Hello everyone,
I ventured onto foreign territory again yesterday as I attended the second
Self Publishing Conference hosted by Troubadour Publishing. It seemed a smaller
event than last year with fewer people there. The other attendees seemed to be
having a good time and the day was good for me in meeting new and old self
published writers and learning from sessions.
The keynote speech was from Alysoun Owen the Editor of the Writers &
Artists’ Yearbook about traditional publishers reinventing themselves and no
short cuts to publishing as all the steps have to be gone through which ever way
you publish.
In a really sparky session Polly Courtney talked about how she had
successfully self published her first book Golden Handcuffs through
Troubadour and then lost control of her next three books published with a
mainstream publisher before returning to self publishing. Her comments about
marketing were interesting. The key to her success appears to be writing about
something in fiction which is featuring strongly in the national press plus many
hours of hard work and graft contacting potential readers. She managed to time
her book launches to coincide with national press non fiction articles on the
subject written about in her books.
I attended a session on structuring children’s books where I scored 1/10 in
the exercise. I like the simplicity and good easy reading in children’s books
and the notes I made yesterday will be pinned up on my study wall.
Another session on book cover design was interesting but provided few
answers other than confirming my choice to have a consistent brand on my covers.
A sound approach confirmed earlier by Polly Courtney. In many of the examples I
found the text on the cover hard to read. I noticed here and from my monthly
inspection of covers on the new books on the Waterstone table more rough edged
wobbly text and pictures. There is all this new tech for design but to me few
beat the old Penguin covers with pictures.
The final session was about developing one’s web site. Some useful stuff
and complimented my recent reading of How to Build Your Online Author
Platform http://www.amazon.co.uk/Build-Your-Online-Author-Platform-ebook/dp/B00IUQ7QSK/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1396260202&sr=1-3&keywords=how+to+build+author+platform
Even semi retired I find it hard to find time to both write and market. Other
silver writers I spoke to yesterday shared the same problem.
Over lunch I spoke to Helen Hollick - a writer of history - and spoke to
her about the perils of writing about historic figures when regarded as saints
by some and villains by others. She mentioned Cromwell and laughed.
Also over lunch I met a fellow traveller who had also taken a decision to
write for personal satisfaction and not get involved in trying to prove himself
as a serious writer. At least I am not so alone now we are in contact.
Best wishes
Douglas
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