Saturday 27 September 2014

The Middle Part

The last few weeks since uploading my first book to Amazon has been spent busily tapping away at the second book in the trilogy, tentatively entitled Iron City Uprising.

So far, things have been going pretty well, and I'm roughly a third of the way through my first draft. It is looking to be somewhat longer than the first book, though not by a significant amount. At least that's the plan. I am hoping to have it finished, with luck, by the end of next month at the latest. Barring any unforeseen occurrences of course.

In any case, I thought it was worthwhile sharing a passage from one of the earlier chapters in the book. This section is for a new point-of-view character, though not a new character to the series. Feel free to comment on it if you wish. I have relatively thick skin.


The largest, and most attention-worthy machine was in the very centre of the far wall. Built from thick poles of iron welded together, it reached from floor to ceiling and took up almost half of the wall. In between the iron bars were sheets of foggy glass that obscured what lay within. Pipes and flexible tubes snaked across the floor and penetrated the structure near the base. The other end of the pipes were connected to a huge beast of a steam engine that was fixed to the side wall and was constantly bellowing fresh vapours up towards the ceiling. More than anything, it reminded Rosalind of a strange, metal and glass coffin. Considering what it contained, the analogy was rather apt.

Thursday 25 September 2014

Writing for Pleasure

I often wonder, as I'm sure a lot of people do, whether authors write because of the lure of potential wealth, or simply for the pure pleasure of putting a good story down on paper. I expect that putting the book up for sale via Amazon or another e-book venture would sway people towards the opinion that it is the former rather than the latter.

For me, it is definitely all about the joy of writing, and the excitement of seeing my work coming together. Don't get me wrong, if I can earn a little bit of money from writing, I'm not going to complain, but it certainly isn't the primary motivator. Certainly not when I sell via an online marketplace as big as Amazon. After all, I am competing against almost three million other books in the kindle store, so the chances of me getting fat and rich from it are slim to nothing.

Not to say that I don't get a thrill every time someone buys a copy of my book. I can be a little obsessive in checking the sales reports almost constantly, but even that is not about the money. It's about seeing whether people find the book interesting enough to want to pay for it.

On the other hand, I expect there are people out there who write for the potential pay cheque rather than because they enjoy it. Like any other profession, writing can attract people who feel it would be a quick way to get rich. From my limited experience, however, I would say that's a misguided assumption. There's the already mention competition, which in itself is a huge hurdle to overcome, but there are numerous others. The contents of the book have to be well written, entertaining, and have the ability to grab a reader right from the start, then never let go. When self publishing, there is also the issue of getting a great, eye-catching cover; marketing (there's a real nightmare if you ever want one!); attracting a following; and just getting noticed. Unless you are really, really lucky, or just fantastic at all of those things, the sales are not going to come fast.

Which brings me right back to writing for pleasure.

I firmly believe that if you write, not with the intent of making a fortune, but because you love it, then eventually, the sales, and success will come anyway. In all honesty, and speaking strictly for myself here, I would not write if I didn't enjoy it. It's an effort, and it takes longer than you would imagine to write a novel sized book. It is hard enough motivating myself to sit down and write as it is, but if I didn't enjoy it? Not a chance I'd be able to get my rear-end in a chair and my fingers on the keyboard.

So, I'll continue to write so long as I'm having fun. That's what it is all about for me!

Get a copy of my first book, and the opening volume in the Iron City Trilogy at Amazon: Iron City Rebels

Sunday 21 September 2014

The Obligatory Background

I realised quite suddenly, after writing up my first post, that I hadn't bothered to give a background. Being new to blogging, I am not sure if this is a mortal sin in the blogosphere or not, but I decided I should rectify that error sharpish. And so here it is, the obligatory background post! Feel free to skip it if you want. I'm sure there will be more interesting posts coming along.

I started writing at a very early age, and I can still remember, rather vividly, the first story I ever wrote.

It was all the way back in primary school (or elementary school for any American readers). Teacher set a competition for the class to write a story that would be featured and hung on the main bulletin board in the hall for anyone in the school to read. Up until that point, I don't remember ever thinking about writing a story, or writing anything at all for that matter. I was an avid reader though, even at that early age, so I suppose it wasn't too much of a stretch for me to jump in, feet first so to speak.

I submitted my story. Two A4 sized pages worth. Not too shabby for a seven year old. It was named Six Inches High, and it involved a young boy who magically got shrunk down to the titular size. As it happened, the teacher loved it, and it ended up winning. That was a defining moment for me; seeing those two pages hanging up in the school hall, seeing people read them, and of course getting praise for something I had created. It was a rather surreal moment for me, and from then on, there was just no stopping me.

A few years later, after hitting Secondary School, I was still writing away. Back then, most of my writing was aimed at children. Another strong memory for me is spending my entire Easter holidays - the whole two weeks of it - writing a book by hand. I got to 145 pages before running out of time. I clearly remember worrying a few times about the possibility of losing all feeling in my hand.

I still have both of those works at home. Six Inches High has since been typed up, while the second story is still in it's hand written form. The paper is looking faded and the writing is terrible (it was over twenty years ago, what would you expect?), but I'm still fond of it, and rather proud of my tenacity.

Some writing milestones for me? Asking for and receiving a typewriter (yes, the manual kind, with an ink ribbon, keys that had a tendency to stick and made it impossible to feed paper into straight); having two short stories published in a webzine (sadly now defunct); upgrading my manual typewriter to an electric one; finally getting a PC with a word processor!

All in all, it has been a rather eventful journey. But the greatest moment so far? Receiving a print copy of my completed book through the post.

Get a copy of my first book, and the opening volume in the Iron City Trilogy at Amazon: Iron City Rebels

Friday 19 September 2014

The Terror of First Time Publishing

A little under three weeks ago, I uploaded and published my first novel to the kindle store with Amazon. It is a steampunk novel called Iron City Rebels, set within a dystopian city. It chronicles the rise of a rebel faction, and the complications that arise when they go up against the ruling body, and the thuggish police force that serve them.

I had spent the better part of a year writing away at the book, imagining fondly the moment when it would be unleashed unto the world. I pictured it as a sublime moment, when all my dreams and aspirations would be made whole; after all, isn't it the goal of every writer to let loose a finished work and let others devour it? Some may claim to write only for pleasure, but if you write fiction, then you are at heart a story teller, and all story tellers need to have their stories heard.

So, I finished the final draft. It was polished, spell checked, proof read; it was ready to go. I had already decided upon createspace. I knew Kindle would be the main focus, but I really wanted a print copy of my book to keep at home and to fawn over fondly. I spent a day creating a cover, filled in the details I needed, set a price, and hit that publish button.

There followed a period of anxious waiting while everything was reviewed. I needn't have worried, it all came back fine and ready to go. It was then that the terror set in. That final stage was sending it off to kindle, ready for purchase. But what if nobody bought it? Worse yet, what if people bought it, and they hated it. What if the book's page was quickly filled with scathing, derisive views, filled with venom for my dear little book. I wasn't sure I would be able to take that kind of rejection.

But of course, rejection is normal. I don't think there is a writer in existence, living or dead, who has ever written something that was universally admired. If there is, I'd like to shake their hand and buy them a drink. The truth is, that you can only please so many. I knew that when I started writing my book. It was even more true with my novel, since it was geared towards a very specific sub genre within the science fiction category, and it was a near certainty that there would be a limited number of people with a desire to read it.

So I hesitated. I gnawed my fingernails to the quick. I paced. I opened up other browser tags and checked my favourite sites. Anything to delay the inevitable. Despite knowing what I knew, despite telling myself that bad reviews were to be expected, I was still terrified.

And that was normal too.

When we put our work out there to be inspected and scrutinized like a scientist studying a bug under a microscope, fear and anxiety is to be expected. Nobody likes to have their writing criticised, especially by people we don't know and haven't met. It was intimidating.

Eventually of course, I had to make a choice. And it was an easy one at that. I wasn't about to give up on the idea of publishing my book. Not after it had been a dream for so long. And so I hit that last button, sat back, and waited.

And waited.

I wasn't sure what I expected. A sudden influx of eager, anxious readers ready to spend their hard earned money on an author and a book they had never even heard of? Perhaps. But if so, I'd been deluding myself. The sales were slow to come.

Even now, the numbers have barely moved, but that's ok. At least there are no horrible reviews for me to agonise over, right?

Get a copy of my first book, and the opening volume in the Iron City Trilogy at Amazon: Iron City Rebels