Interview at Where The Map Ends and My Latest Writing Gig

This has been an exciting week! I was very honoured to be invited for an interview at WhereTheMapEnds.com, the brainchild of Jeff Gerke who went on to found Marcher Lord Press, a unique independent publisher of science fiction and fantasy and all things weird. Anyway, we had an awesome discussion and I think you'll enjoy the read. Exciting things are happening in the world of publishing, so come on over and have a look! Here's the address: http://wherethemapends.com/Interviews/current_interview.htm

Another cool thing I've been doing for several weeks now is a new travel column for the Colorado City News in Texas, complete with photography. Yeah, random, I know. But I've been wanting a writing outlet that's more than a blog, and this is the perfect way to start! You can read my articles at the address below, where I talk about New Zealand, and starting this week, also about some of the other wonderful places I've been able to visit.
http://www.ccitynews.net/society/travel

I still have a huge amount of work to do for the release of Caprice's books, plus my own Legendary Space Pilgrims - never mind all the reading and critiquing that's due in my (ahem) acquisitions department, the marketing for existing titles, and a goodly amount of time on my paid freelance work. Please pray for me that I can use every moment to the full and do what needs to be done, while retaining the inner and outer peace so necessary to living. And if anyone's interested in helping me out, just say the word. Who knows, maybe Splashdown might get some extra staff in the future!

Pre-orders open for The Muse

Well, here we are. Today I've set up the pre-order facility over at the Splashdown Books homepage, (preview at left) along with a dedicated page for each new release. The addition of shopping cart buttons drives in the fact that this is for real - and very soon, there's going to be real books to show for it. To reward those who buy before release date, we're going to offer a special electronic bonus as incentive. Fred's working on that right now.

In fact, Fred has been nothing but patient as I've gotten more and more frantic this week. Maybe he can't tell from halfway around the world. You see, I'm headed away on another two-month trek (blame that travelbug) and there's been a lot of stuff we needed to get done before that. I'm glad to say it's pretty much all done and in the can. What remains can be done from underway, or rather, en route in the back country of France.

It's been a busy week, all right - but I've loved every minute of it. Seriously, there's nothing I like better than to publish books and sink my teeth into marketing projects. Says she, the career-hopper. Heh.

Here's a video blog I just recorded today, including a bunch of stuff on Splashdown and upcoming projects. Talk to you later!

A Blast from the Past

Today I found myself thinking back to when I self-published my first book Faith Awakened.

Now a first book will always be a first book, that is, there will always be things I could have done better. However, all things considered, I'm still pretty happy with the result - especially since, as the book of my heart that had been chasing me for 14 years, it was told in a somewhat eclectic manner: alternating first-person narrative from two different characters who initially have nothing to do with each other.

I reckon I only just pulled it off, and I wouldn't do it like that again in a hurry, but it did work for most readers. For many it did more than "just work" - I felt that it connected with people in precisely the way that I had hoped. So it was a very positive experience. My only regret is the one typo I missed.

That book is still in print and available at all the usual online locations - and do check out the Amazon reviews while you're there! The PDF e-book is downloadable for free on my Author/Reader forum, which you can sign up for here.

Anyway, I recalled making a list of actual tasks involved in the process of publishing. Some of these tasks are not immediately obvious, but I believe this list covers most everything that is necessary for publishing a book. So I want to remind myself of these things to make sure they're all included in the Splashdown Books process. They range from the very basic building blocks to the top level of marketing strategy - so here goes:

• As a young child, I often wondered if people in Heaven could return to an Earth-like life.
• As a teenager, I played with the idea of making this into a story, but didn't get all that far.
• At 22 I began to write, first plotting out the chapters.
• The plot changed a fair bit in the course of writing.
• I finished the manuscript about five years after beginning. Most of it was completed in the fifth year.
• After doing my own preliminary edits, I submitted the manuscript to critique groups - one major secular website for sci-fi and fantasy (critters.org) and one smallish Christian fantasy group known as Dan's Killer Crit Group, which later morphed into the Lost Genre Guild. I also sent the file to individual writer friends who'd agreed to look at it.
• I received around ten complete critiques, where people inserted their comments in the manuscript file. The folk from the secular group were less merciful, but they did help me find some plot holes and fix them, which was very significant to the end result.
• I printed out the original and all the critiques in very small print and took them to North Africa for a week, where I read them all and scribbled changes into the margins of the original where they needed to be made. I also proofread for spelling errors, went swimming and sightseeing, and read nine books at the beach. One of them was "Self-Editing for Fiction Writers" by Browne and King, and I applied its principles immediately.
• I made a movie of the whole process http://youtube.com/watch?v=Nxz5ZFnVzfw
• I did not accept all the advice I was given. Half is probably realistic. [Definite mark of a newbie, in my now-hopefully-wiser opinion!]
  
• I came home and made the changes to the file.
• I met a graphic designer from Spain on Shoutlife. She offered to do my cover image. It was brilliant, and after a little tweaking, we got the proportions and placement right.
• Using the image, I created front and back covers to the measurements stated by Lulu, and added text using a graphic program - title and author on the front, and a blurb on the back.
• I used the new image to create a book website at www.faithawakened.com and included a place for reviewers to sign up. I made noise about the new site at Shoutlife, Myspace and various other places.
• I printed the current manuscript and proofread it again. Sent it to one or two friends who did the same.
• I formatted the manuscript to 6x9" page size with 1" margins and added page numbers. The text is Garamond 12pt with a line width of 16pt to loosen it up. Each chapter began on the 10th line of a new page.
• I created 24 chapter head images with the text "Chapter 1" etc, because I wanted to use the same font as on the front cover and Lulu doesn't recognise it (would have changed it to Courier!)
• I uploaded the cover graphics and the manuscript to Lulu.
• I ordered around 40 copies and had them sent directly from Lulu to the people who'd agreed to review my book. Most were beginning authors like me, but a few had a larger claim to fame. Being an adoring fan got me a couple of good contacts. A large number of people also received an e-book copy on request.
• I took a break for a month or two and watched review comments come in. It felt real good. I collected thousands of friends at Shoutlife and tried out all kinds of Internet social networks to meet potential fans. I read POD People by Jeremy Robinson and tightened up some of my strategies as a result.
• I began to do film book trailers. Not just one. Ten. One serious, nine funny. Look for them at my youtube page.
• I added 3 pages of the best short comments, an author bio, a title page and a copyright page to the beginning of my manuscript file. At the end I put in a thanks page, website info, and ads received from swap partners who will also put my ads in their books. And of course an ad for my amazing graphic designer!
• I stuck a great comment from my most famous bestselling reviewer on my front cover, and a handful of others on the back. I changed the author photo to a better one and formatted the back cover to leave room for the barcode Lulu then added.
• I ordered a copy for me and one for a friend in another country, and we both searched again for typos. We found two or three.
• I purchased Global Distribution on Lulu. [sigh! If only it were that easy now!]
  
• I made final changes, uploaded new files, and approved the book to appear on Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and a few other places.

Of course, some things will be different now, since there will be other authors involved, and I'm using a different printer. Does anyone have anything to add to this?

Total Freedom

This work-at-home deal is certainly liberating after all those years in an office. However, I'm finding that I have to give some structure to my days, even though I'm not a structured person at all. Mostly.

Yesterday and today it's worked out quite well as follows:

9am deal with email, check Shoutlife and other networks.
10.30am go bush (there's a lovely forest park just across the road)
11.30am clean pool and swim
12pm lunch
1pm start work: admin, crit, write, design, video, and possibly more networking.

This takes advantage of the afternoon as my best working time, while ensuring I get my exercise in. Days when I go out for errands will be different. Also, right now I'm not pumping out wordcount on any of my own WIPs at present, so when I take that up again I'll be sitting down to that in the mornings as I like to get 3000 words by lunchtime. Other stuff in the afternoon as necessary, and another 2000 in the evening if I'm free.

Anyway, things are churning along at a fine old pace. I've figured out the Lightning Source applications and will be sending off the final forms as soon as I hear back about a returns address for UK bookstores. My thanks to Cynthia of the Writers' Café Press for giving her address to receive my US returns. Returnable books are an advantage for all dealings with brick 'n' mortar stores, so this is something I really want to have. Whether books are ever returned or not, I'm still glad to have returnable books.

After much to-ing and fro-ing (because I'm picky!) I have approved the cover design for Legendary Space Pilgrims, with an awesome rocket drawn by Clank of aloftstudios.co.uk. It's a wonder to see my characters peering out of the screen at me, just how I imagined they'd look!

Fred's contract arrived in the mail from America, and his book cover for "The Muse" is taking shape - after much fruitless searching for a suitable cover model, I found one right under my nose, as it were. We'll be making video trailers with the same actor and I for one can't wait to see the bloopers reel...More on that later, I'm sure!

The Daily Grind

There's been a lot to do over the last few days, especially setting up these blogs and the website. At times I've been so excited I can hardly sleep at night. Strange dreams pursue me when I finally doze off, but do you think I can remember any of them when I wake?

Yesterday we had a cool meeting in Second Life with members and guests at the Science Fiction and Fantasy Centre. Chat was compact but intense as we debated the reasons why major publishing houses don't go for inspirational science fiction. One idea was that they shy away from anything that might seem prophetic in nature - and as sci-fi mostly deals with the future, that applies to just about everything in the genre.

Yet none of the classic mainstream SF writers claimed to be foretelling the future. Heinlein, Niven, Wyndham, Asimov. So far as I know (correct me if I'm wrong!) they all wrote of futures born from their vivid imaginations. The same as sci-fi writers do today.

I'm not discounting the effects of suggestion by any means. Last night I pulled up an old episode of Star Trek from the 80's and laughed when I saw the digital photo frame. That was fiction back then. Not any more.

Today I waded through various print and distribution contracts which will need to be faxed to the UK before we can really get going. Also sorted out some office administration stuff. I'm waiting to hear back from the New Zealand National Library about my application for ISBN's. And an author I greatly respect mentioned a manuscript he recommends I take a look at.

So yeah, plenty going on...

What's your line of work?

Since Thursday I've been answering that question like this: "I'm a publisher." It's quite electrifying. While I haven't actually published anything yet - at least not under the name of Splashdown Books - I have now shifted the focus of my full-time attention to the necessary preparations to do so.

I suppose I could be called a "voluntary" publisher, since it's not making any money. My bills get paid by doing one day a week of largely boring translations of German technical manuals. So if you look at the proportions of my time, oh yeah, I'm definitely a publisher as of last week.

Days on the job so far: Three. I've been delving into the maze of printers and distributors and online shopping carts and ISBNs. I'm also very happy to report that the author I made an offer to last week has given his approval to a business partnership. That will all be announced in due course, after we've nailed a contract.

Also check out the new blog for Splashdown Reviews. I get to read a lot of new sci-fi and fantasy novels in my line of work, and often write reviews of them. So it makes sense to gather those reviews and post them since they're eminently related to this other stuff I'm doing. The link is at the top right - whoops, I better go and post something there!

So it begins...

This was some day all right. After some dithering I've bought the domain splashdownbooks.com and begun the laborious process of constructing the necessary business administration for my company. I spent some time working on the look for the site, which is reproduced in part on this blog.

Also today I've made my first offer to an author. I hadn't planned on doing this so soon, I've hardly begun yet - but this guy's story has got to be read to be believed. Or not believed, depending on your imagination. It was like the tale reached out and wrapped itself around me. I'm waiting to hear back from the author before I make any announcements on that front.

I talked to friends in Ireland and Colorado this morning - one not involved with publishing, but would dearly love to be if it means she can come to live in New Zealand... (sigh). The other, an agent-in-training, gave me some valuable positive feedback on my rather unusual methods of acquiring authors.

Clank got back to me about the cover design for Legendary Space Pilgrims, too - he's doing a great job on the rocketship with Mario and Caitlin inside, peering out into the unknown.

Now that I'm in the swing, I'd rather like to keep building that website. But I should really go to homegroup. Meet some people, all that. You know...I think I will.