Amazon Ranking

Thanks in part to a great review of The Leftovers Handbook by The Frugal Queen my sales have improved dramatically over the last few days.  I check once or twice (or eighteen or thirty five times) a day to see how it is doing and sometimes it makes me grin.  This, for instance …

Me, Suzy Bowler, ahead of Delia!  Not really of course; it’s due to how the books have been categorised.  The Leftovers Handbook is under Books > Food & Drink > Reference & Gastronomy > Gastronomy.   Actually it has been as high as number 4 in this category and is at 8 today but looks so much more impressive with Delia beside it don’t you think?

It does mean, however, that I can rightfully claim to have been in the Top 100 Gastronomy books for quite a few days now!

It was recently brought home to me how important categorisation is after my lovely agent Jen Christie managed to get the Kindle version of The Leftovers Handbook re-categorised under Gastronomy and sales rank improved considerably – something to bear very much in mind when self-publishing on Amazon.

This isn't cheating at all; it’s making life easier for possible purchasers to find the information they are looking for which will, naturally, boost sales.  This is why my book features nowhere under Books > Food & Drink > Food Writers > Delia Smith! 

In other news

In case you are wondering about how our BT Fiasco is going – the matter is now in the hands of The Chairman’s office who were sadly confused and in fact placed a new order on our behalf which we didn’t want.  They did cancel it quite efficiently after I pointed the error out and I think started to understand that at the moment all we want is the reinstatement of our old number.  (Yes, we will need more work later but that can take place months from now after we have rallied a bit!)   

We don’t have our number back yet; it’s been something like 10 days since the Chairman’s office took the case over and I would have thought returning our original number, which is not in use by anyone else, would be a piece of you know what.  They’ve managed to change it twice without too much trouble, or our consent!

Book Reviews and Naked Men!

Yesterday I excitedly bought The Sun because The Leftovers Handbook was recommended in it; here is the write up - rather good, I feel. 

Having photographed it and grinned and shown it to people I flicked through the rest of the newspaper and lo and behold another nice surprise! 

Anyway, back to the book ...

I have received other good reviews too from The Independent, Saga and more - to see them click on The Leftovers Handbook tab at the top of the page. I'm adding more reviews as they occur.

Now writing for CCN!

Things are hotting up for me ... I think, it's hard to tell!  I have received copies of my book and it is a strange and pleasant thing to hold a real bona fide book with my name on the cover.

The book can be ordered from Amazon at quite a good discount (at the moment the cover price is 12.99 but Amazon who always discount anyway have a special offer on it - £8.31) and for ease of ordering I have added a widget to my other website, Sudden Lunch!  It's in the sidebar and looks like this ..

Having the widget on my other blog does mean you have to click twice instead of once but it's still easier peasier than having to go to Amazon all by yourself!  I'd add a widget here too but Amazon only allows one site to be widgetted (new word!) per person and Sudden Lunch at the moment is getting over 20,000 hits a month which this one is not!  Early days! 

I am writing for CCN!

I like that headline!  CCN of course stands for Cornwall Community News and they have asked me to contribute a weekly-ish article and Cornish foodie stuff.  Myfirst, on lovely Cornish Gouda, can be seen here. 

CCN gave called me "the chef of leftovers" which title I'm pretty sure I shall adopt.

Reviews, Amazon and Goodreads

If by any chance you should read and enjoy my book (or indeed anybody's book) it is a real help if you then review it on Amazon, I am trying to remember to do this myself with writers I like.  Goodreads is another great place to not only rate or review books but also to find things you'd like to read - I have started an online shelf of books I am going to look out for. I have, incidentally, heard that Amazon have purchased Goodreads so they may now be one and the same thing!

A Writer's Voice

When I decided I wanted to write I read a lot about finding my "voice" which led me to believe that best way to do this was (and is) to write as if I am speaking to a friend ie. in my natural voice.  This doesn't mean I don't work on it, try not to be repetitive, boring, obscure, stilted, have long sentences that go on and on and on .... etc. I have been told by friends that they can hear me talking when they read my writing (which apparently they view as a good thing) and by people I don't know that ...

~   (I have) good ideas and an interesting writing style.

~   (I write in) a witty, quirky way which is a joy to read.

~   (My work) is humorous and well written.

~   (and) very fun to read.

and so on and so forth.  I have also had reviews saying ...

~  "regarding the writing style, I found the tone to be condescending rather than informative."

~  "... spelling errors, paragraph errors, grammatical errors ..."

Both of these last two surprised me (as you know if you have read previous posts) and several people have jumped to my defence.

I have therefore done a bit more research about writer's voice and have read that ...

~  (One should) "write at least in part how you speak to capture your essence"

~  (Your voice is) "... not just how you write but who you are."

~  Style is the expression of the writer’s personality on the page.

So I have now decided to grow up: I am taking it all too personally.  Before I do grow up however I'd just like to mention this.

Till vs Until

Yesterday I received a 3 star review of my "291 Tips ..." ebooklet, and I am honestly grateful, which read ...

"The tips in this book are good for the novice and/or aspiring cook, however I have to take stars away for the constant use of "till" instead of the correct word "until" throughout the book."

Now maybe I am too sensitive and I know one "Can't please all of the people all of the time" (a bugger though that is) but am I wrong in feeling people are being a little too picky about a booklet giving a list of handy tips?

Anyhoo, being as how I'm a bit of a twat I looked up till vs until on the web and read over and over again that the two words are interchangeable. More interestingly on World Wide Words  (I love this site and can while away hours on it) I learnt/learned that ...

"The most common belief is that till is a shortened form of until. You can see how this could have grown up, but the truth of the matter is that till is by far the older word, being recorded from about the year 800, while it took another 400 years for until to appear in the language (it’s a compound of till with the archaic Old Norse und, as far as, which also survives in the archaic unto)."

... and ...

"The current position is that until is the more common of the two words and is generally considered to be slightly more formal, which is why it turns up more often in edited prose. It is also rather more likely to appear at the beginning of a sentence than is till. But till is perfectly good English and the choice of whether to use it or until is often decided by the rhythm of the sentence."

I think I'll stick with till!

Sorry, by the way, I don't think anyhoo is a real word.

Goodnight,

Suzy Bowler

Publicity Meeting - Yikes!

Click here for details

Yesterday all dark and early in the morning (6.30am train!) I travelled up to London for a publicity meeting about my forthcoming book.  It was not as daunting as you (and I!) might think because the meeting turned out to be a relaxed and laughy chat with some people I get on with. We came up with lots of good ideas and also one awful one - I think they are going to try and get me on the telly!

It's strange after working quietly on my own, "just sitting on the settee" as my real man puts it, for so long, that suddenly its not just me and all sorts of things seem to be happening.  I'm now busy answering emails, setting up shared files on Dropbox, collecting information, and worrying about my "image"!  (Still, however, on the settee!)

I have been saying that the publication date will be 29^th March but it seems this may be a little delayed so if it is I'll give the correct date dreckly, as we say in Cornwall.

Changing the subject a little - if you have read either of my eBooks (Lush Ice Cream without a Machine or 219 Cooking Tips and Techniques) and liked them could you please do a review on Amazon for me, they are a real help. 

Thank you, 

Suzy Bowler x

Divided by a Common Language

A few days ago I uploaded my little eBooklet to Amazon and was amazed to get a review that read thus ...

"obviously thrown together as today is jan 16, 2013 and this was written in 2013. spelling errors, paragraph errors, grammatical errors. it's sloppy and not worthy of the memory used to store on your kindle. PASS."

... which really got my goat (he's very sensitive).

I was not only hurt but mystified.  Firstly how would they know when I wrote it?  It's just a list of ideas I've assembled over time and when I thought there were enough to make it worthwhile I published it.  Secondly I've always been a good spellist (that, incidentally, was written tongue in cheek) and didn't throw the thing together at all, at all.  It is, however, just a list of ideas I thought might be useful to people not so familiar with cooking as I am.  It is not supposed to be a work of literature.  Luckily I got some good reviews too on Amazon and also supportive messages on Linkedin, Google+, Facebook etc.

In particular a very kind lady, Rae Katherine Eighmey (who writes about American food history) was good enough to comment on my last post with some useful ideas but her main point which I had actually considered but in the other direction, so to speak, was that I wrote it in English English.  Oddly enough I am so very familiar with using American vernacular (e.g. zucchini instead of courgette, eggplant instead of aubergine, arugula instead of rocket and a la mode instead of with ice cream!) that I actually had made a special effort to ensure my English was the homegrown version!

During my many years in the Caribbean I have lived, worked and played with American chaps, read their books, cooked their food and never once failed to understand what they were saying or thought their American spelling to be 'wrong', just not quite right perhaps!! 

Seriously I would never have thought that British English would have caused such a problem to Americans.  As Mark Twain (respect!) said ...

"I don't give a damn for a man who can only spell a word one way."

Not seriously; I also speak Geordie and a little West Indian - I might try using those in my next book!

Howay mehson!

Nice reviews!

I find that the above page on my book Lush Ice Cream has been loading inordinately slowly so I have made a bit of a change.  Not so many photos but there are plenty on Pinterest and I'm gradually adding more, in fact here's one I've just uploaded.

Coconut Ice Ice (Baby)!

  

A layer of Coconut Ice Cream topped with a layer of Simple Strawberry Ice Cream and cut into squares - cunning or what?  Maybe just obvious!

There is a small discussion of my ice cream book on Linkedin - here's a sample ...

"Your book is by far the best fun recipe book I have! It's a really entertaining read even without going to the effort of breaking out condensed milk and cream. You have finally solved the mystery of how to make ice cream that doesn't require a pneumatic drill to serve it. The fact that alcohol and sugar is involved is an additional plus."

And another one ...

"Hmm! I think I've just made one NY resolution - it's to make more of Suzy Bowler's ice creams! I made the marmalade one for a NYE dinner party with a whole lot of scarily 'foody' people, and they loved it."

Nice eh?

To have a look at the book, download a sample or even buy a copy go here if you are in the UK and here if you are in the States.

I want to Write Like this Chap!

I am a member of an online book club, The Kitchen Reader. If you fancy discovering some new food writing have a look at their site here. 

Every month members all review a given book but this month we were allowed to choose our own so I chose Aldo Buzzi's "The Perfect Egg"  I picked it up for pennies a while ago and I was and am delighted with it.  This man wrote like a dream and I want to be just like him when I grow up!  Anyhoo - I have written more about him on my other blog Sudden Lunch here. 

I just really wanted to wish everyone a ...