The past week has been dominated by technical wresting. First you have the clear idea of how things should go. Then you find it takes longer than you thought. Then it doesn’t work how you thought. Then you spend way too long trying to figure it out yourself. And then you drop a line to support or find a video in a support centre to help. And then things change and they work just how you need. Phew! A big shout out to the people behind the support at Atticus, Nrdly and GoDaddy! And MailerLite gave me a heart attack but then was fine again all by itself. Phew again.
Self-publishing authors don’t often talk about all the tech involved with setting up our operations, but it’s just like any other active business. And I promise never to talk about it again! (Unless you ask me about it!)
Thanks!
Again, a big thank you for reading this. Whoever you are, I’d love to know more about you and how you came to be checking out this post. Please do leave a message in the comments.
personal news
We’ve been having a new bathroom put in, so the house has been disrupted by: a) lots of bits of bathroom and a stack of tiles stored where possible; b) the sounds of the installer ripping things out, putting things in and going up and down the stairs quite a lot; c) no bath and people needing to wash and brush teeth wherever they can, and d) needing to make cups of tea on a regular basis.
The good news: it’s done now. Who wants to see a pic of the new bathroom? No, thought not 😉
Oh, and I also did my first ever unboxing video! This was actually late last week, after I’d done the last post. A big personal moment, unpacking the first proofs from Amazon, and I’ve been immensely touched by the responses on social media. Thank you!
book tip
This newsletter/blog has really only just started, but I’m going to get my cards on the table early and go straight for one of my all-time favourites: Kid Normal by Greg James & Chris Smith. It’s the story of a normal kid who finds himself enrolled at a school for super-hero children.
It’s brilliantly written, engaging for both children and adults, and very easy to read out loud (I say this from personal experience, having read the whole series over the course of many bedtimes). The plot is very nicely worked out, the action and situations make you really feel for the protagonist and by the end of the book all the main characters have changed or transformed in some way, usually for the better (except for the villain, obviously).
And it’s got a fun cover! The simple, hand-drawn style with massive title words really made it stand out from other books at the time. And I’m glad it did. I could happily read them all myself on a train journey.
writing tip
Again, actual writing has been very sparse of late. But I’ve still been making notes on a few ideas for new stories and also for older story plans that I still haven’t written yet.
And this is my big tip this week: if you have an idea, make sure you write it down IMMEDIATELY. Do not delay grabbing a pen or pencil and applying it to your notebook, scrap of paper or back of an envelope. Many a great idea has been lost between the spark in the brain and the pen hovering over the paper. Keep a notebook with you, or at least just a pen (you can always find something to write on, even just the back of your hand!).
I sometimes go back through my notebooks and find ideas that I’d completely forgotten about, or thoughts on changes to characters or plots that led to a real improvement in the novel. Notebooks can be very inspiring and contain all the raw energy you felt around those fresh sparks, reminding you of the vitality you felt in that monment and energising you all over again. Well worth it.
What I’m working on
I promised not to talk about all the tech and back-end complexity I’ve been dealing with, so I won’t. I’ve actually also spent a lot of time re-formatting the first two Our Weird World books since getting the proofs last week – tweaking the font size, line width and margins, as also re-formatting the cover designs (there’s a whole world of tech around creating crisp, clear, print-ready PDF files that I won’t go into, either).
In amongst all this, I’ve also been working on an ebook version of my first solo book project. Ten years ago, in May 2014, I published ‘The Great Idea Generator’ – an activity book for ages 7-97, in which you get crazy, illogical, laugh-out-loud ideas for drawings, stories, meals, characters and more using word grids and a dice. To mark this anniversary, I decided to make it digital.
It never made it to being an ebook because, at the time, the technology wasn’t there to do it well enough and I thought it best to just focus on print copies. Times have since changed and, thanks to Atticus, I’m able to put it together well enough to be proud of! As of last night, it’s now live on Amazon – click this sentence to go through and have a look. It’s also free as a secret gift to people who sign up for my mailing list and make it all the way through the welcome sequence!
upcoming events
The first two books in the Our Weird World series will very soon be available on both Amazon and BookVault (or their Great British Bookshop outlet), and I’ll be doing a special announcement for that!
And I’m still looking forward to the Self-Publishing Show Live conference at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London on June 25-26!
Other than that, there’s a bank holiday weekend coming up and half term next week. The perfect backdrop to getting the covers finalised for the next two books!
Until next time, have a good week!
All the best,
Doug 🙂