Dublin Book Festival

Dublin Book Festival is one of Ireland’s most successful and vibrant book festivals.  This annual public Festival showcases, supports and develops Irish Publishing by programming, publicising and selling Irish published books, their authors, editors and contributors all in an entertaining, festive, friendly and accessible environment that reflect the creativity and personality of the Irish Publishing sector and its authors.

What's on link here

A delicious menu includes:
Friday, 11 November 1:10 pm - 2:00 pm
Boys' School, Smock Alley Theatre
Slake Your Thirst – The Future Always Makes Me So Thirsty: New Poets from the North of Ireland

Saturday, 12 November 10:00 am - 1:00 pm
Main Theatre, Smock Alley Theatre
Dublin City Public Libraries Reader’s Day
With Mia Gallagher, Diarmuid Gavin, Mike McCormack, Deirdre Purcell and Donal Ryan in conversation with Dave Kenny

Saturday, 12 November 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm
Boys' School, Smock Alley Theatre
Poetry Ireland: The Rising Generation
With Jane Clarke, Christodoulos Makris, Julie Morrissy and Ciaran O’Rourke with music from Sive

Date/Time
Date(s) - Saturday, 12 November 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm
Boys' School, Smock Alley Theatre
Salmon Poetry Anniversary Event. Even The Daybreak: 35 Years of Salmon Poetry
With many of Salmon’s outstanding poets taking part, including Seamus Cashman, Mary Dorcey, Jean O’Brien, Mark Granier, Colm Keegan, Mary O’Donnell, Maurice Harmon, Alvy Carragher, Anne Hartigan, Phil Lynch, Alan Jude Moore, Patrick Chapman and more!

Saturday, 12 November 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Main Theatre, Smock Alley Theatre
Looking at the Stars
With Colin Barrett, Tara Flynn, Joseph O’Connor and Mary O’Donnell in conversation with Rick O’Shea

Sunday, 13 November 1:30 pm - 2:30 pm
Main Theatre, Smock Alley Theatre
Magazines and their Makers with Brendan Barrington, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Tony O’Dwyer, Olivia Smith and Susan Tomaselli in conversation with Paula Shields

Sunday, 13 November 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm
The Workmans Club
The Magazine Social with Angela Carr, Oisín Fagan, Caelainn Hogan, Pat O’Connor, Deirdre Sullivan and Dimitra Xidous

I could go on.

Unbound Short Story Prize

Unbound is crowdfunding, a relatively new way of published so please enter eyes open.

To celebrate the fifth birthday of Unbound, the founders are delighted to announce the first Unbound Short Story Prize.

Deadline 31st October 2016

The competition is open to writers from all over the world, writing in any style or genre, and there is a prize fund of £5,000. The top 20 stories will be published in the Unbound Short Story Prize Anthology.

The author of the winning story will receive £2,000 and be offered a book deal with Unbound.

Like all Unbound books, this one is being crowdfunded. Our hope is that we will find short story enthusiasts, both writers and readers, who want to help us make this anthology a reality.
The book will be published once we hit 100% and the closing date has passed, with everyone who helped to crowdfund it getting a special Unbound edition, and another edition appearing later in bookshops

Rules

1. The maximum length per story submitted is 5,000 words but there is no minimum length. Flash fiction will be accepted. Stories can be in any style or genre and tackle any theme or subject.

2. The prize is open to all published and unpublished writers from anywhere in the world but all entries should be in English and entrants must be over 16 years old on the closing date, 31st October 2016.

3. Submitted stories should not have previously been published in print or online. There is no need to submit at the time of pledging.

4. Entries must be entirely the work of the entrant. No plagiarism or copying. We cannot accept simultaneous submissions.

5. All entrants must agree that, if shortlisted, their work will be published in the Unbound Short Story Prize Anthology book and ebook. Authors retain copyright of their work at all times but Unbound has first publication rights.

6. Each of the shortlisted authors will receive one free copy of the Unbound Short Story Prize Anthology, in addition to the copy they receive as part of their pledge, and will be able to purchase further copies at a discount of 50%.

7. No entrant may win more than one prize. The prize will be judged by the Unbound editorial team who will select a longlist of 50 titles before selecting 20 prize winners. The judges decision is final and no individual correspondence will be entered into regarding the selection.

8. Prizes are: 1st prize-£2000, 2nd prize -£800, 3rd prize -£500. Each of the 17 remaining shortlisted writers will receive £100.

9. Entrants who have paid for critiques and feedback will be contacted once the longlist has been announced.

10. This competition, like all projects at Unbound, is crowdfunded. In the unlikely event that the book does not hit its target all entrants will be offered a full refund.

To enter visit this page to make your pledge.

The Poetry Book Fair Competition

There is a wonderful sounding poetry book festival in London, Conway Hall 17th September. I hope Poetry Ireland is taking some Irish publishers over to spread the word.

They have a competition.
1 x WINNER will receive: £200 to spend at the fair,  A short reading at the fair,
Your poem displayed to hundreds of visitors on the day

3 x RUNNERS UP will receive: £20 to spend at the fair, A short reading at the fair
 Your poem displayed to hundreds of visitors on the day 

Judged by Joey Connolly, Chrissy Williams Guest Judge: Jo Shapcott

Deadline: Monday 1st August, 2016 

How to Enter: We’re looking for a short poem (14 lines max.) about love – any kind of love – to welcome visitors to this year’s Poetry Book Fair at Conway Hall, London, on Saturday 17th September 2016.

Visit this webpage  to see the full rules and regulations, and to enter

Fees are £5 for one poem, or £10 for three poems.

Penguin Ireland

A message from the new editor, Claire Hennessy at Penguin Ireland tells me to spread the word that they are actively seeking children’s and YA submissions at the moment, particularly fiction for 7+.

As with all submissions to publishers, agents or magazines, read the submission requirements very carefully and adhere to them to the letter.

We strongly encourage submissions via email, to: submissions@penguin.ie.
If you wish to submit electronically, please send a Word document consisting of a cover letter, short synopsis (no more than 500 words) and the work itself. The cover letter should include a brief summary of your book (a couple of sentences – not a synopsis) and a short note on yourself. Please do not send separate documents: all three elements should be included in a single document.

More details here

Also do your homework, what else have they published recently?

So if you have something, buff it up and send it to Claire. 

Report on a workshop run by Neil Astley

Neil Astley is the editor of the brilliant and highly regarded published Bloodaxe Books. My lovely Dad, John Prior (as seen in Poetry Bus 3, Rialto and others) went to a workshop he gave recently in Norwich and wrote up a report which he has kindly agreed to share with you here.

REPORT OF A TALK BY NEIL ASTLEY

THE EDITOR OF BLOODAXE BOOKS

GIVEN AT THE WRITERS CENTRE NORWICH

NOVEMBER 11th 2013

The twelve attendees at this meeting had all been published: all with magazines, one had been mentored through the Writers' Centre and one had been through the UEA poetry course.

Neil's talk was mainly concerned with getting your first collection published but on the way he gave excellent advice for poets right through the writing process. I shall follow this route in my report, beginning with the poem itself through to full publication.

Before doing this it is worth pointing out the there are large numbers of people writing poems. For example, the recent National Poetry competition received 40,000 entries. Some were from overseas of course, but generally it 's fair to say that huge numbers of people are poets.

He went on to say that a survey showed that books are bought by only 63% of the population. Only 1% of these purchasers buy poetry and of this 1% only 5% of books are by living writers. Of these living writers 67% of the books were by Seamus Heaney. It must be said though that the figures not absolutely recent.  This was in the year of Beowulf. Nevertheless it is obvious that the market is small and the competition intense.

THE POEM ITSELF

The advice Neil gave applies to all stages i.e. ….

95% of poems written and entered for competitions are unsuitable.

Why?

1. They are not crafted i.e. it's prose chopped into lines, and there's no metre or             rhythmical sense.

2. It's obvious the writer never reads other poets and that their experience of       poetry comes from poorly remembered school lessons.

3. There are awkward rhymes with the inversion of words.

And less serious but still failings (though the judges might read the fault):

4. In the middle of a good poem there’s a 'wrong note': a line or word that jars or is             syntactically wrong or grammatically wrong.

5. It's boring. It might be OK but it's anodyne. This particularly applies to writers out       of writing schools.

6. The poem sounds too much like an existing writer.

HOW TO IMPROVE

He gave advice as to how to improve and rid yourself of the above errors.

a. Read your stuff aloud

b. Workshop your poems with other poets – the more skilled the better.

c. Go to groups and on courses e.g. Arvon, Ty Newydd (Wales) and there are      some University courses.

d. Above all: read, think, and write.

Luckily, at the talk in Norwich, all twelve people were already doing these things and many of the readers of this report will have heard it all before.

THE COMPETITIONS

Neil has been a judge many times. He admitted that after a long list has been drawn up the process is a bit of a lottery. The judges don't always agree so that sometimes the winner is the poem least disliked by all the judges.

In the smaller competitions the poems may be filtered through less reliable readers.

The numbers of entries can be too tiring for the judges. He suggested that more than one poem should be entered because, although no names are on the pages, the numbers are in sequence so that not all the poems by the same poet are likely slip through unnoticed. Also two good ones carry more weight.

If it's a big competition you are up against the best so you have to be the best.

The big competitions can result in the next stage being offered e.g. pamphlet publication or full publication. Big competitions include: The Arvon, The National, The Cardiff, the Cheltenham, the Plough and Basil Bunting. You will need to check the Poetry Library website for the current list. (www.poetrylibrary.org.uk )

It was reassuring to learn that the major competitions are truly open.

PAMPHLETS

These are sometimes called Chapbooks (an American term). These are small booklets sometimes sold at readings. They contain a small number of poems. The number and the rules for your submission vary but once again look at the relevant website for details. A number of publishers take on Chapbooks including Mariscat, Doughnut, Hearing Eye, Flipped Eye, Rack Press, Templar, Rialto, Cinnamon Press, Nine Arches, Flarestack, Smiths/Doorstop, Lighthouse an IOTA. Some of these run competitions for pamphlets. Check before sending.

The sort of poems that will attract publication are:

1. Faultless poems.

2. Coherent poems e.g. in the same voice and possibly with a unifying theme.   Bloodaxe is proud to publish and to have published many women poets and people    from mixed and ethnic minorities.

THE MAIN PUBLISHERS

Faber, Picador, Carcanet (the c's are hard), Bloodaxe. Not all of these take unsolicited MS.

Also note that submissions to Carcanet are through Oxford Poets.

Chatto might be starting a poetry list.

The etiquette is to send full submissions to only one publisher at a time, of 64 pages or roughly 50 poems.

OR you can send samples of 6 to 10 poems to some or all of the publishers. e.g. simultaneous submissions.

There should be a strong covering letter, not rambling, of course, but mentioning you existing publications and including your email address and a stamped addressed envelope. If you're older (and one or two of the participants were older) Neil suggested you shouldn't mention your age because each publisher is looking for a long term investment.

Neil gets 5,000 MS in his slush pile in a year. He reads them all but may take months to respond.

If you are taken on, the time from acceptance to publication could be 14 months and your advance could be £500.

THE INTERNET

Here the situation is constantly changing.

You can publish an e-book for an e-reader. The best poems for an e-reader have short lines so that they look good on the page. An iPad can make poems look more attractive and add sound. The internet itself can act as self promotion e.g. through blogs or u-tube readings.

Some magazines publish on the internet only and these are read by poets other than those who submit.

SELF PUBLICATION

This has a bad name for itself but self publication can work, provided that you don't pay a commercial firm to publish and promote you.

Neil recommended Lulu which is an internet business supplying print on demand. They give the publication an ISBN number, and print exactly the numbers you ask for. You design the cover, arrange the internal layout etc. and transmit this as a file to Lulu. The costs are transparent on the website and when you receive your copies you are on your own, though more copies can easily be printed. Established poets self-publish and distribute and sell books like these at public readings.

Apologies if you are familiar with much of this report but I'm certain that not one of the listeners on November 11^th knew it all. I certainly didn't.

 One or two among the twelve, may have been discouraged by the general gist of Neil's talk but personally I felt he gave us a useful guide as to how, with time and dedication, one might become better.

John Prior 14.11.13

Published Short Story Competition on Writing.ie

Have you had a short story published this year? Check this competition out.


This is a new category in the prestigious Bord Gais Energy Irish Book Awards, the Writing.ie Short Story of the Year Award, and is open to short stories of up to 7,000 words published between 1^st Nov 2012 and 31^st October 2013 in any of the following contexts:

• a collection of short stories by a single author; 
• an anthology of short stories; 
• or an established journal or magazine, digital or print, that has been in existence for at least six months within the period of eligibility.

Stories must be original fiction, i.e. neither a reprint nor adaptation of a previously-published work, and all stories must have been or will be published in English or Irish during the qualifying period.

Stories published in Irish must be supplied with an English translation.

The author must be Irish by birth, citizenship or long-term residence.

Stories may only be submitted by the editor of the publication in which the story appears, with full permission of the author, with a maximum of one story per edition or collection. Self published works, at this stage, are not admissible.

Stories should be submitted via the online form here. Closing date for entries is 1^st September 2013.

Submissions will be judged anonymously, the long list read by an independent panel of four judges.

• Author and tutor on Trinity College’s MPhil in Creative Writing, Carlo Gebler; 
• Director of Dublin City of Literature Jane Alger;  
• Author and bookseller Adrian White of Dubray Books 
• Writing.ie’s Irish editor Cathal Póirtéir,

The judging panel will select the final four stories to be shortlisted for the Literary Academy and public vote. 

These stories must be available to be read online, at the publisher’s website or at www.writing.ie.

Link here

Publication - how it works

There are frequently presentations on how publishing works. They do tend to say the same thing over and over again but as there are always writers who are new to the scene, it must bear repeating.

This is what they will say:

• Publishing is a really hard business
• Check the publishers submission guidelines and follow them to the letter
• Don't expect any response quickly
• Don't call asking why you haven't heard anything
• Don't say your mother/husband/kids love it in your cover letter
• Don't expect to earn much
• Children's books: Don't send illustrations or stories in rhyme
• Develop a thick skin: Just because on publisher rejects your writing, doesn't mean another won't love it
• Send your writing out to develop a CV of publishing and/or competitions accomplishments
• Don't expect feedback from publishers

 I'm not sure what they will say on self-publishing but I doubt it will be encouraging.

If you haven't been to one before, I recommend you go before you start sending out. It may help to ease heartache.

Meath County Council Arts Office is delighted to host this informative and instructive Writer’s Clinic, From Inspiration to Publication, in partnership with the Irish Writers Centre as part of its Professional Development Programme FEACH.

This practical and helpful clinic is an opportunity for both aspiring and professional writers to meet with industry experts and to gain a greater understanding of how the industry works. Writers of all backgrounds are invited to attend.

The clinic will be facilitated by Patricia Deevy of Penguin Ireland, Faith O’Grady, literary agent, and acclaimed writer Dermot Bolger (right).

This event will run from 6pm – 9pm on Tuesday 26 March in Ashbourne Cultural Centre, Killegland Street, Ashbourne, Co. Meath.

During this clinic writers will:

• Gain a greater understanding of the creative writing industry in Ireland
• Become informed of how the industry works
• Get advice on the next steps for their own projects
• Develop a greater understanding of their own practice
• Develop invaluable contacts and network opportunities

Places are free but booking is essential at Meath County Council Arts Office on 046 9097414 or artsoffice@meathcoco.ie

Olive O'Brien on starting Silver Angel Publishing

I always intended to write a book, particularly one for children. But with a hectic work schedule and with so many other things going on in my life, I just never got around to doing it.

This all changed in 2008 when I set off on a solo trip around the world. It was a real eye opener and I returned to Ireland a very different person. I took this as an opportunity to write a book and a few months later, my first book Perry the Playful Polar Bear was finished. 

As I had put some time into writing my first story, I really wanted to see it in print. However, I found out pretty quickly that as printing costs are so high, most Irish publishers don’t publish picture books. As traditional publishing wasn’t an option, I started to look into the whole area of self-publishing.

I never worked in publishing and had so many questions such as; how do you self publish a book? How do you sell and promote it?!

Fortunately, Dan Poynter’s Self Publishing Manual (a must-read for anyone who is considering publishing their own book) answered some of these questions and I began to take the first tentative steps towards publishing my own book.

I decided to set up my own publishing company, Silver Angel Publishing to publish and distribute my children’s book. First, I needed an illustrator and looked at several portfolios before I decided on an amazing illustrator called Nina Finn-Kelcey, who has worked with me over the last two years. With the number of illustrations, I also felt that it would be best to employ a graphic designer to design the cover, lay out the interior and prepare it for print.

Once the file was print-ready, I sourced a printer. A local company gave me a competitive price and I printed 1,000 copies of my book. So, my first book Perry the Playful Polar Bear was printed and ready to go.

Now all I had to do was sell it.

An independent bookshop in Cork agreed to hold my first launch in November 2009 and I managed to blag some press attention. An article on the book and launch appeared in a local newspaper which was followed by positive reviews in the Irish Examiner and Primary Times. My book also won the children’s books category in the 2009 DIY Book Festival which honours the best of independent and self-published books.

The launch and subsequent sales exceeded my expectations, which prompted me to release a second children’s book, Perry the Polar Bear Goes Green in 2010.  This eco-friendly book teaches children about the effects of global warming through the eyes of a polar bear cub and has drawn plaudits from the INTO for making the recycling process accessible and compelling to children.

Shortly after the launch of my second book, I set up www.creativewriting.ie an online writing community which offers online and correspondence writing courses. Until then I distributed my books through my website however I found myself becoming busier and busier. So, I went about sourcing a distributor and luckily Gill and Macmillan agreed to take on my books. I also employed a book sales agent which freed up a considerable amount of time.

My third and most recent book Eco Zico was released at the end of 2010 which shows children how everyday actions can make a difference to the world around them and earlier this month, an interactive book app for the iPad was launched on iTunes (link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ecozico/id478600242?mt=8) based on Eco Zico.

It has been a major learning experience, but one that has proven worthwhile. I not only love writing children’s books, but also enjoy visiting schools and libraries around Ireland to carry out book readings and workshops. In addition, Silver Angel Publishing was recently shortlisted for the 2012 David Manley Emerging Entrepreneur Awards. My books are available in major book chains and independent bookstores across the country and are distributed in the United Kingdom by various educational suppliers.  

The United States is the next port of call, which will be a tough nut to crack but fingers crossed for next year. I also hope to publish a fourth children’s book in the New Year and you can check out my website at www.silverangelpublishing.com for updates

.

Follow me on twitter at @oliveobrien or find me on facebook at www.facebook.com/oliveobrien. Books available for purchase at www.silverangelpublishing.com

How to publish women writers

An interesting blogpost here with suggestions on how to ensure women are better represented in publishing. As in being published (and reviewed)

women are not published nearly as much as men in most venues in the literary world

The usual excuses are:

• what we publish is representational of the submissions. Apparently about 75% of the slushpiles are usually from men though I would imagine each slushpile varies greatly.
• women's submissions are less likely to meet our standards
• we do publish women (but not very loudly)
• we consider sexist allusions to be witty and acceptable.

The blogger, Annie Fisch suggestions include:

• Actively solicit contributions from women. i.e. invite them specifically to submit (Call me, email me, tweet me)
• Educate yourself on what women like to read and write (OK not so sure about that one as not every women has the same boxes to tick)
• Read with double awareness (if the writer you are reading is of a different gender, race, class, background, country be self aware of your responses) That's a good suggestion. But I would hope that they are doing it already or am I deluded? 

The writer then goes out to suggest that some women write about small, trivial subjects. That's in the eye of the beholder though.Then she suggests the editors should ask themselves if they publish writing that reads like women's writing. And I'm not talking about childbirth, menstruation and shopping.

• Next the exercise for the blushing editor is to put on a rampant, angry feminist hat (I have a few in my wardrobe you can borrow if you like) and read through stuff you've published. Look at the featured artists, the cover names, the reviewees. Are you mollified or are you an angry moll?

Here are the stats. Quite shocking really. I wonder what it would look like in Irish publications. 

Here's an interesting (actually worringly, off putting) piece about women's writing.

How to get a Poetry Collection Published

First published on my blog at writing.ie


Here are some links for a subject that is taxing me currently. So if any publishers want to have a chat with me, my email's on the sidebar!


How to approach a poetry publisher by Neil Astley (Bloodaxe poetry publisher) at the Guardian
e.g.

• Don't submit to publishers unless you've read their books, or to magazines unless you're familiar with the kind of work they publish.

So true

• And Publish a poetry Pamphlet.

Done http://bit.ly/katespoems

• While you should only submit your book to one publisher at a time, it is acceptable to send a small sample (half a dozen of your best poems) to several publishers with a letter asking if they'd like to see the full manuscript. 

• don't expect to make much money from it.

And a slightly different slant from Roddy Lumsden (poet) from The Artists And Writers Yearbook.

• Many writers, with hindsight, feel their first books lack cohesion. 
• A few hundred poetry collections by individual writers are published most years. Most – admirable though they may be – are small-scale, from local presses, in pamphlet form, in small print runs. The better-known independent poetry presses (Anvil, Bloodaxe, Carcanet, Salt, Seren and others) publish over 150 books between them, while the few commercial presses (Cape, Chatto, Picador, Faber) venture around 50 between them.  
• The work I read was generally impressive, carefully assembled by capable writers and much of it as good as work I’d recently seen in book form. ... after a while, I found myself growing impatient with poems which were well written but overfamiliar in style and subject matter.

Summary:

• Write some really good poems
• Workshop them with poets who's opinions you respect
• Read contemporary poetry and buy magazines and collections
• Go to Poetry Readings and events
  
• Submit to smaller magazines, paper and online
• Read your poems at open mics and events
  
• Submit to larger, more well known magazines
• Publish a poetry pamphlet
• Win some competitions and awards
• Submit 6 poems to the publishers with whose work you are familiar
• Don't give up the day job

Brittle Star Magazine

Brittle Star is an international literary magazine that has been dedicated for a decade to publishing new poetry and short fiction. It has earned a reputation for providing a platform for writers at the beginning of their careers, many of whom have seen their work in print for the first time.

As well as great new poetry and fiction, the magazine has regular and inspiring critical features, including interviews with established writers (David Constantine, Jeremy Hooker, Mimi Khalvati, Galway Kinnell and more), close readings and in-depth articles on literature.

There's a review of one of the issues here that gives a flavour of the type of things they like. Of course, I recommend you ALWAYS buy a copy of a magazine before you submit to it. I do. ALWAYS. It's only polite (and sensible)

Brittle Star welcomes submissions of unpublished, original work in the following categories:

Poetry: 1 – 4 poems

Short fiction: 1 – 2 stories up to 2000 words each (double-line spaced)

Deadline for issue 30: 28 October 2011.

Please send to:

Brittle Star
PO Box 56108
London
E17 0AY

Link here

Revival Literary Journal

Revival Literary Journal is calling for submissions from local, national and international poets and writers for the next issue (No.21) which will be published in Limerick, November 2011.

Submissions, poetry and short fiction or extracts (500 words) now being sought for the next issue (Nov 2011). Also Review and Criticism pieces. They are also interested in receiving black and white images/line drawings for inclusion.

Deadline: Fri 16th Sept 2011
Hard Copy Submissions should also include a CD disc of the submission.

Send to: The Editor, Revival, Moravia, Glenmore Ave., Roxboro Rd., Limerick.

Email: revival1@eircom.net

Submission guidelines: www.revivalpress.com

How to Publish your eBook Part 4

So you've formatted your eBook here
created a lovely cover here
created a Smashwords account
and published it on Smashwords here.

The first thing you should do is to check that the different version created by the meatgrinder on Smashwords are readable. Sometimes there can be wierd characters that leave great big gaps or mess up the fonts.

The different versions are described here.

First download the versions you can read on your PC. PDF, Plain Text, HTML, Javascript, RTF and scan through to check the formatting.

Download the adobe digital reader here to read epub for iPads, Nooks etc.

If you don't have a kindle to check out the Mobi file, download Kindle for PC here or the Mobipocket reader here.

Those are the main ones. If these are OK, the other less common ones probably are too.

If there are any formatting problems, you can correct them in the original .doc document and on the Dashboard screen, click Upload a new version.

How to Create an eBook - Part 3

You've formatted your eBook
here

(or paid someone to do it)

You've created a cool cover here (or paid an aspiring graphics designer to do so)

You've created an account at smashwords (More on account related stuff later)

Now to publish your book.

Click Publish.
Enter the Title
A Short Description up to 400 characters. This is the all important blurb that readers read before they descide to download your book. It should be in the same style as the book and have a great hook.

Mine is:

Zoë Madison has escaped to an uneventful life in Dublin when she gets a call from sexy, celebrity gardener Larry Harte. Larry has found that her New Age hippy mother worked for Larry's popstar father before he died. But is there more to the story? The paparazzi certainly think so and pursue them across Ireland as they delve into the past and face the future. Life is the Story of Plan B.

Then an extended description, up to 4,000 characters. This is optional but I think you might as well use it. Don't just repeat what's in the short description as they usually display one after the other.

Language

Adult Content Flag - has to be pretty wild to be considered, I think.

Pricing Tricky one this. If you just want people to read your eBook, out it out for free or put it out for free for a while at the start. If you want to make some money, most people tend towards charging $2.99. If you charge less, e.g. €0.99, there are some places that won't take them as their cut is too low. But google around for thoughts on this. You can change to price at any time.

Sampling. I think 25% is best. If someone downloads 25% and reads that, they should really be into it by then and should pay for the remaining 75%. If they don't want to read on, you've lost nothing.

Categories Add two categories. e.g. Fiction > Literature > Mystery and Detective or Romance or Poetry Anthology or whatever.

Tags are used by search engines to find books that fit the searchers criteria. So if your book is a Romance in Shetland involving sheep, boats and a pregnant protagonist, those would be your tags. Or a murder mystery in Tipperary with vampires and hobbits or whatever.

eBook formats Choose them all. Why not?

Cover imageYou previously created jpg file from your PC.

files of book to be publishedYour labour of love, correctly formatted and saved in word 97 format (.doc)

Read the terms (i.e. it's your book and you know what you're doing) and hit Publish.

What happens next?
It goes into the meatgrinder queue which turns it into the (currently) 7 formats, checking for basic errors.
This stage used to take ages but now it's pretty quick.

There may be formatting errors reported. If it's not obvious what the problem is, you may have to start again and use the nuke method (see previous post). It's either that you have the copyright and header bit wrong or formatting.

If you're successful,

Congratulations. Your work...has been published on Smashwords and is now available for readers.

you're published! Congratulations.

You do need to assign an ISBN. Why? Smashwords retailers such as Apple and Sony will not accept your Smashwords book unless you have a unique e-ISBN.

I'd recommend using the free ISBNs for now from smashwords. Go to the ISBN manager and select the FREE one.

OK that's enough for now. You're published. Next to check the formatted copies, look at getting paid and also at Amazon.

Next Steps to Publish your Beautifully Formatted eBook - The Cover

Book Cover. You need a book cover. Ideally you will make your own, using your graphic design skills. It doesn't have to be fancy, but it does have to look like a book.

Have a look on Amazon at other book covers of the same type you are writing. Don't steal someone's photo from the internet. There are plenty of very reasonably priced photos if you can't make one yourself. You can adapt an existing picture with readily available picture software. I use Corel Photo House but other people use Paint if they don't have Adobe Photoshop.

Put your book title in large letters as the cover will often be quite small as a thumbnail. And it has to have your name or pen name on it too.

My cover isn't any great shakes, frankly and I'm considering redoing it. This picture, by the way, is the warning sign at The Cliffs of Moher.

Check the dimensions of existing covers. Mine is 832 pixels by 1280 pixels and 150 dpi. (Smashwords say 500 by 700 but I thought this looked a bit odd next to thumbnails for paper books.)

The well known blogger Catherine Ryan Howard recommends a cover designer here who, I think does a good job.

7 Steps to Format Your eBook

Do you have a masterpiece wilting in a drawer/on your hard disk? Do you have a book ready that is for a small readership? Do you want to share your work? Do you want to make money (actually the last one is not a given, not by a long stretch)

My first novel, The Story of Plan B, was shortlisted for the London Lit Idol but it had been sitting on my hard drive ever since, pretty well. So having seen some other people I knew successfully publish their books as eBooks, I decided it was a waste to keep it just to myself and to share. I published it as an eBook.

Step 1. Start, I think with Smashwords. This site has been going for ages

Smashwords is an ebook publishing and distribution platform, serving authors, publishers, readers and major ebook retailers. Smashwords is ideal for publishing novels, personal memoirs, poetry chapbooks, short and long-form fiction, and non-fiction. If you've written it, we want to help you share it and sell it!

So create an account. At this point you can download or sample loads of other books. Have a look around. There's a whole world of eBooks out there, some wonderful, some less so. How do you tell the difference? Same as paper books. Word of mouth, reviews, popularity and by reading samples.

Step 2. First, and really, really importantly, read through your book looking for typos and grammar errors. Yes, use the spellchecker and grammar checker but that is not enough. There will be typos. Find them. Exterminate them. Ideally use another reader. You can pay a professional. Be ruthless. Even then, there may still be typos. And it's really annoying for your readers and a sign of an indie-publisher.

Step 3. Now format your book. Do what I didn't do at the start and try and use your current version. If you're anything like me, you've been working on it for years. It's been through the mill. It's been rewritten, edited, cut and pasted, different version of Microsoft Word, or whatever your chosen word processor is. You've changed fonts, changed them back.

Step 4. So do what Smashwords call the Nuclear Option. Open a new document. Select all in your current novel. (Ctrl-A) Paste without formatting into the new document.

(This is Word 2007. You're version may look a little different)

Step 5. Now you should go back and correct the formatting.
Use Normal Style for the whole book. There's a big long spiel in the Smashwords style guide on paragraphs, well worth a read if your knowledge of styles in Word is any way shaky. To summarise, use one indent at the start of each paragraph, single line spacing or multiple a max of 1.15, no blank line after each paragraph.

Chapters are different in eBooks. In paper books, a new chapter will start on a fresh page. In an eBook, you don't know how big a 'page' is so each chapter starts after a couple of blank lines from the previous chapter.

“Hello?” I said again. Something was wrong. I looked at the phone. It was upside down. I turned it the right way up. “Hello?” I said for the fourth time. “This is Zoë Madison. Who is this?”

~~~~~~

Chapter 2

Two minutes later I sat down on the sofa, my head whirring. Larry Harte was still on the TV, digging steadily through a bed of muddy earth. The muscles of his shoulders moved under his olive-coloured T-Shirt. The hand-knitted jumper was draped over the red wheelbarrow.

I have the Chapter markers in Heading 2.  I have one blank line at the end of Chapter 1. a line of squiggles. Another blank line, Chapter 2, a blank line Then the first paragraph of Chapter 2.

So get rid of all your page breaks, section breaks, whatever. Get rid of all your multiple blank lines. Don't mess with Tabs.

If you need anything more fancy, change those paragraphs individually.

Smashwords recommends using one font (Times New Roman, Helvetica, Verdana, Whichever appeals but is easily readable. Font size doesn't matter, as long as it is consitent. eReaders can modify font size to suit the reader.

This shouldn't take hours to do.

Step 6. The start of your book must have the title, author, "SMASHWORDS EDITION", a copyright notice and may have a brief link to your website or blog. This is mine

The Story of Plan B

by

Kate Dempsey

Copyright Kate Dempsey 2011

SMASHWORDS EDITION

Read more news, views and stories on her wildly popular blog emergingwriter.blogspot.com

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Step 7. And at the end of the book, you should put something about yourself and point the reader in the direction of other books or blogs or whatever.

THE END

Kate Dempsey is a writer and poet living in Ireland. Her poetry and fiction is widely published in Ireland, the UK and Europe in magazines and anthologies as well as RTE radio and in the Poolbeg/RTE anthology 'Do The Write Thing.' She has won and been nominated for prizes which include the Hennessy New Irish Writing for Poetry and Short Fiction, Frances MacManus Short Story Award, The Plough Prize and the Cecil Day Lewis Award. reads with the Poetry Divas Collective who love to blur the wobbly boundaries between page and stage and are available to perform at all cool events.

Read her blog at emergingwriter.blogspot.com

Tweet at PoetryDivas and let her know what you thought of the book.

OK, that's enough to be going on with. Next post addresses the legendary 'meatgrinder' which formats your book for all sorts of platforms and cruel, autovetter errors. Also pricing and coupons.