Good Day,

First a Little history…Most British writers will be familiar with the above saying/slogan that has been with us since 1939. During that year The Ministry of Information was formed by the British Government as the department responsible for publicity and propaganda during the Second World War. The MOI was appointed by the British Government to design a number of morale boosting posters that would be displayed across the British Isles during the testing times that lay ahead. The slogan, ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ was the title on the third poster. The plan in place for this poster was to issue it only upon the invasion of Britain by Germany. As this never happened, the poster was never officially seen by the public.

It is thought that most of the Keep Calm posters were destroyed and reduced to a pulp at the end of the war in 1945. However, nearly 60 years later, a bookseller from Barter Books stumbled across a copy hidden amongst a pile of dusty old books bought from an auction and a further small number are kept in the National Archives and the Imperial War Museum in London.

Sadly there is no record of the unknown Civil Servant who originally came up with the simple and quintessential Britishness of the Keep Calm and Carry On message but I do think it is wonderful to think that people still find it appealing and reassuring in our modern times.

We live in times that are often troubled and turbulent, whether you live in the ‘modernistic’ west or indeed a ‘third’ world country. Our basic needs as humans are food, clean water, warmth, shelter including safety, and energy. Where you live, and how you conduct your actual life depends on what your employment is and your personal situation.

From a writer’s point of view I’ve heard a lot of grumbling lately; followed by tales of woe throughout the summer months and I’ve thought just how easy it is to fall into the trap of being carried along with the ‘summer malaise’ or to put it candidly,  ‘lack of book sales’.

But, wait! Why worry when the summer has always been known as the ‘silly season’ since I can remember.

Historically, in the publishing industry, selling has always really occurred during spring, autumn and winter largely due to the sales conferences among editors and publishers and the time it took for their sales persons to visit their many accounts. To some extent this scenario has changed somewhat, but summer has stayed the dormant period. Why?

Why is there such a slack period during the summer? Maybe book buyers take a leaf out of the books of the British government, simply put, ‘it is that part of the year when Parliament and the Law Courts are not sitting. For non-British I should explain this is when parliament rises and everyone in the house takes the summer recess and goes on holiday! Nothing much happens, the media makes do with frivolous news stories and the population pursue different ventures.

The summer months are usually good with fine weather and long days, children are out of school, people practise more sport and it is great fun to just be out of doors and enjoying different, simple things. So with all these different verities of life, book buying takes a back burner and there is a definite summer downturn of sales. It happens! It’s normal! It’ll happen again!

So what to do when it happens next year…and the next? Do what I and many of my other author friends do.

Concentrate on writing your next book.

Forget about looking at the numbers of books you’re selling during this time. You can see how many you’ve sold when you see how much money has come in each month!

Saying all that, the summer is actually rather a good time to release new titles because they will be already established in the system, when we enter the autumn period.

I know it seems almost impossible to do this, especially if you’re a new author, but you really have to think long term. So don’t keep checking how many books you’ve sold every five minutes and stop reacting to low sales in the traditional low-sales period of the summer!

There is probably nothing wrong with your books, especially if you’ve had a good year selling so far…and this will be repeated every year!

I've had a fantastic year and released two new books during June and July; 'The Seeds of Time' and the follow-up 'Harvest'. Both cross many genre including, romantic suspense, historical, partly true stories, adventure and family saga.
Practicing what I preach I've also written a 4th Diana Rivers, mystery suspense thriller, 'Camera Action...Murder' which is currently with my editor and should be released in October..and last but not least I'm a third of the way through my latest Romantic suspense, 'A Very French Affair'. Phew! Maybe I'll take a rest soon.

Thank you for dropping by and reading my post. Happy writing and happy reading everyone!

Faithx

Good Day!
Last weekend I flew home to the UK for a month’s stay to see my family - we have a lot of catching up to do. Skype and the telephone are all very well but there is nothing like having a good old chat together. And for some reason the chat between my son and I led us on to talk about erotica and pornography. Mm I hear you thinking – what mother discusses such things with her son?! Well in this instance I did! We have a fairly frank and open relationship which covers many subjects, although my son is pretty much what you call ‘straight’ and gets a bit squeamish if he thinks I’m going too far – i.e. he’s young and I’m not!! In this particular conversation we disagreed – he believes there is no difference between erotica and pornography while I feel there is. It’s a bit akin to ‘gazing or leering’. Now normally I like to research a subject to ensure I’m properly informed, but in this case I chose not to because the whole question is subjective and steeped in moral, aesthetic and religious values. I thought that if I spent time reading other literature I might change my own beliefs and viewpoint. My son (and others), regard these two subjects in sexuality as coinciding, while I believe they exist on essentially different planes.
Let’s take aesthetic art for instance. In painting or photographing nudity, we don’t look to see whether the composition is anatomically correct. We look at the subject from an erotic execution and assume that the artist viewed the model as commendable. We take pleasure in this and thus the erotic and aesthetic merge.
The artist’s work suggests, but unlike pornography it doesn't appeal totally or exclusively to our senses or carnal appetites. It employs our aesthetic sense, in how we judge the figure in measure of human beauty and shows there is more overlap between the aesthetic and the erotic, than between the erotic and pornographic. Of course, erotica and pornography both present the human organism in a manner that's sexually compelling. But the main aim of the pornographer is not to get their audience to appreciate or honour the human form. More likely their object is to sexually ‘turn on’ the onlooker. The brazen purpose is simple: immediate titillation leading to intense arousal. Okay, the erotic might end up having the same effect. But, the ideal behind erotica is to add a third dimension that won't grow old, or become stale over time as pornographic images generally do. Pornography I think is basically "sex for sale." Artists seek eroticism, I believe, as much as they seek beauty. Pornographers are less motivated by the desire to faithfully represent what they may (or may not) regard as beautiful or aesthetic. Rather, their undertaking is contrived to "produce" what they believe will turn the largest possible profit. Besides pornography's being a money-making venture, the very word pornography (or porn) connotes certain corruption, which is at times the humiliation or defilement of human sexuality. Many writers have complained that pornography, by portraying women, reduces them to sex objects whose fundamental value is to satisfy a man's libido.     
But I think it can do more than that. Porn literature, including songs, photographs, or films can cheapen--for both sexes--the whole beautiful experience of physical intimacy. It can take acts of affection, love, and caring, and dehumanise them into something depraved. Acts that combine love with lust are often shown as mere outlets for easing sexual tension. That which we humans seek to make special is then shown as activities lacking caring and concern. Pornography is literally sex without any sort of relationship. Pornography surely gives a temporary fix for our sexual frustrations; eroticism offers us something more subtle --an opportunity to experience sensuous pleasure of a higher order. Pornography appeals to our more savage animal instincts; its portrayal of human flesh is calculated to arouse our most primeval appetites. Pornography might show some interest in beauty--but only to heighten sexual allure.
I’ve read how some women writers of erotica say that before they came across this genre they didn’t even know it existed…there is this whole world of erotica in print and online and mainly catering to women! They go on to say that many people view anything sexual as smut or just porn while others can relish the differences between erotica and porn and all the areas in between. Many think porn is usually visual and geared towards men with a purpose to physically arouse and stimulate. They say erotica goes further and deeper by appealing more to women and is often written (but not wholly) by and for women. Erotica can be real experiences versus unrealistic porn, covering a full story but including steamy sex scenes which are often omitted in most novels. Thus erotica can stimulate both mind and body, arousing the imagination and heightening emotions. Porn is all on display, leaving no imagination at all.
I personally think one difference is that a piece of erotic writing tries to explain why something feels good and pornography does not. Pornography can often take what some of us may consider a distasteful sex act and show it in a titillating manner. Whereas eroticism can take the same sexual act and question any pleasure gained from it. Eroticism can explore a wide range of emotions and make moral judgement, love, hate, fear, pain, rejection, and so on. Pornography cannot do any of this in an expressive way. My point is that sexuality covers a wealth of human sentiments and unlike pornography, erotica doesn't seek to limit these. It can be argued that erotica is more arousing because it implicates and arouses in many ways that pornography cannot. Human beings are such multifarious physical and emotional creatures – we are what we are. For us to be aroused, we have to think and pornography takes away any need for thought, concentrating on just supplying a physical need. Erotica stimulates us mentally, allowing us to explore our own feelings. Erotica works on so many other different levels to the pornographic.
But there again some people may say it’s all semantics! What do you think?
Thank you for dropping by and reading my post this week. I thought I’d write about something different for once and it’s a subject that may set many of you thinking! Despite my son complaining, I’m going to add a tad more sex to my next romantic suspense book, nothing smutty of course… and perhaps I won’t tell him when it’s out in print!
Have a great day wherever you are!
Faithx