Sign in - post apocalyptic notes July 2020

It could just be because it's a Monday

Or because the world is appearing particularly fuckish today. Stories of heartache and conflict and climate disaster.

So, it's good when a new zine drops in the Inbox, followed by new funding opportunities for the not-faint-hearted, undeterred by rhyme/reason, coping with post-apocalyptic terminology writer. It's SO hot off the press it's not even digitally online yet, so here's just a tease of the cover. Until such time as I can share it more generously.

https://utoprozine.com/

Here goes.... publishing your own eBook (Part 1) !

So I decided to stop procrastinating and just get a book out there. Well, why wait? After five minutes 'thorough' research, I picked Booktango as a likely candidate and started the process of creating my eBook and making it available for sale online.
Booktango offers 100% royalties to the author, but will also make your eBook available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Nook et al although these retailers will offer different royalty arrangements. It's not as if I'm doing this for the money, but these things will matter if your book takes off as a runaway success. The Booktango website is easy to navigate, and it took a short time to prep my manuscript, following their instructions. I had a cover ready (alright, I did struggle a bit with the pixel size/ratio, but I got techie help with this) and then it was a few days later that I uploaded my eBook ready text.

Slight hiatus while Booktango performed various checks, and I had to make decisions about royalty payments, a US tax return, account details and tracking. Then you wait - they suggest it can take anything from 1 day to 30 days for the eBook to appear live - I would recommend that you expect to wait a couple of weeks. I imagine they were checking for anything libellous, profane or plagiarised, but who knows? Et, voilà ! My book is out there on the interweb!
http://bookstore.bookcountry.com/Products/SKU-001079318/Blacks-Crackle.aspx
Okay, and now for the marketing plan; hmm, I guess I will attack social media on all fronts - errr, Facebook, LinkedIn, Blogger, a bunch of specialist websites for eBooks, and then start getting some reviews, particularly on Booktango and Amazon. This should be interesting. I will report back after a few more hours battling with the devil that lives online...

A little plug for me

For those interested, check out this blog article that I wrote for Elance on the revolution going on in home-working and outsourcing for business.

http://www.elance.com/p/blog/2011/03/the-freedom-to-work-live-and-play.html

Come on in - the water's lovely!

I’ve been dabbling my toes in the eBook ocean this week. I have read erotic sci-fi (blimey!), YA fiction, motivational fiction (which if poorly written feels a bit like being lectured at) and some godawful wittering that was so bad I don’t think there is a label to encompass it.

But, what I discovered in the process is that people are getting really inventive with the whole process of publishing and reading.

I thoroughly enjoyed visiting Book View Café (http://www.bookviewcafe.com/) and I did actually brew a pot of tea and wander through its virtual bookstore, pulling out titles at random because of an interesting cover or curious title. Very satisfying, and I could foresee the pleasure of becoming an author’s collective and promoting your own eBooks. Vive la Révolucion!

Then I got enthralled by the gossip and insider tittle-tattle over at e-reads (http://ereads.com/) and pondered the meaning of Harper Collins new morality clause in which authors will sign away their earnings for future transgressions. Don’t just take my word for it. Go read what the esteemed Richard Curtis has to say about it - http://ereads.com/2011/01/are-you-a-moral-author.html and consider the implications. I think old publishers will just go the way of Betamax video players, ie they’ll still be loved and revered by many for the quaint way they operate,but more authors will move over to the eBook playground and keep it fast and loose.

Talking of fast and loose, here’s the link to the erotic sci-fi that I know most of you have only read this far to obtain. Naughty, you deserve a spanking! http://www.circlet.com/ If you’ve never tried it, don’t knock it. And if you think it might be your thing, why not have a go yourself. There’s a call for submissions this month : deadline May 15^th.

And besides all this fascinating surfing...I mean, RESEARCH...I have been reading some great extracts of novels posted on Elance. In fact, I’d better get off here and go edit some RIGHT NOW.