Path To Publication

June 21, 2018

Basic requirements for book publishing

Path To Publication, The Rights & Wrongs of Writing 2 Comments

Basic Requirements for Book Publishing (continued)

Turning to the points I made in my previous post before we can think of publishing, we need a decent enough book that we want to publish. By which I mean, we must accepted that a published book moves away from our sphere of influence and ends up as semi-public property.

My first book, Trapped is the story of my life with cerebral palsy, and, as such, publishing it was a huge leap of faith into the unknown. Would it be savaged by the critics? Would I die beneath a barrage of criticism and coruscating comment? The answers, as it turned out, were no, thankfully. But fears such as these need to be considered, then quietly put to one side as we prepare to launch our book on the unsuspecting public.

A good editor – or whizz editing skills – is as essential to a good book as a good story. And if we decide that publication is our eventual aim, it might take ten years to reach that goal. So there is, really, not a lot of hurry when we are setting out to publish our work. It helps if our intentions grow more and more solid, as we take the time to look around for a good editor: someone who understands us, agrees with our motivation and helps us to reach our goals. That said, at all times we have to retain ownership of the writing and editing of our work.

Once a book has been written, polished, edited, re-written and proofed, it will eventually be ready to be typeset (the word we use when referring to a print book) and formatted (the process of producing a book in an e-file, such as mobi files). So ask your contacts if they can recommend a good typesetter. Perhaps your reading research will have given you a few ideas, a few contacts you might email and obtain quotes from. As in any other creative endeavour, follow your hunches, and double check everything.

Thanks for reading.

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June 19, 2018

What we need when we publish our own books

Fran Macilvey, Path To Publication, The Rights & Wrongs of Writing 2 Comments

What we need when we publish our own books

Mary Cassatt (1844-1926)   The Reader

What follows is a brief summary of points to be remembered when we are publishing our own books.  And I suppose the most obvious question to start with is, are we going to publish with only one platform – we all know, I think, which platform I am alluding to here – or are we going to go with multiple platforms?

The basic requirements for an indie publisher are:-

~ A decent enough book which we want to publish. By which I mean, a book that we are prepared to write, publish and let go into the public domain. If we can’t handle the thought that, once published, our book ceases to be our private concern, the chances are, it is not ready to publish yet.

~ A good, empathic editor who can find the flaws in your manuscript – it’s safe to assume that an independent editor will find some room for improvements which we will then be pleased to work on.

~ A wonderful typesetter and formatter to take our manuscript and turn it into something resembling a wonderful book.

~ A wonderful book cover designer. Unless we would like to do this for ourselves. There are some good programmes available that make this possible.

~ A look, design or set of ideas that we can give to our book, so that it stands out from the crowd.  Photos, images, such as those available from Shutterstock, are a useful archive of ideas to look through. Consider landscape, portrait, thumbnail images…

~ ISBN numbers to give our books a unique ID number. ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number. A book does not need an ISBN to be published, but if it has one, it will always be easier to find, than if it is published on multiple platforms, each allocating the book an e-ID number or the publishers own ISBN.

~ A little cash to make the dream a reality, and to help us decide which of the tasks of publishing we will do for ourselves and which we are happy to delegate. No point feeling overwhelmed before we even begin.

~ A love of passwords and on-line accounts, because there will be a few to set up.

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June 16, 2018

What I have learned about publishing independently

Fran Macilvey, Path To Publication 4 Comments

What I have learned about publishing independently.

There are several things we need to decide, when making up our minds whether to self-publish. My next series of blog posts will attempt to summarise what I have learned about publishing independently.

There are a series of basic questions that need to be answered before we even think of publishing a book.

~ Have we got the time to do some research – aka read some books about publishing – that will help us decide what our priorities are, for example, whether we want to outsource cover design and formatting, and if so, how much we are prepared to invest in this? The cost of services on offer to prospective publishers is as variable as weather on a spring day, so reading about and researching the various options is vital.

~ Do we have a regular income that will support the initial outlay of publishing? Unless we are able to source the expenses of editing, proofing, ISBNs, typesetting, formatting, imagery and cover design at low cost, some of these will crop up. Yes, some platforms allow authors to publish for free, but it is really vital, when learning about costs, to appreciate what that means. For example, if we publish on major virtual platforms for free, the platform will usually allocate to our e-books the equivalent of an e-ISBN number, which means that effectively, the platform becomes our publisher of that e-book.

~ The financial implications of publishing are not always obvious at the outset, so it is vital to be aware that the cost of services that are offered to would-be publishers can vary from several hundred to several thousand pounds. Do research the markets and options carefully.

~ Do we have time to write and edit endlessly, until we have a good enough book? There is no-one else out there setting our publishing deadlines or chivvying us up to get stuff sorted and sent. We become our own diary keepers and deadline setters.

~ Are we interested in writing, publishing and promoting? Because if we are going to be publishing, we need a good enough product, which means that writing and editing will come to the fore. Thereafter, promotion will be part of what we do, which will, of necessity, eat into our writing time. But each of these has its part to play. So decide which, at any given time, is your priority, and don’t beat yourself up if you can’t do it all, all the time.

Thanks so much for reading.

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June 14, 2018

Publishing my third book

Fran Macilvey, Path To Publication, The Rights & Wrongs of Writing 4 Comments

Publishing my third book

I am what is known in the trade, apparently, as a hybrid author. That is to say, I have a book published with a mainstream publisher, and I am also published independently. (It’s interesting what you learn when talking to other publishers at book fairs.)

My third book, Making Miracles is set for publication this month, June 2018. I am so looking forward to having it finished; and excited that a project that has taken about a decade to materialise is finally happening: I finally decided that I might as well get on with it, and publish this summer. Being an independent publisher means we have to get used to setting our own deadlines.

Previously, I have written a series of blog posts, called rather optimistically, How to get published,which focussed almost entirely on the rigours of finding a publishing deal with a mainstream publisher. At that time (2016) I wrote very little about publishing independently, because I still had too much to learn to offer anything worthwhile in the way of suggestions or opinions. Though I have since learned a great deal from publishing independently and am – retrospectively – grateful for the steep learning curves and cul-de-sacs, there is never an end to what we can learn about indie publishing. Grasping the basics has been immensely worthwhile.

In the next series of blog posts, I will be considering some of what I have learned about publishing independently: it’s advantages, pitfalls, and some of the more intricate necessities that are apt to be overlooked in the rush to get published.

Thank you so much for reading.

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June 5, 2018

Writing versus editing

Path To Publication, The Rights & Wrongs of Writing, Women's fiction and chic lit 0 Comments

Writing versus Editing

Is writing more important, or is editing the crux of the matter?

Clearly, editing is writing, but, semantics aside, I’m wondering whether the creative aspects of producing a longer work of fiction are more important than the nuts and bolts of getting the syntax and grammar correct?

These two aspects of writing seem to me to be equally important. There is little point having creative flights of fancy if the editor’s imperative is forced to lie idle – a work of 200,000 words is probably going to need pruning; and, as many authors have reminded us, we have to have the courage to edit even those passages that we delight in, if they have no place in keeping the story alive.

Being at the editing stage, I suspect that judicious read-throughs are vital to what becomes a finished article. And, what is more, editing allows us to look beyond a mere word count and bring to light new angles that might otherwise be lost under the weight of our creative obscurantism. Judicious editing is creativity’s best friend. Bosom buddy, indispensable side-kick, major domo, maitre d’. Without editing, even my most brilliant moments would be languishing…

So that’s that, then. Sorted… except that, without the creative impulse, no-one would be mad enough to spend years of their life writing something longer than a shopping list without some hope of validation, would they??

Which brings the matter full circle.

 

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May 31, 2018

The creative imperatives of writing

Fran's School of Hard Knocks, Path To Publication, The Rights & Wrongs of Writing 2 Comments

The creative imperatives of writing

 

What matters, when we are writing? What aspects can an author not do without?

A handful of good ideas is a great start, but there is also the requirement to edit, endlessly read and work through a text, ironing out inconsistencies, tangles and plot holes. But apart from the obvious – and often very trying – aspects of working with words, what other less obvious parts of the craft are necessary?

These are my latest discoveries, always subject to change.

~ the ability to envision ourselves writing regularly for the rest of our lives. Typically, I shun the regularity of a three-hour-a-day habit; or even worse, a five-thousand-word-a-day requirement as  ‘shackling my creative flow’. However, I have recently come to appreciate that a regular writing habit offers our characters room to evolve and expand – revealing more of their character traits, their ideas, even their conversational quirks – over time. Since with a regular habit, we take our writing seriously for at least part of every work day – say, Monday to Friday – our work has room and time to expand fully. Given a regular commitment of time and engagement, our writing becomes deeper and more rewarding.

~ the confidence to take writing seriously, so that, even when we are very busy, our writing purpose is honoured for at least some time every day. It might be writing blog posts, or editing a single paragraph of text – or even deciding, after hours of tinkering, that the paragraph in question will have to go – but that kind of self-belief grows wings, and can weather any storm of external busyness.

~ The confidence to finish what we started. No piece of writing, no matter how good, will see the light of day if it remains unfinished. To push past the curse of the soggy middle, to ignore the word-count and push to the finish, no matter how ragged it may be, is, I would say, the single most important part of writing anything – apart from starting, that is. (And actually, finishing is a great deal harder than starting, but don’t tell…)

Speaking as an author who seems to get busier every day, the greatest creative spur I have yet found is the refusal to be beaten; with which the above strategies help me, every day.

Thanks for reading this.

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March 3, 2018

The unbearable insecurity of writers

Fran Macilvey, Path To Publication, The Rights & Wrongs of Writing, Women's fiction and chic lit 0 Comments

The unbearable insecurity of writers

Lots of those we call great authors – okay, almost all the authors I know or have read about – suffer from an insecurity, a question they ask themselves all the time: Is my work any good? Have they done themselves and their characters justice, this time? Such is the unbearable insecurity of writers that even famous and very successful authors suffer from angst and mental health problems.

And to the general public who read books, or who simply watch the show from the side-lines, the answer is – of someone like Stephen King or Marian Keyes or Lee Child – “Of course they are good enough. They sell millions of books. What more do they expect? Perfection?”

Writerly insecurity looks a bit like – and is often mistaken for – an ego needing a good massage, but, I believe the reason for the endless quest for reassurance is more subtle.

When we first set pen to paper – okay, when we sit in front of our PCs with a new file open – we have the whole field of possibility open to us, rather like a child’s first day at primary school. We can write literally anything; excuse the pun. But as a story takes shape and the characters show us where to go, as words and plots are tied down, increasingly there arises the question, is this where I am meant to take this story? What if there is a much better line to follow out there, that I have missed? What if all I have written is but a poor reflection of what I should be writing?

And to that, I can offer only the age-old adages that, “What’s for you won’t go by you..” or “If it’s meant to happen, it will,” or “All things work out for the best…” which may be scant comfort, a bit too much like the superstitions that our forebears relied on, but what else can we do? There is no way to know definitively whether what we have is the best finished article we can make; and, we can always console ourselves that a finished book – or even a half-finished book – is probably better than no book at all.

Thanks for reading.

 

 

 

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February 15, 2018

A thousand blog posts

'Trapped: My Life with Cerebral Palsy', Fran Macilvey, Path To Publication, The Rights & Wrongs of Writing 4 Comments

A thousand blog posts?

I think I must have written, by now, almost a thousand blog posts. (I had more than are currently listed at https://www.franmacilvey.com because I had to delete some posts from my original WordPress site, they having only a very tenuous connection with the categories that I set up for my current blog.)

At three hundred words for each blog posts, that is – yes, I know, but arithmetic has never been my strongest suit, quite honestly – three hundred thousand words, more than enough for three books. Wow. That feels good, and I begin to appreciate the value of all those backups, having wonderful web support and help with SEO and all that jazz. It has been an interesting journey to get this far.

I started out as a tad bewildered author, uncertain of all this on-line media networking jive, and over the years, my hope and optimism trajectories have had more lifts and dips in them than a five star hotel, but now… now I come out of it all, feeling more ready, willing and prepared for what the rest of the year brings: the London Book Fair in April, the Frankfurt Bookfair in October – and I’m not concerned, as some industry insiders would have it, that Frankfurt is only for industry insiders. So what? Writing is a lonely enough occupation without the added isolation imposed by barriers that reek of exclusivity. We take our chances where we can find them.

I’m pleased, in all this time – more than ten years of writing, networking and hoping – to have had the support and encouragement of so many others, writers, readers, industry professionals and neighbours. Thank you so much, for all your encouragement. Without that, my writing career would still be an embryonic hope, stifled by regret and what ifs. Even if my path were to end today, I would feel grateful for the last eleven years of endeavour, experimentation, trial and error.

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February 2, 2018

Lessons learned from writing

'Trapped: My Life with Cerebral Palsy', cerebral palsy, Fran Macilvey, Fran's School of Hard Knocks, Happiness Matters, Memoir, Path To Publication 2 Comments

Lessons learned from writing

My first book, ‘Trapped’

is my first baby, with which I am well pleased, and which shares more hopeful lessons learned from decades of misery. It was a very challenging work to produce – and it very nearly didn’t get written; it would have been so easy to simply turn my head away from the challenge and say, ‘Can’t be bothered’ – but I did pick up the gauntlet that was left lying there, and learned a great deal in the process. I’ve often said, if one other person has also been helped, that has made the whole ordeal worthwhile.

But in some ways, ‘Trapped’ is only a first step. It represents a coming to terms with things, a decision to put away yearning, and start living; a resolution to put an end to simply existing and start moving forward, creating things more consciously. Its narrative ends at the point where coming to terms – what do they call it, a coming of age? – has been reached. But having come to terms, we then need to move forward – and fast, if we have spent so many years simply dawdling on the side-lines. There is living to catch up on.

Which is where my second book comes in. In ‘Happiness Matters’

I had ten years to refine the lessons which remind me, over and over again, that I can only hope to be helpful to others if I can find it in myself to be happy first.

I can’t hope to find any of the answers, or any emotional or spiritual sustenance, unless I learn first, to do, and say, and be, what I would like. Which is not an invitation to a life of hedonistic indulgence; I would soon get bored with that. But it does recognise that the only things worth doing are those that come from sincerity, joy and contentment. So happiness within ourselves is not the outcome, as much as the spring-board that gives life to our most relevant, worthwhile actions. I’m glad to remember that, again, today.

Thanks for reading, and for all your support.

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January 26, 2018

Time and tide wait for no woman

'Trapped: My Life with Cerebral Palsy', Fran Macilvey, Fran's School of Hard Knocks, Happiness Matters, Path To Publication, The Rights & Wrongs of Writing 0 Comments

Time and tide wait for no woman

Time and tide wait for no woman…. Just occasionally – Not at all often, I am pleased to note – I encounter comments about my book, ‘Trapped’ along the lines of ‘miserable book, miserable git’ or words to that effect.  Not that I mind – different strokes for different folks; and these days I’m more likely to smile at that, than get upset.

‘Trapped’ took me four years or so to write, and was first published in hardback in 2014.  In the intervening period my hopes, attitudes and beliefs have undergone several revolutions.  I guess I’m hardly an impartial witness, though readers can also scan my web content to find my second book, ‘Happiness Matters’ a modest tome about how to be happy.  So I can’t be that much of a miserable git these days.  The test would be whether such comments as these reduce me to an indignant, grumbling mess.  They don’t.

What we are, who we are and what we think about what matters in life, are facets that are constantly evolving.  There is not much I would wish to alter about my books, or my writing, but all things change, and writing ‘Trapped’, my sincere attempt to reflect on my first forty years of life, changed me, and changed my attitudes to life in general, and my life in particular.  I learned a lot from the process, mostly, about the importance of doing our best, and of being as happy as possible more of the time.  Valuable lessons that have empowered me to move forward.  I can’t say I would write or do anything else differently, or speculate how my life might have turned out if I had opted to become a visual artist, say, or stayed on working as a solicitor.

The publishing industry calls memoir, ‘narrative non-fiction’ which is a very polite way of saying that the content is largely true, but reads like a novel and will probably contain some plot holes and a few examples of poetic license.  But after ten years, the truths that held true when we first wrote THE END to finish our memoir, have probably changed, as will the authors themselves.

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