My Self Publishing Journey - Part 2

 As mentioned in the previous blog post on my self publishing journey I spent fourteen years learning and honing my skills in self publishing.  Not only did I develop those skills on my own ten books but also by helping produce four compilations for newsbiscuit, which make great presents, by the way.

I also have had the pleasure and privilege of working with other writers along the way.  Some of the skills I have developed are pretty technical - sure Word is easy enough to use for day-to-day letter writing and report generation, but it can be remarkably fiddly when formatting a manuscript for printing in KDP.  As a long-term trainer, part of me wants to teach people how to format a document ready for printing, but on the odd occasion I've been helping authors it hasn't presented itself as the logical process to follow for what might be a one-off or infrequent activity.  Perhaps I'll look at putting a tutorial out as a blog post or two?

I'd like to highlight three authors I've worked with recently and help raise some awareness to their projects while I'm at it 

The first author I want to mention is Andrew Warmington.  Andrew worked with the NewsBiscuit team on our first compilation.  In recent years Andrew has stood back from NewsBiscuit but has been following a passion outside of his day job.  Andrew has been researching the State approved hangings from the end of the Second World War until Capital Punishment was ceased by the Abolition of the Death Penalty Act in 1965.  Although it sounds a gruesome topic, it is also a fascinating one.  Andrew is working through all the hangings in chronological order over, I think, twelve volumes.  He has published the first three and tells me the fourth is nearing completion.

The books are fascinating and entertaining in their own macabre way, detailing each murder, investigation, court trial and eventual hanging.  As beholds Andrew's comedic background there is an element of wry observations in the books that don't detract from the seriousness of the topic but make the subject much easier to read.  Importantly the books are rigorously researched and referenced - these are serious books, yet accessible.

Andrew details the early life and relevant life details of the perpetrator, the victim(s) and relevant circumstances.  Some of the people discussed are famous - William Joyce AKA Lord Haw Haw, for example - while many have sunk into oblivion over time.  Crime writers should seriously consider reading these books where the perpetrators are variously sociopathic, driven by greed, lust, anger and every other human emotion in-between.  They are often opportunists or related to the victims or highly intelligent or of limited intellect or manipulated.  Some are slam-dunk guilty, some are highly likely innocent of the crimes they hanged for, most in the grey area in-between.  For anyone considering entering a debate into the merits of Capital Punishment these books should be essential reading.    

Andrew contacted me to see if I could help him publish his first volume in 2023.  He sent me a copy and we discussed the way forward.  I did a sense check and identified some typos - it's my view that we read what we thought we wrote, and getting an independent set of eyes is essential for any extended writing project - and once Andrew was happy with his edit I looked at formatting the book.

We had discussions about the final size of the book and I set about formatting the manuscript while Andrew chased the artist who was producing the book cover.  To make sure that the book looked right in KDP - I've had issues with hidden control codes showing up in print editions when viewed or printed - I uploaded it into my KDP account and shook down the manuscript.  When Andrew got the cover back I uploaded that into my KDP on the same file as the manuscript and discovered there were some issues that Andrew took back to the artist.  Eventually the cover was working as required, I sent Andrew the formatted manuscript and over a Zoom call he uploaded it and the cover into KDP.  I talked him through some of the technical tasks with publishing through KDP and now, apart from the formatting, Andrew is self sufficient.  

The second author I want to mention is Scott Darlington.  I stumbled across a post Scott had made on Twitter last December where he was asking if anyone could give advice on self publishing.  Scott was a sub postmaster and is one of the victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal.  We discussed his needs initially through direct messaging and in about April this year he sent me his manuscript.  I worked through the document, highlighted a number of issues and once Scott was happy with his manuscript I set to work formatting it.

The book is a gut-wrenching read, especially the point where Scott realised large amounts of money seemed to be disappearing on his watch.  I found myself stopping myself shouting 'no' as Scott described how he tried to cover up the losses while he tried to find out how they were happening.  It may be easy to jump to the wrong conclusion after reading that last sentence, but taken with the backstory of how the Post Office dealt (dismissed) technical queries you will change your mind.  Talking of backstories, I'm generally not a fan of the formative part of biographies - we were all young once, went to school, started work - but Scott had an impressive rock and roll start to his career, an absent father who was more into his own entertainment career and, thankfully, a great mother and an older brother who has been one of his rocks.  It's a good lead into his second career, as a Sub Postmaster.

Scott was convicted of a crime he didn't commit and fought to clear his name.  He's part of the 'Mr Bates' group who stood up to the Post Office and almost beyond hope won, although many, including Scott, are still waiting for the full resolution.  Scott's voice comes through authentic and he's written using colloquial terms that underpin his north west origins.  It's a great read and worth putting on your reading list.

Finally, the third author I became tangentially involved with is Northern Irish author S.D.W Hamilton.  Again I stumbled across him on Twitter - I need to take a break from that hell-hole - early this year in-between first contact with Scott and starting working with him.  S.D.W Hamilton is a crime writer and this book - He Calls By Night - is the second in a private eye series.  The ask was simple, but important - he was trying to find volunteers to beta read his manuscript.  I was taking the grandsons to the Lake District for the early half term and knew I'd have capacity in the evenings.  If I go to Ambleside and its environs without the kids, my evenings and days are pretty much taken up, but without them...

The book is incredibly well written, has a tight story and a brilliant twist as befits the genre.  Were there typos, the odd grammatical issue?  Sure, but this was a relatively early final-ish draft.  What the author wanted to know was did the story scan, read well, were there any issues?  This is the benefit of beta readers, they should have a detachment, independence from the author.  My takeaway, which I mentioned in my review, was there was a fair bit of colloquial dialogue - the book is set in and around Belfast - and while that lends authenticity it can act as a barrier to those of us outside of the Province, in my opinion.  To be fair I worked out the gist of the terms, but I come from Irish and more generally Celtic stock so that was the harshest point I could make and to be fair he has included a table of terms converting the colloquial to 'standard' English in the front of the book.   

He Calls By Night has recently been released and is receiving justified great reviews.  Strongly recommended for your reading list.

The point I would like to finish with is most self published authors go through a steep learning curve - many of us learn the skills of several individual professions in addition to the skill of writing.  We learn how to format, how to edit, how to design book covers, how to navigate the self publishing software and, hopefully, how to market books.  For most authors the non-writing skills are used intermittently unless you're a very prolific writer, but there's no good reason you can't share your skills to help fellow authors produce their books. We're not competitors - readers will choose which books to read on their own terms - and helping other writers will help keep the less frequently used skills up to date.

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In the US Bronze is on a countdown promotion starting Sunday 14th September at $0.99 for the eBook, rising to $1.99 on the 17th September before reverting to the full price of $2.99 on the 20th September.  All promotions commence at 8:00 am PDT on the stated days.

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Follow me on Twitter: @RayASullivan

email me at raysullivan.novels@yahoo.com

Check out my comedic ramblings as Throngsman on www.newsbiscuit.com

   

   

 

Post Office Investors Wary of Photoframes

The Post Office in the UK is rightly proud of the fact that it was the world's first public postal service.  It made the logical link early on that once you have a postal network established then in essence it doesn't cost a penny more to send a letter to the other side of the country than it does to send it to the next street.  To be fair, it only works with volume and the Post Office has had its fair share of that over the years.

But all postal services have become squeezed over the last few years, largely because of the impact of the internet.  Sure, the likes of eBay and Amazon have boosted parcel delivery services, but the Post Office doesn't have a monopoly on them, far from it.  What it does have a monopoly on is the delivery of letters to the door and the advent of universal email has more or less made that uneconomical. In fact, with the exception of postal box to postal box commercial deliveries such as DX in the UK there is no competition at all for domestic mail.

Now the Post Office has just been floated on the London Stock Exchange and the Government has come under fire for listing the shares too low. Unlike Twitter, which was floated at about the same time, the price didn't rise then plummet but just rose and stabilised. Now I'm no investment genius - I wouldn't be writing Sci-Fi thrillers, comedic novels and the occasional blog post as well as working full-time if I was - but I resisted the urge to invest in the Post Office for fairly rational reasons.

First, the Post Office lost the plot several years ago. In fact it was recovering from the most pointless rebranding exercise in history - some idiot managed to persuade the Post Office to ditch the most recognisable brand name in the world for the obscure name of Consignia. Thankfully that was reversed and hopefully the fools responsible for the rebranding exercise were sacked without compensation, although I doubt it. But having made the bold reversal move they then introduced Postage in Proportion, a system where consumers have to calculate both the size and the weight of a letter.  Get it wrong and the recipient has to pay the missing postage plus a penalty. Worse, they have to make a decision regarding paying this money without knowing who it is from or what it may contain. Sure, over the near term they may have fleeced a fair bit of profit out of normal customers but those people are now increasingly willing to consider alternatives, such as email.

On top of all that there is a very real proposition of industrial action taking place. The postal unions are vocally upset over the sale and strikes are a very real likelihood.

So why did intelligent investors not only snap up the Post Office Shares, but boost their value? Well, not all the investors were professionals, they were Joe Average, the man in the street. The government ring-fenced a big chunk of the shares for ordinary taxpaying UK residents who may not have dabbled in stocks and shares before. Some will know a lot about trading, many will not. My guess is that those who do know what is going on are banking on the only time we can guarantee that the Post Office is likely to be really busy with delivering letters, specifically Christmas cards. Once the volume has peaked I expect a selling frenzy to take place with the resultant drop in value.

But I'm going to suggest an idea that may impact on the seasonal rush of cards. Most of us will have the seven inch photo frames that sold well a few years ago, before everyone carried their photo albums on their mobile phones and tablet computers. Many are languishing in drawers now, the fad having passed by. How about dusting them off and encouraging friends and family to send their greetings electronically in JPEG format? Buy 1 Christmas card, one you really like, scan it and send the image to all your friends. Add a nice personal message to each in your finest hand - or use a script font in Word if your handwriting is like mine - and scan that in too. The recipients then load the JPEGs onto their photo frames and place them on the mantelpiece in pride of place. Your cards will cycle through continuously along with the messages. If anyone gives or sends you a real card, scan it in yourself.

If this idea takes off then we'll all save a fortune on postage this Christmas, admittedly at the cost of losing the Post Office. That organisation is doomed already, it's just a matter of when, not if. It will hurt the professional investors who are going to fleece the amateur players no matter what happens. If you are one of those amateurs and the share price is showing you a profit then consider taking that profit now. And if you don't have an electronic photo frame in a drawer, consider using some of the profit to buy one. If this idea works for you, why not sense a Christmas card. Electronically of course.

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