Chris Longmuir, Crime Writer

Sunday, 1 January 2017

Happy New Year

I said it at the beginning of my Christmas post - Where has the year gone? and I'm saying it again. But, it's now time to stop wondering about that in order to look forward to 2017 and make our resolutions.

Resolution 1: Send my nonfiction book 'Nuts & Bolts of Self-Publishing' off to be published before the end of January. It should be a piece of cake (I hope), the first draft is complete, the cover designer geared to go, and there's only the editing! Groan! That could take forever.

Resolution 2: Finish writing my next Kirsty Campbell mystery, Bloody Murder, I'm five chapters in. It should be a piece of cake (I hope). I'm being optimistic here because it all depends on Kirsty and whether she'll share the story with me.

Resolution 3: Promote and market my books more. Nah! That won't work. I'm not very good at the 'Buy my Book' spiel, nor would I want to be because I write my books for the pleasure of writing, and the pleasure of pleasing my readers. So, scrap that resolution.

In the meantime, Happy New Year to you all and I wish you joy and success over the coming year.

Chris Longmuir

My website: https://www.chrislongmuir.co.uk/

Sunday, 18 December 2016

Christmas is acoming

Where has the year gone? Christmas is almost here and it only seems yesterday we were basking in the summer sun, and I could have sworn it was no time at all when we ate last year’s Christmas dinner.

But the Christmas cards are thumping through the door, the Christmas tree is up – not mine, my son and daughter-in-law’s tree. Christmas lights twinkle merrily outside several doors in our street and I’m trying hard to get into the festive mood.

Oh, my cards, calendars, and parcels are posted. The paper for the Christmas day presents is looked out, maybe I should wrap them tonight. The pre-Christmas lunches have come and gone. But, there’s something missing! Yes, you’ve guessed it. My husband passed away eleven years ago and, as well as being a joyous time, Christmas is also a sad time, and the house feels empty.

But he wouldn’t have wanted me to be sad, so I do what I usually do, give myself a shake and count my blessings.

I have a wonderful family and I’ll be eating Christmas dinner with my son and daughter-in-law at their house, as well as New Year’s Day dinner. My granddaughter is brilliant. she looks out for me and shares her life with me. I’ve had a successful year. I now have seven books published and another two incubating. My new book Devil’s Porridge has been well received and readers seem to like it.

I’m feeling better already.

Happy Christmas everyone, and I hope you get lots of goodies, particularly books in your Christmas stocking.

Chris Longmuir

My website: https://www.chrislongmuir.co.uk/

Monday, 11 January 2016

How much do you earn from PLR?

I’m not sure how many authors have noticed that the PLR rate is increasing from 6.66 pence to 7.67 pence per library loan from February 2016. Any increase, even one so minimal, is welcome. However there have been few changes in the PLR scheme since its inception, and the Society of Authors is currently lobbying for improvements in the scheme. You can see the SOA response plus a link to the letter here http://www.societyofauthors.org/soa-news/soa-letter-future-plr which addresses some concerns and offers suggestions.

Some of the issues being addressed by the Society of Authors include concerns about the exclusion of volunteer-run libraries, library cuts, audiobooks, and ebooks. However, I have had a long standing concern about the sampling method used to assess PLR payments.

To start with, perhaps I should clarify what PLR is. PLR is short for Public Lending Right. Until fairly recently PLR funding was managed by the Registrar of Public Lending Right, but from 1 October 2013 the UK PLR office became part of the British Library.

On the British Library website, it says, “Public Lending Right (PLR) is the right for authors to receive payment for the loans of their books by public libraries.”

This is governed by legislation, and payment is made from government funds. In order to be eligible for inclusion in the PLR scheme, authors are required to register, but that is easily done either by post or online at the British Library website. You will find the conditions for registration on this link as well as a downloadable application form http://www.plr.uk.com/registrationservice/apply.htm

However, it is not enough to have your books available for loan in a library, because the PLR system works on the basis of statistics taken from a sample number of libraries. So, if your books are not available in any of the sample libraries, then your income will be nothing, irrespective of how popular your books are in other libraries. Now, I’m afraid this is where I have to admit that my understanding of statistics is abysmal. I have a creative brain rather than a logical mathematical one, so you can understand why statistics remain a mystery. So I will quote what the web site says “Payments are made annually on the basis of loans data collected from a sample of public libraries in the UK.” This sounds simple enough but when they mention how they gross-up the loans, I am lost. The best I can do is quote again, “Because PLR loans are derived from a representative sample of library authorities, a grossing up calculation is applied to the actual loans at the end of each PLR reporting year, in order to provide a national estimate of loans for the whole of the UK and Ireland.” There must also be a calculation taken from previous data as well because when I checked whether my own books were in the sample set of libraries for Scotland, I was not surprised to find that none of them were stocked. However I did get a small payment for Dead Wood, despite the fact it was not in the Scottish set of sample libraries. This must have been calculated from a previous sample set of libraries. The payment, however, was only half the amount of previous years.

My PLR earnings for 2012 to 2013

To look further at book loans data. This is collected over a twelve month period, from 1 July to 30 June. For the purposes of this article I am looking at payments based on the year July 2012 to June 2013, which was when I did the research for this article. The payment for each loan at that time was the massive sum of 6.2 pence per loan, and a librarian friend told me that on average a reader will keep a book for a month so that would work out at twelve loans per year. During that year I had 79 loans in Angus libraries for my two non-earning books (Angus loan figures do not include Dead Wood), and as previously mentioned I got the grand sum of £8.18 for Dead Wood which originated from a library in Wales, otherwise this book would also have earned no PLR. I’m still pondering what to spend my Dead Wood PLR earnings on. I wonder if it would buy me a ream of paper?

I did wonder why, in this technological age, the PLR system was based on statistical sampling, rather than collecting information from all libraries, but according to them it would be impracticable and expensive to do this, although I don’t quite see the rationale for this given the vast improvements in technology. However, the size of the sample has improved over the years, apparently starting off with 16 individual library branches in 1982, to 30 library authorities, with approximately 1,000 individual branches.

For the purposes of PLR the country is divided up into regions into which library authorities are grouped. Each grouping may include between two to four different library authorities. The libraries included for sampling have to be public libraries operating as part of the statutory library service, provided by local authorities. Community libraries and those set up by independent groups are not included.

There are nine PLR sample regions in England, one in Scotland, one in Wales and one in Northern Ireland. The current English PLR regions are East, London, North East, North West & Merseyside, South East, South West, West Midlands, Yorkshire & The Humber. The majority of these regions cover several library authorities with London having the majority listed under London Libraries Consortium. Scotland is a single PLR region, and because I live in Scotland I was interested in which library authorities were included. The grouping is, Edinburgh, Highland, Midlothian, and North Lanarkshire. Wales, also a single PLR region has three local authorities included. But the one I found most interesting was Northern Ireland, because the whole of Northern Ireland is included in the sample. If you want to check the authorities included for 2015-2016 you can do so here http://www.plr.uk.com/libraryInformation/current.htm

I checked back on previous years, and discovered the last time Angus (my library authority) was included was the PLR sample year 1996-97. Gulp, that was 19 years ago, and now that the libraries have become a trust in Angus it is unlikely it will ever be included again. Edinburgh and Glasgow are featured fairly regularly, although unlike London, they are not included every year. Here is the archive of sample authorities from 1982 to 2013 http://www.plr.uk.com/libraryInformation/sampleLibraryArchiveIndex.htm

That begs the question – how often do they change the sample authorities? Well, according to the web site, at least seven of the library authorities are replaced each year, and no authority can stay in the sample longer than four years.

So there you have it. If you are lucky enough to live in one of the sampling authorities and the libraries in that authority stock your books, then you will get PLR payments. However, if like me, the reverse is the case, then I reckon you should not count on PLR as part of your writing income.

But in conclusion, if you were to ask me whether it is beneficial to register for PLR in the knowledge you may get nothing, then my answer would be yes. You see, if an author does not register then this reduces the amount of authors on the PLR database, and who knows whether a future decision might be that these payments are no longer necessary, and as a result, the scheme will be scrapped. So, I would encourage you to register.

Before I go, can I just say that if you like a specific writer’s books and want to support them, then please put a request into your local library for their books, irrespective of whether you have the paperback or kindle version already. It will get the books onto the library shelves, and hopefully they will be included in a sample, sooner or later. After all, every little £8.18 helps! I’m off to check the price of computer paper now, I might just have enough to pay for a couple of reams if I’m lucky, but certainly not for a full box!

NB. At the time of doing the research I had three books in print. I now have six books in print, and the situation is still the same, only one book, Dead Wood, ever makes any PLR. Oh, and before I forget, the amount I earn decreases every year despite the rise in borrowing rates. My payment for 2015 was £6.19.

Chris Longmuir

http://chrislongmuir.blogspot.co.uk/

Monday, 13 January 2014

My Writing Process #mywritingprocess

I am a member of the excellent Authors Electric group. If you haven’t checked it out online then you’re missing a treat. Click on Authors Electric to have a peek. Why am I telling you this? Well, it’s because a request was made by Ann Evans, one of my Authors Electric colleagues for willing guinea pigs to produce a blog post for the “My Writing Process” blog tour. And in my usual jump before you think mode, I stuck my hand up and said “me, me”. After which came, “groan, groan”, I’m going to have to write it now. Well, time has rolled on in its usual relentless fashion, and today is my day to answer the questions I’ve been given and to impose the answers on you.

You can check out Ann’s blog at http://annsawriter.blogspot.co.uk/. Thank you for inviting me to join the blog tour, Ann.

1) What am I working on?

As you probably already know I’ve written three books in The Dundee Crime Series, which to my surprise have been tremendously popular. I’ve also written a historical saga set in the 1830s. Now you might think given the popularity of The Dundee Crime Series, my new book would be number four, a contemporary crime novel set in Dundee. But you would be wrong. Oh, the book is set in Dundee, so no surprises there. And it’s crime, again no surprises. But it’s a historical one this time – got you! You see, I decided to combine my two interests, crime and social history, into a new novel which might just be the start of a new series.

The story was inspired by Dundee’s first policewoman, although that is where the similarity ends. My policewoman starts out in London, but is sent to Dundee at the request of the Chief Constable. When the women police (a voluntary force) were formed in 1914 she was one of the first to join. And like a lot of the early policewomen, she has a suffragette background. I bet you didn’t know that the origins of the women’s police included suffragette organisations, such as the Women’s Freedom League (WFL), and the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU). Anyway, she gets sent to Dundee and is immediately embroiled in a murder with satanic undertones, while at the same time fighting against prejudice from the male police force.

This novel was originally written several years ago and it was one of the twenty winners of an international competition for the best crime novel by an unpublished crime writer, all this was before I was published. However, a succession of editors insisted on changes which tore the heart out of the novel, and in my opinion completely destroyed it. At the end of the day it had become such a mess that it wasn’t published. So, this year I have torn it to pieces, completely rewritten it, and I hope my readers will like it. I’m currently at the revision and editing stage and just about ready to send it out to my two editors, one edits for content and the other for grammar. These editors are far superior to the ones supplied to me by the publishing firm that organised the competition, so there’s no danger they will spoil the book.

I reckon this book will probably be published in late February or March, so watch this space.

2) How does my work differ from others of its genre?

All writers think their work differs from that of other writers, and I certainly wouldn’t want to mimic another writer, no matter how successful. I write in different genres, but considering I’m known mainly as a crime novelist, I will focus on the Dundee Crime Series. As far as I’m concerned I think this contemporary crime series does differ from many others. The books are often listed as police procedurals, but although many of my police characters remain the same in each book (it would be a nonsense to change the Dundee Police Force each time), they are not really the main characters. My main characters are the victims, the suspects, or the perpetrators, which means the books also fit into the noir genre. The other thing is that each book is different because the police are not the main characters. Night Watcher is a revenge thriller. Dead Wood is a cross between a police procedural, and a woman in peril thriller. While Missing Believed Dead is a psychological thriller as well as a police procedural. I like to get into the heads of my characters, and the more twisted the character, the better.

3) Why do I write what I do?

I suppose I write about what interests me. I’ve always been interested in social history, not the kings and queens and lords and ladies stuff, but how the ordinary people lived and survived in times gone past. So that’s where my saga and historical crime comes from. As for my contemporary crime, I suppose that’s because it has always been my favourite reading, from my teenage devourment of Agatha Christie, on to my more modern favourites Jeffrey Deaver, Val McDermid, Mo Hayder, Denise Mina, and loads more.

The suspense in my writing probably originates from my horror phase, starting with Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and on through James Herbert, Stephen King, and Dean Koontz. Koontz in particular is a master of suspense. The darkness of my characters arises from my interest in psychology and what makes someone do something evil.

I’m sure there are many more influences, but those are the main ones.

4) How does your writing process work?

This is a really difficult question to answer because I really don’t know. I’m what is known as a pantster. I do not plot or plan the book I am writing, which I am told is unusual for a crime writer. I start out with one scene involving a character and take it from there. I write the scene, and then play the “what if” game, and so the next scene is born, and I carry on in that fashion until the end of the book. I reckon if I can’t surprise myself by what will happen, then I won’t surprise the reader.

One thing I do believe is that a writer has to write. It’s like any job of work, there may be days when I am not in the mood, but I have to force myself into the chair and force my fingers onto the keyboard, or if you’re a pencil and paper writer, you must grasp the pencil firmly and write. It’s possible what has been written may have to be junked, but it is important to keep the writing muscle active. It’s like any other muscle – you use it or lose it.

The other thing that is really important is the editing phase, and I don’t mean checking for spelling and grammar mistakes. Editing is dissecting what has been written and deciding if it can be improved. It involves a lot of rewriting, and when I am satisfied it’s as good as it can be, I send it out to my editors whose opinion I value.

* * * *

Next week the following three authors will be telling you about their writing process

Melanie Robertson King will be talking about her writing process on Monday 20th January, on her blog, which is here – http://www.melanierobertson-king.com/wp02/

Melanie lives in Canada, and she writes time travel and contemporary romance set in Scotland.

Pauline Barclay will be writing about her writing process on Monday 20th January on her blog, and you’ll find her at – http://paulinembarclay.blogspot.co.uk/

Pauline says “My passion is to write about events that happen in life and change everything for those involved as well as those caught up in the maelstrom. I want my characters to sit at your side, steal your attention and sweep you up in their story.”

Tanya J Peterson talks about her writing process on Monday 20th January, on her blog at http://tanyajpeterson.com/blog/

Tanya J Peterson is a columnist for HealthyPlace.com as well as a novelist. The themes of her novels address the impact of mental illness on people as well as the human capacity for healing.

* * *

Thank you for visiting my blog and reading about my writing process.

Chris Longmuir

Missing Believed Dead – UK

Monday, 15 July 2013

A Reader Has Her Say

I am happy to host a guest blog by one of my readers, Julie Merrilees Watters. Julie has never written a blog post before, but when I saw this on the Montrose Memories Facebook page, I pleaded with her to allow me to post it. Happily, she agreed, and I haven’t altered anything in her post except for separating it into paragraphs. So now I’ll hand the blog over to Julie.

Julie Merriless Watters

It was great to be able to attend Waterstones in Dundee for the launch of Chris Longmuir's new book Missing Believed Dead, along with my Mum on Thursday night.

As book launch virgins, we weren't sure what to expect. We were very pleasantly surprised to find an area in the bookshop was set out with chairs; there were welcome nibbles & drinks to keep any pangs of hunger or thirst at bay. Talking of welcomes - Chris, who was at a desk at the front, spotted us coming in & she came all the way to the back to say "Hello," have a wee chat & a hug, as well as take the time to sign a few copies of her previous books for us.

I asked Chris if she was nervous about the event. She had actually been anxious that nobody would turn up! However, people trickled in & there were no seats left by the time Chris was due to take the floor. Waterstones staff quickly had to bring in more chairs to try & accomodate everyone.

After an opening welcome, Chris gave us a hint or two about Missing Believed Dead's plot, along with few verbal appetizers about some of the characters. She chose to highlight the D.S. in her story & I was left with the feeling that I wanted to mother this chappie or fend off some of the blows bound to come his way via his new boss.

Chris asked us if we wanted to hear the first chapter read & shared some advice she'd been given as a writer. That advice was to basically hook the reader in that first chapter. She very cleverly set the scene & I was able to picture myself there witnessing the event as it unfolded & thinking "which one is going to prevail here?"

Later, Chris asked if anyone had any questions they wanted to ask. There were quite a few ranging from "Do you base your characters on real people that you know?" "How do you keep track of your characters?" "Will you please sort out the D.S. in the stories with a good woman?" "Do you write for 6,8,10 hour stretches per day?" I asked on the quiet "Do you keep a notebook with you all the time to write lines down, so you won't forget them?" Chris held the interest of the audience easily & concluded her talk to a healthy applause.

I had the pleasure of meeting Chris' family afterwards & we had a lovely time discussing Montrose Memories, the people we had met as a result of it & the things we had since learnt about our town that we hadn't known before. It really was such an enjoyable night. Well done, Chris! XX

Getting a hug from Julie

And thank you, Julie, for such a wonderful description of a wonderful night where I got to meet so many of my readers.

Links

Missing Believed Dead - US

You Tube video

http://chrislongmuir.blogspot.co.uk/

Sunday, 7 July 2013

Sink or Swim – It’s Launched

I didn’t have a celebrity to smash a bottle of champagne over the bows of Missing Believed Dead, as it slipped down the runway into the world wide web. Or should that just be the world? There was just me and some friends, all tooting as loud as we could, and hoping to draw some attention.

So, I want to thank the people who supported me. People like J.B.Johnston, who featured a cover reveal on Brook Cottage Books. Click here if you want to see it. Then she followed it up by a review, where she described it as “a gritty, suspense filled and extremely clever thriller”. Not only that, but she said she was so drawn into the story, she dreamed of the characters one night. In my opinion that might have been better described as a nightmare! Sorry for the dreams, Jonty, but thanks for the suport. If you want to read the review for yourself, then click here.

I found another review on the Eclectic Electric, the Authors Electric eBook review site. Thank you Julia Jones for taking the time to write and submit it, and for considering me a competent, confident crime writer. High praise indeed.

Famous Five Plus, a fantastic group that supports quite a few authors, didn’t fail me either. They published several posts, starting with Have You Heard? They’re Missing Believed Dead, in June. this was followed up by Are You Ready For It? on the day of the online launch. And this weekend they’re featuring it in their Hug a Book competition, where a lucky reader can win a copy by answering a simple question. Thanks Famous Five Plus.

Then there was my interview with another great crime writer, Bill Kirton, where he made me bare my soul on his blog. Thanks, Bill.

And there’s still another blog to come. My good friend, and debut author, Melanie Robertson King, plans to feature a post her blog Celtic Connexions, on the day of my Waterstones paperback launch, which, in case you’ve forgotten, is on Thursday 11th July. Thanks in advance, Melanie.

But there are others I need to thank. There are all the people who read pre-publication copies of Missing Believed Dead, and provided reviews. Thank goodness they all loved the book, although I was prepared for the worst if they didn’t. They weren’t obliged to write good reviews. And all the people who tweeted and shared my posts on Facebook. Emails and good luck wishes can’t be ignored either. It gives me such a buzz when someone takes the trouble to drop me an email, leave me a message or put up a comment on Facebook, or makes it known in any number of ways that they enjoy my book. That’s what we write for. If I’ve forgotten anyone, I apologize. Put it down to an increase in senior moments, but I thank you anyway.

Maybe this is the place where I should share with you the dedication I put at the beginning of Missing Believed Dead. It’s “This book is dedicated to all my faithful readers who give me support and provide me with the encouragement to keep on writing. Without readers, a writer is nothing.”

Now listen to the first chapter of Missing Believed Dead.

And check out the other books in the Dundee crime Series

Chris Longmuir

Friday, 28 June 2013

Why are we Waiting?

The long wait is over. The wait for what? I hear you ask. Well, it’s the wait for the launch of my new book Missing Believed Dead. I’ve been counting down the days to the launch on the first of July, and today I’m pressing the upload button for both the Kindle ebook and the paperback, just to make sure they both appear on the scheduled date. And maybe, with a little bit of luck, Amazon won’t be too slow and they’ll appear early.

Take a look at the cover. Brilliant isn’t it? The lovely Cathy Helms, of Avalon Graphics designed it, and it’s a stunner. You can have another look at it if you pop over to Brook Cottage Books, where the site is doing a cover reveal. It’s also got the blurb to tell you a little bit about the book. And there’s more coming. Brook Cottage Books are doing a review of the book on Monday 2nd July, and Famous Five Plus are doing something as well. I’ll post the links when they appear.

Then,of course, there’s the launch of the paperback at the Dundee branch of Waterstones on 11th July. and, if you’re within spitting distance of Dundee on that date, remember to pop in. I’ll be giving a wee talk and signing books.

If you want to know more about the book, visit the links as they are put up. In the meantime I’m going back to Brook Cottage Books to do some more drooling.

Saturday, 4 May 2013

When is the End not the End?

Book Launch after I won the Dundee International Book Prize

I need a pat on the back. Why? Well I wrote The End on my work in progress. It’s finished. Completed. I’ve written the final chapter, and even better, the final sentence. And I must say there was a wee tear in my eye as I wrote it.

Tears! From a dark crime writer! What next? Well, even though my books are not renowned for happy endings, I do have a soft side. I’m sure I’ll be deafened by the mutterings out there when this is read. But I do, honestly. And, although my crime books may not have very many happy endings, things do work out. Anyway, would you really want a happy ending to a dark crime book?

Once I stopped dancing because I had written The End, I had to knuckle down to some more work. You see, when a writer writes The End to their work in progress, it’s not really the end. Next comes the hard work of revision, editing and proofing, and I do all that before it goes out to my editors for fresh eyes to look at.

Revision comes first. The entire manuscript is read, and while reading I am looking out for clumsy writing, places where I’ve told the story rather than showed the action, although there are places where telling is okay. If I reach a tell section, I consider it. Would it be better if I turned it into show, or should I leave it the way it is? A lot depends on what is happening in the story at that point. If it’s a fast paced section then there is no argument – it has to be show. But tell is great if you want a quick way to sketch in background or move the story through time. However, given that the action in the new book takes place over a period of 6 days, time gallops.

Then, there is the hunt for weasel words. That is, words that are unnecessary, words where the sentence would make the same sense if they weren’t there. I’m thinking about words like – just, that, actually, basically, extremely, almost, simply – there are loads more, including the word ‘then’ which starts this paragraph, and the Find command in Word is excellent for rooting them out. However, each word has to be considered before removal, because in some cases they are needed.

Then a hunt for quotation marks. Word’s Find command is great here too, but this is laborious, and you only realize how many you use when you search them out. So what am I looking for? I’m checking that dialogue is both opened and closed, and that apostrophes are in the correct place. Speaking of apostrophes, I also do a find on words like ‘its’ just in case it’s the one that needs the apostrophe. Then there’s the hunt for ise, and ize endings to ensure the correct one is written. I use the Oxford Dictionary for Writers & Editors, and they stipulate the correct usage for words that can be written either way. Their preference is for ize endings, with some exceptions, for example, ‘realize’ is an ize ending but ‘surprise’ is an ise ending. However, as I have a tendency to use the ise endings in preference to ize, this means hunting out every ise ending and converting it if it’s needed. I’m getting better though, because when I’m writing my brain has become trained to write ize instead of ise.

After that, another read through is needed before it goes out to my editors. And that’s where the book is at the moment. And, of course, another read through once the corrections are in, then a speak aloud read through – it’s amazing the errors you can detect when you read the manuscript aloud, although after 92,000 words I reckon I’ll be hoarse!

Oh, nearly forgot to say, the cover has been commissioned, but I have no idea what it will look like yet. I’m waiting for my cover artist to surprise me.

I suppose you want to know what the book is about, but I’ll leave that until later. What I will tell you though, is that it is the third one in the Dundee Crime Series, and I should be ready to launch it in early July.

Watch this space!