Authors Electric

Jenny Alexander As a new self-published author I’m always interested to hear of others’ experiences and when I found out  Jenny Alexander  was looking for a guest blog spot, I jumped at the chance to learn from hers. Particularly when I found out the book she’s launching this week is on a subject that links well with my own books and is clearly close to my heart. Earlier in the summer, when invited to talk to two Year 6 classes in Barnard Castle (when presenting them with copies of my book donated by a local community group: see  the-best-laid-plans-by-alex-marchant ), it struck me that  The Order of the White Boar  wasn’t just about King Richard III, but also about the transition from primary to senior school. In this case, the transition from York Minster song school to ‘page school’ at Middleham Castle, but it’s effectively the same. And my other two books (neither historical fiction) are also about the same subject – and all three tackle the issu...

Здравствуйте . As Rabbie Burns said, ‘ The best laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft agley’. Not that my schemes were particularly well laid. Perhaps I should have stepped back and thought, ‘You’re going to Russia for the World Cup for ten days in June. Is it really wise to publish a book just three weeks before that and arrange events to attend all through the summer – including every remaining weekend in June and July?’ If I had, I might have come to the conclusion that it wasn’t all that wise. And then add into the mix the serious illness of a close family member... I had been planning this blog post to be all about my trip to Russia and my impressions of the country thirty-odd years after my last one – when it was still part of the Soviet Union, albeit already changing under glasnost and perestroika. And of course this time I was going during the biggest party on the planet – in the country that had inspired my love of football all those years ago.......

As Captain Jack Sparrow says in Pirates of the Caribbean , ‘It’s a funny old world, innit?’ And isn’t it strange how much can change in just a couple of weeks? After all my worries and fears charted in last months’ blog – about readers’ expectation of that tricky second novel, of whether I’d finish everything I needed to in good time for publication day, whether I’d manage to have any sort of launch – everything seemed somehow to come together. Very suddenly. Or, perhaps I should say, just in time, despite my tendency to do everything at the last minute (...like this blog. Less than 12 hours until I’m due to post it. But it has been a busy week – or three.) To backtrack... My second children’s novel,  The King’s Man , was due to be launched on 26th May – a date chosen for one very good, and another less sensible, reason. The former – because it was the Saturday at the start of the UK spring bank holiday weekend, and therefore the school half-term holiday through...

I published my first book last autumn. I think I may have mentioned it in my last Authors Electric blog. I suspect I’ve mentioned it a few other times elsewhere too. I’m pretty pleased about it as you can imagine. I’m sure all first-time-published authors are – both traditionally and self-published. I probably go on about it a lot... It's my book! On a reader's shelf! In some excellent company, of course... (Thanks to Yuko for the pic) This month I’m publishing my second book, the sequel to the first. No doubt I’ll bore people to death with that too. But something occurred to me in the past couple of weeks. Although it might appear to be the same thing, in fact everything has been completely different. Yes, the processes for production of the books have been the same (roughly). Although I forgot some aspects in the meantime, I learned a great deal first time round and haven’t had to reinvent the wheel completely in terms of uploading everything to my chosen ...

Or perhaps I should just stick to 'Hi!' And as a newbie blogger for Authors Electric I should really introduce myself. Alex Marchant, author of historical fiction for children, at your service! [ doffs cap with a flourish, bowing deeply ] I write ‘author’, of course, as we’re all authors on here. But I still say the word – and write it – with a momentary (or longer) hesitation. Because, unlike all the other fine bloggers on here, I’m very much a newbie at this too – and I have to be reminded that, yes, I can call myself an author. I have written a book (in fact, more than one), I have published it (even if independently – and, after all, that’s all the rage now), and I am earning money from it. Well, some, anyway... enough to record on my upcoming tax return. A hesitation, or two, also occurred when I received the invitation to join the Authors Electric team. What could I bring to the party? I’ve been writing my own blog for a few months now, but it’s still ea...

Some few weeks ago I purchased a copy of Writing Magazine and in the market section there were some writing opportunities for non-fiction writers. I popped off some emails and received some responses. One was from a publisher interested in me writing for them. They sent me a draft contract, which I immediately sent to the Society of Authors for checking. As per usual they did a fantastic job at highlighting clauses I should be aware of before I signed and the consequences of agreeing to them. These clauses included: Sourcing illustrations and ensuring all written permissions were obtained  Creating an index   Writing the blurb for the back cover Write some promotional material for marketing materials, including social media When I first started to write professionally some twenty years ago this was done by the publisher. So I began to wonder what I'd be gaining from signing such a contract. The reasons I came up with were: An advance They'd format and design the ...

No, we are not a pack of dogs. Try again ... I was thinking the other day about the collective nouns given to birds. A gaggle of geese sounds just about right when the beastly things are in hot pursuit of you, and a flamboyance of flamingoes is spot on too. I love a bellowing of bullfinches and an omniscience of godwits is just sublime, but a murder of crows seems a bit unfair and unnecessarily name-tarnishing. But it turns out that you can also have a parliament of crows - although it can be confusing as you can have a parliament of owls too. And going by our own parliament that's not exactly a compliment of any kind either.  There are some truly wonderful group names, which are not confined solely to birds either - whoever came up with a bloat of hippopotamuses or a fluther of jellyfish? And did you know that the old English term of venery for a load of kittens was a kindle? Think on that next time you switch on your e-reader ... All this pondering naturally led me to th...