Jill Burkinshaw on Book Promotions



For most writers, there is a clear order of service when creating a book:
1.   Write the first draft.
2.   Despair at that draft and then edit the entire manuscript.
3.   Repeat step two until you are happy with the manuscript.
4.   Submit the manuscript to an agent or publisher.
5.   Wait for fame / fortune / that long-desired TV or film deal.
6.   The End.

However, getting published is just the start of another journey and both published and self-published authors may need help to reach their target audience. My friend Jill Burkinshaw is a Book Promoter at https://booksnall.blog and she has agreed to let me play inquisitor.


Jill, thanks for joining me in cyber space. I’ll start with the obvious question: What methods do you use for promoting a book?

Hi Derek, thank you for this opportunity to chat about my work.  I use several methods of promotion.  I organise Blog Tours and for these I try to fill the slots with as many review stops as possible.  The tours will run for 7-10 days (or longer if I have enough interest).  I ask for the reviews / blogs to be shared in as many places as possible, including Goodreads and Amazon.  I also host Launch Parties that enable authors to engage with readers.  In addition, I (and others) post, promote and share on multiple Social Media platforms and in groups.

Sometimes, if it is not possible to fill with review stops, some Blogs will host guest posts.  This is something provided by the author - maybe the rationale for the book, a little about one of the characters, or maybe something about the author.

In all cases the post will include the synopsis for the book and buy links.


Okay, for the uninitiated, what is a blog tour?

Before digital books became the norm an Author would often do a Book Tour.  They would travel around visiting bookshops and do book signings and other promotions.  Some still do this for Paperback and Hardback books.

A Blog Tour is the virtual equivalent.  People who have Blogs or websites will contact a Blog Tour organiser and express an interest in joining tours.  Bloggers who are hosting a review stop will receive a copy of the book in digital format.  This is usually kindle but other formats are often available.

Blog Tours are a very effective way of getting a book noticed.  The Blog Tour host will post and share the Blog in as many places as possible and all their friends on Social Media will also share.  Many readers look for book suggestions on Social Media and all the sharing gets the book noticed by a wide range of people, which has a positive impact on sales.


Do you prefer to work with books that have recently been published?

I organise Blog Tours for new releases, republished books and also for books that have been released either recently or some time ago.  In most cases even a book that was released a few years ago will benefit from a Blog Tour to bring it to the attention of readers who may have not noticed it when it was first released.

I have also arranged Blog Tours for just the first book in a series that have all been published because readers who read and enjoy Book 1 will often buy and read the rest of the series.

A Blog Tour can be beneficial for any book at any time although there are no guarantees that a Blog Tour will result in sales.

I am not sure if this is in the remit of the question but if a reader finds and enjoys a book by a new author they will often read the backlist.  Getting a book in front of a new reader will hopefully help the sales of all books by that author and it has a snowball effect as more readers will be picked up along the way.  I think any book can be the start of a good thing so if an author has a ‘favourite’ in a series it is always worth starting with that one in the hope readers will connect to the enthusiasm.


How essential is it  for an author to actively participate in the tour?

I wouldn’t say it is essential.  I have arranged Blog Tour for publishers where the author doesn’t have a Social Media presence and they have been productive.  However, what I have found is that readers like interacting with authors and Social Media is an excellent platform to enable that.

Also, many authors lead very insular lives involving many hours sitting writing.  Interacting with readers via Social Media and email allows them to socialise virtually, which is good for everyone.

There are many book groups on Social Media (especially Facebook) that allow readers, authors and aspiring authors to achieve support and encouragement and many, many readers use these groups to get reading suggestions.  We all have massive To Be Read (TBR) lists that just grow and grow.


What’s the one thing you’d like writers to think about when they decide to use a promoter?

Firstly, be aware that despite all our efforts there are no guarantees that a Blog Tour or other method of promotion is going to result in sales.  Do try to find a promoter who is experienced in your genre.  I try to promote many genres but my favourite genre is Crime Fiction and most of my contacts and network are Crime Fiction readers so that is the genre in which I get best results.  However, it is also the biggest genre so finding a promoter for Fantasy or one of the other genres may be difficult.  It is always worth joining groups for your genre and asking or looking around to see who is promoting that type of books.  If you agree to a Blog Tour the organiser will need a copy of the book.  If you are published your contract could prevent you giving out free copies of the book.  Be careful who you give the book to. Most people are honest and really just want to help but there are some who pirate books so protect yourself and your work as much as you can.


How important is social media to authors?

In the current environment Social Media is a very important forum for book promotion.  Now that Digital books are the norm we all need to take advantage of the vast marketplace that is Social Media.  The more platforms you can access the better your book will do and interacting with readers and authors will encourage others to share posts, etc., therefore promoting your work.


How did you become as a book promoter?

Book promotion is just something that happened for me.  I have always read books avidly - we used to swap them within the family.  One day I was introduced to Goodreads and started finding my favourite authors on Facebook, learning about the importance of reviews along the way.  I decided to set up a Blog as a place to keep all my reviews where people could find them and read my thoughts.  Knowing that others could read my reviews and criticise them was really frightening at first but I found the positive comments far outnumbered the negative ones.  My confidence grew along with my Social Media network and I began to be invited on Blog Tours.  I realised that there was an opportunity to reduce my working hours and backfill with freelance work, which would enable me to work virtually and spend time with my ageing Dad.  It didn’t all work out to plan and the changes were gradual, but I am now in a place where I am happy in my work-life balance.

I have worked with several Digital Publishers: Bloodhound Books, Joffe Books, Junction Publishing and also several successful self-published authors.  I have experience in several areas of publishing.  I am conversant with the Royalty System and I set up and managed the Stison system for Bloodhound Books for a while.  I manage Social Media Promotion for Joffe Books.  My duties with self-published authors vary from managing reader lists and communications, creating and managing paid adverts, calculating ROI, and proving whatever support services I can.  This can include proofreading and basic editing (I am not qualified but my history as an analyst means I spot many errors that have been missed), formatting books for Kindle publication and of course promoting on Social Media.  I have a wide range of skills that could be utilised in different areas of the publishing process and the all-important book marketing that follows it.


What sort of books do you like to read?

My preference is for Crime Fiction. I like fast paced books, in particular psychological thrillers.  I am not a fan of books with a lot of descriptive text but I could be in the minority on that one as I know other readers do like to read about the setting and house décor, scenery, etc.  I like grit and gore so definitely more thriller than mystery!  That said, I do read other genres - I enjoy historical fiction and I like to read that genre as often as time allows.  Via my work with Junction Publishing I have read and thoroughly enjoyed dystopian, fantasy, horror and other genres so nothing is ‘excluded’ really.  If I like the synopsis I will read it and if requested I will try my hardest to fill Blog Tours and promote it to the best of my ability.  I know that every author passionately believes in their work and I try to match their commitment.


Where can authors find you online?

I'm very easy to find, and happy to hear from any authors who think they might benefit from my services!

Email: jill@booksnall.blog 

Blog:          https://booksnall.blog
Twitter:      @books_n_all

Click to Kill by John Carlo


Author John Carlo celebrated the publication of Click to Kill earlier this month, so we met in a cybercafe in cyberspace. While we enjoyed virtual snacks and an exchange of ideas, I tried to pin him down about his motivations, inspirations, and writing practice.

Over to you, John!


How did you start writing?

I’ve always written, from as far back as I can remember. Songs when I was a kid, and into my teens. Truly terrible poetry when I was a student. Various stillborn attempts at screenplays, teleplays and novels in my twenties and thirties. Fiction, mainly in the form of novels, ever since.

Did you always want to be a writer? 

Even when I was in bands as a teenager (this was in Seattle, pre-Grunge) I was a lyricist. I knew that one day I would write longer works. Song lyrics weren’t always the best place to tell the stories I wanted to tell. That being said, I have the deepest respect for great lyricists, they really are the poets of our age.

If you could describe Click to Kill in one word what would it be? 

Tech-noir.

What inspired you to write Click to Kill?

I live in London now, and I wanted to create something characteristically British. The Brits love an underdog, and they’re rebels at heart. From folk tales to Shakespeare to today’s works, most of their most famous heroes are really anti-heroes, and there’s a rich dystopic tradition. The contemporary interpretation of that was someone with modern powers – which would have to involve the digital world – but who was reluctant, sardonic, flawed and yet often invisibly moral. Someone who does wrong in order to do right. It’s not a uniquely British archetype, but it dwells deep in the national psyche.

Your hero, Rigby Goode, has the power to erase identities. Where did that idea come from?

I read an article in the newspaper about how difficult it’s become for people in law enforcement and intelligence to go undercover, because so much of our lives these days is in the public view. So, it struck me that there must be people in those organisations who are employed to go through and delete the digital footprints of individuals who need to disappear. Like any other technology, it wouldn’t take long before someone worked out how to use it criminally.

The team who do the identity erasing are called Toshers, is that a historical term?

Yes, it comes from Victorian London. Toshers were people – mainly children – who lived in the sewers. They collected copper coins that fell through street grates, or anything else of value. The material they collected was known as ‘tosh’, hence the expression ‘a load of tosh’, meaning items of dubious value.

The dark web is humanity’s new sewer, and this team dig around in digital effluent, so they are the modern toshers.


What has been the hardest part of Click to Kill to write?

This book has gone through many edits. None of it was hard to write, the difficult part was deciding what to leave out. The basic idea can lead off in many different directions – and in fact it did. I had to make hard choices about which direction the final manuscript would take.

Think of it like a movie where we had too many takes and too many scenes and too many characters. Ten times as much material ended up on the editing room floor as made the final cut.

Why did you choose Click to Kill as the title of your novel?

The title came to me about halfway through the writing, and I’ve been frustrated having to sit on it. I knew it was catchy and wanted to get it out there. It sums the book up really well.

We considered other titles, including ‘Tosher’. But fifty percent of thriller/mystery books today are bought as Ebooks, which means customers aren’t going to be spending hours browsing bookshops and reading back covers. The title needs to be immediate and do what it says on the tin.

What do you hope people take away from reading Click to Kill?

There are some very dark themes in this book, including paedophilia and alcoholism. Although it’s a thriller, there are also elements of the non-fiction genre known as ‘victim victory’. It’s about individuals overcoming both inner and outer demons. I hope that anyone reading is encouraged to believe that they can overcome whatever holds them back in their own lives.

Where and when do you tend to write?

I’m not (yet) a full-time writer. I have another career which includes a start-up tech business. I write a lot when I’m travelling to meetings. I use an app on my phone called ‘Notes’. I type ideas, passages, dialogue, sometimes whole chapters, into the Notes app. It automatically replicates on my computer. I then copy and paste the text into the evolving manuscript.

Other times I sit in my front room when everyone else is out. I also write late at night in bed. I try to be as flexible as possible and let the ideas come whenever they want to. My job is to catch them.

Who is your favourite author? 

Too many to mention, but three who have had a big influence on me in the last few years are James Ellroy, Haruki Murakami, and Roberto Bolano.

Ellroy for me is the best novelist in the English language today. He’s elevated the crime genre to the status of fine literature. It’s inspiring because it means don’t be afraid of your genre, or constrained by it. Be proud. Make it as brilliant as you can. Don’t dumb it down, ever.

From Murakami I’ve learned a lot of technical skill. Handling time, for example, which can be difficult in thrillers. To create tension, you often have to go deep into a character’s experience of a particular moment in time. A scene taking place over thirty seconds of fictional time might be described over five pages. So then to switch gears after that scene and move forward, say, three months, can be difficult unless executed well. Murakami is a master of that kind of technical transition.

Bolano is all about characters. I’ve never had a problem coming up with plots, but sometimes they felt as if the stories were happening to the characters, rather than unfolding because of them. As a result, my characters sometimes felt wooden. Bolano goes deep into the inner values and subtleties of his characters, which makes them incredibly human.


Do you have a pet peeve when it comes to writing? Something you notice yourself doing or something you pick-up in other’s writing.

I notice convenience now all the time. Writers introducing circumstances in which characters have to react in certain ways, but which don’t stand up to scrutiny.

The other is putting dialogue in characters’ mouths that is really something the writer wants to say. It’s part of what I’ve learned from Bolano. If you want to make a philosophical point, for example, you need to devise a character for whom that point is important to them. You then have to construct a world where that character might legitimately reside. And so on. Simply having another character say something philosophical when the author feels like it is just lazy and sloppy.

Do you have a writer’s habit that helps you ‘get in the zone’?

When I was a student I used to work either in the library or the student union. Dead silence or chaos. Both work for me, but nothing in between.

What’s a piece of advice you can give to aspiring authors?

Keep returning to the basic tell/show conundrum. Don’t tell, show. Force yourself to make sure every word that appears in your fictional work emanates from a fictional source. Dramatize thine exposition, as Robert McKee says. It’s not the only rule of writing, but it is the most important one, especially for authors learning the craft.

Click to Kill can be purchased in paperback or ebook by clicking on the link below: