Talking of coffee, that’s the first thing I thought of when I arrived at Stockport station to make the two hour train journey to Euston. And lesson learnt from my last, nauseous journey to London, I sat forward-facing and didn’t read too much! The weather was gorgeous and in no time at all, I found myself in one of the HarperCollins board rooms, lapping up the beautiful views of the capital’s skyline  – and more of the black stuff.

How wonderful to meet well-respected bloggers Rachel Gilbey (left) and Sharon Wilden. Their reputation precedes them and, along with my editor Victoria and editorial assistant Hannah, we spent three hours chatting, gossiping and belly-laughing about the publishing business, books and my new novel. On hand was an array of tiffin and biscuits, coffee and sparkling water, and we talked about industry trends and our favourite authors.The time whizzed by and it was really fascinating to hear the bloggers’ views on reading, writing and the industry – my editor and I fired off many questions! And I enjoyed explaining about the characters and themes in my  new book which is very close to my heart.

Also, I was super excited to see the fantastic book trailer for my new novel! My editor offered to show it to me before Rachel and Sharon arrived, but I managed to hold off for the premiere!

All in all it was such an exciting day. Thanks to Rachel and Sharon for their time and jokes! And remember, ladies, what happens at The News Building stays there!!

Firstly, I always allocate whatever spare time I have to promoting my book on social media. Sounds obvious? Yes, but some authors are very shy of doing this. However it is important, in my opinion, to connect with bloggers and readers, and COMMUNICATE. By this I don’t mean just try to sell, sell, sell. Instead, tweet or post on Facebook in a way that might excite  potential buyers. Share new reviews and snippets of the plot. Talk about the characters. Post about themes related to your story – I have tweeted a lot about Cornwall, Poldark and delicious Cornish food. Try to keep your various online feeds varied. And MOST IMPORTANTLY  interact with the people who show an interest. Like their comments. Retweet. Show gratitude. It is only good manners, actually great fun and very few authors these days have their own PR person – you are your own trumpeteer and your book deserves to be seen and heard. Just be polite and don’t shout too loudly

Secondly, don’t raise your expectations too high and get obsessed with rankings. Most of my books have usually taken around four weeks to peak in the Kindle chart, and during that time the ranking can fluctuate up and down. If it slips a bit on the second day of release, don’t flounce out of your office declaring the whole show is going to be a disaster (you can tell I’ve done that, right? ) And, hand in hand with this… appreciate the supposedly smaller things. For example, one of my reader friends (you know who you are) told me that she’d waited up until midnight the evening before launch day, so that she could download Breakfast under a Cornish Sun as soon as it was available, and start reading it. That meant an awful lot.

Thirdly, pat yourself on the back and celebrate! You’ve done it! Regardless of sales and rankings, you’ve brought a bookbaby into the world and been through the gruelling writing, rewriting and copy-editing process. It’s a mammoth task, producing a novel. It requires real stamina, guts and passion. My new summer book features a quirky cocktail bar called Donuts & Daiquiris, so there was really only one way I could celebrate – cue this delicious Spiced Mojito!

Fourthy… Don’t let launch week overwhelm you. Whilst I enjoyed  my cocktail evening out last week, I had intermittent stomach pain from sitting down working for too long. And the day before backache. Plus lately I’ve developed what I call Twitter Seasickness – a real sense of nausea from being on there too long, replying to tweets and scrolling up and down my notifications to find competition winners and… you get the picture. In other words, realise you have a life away from your writing and desk. Whilst launch week is super-important, in the bigger picture it isn’t the be all and end all. It takes a few weeks, sometimes a few months  for a book to be found by all its readers and some of you may even delay your blog tour, for example, until the hullabaloo of the actual launch has settled down. So remember to take stock and breathe

Finally… Get stuck into another project. The more novels you get out there, the more readers you’ll pick up. Plus, thanks to a widening back catalogue,  the bigger those royalty cheques will look. Still allocate a good part of your available time to spreading word about your launch baby… but one of my diehard mottos is:  you are only as good as your next book...

Today I am thrilled to welcome blogger, writer and artist Daniel Riding to my blog. We first “met” online in the summer, when he did an amazing video review of my bestselling summer book, Game of Scones. I am nervously awaiting his verdict on the book’s standalone sequel, My Big Fat Christmas Wedding (Preorder only £1.99 and out this Thursday ) In fact, one of the questions I ask Daniel is how he copes with reviewing a book he doesn’t like, if he is friends with the author… More on that later!

Hello Daniel, lovely to have you here. Thanks for dropping by!

Hi Sam, thank you so much for having me. This is my first ever interview and I am so excited.

What an honour for me, then! Well, let’s crack on… What made you become a book reviewing blogger and how did that progress to helping authors promote their books?

Well I have always had a love of books, reading and writing and have read copious amounts of books over many years. Just over a year ago I had a rather nasty relapse with my depression and that let to 12 months of illness, medication and more DRs Visits than I care to remember. Reading has always been a form of escapism and with a battle against depression on my hands I found that throwing myself into reading was a wonderful version of self-therapy for me. Everything stopped when I got ill, my job, I had to leave university and having no purpose is something that I don’t cope with very well. So that is when I decided to take up book blogging. I thought about how much I read and thought I could do something with it. I wasn’t able to focus on my own writing so I thought I could at least help others that I admire and respect. And so the blog was born.

How do you find most writers to work with? Professional and driven or a bit scatty? Any particularly good or bad experiences you wish to share with us?!

Most writers are an absolute pleasure to work with, as are many Publishers and editors. It is very rare that I have encountered anything negative but there are a couple of things that irritate me a little bit. Sometimes I feel that some (not all) publishers tend to pester a little too much, bloggers do what they do because they love it and don’t get any form of payment (not that we look for that) apart from amazing books. I sometimes think people need a little reminder of that.

I did have one experience with an author that I wasn’t too happy about. I won’t name names because I believe that to be unprofessional but I will say what happened. As you know Sam, I love to interview authors because it gives my readers (and myself) a look into the way a writer works and I love to find out about their journey to publication. I feel it can inspire author writers to keep going and to pursue their dreams. Well this one author I was set to interview emailed back once I had sent over the questions saying that the questions were boring and that I was only allowed to ask four questions. I was also told how they were sick of answering the same questions and emailed me a link to an article where they had been previously interviewed. I obviously politely declined because I find it so disrespectful to tell a blogger there questions are boring. I don’t care who you are, or who you think you are there is no reason to act as if you are above anyone.

Other than that one experience I have found the majority of the bookish community to be wonderfully supportive of each other and I am very grateful to be a part of it.

What an unfortunate experience – it is such a shame that some people forget bloggers do what they do without financial gain and regardless of that, manners matter.

So, is there any type of author or genre that you would have no interest in helping to promote? Do you turn down many requests?

I am always more than happy to help promote any author if I have the time and space on my blog. I am a firm believer in helping authors because we are all essentially in the same boat. Creative people looking to be successful. I don’t think there are any genres of books that I wouldn’t say no to but I do give everything careful consideration. I have my two favourite genres which are Romantic fiction and YA fantasy, I could eat this kind of books and gorge myself on their amazingness.

Can it be awkward if you get on well with an author, agree to review a book and then not like it? How do you handle that?

Not at all, I find that of I get on well with an author then it should be easier to be honest about what you think because if you are on friendly terms you respect the writer as a human being and not just a writer. If there are certain aspects of the book that I don’t like then I will say bit in an honest and constructive way. If I can’t get into a book then I simply won’t review it. If I love a book, then I think it is clear because I gush about it in my reviews.

I know that you write, Daniel – did that interest come from becoming more involved in the writing community, or has the compulsion always been there?

Oh it has always been there since I can remember, but being part of the bookish and writing community has only fuelled it more. I can remember when I was about 7 or 8, I wrote a story on my dad’s electric typewriter about a mouse who hated cheese but loved spaghetti bolognaise. I’m hoping my ideas are a little more evolved nowadays. I have always written over the years, poems, short stories. I was even the Co-Editor of a men’s fashion website for a while writing numerous articles about style. But my love will always be with books and that is what I want my career to be in.

Tell us a little about your writing.

Well I love to write, and recently the ideas have been bussing about in my brain all screaming for attention. The main book I am working on at the moment is a romantic fiction book about a girl who is an aspiring writer, but there are a number of issues along the way. I am also playing around with a 6 book YA fantasy series that is about witches, fae and royalty. I am also playing around with writing m/m same sex romantic erotica under a pseudonym, again this will be adult romantic fiction with fantasy creatures. So when I say there are lots of ideas, there really are.

And from your experience of getting to know writers, how to you view the writing life? You’ll be very aware of the amount of promotion necessary these days – does that put you off becoming an author, or do you think you would enjoy it?

You writers are indeed a busy bunch and I cannot wait to join you all. I get how much hard work goes into writing as well as constant promotion. I love social media and interacting with people, so I really think I would enjoy it. I already have a sample pack of items from a printer so I have ideas for how to promote my books when I get published. It is going to happen, I won’t let it be any other way.

Good for you. I truly believe perseverance is equally important as talent. So what do you think of digital books? Do you like them and do you believe they are a passing fad or here to stay?

I love books in any form but I do prefer physical copies of books because I am little bit old school like that. But at the same time, I do love my Kindle and the immediacy of it all, plus A Kindle or e-reader is easier to carry if you are going on holiday or a long journey. I do believe physical books and digital book have equal rights in terms of shelf space and readership. There does seem to be an ongoing debate about digital vs physical books but I love them both. Having so many wonderful options that allows people access to so many wonderful books can only be a good thing. I think digital books are here to stay and hope they do, just the same way I feel about physical books.

Have you any other artistic talents?

Apart from the writing, I am known to dabble in many creative pools. I love to paint, draw and illustrate etc. I also love creating art digitally on Photoshop etc. At the moment I have a number of items available on my online shop which is via a website called society 6. I don’t make an awful lot of money from it but that is not the reason I am doing it. It’s exciting to see my work printed on household items such as bags, (see above!)  cushions, rugs and even leggings/yoga pants etc and actually have people want them in their homes. I am adding stuff to it all the time. I can’t help but be creative. If you like you can check it out here: https://society6.com/danielriding

Thanks so much for visiting today, Daniel. It’s been really interesting to hear about all your projects. Best of luck with them – and see you soon on Twitter! xx

Thank you so much for having me Sam, looking forward to chatting to you soon xx