Path To Publication

December 12, 2018

Being scared of writing

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

Being scared of writing

I suspect that one reason why we writers shy away from writing is that we are scared of it. I know I am – I have been – but I suspect that this fear, which can be paralysing and lead to all kinds of delaying tactics, is based around a fundamental misconception about how writing works.

Writing is basically about having fun with words. And worrying about writing is obviously not fun. But why do we worry?

I suspect that one reason we delay, fret and make endless excuses not to write is because we fear we have to ‘get it right’. Since we are frightened that our text is never going to be the best it could be – and it should be easy, FGS, we are writers after all – we shy away from it.

But if we are holding ourselves back from doing what we can enjoy – having fun with our writing – through any belief that we ‘have’ to get it perfect,  we have forgotten that every single piece of work evolves over time by a slow process of idea, expression, editing and refinement, often in ways that are highly personal.

Nonetheless, the key realisation that breaks through personal dread, is that all writing has to evolve; and each writer works in a different ways and at a different speeds to reach an end point which may be months or years ahead. Evolution is a process, implying that every story, every item of literary expression has to be worked at, refined and perfected.

By definition, our first, often most creative writing phases – the ones we are scared to attempt – and not going to be perfectly polished, and are never intended to be. The best they can hope to be is to be perfect material for the next stage in the process.

Once we realise that our writing is not expected to be totally perfect the first time we put it down, we are suddenly much freer to simply relax and allow ideas their expression. Expressing ideas and giving characters and events form in words is, almost by definition, a hard thing to do, so it is rare that an idea announces itself fully formed.

There are times when I have been able to put down a chapter without making many changes, but, simply considering the law of probability, this is bound to happen to all of us occasionally and does not disprove the general rule, that most writing is a labour of love, crafted in different ways and stages over a period of time.

Recognising that our version of perfection may take a while to turn up, suddenly we feel much freer to write whatever we feel like writing, as a first draft. And, paradoxically, admitting that writing is a many-stage process, frees us up to be more confident and to take that leap, to fly by the seat of our pants.

They say the trick is to make it look easy. But writing a smooth finished product rarely is. But that’s okay, as long as we realise that every good thing takes time to get right, and that our time is well invested.

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November 21, 2018

Printing off my work

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

Printing off my work

Every time I prepare to visit a bookfair, I have to think about printing off my work. A process which is surprisingly difficult, and relies on me to find the correct weight of paper so that I can print double-sided without the text showing through too intrusively on the reverse, folders that look new enough to be a pleasure to handle, vinyl pages that are clean, not pockmarked and scored, and text that is the best I can make it. And two clear hours during which I can ensure there are no interruptions whatsoever. When get pulled away by anything outside the task in hand, the complexity mounts.

I privately believe that, the day that printing off my work goes without a hitch – no typos, no stray, single pages or mis-numbered sections – will be the time when my book fair visit will be the most rewarding for me. A good, clean print run equates to a good book fair.

So I’m glad I’ve had a few years in this process of growing wiser, to discover what works best, because, travelling with only hand-luggage, every gram counts, and with the passage of time, I’m acutely aware that my gadding-about years are quietly drawing to a close. I’ve had a good innings – fifty-four next birthday and I’m still living pain free for much of the time, and able to go out in the evenings. I don’t take that freedom for granted any longer, and am merely curious to know how much longer I shall have it.

Meantime, I’m pleased to report that my last print-off (for Frankfurt 2018) was quick, relatively easy and fun. Maybe my next print off (for London 2019) will be even better – a breeze!

***

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November 7, 2018

Modern Fair, same old prejudices?

Fran's School of Hard Knocks, Path To Publication 4 Comments

Modern Fair, same old prejudices?

Given the modern, commercial and egalitarian ethos of the international book trade, the Frankfurt Book Fair showed up many charming cultural differences which are enlightening in their own way. So why on earth are major, reputable publishers like Penguin/Random House still resorting to good old-fashioned chauvinism to sell copy? Is that a silly question? At the P/RH stand, a large photo of Barack Obama portrays him standing sideways on, inscrutable and elder-statesmen like, as if he is so revered that to show him full-face would be bad luck… Presumably also hinting at the myriad compromises with which he battled during his eight years in the White House.

By contrast, on an immediately adjacent billboard promoting the second instalment of her memoir, ‘Becoming’, Michelle Obama is portrayed as a very becoming woman: perfect hands, beautiful smile, lustrous hair, and – heavens, how about a bit of unreconstructed sexism, boys? – with her top seriously off her nearest shoulder to reveal gleaming skin. To the modern world, Michelle is shown flaunting her nakedness, as if she still has to plead, “Please like me, please listen to me, I’m a gentle, loving woman…”

Which might look innocuous enough as a book cover, but is truly startling on a high-definition billboard image that stands taller than me.

Whoever thought that Mrs Obama had better portray herself thus in order to induce readers to buy her upcoming book, either seriously misunderstands serious women, or assumes that men still need to be enticed to read books by women. Neither of these assumptions is welcome, frankly.

Is mine a minor quibble? Or is Michelle morphing from a serious role model for women and a possible White House candidate to obliging, consenting adult with nothing to complain about? I should have thought that Michelle’s candid recollections would be worth reading because of the endeavour they reveal, the candid, hard choices and the frequently contradictory expectations with which women have to juggle every day.

But then, perhaps I’m merely old-fashioned.

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October 29, 2018

Why did I go?

Fran's School of Hard Knocks, Path To Publication 4 Comments

Why did I go?

Beyond nurturing a few wild – and frankly, totally unrealistic – hopes and dreams, why did I go to the Frankfurt Book Fair this year? I promised, last year, that I would not go again, and have renewed that promise following my visit in 2018. But my mother knows me better… Now, perhaps I should just say, We shall see…

But beyond witnessing the sheer scale of the event, what conceivable reason would I have for bothering? Why not just stay at home, put my feet up and have a well-earned rest?

Firstly, planning to go to Frankfurt, making the effort and paying for it all, I have been forced to take my work seriously, and work hard to present it, effectively and in such a way that someone else might actually enjoy reading it. The focus of having a fair to work towards has been essential, to force me to write, get organised and plan efficiently. Without that discipline, I would probably still be dreaming about finishing Book 1 in my fiction series. As it is, I have finished Book 2 and am now well on the way with Book 3 which I hope to have completed as a full working draft by the time the London Book Fair 2019 rolls around in March. Going to book fairs is, I realise, my work equivalent of a business deadline or a demanding boss, which I need to give my work focus and clarity.

Secondly, I am forced to deal with people in what is in other circumstances a fairly isolated and lonely occupation. I am forced to make myself understood, to ask for what I want and to explain my reasons to doing what I do, to a bunch of otherwise fairly hard-headed individuals. All of which helps to thrash out my real motivations, and to hone my self-belief. Belief is the mother of reality.

Thirdly, there are times when I really need a rest, and if going to Frankfurt will allow me time off to get away from the hamster-wheel of my life – which, I fully admit, it is up to me to make more exciting – then it’s worth doing. I come home and immediately my appreciation for the comforts and companionship of the joys of home also gets a welcome boost. Sometimes a thing is too close to see properly. Perhaps, three days of almost total silence in the midst of a veritable hive of activity – as strange and at times unsettling contradiction – is useful to remind me what matters.

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October 26, 2018

Being at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2018

Fran's School of Hard Knocks, Path To Publication 4 Comments

Being at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2018

The first thing I did when I arrived at my hotel in Frankfurt – there was no need to stay longer than three nights, and two nights would have been enough – was find out where to eat. The hotel staff told me there was a restaurant ten minutes’ walk away, and they could order from its menu for me – copies of which they produced – and of course, they would be delighted to have it delivered to my room. So I made the most of a bit of down time, surfing the satellite channels on the TV, quietly amused that I can watch UK channels that I can’t get at home. (Too late, I realised that the satellite dish that used to sit against a nearby external wall of our flat was not merely decorative.)

Up early the next morning, I dressed very casually for breakfast – I won’t tell you what I was wearing beneath my cover-all fleece – and found plenty to choose from, even for a near-vegan-who-has-issues-with-sugar like me. Grateful that the odours of a full cooked option of bacon, sausage, eggs etc etc would not cling to my newly washed hair, I ate a modest breakfast, which the following morning I would bulk up a bit more – walking certainly takes energy – and  got a taxi to the fair, which I shared by chance with two ‘proper’ businessmen from Saudi. (And no, I did not initiate a discussion with them about the alleged assassination of a Saudi journalist in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, though, actually, given the nature of book fairs, and the realisation that these forums are bound to raise questions about journalistic freedom and the dangers of the Trump effect, perhaps I should have…)

Arriving soon at the main entrance to the fair, I was very courteously kitted out with a badge (and my baggage was not once checked, for which I am grateful) and immediately swallowed up in the excited realisation that I was wandering in among thousands of people, all intent on their business, while I simply marvelled: at the scale of the organisation – and please, let us here resist any allusions to ‘Germanic efficiency’ – the pleasant venue, and the amazing weather: balmy, warm temperatures, blue skies and lots of room to roam… which I did, for the best part of two-and-a-half days, marvelling at my freedom, beyond impressed by being there.

 

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October 23, 2018

Tips for travel to Frankfurt Buchmesse

Fran Macilvey, Fran's School of Hard Knocks, Path To Publication 0 Comments

Here are my top five tips for travel to Frankfurt Buchmesse

1 ~ Check out the cost of accommodation, which is considerably more than you might expect to pay, even taking into account the fall of Sterling against the Euro. Research the market and the expense carefully. Prices are considerably in excess of comparable accommodation in London, for example, considering location, star rating and available restaurants. Really quite startling differentials exist.

2 ~ Book accommodation early. That is, as soon as you know you will be visiting the FBM. There are hotels nearby, but don’t expect any accommodation to be available there: an enquiry for a single room at a well-known budget chain right beside the Halls complex will raise only an incredulous eyebrow or hysterical laughter.

3 ~ Travel light. Take only what you must, and weigh carefully the extra baggage you will carry around. Walking is probably mandatory, and walking distances previously undreamed of is to be anticipated. Especially if you have extra needs or find the moving escalators scary, as I do, and therefore have to rely on customer lifts, which are surprisingly few and far between. The Messe Halle are not particularly accessible for those with additional needs: there are few public lifts, the doors out to the disabled conveniences are so heavy that you require a strong-arm to lever them ajar, and the disabled loos are kept locked…

4 ~ Find a hotel that offers breakfast included in the accommodation price, and eat well. Then splash out on a proper lunch at the Venue – the catering is excellent, and if a tad expensive, so what? It’s a long way to travel to subsist only on a diet of wilted sandwiches, which I do not recommend. Having had a decent lunch, in the evenings I could relax and rest. My vital survival strategy: at every possible opportunity, do nothing, or invite others to help you with bottles of water, delivery of meals from takeaways… It is easy to be thankful, and hotel staff appreciate it, even if we have to communicate with them in scarcely discernible patois which we think is German, and they probably assume is Norwegian.

5 ~ Cash is useful, but simply being in possession of a wodge of Euros – which we have to spend, because the exchange rate is so bad, innit? (not true, actually) – need not blind us to ways to save on costs: share a cab with other delegates, book seats on the hotel’s morning shuttle bus at a fraction of the cost, use the locally available bus transport to take you direct to the airport instead of travelling by taxi to the main railway station and thence by train to the airport… Ask for advice and it will be given, and people are incredibly helpful.

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August 23, 2018

Keeping my own deadlines

Fran's School of Hard Knocks, Path To Publication, The Rights & Wrongs of Writing 6 Comments

Keeping my own deadlines

 

Some of our work deadlines – tax submissions, domain name and website renewals – we have little say in. We just pencil them into our diaries, and deal with them as they come up. Others – manuscript completion dates, following up phone-calls – are entirely up to us, so we first have to set these work goals, and then respect them.

Setting a work goal is relatively easy, though sometimes I am a bit too optimistic with my time-frames – ‘Yes, I’ll get that finished by the end of the week’ – but respecting and keeping my own deadlines takes the business ethic to a whole new level.

Authors, by and large, work for themselves, and have no-one else hanging over their shoulders or monitoring their work-rate, telling them how to run their businesses. No-one to chivvy them along, remind… Sure, there are always lots of other things to do, and people telling us what need done – meals to cook, dogs to walk, meters to read…

But if I pencil some work into my diary – reply to so-and-so by a certain date – these days, I do my utmost to respect my earlier decision. Instead of saying, “Well, I’ll just let that go, and do it when I can,” it saves a lot of time and energy to stick with earlier decisions, galvanising me to meet any deadline, and it means that, by and large, I have more time to attend properly to things that crop up at the last minute, instead of rushing madly.

Which might feel a bit tough, and even, on occasion, a bit confusing: which ‘me’ is doing the running. Is it me the worker, me the boss, me the challenger or me the hopeless optimist? And do I have the discipline to stop and have a lunch break, take weekends off, have time with family? It’s all part of the same ethos of self-respect that takes a job seriously (but not too seriously).

And it works! Yesterday, I finished a clean draft of The Seduction of Susan Scott, the second in my fiction series of books. Having the aim to finish it by the end of August, I challenged myself – why not? – to finish it by the end of last week. And while that turned out to be a trifle ambitious, having made that decision, I have found the energy and inspiration I needed to finish, not too far off my target. For which I am thankful.

Thanks for reading!

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August 13, 2018

What do we mean by success?

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

What do we mean by success?

Authors tend to be a species driven to succeed. So what do we mean by success? Here are my current top five ideas about what ‘success’ means.

~ A successful person does not compete with others, but pushes themselves to do the best they can with what they have available to them – time, money, opportunities, energy, inspiration – at any one time. When we know we have done the best we could, there is no room for regret.

~ A successful person first sets goals that are achievable and easy to reach. Two small goals are better than one big one. Once we meet our small goals, we can set bigger ones, until goal setting becomes our favourite game. Set the goal, believe in it, and watch the outcome!

~ Success embraces ‘failure’ as an essential part of what it means to succeed. Without ‘failure’ – maybe we could redefine that as ‘investing in alternatives’ – how can we decide what we prefer?

~ Success as a concept is surprisingly subjective, so we need never get upset when other people have different ideas about what it means for us; instead, we focus on what we enjoy, and what we can do, and we take ourselves forward tenderly, hopefully and with deliberate intention, not overly concerned with other people’s opinions.

~ Success means nothing if we are unhappy. To be happy – content, peaceful, at rest with oneself – is one of the highest aims in life, and however we define it, our success should serve that end. If first, we can be happy whatever we are doing, success is already agreed, and nothing further then depends on any goal we have in mind. Instead, our happiness gives us energy to move forward more easily and confidently, whatever we are doing.

Johannes Vermeer, ‘Young Woman with a Water Pitcher’

Thanks for reading!

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June 29, 2018

For the love of passwords

Fran Macilvey, Path To Publication, The Rights & Wrongs of Writing 0 Comments

For the love of passwords

‘The reading Girl’ by Repin

 

There are a few accounts to set up if we are venturing into indie publishing. Again, using my choices as a model – which can only be a rough guide, since we each must make our own choices, which are multiple and varied and constantly changing – this is a summary of the accounts I have to help me with publishing. For this, it does help if you have a love of passwords…

~ An Amazon account from which I can publish my book as a paperback with its own ISBN, (which I have bought and paid for). Known as CreateSpace, this platform is the traditional way to publish POD on Amazon.

~ Another Amazon account which allows me to publish my book in kindle. Kindle is the e-book format that Amazon uses, exclusive to that company. It is now possible to publish both kindle and POD format books on the same platform – KDP – which stands for Kindle Direct Publishing, and if you are new to publishing, I recommend you do this.

~ An IngramSpark Account, which enables me to publish both POD books and e-books for all distribution outside Amazon. There are four possibilities you can select from when setting up your account, and it is possible to ask IS to publish for you to all other platforms. I use IngramSpark because I like their distribution list, and I love having a UK base from where I can order copies of my POD quickly.

~ An account with Nielsen UK ISBN store – from whom we purchase ISBNs.

~ An account with Nielsen’s Title Editor – where we register details of our book(s) so that they can be added to a national database and found easily.

There are other platforms and publishing models to consider, and the markets are constantly evolving, so what I have noted here is only a very rough outline of what is required. Please do your own research and make your own choices. It takes time, and once set up, the publishing of books becomes easier.

Best of luck, and thanks for reading!

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June 28, 2018

A bit more about ISBN numbers

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

A bit more about ISBN numbers

I should like to say a bit more about ISBN numbers, though let us be clear that a book can be published without an ISBN, which stands for International Standard Book Number.

However, if you are aiming to publish and want people to find your books, I strongly recommend buying your own ISBNs and allocating them to your book(s). An ISBN is a cataloguing tool that many libraries and public search facilities insist on. Once allocated to a book, an ISBN lasts a lifetime, ensuring that a book need never get lost.

I think the best way to elucidate on the workings of ISBNs (they are not complicated, but the way they work together can be) is to take examples from my own publishing choices. So, briefly, I publish on Amazon, to their internal market only (that is, within the Amazon group of companies only).

I also publish with IngramSpark, which gives me a UK base for sourcing copies of my books at affordable prices. I find that if I rely solely on sourcing books through Amazon alone, they may come from the US, in which case the costs of postage are prohibitive and the waiting times are frustrating.

The key to making this work, is to have no overlaps in the markets among your different distributors. So therefore, I publish on the Amazon internal market only – I avoid their extended distribution option – and publish with Ingram Spark, with the result that IngramSpark are my source for all copies outwith the Amazon network. No overlaps.

In this scheme, I use two ISBNs – which we can purchase singly, or in batches of ten – and allocate the numbers as follows:-

First ISBN – is for the paperback POD on both Amazon and on Ingram Spark.

Second ISBN – is for the e-book available outside the Amazon network though Ingram Spark.

To be clear, Amazon, always allocates a unique ASIN number to all e-books they publish in their kindle format on their platforms. There is no other option for Amazon e-books. But Amazon does allow publishers to use their own ISBNs for their print on demand paperbacks. Which is the same ISBN used for POD books on all other platforms, in my case, Ingram Spark.

I can run Ingram Spark and Amazon alongside each other because I opt for restricted distribution of Amazon products to the Amazon group of companies only, where the other distributors have no remit to venture. For sales outwith Amazon, Ingram Spark is my preferred distributor.

My next post will be my last before the long vacation, when I shall be taking time off to be with family. Thanks so much for reading, commenting and sharing.

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