Authors Electric

Author Lewis Perdue A long-time friend from my San Francisco magazine days, author Lewis Perdue, recently began serializing his latest novel, The Nassau Directives, online, as a work-in-progress. The premise, typical of Perdue's techno-Machiavellian plots, involves a rogue drug-war agency cabal to poison millions of addicts as the “final solution” to narco-crime. The tag line reads: “A serial thriller from NY Times bestselling author Lewis Perdue. Even Lew doesn't yet know how it ends.” I perked up at the news – a high-wire digital writing act to be sure, just the kind of creative enterprise that my colleagues here at Authors Electric might relish, if not already practice (or think of practicing) in some form or another, myself included. Lew comes the closest to being a contemporary Renaissance man that I know. Quick, loquacious, energetic, a gourmet who is always down-to-earth, he never makes a big deal of being accomplished in technology, science, history, oenology...

Once upon a time, when I published a book, an elegant twenty-something girl with long legs, long hair, a media degree and a name that ended in ‘a’ would ring me up for a friendly chat, and then, several days later, send me a list of interviews she’d set up, author events, possible TV and radio dates, and people who had promised to review my book. There would be a publicity pack, professionally produced, and regular updates.  I’m only now beginning to realise what a fool’s paradise I was living in!   One of the drawbacks of being an Indie author, for me, is having to do my own publicity.  It’s not exactly my strong-point, in fact I’m rubbish (don’t have the long legs, long hair or a name ending in ‘a’ for starters!)  And I'm not a natural performer.  Some authors, like Giles Brandreth for instance, seem to just love being in front of the camera, or on stage at a literature festival. Like actors, they come alive before an audience.  I’m better at it...

Most w riters are advised to start blogging as a career move. But in 2009 I’d never heard of ‘platform’. I started a writing blog because I felt like it. Like many writers with a traditional publishing background, I networked one to one - meetings, parties and email discussions. My writer friends had websites, but I didn’t because I had no books out under my name. Even though my agent was out crusading with my first novel as me ( My M emories of a Future Life ) we never discussed ‘platform’. One day a web-savvy friend in the games industry was telling me about blogging, and set me up with a Wordpress ID. I wrote a few posts. It was fun; my own writers’ observatory - looking at real life with a storyteller’s eye. Writerly friends enjoyed my posts. Non-writerlies were spared a lot of abstruse conversations. When I didn’t post for two weeks, the teenage son of some friends - who I thought would have cooler pastimes - told me I was overdue for a post. Since that day, I have tak...