I found something beautiful. A new magazine for word nerds. Publish Now!I turned the pages and almost gasped with joy. Here was a magazine that looked forward and plotted out the future of books. Self-publishing was at its core.
Anyone with an eye to the digital ground will know of Seth Godin's recent comments about traditional publishing. The time is absolutely right for this publication. I hear there are even plans to produce a digital version too! This first print issue looks likely to become a collector's edition. I was so impressed with it that I phoned the editor. He told me there are only 45 left, and asked if my word nerd followers would be interested in this kind of magazine. Uh... YEAH! This is like a Word Nerd Army survival guide! Whatever kind of publishing you hope to secure, you need to be fully educated about all the options. Guys, grab this while you can. Let's all get published before this time next year. What do you say? Find out more here.
What an amazing bird! Could you write a haiku or other short poem or story inspired by this? Have you read a book with a strong animal character? What did you love about that character?
It is still possible that my novel could be out by the deadline I set myself last year - the end of September. It would be great to launch the book on 18th September but funds are still a little too low to go ahead. As many of you know, doctors discovered my father had an aneurysm a couple of months back and that has thrown many of my plans out of the window but I am a writer, and I've been told - often - that writers write. They also publish on occasion. Dad has made it clear that I'm not allowed to shelve my dreams of publication just because of a bit of medical drama so I won't. Somehow, I'll get this book out this year. It would be amazing if I could do that by the end of next month.
While I scurry around looking for things I might be able to sell to make up the rest of the budget, it would be great to get a little Beta Team of word nerds together to read my book on different devices. With the budget being as tight as it is, I may be forced to abandon the idea of a physical book for now (cost of buying and sending ISBN'd copies to all the relevant libraries is just too much) and focus on ebooks. If that goes well, it will fund the physical book launch. Seems like a sound business decision.
So - what's your device? I plan to focus on Kindle as the Kindle App can be used on iPad, iPhone etc too, but I also want to release a Sony Reader version. I have no plans for DRM, and it may be possible for me to release on all kinds of devices, but the Amazon contract could make things a litttle tricky so I'll only promise Kindle for now, then anything else will be a bonus. In any case, let me know your device. To improve your chances of being picked to receive a free book you need to be:
a fast reader
a book junkie
prepared to keep your mouth shut about the plot until the book is launched
respectful of my copyright
a reader of e-books
prepared to send me an email of your thoughts on the book
interested in reading English English (I would love it if most of my books were bought by Americans, but I want them to be read in the English of England rather than American English. I've noticed so many publishers produce American versions of English books, and I think that cheats Americans out of a great experience. I love reading books from America in American English, and I hope I can tempt Americans to read some modern books from England written in English English - the term 'British English' is misleading by the way. It annoys Scottish people. I don't like to annoy Scottish people.)
Leave your details below, or contact me through the contact form. Here's the book trailer:
Good luck!
If you want to help raise funds so I can release the book by the deadline, that would be very kind. Don't give more than you can afford. It all adds up:
Watch the whole video. There is peril, courage and heroism, comedy, frivolity, anticipation. If you write, how can you use this in your writing? Otherwise, what books or films have best captured these traits for you?
I experienced this for a very short time whilst in a coma, and it was horrific. How this amazing girl has coped I have no idea but what an inspiring story. What do you think of this?
Thanks so much to everyone who took part in my funding project over the last couple of weeks. It wasn't quite enough to get me to my target - but I'm very near it now. If you didn't help, but would like to, go along to http://bit.ly/writersandreaders - every penny helps get me closer to publication.
As I didn't quite reach my target, it throws off my timing again. I may also have to reconsider what I had planned to offer. My first run of books will need to fund any further publication, so I may just release an e-book to Kindle first time around. That way, I can monitor demand for other formats and launch those that make the most sense. It seems the most intelligent approach. I may even release only on Kindle, but run competitions where I release only 5 or 10 in another format. There's stacks of different ways to approach it. The better funded I am, the more options I have. The first book is where all the set up fees go. Once this book is out in the world, it's plain sailing for books two, three and four.
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