10 Ways To Market Your Book

Last Night I attended a writing workshop with Vicki Morrison, a multi-genre author, freelance writer and keynote speaker. There was too much information to post but part of the workshop detailed:-

10 WAYS TO MARKET YOUR BOOK

1              Your own website!

·         It is essential for an author to have their own website.

·         They can be created and hosted very cheaply.

·         It is a great idea to purchase you name as a domain name (not the name of you book. Remember, the book is your product and you are your brand).

·         Your website should be the central point of your on-line presence. Everything should link back to your site.

2)            Press Release  

·         Press releases are good for attracting the attention of media outlets, book sellers, reviewers as well as readers.

·         Ideally they should have a letterhead with an image of your book cover and contact details.

o   Follow this with the books details

o   Author

o   Title

o   Publisher

o   ISBN

o   Distributor

o   RRP (Recommended Retail Price)

·         When sending press releases out you need to research and target them at the right person.

·         Find out the targeted person’s name and correct spelling of it.

o   It’s no use sending a press release and book to a newspaper for a review if they do not review your genre.

o   Or to the purchaser of a bookshop that doesn’t sell your genre.

·         The more targeted you can be the more chance of success you have.

3)            Articles – Magazines and Newspapers

·         Most magazines need at least a 3 month lead time for articles.

·         Newspapers are usually much less.

·         Perhaps try an interview an expert in the field relating to the content of your book.

o   The interview can be turned into an article for a magazine relating to your topic

o   This is a great way of coming to the notice of people interested in that topic

·         Some newspapers, particularly local one are usually happy to do a story on the success of a local author especially coming up to a book launch.

4)            Book Launch

·         Be professional

o   Print up invitations (can be done relatively cheaply)

o   Front (Picture of your book cover)

o   Back (Details of the launch)

·         Invite widely

o   Family and friends

o   Colleagues

o   Media representatives

o   Local book sellers

o   Local names/celebrities

o   For children’s books, local teach/librarians

o   Local member

o   Mayor/Local councillors

o   Other authors you know

·         Try and arrange a special guest to do the official launch of the book.

o   Could be the Local Member or Mayor

o   Well known author

o   Celebrity

o   Someone related to the topic of your book.

·         Everything you do, do it as a Point of Difference

·         Don’t be boring. Think outside the box.

o   There is nothing as boring as a launch where the author reads from the book after a bunch of speeches and then does a signing.

o   Have a video or Powerpoint display.

o   Have someone act out a scene

o   Have giveaways or prizes

o   Display art from the book

o   For kids books, do something hands on related to the book

o   Raffle off the chance to have the winner’s name used for a character in your next book.

·         Make the launch special and memorable.

·         Provide nibbles and drinks

o   Ask around, you might get some donations or at least offers of help.

·         Look professional (considering your BRAND)

·         Most important – ENGAGE THE AUDIENCE.

5)            List the book on Amazon

·         Claim your author page. You can edit it to enhance your brand.

·         Pay close attention to key words

o   Take advantage of common search phrases and choose your key words to suit

o   Make it easy for the Amazon, Google etc. Search bots to find your book. That way it will display closer to the top of the list.

o   Try to get reviews on Amazon. Good reviews increase sales.

6)            Book Reviews Sites and Blogs

·         Try to get as many reviews as possible.

o   Find book review sites and request they review your book

o   Target the sites most likely to review in your genre

o   If they can’t do a review, they may still post an author interview or bio. Ask.

7)            Radio

·         Try and get an interview on radio stations

o   Local radio stations are usually open to these

o   ABC does book and reading segments that might do an interview

o   Have giveaways

o   Don’t just try and sell your book, sell your brand

·         Radio interviews are brilliant in the days leading up to your launch, even the morning of the launch.

8)            Social Media (This is a whole topic in itself).

·         Social media sites can be good for generating word of mouth hype for your book

·         Pick sites you are comfortable using

·         Think about who and  where your audience are and if they use social media you would be stupid not to use it to reach them

·         If they don’t use social media then it is not as important.

·         Make sure ALL your social media sites link back to your author website.

·         Social Media Sites

o   Facebook,

o   Twitter

o   Linkedin

o   Goodreads

o   Pinterest

o   Google +

·         DON’T BE ANNOYING

o   Don’t just spruik your book

o   Get involved in the community

o   Promote your brand (YOU)

9)            Blog

·         Start a blog.

o   A writers blog or

o   Readers blog

o   Keep your personal blog separate if you have one

o   Your promotional or professional blog should be highlighting your brand

o   Approach similar blogs and request to do a guest blog post

o   Comment of similar blogs. This generates traffic to your blog

o   After your books release, arrange a blog tour of sites that your audience may frequent.

10)          Join Forums and Discussion Groups

·         Google groups is a good place to find groups interested in your book’s topic.

·         Becoming involved in these communities could generate interest in you and your book.

·         Again, DON’T be annoying.

·         Goodreads has 12 million members who all love to read books.

o   Join their author Program

o   You can add book excerpts

o   Videos

o   Quizzes

o   Host Q & A’s etc.

BECOME PART OF THE WRITING COMMUNITY

Two Stories Published in Narrator Magazine

Two of my Short Stories were Published in Narrator Magazine Spring Central Tablelands Issue.

Last month I submitted two stories, “Always the Children” and “The Dancing Suit” to the Narrator Magazine hoping that the editors might select one of them for their Spring edition of the magazine. I was very pleased to discover that both stories were picked up for publication in the magazine.

Narrator Magazine is quarterly magazine based in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney and publishes essays, short stories, poetry and artwork, mainly from writers and artists from the Blue Mountains and Central Tablelands areas.

I usually write children’s fiction, but the magazine was asking for submissions for an adult audience.  The first story, “Always the Children” is based on personal experiences during my time as a police officer. The second story, “The Dancing Suit” is a subtle horror story about a tuxedo, possessed by the essence of a very nasty man.

The first story is difficult to read and was even more difficult to write. Sometimes I still see that broken little girls face at night when I close my eyes. I had much more fun writing the second story.

If you are interested in reading the stories, the magazine can be read on-line at http://www.narratormagazine.com/

If you like the stories, take a few seconds to vote for your favourite in the “Peoples Choice Prize”

I hope you enjoy the stories. Back to writing for kids now…

 

 

Scrivener for Windows

Last night I was listening to some episodes of Mur Lafferty’s ‘I Should Be Writing’ podcast and heard a very brief mention, in ISBW #176, about Scrivener for Window. That pricked up my ears. I like PC computers, I prefer them to Mac’s but there is one thing I have been jealous of writers who use Mac’s. They had access to the Scrivener program.

Scrivener is basically an organizational and editing tool especially designed for writers. You can use it as a word processor but it is much more than that. It keeps all the information you have on a writing project in the one place. There are character and place templates, places to store research notes and images that are in the program but separate from the actual writing. This makes compiling the finished project easy. There is a cork board function that creates note cards for each section, chapter, scene, location, or character so you can see at a glance what you have and where it is. Because the whole thing is connected, you can plot and outline using the cards, re-ordering them to suit the story and the changes are carried out across the project.

The program makes editing less daunting because of the snapshot function. You can take a snapshot of a page, section or the whole project if you like. When you finish the edit and realize you liked the original better, you can revert to the original with a click of the mouse.

Another fun part of the program, and one that is useful for me and all the other writers who have problems finding the right name for a character, is the random name generator. It is handy for when those pesky, unexpected new characters turn up in your story and you can’t keep on writing until you decide what to call them. Often, by the time you work it out, the train of the story is lost. How easy is it to click on the name generator and find something that at least temporarily appeals?

Although the program is not being released until later in the year, the delightful folks at Literature and Latte have released a free Beta version of the program. There are still a few bugs they are fixing as the Beta testing phase progresses but most of those are minor glitches that don’t adversely affect the functioning of the program.

Check out the Scrivener for Windows page here.

I Should Be Writing

Sometimes following links around the internet just for the fun of it can take you to some unexpected and life changing places. One night several years ago I was net hopping and stumbled across a site called Escape Pod. At the time, I was supposed to be writing my book but I was procrastinating as usual, doing anything except write. Anyway, Escape Pod hosts a large collection of short audio stories. I listened to one or two stories that were listenable but only average. As I was about to jump to another site, a story title caught my eye. ‘Stuck In An Elevator With Mandy Patinkin’ by Kitty Myres. I like Mandy Patinkin so I listened. The story was fun but the most striking thing about it for me was the reader. Mur Lafferty.

Mur has a vocal quality and really pleasing accent that made me want to find out more about her. I jumped across to Google, opened some more links and eventually landed in the Murverse.

Vist ISBW site  HERE


When the screen cleared from the down jump transition – Sci-fi talk there – I flushed a little guiltily. Mur’s podcast site is called “I Should Be Writing.” I felt even worse when I finally went to bed, very late that night. I had still done no writing, but had listened to about dozen episodes of Mur’s Podcast.

By the time I woke the next morning, I had made a decision. If I was going to write, there would be no more pretending, no more “I’ll write my book tomorrow.” I would be serious and professional about writing, or not bother writing at all.

Yes, “I Should Be Writing” changed my attitude toward writing, pulling it from a hobby to “I’m really going to do this. Mur’s ISBW podcasts follow her own writing journey and includes tips and pitfalls she has learned along the way, plus interviews from other writers, podcasters, editors and new media personalities. All pass on their own experiences and writing insights. Mur’s site also links to many writing resources and other writerly sites of interest.

I can recommend “I Should Be Writing.” It is one of the most professional podcasts I have listened to. It is sure to have something of interest for anyone with an interest in the writing industry. 

A Space to Write - A Space to Paint

My Studio.

After years of being stuck in a corner, I finally have some space of my own. No longer do I have to listen to what my son assures me IS actually music, while I try to concentrate on writing. Music is a mood setter and I have discovered heavy metal doesn’t enhance the mood in a book about a sensitive young girl trying to bring a

little magic to her world.
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No longer do I have to take half an hour to set up my easel and all my paints only to have to pack them away again half way through the painting so there is room in my

corner to do the other things I need to do. That is the fastest way to lose inspiration.

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Now, I can write to my own soundtrack and leave my current painting works out and still have

room to move. It’s like heaven!

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The studio still has a few touches to go before it is completely finished;

· I have to install the gallery hanging system to display my paintings.

· I still need to add book shelves on the wall above the work bench for my resource texts and favourite books.

· I also need to rebuild and update my old desktop computer for writing.

· And I have to find a bigger rug for the floor and curtains.

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But it is workable already and I opened my studio for business over the weekend. It has most of what I need. A wet area to paint, working bench space to sketch and paint watercolours, a desk to write, a light box to help transfer sketches onto canvas or watercolour paper, storage cupboards, a heater, a stereo, a coffee machine and privacy.

What more could you ask for?

I have even been productive over the last three days. I have finished the first painting from the studio and have two more partially completed.

My first painting is titled;

Opals, a watercolour on watercolour canvas.

My two partially finished works are seen below.

Pickets by the Lake - Oils on canvas & Kookaburra Sits in the Silver Birch - Oils on slate

Getting Back To Basics

I’m currently in the middle of rewriting and editing a chapter book. The editing process has always been a daunting task for me. I never knew if I was making things better or worse. That has changed recently. I’ve been getting some invaluable advice and feedback from Sandy Fussell, a children’s author I greatly respect.
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Now I find that I actually enjoy the editing process. And the editing has been going well until I reached a hurdle I couldn’t work out how to get over. In the story, the main character, Marina makes origami creations with magic paper. These creations become real if she wishes hard enough. There is a distinct pattern in the story which sees Marina make one of her paper creations in each chapter. That is until chapter six.
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When I started editing chapter six, I realised Marina had made a boat, then immediately made a captain’s hat for one of her new friends to wear. When one of the other children falls into the water and they discover she can’t swim, Marina turns the captain’s hat into a life jacket to rescue the girl. That is technically three origami creations in one chapter. It ruined the pattern of the book.
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I’ve spent a week now trying to figure out a way to fix the flow of the story without detracting from the story itself. Finally, I decided to get back to basics.
First, I listed everything that happened in the chapter in point form.


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· Children looking at their basketball floating in the middle of the pond.
· Amelia saying ‘If only we had a boat.’
· The hardest wish, Marina makes a boat.
· All aboard.
· Sam wants to be captain.
· Marina makes a captain’s hat.
· Sail to the ball.
· Amelia slips and falls in trying to save the ball.
· Boat is sailing away and Amelia can’t swim.
· Marina turns the Captain’s hat into a life jacket and throws it to Amelia.
· Amelia dries off, back on the boat.
· Home time.

Then I put myself into the heads of the kids to work out exactly what I know about them and how they would react to the events. The first three points stayed the same but I realised their reaction in the story to seeing a sailing boat materialise before their eyes was under done.

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Shocked expressions, a ‘No way!’ And a ‘How did you do that?’ weren’t sufficient. I also wondered if an 11 year old boy, two ten year old girls and a 7 year old boy would actually know how to sail.

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This was the point that opened up storyline to change. The changes have also led to greater character development of the secondary characters. Toby has shown himself to be a little bossy and dismissive of his younger cousin, Sam. When Sam wants to be captain, Toby tells him he’s too small. But Sam proves himself when they get into trouble.
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This is how the plotting developed.
· Children looking at their basketball floating in the middle of the pond.
· Amelia saying ‘If only we had a boat.’
· The hardest wish, Marina makes a boat.
· Reaction to the magic.
· All aboard.
· Sam wants to be Captain. Toby says he too small.
· Casting off, but no one knows how to sail.
· Wrong way Toby – chasing ducks.
· Working out how to steer.
· Against the wind - Stuck on the wrong side of the pond.
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Chapter six ends with the boat drifting closer to a strand of tangled reeds, with razor sharp leaves.
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Chapter seven starts as Sam takes over the steering and sails the boat to safety. That is when Marina makes his captain’s hat for him. The rest of the chapter stays close to the original plan and the pattern of the book is back on track.
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So the moral of this is. When you are stuck;
· Break it down. Not just into scenes – Go smaller, to the individual plot points of each scene.
· Look inside the minds of your characters. If you know them the answers will come.
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Speculative Fiction Workshop

BLOOD, BOGGARTS AND BATTLESTARS: AN INTRODUCTION TO SPECULATIVE FICTION

With Margo Lanagan - at the NSW Writers' Centre.
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I find myself looking forward to Margo Lanagan’s speculative fiction workshop in March. Plenty of hands on exercises.
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As a reader, I have always been a fan of fantasy. (I do use always in a relatively loose fashion. I was a late starter as a reader finishing my first ever novel in Year 11 at school). Tolkien, Steven Donaldson, David Eddings, Susan Cooper, Anne McCaffrey and Raymond E Feist were all favourites once I caught the bug.
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I am also a huge fan of Science Fiction and horror movies but couldn’t really find as much passion for Sci-fi and horror books back then. I have since discovered some brilliant science fiction authors, particularly Elizabeth Moon. And Simon Haynes is great for sci-fi humour.
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I find that I still don’t like horror stories that rely on gratuitous violence and gore to be scary. (Scott Sigler could be the exception to that rule). That goes for books and movies. It just isn’t scary. The stories that give me delicious shivers are the subtle ones that sneak up on you. The ones that could almost be possible. Dean Koontz is the standout there.
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Now as a writer, I find myself drawn to the speculative end of the scale. I’m not really happy unless there is at least a hint of magic in my stories.
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Fantasy and Horror are huge in publishing at present, particularly in young adult and children’s fiction. This is thanks to the Harry Potter and Twilight phenomena. It’s hard to keep up with the new vampire titles. (Thank goodness they are on the way out). On the other hand, Science fiction seems to be dead in the water.

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So knowing that, why did I pick a science fiction story to write during last years NaNoWriMo. Seriously, I’m asking – I have no idea. Now I have the story in the form of a very rough first draft. But what do I do with it now? Are publishers even looking at science fiction? They don’t seem to be. Is it even worth the effort in re-writing and polishing my draft? Or do I write something more commercially viable?
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I’m hoping Margo’s workshop will answer some of my questions.

A Place Of My Own

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For the last few years, my own little place in the house has been the back corner of our sun-room. It is four metres long but less than two metres wide, separated from the rest of the room by a couple of bookcases. My “office” is actually a step up from what I used to have so I can’t really complain.
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Sometimes it is hard to concentrate on my writing because the other three quarters of the room is taken up with my wife’s sewing table and the kid’s electronic corner. This techno-marvel contains the stereo, the latest in games machines including Rock Band for the Play Station - complete with guitars and drums and the kid’ computer. It is a rare occasion when I am in the room by myself. I’ve also come to the conclusion that there isn’t a single activity my boys enjoy that does not involve lots of noise.
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The other problem with my current work space is that there is not enough room to set up my painting equipment and leave it out until the project is completed. Packing every thing up at the end of a session is a pain in the creative process.
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Now for the good news. The council have approved the development application for my new studio. We ordered it today and it should be ready in four to five weeks. I can hide up the back yard in my studio to write in peace and set up my paints with a table to cut matt-boards and for my light-box. I’ll even have enough room to run some small art workshops and to set up an evening writer’s group.
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Life is good. A place of my own!
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Updates to Web Site

I have just spent some quality time updating my personal website.

http://jefferyedoherty.googlepages.com/





The site is a place where I can showcase some of my work. It is split into two sections, WORDS and PICTURES.

WORDS is where my children's writer persona lives and PICTURES is where I keep my art gallery pages.

It is easy to display my art on the internet but much harder to do so with my writing. Posting stories on the net is technically self-publishing in an electronic format. This could cause major problems when trying to negotiate sales of those stories to publishers. I have however added some short excerpts from several of my writing projects.

I have also added some new paintings to my galleries.

Drop by and take a look.
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NaNoWriMo - Week One

NaNoWriMo Week One

Ok. Week one of (NaNoWriMo) National Novel Writing Month is over and I am sitting at this moment on a respectable 12699 words. This is despite the fact I have just come back from a wonderful 21st wedding anniversary weekend away with my wife.

Now it’s time to get back to writing. In 2007 and 2008, by this time into the challenge, my stories were starting to take strange, unplanned turns.

I found out about NaNoWriMo toward the end of October, 2007 and entered the challenge with the simple image of the main character returning home from the cemetery where he had put flowers on his dead girlfriends grave. She had been killed a month earlier when a drunk classmate ran her down in a car. On the way home, he meets his girlfriend who begs him to help her save the boy who killed her. I had no other ideas about the story and basically explored what happened next to explain her appearance. The seat-of-the-pants method was quite fun but the final product, though it had some interesting concepts, was a complete confused mess.

I planned a little more in 2008 and did much better. Thanks a lot to the book cover art I created as an inspiration to keep writing. I still use it as my desktop graphic. It’s also the main reason I want to try and break into the book cover design industry. 2008’s effort was much more cohesive, but still ran off on several tangents that took me away from the story I envisioned.

This year, not only am I on track with my word count, I am on track with the story too, without the problem of losing the freshness of the story by over planning. There have been a couple of surprises for my with the story, some interesting new characters who have turned up out-of-the-blue and two of my bit part characters seems to have pushed their way to the front of the stage. But the main storyline is still true to the plan.

The above picture is of Clang, one of the bit part characters. He was an AI computer program placed inside a robot cat. Clang decides he likes being a cat a little too much and conveniently loses his vocal programming and now only obeys the commands he wants to obey.

This year I didn’t set out every scene in the outline, I picked the major plot points of the story and made signposts to use as a guide. I know I have to get the main character from where he is to the next signpost and I work out what events would believable get him to that point. It seems to be working and I have come up with some interesting events I couldn’t really have planned in advance.

Interesting times, but enough of this for now, I’m going back to my writing. I’ll post another update next week.

NaNoWriMo Preparations

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I like to have a good image in my head of the characters I'm developing for my stories and books. This years NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) effort is a young adult Science Fiction / Mystery / Adventure titled 'Strangeway's Mind Ship'. I decided to introduce two Alien races to the story. This is an integral part of the novel because the main character, Horatio Hornblower Strangeway (a human) is a part of the first Space Service Academy class to accept alien and modified human cadets to the Officer Corp. The growing Purity Faction is opposed to this decision.
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So in a round-a-bout way, the novel will deal with issues of prejudice, intolerance and fear, but the main theme is about the choices we make and the consequences of those choices.

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I’ve never designed an alien before but I thought it would be cool to have a race, evolved from a creature similar to Earth foxes. I wanted the Vorpal to be bi-pedal and more humanoid than vulpine but still have a distinct Fox-like appearance.
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I thought the best way to get the image in my head was to draw a picture of Vix Sorrell, one of my main characters, and a Vorpal character to boot. They do say, ‘a picture’s worth a thousand words’. I had a heap of fun painting her. She is not at all like I first imagined her but I think I like her better now.
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These aren’t my only preparations for this years NaNoWriMo. I have been plotting out the major events in the story. This is my Sign Post Method of plotting. In the past, I’ve tried winging it and writing the story to see what happens – NOT really a success for me. I end up getting sidetracked and lost and giving up on the idea. And I’ve also tried doing detailed outlines of every scene but found the story lost it’s freshness as I tried to colour between the lines.
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For this novel, I’m trying something in the middle of those two extremes. I have started to map out the major plot points along the way. These will be my Sign Posts to keep me on track – or at least help me find my way back to the path – but I will still have the creative freedom to tag along behind my characters and write about the things they get up to along the way.

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How to Judge Your Children's Book Idea

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I was just checking out the new content at the Children's Book Insider (cbiclubhouse.com) and there was an interesting topic. "How To Judge Your Children's Book Idea" The article list five questions to ask yourself to test how strong your story idea actually is.

The Children's Book Insider is a wonderful resource for children's writers and well worth the few dollars a month membership to gain full access to the site. The site is American but it still has enough great content relevant to non US writers to make the cost worthwhile.

This is a timely article because at the moment, I am in the position of editing a completed manuscript and having a number of ideas simmering in my mind for my next work in progress. I'm not certain which one of the three candidates to concentrate on.



I have a Science Fiction story "Strangeway's Mind Ship" where the main character, Horatio Hornblower Strangeway is forced into the position of standing up for a group of alien and modified human cadets even though he knows it will tear apart his relationship with his best friend and make his life at the Liberty Space Service Academy miserable. To make matters worse, a terrible personal discovery about his namesake, leaves his father so ashamed he can no longer look Horatio in the eye.
















I have a YA speculative thriller, "The Zoo" about Mira Sheridan, a fifteen year old a foster child just trying to blend in and be unnoticeable because she know just how different she is to other teens. On the first day at her new school she makes an enemy of the most popular girl in school. When a prank against her goes wrong during a field trip to the local zoo, Mira comes under the notice of an unscrupulous man from her past who believed she had died as a baby. He is determined to get her back or make her disappear to protect his secrets.

I also have an idea for a junior novel - possible series, "Witcher's Way - Red Ranger Gold." Ben Witcher is small, timid, afraid of the dark and clostrophobic. His class go on a camping trip to 'Bushranger Caves Adventure Camp' The kids are excited to learn about a real treasure rumoured to be hidden in the area but frightened by stories of the caves being haunted. When Ben's pet rat escapes inside the cave, Ben must find the courage to face his fears to find him. Ben discovers there are more dangerous things than ghosts when he stumbles across a family of serious treasure hunters who will stop at nothing to find the gold.

The questions the article put forward were:

1) Does the story excite you?

You will be working on the story for months are you excited enough about the idea to stay passionate about it.

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2) Why do you want to write about this idea?

Is it something you want to write or are you writing it because you think it will appeal to publishers and reader? You need to write for yourself.

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3) Is this the first idea to pop into your head?

Have you taken the time to let the idea develop? Have you expanded it with 'What if' questions?

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4) Are you qualified to write about this idea?

Are you an expert in the subject or are you prepared to do the research necessary to do justice to the idea?

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5) Are you writing a story or trying to send a message?

Having a message is fine but if you don't concentrate on story first, it can become condescending and preachy.

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So, now I am going the run through the questions for each of these ideas and see which one comes out on top.

Lucky Socks and Author Snoopy

When I was playing rugby league in the under 12's, I scored my first try. That was the day I wore my new socks. Obviously the socks were lucky. I wore them every time we played. The luck worked, not all the time but often enough to make me keep those socks until they were two sizes too small with holes that let my big toes poke through.

Socks - not those socks exactly - were lucky for me again when my first ever piece of writing was published in a very obscure and small print run anthology called 'Infinite Anythings and Lost Left Socks' There was no payment involved and I am sure very few people ever read the piece - that in itself is lucky because the writing was awful.


About the same time, McDonalds had a toy offer running with little Snoopy's engaged in different professions. When Author Snoopy came out, I brought one and he has sat beside my computer ever since. I don't know if he is lucky for me or not but when I start writing and he is there, I at least know not to start my stories with 'It was a dark and stormy night...' or other clichéd beginnings.

I have decided the luck comes more with hard work and constantly trying to improve my writing skills than from Snoopy.

Imagine the blisters I would have avoided if I realised this when I was still playing rugby league.

JED's Author Insights # 1 Simon Haynes

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As a relatively new blog, Words and Pictures has initially been a little random but I am slowly working out the kinks and details. Teaser Tuesday was a good start, now I have come up with a new, hopefully regular segment for the blog.

JED’s (That’s me) Author Insights.

Luckily, I have become acquainted with a number of published authors since my decision to become more professional with my writing and try to make a serious career as a children’s author. Part of this process is asking questions, learning to avoid the pitfalls established writers have already stumbled on. I have learned a lot thanks to the generosity these busy people have shown me.

Simon Haynes
Western Australian based author of the SF/Humour 'Hal Spacejock' novels, published by Fremantle Press and distributed by Penguin Australia.

I interviewed Simon some time ago and posted the full interview HERE.

Please take the time to look at the interview and I urge you to read Simon’s books. It is amazing how many strange looks you get after bursting out in spontaneous laughter from the antics of the hapless Hal Spacejock – probably the most clueless freighter pilot in the known universe – and Clunk, his battered but brilliant android sidekick.

Simon and Freemantle Arts Centre Press have graciously offered the first book in the Hal Spacejock series as a FREE downloadable E-Book

Simon's books:

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Making It Good Enough To Publish

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It is often said that writing books is hard. In a way it is. On top of the necessary technical skills required, a writer needs commitment, determination and persistence to write a book. Many, probably most, books never see completion. Quite a few of my own attempts, especially the earlier ones, have died a natural death and never reached maturity. Many more books though completed by their writers, will never see publication – BECAUSE – they are just not good enough.

Writing the book is realistically the easy part.

I could probably build you a table and it would be suitable enough to eat off but because I don’t have the carpentry skills to finish it off, to sand and polish it to a professional standard, I could never hope to sell it in a furniture store.

Books are the same. The hard part of writing, well for me at least, is turning the metaphorical diamond-in-the-rough into a polished gem of a book that will dazzle editors and readers alike.

Knowing what to cut and how to polish, I am learning, is a complete skill set in itself. And one I am not entirely confident I possess – YET.

I have a number of completed manuscripts at present; several picture book texts, a couple of chapter books, a mid grade and a young adult novel. During the editing process of these, I am often overcome with the worry my rewriting is actually detracting from, rather than improving the work. As my confidence wains, so does my effectiveness as an editor.



So, this weekend I have enrolled in the “Making It Good Enough To Publish” workshop at the New South Wales Writers’ Centre with YA novelist Melaina Faranda. (Author of The Circle series and a further six books coming out this year).

The spiel about the workshop states;



Often it comes down to a few simple mistakes that mark out the amateur from the pro. Race through a dynamic, non-stop self-editing workout that gets results! Learn how to keep up pace and hurdle common literary pitfalls, as well as push-up pointers for creating three dimensional characters and enriching stories with sensory writing to achieve a personal best. Train yourself to recognise flaws in your writing and troubleshoot in order to win the trifecta – an addictive story with a great plot, pacing and characterisation. Strenuous self-editing exercises will enable you to dig beyond stereotypical story slush to find true gold.

Hopefully, the workshop will point me in the right direction and give me the confidence to finish editing the manuscripts I have mounting up beside me.


I’ll let you know after the workshop.
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