Authors Electric

  Book launches scare me, I have to confess. I’ve done a couple for my own books. One I had at home, inviting friends and neighbours for wine and cake and suggesting, as tactfully as possible, that if they would like to buy a copy of my new book … Needless to say, everyone bought a copy of “ House of Shadows ” which should have left me feeling elated, but being me, I started to worry if they had felt obliged. Once the guilt kicked in, it was hard to convince myself to repeat the process even though in financial terms it had been very successful. Each time I’ve had a new book coming out, I’ve thought about doing it again and each time I’ve shied away from the idea. I suppose it’s all part of my writer’s fear of being rejected, which to a certain extent is compounded by being Indie published. Not that I want to change that though I suspect that the validation of traditional publishing would give me the confidence to host another launch. The crazy part of all this is that when...

  Since publishing her first book in 2014, Scottish writer Wendy H. Jones has proven herself to be a force of nature. Consider the breadth of her output: the bestselling Shona McKenize police procedural mysteries, the quirky Cass Claymore investigations, the Fergus and Flora mysteries for younger readers, the Bertie the Buffalo books for kids...and a series of how-to books for writers.  She's uniquely qualified to teach, embodying the lessons we need to survive with a million new books coming out every year. Wendy's almost everywhere: signing, interviewing, hosting a popular podcast, guest blogging, conventioneering...you name it, and she's likely there. As a former traditionally published writer (under the name Kelley Wilde), I've been struggling for some time as an indie writer. Though I didn't mind the struggle, I'd grown sick of struggling stupidly. And I knew the time had come to either quit or pay attention to someone who's aced the arena. Luckily, Wen...

Author launch - Then (take one) I started publishing book-length fiction in 1999, about ten years before Amazon opened their Kindle Direct Publishing platform and made it possible for authors to publish themselves without first winning the lottery. In other words, there was only one route to market, and it relied on an editor saying "yes". My first book Song Quest did the rounds, agented by me out of necessity, and eventually came out with a small UK publisher in the traditional way: hardcover first with a modest print run of about 1,000 copies (which sold out), and then paperback with a slightly larger print run that probably would have done quite well in the shops, since by then my book had won the Branford Boase Award  given to a debut author and their editor for an outstanding book for young readers, on the strength of which I had been taken on by a top London agent keen to develop my career. Unfortunately, though, Element Books went into receivership a few weeks after t...

What feels like a lifetime ago (but was actually only last year), I used to work in the energy sector. We specialised in selling gas and electricity to business customers.   There!   I see you turning away already.   It’s dull, isn’t it?   Before, at parties, when people asked what I did and I told them, this is what would happen: First, their eyes would glaze over, then they’d look down at their wine glass and discover they were in urgent need of a top-up, and then they would scurry away.   Nowadays of course, I can tell people I’m a writer and a publisher, and that creates an entirely different reaction.   For everyone either loves reading books, thinks they can write a book, has written a book, or knows someone who has and who needs help getting it published.    (As a little side note for my old friend, Valpy – I still don’t think I have scope for publishing Pylon of the Month, but if there are any other commissioning editors out th...

Hello! I’m drafting this on November 1st and am currently up to my eyes in what can optimistically be described as ‘preparing for publication’. If you saw my office, you’d be more likely to think of the aftermath of a violent storm. Almost every writing manual and self-help book I own (and that’s a lot) lies open on my desk, or on the blanket chest next to my desk, or on the bunk beds behind it. In pride of place, I have to say, is Chris Longmuir’s Nuts & Bolts of Self-Publishing , which has so far proved invaluable in negotiating Microsoft Word-whatever-version-I-now-have – the one with the ribbon, anyway. Thank you enormously, Chris, for writing this and for going into so much helpful detail – enough, it seems, even for me. My computer desktop is cluttered too, with so many files open that I’ve lost count. Got into a panic yesterday when I discovered I had the same file open twice – which one contained my painstakingly added latest revisions and which didn’t? Major pani...

Don't even try to tell me you don't know the meaning of GAWD. If you write,you do know--and if you don't, you're not right in the head. So let's man and woman up and admit the existence of GAWD: Goddamned Awful Writing Decisions We've decisions to make, of course, every day about writing as both art and business: matters of style and plotting, promotional tactics and price points, fine tuning our queries, etc. There's no end to it--and we don't mind, not really. It's all part of being a writer, we know. In fact, we take morbid pleasure sometimes in comparing our stresses and blues with our pals. My best guess is that 98% of these decisions aren't life-threatening. Any query can always be further fine-tuned. Any botching of a plot can always be corrected. But that's not our issue. Our issue is: GA WD And, oh yeah, you know what I'm talking about. These are the life-threatening forks in the road where no mercy is show...