http://www.writers-online.co.uk NOVEMBER 2019^75first book I ever had published, a
story for young adults entitled Ring of
Silver, Lord of Time, has historical and
contemporary themes. I only stopped
writing YA fiction because the market
was getting over-saturated, and it
was becoming harder to find readers.
Also Usborne, along with many other
mainstream publishers, decided to weed
out the mid-listers, preferring to focus
on big names, or on newbies who could
be marketed in an exciting manner.’
The Victorian Detectives series
is independently published and has
lots of fans. How does Carol market
these novels to readers – by blogging,
on social media, by using paid
advertising, in any other ways?
‘Ah, marketing!’ she says. ‘Well, I
have never paid for a review or for
publicity, and I never would. I am
lucky in that I am a born engager. I
use Twitter and Facebook. I blog at
http://carolhedges.blogspot.com
and I interact with other writers, too:
I retweet the details of their books, I
review their books on Amazon, and I
comment on their blogs. I use Twitter
to post Victorian snippets that might
attract people to The Victorian
Detectives series: for example,
Charles Dickens loved his cat Bob
so much that when the animal died
he had his paw made into a letter-
opener. People love seeing bizarre
or interesting things, and they will
frequently check out my sites as a
result of something I’ve posted. One
thing I absolutely do not do is tweet
endless promotions of my books,
which would be very boring. But I
do use a lot of the “tribal” hashtags:
#historicalfiction, #histfic, #crimefic,
and so on, which help to widen my
reader base. I feel the best kind of
publicity is to be yourself because
people are drawn to the person and
then to the books.’
It’s been said by some fans of The
Victorian Detectives that Carol writes
better Dickens than Dickens. ‘Oh,
I love Dickens, for all his flaws,’ she
says. ‘If you read my books, you
will see that I not only set them
in the 1860s, but that I write in
his discursive style, occasionallyaddressing to the reader as Dickens
did – remember his diatribe about
an uncaring society when Jo, the
crossing-sweeper in Bleak House, dies?
I’m a big fan of Wilkie Collins, who
was a contemporary of Dickens and
who, in The Moonstone, wrote the
first detective novel. But I also enjoy
the work of many modern writers:
Henning Mankell, the late Helen
Dunmore, Robert Harris and Kate
Atkinson are all favourites of mine. I
do not think you can be a successful
writer without being an avid and
constant reader. I always have at least
three novels and a non-fiction book
on my to-be-read pile.
‘As for any special writing
ambition – mine is probably just
to keep going. Every time I finish
writing a book, I get that sinking
sense of doom and feel I will never
write another one: that this is it,
the end. Then I find myself slowly
sidling up to the mountain that is
a new book, eyeing the foothills
curiously, and taking tentative steps
into the next unknown journey.’Open Competitions
N A T I O N A L A S S O C I A T I O N
O F W R I T E R S ' G R O U P SShort story | PoemBetrayal
Prizes for each
category
£200
£100
£50
Closing date 30 November 2019Full details and entry form available at
nawg.co.uk/competitionsEntry fee £5 | Optional critique £5