Not Long To Go...

A gem of a book...

Not long to go has a few meanings.

Christmas is of course fast approaching, and this coming Wednesday it's Awards Night at the writers' club.

I may have a few photos I can share next week...

College and Uni finish this coming Friday so I'll have a houseful from next weekend until early New Year. As much as I love my brood, it does mean any quiet time to write is reduced to a dripping tap that quickly gets fixed.

So there will only be a couple more posts until after Christmas.

Meanwhile I've been considering ideas for both my blog and Serena's.

I've also been catching up on my reading while I've had a spare ten minutes, or while waiting for appointments...

One of my recommended reads that would make an ideal Christmas present is From Story Idea to Reader by Patsy Collins and Rosemary J. Kind. And it's not because I know the authors.

This is a book I wish had been around when I first started writing, as it has a friendly and very comfortable and clear style; but there are sections more experienced writers can dip into that inspire me, and (new to me) techniques to try out. It's available on Kindle and as a paperback via Createspace, either from Alfie Dog (see link below) or Amazon.

I haven't finished reading it yet as I've not had enough free-time, so that's another delight to come over the holidays.

Earlier this year Patsy guest posted about using Createspace to turn her e-book novels and short story collections into paperbacks; and Rosemary is the owner and editor of Alfie Dog Fiction.

If you're in the UK and are signed up to Goodreads then there's an opportunity to win a copy. Click here.

I still have a number of photos to finish sorting and labelling up too, and I want to get a few blog posts written up for those busy times...

More soon...

Patsy Collins - From E-book to Print Part 1...

Welcome my guest this week, Patsy Collins, who's sharing her experience of creating print copies of her books (in addition to the e-versions).

Over to you Patsy...

Thanks for inviting me onto your blog, Carol! It means I can mention that I've self published a kindle version of my new short story collection, Through The Garden Gate. It's available at the special price of 99p until19th April.

Oh ... that's not why you invited me? That's right, I remember now.

Patsy and her latest collection

Carol, being an observant writerly type, noticed that whilst self publishing ebooks is fairly common, far fewer writers also produce paperback copies. She asked me to explain why, and how, I'd done this for Through The Garden Gate. Which is available now for £6.60  (hee hee, got away with that one!)


The Advantages

1. It's nice to be able to hold your own book in your hands. Trust me, you'll feel a lot more like a proper writer when you do.

2. There are lots of people who don't use a Kindle and some of these might want to read your book.

3. Paper copies can be sold to libraries and they qualify for PLR and ALCS payments.

4. It's good to have physical copies if you give talks, both to show people and to sell.

5. Physical copies can get passed around. That doesn't help your sales, but might bring more readers (who might buy other books you've written). You never know who'll end up seeing a copy and becoming a fan.

6. Books make nice gifts or competition prizes.

7. You'll have done (or outsourced) all the hard work of writing, editing, formatting, proofreading, selecting a cover image and promoting for the e version, so there will be very little extra work involved.

Disadvantages

1. It will take up a small additional amount of time. That time would probably have been used being annoyed by grammatically incorrect memes on Facebook, watching insurance adverts on TV, or something else equally worthwhile.

Have I talked you into giving it a go? 

Hope so as I'll be back Thursday to explain how I created the paperback version of my latest collection.

(Carol here again.)

If you've got any comments on today's post do please use the comments link below, and Patsy will be checking in from her travels...