Today I visited the British Library and before going to the reading room to work on my next Northern Crown Novel I stuck my head into the special exhibitions room. Last time I was here it was full of Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts such as Beowulf and early law codes and maps. This has now been replaced by two exhibits. There is one on Leonardo’s notebooks I may return to but the one that caught my eye, me being in a literary mood, was entitled ‘Writing – Making your Mark’ which is an exhibition all about the written form.

This exhibition is split into 5 sections.

The Origins of Writing charts the development of letters and writing from the earliest scripts. Exhibits shown include Sumerian Cuneiform, Egyptian hieroglyphics (both 3rd millennia b.c.) and  Shang Dynasty Chinese characters engraved on oracle bones. I particularly found it fascinating how letters evolved from shapes. So the Latin letter A was originally a stylised ox head (look at an ‘A’ and turn it upside down and you will see).

Writing Systems and Styles looks at how letters were put together in various ways to create writing systems. This includes oriental and Arabic scripts and the evolution of the Latin script and how it is represented through the centuries from its earliest origins as an off shoot of Egyptian hieroglyphics, through the development of Roman letters and on through medieval Gothic Script and monastic traditions.

Materials and Technology examines the tools used to create writing from clay and wax tablets, through to paper, styluses and pens including goose feather nibs, biros and fountain pens. There is also a look at printing technology  and some examples of early printed books such as Canterbury Tales.

People and Writing covers the craft of writing, engraving, pen-man ship and even such skills as shorthand. This section featured examples of instruction manuals and books and how to guides for typists etc.

The Future of Writing  discusses how technology has already and may effect writing in the future. Will emoji’s and audio/ video messages replace the written form. Will be still be writing anything decades from now? Or will the form just change?

An interesting exhibition. It is not a large exhibition – maybe 150 or so exhibits but some you can study for quite a while. If you like the appearance of ancient manuscripts and enjoy exploring the evolution of one of the key elements of what make us human, it is a pleasant way to spend an hour or so.

The exhibition runs until 27th August 2019. Find out more…

Images from Wikipedia Commons or British Library shared images.

This weekend I was fortunate to spend in London at the Historical Novel Society Conference. This is the second such event I have attended and I enjoyed it more than the first (although that was fun too). This was primarily because 2 years ago I was there as a bit of a hanger on with the Indie/ self publishing table and knew almost nobody.  This year I found I knew quite a lot of folk. Indeed Friday evening when I arrived the first thing that happened was that a number of Facebook friends said hello and it was good to meet folk that until now I have only just talked with online. I was also much less nervous at being amongst all these other authors because you soon release that they are actually human too!

One of the factors that made me feel more conformable was that the event was launched on Friday evening with the First HNS Indie Award. This event was thought up by the wonderful Helen Hollick who is a great champion of Indie and Self Published authors and novels. The award was presented by Elizabeth Chadwick.  The idea was to recognize superb Indie fiction. I was delighted to see that one of the short listed novels was by a author who has attended my UK Games Expo on the writers table: Dave Mccall – writing as Dave Ebsworth and his book Jacobite’s Apprentice. So right away it was clear that the HNS have a pretty open approach to us self published authors. I knew this to an extent already – being a HNS Indie reviewer but organizing an award was a nice reinforcement. As i chatted to folk during the Friday evening drinks session I came accross a mix of mainstream authors, fellow Indie authors and readers – all interested in historical fiction of course.

The main conference took place on Saturday all day and Sunday  morning. There was a conference dinner one could attend on either Friday or Saturday night at a nearby restaurant which was noisy but fun. the food was inspired by 18th century dishes. I had London Paticular pea soup and Kedgeree.

The main event however were the addresses and workshops. I will look at a few here.

Selling Historical Fiction: the challenges and triumphs  was an opportunity to hear what publishers felt worked in selling fiction.  Some principles – a good cover for example clearly apply equally to INdie as to mainstream. Other comments about adverts in newspapers less so. The panel was mostly publishers and book buyers for WH smith – those kind of folk. So I found that it assumed we were talking about what sells mainstream books already destined for  the windows of waterstones. It would have been good to have had an indie perspective from a successful indie author as to what works for them with the harder struggle of getting recognition for them selves.

Conn Iggulden’s address as guest of hour was excellent. Witty and clever, I found it useful on more than one level. I do talks at school and adult groups and found he has a natural ability to be entertaining and that I found myself paying attention to as much how he spoke as what he said. But as for what he said one message was the need for Historical Fiction Authors to make certain choices when faced with the unknowns of history. In the end we are writing fiction. It is NOT a thesis and it is meant to entertain. Academics shy away from making pronouncements when they don’t know what really happened. Fiction writers cannot not. You just have to make  a choice you can defend. This was encouraging given the scarcity of known facts I have to deal with in the 7th century.

I attended a workshop on Mavericks in fiction which was a useful look at the attraction of characters who stray a bit away from the norm. I also discovered a new author – Angus Donald whose Outlaw Series I will be checking out. His fellow panelist JAMES AITCHESON wrote about a Norman Knight after the conquest. It also sounded worth a look.

I think my favourite session of the whole conference was the “My Era is better than yours” where 5 authors defended Ancient Rome, Vikings, The Age of Chivalry, Tudors and Georgian England.  Some well thought out arguments and funny banter made this a great session.

On Sunday the best session from my point of view was the Workshop on Battle Scenes. This was a well presented analysis of the elements that make for a good battle scene: the importance of research, the technology of the weapons, the terrain, the tactics used and the chance for the hero to be at the critical location.

We finished with a  fun quiz on historical fiction.  I cant believe I forgot which Sharpe novel Isiah tongue dies in!!

there were many other workshop on such things as self publishing, the use of historical language etc,

All in all a great weekend if you are a historical fiction writer, or trying to become one. You can meet other authors, editors etc and make some useful contacts. Roll on the next one.

I visited the London Book Fair yesterday. This was only my second visit. I went before in 2010. There is no doubt that  it is an impressive sight – the Earl’s Court Exhibition Center full of trade stands for publishers, distributors, author services and self publishing companies.  Its the Annual gathering of the book industry in the UK. Vital for Publishers and  distributors. But is it worth a visit as an author?

The short answer is it depends. It depends on what you are trying to get out of it. If your intention is to turn up with your unpublished manuscript, stride up to Harper Collins and slap it on the table and say how much for this then? Well, you would be disappointed. What LBF is not is an opportunity for authors to pitch to agents or publishers. The agents and publishers have full diaries meeting each other and distributors and agreeing deals, assigning rights etc.  The right way to approach the book fair is as an information gathering exercise and really at least as much from the publishing side of being a self published author as the author bit. In other words if you are looking for a company to assist you with publishing, proof reading etc then there were many such companies present. Likewise if you needed help with e-book conversion and sales, audio books and animated books for Ipads etc then there were plenty of people to talk to.

When I visited in 2010 I attended talks heralding the coming of Kindle to the UK and the use tablets like Ipads for books. In the 4 years since then a revolution in publishing has come – or rather 2 revolutions. E-books are taking a large and increasing share of the market but also the world has seen the creation of a good umber of Self Published Millionaires and many if not millionaires quite successful authors who made their fame or fortune via Kindle, Kobo etc. What was interesting yesterday was that I attended a couple of talks by these authors – something that would not have occurred in 2010 and this shows the growth of the Indie sector.

So what did I do at the fair? Well when I arrived I first had a meeting with Helen Hart of Silverwood publishing. I am self published and wanted Mercia Books to continue but was looking at hiring in a few services like typesetting to improved the look of the books. LBF is ideal for that type of talk. It was nice to catch up with Helen as I had last seen her at the Historical Novel Conference in 2012.  I then strolled around the stalls and found someone I knew from UK Games Expo – Racheal Wyatt of Coiledspring selling games related to books and words.

I had lined up a few Seminars to attend and the first one then began. There are a number of streams of seminars around LBF. Some are very technical, some focused on Publishers and larger companies and of no value to authors. They do however have an Author HQ where a series of talks of use for authors took place. Another nearby Tech Theatre was home to short 20 minute presentations by a series of companies on e-book services and distribution.

The two major seminars I took in were:

Independent Bestselling Authors Discuss Using Kindle Direct Publishing And CreateSpace To Fuel Readership Growth. UK Kindle Direct Publishing Manager, Darren Hardy hosted this and interviewed Indie authors Tim Ellis and Mel Sherrat both of whom write full time and have successful Indie careers.

Then later (after the two techie talks) I went to Eating The Cake, Too: The New Breed Of “Hybrid” Authors Have The Best Of Both Worlds. 
This time it was Diego Marano, Manager, UK, Kobo Writing Life interviewing Hugh Howey, Author – a extremely successful Indie Author.

What was clear from their conversations was that, to the disappointment I felt of some of the crowd, that there is no magic, quick route to success. Nor was there a single template or agreement  on  the best approach.

The bottom line seemed to be keep writing. Finish one book and get the next one started. Ensure the books are well edited and presented. Outside of that  there was  a wide approach to other aspects of writing. So one author was adamantly opposed to free books, whilst another swore by giving away free books as a route to getting a following. One might focus on marketing and another hardly do anything. The only thing they did agree on is getting a number of titles out there and ensuring they were well produced.

Afterwards, speaking to Kobo and Barnes and Noble I discovered I had missed the fact that they were both accepting direct submissions from Authors in the UK (not just via Smashwords). They were able to give me information about this.

SO is it worth a visit as an author? Yes if you go along with the aim of learning about self publishing and sourcing services or else plan to listen and learn from the other authors. Just don’t expect to get a five book deal by bumping into the CEO of  a Big Six company.

This Sunday was bright and sunny. I was tired after helping my daughter do a charity event on the Saturday evening and of course the pesky clocks went forward. Any sensible mortal would plan a lie in to counter the loss of an hour followed by a walk in the park perhaps. Not I. Along with something like 150 other writers or aspiring writers I got up early and traveled to a leafy suburb of Leicester to attend the 2nd Self-Publishing conference run by Troubadour Publishing.

I had heard of this event via a friend Helen Hollick, who in many ways is my mentor having giving me the kick start I needed 4 years ago to adopt a professional approach to self-publishing. By the way I can massively recommend her book on editing fiction called  Discovering the Diamond – co written with Jo Field.

This was not an expensive day. Registration fee was £55.00 per person. This includes a delegate’s pack, morning coffee, buffet lunch, afternoon tea and a choice from many sessions on different aspects of self-publishing.

The structure of the day was an introduction by the CEO of Troubador and a key note speech by Alysoun Owen the editor of the Writers and Artists year book which was a good over view of the current state of publishing and self publishing. She showed us the growth of self publishing in the last few years and how it both has become a viable approach for many authors but also a massively competitive area due the simple vast numbers of authors and aspiring authors out there.

The rest of the day was split into 4 sessions of 75 to 90 minutes each divided by coffee breaks and lunch.  Accross these 4 sessions there were 21  different sessions to choose from and I found that I often had a tough decision between more than one speaker. The sessions I chose were:

Working Successfully with bookshops and libraries to sell your books. 

The speakers took us through approaching local libraries individually, developing a relationship perhaps by offering events and free books, to going through the central buying departments.  With budgets shrinking the message was that is is not easy to get adopted in every library and you are more likely to succeed with local studies and history/ interest books than fiction.  As for getting into bookshops we were encouraged to ensure books were of course well presented and professional, on distribution via Gardners etc but even then there would be a low chance of getting onto the shelves of Waterstones and Smith.

One useful snippet from this talk is to keep an ear to the ground on any upcoming festival or literary event in libraries etc as you might just have a book or books that could fit. Then contact community librarians and offer up talks etc.

From Self-publishing to mainstream and back again

Polly Courtney was an investment banker who after working in the city left to write books on her experiences. Her first novel Golden Handcuffs failed to gain much interest until the 2008 financial crash when she self published, managed to get coverage linked to the crash and basically that kicked off her sales. She was picked up by Harper Collins and had a frustrating time finding that they would design covers that did not suit her books or even give the books titles that were wrong.  She eventually came back to self publishing and has a successful career writing as well as doing talks. An interesting message I took from her talk was the need to be very proactive with marketing books and to be open to the right opportunity that the world flings at you.

Whilst Waiting for Helen Hollick to go to lunch I chatted to Jane Rowland former editor of the Self Publishing magazine and she reminded me that the magazine does take review books from self published authors. Over Lunch Helen and I discussed having books in print in the USA and UK and the possible needs for different covers and editions.

 Promoting your Book to Online Bookshops

This session by Steve Potter of Wordery covered how to get your books on sale on Amazon, Wordery and elsewhere but also marketing using Twitter, Pinterest etc. the sheer vastness of social media means that one needs a focused strategy so as not to loose all day online. Checked on my ipad and my books are on sale on Wordery too so that was one job I dont need to do.

Successful Promotion for Children’s Authors

Basic take home message: for all children under 8 you are trying to reach the parent not the child. For 8 to 12’s its a mix of getting the message across to child and parent and for teens it is the reader themselves. Reviews are critical and here there are many blogs and sites who will do reviews. The talk covered doing school visits etc.

As I say there were many other sessions on for example ebook publishing, book covers, book reviews and the importance of employing a good editor etc.

Overall I found that I was doing most things I should be doing but I did pick up a snippet or two from each talk to take further. The conference allowed for a lot of networking and  I did think that what would REALLY help would be a full list of delegates, who they were and what they were as well as speakers along with contact info for everyone as I think many of us wanted to follow up chats we had during the day. So my feedback would be to have a contact list.

Otherwise I can not think of very much wrong with the event and can recommend it to aspiring writers and indie/ self publishers.

Today I’m pleased to be taking part in a blog chain. 

A blog chain is simply a blog post written on a set topic, at the end of which you nominate a given number of bloggers to do the same. So we have a linked  set of blogs popping up at intervals covering the same topic.  The blog chain is bit different from the blog hop,during which a number of bloggers post simultaneously on the same topic, including links to each other’s posts. I took part in a blog hop just before Christmas: Helen Hollick’s excellent Winter Solstice Blog Hop.  In this blog chain we are looking at the topic “What am I working on?” 

Receiving the baton:

Passing the Baton to me is the author Helen Hollick.  Helen is the author who really got me started self publishing. She took me under her wing, encouraged me and introduced me to her editor (now also mine) and book cover artist (ditto). Helen is a writer of Historical Fiction and Fantasy. Her main periods are the Arthurian era, Anglo-Saxon England and also the age of piracy. You can read her answers here:

http://ofhistoryandkings.blogspot.co.uk/

 So then on to my questions and answers:

1)    What am I working on?

Right now I have just published The Catacombs of Vanaheim which is a children’s Historical Fantasy and the sequel to the first in the series, Shield Maiden. This series imagines a world where the Germanic-Norse mythology is real and we follow the adventures of a young Anglo-Saxon girl  in Mercia with the back drop of that mythology. I have turned to writing the third in my time travel adventure story for young adults called “Today’s Sacrifice”.  That like the first two in the series is a fast moving gallop through history. I actually have 4 series on the go and tend to rotate them. Thus whenever I return to a series its fresh and exciting to be back there.  After Today’s Sacrifice I may do he 4th in the Historical Fiction series “Northern Crown” which is about early Anglo-Saxon England. That series take a lot of research and I always have a book about the period open around the house.

2)    How does my work differ from others of its genre?

As I said I have 4 series on the go. The Nine Worlds Series with its mix of Germanic mythology and Anglo-Saxon history is – I think – fairly unique. Least ways I have not  come across any children’s books in the same genre.  There are Time travel adventure stories a plenty and I don’t pretend that the Hourglass Institute Series is particularly unique. It is meant to be exciting, fast paced and just plain fun. I do spend a lot of time on the historical research. Right now I am writing a scene where the team appear at the Battle of Waterloo which allows me to use knowledge of the period.  The Northern Crown Historical Fiction series has the virtue of being set in a period which has very few other authors working in – the early but post Arthurian Saxon era. I am told I write very good battle scenes and  I do love those. That period allows the reader to experience the dramatic historical events that helped forge Britain.  Finally my 4th series has one book so far – The Last Seal. Again here I am blending fantasy with history in  a tale of demons and magic and the Greta Fire of London. I think sometimes mixing genres  can give a fresh take on a story.

3)    Why do I write what I do?

I write the sorts of books I want to read. If I got lots of poor reviews I would probably stop publishing them but the reviews are generally good and I do get encouraging emails and comments from readers so I am encouraged to press on.  I also love the worlds and characters I have created. I want to know what happens next and so have t carry on writing to find out. So yes its fairly self indulgent but why not!

4)    How does my writing process work?

I have a combination of day job, writing carer and a job running an annual convention of board games that gets 4000+ attendees each May/June.  The late winter and spring is increasing devoted to thousand  of emails and hundreds of hours planning and organising a convention which sees 4000 people attend over 3 days along with 100 exhibitors to play hundreds of board games and roleplaying games (all a passion of mine). There are seminars to organize, guests to invite, hotel rooms to books etc.  As a result for a third of the year the writing goes on hold. However I still do some visits to schools and try and keep busy on the social media. etc After Expo is over and tidied away I get about 4 months where I can focus exclusively on the writing so I try and get a draft of a book ready in that time. Then towards the end of the year and over the winter I have to mix some work on Expo with  writing something. If possible I try and get the latest book finished  so it can be edited and prepared and released.  Some years I manage 2 books, some just 1 new release.

When it comes to the actual writing process I spend I while thinking about the characters and plot. I try to then write a bief outline, then add details to the outline, fleshing it out in stages so that when I start writing I already know most of what is going to occur. I aim to get a first draft done quickly and messily.  Only I read it and I then redraft it before allowing my wife or parents to read it and give me feedback. It then goes through a couple of drafts again (at least) before going to my editor.

Passing on the baton: 

So I now pass the baton on to another writer. I look forward to hearing her answers.

Marilyn L Rice took early retirement from teaching and began her writing career. On her 50th birthday she launched her first book Time & Tide in a West Bromwich Shopping Mall. No Regrets followed in May 2003. Then, Stay in Touch in 2005 and in 2007 her fourth work, Look After Each Other. This was taken on by Strategic Book Publishing (an American Publishing Company) who released the sequel to Look After Each Other… Sofia’s Legacy. Love You Forever, (coming soon!) is the final work in the ‘Sofia’ trilogy and her legacy!

Marilyn’s answers will go up on Monday 3rd February.

 http://lookaftereachother.blogspot.com

The cover for my new book The Catacombs of Vanaheim

On Wednesday 8th January I signed off the proof of my latest book ‘The Catacombs of Vanaheim.’  All books have their own story and route to publication and every author will have their own approach. I thought it might be of interest to talk about how The Catacombs of Vanaheim got into print.  Catacombs is actually the second in the Nine Worlds Series. The Nine Worlds series is a Historical Fantasy Adventure For Children of Ages 9+ in which the historical world of Anglo-Saxon England meets the mysterious world of myths and legends, gods and monsters our ancestors believed in. This is the world as it might have been had those stories been true…

I dreamed up the idea for the series in late 2011 and wrote the first novel Shield Maiden over the winter. It was published  in Spring 2012. It received some good reviews and won a prize in the USA. In 2013 I started writing a  sequel.

• Starting with a snow flake. I tend to use an approach to plotting a novel called the snow flake technique. You start with the basic concept of the novel – the essential question that needs to be answered. Then you expand this to a simple outline of the essence of the book -usually a paragraph that discusses the main character, what he/she wants and what prevents them from getting it.  That paragraph can even become the back page blurb as it did in Catacombs:

The Bifrost – the passageway between the Nine Worlds – is open and now Anna’s village is under attack by creatures and horrors the villagers are not prepared to deal with. So now Anna and her companions must travel to Vanaheim, home to the Vanir: gods of wisdom and magic. There the young sorcerer, Wilburh, hopes to obtain a way to protect their village. It is not as easy as all that for Wilburh’s magic is failing him and they find that the gods themselves are prisoners. To free them the children must enter the deadly Catacombs. In there they will need all their courage and skills just to survive.

• Expanding the Outline. From that paragraph I now expand the plot in stages, writing a 3 or 4 paragraph summary in which each paragraph is an ‘act’ in the Novel usually ending in some disaster or problem that only worsens their predicament. From that outline I try and pull out a sentence that will become each chapter and finally we have a plot chapter by chapter.
• Its all about Characters. Books need characters. They should not just be about plot. Its not just about what happens but to whom stuff happens. In particular we need to get a idea and write notes on how characters change especially the main character. Each book should ideally involve a character altering or changing in some way. Characters need  aims and motives – what do they want and why. They should have some weakness ideally or at least an obstacle preventing them getting what they want.
• Writing the book. Finally after some months of plotting I begin writing the book. Now I work full time, run a large hobby convention annually and have 2 kids. So getting words on the page can be hard at times. There is no clever solution beyond this simple advice: Each day sit down and write a paragraph. Just a paragraph. If you cant manage more than that just do that. Often a paragraph  becomes two or three, a page or a chapter but even if it does not you have 30 more words on your page.

“The first draft of anything is shit.” Ernest Hemingway

•  Drafts. Hemingway had  a point. The first draft will be rubbish. To me though the hardest thing is getting 30,000 to 50,000 words down. Once you have done that, once you have a book of sorts then the next phase is what creates the novel from that mass of words. The first draft is for me alone. No one else sees that. I now spend a good few weeks redrafting it twice through. In this process I am looking for the overall continuity. I am looking for major holes and story threads that go no where that need tidying up. I am checking if a characters story is developed. I then pass the draft to my first readers – family members. What I want from them is not editing (although if they spot spelling and grammar errors I welcome that) – what I want is an opinion on does the story make sense? Does it go anywhere? Again are there holes and problems? I then redraft again and again. By now we are around 9 months into the writing of Catacombs.
• Sharpen your pencil Gill. At this stage – or actually even earlier when I had an early draft, I asked Gill Pearce of Helion’s Art to start coming up with the images. I identified around 20 scenes I wanted ink drawings of, a map and a front cover. Gill starts getting busy with ideas. Gill has had her share of illness this year so she performed wonders completing the images.

An early sketch for the Nine World Map

• Editing Once I have the draft at a satisfactory point I send it to my editor Jo Field . Jo and I fling versions of the chapters back and forth, arguing about turns of phrase and so forth. Of course spelling is corrected and grammar errors fixed but editing is much more than that. Jo spots continuity errors, makes suggestions for alternatives in certain scenes and generally improves the book. the editing often takes a couple of months or more.
• Book cover. Around the time I send the book for editing I usually engage the services of Cathy Helms of Avalon Graphics. Its Cathy that creates the book cover. In the case of Catacombs that mean taking an image  Gill had drawn and painted and using that to make the book cover. We encountered a slight problem here. I had given the go ahead for Gill to paint the cover before Cathy had fed back that she needed a wider image. Poor gill had to stick card to the image and paint a wider area which she did brilliantly. I learned  a lesson there to check with the book cover graphics designer that the artwork fits!
• Lay it all out man! When all is ready I start laying out the book in Indesign (not word which is poor at layout for books).  Much time is spent ensuring the look of the book is correct margin sizes, style of chapter headings etc. Then I drop the text in and in the magical way that Indeisgn works the text flows through the book. I drop in the images and tidy it all up and export to pdf.

uploading the book

• Signing of on the proof. Once the text of the book and the separate cover pdf (from Cathy) is uploaded I wait anxiously for the message that the files are approved. I then get to see a digital proof of the book. Hopefully there are few or no amendments needed and bingo the book is made ready to print!  It will take 2 or 3 weeks to show up on Amazon etc as on sale but the same day I order a box load of books and send Cathy, Jo and Gil their own copies.
• E-books. Of course it does not end there. The book needs e book conversion to not only 1 but three main distributors – Amazon Kindle, Smashwords for Apple, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, Sony etc  and finally Google E-books.

The whole process took around a year for the 40,000 word novel.

I hope that insight is of interest. Now to get on and write another novel!

I am a self published author and – for the sake of transparency – I am one of the authors mentioned in this book.

WAIT – don’t just assume I have given it a good rating because of this fact. I received a review copy and read the book in 3 days and did so because it was very readable and very accessible and summarized in 150 pages the essence of good book promotion.

Debbie Young has spent a long time pulling together all the various aspects of book promotion that a self published author needs to look at. I started on my own self publishing journey in October 2009. I made a LOT of mistakes in my journey and as a result wasted a lot of time and money. Now – 3 years on I can honestly say I WISH this book was available then.

Any criticism or comments? Well IMHO I think the chapter at the end on editing, typesetting and cover design really belongs at the very beginning. I wasted a LOT of time and effort producing poor quality designs and because at the start I had no editor my product suffered. I now have an editor and a book design artist and have learnt quite a bit about typesetting. So READ chapter 12 FIRST and get all those ducks in a line before you proceed.

I would also have liked to see an advanced chapter for those of us doing all this stuff already

Having said all that I found that the book prompted me to look at areas where I was not active enough and in January when I sit down to work out my plan for 2013 I will refer to this book.

So if you are a starting out self published author read this book. It will tell you all you need to know to begin book promotion.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sell-Your-Books-Promotion-Self-published/dp/1906236348/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1353793784&sr=8-1

A few items of news relevant to self publishing authors arrived in my inbox this last few days so I thought I should share them.

Nook Opens in the UK

Barnes and Noble have made a move into the UK e-books market by launching http://uk.nook.com  only last week – a site where UK readers can buy e-books for their nook. At the same time the Nook is on sale in 2500 stores around the country. With Christmas fast approaching B&N are clearly making a bid for a piece of what will probably be the biggest digital Christmas with millions of Brits having Kindles, Nooks and Ipads for Xmas.

Apple ibooks move into fresh territories

At the same time Apple have opened up ibook stores in countries including Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Venezuela, and New Zealand.  This brings many millions of new readers into the market for ebooks.

The easiest way to distribute and sell books to these markets is probably via Smashwords – the US based e-book  distributor which is ideal for self published authors to use.  You just set up an account, read the very detailed formatting document and then upload your books. Smashwords take care of the distribution to Apple, Barnes and Noble, Sony etc. The only store they don’t yet distribute to is Amazon and to be honest you are best formatting your own kindle books and uploading to Amazon direct.

You can read more about Smashwords here: Converting Novels into Various e-book formats

You can read more about formatting for Kindle here:  How to prepare a book for Kindle

I recently joined the Alliance of Independent Authors which is a group of authors in the US, UK and worldwide who share expertise and knowledge about the process of self publishing.  Their website and blog is stuffed full of detailed articles and advice for authors and I would recommend checking them out as a treasure trove of useful information.

http://allianceindependentauthors.org/

 Reading Agency and Alliance of Independent Authors pilot scheme in Libraries

One interesting initiative has been developed whereby self published authors are linked into libraries and readings groups. For a number of years traditional publishers and mainstream authors have been linked into Libraries via the Reading Agency scheme but a new  partnership aims to involve self published authors.

More on that here: http://selfpublishingadvice.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/alli-news-2012-novdec-final.pdf

Amazon have announced that their About the Author feature is now available for Amazon.co.uk as well as .com  What is About the author?

Well put simply the information that an author has on their author page on Amazon will be available to owners of Kindle Fire and Kindle Paperwhites directly on their devices.  So if they read an author’s book and want to know more about them including what other books are available, see  your photo and biography they can do so. They can then buy those books.

Authors should make sure that they have updated their page via Author Central.  This should include checking they are happy with their photo, making sure all book details are correct ( including that all your books are listed).

Author central can also take feeds from twitter and show videos (although these features wont show up in About the Author.). IN the US but NOT in the UK it can also take your blog feeds.

I am delighted to announce that Shield Maiden has won a Silver Award in the Literary Classic International Book Awards in the Pre Teen Fantasy section.

Here is the review that the same organisation did on Shield Maiden:

Shield Maiden, by author Richard Denning, is an exciting children’s chapter book which takes place in a Saxon village in 7th century Mercia.  Denning’s characters come to life in this mythological adventure, the story of a 12 year old girl who finds a golden horn in the ruins of a Roman villa.

Shield Maiden, the first book in the Nine World’s Series, will hold great appeal for youngsters, regardless of their knowledge or understanding of Norse mythology; and kids interested in magic or fantasy are certain to appreciate the story of the Shield Maiden.

Brief explanations of some of the Norse mythological characters are included at the conclusion of the story, adding a greater understanding of some of the events which take place in this exciting story.

We recommend Shield Maiden for general reading, and as an educational tool to help youngsters gain insight and understanding into Nordic Mythology.

Shield Maiden earns the Literary Classics Seal of Approval.

Find out more here: http://www.richarddenning.co.uk/shieldmaiden.php