Blog Posts

Dead Tree Books.

7/31/2010

Since I published a book on kindle a few months ago, I entered a very different world; a world which many UK people have no real concept of.

In this world, many authors publish exclusively or primarily in electronic format. And many readers say it is their preferred medium for reading books. In fact, in this world, e format is so much the norm that print copies are referred to as Dead Tree Books - or DTBs, for short. The name suggests they are already perceived as quaint ancient artefacts.

Market research in US (currently the hub of e publishing) suggests that in a year's time, twice as many people will own ereaders. So, presumably, twice as many books, whatever their publishing history, will be bought in this form.

In a month's time, kindle is officially launched in UK. It will be interesting to see how quickly we consider our carbon footprints and realise that you don't have to kill a tree to buy a book.

3 Comments

Personality - does it matter?

7/19/2010

7 Comments

There have been several online posts recently, where authors, describing themselves as successful or best-selling, made statements which, at best, were very arrogant.

Now, I'd not heard of the authors concerned, and that may be because they're not as famous as they like to think or it might simply be because of differences in nationality or genre. However, to summarise for people who didn't read the posts, these writers caused controversy with views such as the opinion spelling and grammar are unimportant (because that's what editors are for) and declaring that 99.9% of published indie writing (produced by the community in which they'd recently been 'socialising') was rubbish.
Needless to say, these comments, within the context and company in which they were published, provoked strong and mostly unpopular reactions.

At the opposite end of the scale, I have met or corresponded with authors who very definitely are well-known and best-selling. And in each case they have been friendly, humble and helpful, beyond the expectation of diplomacy or manners.

Personally, I find arrogance ugly. And I find humility (not to be confused with lack of confidence) and friendliness appealing. I'm more likely to read and enjoy a book by someone I like and respect as a person. I think this applies to other branches of the arts as well as literature.

Established, famous authors are now saying they are expected to join networks such as Twitter, and interact with their readers.
And while online networking may seem easy, compared to meeting people in person, it's very easy to inadvertently cause offense in a short online post.

So, do you think personality matters? And in a world of increasing internet marketing, does the way a person conducts themselves in this medium impact on their success?

7 Comments

Indie author anxiety.

7/11/2010

15 Comments

I absolutely love being an indie author. When I first made the decision to self-published it was carefully thought out. It wasn't a desperate last resort to get a novel into print - because I'm already traditionally published in non-fiction and to be honest I hadn't tried very hard with the agent/publisher route. But what I had done was to keep a careful watch on other authors for the past couple of years. I noted who was signing publishing contracts, in what genres etc, and I decided that in my genre, in UK plus a number of other factors, it wasn't going to happen. I'd come very close to being accepted by what I considered was my best bet in terms of reputable established publishers, and I'm sure, had I approached some very new or small presses, I would have found one to publish me. But, on balance, and with readers waiting for the printed book, and, of course, with the offer to publish as a member of Year Zero, I decided I was better off being indie.

But every so often I get this wave of anxiety that I've made the wrong decision. Every time a new author scheme is announced, or one of my friends signs a contract or is offered an advance, I worry that I should have waited. Much of this worry is financial, because it wouldn't just be a dream come true to reach more readers, it would enable me to earn a living - something which, because of circumstances beyond my control, I can't adequately do in other ways.

I think much of indie author anxiety (I'll call it IAA) arises because the publishing business, media and marketing are in a state of flux. No-one can really predict where the business will go more than a few weeks in advance. Indeed, I think epublishing took off much more quickly than its market leaders could have predicted.

Maybe, in a couple of years, it will settle down into a more predictable pattern. For now, though, many of us will have to learn to live with IAA!

15 Comments

Selling books at the pub.

7/3/2010

5 Comments

This lunchtime I've been selling copies of my book at a market held in the garden of a pub in a nearby village. And very civilised it was too. On a sunny day it certainly beats sitting at the computer for 3 hours, pretending to write.

When I say selling, that's rather a generous term. The market was very quiet today and I didn't sell many. But that doesn't matter. In the past few weeks I've come to regard ebooks as a source of income and print books as a luxury optional extra for fun.

However, what's really good about having a bookstall at a market is I get to chat to readers. People choose to come to my table because they see the books. They may well not be people who would go to a specific book event such as a reading. And I get to chat to them about what's happening in publishing, about how they can read book extracts online, and about how electronic downloads are becoming popular in US and are likely to do so here.

I see it as a bit of a PR mission but I do it because it's fun.

5 Comments

Too hot to blog...but cool enough to write.

7/2/2010

1 Comment

I've just realised that I haven't written a blog post for a week and am making the excuse that it's been too hot!

But the truth is, there have been lots of other writing-related things to do.
For many writers who epublish, the focus of this week has been opting into kindle's 70% royalty scheme which came into effect yesterday. Like many things requiring computer updates, it hasn't gone entirely smoothly. However, it brings the possibility of earning a living as an indie writer that bit closer.

The other thing I've spent a lot of time on this week is reworking and editing my novel Going Underground. This is an unusual story in that much of it is set down caves - one cave in particular, most of the time. This book will doubtless have some future blog posts all of its own, but there is one spooky thing about writing it that I'll mention now. The curious thing is that the fictitious Quarry Cave, where most of the action is set, has become more real in my mind, in all its detail, than many of the caves I've explored for real.

1 Comment

Who's afraid of literary fiction?

6/25/2010

3 Comments

This is the 2nd post derived from kindle threads.

A few days ago, I started a thread in the fiction forum, inviting people to promote their own or other literary or general fiction. 2 days later, one reply. So, thinking this location might lack visitors, I started a similar thread in the main kindle forum - this is the landing stage when people log on so plenty of traffic. A couple of books were posted this time, along with posts suggesting that maybe people couldn't cope with a category as 'undefined' as general fiction and that maybe I should try the literary fiction forum as it is very active (it isn't).

This generates lots of worrying questions - and remember we're dealing with an almost entirely US environment here and their understanding of genres etc may be different from mine. Also, bear in mind, if anyone dared venture into the first post, I pointed out that I was meaning any well-written general fiction, or novels that didn't necessarily conform to all the rules of a particular genre.

Now, it could be that no-one wants to read literary or general fiction. And if this is the case, that could be the reason why virtually no-one is publishing it. It could be that no-one is writing literary or general fiction - and if they're not, the reason might be because they know it won't get published traditionally. Certainly, it's easier for publishers to market books which they can fit neatly into the same genre/category/list.

But I think the main problem is people are scared of the word literary, that readers are scared it might mean something with arty concepts and no story and that writers are scared it assumes a level of ability that their book may not have reached.

I will now play down the word literary in favour of the word general and if anyone can suggest a word to describe a well-written or imaginatively-written story, please let me know!

3 Comments

Book Reviews.

6/23/2010

4 Comments

I'm currently running a thread on the kindle main forum on book reviews. And we're talking customer reviews here, that anyone is free to post on online sites.

The subject arose because this morning I received my 7th 5 star review (sorry - had to get that in!). But unlike the previous ones which have been works of literature in their own right, this reader simply stated that they couldn't write reviews but enjoyed the book and wanted to tell people about it.

Now, I appreciate all reviews - though, obviously, I prefer it if they say good things :). I appreciate someone going to a lot of time and trouble to tell others their impression of the book, and equally, I'm really pleased to hear a reader has enjoyed it.

But I wondered what other readers felt. Especially as kindle has an almost entirely US readership.

It turns out opinions vary enormously. Some readers won't even look at a new author unless they have a fair number of reviews. Some won't look unless the reviews are good. And some won't look unless some of them are bad! Others make their mind up based on the free sample download (on kindle you get 10% of the book). Certainly readers who look at reviews are very savvy about who's written them.
What is noticeable is that, on kindle it seems to be the norm to write a carefully constructed essay, while on smashwords a couple of sentences suffice.

But the main thing to emerge from today's kindle thread is not about reviews as such; it's about what readers want from a book description.

I'll deal with that another time!

4 Comments

Please look inside

6/22/2010

0 Comments

...well, hopefully soon!

I've just submitted files to amazon's search inside facility and, if I've got it right, you'll soon be able to read part of The Girl on the Swing on amazon uk and .com.
I don't fully understand how it's organised, having been sent 2 diffrerent sets of invitations (well, 3 actually, but 2 were identical) that seem to lead to the same seller central site. Taking no chances, I responded to both.

It's noticeable that, while amazon.com feels secure and established and automatically linked to the kindle ereader store, by contrast, amazon uk is the poor cousin, lagging behind. Even if, for tax reasons, they have to be run as separate companies, I'm surprised at the lack of interchange of information, which could surely be shared with a simple tick box signature from the customer. An author currently has to repeat everything such as their author page on each site.

But maybe that is changing.

While amazon uk seems to be in a state of constant change and beta testing, if it develops in the way the US store has, with links to e books and a more developed forum, then it could revolutionise publishing for independent authors in UK.

No wonder publishers are worried!

0 Comments

See inside the book.

6/21/2010

0 Comments

Great excitement. After ongoing problems with the necessary account, amazon uk seem to have got their act together to give me the access I need to install the search inside feature on The Girl on the Swing. For those unfamiliar with it, this is a fairly recent development on amazon which allows the prospective customer to open and read part of a virtual copy of a book. For debut novelists it's likely to make a big difference. Even if you refer to a web page with the first chapter or 2 on,chances are readers will hesitate at having to go offsite to read something when they can read other books at the click of a button. It's especially good for illustrated books because you can see the content on each page exactly as it appears in the print version.
Now I just have to get my head round the file upload and get it submitted satisfactorily and quickly in case they think of suspending my account for slow response again!

0 Comments

The Pen name Dilemma

6/20/2010

0 Comments

And for today we're on that topic that seems to go round in circles. Whether to use a pen name for different genres.
Ruth Rendell also writes as Barbara Vine, and Iain Banks puts the initial M in the middle for his science fiction.

So here is my dilemma. I write literary fiction and non-fiction under my own name. Now I want to publish a genre book in a different style. I have 2 concerns

a) I don't want to disappoint my litfic readers.
b) I don't want to put off a potential new readership who aren't into the slightly feminine litfic world of Swing.

I've tested this out already on authonomy. And my genre books have attracted a more male-dominated readership. The book in question at the moment is on authonomy under the username cave man and the pen name AM Banks.

And this brings me onto another aspect of using a pen name - the opportunity not to advertise my gender, especially when writing a blokey book in a man's voice and a genre where I suspect male readers will accept it better if they think it's written by a man.

Then there's the question, if you use a pen name, should you be upfront about it from the start? If I publish it on kindle then, unless I set up a new account - which I believe is not allowed - then I'll have to be.

I suspect I'll deliberate over this until it's published...and then some!

0 Comments

<<Previous

Forward>>

Dead Tree Books.

Personality - does it matter?

Indie author anxiety.

Selling books at the pub.

Too hot to blog...but cool enough to write.

Who's afraid of literary fiction?

Book Reviews.

Please look inside

See inside the book.

The Pen name Dilemma

Author

Archives

Categories