Ten ebooks, so am I half a publisher? by Enid Richemont
It seems that to get classified as a 'publisher', by Waterstone's, rather than a writer, one needs to have at least twenty books out there as ebooks. Well, hey, I've currently got ten out of print books out there as ebooks, and I will shortly be adding more, including some which mainstream publishers rejected, so I might well reach that target some time in the next few months.
So might I be classified as a publisher? No, although my husband, David, might, since he's set up the whole process, and like any good and honest publisher (do they exist?) he loves my work. Unfortunately, personal relationships enter into this, and so you might well - and quite reasonably - think he might be a little prejudiced in my favour. However, eight of these books were published by companies I had no emotional relationships with, and were all very well received and reviewed (the only time I had a bad review was for THE GAME, which I haven't yet done as an ebook.)The rogue in the gallery is DRAGONCAT, which no one at the time seemed to want - it was 'too gentle', they said, and I will never know why. I did the research for the story via a very close friend who is Chinese, and an artist/illustrator, Mei-Yim Low, and our two families have always felt very involved in the book which is dedicated to Mei-Yim's London family, and also to her family in Malaysia. DRAGONCAT's a great read for people of around eight, especially boys.
So what is this curious picture on the right? It was my first image of THE GLASS BIRD - a collage made with mirror glass and fabric long before the actual book was written. Writers' mental images come out in all sorts of ways, and I'd long been enchanted by a short story I'd read as a child, called - guess what? - The Glass Bird. Childhood memories and loves surface in odd ways, especially if you paint or write, so I thought I'd share this very personal one with you. Again, this book's just right for people of around eight, especially boys (it was originally written for my son, Jeremy), and although we are not Quakers, its main character is Adam, a very lovely Quaker boy who finds something amazing.
In one of our blogs - can't remember which - someone talked about the ways in which Indie writers help each other. Recently, David's been helping Ann Jungman (of the late and much lamented Barn Owl Books) navigate the complexities of reincarnation as an e-author, and I've, even more recently, been helped enormously by John Logan, whose writing I admire. John has been exhorting me to tweet regularly about my work, which I have now started to do, but I am still perplexed by my sales figures. In eight days (of September), I have sold only one ebook in the USA, despite John's and other electric authors' retweets, and it's my youngest - why? (JAMIE AND THE WHIPPERSNAPPER )
I'm not in this for the money (although I do consider it part of any professional deal), and I don't do erotica (fifty shades of truly awful writing...) but I do want to be read, and the US of A is a mighty big country. Post Amazon ebook links into your blog, John says, so this time I have! And speaking of John Logan, I'm currently reading his stunning collection of short stories - STORM DAMAGE - impressive.
Finally, today's the first day of a two-day promotion on two of my books - in other words, you can have them for free. One of them's JAMIE AND THE WHIPPERSNAPPER (as above), and the other is: "A disturbingly sexy ghost in an ancient Breton house..."
http://www.amazon.co.uk/WOLFSONG-ebook/dp/B00846FYX0
ages 11+ Enjoy.
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| ...and the tenth one The Enchanted Village |
So might I be classified as a publisher? No, although my husband, David, might, since he's set up the whole process, and like any good and honest publisher (do they exist?) he loves my work. Unfortunately, personal relationships enter into this, and so you might well - and quite reasonably - think he might be a little prejudiced in my favour. However, eight of these books were published by companies I had no emotional relationships with, and were all very well received and reviewed (the only time I had a bad review was for THE GAME, which I haven't yet done as an ebook.)The rogue in the gallery is DRAGONCAT, which no one at the time seemed to want - it was 'too gentle', they said, and I will never know why. I did the research for the story via a very close friend who is Chinese, and an artist/illustrator, Mei-Yim Low, and our two families have always felt very involved in the book which is dedicated to Mei-Yim's London family, and also to her family in Malaysia. DRAGONCAT's a great read for people of around eight, especially boys.
So what is this curious picture on the right? It was my first image of THE GLASS BIRD - a collage made with mirror glass and fabric long before the actual book was written. Writers' mental images come out in all sorts of ways, and I'd long been enchanted by a short story I'd read as a child, called - guess what? - The Glass Bird. Childhood memories and loves surface in odd ways, especially if you paint or write, so I thought I'd share this very personal one with you. Again, this book's just right for people of around eight, especially boys (it was originally written for my son, Jeremy), and although we are not Quakers, its main character is Adam, a very lovely Quaker boy who finds something amazing.
In one of our blogs - can't remember which - someone talked about the ways in which Indie writers help each other. Recently, David's been helping Ann Jungman (of the late and much lamented Barn Owl Books) navigate the complexities of reincarnation as an e-author, and I've, even more recently, been helped enormously by John Logan, whose writing I admire. John has been exhorting me to tweet regularly about my work, which I have now started to do, but I am still perplexed by my sales figures. In eight days (of September), I have sold only one ebook in the USA, despite John's and other electric authors' retweets, and it's my youngest - why? (JAMIE AND THE WHIPPERSNAPPER )
I'm not in this for the money (although I do consider it part of any professional deal), and I don't do erotica (fifty shades of truly awful writing...) but I do want to be read, and the US of A is a mighty big country. Post Amazon ebook links into your blog, John says, so this time I have! And speaking of John Logan, I'm currently reading his stunning collection of short stories - STORM DAMAGE - impressive.
Finally, today's the first day of a two-day promotion on two of my books - in other words, you can have them for free. One of them's JAMIE AND THE WHIPPERSNAPPER (as above), and the other is: "A disturbingly sexy ghost in an ancient Breton house..."
http://www.amazon.co.uk/WOLFSONG-ebook/dp/B00846FYX0
ages 11+ Enjoy.
Comments
(Don't "overtweet"(!), I just do a wee bit here and there when it seems fun to do, I noticed the other day that a Ford fan on Twitter bought one of your books after I tweeted, so it can find new readers sometimes, a judicious tweet here or there)
I started threads for your two free books at these 2 Uk forums just now, it's essential to post there if you want to get maximum benefit from the giveaway period:
http://www.kuforum.co.uk/kindleusersforum/forum-49.html
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1043777-freebies-september-28th
If you want USA readers to pick up the free downloads too, you'd need to post a thread announcing it on:
kindleboards.com
mobileread.com
(I'd do it for you but I've got to go to a newspaper office now to be photographed for a feature article on Storm Damage...and then turn up at a hotel later on for an Alliance of Independent Authors meeting to do a wee read from Thomas Ford...the fast lane eh?)