Third time lucky - not quite!

Never let it be said that taking the self publishing route is an easy one.  After years of trying to get  my book 'Red Kite' published with a proper book publisher and getting so many rejections, I decided to go down this route instead with Lulu Self Publishing

The trouble is, unless you are confident with all the technical side of self publishing, it can be very daunting, as it has been for me.  I am not too hot on the I.T side of things and despite help from many wonderful writing friends, I am still alone when I come to actually doing it.  I have to click on all the right things to get my book looking like it's worth reading.

I found  that  producing it as an ebook was not so difficult for some reason but when I started to get the hard copy published, I was met with so many problems and that was only because I didn't read  ALL the instructions given. I have learned this after receiving my third copy which is nearly there - but still not good enough.

The first copy was a crazy attempt as I just pressed every button due to the shear excitement of publishing something on the same day as I released my ebook. I loved having an actual copy of it but it was dreadful and as you can see by the photo on the left it had double titles, looked very odd, the font was tiny and it had no page numbers.

The second copy was slightly better as I managed to sort out the front and back cover. It was at this point that I found out that if you don't choose the correct size for your book it will still keep coming out with a reduced font so you get tiny words throughout your book resulting in a very thin spine. If I had bothered to read  all this information from the start, maybe I would have my paperback right now to sell but I didn't.

Today I received the third copy and it's much better.  The page numbers are there, the font is ok but I still need to so some tweeking with the margins.

So, maybe number four copy which is on it's way to me right now to view before releasing it maybe the one that finally gets out there for sale.

We are all different, some people are just able to read instructions first before plunging in. I admit I got caught up with the excitement of publishing my book after such a long time. I would definatley reccomend to anyone who is embarking on a future project similar to mine, if you are not that hot on I.T, read as much as you can, ask whoever you can, be patient and make sure that everything is right before you press the publish button and eventually you will get that book out there.

'Red Kite' Book Launch

I finally launched my children's novel ' Red Kite' this week on Amazon Kindle.  It's been a long time but I am so glad that now it's out there and doing something positive.  I hope to have a hard copy soon too as I am working on the Lulu self publishing site to get it printed and ready for sale.

I started writing it ten years ago and tried desperately to get it published in the conventional way, or at least get an agent but it was so difficult.  Most of the places I sent it to took around six months to reply and only wanted it in isolation, so I couldn't send it anywhere else. Then finally after months of waiting it would come back rejected.  There is so much competition out there and it seems in Children's fiction, unless you are already very famous or destined to be the next J K Rowling, it will be very hard to get published in this way.

I did have many good comments though from major publishing houses which is rare as many only send a standard response, I think that is why I refused to give up as some of the comments were very encouraging.

The story is about a teenager who is trying to cope with the death of his identical twin brother, it shows his journey through bereavement, while trying to cope with being bullied at school, his only pleasure is Birdwatching.  I will not say anymore, just in case you wish to download it and read it at the very reasonable price of  £0.77 pence.  (Well I had to get a plug in somewhere)

It will probably never be a best seller but at least I did something with it and now I can concentrate on other projects like the sequel and I want to do some more article writing.  I got fresh inspiration for writing magazine articles just this week when one of my articles was published in the December issue of Dogs Monthly.

So, it may have taken ten years but at last 'Red Kite' has flown the nest and I can move on to other things.

A speedy sequel with NaNoWriMo

After weeks of consideration, I finally decided to have a go at Nanowrimo this year. National Novel Writing Month ( www.nanowrimo.org)  is certainly a great way of making you write instead of putting it off until the housework is done, the dog is walked or any other tasks that stop you from writing.

I felt terrified when I opened up a blank screen today  but as soon as I started I couldn't stop.  It was amazing not to worry about spelling or grammar or how it reads.  I simply let it flow out of my head and onto the keyboard and computer screen. Within 30 minutes I had nearly 900 words which spurred me on further so now on day one, I am slightly ahead.

Just have to keep this up for another 29 days and I may just have a very rough draft of my next novel.  I hope this will be the sequel to my novel Red Kite which I hope to publish this month on Kindle.  Red Kite took my almost ten years to complete so this has to be a better option.  I think if I can at least get the bare bones of  the novel down I can add the flesh at a later date.  Sounds a bit like a horror story but I am certainly not scared of having a go.    

The recipe for laughter

I attended a wonderful workshop yesterday which was part of the Wellington Literary Festival.  My own writing group Wrekin Writers invited Dr Paul McDonald from the University of Wolverhampton to give a talk on how to write humour.  As you can see by the picture above, it's a serious business.  I never realised that there are so many tools that can be used to create a piece of work that is funny.  Paul went through several of these to give us a real insight into how to write humour.

Re-incorporation was one of them, just like when a stand up comedian will keep returning to a particular subject, maybe they have picked on someone in the audience and each time they do it, it seems to get funnier.  Exaggeration was a major one too as in comedy you can get away with a lot more than when you are writing  in different genres. Some of the other terms we looked at were repetition, contrasts, incongruity, obsessions, irony and even a characters name.  Some names just sound funny, it's the same with some words.  'Stinky' and 'Plop' make me smile, I don't know why, perhaps it's the child in me but that is useful as I write mainly for children so that could come in useful some day. 

By using these tools it is possible to create something that will make people laugh.  Several members of the group did this in just a 15 minute exercise so it shows it really is possible.  None of us are comedians but within minutes we were genuinely laughing at the work that had been produced in a very short time scale.  

I would really like have a go at writing a humorous novel one day.  I have had a go at writing humour before with my chicken book which is is classed as gentle humour I guess but I didn't even think about trying to be funny when  I was writing that as the subject itself ( my chickens) gave me all the material in just watching them so it seemed to flow quite easily.  It was more about observing them and their comical personalities.  I made them superior to me which is also another ingredient in writing comedy as someone always has to be the butt of the joke, in the example of my book I suppose that was me!

I certainly want to have a go in the future of writing something funny, now I have my comedy tool kit, I am ready to go forth and have a giggle.  

Dr Paul McDonald 



Meet the Author and their marketing ideas

I spent a wonderful morning at the new Wellington Library on Saturday. It was part of the Wellington Literary Festival which is held every October and is an amazing programme of literary events to suit everyone. I was lucky enough to be invited to sell my book 'One Hundred Ways For A Chicken to Train Its Human' and promote my new novel 'Red Kite' which will be out soon. Although I didn't sell any books on this occasion, I still had a fantastic time meeting some wonderful fellow authors and having a chat to the general public who unfortunately for me were just not interested in Chickens!

I also attended with my Mom, Phyllis Blakemore, author of 'Gentlemen of the River' and as always her book went down very well.  She made quite a few sales and loved chatting to people about the old days in Ironbridge where her book is set.

I met a lovey lady pictured above who really inspired me. At the young age of only 24, Carys Jones has written several books and getting great reviews for her current book 'Not All Stars Sparkle'. It was great to chat to her and we shared many similar experiences in the journey of trying to get a book published. Carys had some great promotional material that her publisher did for her and I noticed people were picking them up as I did. She also has a great website which made me start thinking  when I need to market my own book. Have a look at http://carys-jones.com/

I have shared many events with R H Stewart who also writes young adult fiction.  He had a mass of young adults around his display most of the morning, something I really wish for when Red Kite is finally on sale.  I loved his stand and again I think that having props and a great visual display is so important.  His website is great too, see http://www.merlynbooks.co.uk/

I have to also mention Ken Ballantyne who was also present  and writes Real life/Military books. Unfortunately I never got to talk to him but he had another great visual display with music too.

Although I didn't get any sales, I certainly came away a lot richer with the knowledge that I picked up while I was there.  Getting out to events like this is a great opportunity to talk to other writers and see how they go about marketing their book once it's written and that is something I can bank for the future when I am promoting Red Kite.

Dinolympics - first edition

The first copy of my non-fiction book 'Dinolympics' came today. I have done it through Lulu Publishing and I am very happy with the quality and price.  This one is just the test copy but it's a thrilling experience to see it in a real book form after so long.  I need to re-arrange the illustrations as on the first run I have them all at the back, rather than with the text. 

This has been a great learning project too as in the next few weeks I will be publishing my novel 'Red Kite' with Lulu as well so hopefully when it comes to loading my novel on, I may know what I am doing.

I started this little book in October 2010 with the hope that I may find a publisher.  I wanted to tie it in with the London 2012 Olympics and hoped that someone may take an interest but it still got rejected on the grounds that they already had enough olympic related material.  I never guessed that I should have planned even earlier than two years ahead but I do now.

I had spent so long working on it I had to do something positive.  I set about trying to illustrate it myself.

They are only simple sketches but at least I can say I did something with it and I have learnt so much as a result.

I didn't put it for sale as I truly believe it's not really good enough to charge money for but it has been great fun to produce it.  I have spent so many lovely hours researching and sketching my sporting dinosaurs so I will never see it as a waste of time.

Below is one of my sketches, the tiny Compsognathus, one of my favourite dinosaurs, not much bigger than a chicken but very fast and agile.

I think the biggest thing I will take from this is planning well ahead, maybe I should send it out again now ready for the 2016 Olympics in Rio!    

I'm seeing red

I have been totally engrossed with the Olympics over the last two weeks and still have the excitement of the Paralympics to come. I have loved every single moment of it from the opening ceremony to the grand finale where our wonderful Olympians from all over the world had their moment. Although I have neglected my writing quite a lot due to being glued to the television to watch every event  I could.

There have been so many successes but I did feel that the media have been a little obsessed with gaining gold medals, sometimes overlooking our wonderful people still winning silver and bronze. I think that even those who did not win anything still deserve some recognition. The fact that they had made it to the Olympics is an amazing achievement.

It really struck me though that these talented people only have one chance every four years to win an Olympic medal. They have other competitions in the meantime of course but it must be such a  mental struggle for them to think that the next time they can try for that treasured Gold will not be for another four years!

A Writer has much more luck on their side. Every day for 365 days of the year, we have the chance to achieve our writing dreams. Every day we can write and we can send work off in the hope that we get something published. I feel very lucky that I have never had to wait four years before I get a publication or to try again if I am rejected. Although I do have an article that is pending a definite publication from over a year ago!

I loved the closing ceremony for the 2012 Olympics and thought last night that I may feel a little deflated now it's over.  I joined in the party with the whole country, probably had too much wine and thought I would feel terrible but instead I woke and felt so inspired with the fact that I have so many chances to get my dreams and goals underway every day of the year.

I have been working on my novel Red Kite and thanks to Suki White - Artist who painted the beautiful cover for my book and Richard Varley - Graphic Artist who designed the wording, I nearly have my dream. It is a little more simple and not so grand as an Olympic medal and it's not gold - it's Red.