Ady Hall.
Jack of no trades
Feng Shui Assassin started off as a labour of love - and as the years went by became a labour of loathe until, with much gnashing of teeth, it was completed in 2008.
During the time of writing the urban fantasy genre exploded across the shelves of Ottakars (now Waterstones). Moody vampires, misunderstood werewolves and precocious [...]
Argh! But yes - frustration and what-not.
Uploading Feng Shui Assassin into Amazon’s DTP program. Simple enough so far with some tags and price and piccy and author thingummy. Some brief surfing even confirmed that the same ISBN can be used for the eleccy version as the hardback (though may need a bit more looking into). [...]
Oh yeah - if it can’t be free then make it cheap. Dog cheap. So gawddamn cheap that it’ll slip into a shopping basket with a careless click and be swept up in the online purchase frenzy
Feng Shui Assassin is getting re-priced to the rockbottom bargain ticket of 99 cents. A quick mess [...]
A little late in the day - week - whatever - but there has been a big push for ebook retail with the ‘Read an Ebook week’ - and Feng Shui Assassin has joined the throng in an attempt to get people to read an ebook.
During this promotion - Feng Shui Assassin is available to [...]
An interesting post on JA Konrath’s blog about the number of writer’s he knew as he struck his first book and started doing the marketing thing - and how few of them are left nowadays.
He poses a broad question and doesn’t pretend to know the answer - although I am sure that many of his [...]
A little off topic - but I have just read Joe Abercrombie’s scrape with yoof violence. An open and frank description of his encounter with a group of youngsters and the pack mentality they display and the bewildering reactions one man can take at provocation.
So many things must have been going through his head as [...]
An interesting article on the role of the editor on Guardian Online - and as usual with the Newspaper articles - the comments section proves to be a lively forum with input from industry professionals and others ‘in the know’.
It’s interesting to note that within the established publishing industry the title of ‘Editor’ is bandied [...]
Just a quickie - but another article from Guardian online regarding the lack of financial reward for bringing out a book.
It is safe to say that most first-time authors will be lucky to make £5,000 from their first book (and considering most newbie authors will receive an advance of £10-£12 grand for a two booker [...]
After dredging thru the internet looking for info on layout and jacket dimensions (from selfpublishing.com and Biddles and a few others) - I may just crack and approach a local professional for an hours work.
I’m pretty confident with the layout of the insides - the dimensions from edge of page, spacing between lines and half [...]
An initial step in self-publishing is the requirement to have your own ISBN’s. The Neilson agency in the UK provides these to publishers and individuals alike - in blocks of ten (no single ISBN numbers available). Those nice people also include the brief details of the book onto a directory and database - from which [...]