Authors Electric

Image generated by AI at canva.com Last month, I promised you some AI-authored fiction. This is what happened when I asked ChatGPT to write the first scene of my next book. ME Write a fight scene featuring Princess Zandra and her centaur friend Rru training with wooden swords on the edge of a cliff. ChatGPT (first draft) Princess Zandra stood at the edge of a cliff, her royal blue gown swaying gently in the wind. Her eyes, filled with determination, met those of her loyal centaur companion, Rru. They had come to this secluded spot for their regular training session, each armed with a wooden sword. The distant sound of crashing waves against the rocks below added an air of urgency to the scene. With a swift motion, Zandra gripped her wooden sword, the polished oak handle fitting perfectly in her delicate hand. Rru, towering over her, flexed his muscular equine body, his hooves digging into the ground as he prepared for the mock battle. "Are you ready, Rru?" Zandra called out, ...

Createspace is dead... long live KDP paperbacks! I've previously used Createspace to publish indie paperback editions of my titles, but CS has now been retired by Amazon so this month I tackled my first ever KDP paperbacks with two short story collections  Mythic & Magical and Weird & Wonderful , which up to now have only been available as ebooks. Each collection contains seven of my short stories, so they both come in at around 125 pages, plenty long enough for a paperback edition. Being the same length also meant I could use the same KDP cover template for both titles, which made the design a bit easier. I'm calling this series 'Ampersand Tales' because the collections are additional to my novels, as well as being for older readers who might have enjoyed my children's books as young readers when they were first published. Some of these short stories helped inspire my novels, and each carries an introduction setting it in the context of my writin...

Part of the reason I've held off publishing print-on-demand paperbacks for so long was fear of the cover design process. Yes, I could have purchased such covers ready made, but the affordable premades out there - while undeniably beautiful - never seemed quite right for my books, and custom covers for my 12 backlist titles would require an outlay the size of my pension pot with no promise of earning it back... not a gamble I am willing to take! If you are on a budget, this is how I managed to produce the following paperback cover for my book I am the Great Horse for no financial outlay : I am the Great Horse - 2016 paperback cover I am assuming some familiarity with Createspace , so if you have not used the site before then see Susan Price's post on Createspace publishing . * UPDATE * Createspace is now part of Amazon's KDP . However, the process is very similar... The first thing you need to do is decide on your 'trim size' for the book (i.e. size of y...

It's taken me rather a long time compared to other authors here, but I've finally tackled Createspace and created a print-on-demand paperback version of my Spellfall sequel,  Spell Spring ... yes, look, it's a REAL book! Reasons I am so late to the print-on-demand party: 1. Nearly all the books I've published indie so far have been reverted rights backlist titles, which have already sold x thousands of paperback copies while they were with their traditional publishers. I didn't see the point of producing a new print edition, while secondhand and 'new' copies of my backlist titles are still available on Amazon Marketplace and elsewhere for as little as 1p (plus postage). No way can a print-on-demand edition compete with that on price! 2. The cover looked tricky. Not only would I need to come up with a front cover design (a whole trick in itself), I'd need a spine of exactly the right width and a back cover with an ISBN barcode thingy  a...

If you're publishing your own books, sooner or later you might find yourself facing a very tricky conundrum. Self-publishing costs money, at least if you're trying to do it properly; it can cost a whole dizzying heap of money. Paying for editing and proofreading and book covers can make a very severe dent in your bank account, and – worryingly – you can't be assured of making that money back. And then there's the fact that the things mentioned above are only your initial expenses. Costs can mount up quickly, and frighteningly... Image credit: George Hodan | publicdomainpictures.net What's an impoverished self-publisher to do, then, other than living on bread and water or remortgaging your house? Luckily, there are a few low-cost or free author resources available to you. Here are the ones I've tried; I’m sure there are plenty of others, so if someone would like to fill me in... Booklaunch This is a wonderful site, where you can build a profession...

One of the worst things about being a self-published author is that you have to do everything. I mean bleedin’ everything , including all those clever, specialised things that normal people can’t even understand. You either have to learn to do them yourself, or pay through the nose to get someone else to do them for you. Nowhere is this problem more sticky than when you’re dealing with pictures, as you frequently are. You may be in the business of arranging words on the page or screen, but we live in a visual world and sooner or later you have to worry about images, too. Book covers, for example: unless you’re a graphic artist as well as a writer, these are probably best left to people who have at least a vague notion of what they’re doing. And what about blogs, websites, Facebook pages, and so on? They must come complete with images! Nice, fancy images that will hold people’s wandering eyes and reel them in! A blank screen is exactly what you don't want. Image credit: P...