Authors Electric

My first ebook Around 2007 I began to take interest in ebooks and started reading the reports of booming ebook sales. Seeing sales were increasing month on month I decided to join this revolution. So in 2011 I published my first collection of short stories as an ebook. Based on my sales I followed this ebook with others. Then came the print on demand (POD) revolution, where authors like myself and the Author Electric team could publish a physical book without holding stock. So in 2014 I decided to combine my two Anansi ebooks and release as a POD book. At first sales were slow, then they started to match those of my ebooks. Now they outsell my ebooks. This made me wonder if it was just my ebooks or if ebook sales were down generally. So I did a little research. I discovered sales of ebooks have been falling for the last couple of years. Some of the large publishers have given figures in the region of a 12% fall from 2015 - 2016. I found several reasons being suggested for this...

Sadly I'm not the only freelance writer who's had to wait (sometimes months) for a client to pay what they owe for work completed. So last year when I became aware of a petition that called for the government to pass a law to force employers to pay on time for freelance and contractual work I signed it. Today (07/01/17) I received a reply which I felt may be of interest to freelancers and contractors. So here it is: " A party acting in the course of a business can claim interest and reasonable recovery costs if another business is late paying for goods or a service. A party acting in the course of a business can claim interest and reasonable recovery costs if another business is late paying for goods or a service, under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998. In April 2017, the payment practices reporting requirement will come into force. This will require large companies and LLPs to report publicly on their payment practices and performanc...

I'm going to assume that as a published author you want to increase the sales of your books. If so then have you ever considered trying to increase your sales into schools? If your answer is yes then  a great way of encouraging teachers to purchase and use your book in their class is to write a lesson plan they can download (you may even wish to make a small charge – after all it’s going to save them a lot of time). Now as well as writing I also teach on a part-time basis, so have written loads of the things. So  as Authors Electric is all about sharing I wanted to share with you a little info I hope you find helpful if you want to explore this route for boosting your sales. So here goes…   Basic lesson plan template Before I write a lesson plan I need to know: What book I’m going use as the basis for the session What age range I'm working with What part or parts of the curriculum I’m going to focus on (this is why you need to kn...

When I’m not writing about those crafty critters Anansi the Trickster Spider , Coyote and   Brer Rabbit  I’m writing non-fiction activity based features for magazines such as Practical Pre-school and Child Care magazine . Usually my topic is based around something real, for example animals, modes of transport or historical events. However earlier this year I was commissioned to use picture books as a basis my non-fiction activity features. So having recently received a copy of the picture book Three Billy Goats Gruff by our very own Susan Price I’ve decided to show you how I use a picture book as a basis for a non-fiction feature. So here goes. Many of my features will include a little life science, Any excuse to ensure I didn’t waste three years at university studying Environmental Science. So a book about goats provides me with a great opportunity to do this. So if I were using this book as a basis I’d need to know what type of goats I’m writing about...