A passing remark on The Guardian Books Blog cost me dearly in woman-hours in the run up to Christmas. Blogger Alison Flood reviewed a self-published novel to test whether the online praise for the book was justified. (Mary Campisi’s A Family Affair – not my own cup of tea). I won’t present Alison’s conclusions, only her first comment:
First up, the commas. She employs the scattergun approach.
My paperback proofs were left at a neighbour’s house while I was at the dentist. I sprinted down the street and in the past 10 minutes I’ve ripped open the package and taken this photo! Read more
How interesting is this? Very, I should say! Well known UK authors including Tony Parsons are allowing their literary agent Curtis Brown to ‘self-publish’ on their behalf in the US market. In effect, Curtis Brown is reinventing itself as a publisher – CB Creative Books – for these specific authors to help them break into the US market.
One Final Decision is now needed before A Calculated Life goes to print. Yes, real ink on real paper. Almost quaint yet so thrilling! And I’m wondering which of these three designs to go for.
If you’d like a say in how my paperback looks then leave a comment, or tweet or send a message via facebook.
Front cover artwork by Mack Manning.
This was a surprise: A Calculated Life reached the Kindle Bestseller List for Science Fiction on Amazon’s UK store, on launch day.
So was it Flukey-Tuesday, or what? I’ve been mulling this over and . . . I suspect I’ll never know the reason. Read more
I clicked the ‘Save and Publish’ button yesterday morning and just seven hours later A Calculated Life went live on Amazon’s websites as an eBook. To be precise, at 18:28:12 GMT on Monday 12 November. Read more
Along with most authors I’ve opted to go, initially, with Kindle Direct Publishing because, quite simply, this reaches the highest number of potential readers. Indeed, many indie-authors don’t bother with any other eBook or any Print-on-Demand (POD) provider. I can see the logic: readers can access Kindle books without even owning a Kindle device. There are free Kindle Reading Apps for smartphones including the iPhone, computers and tablets, including the iPad and Android devices. So, it’s a pretty rational decision to stick with publishing Kindle eBooks.
However, Read more
After weeks of tortuous research, I’ve now finalized my indie-author strategy for publishing my first novel. I’m mightily relieved that I’m releasing A Calculated Life this month rather than six months ago because at least one major problem facing non-US authors has been addressed. But before I get into any detail, here’s the broad-brush plan. I’m not saying this will suit all indie-authors but I reckon it’s the best for my circumstances:
Six pages into my manuscript, for the final (absolutely final) read-through before e-publication, I decided to check whether em-dashes require character spaces.
Here’s the two lines of dialogue that prompted this check:
‘You were worried. I wasn’t —’
‘I over-reacted. I didn’t mean it.’
but maybe it should be this:
‘You were worried. I wasn’t—’
‘I over-reacted. I didn’t mean it.’
