bits of information here and there, I tried to fathom scenarios that made sense of all the pieces. I had been stewing on that family confusion for decades before a friend suggested I write a book about it, which I didn’t attempt until I ran into a 30-Days-to-Your-Novel kit in the bookstore, and it seemed fated. I completed a first draft of my novel in 30 days in 2010, and spent about ten years revising it. It was as if my friend’s suggestion granted me permission to become an author. I’ve been writing fiction ever since. It’s amazing how a few words of encouragement from a friend can impact our lives.
Joyce St. Anthony: I’ve always loved the World War II era and when my previous contemporary mystery series wasn’t continued, I decided to try my hand at writing something set in the 1940’s
J.C Harvey: Like many writers, writing was all I ever wanted to do. But instead of a career as a novelist, I started out as a nonfiction editor and publisher. I only began to apply myself seriously to the writing of The Silver Wolf in 2019 after a period of ill-health, which culminated in me finding myself outside a doctor’s office, waiting to hear if I had a particularly nasty form of cancer. My strongest emotion wasn’t fear for myself; it was fury that I might never get to write this story. The possibility that my time was limited lit a fire underneath me, even though the verdict was "You're fine."
Congratulations on your new book! What inspired you to write it?
Is it part of a series?
M.K Tod: The Admiral’s Wife began as a contemporary novel with the notion of exploring my time as an expat through the story of four women who had each moved to Hong Kong. Lake Union, my publisher at the time, had other ideas. They suggested that I turn the novel into a dual timeline. As you can imagine, this was a challenging request. The Admiral’s Wife is the result. At the moment, it’s not part of a series; however, I have a few thoughts about a sequel.
Robert Macomber: In the mid-1990’s, people who were familiar with my lectures and non-fiction articles suggested I do a series similar to Forester’s Horatio Hornblower. So, I gave it a try, and that’s how the “Honor Series” was conceived and finally born in 2000 with a publisher’s contract for the first book. Code of Honor is the latest installment.
Toni Mount: My first novel, The Color of Poison, was published in 2016 and when it was about to go live on Amazon, you have to say if it’s part of a series. My publisher phoned, frantic – ‘Is this going to be a series, Toni? Need to know now!’ Er, well, … ‘Yes.’ That was the moment that changed my life forever. My new book, The Color of Rubies is the 10th in the Sebastian Foxley Medieval murder mysteries.
Nancy Jardine: Before Beltane is a prequel to my Celtic Fervor Series, which already has 5 books. Some readers of my series wished they’d had more historical background regarding Book 1 in the series, The Beltane Choice. Other reviewers wanted to know more about what my main characters (Lorcan and Nara) were like before their tempestuous first meeting. Before Beltane delves into the background of both characters.
Sophia Alexander: Tapestry is the 2nd installment in my "Silk Trilogy—a Southern Gothic family Saga" that spans 3 generations of women who are all impacted by a single antagonist. I was inspired to write this volume in part by meeting an older gentleman who looked nearly identical to my uncle. And it turned out he was adopted. Since my Granny was from the same town and was also said to have been adopted, I speculated that they may have been siblings. He knew very little about his birth father, and what he told me inspired the doomed love story in Tapestry.
Joyce St. Anthony: My love for the era inspired me. Front Page Murder is the first in the Homefront News Mysteries. Death on a Deadline is the second and will be released November 8, 2020. I’m only contracted for the two books at this point. Whether there will be a third is dependent upon sales of book 1, so I would love for readers to try my book!
J.C. Harvey: My inspiration for The Silver Wolf was Nordlingen, a little town in Germany that is so perfectly preserved from the 17th century that being there is like experiencing a timeslip. I walked around it one evening when I was on holiday, and went back to the hotel with my imagination afire. Characters were stepping out of my head along with an entire narrative arc of what would become a series of three books.
When is your book set, both year, era, and geographical
location?
M.K. Tod: The Admiral’s Wife is set in Hong Kong in 1912-1914 and 2014. The contrast between the small British colony of 1912 and the large, frenzied, and cosmopolitan city of 2014 is enormous. I found many sources of inspiration for early 20th century Hong Kong, and learned a lot about how the British and Chinese cultures blended.
Robert Macomber: Code of Honor is set in 1904-05 during the Russo-Japanese War, when world history changed forever, Russia fell into revolution, and many of today’s conflicts in the Pacific and Europe were just beginning. The book is set in Washington D.C., Germany, St. Petersburg, Russia, Spain, the West coast of Africa and Madagascar, Singapore, Vietnam, Vladivostok, the Trans-Siberian Railway, Ukraine, London, and Portsmouth, NH.
Toni Mount: The Color of Rubies is set in Jan – Feb 1480, during the reign of the Yorkist King Edward IV. It’s set in London and Westminster. Our hero, Seb Foxley even gets to meet the king – and wishes he hadn’t.
Nancy Jardine: Before Beltane takes place in 71AD/CE, or early-Roman Britain. Lorcan’s story takes place in the area that’s now known as Yorkshire and Cumbria in North England, and Nara’s story takes place in South Scotland.
Sophia Alexander: Tapestry begins in 1918 during the Great War and is set in the Lowcountry of South Carolina, about an hour north of Charleston. It concludes in the early 1930s.
Joyce St. Anthony: Front Page Murder is set in a small fictional town in Pennsylvania called Progress. It’s near Pittsburgh, since that was an important manufacturing hub during the war. My fictional factory in Progress makes parts for Jeeps, tanks, ships, etc. The story takes place over a couple of weeks in May of 1942.
J.C. Harvey: The Silver Wolf is set during the Thirty Years War (1618-48). I’m amazed that this period and this pan-European conflict hasn’t been more thoroughly exploited for historical fiction, since it has all the drama, adventure, the horrors that any writer could ask for. The book begins in Amsterdam, then shifts to Germany; there’s a middle section set in France, and then it ends back in Germany, in the forests along the Polish border.
 |
| Colonial Hong Kong is a fascinating setting for a novel. |
How long did it take you to write it? How did the plot
materialize?
Robert Macomber: Eight years to research and write it (all while I worked on other book projects also). The plot materialized out of real history.
Toni Mount: It took about nine months but I was also writing a factual history book at the same time plus magazine articles, blog posts, and running an on-line history class. My plots usually begin with an actual criminal case taken from Medieval, Tudor or later history. The inspiration for this novel came from the murder of Christopher Marlowe in Elizabethan times. Kit was mixed up with spies, secret codes, treason, etc. so there were plenty of ideas to work with. I mix events in Seb Foxley’s own life around the sleuthing and the story takes shape.
Nancy Jardine: It took about 18 months. The initial concept was for two separate novellas of around 30K words each, but that would have meant two Prequels which was too hard a concept for me to swallow. The plots slowly unraveled. The difficulty was ensuring the details would mesh seamlessly with how the story unfolds in the series, particularly in Book 1.
Sophia Alexander: I actually wrote the rough draft of both Silk: Caroline’s Story and Tapestry: A Lowcountry Rapunzel in two 30-day stints, following a course designed by the man who started NaNoWriMo. Both books have been revised and edited repeatedly in the dozen years since I started Silk in 2010. Tapestry’s rough draft was written in the Spring of 2011.
Joyce St. Anthony: I wrote the proposal and three chapters several years ago. When I switched agents, she sent out several proposals and this one was picked up. After I signed the contract, it probably took me somewhere between six and eight months to finish it. I’m not sure where the plot came from. They have a tendency to just pop into my head.
J.C. Harvey: This book has been almost as long in gestation as the war itself! But, in fact, although my interest in this period does go back decades, the plot fell into its final form only after I got an offer from my publisher - but for three books, not one. So, I’ve been reading lots of trilogies to see how other writers construct their plots. But as with so many aspects of writing, you have to work out your own version of all the possible solutions.
Give us a logline or elevator pitch for your novel.
M.K. Tod: The lives of two women living in Hong Kong more than a century apart are unexpectedly linked by forbidden love and financial scandal.
Robert Macomber: Love story, spy story, war story, political story about how today’s conflicts were set 115 years ago.
Toni Mount: A scribe and his brother in Medieval Westminster risk their lives to uncover a murderer in their midst and a spy network intent on treason.
Nancy Jardine: Two lives. Two stories. One future: A new future beckons for Princess Nara of the Selgovae. When Lorcan meets the Druid Maran, the future foretold for him is as enthralling as it is horrifying…
Sophia Alexander: During the Great War, a pair of resilient Southern sisters face separation and trauma at the hands of their sociopathic step-mother.
Joyce St. Anthony: When her ace reporter is murdered and the police think it’s an accident, a small town editor searches for the killer with little to go on other than the note the reporter left saying he was on to a big story.
J.C. Harvey: A rich, dark, panoramic tale of an orphaned boy's quest for truth and vengeance in war-ravaged 17th-century Europe.
What inspired the cover? As you wrote it, did you foresee a
particular cover image?
M.K. Tod: The brief I gave to JD Smith, the cover designer, was to find a way to bring the old and new worlds of Hong Kong together. Hence the red Chinese junk and Asian motifs, the new skyline of the city and a dazzling woman who could almost live in either era.
Robert Macomber: Simple vivid graphic of the crossed Russian imperial naval ensign and the Japanese imperial naval ensign, set below the title and subtitle. I foresaw that imagery, but the publisher’s graphic arts team made it happen.
Toni Mount: I was inspired by stained glass. My protagonist is crazy about color; hence the titles of the Seb Foxley series. I give my publisher my initial idea, who gives it to their artists, who always exceed expectations.
Nancy Jardine: The cover needed to match the existing set of 5 covers so there are common elements in all of the book covers – a Celtic knotwork logo, a Roman military element and a character image. Before Beltane has two images, one for Lorcan and one for Nara.
Sophia Alexander: I’d recently read The Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyer (oh hush—I loved them!), and I wanted something as striking as those covers. Since I’d named the books after types of fabric, I wanted fabric backgrounds for the covers. Silk has only the cloth, but in Tapestry I include a fluted perfume bottle like the one Tommy gives Gaynelle and a heart-shaped necklace like the one Vivian receives from her father. Both of those presents were given during quite touching scenes.
Joyce St. Anthony: The Publisher takes care of that. On the first draft of the cover for Front Page Murder, the protagonist was wearing a beret. I asked them to ditch the beret—she would never wear one! I only make a fuss if the covers are truly horrible. I’ve been lucky so far.
J. C. Harvey: I foresaw an image of a silver wolf, the badge my hero wears, which is an enormously important symbol for him and a driver of the plot. This is the image my publisher will put on the paperback version. But the hardback version is much more historical, with an old parchment feel to it and a wonderful splash of red sealing wax that also suggests a splatter of blood. As I was new to fiction, my publisher also wanted the front cover to feature the reviews we had for the book from better-known writers as well.
 |
| In today's competitive world, a great book cover artist is essential. |
What is the most important aspect about a book cover in 2022?
Does it depend on market segment? How much time did you spend thinking about
the cover?
M.K. Tod: As an author, I have to say that I’m tired of having faceless women on my covers. However, more than one designer has told me that for women’s fiction, this kind of cover image sells. When I saw the image JD Smith created, I was immediately taken with it. And the reaction to this cover has been incredibly positive.
Robert Macomber: Must get the attention of the browser and intrigue them. Keep it simple, vivid, and intriguing.
Toni Mount: Something atmospheric and eye-catching works, often with a hint of menace. It should entice the reader to pick up the book.
Nancy Jardine: High impact. Historical Fiction covers for my era tend to be bold and have imposing images. The bulk of Flavian Roman era fiction (late 1st Century) is military in nature. My books are less military and more about the displaced Celtic natives, so mine highlight both Roman and Celtic imagery. I spend a good amount of time searching image sites to find my ideal Lorcan and Nara images. The Roman part was easier to locate.
Sophia Alexander: A cover needs to catch the reader’s eye. I went for bold colors that draw attention. Also, as cheesy as it may seem to some, I personally am drawn to books with medallions on the covers, so I put energy into entering contests and am fortunate enough to have a few to grace Silk’s cover. Tapestry received a 5-Star Readers’ Favorite medallion, and I lost no time adding that to the cover, just in time for its release.
J.C. Harvey: My mantra is that covers make a promise about a book; a promise that the book then delivers on. The two have to work together. We all – me, my editor, the designer, the sales folk - spent a vast amount of time working on the cover. When I was a publisher, I always felt that the longer you spent on a cover, the better it will be, and I still think that holds true. But a fiction cover has to do so much more. It has to position you, but make you stand out. It has to lure the reader; it has to do everything. But while it may be the front cover that makes the reader pick up the book – that’s its main job – the back cover has to make them want to buy it, open it, and read it. Back covers are almost more important, in my opinion. But then, for the Kindle edition, you only have the one shot, not two. An even bigger challenge! The best advice I’ve had on cover designs for ebooks is to look at them reduced down to a tiny thumbnail. If it still works, then alright. The cover of A. S. Byatt’s The Children’s Book is still a benchmark for me. Astounding palette, really startling single object on the cover, no matter what size or what platform you’re on.
How much input did you have on the cover of your book? If you’re
a self-published author, did you hire a professional designer or did you
provide most of the vision?
Robert Macomber: A fair amount since I was more familiar with the story.
Toni Mount: I have the opportunity to comment, approve, or otherwise but they haven’t failed me yet.
Nancy Jardine: From 2012-2018 I was with mall, indie publishers and they designed the covers. I first self-published in 2016, and was a hybrid author for a while. But I hired a professional to design the cover. I’m now fully self-published and pay for professional cover designs. I provide my designer with possibilities for the figures for Lorcan, Nara and the Roman elements. My designer looks for similar images that he can download with a license, then, after a few tweaks, we come up with the final design.
Sophia Alexander: I made the covers entirely myself. Some people love them. Others don’t. I’ve recently been toying with the notion that the people who are drawn to my covers are more likely to be the ones who enjoy the stories—and perhaps it has something to do with a certain coherence in the fact that the same person both wrote the novels and designed the covers.
Joyce St. Anthony: My publisher asked for my opinion on what should be on the cover, but I don’t remember what I told them. I honestly didn’t think much about it beforehand.
J.C. Harvey: I had a lot of input, but in the end, it’s the publisher who has to sell the book. You have to trust them to do what they’re there to do. For example, I have a weakness for the ‘intriguing clutter’ school of design for book covers. My publisher said, “No, we want clean and clear and emphatic for you.”
What is the hardest part about crafting the blurb and sales
copy? Did you hire a professional to do this part? What are some of the
pitfalls of doing it all by yourself?
M.K. Tod: Most authors will tell you that they hate crafting a blurb and the corresponding marketing material. I certainly played around with the elevator pitch for The Admiral’s Wife, at least four or five attempts and I still want to tweak it! However, I think I’m better at writing these blurbs now, after five novels, than I was in the beginning. An agent once told me to subscribe to Publishers Weekly and look at the deals pages as a way to learn how to craft the elevator pitch. I’ve also picked up some ideas by looking at the book descriptions of top-selling historical fiction authors.
Robert Macomber: The most important aspect is to make it intriguing.
Toni Mount: Blurbs are tricky, trying to give a feel of the book in a minimum of words. I usually just write everything I want to say and then do a drastic pruning. My other half – who never reads my books until they’re actually published – is a genius with blurbs. He turns my 2nd draft into a paragraph that will make him want to read the book while knowing nothing about the story. My publisher often adds a key word or two and that’s it.
Nancy Jardine: I do the blurbs myself, with input from author colleagues at Ocelot Press, our co-operative of authors. They help tweak it to get the final version. I do think an author needs some form of beta-, or editing help, for blurb and sales copy, because sometimes you need an extra set of eyes.
Sophia Alexander: I sometimes find it difficult to be succinct. I don’t consider blurb-writing to be a strong suit for me, but I’m a bit of a control freak and again did that part myself. I’ve learned over time that it’s best to put off the devoted romance readers, who tend to get sad with my story endings. The sales copy has to convey the darker side of my stories, which may otherwise initially draw in those romance readers. I take advantage of magnificent reviewer quotes to bedeck my covers.
J.C. Harvey: Every part of crafting blurb is hard. I was jotting down pithy phrases all the way through the process of writing the book as they occurred to me. I tried to put myself in the position of a salesperson, with the standard 3 seconds to interest a book buyer. I kept asking myself what would intrigue me? How can I whet a buyer’s appetite? And then, even more importantly, what will resonate with me as a reader? The biggest issue we have as writers is whittling down the pithy blurbs into selling phrases."
What is the hardest part about conjuring up an enticing cover
image?
Nancy Jardine: Allocating the time needed to trawl image sites for possibilities. [Editor: Totally agree!]
Sophia Alexander: I went with something more abstract for the image precisely because it would have been difficult to come up with an historically-accurate cover image. I recently tried to hire someone to make a new cover, but wasn’t pleased with the results. I can’t imagine how stressful it would have been if I hadn’t already crafted a cover that I’m fond of.
J.C. Harvey: For me, the endless choices and different directions to go in. Narrowing all the ideas down to something that will actually work is enormously difficult.
 |
| Creating the perfect book cover is part alchemy, part serendipity. |
Did you have a marketing plan going into this project or did it
evolve naturally or are you crafting it as you go along?
M.K. Tod: I confess. I’m a planner. So, I’ve gradually evolved a book marketing approach that I’m comfortable with. At the top of the first page of each marketing plan, I have two equations: AWARENESS + DESIRE = DEMAND and REACH x FREQUENCY = EFFECTIVENESS. In other words, an author’s marketing efforts need to work on all of these elements in order to generate sales.
Toni Mount: Marketing usually consists of blogs on host websites, giveaways and pre-publication reviews and endorsements. I do these for other historical authors and they return the favor.
Nancy Jardine: I paid for launch promotions for Before Beltane on a reputable Historical Blog Tour site. I have also authored guest posts organized for launch day, and a 5-day blog tour in May 2022. Otherwise, Before Beltane has become a part of my daily Twitter & Facebook posting along with my other five Celtic Fervor novels.
Sophia Alexander: Oh, what grand plans I had, yet I haven’t done a fraction of them. I’m so bogged down in details—a perfectionist. I’m trying to be lenient on myself, especially since I was gobsmacked at how difficult it is to have everything ready for the release. Files that look perfect are suddenly botched in the e-book version, paperback orders took weeks to arrive. It was not the launch I’d hoped for. But I’m looking forward to doing more marketing for the audiobook releases.
Joyce St. Anthony: Crooked Lane has a fantastic marketing department. The only thing I really did was arrange for a blog tour and line up a few events.
J.C. Harvey: My experience is that you should start thinking about the marketing plan as early as you can. The minute the book is under contract. But it should also evolve; it should be flexible. New forums, like BookTok, come along all the time, and then Covid changed everything anyway.
What are the necessary ingredients of a successful book marketing
campaign?
M.K. Tod: Marketing is hard work and not very rewarding. The ingredients I always include are an early beta reader team, a virtual book tour, endorsements from known authors, blog posts, newsletters, a focus on securing early reader reviews, and asking for support from the historical fiction author community. I also try to post regularly on social media (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter) in the lead up to release day. Emphasis on the word try. And don’t forget the power of keywords and categories. To augment my marketing efforts, I have used the services of a publicist, marketing professionals, and tried using a publicist, I’ve used a publicist, marketing pro, and paid for keywords and categories advice. I’ve also paid for cover design expertise. Of all of these, I think the best value for the money is the cover designer.
Toni Mount: I’ve used ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies), giveaways, virtual book tours, podcasts, blog writing, loads of posts on social media, author talks and interviews, discounts on previous book in the series, etc. However, it’s hard to tell which methods are the most successful.
Nancy Jardine: Bookbub, ARCs, Goodreads Giveaways, virtual book tours, podcasts, blog writing, email marketing, TikTok, BookTok, live book signings, and in-person talks are all important nowadays. Over the last ten years I’ve tried lots of approaches, with variable results. The most effective for me has been the Virtual Book Tours, but they can be expensive. Live book signings are fun to do so long as the expectation of sales is realistic. I do regular book signings at craft fairs and book fairs, which garner local support. I do author presentations as well on Roman Scottish History, and get sales from these as well, though the number of sales is highly dependent on the type of group I visit.
Sophia Alexander: Hmm, I’m far from the expert on this topic. Book contests are a good way to help readers to identify which books might be good reads. Also press releases. I was mentioned in a couple of newspapers due to press releases, and a journalist helped me get into a bookstore event for Tapestry. But I’m just beginning, and haven’t done a fraction of the usual marketing. I once met a man who peddled his books at a table in the tourist district in Savannah. A filmmaker picked it up and made it into a movie!
Joyce St. Anthony: I don’t do much at all. I’m on Bookbub, but don’t do anything with it. The publisher arranges for ARCs and NetGalley copies. I signed up for a blog tour with Great Escapes blog tours and arranged for a few events.
J.C. Harvey: Goodreads was very good to me, likewise using ARCS, which my publisher presented beautifully and made a real event. I’ve also found talks work really well with spreading the word. For my first book, RED, the community-founding potential of Facebook was also astonishingly useful. Some of my posts had tens of thousands of views! I think you have to craft your approach according to the nature of what you’re selling, to state the completely obvious.
How can authors best reach their target market?
M.K. Tod: The first task is to define your target markets (market segments), which makes me realize that I haven’t done this for The Admiral’s Wife. For each market segment, it’s useful to discover why they read, where they find book recommendations, some demographics about the group, etc. in order to tailor different messages or approaches. For one of my earlier books, I identified ‘Book Club Gals’ as one segment, ‘Historical Fiction Fans’ as another segment, and ‘Travel Through Books’ as a third segment. Each of these segments behaves differently.
Robert Macomber: Make friends with your readers or potential readers! Their spreading the word about your work will be the best marketing you could ever get.
Toni Mount: Get your name known out there by contributing articles to online and print magazine and cooperate with other authors by reviewing and endorsing their work. Most important, make sure you deliver work that is high quality and on time.
Nancy Jardine: That’s a tricky question, and I don’t have an answer. Ideally, being regularly in touch with lots of readers of your genre and era would be wonderful, though that’s not easy to set up and maintain.
Sophia Alexander: What comes instantly to mind is to form relationships with other authors who share the ideal target readers, and to promote each other’s books. Sometimes easier said than done.
Joyce St. Anthony: I wish I knew!
J.C. Harvey: In my view, this is why you should start marketing your book from the get-go, because you have to absolutely know where the market for your book is. You can only best reach your market when you’re confident you have it identified. And when I think of myself as a reader: What brings a book to my attention? How many times does it float across my radar before it gets to my bookshelf? What do I look for? I think my readers have similar requirements for a book – so what works for me?
 |
| Quote by Leon Uris. |
If an author had only a limited budget for marketing, where
would he get the best results? Which marketing tools do you think are the most successful?
Robert Macomber: Speaking engagements and reader events.
Toni Mount: Social media seems to do well and it’s cheap. Ask relevant historical sites to host a blog or a written interview.
Nancy Jardine: Probably Amazon advertising, but it takes a huge effort and some skill to stay on top of it so that it’s manageable cost-wise and generates sales.
Sophia Alexander: I’m guessing on-air time with podcasts or local radio shows. That should be nearly free, and it gives good exposure.
Joyce St. Anthony: I love meeting readers in person at libraries, bookstores, etc. I’m kind of a cheapskate, so I don’t pay for marketing other than buying bookmarks and going to the Malice Domestic conference every year. [Editor: Malice Domestic is an annual fan convention that takes place each year in Maryland. It celebrates the traditional mystery as best typified by the works of Agatha Christie, with no explicit graphic scenes or violence.] I think the best marketing tool is word of mouth. The more people you meet and talk to about your book, the better.
J.C. Harvey: Anything that encourages word of mouth. Highly effective and very cheap! I have publishing friends who have hired marketers for their books and it’s been a complete waste of money. I think the author has to be there, to be present and discernible in their own marketing and publicizing and all the rest of it. Readers expect that. Inauthentic marketing is a waste of time.
During hard economic times, people turn to movies and books as a
form of escapism. A 1933 issue of Publishers Weekly declared
that “the reading of books has increased throughout the Depression as shown by
library circulation records.” What types of books are likely to weather the
present economic downturn? Is this something writers should be keeping in mind?
If not, why not?
Toni Mount: It’s true. Book sales increased during Covid lockdowns. Just remember though, at such times, readers need a lift, so make sure there are some up-beat elements in the story and a decent resolution at the end. In depressing times, it’s the doubtful future that gets you down, so a positive outcome to a novel, i.e., the baddie gets his comeuppance – is a good idea.
Nancy Jardine: Trends come and go. WWII novels followed on after WWI during the last few years. I’d love to say that light-hearted fiction would be best during an economic downturn, but in reality, the reading public is buying what the big name publishers have decided on selling a couple of years previously.
Sophia Alexandre: I write from the heart. Trying to chase market trends would be the death of my authenticity. Some fast writers who love to focus on what’s trending might do well at it, though.
Joyce St. Anthony: There will always be a place for books that let readers escape for a while.
J.C. Harvey: Children’s books, for sure, but also titles that offer really immersive escapism into other worlds. The real world is a tough place to be at present. We all need other worlds that we can be transported to that can help us reconcile this very difficult present. Historical fiction – epics, particularly – will carry on being big. Likewise, dystopian fiction. And then there are all these new voices, these new words and perspectives from communities that were never properly represented before. They will surge, I’m sure.
What is the one thing you wish someone had told you when you
were just starting out as a writer?
M.K. Tod: I suppose I wish someone had told me how to allocate my time between all the tasks involved with writing novels. I still struggle with that.
Toni Mount: Just how much marketing, self-promotion, and publicity is required. But if they had, I would probably have taken up dominoes instead of writing.
Sophia Alexander: Use the senses when writing to draw your readers in. Make up non-cliché similes and metaphors, even if they don’t come to you at once. I come from a science/medical background, so all that felt a bit inauthentic at first, but it works.
Joyce St. Anthony: I wish I’d known how long everything took. I would have started writing sooner!
J.C. Harvey: Glue arse to seat and it happens. ;)
What is the one thing you’re glad you didn’t know?
M.K. Tod: I’m glad I didn’t know how incredibly difficult it is to secure a publisher and the intensity of disappointment that’s involved in this process.
Toni Mount: How much marketing, self-promotion, and publicity is required!
Nancy Jardine: That even if you are published by a major publisher an author still has to do a certain degree of marketing themselves.
Sophia Alexander: I’m glad I didn’t know how challenging it all would be. I’ve always been a hard worker, but this was challenging in a whole new way.
Joyce St. Anthony: I’m glad I didn’t know that I would never be able to live on what I make
J.C. Harvey: It is work, work, work, for hours and hours and hours. I thought I had worked hard as a publisher – NOPE.
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and TikTok seem to be
the social marketing tools of our time. Which, in your opinion, yields the best
results? Which ones are best to avoid?
Toni Mount: Facebook and Twitter do OK. Haven’t tried the others.
Nancy Jardine: I’m on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. If you aren’t able to devote a lot of time to social interaction then results are variable. Facebook has not been super-friendly to authors the last couple of years, and author pages have limited interaction. I’m on there more to catch up with friends and family. If time is your enemy, I don’t suggest joining sites that require you to be constantly active.
Sophia Alexander: I use Facebook most of the time, and in my mind it’s just there to establish my presence. I don’t imagine it will continue to be my main marketing venue, but it will hopefully help readers to stay connected with me. My children avoid Facebook like it’s COVID, but I haven’t managed to branch out too much. I also have Instagram and Twitter accounts.
Joyce St. Anthony: I’m one of the strange people who like Twitter much better than Facebook. I’ve found a lot of new authors and new books to read by interacting with others. Most of the people I follow are authors, editors, agents, and historians. I don’t find Facebook as beneficial. I rarely post on my author page because there’s no interaction there. I never figured out Pinterest and I’ll never do TikTok. I’m old: I avoid videos at all costs. I don’t even like watching them.
When you’re not busy marketing or writing, where do you go for
inspiration? Do you travel?
Robert Macomber: I travel for my lecture work and with my readers to locales. For inspiration for future books, I turn to history—it’s full of ideas!
Toni Mount: Walks in the woods or in my wildlife garden can be inspiring. Books, too, of course. We’ve travelled around the UK and Europe and I pick up inspiration almost anywhere. A holiday to Bologna, Venice and Ravenna gave birth to an on-going storyline in my Seb Foxley series. Watching an episode of ‘Hawaii 5-0’ on TV brought a whole new plot twist to my current Work-in-Progress. My other half recently bought me an out-of-print book on eBay full of drawings of medieval and Tudor London – a wonderful gift and a hundred inspirations in every picture.
Nancy Jardine: Pre-Covid I travelled quite a bit and have lots of memories of fantastic places. Travel hasn’t yet restarted in 2022, but I’m making plans…
Sophia Alexander: I love to go to plays and read stories. I like to travel. The ocean used to revitalize me, but I’m not sure it still has that same effect on me. I try to seize inspiration from all over, wherever possible. My brain draws corollaries out of habit at this point, creating novel impressions of relationship dynamics that trigger the imagination.
Joyce St. Anthony: We rarely travel. The only places we go are to visit our son and his family in Virginia, to Gettysburg during the WWII weekend, or to Pittsburgh to see our other son and go to breweries. I guess I don’t need to leave home for inspiration!
J.C. Harvey: I’ve been in a trans-Atlantic relationship for more than a decade now, so there is a lot of travelling in my life anyway. But yes, I love to travel. It shows you who you are, and opens up your head. And I would never have found the inspiration to write The Silver Wolf without discovering Nordlingen. I’m planning a research trip to Arras in northern France right now.
 |
| Gettysburg is a great place to go for inspiration. |
Writing in the era of Covid has been fraught with complications,
from delayed research trips to getting sick, to closed libraries and archives,
how did you manage to craft your story despite the setbacks? Or, ironically, did
the Covid quarantine help you complete your book?
M.K. Tod: Covid has significantly affected my writing. If I hadn’t had Paris In Ruins ready to go in mid-2020 and The Admiral’s Wife already completed, I would not have had any novels to publish in either 2021 or 2022. In truth, it’s not just Covid that has affected my ability to write, it’s also the incredibly difficult task of being the primary support for my elderly mother. I did manage to write about 40K words of a sequel to Paris In Ruins, but nothing else. I’m hopeful that things will turn around in the second half of this year.
Robert Macomber: Since my lecture work diminished, it gave me more time to research and write.
Toni Mount: The Covid quarantine certainly gave me the time to complete The Color of Rubies. Some of my fellow writers say they lost the urge and the inspiration to write, but I didn’t. Boredom is my worst enemy, so I knuckled down and wrote every day. However, I caught Covid just a couple of weeks ago and it drains your energy – even the Queen said so. I’m just getting back into the swing of writing now. [Editor: Wishing you a full recovery.]
Nancy Jardine: Daily Covid updates on TV were a compulsion, which impacted my concentration on new writing. I spent most of the first UK lockdown out reconstructing my garden instead of staring blankly at my laptop screen. I adore doing research and used that as an excuse for not getting on with the book. It was hugely disappointing that a planned event in June 2020 was cancelled, since as well as an opportunity to sell my books, I also intended to us it as a research trip. [Roman Eboracum Festival in York, England]
Sophia Alexander: The isolation did prompt my book publishing efforts. I loved my writing groups and spent all my time polishing and working on new material, but I’d been cycling so much that I needed to get my Silk Trilogy off my plate so that I could truly move forward. The quarantines gave me an opportunity to focus on that. It’s the silver lining for losing my writing groups, I suppose.
Joyce St. Anthony: Being quarantined didn’t really affect me much because we’re home most of the time anyway. I did miss going to breweries and eating out once in a while. All my research is done online.
J.C. Harvey: I was so productive during quarantine. I published a non-fiction book, and wrote a children’s book, and The Silver Wolf. But not being able to get into libraries has really delayed future projects. Thankfully, all my publishers are very understanding. Then I caught Covid myself, and boy, it was as if all my internal dictionaries and knowledge of ‘how to’s had been erased at once. I lost at least 6 weeks productivity – maybe more.
What would be your ideal writing getaway?
M.K. Tod: Somewhere in France.
Robert Macomber: On a tropical island with excellent cable connection, decent red wine, dark chocolate, a nice beach, and a small sailboat—been there, done that.
Toni Mount: I can only write on my PC, which is adapted for my disability, so I write at home.
Nancy Jardine: I’ve never gone on an official writing retreat but will maybe try it sometime.
Sophia Alexander: A beach house depending on where I am in the writing process. Maybe with some other writers, maybe not.
Joyce St. Anthony: I’m living in it, lol. We live in a log home on five acres on a ridge in the Laurel Highlands of Pennsylvania.
J.C. Harvey: Somewhere within sight and sound of the sea.
 |
| Writing on the beach is the dream of many writers. |
What is your favorite “writing drink”?
M.K. Tod: My morning lattes
Robert Macomber: A Washington State cabernet sauvignon or some Matusalem sipping rum.
Toni Mount: Coffee!
Nancy Jardine: Herbal teas.
Sophia Alexander: Hot teas. I’ve been having a wonderful time with my teapots.
Joyce St. Anthony: Coffee, mostly. Then I’ll switch to either good craft beer or my homemade hard cider.
J.C. Harvey: I’m a Brit, so - tea!
 |
| Coffee and tea are perennial favorites of writers. |
What is your favorite “writing snack”?
M.K. Tod: Nuts and dried apricots
Robert Macomber: Smoked red pepper hummus with tabouli chicken.
Toni Mount: Never feel the need.
Nancy Jardine: Potato chips.
Sophia Alexander: Chocolate, of course.
Joyce St. Anthony: Chocolate!
J.C. Harvey: Oatcakes, cheese and carrots.
 |
| Dried fruit and nuts are a healthy writing snack. |
Which authors have influenced you the most and why?
Robert Macomber: C.S. Forester and George MacDonald Fraser were outstanding historical novelists. Also, Kemp Tolley, a USN memoirist, and Randy Wayne White, a contemporary novelist.
Toni Mount: Sharron Penman, Ellis Peters, and more recently, C. J. Sansom’s Shardlake series has been utterly intriguing. These authors are brilliant storytellers and create such a sense of time and place that you feel as if you’re at Ludlow Castle, Shrewsbury Abbey, or Henry VIII’s Hampton Court. Marvelous stuff.
Nancy Jardine: Favorites include Enid Blyton, Charles Dickens, Tolkien, Jane Austen, and Morgan Llewelyn, but there are so many more.
Sophia Alexander: Jane Austen. Just the other day someone compared Silk: Caroline’s Story to Northanger Abbey, so of course I checked out the audiobook from the library at once. I also love Philippa Gregory. Several fantasy authors have fed my spirit from a young age, and I imagine they’ve also influenced me.
Joyce St. Anthony: That’s tough to answer. There are too many of them.
J.C. Harvey: I was in raptures when I first discovered Dorothy Dunnett and Thomas Keneally’s Confederates. I also love Hilary Mantel, Charles Dickens, and all the big 19th century novels and novelists, English, American, French, German – never met one I didn’t like. But right now, I like novelists who show you how to break the rules, to tell your story in a different way. Lissa Evans is one of my latest raves, but I also love Jennifer Egan, Penelope Lively and Lily King. And I’m wild to read the new Bernard Cornwell ‘Sharpe’ book, too. And I love John Banville and J.G. Farrell. I think Farrell’s The Seige of Krishnapur has hardly a word wrong. Also, Helen Macdonald – what a stylist! And Imogen Hermes Gowar. There’s a mix for you! And I’m getting very intrigued by the sound of Marlon James’s books. I think they’ll be next on my list.
Tell us a little about your next project.
M.K. Tod: I'm working on a sequel to Paris In Ruins. However, I also have a complete draft of a contemporary novel sitting on my laptop waiting for me to decide whether to resurrect it or leave it in the virtual drawer. Having built my reputation around historical fiction, I’m not sure what to do with a contemporary story. What do you think? [Editor: Go for it! :)]
Robert Macomber: I've completed the first draft of the 17th novel in my “Honor Series,” which I’m excited about. I love what I do!
Toni Mount: The next installment, The Color of Bone, is coming along nicely and is about half-way through a first draft. (I’m not much in favor of planning it all beforehand because my characters have their own ideas and often that changes everything.) I already have a dead novice nun, a missing esquire, and a murdered servant, plus a fire-raiser and a bigamous marriage – didn’t see that one coming! It’s all happening in medieval London with clues, red herrings, action scenes, and occasional domestic harmony.
Nancy Jardine: I’m working on a novel that begins in Victorian Scotland (1850s) and is planned to be the first in a 3-book series that features a character of the next generation.
Sophia Alexander: The last installment of The Silk Trilogy: Homespun, which is due to be released on St. Patty’s Day of 2023. I’m overwhelmed with how quickly I’ll need to get it in tip-top shape. I swear, it’s like a collection of vignettes. Strengthen the arc? What arc? So much work to do. I do like the ending quite well. And I like the stories in it. But it’s certainly going to need some revision to get it up to the quality of Silk and Tapestry. Wish me luck!
Joyce St. Anthony: I’m between projects at the moment. I’m plotting another Homefront News book in case the publisher decides they want more. I’m also dabbling with two different book proposals—both contemporary cozy mysteries. I’d much prefer to stay in 1942, though.
J.C. Harvey: The sequel to The Silver Wolf. It’s called The Dead Men. The first book ended with my hero, Jack Fiskardo, as a 17-year-old. Now he’s back in the thick of the Thirty Years War, all grown up, and wow! he’s a force to be reckoned with. But there are secrets to be brought to light in Book II that will tax him to his utmost, and a destiny to fulfill that even he can’t control.
Thank you for participating in this round table discussion!
.png)
