Monthly Janus - May

On April 23^rd, Authors Electric celebrated World Book Night by giving away books free.

Julia Jones was one author who decided that she couldn’t participate because her two books are currently in print versions as well as electronic (mobi and epub) and the Kindle Select exclusivity requirement was impossible to meet.

She had wondered about using her own website to give away copies independently but everything finally became too difficult when a bout of family illness was followed by a catastrophic fire in which her partner, Francis Wheen, lost all his past and current work, books, articles and archives.

It did feel rather as if the Great Plague had been followed by the Fire. There was no Pepys to record it but Facebook did its best. Offers of help and support were almost overwhelming – to such an extent that Francis decided that the only way he would be able to dig into his mind for the most recent chapters of his lost novel was to slink away and hide from phone and internet. Julia, meanwhile, found herself with new enthusiasm for saving work in Dropbox.

THANKS, fellow Authors-Electrical, says Julia, for pressurising me into setting this up just a couple of days before the disaster. It’s been really impressive watching everyone else working together for the World Book Night giveaway – but while I’m sad not to be part of it, it just couldn’t happen this time round. Similary with the other big push this month –

 the stand taken by Dan Holloway, John Logan and former AE member Linda Gillard, to promote the interests of Indie Authors at the London Book Fair at the launch of the Alliance of Independent Authors and Cally Phillips’s thought-provoking campaign “Not the LBF”. What a month NOT to be involved … so sorry.

Also in April, Avril Joy and Jane Adams left us – we wish them good luck in future.

We were joined by Sheridan Winn, who was hardly through the Authors Electric door before she’d taken off her coat and was organising a press release for the giveaway.

Stephanie Zia and Sherry Ashworth joined us later, too late to be a part of the giveaway, but we’re sure we’ll find them plenty to do!