Authors Electric

For quite a few years now I've been running writing workshops and classes for adult who are just starting out on their writing careers. Almost two years ago, I started a new six week course called Focus on Fiction with eight or nine people on the course. All went well – in fact it went so well, that at the end of those six weeks, no one wanted to say goodbye. Friendships had been forged and Monday night's class was something they enjoyed. They asked if I'd keep running the classes and so I did. A six week course turning into a 20 month course! It's just brilliant to see novice writers coming on in leaps and bounds, and I'm so proud of my bunch, who are now seeing the fruits of their labours, with various writing successes. Over that time a few people have dropped out and others have joined, so it's always fresh and we never run out of things to write about – nor topics to teach. We've now put together two anthologies of our w...

Before I begin I'll admit I feel a bit of a fraud as I've still not managed to publish a book on Kindle. This time last month I was all set to launch my new book. However things never go to plan and I am in the process of totally re-structuring the book before it goes to my proofreader. In the middle of restructuring the book I remembered I had two magazines features to write, some one-to-one coaching to do and a front cover to design. Obviously when having a book traditionally published the publisher or packagers take care of cover design. I may get a chance to see a few mock-ups, perhaps ever say which cover I prefer but I've never had to design one. I have taught kitchen and produce design but with cover design I was working outside of my comfort zone. I therefore started where I would suggest my student's start, by researching covers with similar titles. I'll be honest that wasn't much help. They either looked dated, I knew there was no way I could achiev...