WordPress sent me a notification this week to say that I’d published 200 posts, and they think this is worth celebrating. 200 posts! It sounds a lot, but it’s been built up over time, much like the rest of my writing.

Sometimes the task of writing a novel or putting a short story, flash fiction or poetry collection together feels vast, but these are all built up over time. Writing steadily over the months and years will help you to reach your goals.

I began blogging in 2012, before the release of my debut novel, Take Me to the Castle. It was a great way of connecting with readers and honing my skills as a writing.

The posts have been a mix of author interviews, posts about the craft of writing and personal writing news, although most of this is sent out in a newsletter.

So, why write a blog as an author? Some feel it’s a waste of writing time, but here are the benefits:

1. It builds your audience and connects you with readers, and other authors. There are many authors who follow my blog who have cheered me on, and vice versus. People can follow your blog and sign up to your mailing list. Your list will grow over time.

2. It keeps you writing regularly and forms a vital habit, especially of you are writing non-fiction. For fiction writers it’s good to switch gears, although you can also post some of your work. I’ve chosen not publish my work until it has been published in a magazine or journal, but some authors post snippets as they work on their manuscript, so that readers get a taster.

3. You get to meet some wonderful authors and editors along the way. I’ve interviewed Matt Haig and S.J. Watson, as well as short story authors and poets. I have also interviewed journal editors, which promotes their journals and gives new writers an idea of how to submit, and what editors are looking for.

4. It’s a great addition to an author website. When readers enter your website, they can find out more about you through your blog. I’ve often had interesting chats with people in the comments on blog posts and have met readers that way.

I’m thrilled to share the news that my quirky little story, This is the Year I Learn to Float, which began to form at a SmokeLong Quarterly workshop, with editors, Helen Rye and Christopher Allen, will be published by National Flash Fiction Day in their Flash Flood journal at around on 26 June for National Flash Fiction Day 2021. They will be celebrating their 10th anniversary.

National Flash Fiction Day was founded in 2011 to celebrate all that is exciting and bold and, above all, brief in the world of flash-fiction, and aims to:

• Promote flash fiction and flash fiction writers in the UK and beyond
• Inspire new shortform writing
• Encourage new writers and writers of other forms to explore flash fiction
• Provide a positive, encouraging, inclusive community for flash fiction writers and readers around the globe

National Flash Fiction Day was founded by Calum Kerr, and is currently run by Santino Prinzi, Ingrid Jendrzejewski and Diane Simmons.

Keep your eyes peeled on the @nationalflashfd Twitter page for lots of flash fiction pieces published through the day on 26 June.

I’ve recently updated my Amazon Author Central page. It’s important to keep websites, bios and pages like Amazon Author Central up to date, but why create an Amazon Author Central page at all? Is it worth it?

In a word, yes. It pulls all of your work together in to one place, if you link your work to your author page. It’s especially helpful if, like me, you have work in collections, alongside other authors, that new readers might not be aware of. I know people have mixed feelings about Amazon, and some authors prefer to focus on other places like Book Hive, Bookshop and Wordery, but if you want to market your work well, this is a tool that shouldn’t be ignored.

Amazon Author Central gives you the opportunity to add your author profile to Amazon, Audible and Kindle books. It also gives valuable insights into data on your books, such as sales by country, rankings and customer reviews. Readers can find links to your website and social media channels from your author bio, as well as sign up to your author newsletter, which means that they can follow you both on and off Amazon.

It links your work and sends readers to other titles that you have written. If you have a stand alone story or a story in an anthology, it’s easy for a reader who likes your work to find more. A reader who has read your novel and wants to read more can search for other work that you have written.

On Amazon.com, the US page, you can link your blog to your author page through the RSS feed, and readers can see updates within 24 hours of them being posted.

Adding photos and videos gives readers an idea of who you are and what you do. I’ve added photos and a video of book readings, to give readers an insight into who I am as an author.

Your Amazon Author page will give you information on sales rankings and customer reviews in individual countries. The Amazon Best Sellers Rank shows how well a particular book is selling compared to other books. Each format of your book has its own Ranking. Amazon updates these hourly and your historical Sales Rank is updated daily. These are relative and can change even if your book’s sales and borrows stay the same.

You can share information about up coming releases and find out which of your titles are most popular in different countries. You can also rank your work by average customer reviews and number of reviews. If you have a lot of titles, this is a useful tool.

If you want to write your author bio in other languages, or ask somebody to do this for you, these can be added to country pages individually.

So, if you don’t have an Amazon Author Central account, you can start by setting one up here and adding a recent head shot, along with an up to date bio, then link any work that you have authored, either solely, or in a collection, as well as edited works. Search for your book by title or ISBN number. Amazon will check it and add it to your page. You can then upload photos and videos. I’ve also added a book trailer for my novel.

Do you have an Amazon Author Central page? have you found it helpful? Let me know if you have any questions. It’s a really useful tool, which will help to market your work and give you a platform to share who you are and what you write.

My first four poems have just been published with Unpublishable Zine. These are my first poetry publications, which is exciting. You can read them all here, or read one below. I have a forthcoming podcast reading with the same journal.

Swirls of Blues and Yellows

The clouds swirl
with blues and
yellows, the stars
mingling with the
night sky, rolling like
balls of fire over the
hills of Saint-Rémy-de-Provence.
The scene is a dizzy

fusion of lines
and Catherine
Wheels of colour. The
houses sit quietly,

waiting for sunrise. The
streets, empty, the homes
quiet. The bustle of
the day is behind and

it is impossible to
know what lies
ahead. For now,
the homes are at rest,

while the sky scrambles
over the hills, sweeping
its balls of fire, into
another galaxy.

I’ll a link to the podcast when it is released. I hope everybody is well and has been able to find solace in reading, writing, or something creative….gardening or painting. Let me know what you’ve been up to or what you think of the poetry.