I’m writing another book. Given that I’m a bit stuck on Chapter 7, with my anti-hero stuck in a water closet, I thought I’d start a blog instead of cleaning out the kitchen drawers. Besides, I wanted to share my epiphany.
For Christmas, I bought myself a Kindle, and it changed the way I looked at the written word, and I’ve looked at a lot over years, some of them my own.
Just for a laugh, I even published my first book, The Lost Orchid. Even sold some. Then, I slipped into the doldrums, still sending out my new manuscripts to regular agents and publishers, albeit via email.
Enough! After downloading the free e-book by Mark Coker of Smashwords, I am upping the ante on my personal reinvention. He likes authors! He salutes authors, especially the unpublished aspiring ones. I feel all warm and fuzzy, instead of cold and despairing.
So, at six o’clock last night, I skipped the Agatha Christie repeat on ITV and started up a blog in my own name, which is rather scary. The grand plan is to set about publishing everything digitally. I shall chart their progress with anything useful or silly I find along the way.
Now I find myself hurrying to my laptop on an overcast Sunday morning after a shocking night’s sleep explaining why I feel the urge to contribute to the brave new world of digital books and author communities myself.
Bricks and mortar publishing is moribund. Well, I think so. E-books are the future. My last rejection, beautifully worded, regretted not being able to offer representation ‘due to the contracted state of the market’. I assume she must have meant the traditional chop-down-trees version. Not so much an epiphany, as e-piffle, in my view. And I am a member of the Woodland Trust, before you ask.
As far as I can tell, everybody is reading more and more. And people like me are writing more and more. A perfect match.
Next job? Choose which book to format and ping out there. And instead of footling around with Adobe Creative Studio as an excuse for not writing, I’m going to pay a designer to do the cover.Unless, course, anyone has any opinion on The Lost Orchid, which I redid yesterday. Too pink? Too old-fashioned? Does ‘seething hotbed’ sound odd? Tell me. Really.
PK
For Christmas, I bought myself a Kindle, and it changed the way I looked at the written word, and I’ve looked at a lot over years, some of them my own.
Just for a laugh, I even published my first book, The Lost Orchid. Even sold some. Then, I slipped into the doldrums, still sending out my new manuscripts to regular agents and publishers, albeit via email.
Enough! After downloading the free e-book by Mark Coker of Smashwords, I am upping the ante on my personal reinvention. He likes authors! He salutes authors, especially the unpublished aspiring ones. I feel all warm and fuzzy, instead of cold and despairing.
So, at six o’clock last night, I skipped the Agatha Christie repeat on ITV and started up a blog in my own name, which is rather scary. The grand plan is to set about publishing everything digitally. I shall chart their progress with anything useful or silly I find along the way.
Now I find myself hurrying to my laptop on an overcast Sunday morning after a shocking night’s sleep explaining why I feel the urge to contribute to the brave new world of digital books and author communities myself.
Bricks and mortar publishing is moribund. Well, I think so. E-books are the future. My last rejection, beautifully worded, regretted not being able to offer representation ‘due to the contracted state of the market’. I assume she must have meant the traditional chop-down-trees version. Not so much an epiphany, as e-piffle, in my view. And I am a member of the Woodland Trust, before you ask.
As far as I can tell, everybody is reading more and more. And people like me are writing more and more. A perfect match.
Next job? Choose which book to format and ping out there. And instead of footling around with Adobe Creative Studio as an excuse for not writing, I’m going to pay a designer to do the cover.Unless, course, anyone has any opinion on The Lost Orchid, which I redid yesterday. Too pink? Too old-fashioned? Does ‘seething hotbed’ sound odd? Tell me. Really.
PK
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