Authors Electric

Well, I shall disclose what I do — and you can imagine that others may do similar.  For example, today about 20 snails were removed from the garden wall, where they had been hibernating…  But, I digress…As an Indie* writer, like others I’ve not only scribbled and tapped my way to completing writing another book, I’ve dialogued with my designer and approved her gorgeous cover design. I’ve been involved with lots of editing, and checking, and then, there’s the publication stuff. I’ve carefully filled in the Ingram Spark requirements on their on-line form, which will include adding the ISBN(International Standard Book Number, which identifies it as itself and no other book), and a Book Description which will go out to everywhere the book might be sold (Amazon of course, and also catalogues and other outlets), to help with shelving and inform marketing. Also an author bio, and a suggested category (one or more) of target readers… and some other admin… Really, simply all the things...

A couple of months ago I blogged here about my experience of signing up with 'aggregator' Ingram Spark, recommended by the Alliance of Independent Authors. Then, a few weeks ago I received an invitation to a presentation at Ingram headquarters in Milton Keynes and a tour of their printing works at Lightning Source.  Always curious to know the path from my uploaded manuscript to the printed page I happily accepted, even though it meant a 5am start from the Lake District.  Neil, as the Book Mill editor, came with me to investigate the techie side of things. We weren’t disappointed.  Andy Bromley, their ‘front man’ for indie authors, gave a fascinating presentation into Ingram’s history and its plans for the future. Ingram was established in 1964 by John Ingram as a private company.  They started out in logistics, moved into digital content and publishing and are now going into Robotic technology.   In 1997 they acquired Lightning Source as a Print On Dema...

As I write this, it’s minus 2̊ C below and snowing outside.  If you live in the north of England, it’s been a long, soggy winter and it’s been hard not to get depressed.  Particularly as the aftermaths of flood and flu have brought work-in-progress almost to a standstill.  I’d hoped to have my Haida Gwaii book out before Christmas - originally to coincide with the Paris Climate Change conference [COP21] - without realising that Nature had other ideas. But this week the book is finally complete, with illustrations, fancy chapter headings and inter-active reference notes, all put together by my in-house book designer and editor at The Book Mill , Neil Ferber.  There have been a few hiccups - having an editor who is also a life partner can be tricky at times!  Suddenly realising that you’ve got to alter chapter 3 at the very last minute because you’d forgotten something doesn’t go down well. And it can be a delicate matter communicating the fact that you don’t...