Authors Electric

          I am in the process making a paperback version of the Authors Electric 2011-2012 Anthology SPARKS. I find the most convenient method is US Amazon's POD (Print On Demand) arm, Createspace. I also have some books published with Lulu but since Createspace started printing in Europe, I now tend to use just Createspace. The books go up via Amazon's main retail systems (as opposed to Marketplace) and are offered to readers with free postage in the UK and Supersaver delivery in the US. Following a tip from another Author Electric [ Chris Longmuir  on her experience with Createspace; Mark Chisnell on his), I buy my proofs & reader copies from Amazon.co.uk rather than order from the US which takes forever. Factoring the free postage it only costs a few pennies more.   Lightning Source is recommended by many. It gives a better royalty and has  the option for matt covers (as opposed to Lulu/CS shiny). You need your o...

It was back in September 2009 that I self- or independently-published my first novel, The Defector . It had been previously published by Random House in the UK and HarperCollins in Australia and New Zealand. I knew I had a clean manuscript, so it was just a matter of wrestling with the conversion from Word Perfect 5.1 to MS Word. When I’d figured that out, I read the Smashwords Style Guide to format the MS Word document. And then I loaded it onto the Smashwords website. I added a cover that had been designed by a friend and I was done. Ta-daa. Novel, meet world. World, meet novel. I sat back and waited to see what would happen. Three and a half years later, publishing a novel independently is a rather different process. Some of the differences stem from the fact that the latest novels are new books that have never been published before. Others stem from the fact that the world has moved on. The process of publication for my latest book, Powder Burn went like this... The bo...

I’m asked to read a book that comes highly commended.   The author is visiting Shrewsbury for an event in the town library, and I’m invited to attend. I’m a cussed so-and-so who knows what she likes when it comes to reading - and it’s more often than not not the book that someone recommends. Despite all this, however, I decide to give the book a go.   Then, me being me, I forget all about it. A couple of weeks later, I’m reminded by the Library Service that the book’s still waiting to be picked up so, feeling sheepish, I go to collect it. After all, the library is almost next door.   [That was one of the selling points when I bought my house.]   It’s not as if I have far to go. I find the book waiting with my name on it. A librarian hands it over and my heart sinks.   The author is coming to town, and I’m bound to be introduced and what am I going to say to him if I don’t like his book? Just because it’s published by the same publisher as mine doe...

I never think of myself as a British writer. Most people who read my blog and books are from other climes. But I’ve been invited to play ‘A Very British Blog Tour’, which was set up to celebrate authors in our small isles.  I was nominated by fellow Electric Author John A A Logan and he was tapped by Christine Miller . You can find my own list of Brits at the end.  There are rules, which I’ll keep in small print because John covered them already. Magnify by Ctrl++ if you feel inclined, otherwise let’s glide onwards. We British have certain conventions, traditions and procedures that are expected. There is a dress code in the reading of this British blog and you are expected to comply with it. Gentlemen will wear suits, white shirts and dark ties (or kilts, sporrans , baggy T-shirts etc). (Tartan ties wherever possible). Ladies will wear dresses (one inch above the knee, no higher, no lower) and floral summer hats (or baggy troosers and bunnets). Jodh...

Chris Longmuir A recent post by Mark Chisnell mentioned how impressed he was with Scrivener, the software developed specifically for writers. It generated quite a bit of interest so I thought I would expand on this by giving you my impressions of working with Scrivener. However, it’s important to understand that I’m no Scrivener expert, so don’t expect too much, plus I don’t intend to give you a tutorial on how to work with Scrivener. What I will do is tell you about the bits I like. I discovered Scrivener in 2012, and I was curious, so I checked out the web site of Literature and Latte , which is where you will find everything related to Scrivener. Although it was developed for Mac computers it is also available for Windows on the PC. I checked out the Case Studies, read the Testimonials, and watched the Videos. Then being the technology geek that I am, I downloaded the trial. Scrivener has an excellent tutorial which they advise you to work through first, and believe me,...

Long tails: Cally's gorgeous but naughty Hector and Dude! It strikes me that now might be as good a time as any to summarize some of the more general conclusions I’ve reached over the past eighteen months, ever since I finally decided that the time had come to give up pursuing the impossible dream of a long term partnership with a publisher and go it alone.What follows are not writing tips. If you want those, there are courses and workshops in plenty, self help books and a million advice blogs. Just be careful that you don’t assume that everyone else knows more than you do. And while paying to be published is generally a Bad Thing, paying a demonstrably experienced editor, or paying for a dedicated course with like-minded people, especially if you’re a beginner, is often a very good idea. There’s plenty of practical advice about various forms of publishing out there as well, not least here on the Authors Electric blog. Do remember that there’s a difference between being ...

There are lots of reasons for re-illustrating a previously published book when you’re converting it for the Kindle. The originals, drawn by someone else, may not have been to your liking. It may simply be a matter of style – or the illustrator may have got some things fundamentally wrong, like the age of the protagonists, or whether one of your fantasy creatures has wings/horns/sharp pointy teeth. The best illustrations I have ever been sent were those of Miho Sataki, in the Japanese editions of The Divide , who read everything so carefully that each tiny detail was absolutely accurate. Her sense of design was wonderful, too. If the book was first published some time ago the drawings may be out of date; the shoebox-sized mobile phone of 1995 bears no resemblance to the smart phones in use today. There’s also the question of royalties – this way, you avoid those complexities altogether. The actual mechanics are remarkably easy. Make sure your illustration is a jpeg, and cent...