Submissions tagged posts

Episode 69 – Birthdays, Indies Unlimited and K.S Brooks!

February 2, 2013 Newbie Writers Podcast  No comments

Episode 69 Newbie Writer’s Podcast

 Special guest: Kat Brooks Co administrator of www.IndiesUnlimited.com

From the Indies Unlimited Web site:

This site is dedicated to the independent authors, publishers, reviewers and readers who are on the cutting edge of that technological revolution.

A major challenge for any indie author is the lack of established infrastructure in place to market indie books. It can be challenging and time-consuming to get the word out about your book, to find reviewers, and to drive traffic to your website or Facebook page. As a new author, I was delighted to discover a very high level of mutual support and camaraderie in the indie author community. This platform is born from that spirit of mutual aid and support.

Please make Indies Unlimited your home forRead More

Episode 50- The Great Debate!!

September 15, 2012 Newbie Writers Podcast, Self-Publishing  2 comments

Episode 50 – The Great Debate!

Traditional Publishing Vs Self Publishing.

Featuring: Tweep Nation (arguing on the side of Self Publishing) and Ciara Ballintyne as moderator (to keep Damien in line)

Outline of terms and back ground, then each team can give their opinion because, after all, this is a debate!

Once Upon A Time, publishing a book conjured up a happy vision of success achieved: the advance! The book signings! A devoted editor who possessed the magic to make your book perfect and desirable! No work for the author! The siren song of publication was strong. And deceptive.

During the last twenty years, the fantasy has altered into a universe of change in an Amazonian rivers of options followed by electric possibilities.

What can you expect of publishing? What has changed? AreRead More

Diary of a Newbie Novelist

August 20, 2012 Diary of a Newbie Novelist  4 comments

As we wave goodbye to the Olympics in the UK, I’m left feeling a great sense of pride for all the talented athletes that took part, sharing the elation of those who managed to achieve their aims: whether to reach the event, make a certain round, or gain a medal. All those years of hard work, finally paying off.

I celebrated an achievement myself this past week (very small in comparison to the above) by completing the first draft of my second book. Some writers claim to write a book in a few months, others (including a professional author with a major publishing house I spoke to recently) aim to write two a year, some release one a year. As Newbies, many of us have day jobs as well as the usual family commitments, and squeeze our word mongering into every spare moment in the busyRead More

Looking for Bloggers

May 31, 2012 The eZone  4 comments

Hey all,

I’d like to really inject some life into this blog. I am looking for people (volunteers) who are interested in consistently blogging. You don’t need to be experienced, you don’t have to be a published, accomplished, tweed jacket wearing writer. If you are interested in posting up about anything and everything, please email me: forums@newbiewriters.com

Ideally I’d like to see a blog post a day. If you know someone, pass this on!

Damien

Read More

Diary of a Newbie Novelist

November 18, 2011 Diary of a Newbie Novelist  6 comments

These past couple of months I have found myself in unchartered territory.  Honestly, I never expected to get a book deal and, perhaps naively, didn’t research what comes next.

I’ve talked about marketing and developing a platform already. I’m still navigating the learning curve there. I’ve done some more edits and I now understand how that all works.

My latest challenge was the book cover. How important is cover art? I’ve been a voracious reader of crime fiction for many years and it got me thinking – how much does the cover of a book really matter? Does anyone buy a book based on the cover?

My publisher house, Rainstorm Press, have been very supportive. They asked me for my ideas, wanted it to be something I was comfortable with and proud of. Hmmm. An Unfamiliar Murder is aRead More

Diary of a Newbie Novelist

November 2, 2011 Diary of a Newbie Novelist  3 comments

“What are your plans for your book?”

Early July 2011 – I was enjoying an evening of ‘glamping’ with the girls, sitting around a camp fire, watching the sun set on the horizon when I received the text message. A small, US based, indie publishing house named Rainstorm Press showed a keen interest in ‘An Unfamiliar Murder’. Over the weeks that followed we exchanged many emails and they were at the point of offering me a contract – when they posed the above question. Ummm…

It was a fair question. Recruiting a debut novelist is a big investment for any publishing house. They are providing editorial services, cover art costs, print runs, marketing, publicity… All of which they hope to regain in returns when the book sells.

This is the first piece of fiction I had submitted (theRead More

Diary of a Newbie Novelist

October 26, 2011 Diary of a Newbie Novelist, Submissions  No comments

How do you deal with rejection?

Rejections are a real part of every writer’s life, a legacy of the subjective world of creativity that we choose.

There are numerous reasons why publishers reject novel submissions: their lists are full; the genre is wrong; they don’t gel with your characters; you haven’t adhered to their submission requirements; story isn’t fresh or original or they simply don’t like it; writing style, etc. etc. The list is endless…. And for the most part, we receive no explanation, just a standard response.

Honestly, if my rejection pile was compared to my acceptance pile it would crush it outright. So, how do we turn them around? Here’s my way:

1. Don’t take rejections to heart – we are in a subjective business, what one editor hates another loves.
2. RevisitRead More

Diary of a Newbie Novelist

October 19, 2011 Diary of a Newbie Novelist  No comments

When it comes to traditional publishers, which way should we jump as Newbie’s? Major, minor, new or old?

To submit to a major publishing house these days, generally you need to secure an Agent. In my limited experience, it’s difficult to find an Agent these days, especially one who’ll read unsolicited manuscripts from new writers. However, if this is your choice, here are a couple to try:-

http://dhhliteraryagency.com/submissions.html

http://www.janklowandnesbit.co.uk/submissions

So, if we can’t attract the attention of an Agent, what next? We try the independent publishing houses. Again, experience has taught me that many of these, certainly the larger ones, only accept submissions through Agents. However, there are still some that will entertain direct submissions and from newRead More

Diary of a Newbie Novelist

October 11, 2011 Diary of a Newbie Novelist  No comments

Late June 2011

At a talk last year, Stephen Booth shared with his audience – it took eighteen months to find a publisher with his first novel. He is now a successful author in the crime genre with over seven novels published. So, I was in it for the long haul.

My novel submissions took a couple of early passes from the independents. The normal standard replies: we are no longer accepting submissions; our lists are full; not right for us at the moment. Then within two weeks of my submission I got an early hit.

The Editor read the first two chapters of An Unfamiliar Murder ‘like lightning’ and eagerly requested the rest. She emailed me several times over that week to discuss my plans for my book, my thoughts on publication. Things were looking very positive.

Within seven days of havingRead More

Diary of a Newbie Novelist

September 28, 2011 Diary of a Newbie Novelist, Submissions  2 comments

“You can now follow me on Twitter under JaneIsaacAuthor.”

What is an author platform and why do I need one? Researching the independent publishing houses raised this question time and again. So, I did what most curious net surfers do and googled it.

An author platform appears to be a foundation for marketing your potential material – a website, Face book page, Twitter account, blog. Even if your book is, as yet, unpublished you need to be out there, making a name for yourself in cyberspace, forming a base that you can later build upon.

You’ll find author platforms mentioned across the web by authors, publishers, teaching and advice sites. The best explanation I found was on The Creative Penn at http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2009/06/26/author-platform/ - definitely worth a look.Read More