web stuff 4 writers

There’s only 21 days to the launch of Faye L. Booth’s debut novel, Cover the Mirrors, yet she’s still found time to answer a few web stuff 4 writers questions about how she uses the internet.

How did you use the internet when you were writing Cover the Mirrors?

The good thing about the internet is that it’s like a free library. The bad thing about the internet is that anyone can update it, so information obtained from it is not to be trusted automatically. (Although of course, there are plenty of books and newspaper articles that are absolute drivel). My preferred technique when it comes to using the internet for research is to see what I can find, and then attempt to corroborate mutually supporting evidence from several sources.

Book recommendations can be found online too, and Amazon’s always handy for obtaining the kinds of titles that might not necessarily be found in bricks-n-mortar bookshops, like the texts on Victorian Spiritualism I used in researching Cover the Mirrors.

Then there’s the self-indulgent internet use, like blogging so I can complain about having a bad writing day, and word meters (see below) so I can keep track of my progress.

How have you used the internet to promote Cover the Mirrors?

I am becoming a rather accomplished media tart. In such a competitive field it’s vital for new authors especially to keep their book’s name in people’s minds, and there are plenty of ways to do this online.

Now that there are user-friendly sites on which to create online content (blog providers and social networking sites, for example), it’s easy to have a web presence, and the payoffs can be great. I avoided getting a MySpace account for a very long time, but my MySpace is probably the most viewed of all my various web presences, and I have met some great people there, like Laura, the editor of hagsharlotsheroines.com.

How was fayelbooth.co.uk created?

A techie friend provided the basic code, and I have sufficient knowledge (acquired by trial and error over my years online) to tweak it. I’m currently doing a web design course, though, so hopefully I’ll be in a position to take better control of my site soon.

What are your favourite writing-related websites?

I have yet to really get into sites like EditRED and Authors’ Den, although I do have accounts on both of them.

Really, the majority of sites I visit for writing purposes weren’t specifically designed for authors - history sites for research, networking sites for promotion and such.

As I mentioned, though, I do like to have a little progress meter going for my own amusement while I’m writing a first draft, and my favourite one comes from Writertopia as it’s the only one I’ve found so far that doesn’t get overloaded and stop working in November when NaNoWriMo’s happening, and none of the others have an option that allows you to depict yourself as an anthropomorphic raisin in a variety of moods.

Faye’s novel, Cover the Mirrors, is available for pre-order on Amazon.com. You can find out more about Faye and her writing on www.fayelbooth.co.uk.

Tags: Interviews //