Authors Electric

  The search for tools to make my writing easier continues. I’ve put the idea of a custom built word processor built around a Raspberry Pi to one side for the time being, partly due to time (or, more accurately, my lack of it) and partly due to practicalities – realistically, I’d need a 3D printer to design a case for the hardware, and some way of connecting a screen and keyboard. It’s doable, but I don’t have the time or money to invest in the equipment, or learning how to use it. Instead, I’ve gone in a slightly different direction. My wife recently changed her phone – she went to the dark side, as I call it, and now has an iPhone. Of course, this doesn’t play nicely with any of the existing kit so the Garmin is going to be replaced by an Apple Watch, and she’s already got an iPad. This is often something we joke about – I used to teach on Macs, many years ago, and tried an iPhone once – their stuff is not for me, as I like to tinker and do things my way; but I’ve ...

Last month I mentioned I'd treated myself to a Kindle Fire and had spent time not only playing games (well to be honest only the one Free Flow, which is very addictive) but I'd also explored a few writing apps. Over the last month I've been 'playing' with them and decided that I'd write couple of reviews. So here goes... Note: The links take you to Amazon but these apps are also available for iPhone Screens from 'Story Lines'  Story Lines    Designed by: Magostech Cost: free I love real story cubes and regularly use them in class to help inspire my students for their short stories. The cubes I normally use come in packs of nine giving you 54 images. However these have 10 images each, giving you 90 images, so offering many more combinations. To use you simply shake your phone or tablet and the dice scatter. You can then drag them into some order and lock the image. I've only used the app as a 'guest' however if you sign up you can...

Back in the mists of time before the banking system wrought havoc on our economy I used to work as a freelance writer for a packager. If you don’t work in the publishing world you may not know what a packager is. Basically they find freelancers like myself, hire us on a flat fee basis to create a book. This book is then sold to a publisher or even publishers (if they sell the foreign rights) who then sell it under their own branding. It’s a great concept and at one time kept me very busy. The first book I worked on for a packager was a craft title. The concept for the title had been sold to a large publisher before I was even commissioned to work on the project. Typically, just days before the agreed deadline the publisher (in their wisdom) wanted an additional 12 pages. I began to panic. I simply didn’t have the time to produce that amount of additional content. My editor told me not to worry because she had content from a similar title she could use to fill these additional p...

Crocheted alligator stitch flower being blocked At the beginning of this year I started a new part-time job working in the Adult Family Learning Services Department for my local council. Although a part-time position it has resulted in having a lot less time available to spent on my writing. So when, for the first time in three months I actually had an entire (yes two whole days) weekend free I planned to catch up with stuff that I'd neglected. However him-in-doors (who has always supported me - just soooooo lucky) suggested for those two days I became a 'proper' writer.  Having a work in progress (Coyote Tales Retold) which has been sitting on my desk and shouting "get me finished" I decided to do just that. So after breakfast on Saturday morning I: Enjoyed a little crochet - taught myself how to make an alligator stitch flower   Hoovered Mopped the floors Put on two loads of washing Dusted Rediscovered my desk that was hidden under a mountain of pape...

Slippery stuff, Time.  Aarrgghh it’s my time of the month again! No not that one, shame really as I rather like waterskiiing, being towed on skates by dogs, parachuting and all the other pastimes enabled by the purchase of a box of Tampax. I mean my monthly Authors Electric blog post day, viz and to whit, today. It’s frankly terrifying how quickly that day comes around, and it’s speeding up all the time. Tampax are wonderful - you can do stuff like this! Time is funny stuff, infinitely flexible – unlike most things, it speeds up as we age. On Christmas night, as a child, it seems like a lifetime until Christmas day will come again, but now, it hardly seems worth putting the decos back in the attic before they’ll have to be lugged down again. Weeks fly by. It always seems to be Thursday. Time sprints when we have a lot to do and a tight deadline, or something fabulous happening, but then it drags, such as when you are waiting in Accident and Emergency. Note to sel...

Anansi - by Lynne Garner It's that time when I look at my previous years sales and try to discover any patterns in said sales. Now as it's also my turn to write a blog post I decided to share some of my 2014 results with you. For the purposes of this blog I've looked at sales from September to December 2014 of my ebooks Anansi the Trickster Spider volume one and volume two  plus the physical book which contains both volumes . The reason it's not the entire year is I didn't upload these books onto Smashwords or create a physical version via CreateSpace until September. Firstly I looked at the sales of these titles as ebooks only. As you can see the Amazon sales dwarf sales from Smashwords. I also noted that on Smashwords my sales were 11%  of the total number of the free sample downloads (which is much higher than I anticipated).       However results become a little more interesting when I add the sales of the physical book. As you can ...

The new - and the really old! I used to have a favourite independent bookstore. This was many years ago, long before Amazon was a gleam in Jeff Bezos’s eye and it was run by a couple of people who loved books and writers too. You could go in and chat. They knew local writers and helped to promote them. They got to know their customers and could offer suggestions. Then, one of the big chains moved in over the road with their high staff turnover, their front of shop table displays for which publishers paid handsomely and their three for two offers. When they complained, they were told ‘business is business’ and that was that. Within a year they had closed. Those of us who resolutely kept on shopping with them were clearly in a minority. Cue forward some years. I’m browsing in the big Borders in Glasgow just along the road from Central Station. The cafe – Starbucks as I remember it – is nice. Sometimes I meet people there. The store is pretty good too. Back then I often browse and...

I’ve been publishing ebooks for several years now, but I’ve never done anything specific to promote my books. I’ve always worked on the assumption that well written books with a good storyline will always find a reader. Over the years, I’ve made it a point not to use gimmicks, or promotional tools to increase the selling power of my novels, and I haven’t knocked myself out trying to improve sales figures, and I’ve been quite happy that my books are finding appreciative readers. However, after listening to a fellow author singing the praises of Kindle CountDown deals, and how it boosted sales, I was tempted to give it a try. First I had to find out how it worked, and here is the Amazon link if you want to have a look. The first thing I found out was that your book has to be in KDP Select before you can use this promotional tool, and as I only have one book in KDP Select, and that is my Crime Fiction and the Indie Contribution, it had to be that one. I prefer a wider di...

I've been asked a few times why I've self-published some of my books and the answer is simple - money. I'm what I would describe as a 'jobbing' writer. At one point I managed (just) to make a living from writing, however that changed when the economy took a nose dive. So I had to look at ways of bringing in extra income. Self-publishing seemed an obvious route to take. I knew the arguments against self publishing including: Perceived lack of quality Authors only self publish for vanity reasons You have to be everything: accountant, designer, marketing department etc. But I also knew that not all published books are a high quality (so as long as I had my books professionally edited they could compete against traditionally published books). Also many of the other jobs linked to book publishing I was already doing e.g. my accounts, marketing (publishers expect you to market your books). So I figured it wasn't really that much difference. However I've d...

Cover by the excellent Michael Doig By the time you are reading this, my new novel, the Physic Garden, will be published on Amazon's Kindle store, here . The book is finished, revised - many, many times - and now I'm formatting it, at the same time as looking for last minute glitches and the typos that will have got away from a handful of readers as well as myself. And writing a blurb. The cover artist is  Michael Doig.  Once again I have to say what a pleasure it is, as a writer, to be able to work with an artist to reflect the contents of the book so closely. The Physic Garden is the story of a close friendship and a betrayal so shocking that it pervades the whole novel, like the memory of a nightmare. The tale is narrated by William Lang who was once a gardener at the old college of Glasgow University. Now, William is in his seventies and widowed, but living with his family. He has spent most of his life as a cautiously radical printer and bookseller in the growing cit...

In previous posts I have talked about how I've tried to increase my eBook sales by following the steps in an eBook called How To Make A Killing On Kindle . Reading this book prompted me to look for other tools Amazon provide. I'd noticed readers could add images below a books front cover. Unfortunately because the 'look inside' button only brings up the copyright info for my picture books potential customers are unable to view any of the pages. I therefore decided it might be a good idea to use this facility. So I signed in, found The Best Rabbit  and clicked on 'share your own customer images.' Followed the simple instructions and added three images from the book. Now, when a potential buyer finds this picture eBook they see additional images under the cover. If interested they simply click on the thumbnail and a larger image comes up.    Amazon has also given the facility to allow text to be added. So when a potential buyer hovers over the...

          There is one problem in living alone – you might hang your stocking up on Chrismas Eve, but all you’ll get in it is your foot in the morning. Things were different before my husband departed for the next life. He always filled a stocking for me. Well, it was actually a pillowcase, then when his health deteriorated, it was the plastic bag containing his purchases. But that didn’t matter. It was the thrill of investigating the bag, pillowcase or stocking. He would always put my favourite perfume in it, some lovely choccies, and of course a few books, because what is Christmas without some new books ?           Books have always been prominent among Santa’s presents to me. When I was a child there was always an apple, an orange, a two shilling piece (twentypence for the uninitiated), and of course, a book. Times were tough then, and Christmas stockings not as full as they are nowadays...