Party All Over The World

Well. Despite not being able to buy The Beatle Man on Amazon in the UK at the moment, the booksellers in other parts of the world have sprung into action.

So, the people of Japan, Denmark & Estonia, I say to you, buy the book, love the book and, if you're very talented, read the book!

• Estonia
• Denmark
• Japan

One Step Forward...

Two steps back. First the good news, the book cover art has turned up on the Amazon listing for the book. Which is nice.

Unfortunately, Amazon cancelled the test order I did saying they couldn't get the book and you can no longer buy it. So much for the so-called 'distribution'.

It seems remarkable that (what must be?) an entirely electronic process is so incredibly slow, clunky and beset with problems. Unless it is simply some intransigence relating to BookSurge.

Yours grumpily,
The Typo King

And finally Esther...

Well, well, well. After who knows how long, The Beatle Man is now listed on Amazon (albeit with a somewhat perplexing 'sourcing fee' which will hopefully go and no cover art).

Not entirely as energised by this news as I would have expected, but all things writing are likely to take a back seat for a while until I get the predicted job change out of the way.

Just back from a weekend on the Solway Coast. Very nice it was too. Although, it stayed very grey until the day to come back. As a result the photos were largely of the expected variety...





Finally, many thanks to Anna for sending me my first book review from the US. I'm very glad you liked it.

Butterfly Boy Strikes Back

Well, I just wasn't in the mood tonight. So I watched some football and then did this.





I know this is the cart about 14 miles in front of the horse, but it was a fun diversion for 10 minutes. Many thanks to Elisa Stopponi for letting me use her great image. She is a great talent. I hope that I can get the book finished so this makes it out into the world!

Sadly, I'm pretty much out of "interesting people I have met" stories...

Very Odd Sensation

Hey! Two nights in a row. Not predigous output but definite signs that the butterfly has landed for a while. Just called me Forrest Gumption.
A weird thing happened tonight. The stuff I was trying to right was so bleak (at least that was the intention) that I actually depressed myself writing it. It was very odd. I'm not entirely sure that I can keep this up for a whole book. Which makes me think why the hell anyone would want to read it. I think that until I remember that that is exactly the kind of book I like to read. So, I'll buy a copy.

Ok, so, the Mr. Sulu story (such as it is, I can hear Stu groaning already). I was working in a bookshop on Princes St. It was summer and the festival was in full swing. Who should walk in but George Takei. He was doing a play in the festival about a Japanese guy that thought the war was still on. We held our breath (am I over-egging the tension here?). He did a few laps of the postcard stand and approached the till with 3 postcards. 15p each, "45p please". And he replied with these immortal words:

"Is that a fifty, I'm not familiar with your currency?"*

The rest is all a blur. Suffice to say I didn't utter any embarassments and didn't get an autograph. All I got was my cheapies.

* Yes, I do the voice normally.

Saddle Up and Ride Your Pony

Oooh that was tough. Seems jumping back on the writing pony after so long isn't going to be easy. Still, I soldiered my way to something that resembled output. I'll settle for that. I'm sure it'll get easier.

Wasn't helped by the marvellous David Attenborough staring his new series last night. I was recording it but I was drawn to watch it nonetheless. It's just great to see the joy that all these creatures still give him.

Seems apropos to fess up to the time I met David Attenborough. He was doing a book signed in Glasgow for the Private Life of Plants and I nipped away from work to meet the great man and get a book. All the way along St. Vincent St I was desperately trying to think of what I would say. I don't have many hero-types, so meeting one was a big deal.

I made it to the head of the queue and got my book. And, having thought of nothing else told him what a great pleasure it was to meet him and "it isn't often you got to meet a man who has seen a live coelacanth". He wasn't phased by this idiocy, he looked up and simply said "Yes, yes it's true."

I found out many years later when reading an excellent book on the coelacanth that perhaps he had arrived a while after the coelacanth was caught. But it wasn't clear so I'll give the great man the benefit of the doubt.

Tune in next week folks for "When Scotty met Mr. Sulu."

The Clock is Running

It is too easy to mask lack of progress behind an "I haven't really started yet" excuse. So, with The Beatle Man winging its way to the dark corner of a server somewhere*, it is time to finally declare that work on Terra Exitus has begun. I'll be able to look back at this post and work out how long it took.

I do this with some trepidation as it feels like standing at the bottom of a big hill (again). Although I am far better prepared this time and have a much better idea of how to get to the other side. Obviously, some people, have expressed reservations about the plot, which I will try to overcome. I'm now at the stage where I need to commit to it and see how it starts to pan out. In many ways, it will be much harder to write than The Beatle Man which is why I've decided to be much more freeform in how I approach it.

Expect the "I've done nothing" posts to start some time soon!

(50 geek points to anyone who can tell me what the title of this post refers to.)

* an alternative "Well of Lost Plots" (ffanks Jasper)

"It's gonna be a glorious day!"

Fridays are normally good days. I particularly liked this one for four main reasons:

1. I received the final proof copy of The Beatle Man today and have just approved it for distribution. In about 6 weeks it will be available to buy from all the regular online book retailers.

"We are standing on the edge."

2. I'm going to submit the proof copy to the British Library tomorrow.

3. I discovered, by lucky hap, that That Petrol Emotion has trying to reform for a tour. I'd never considered this was possible not least because the guys had gone on to do their own things and Steve was on the other side of the Altlantic. I very much hope they can get it together and I will do whatever I can to make sure I make to one or more of the gigs nearest to me. True believers unite.

4. I got my Bimbogami T-Shirt today. And very fine it looks too. Watch out for the new live chat feature on the site, I'm almost certainly sure it will be the first puzzle site to provide such a feature.

In other news, I finally got my hands on scottliddell.com. The fools in China must have realised it wasn't going to make them any money. I'm still thinking what precisely to do with it!

978-0-9556830-0-8

After a short sabbatical, I finally got back on the publishing bandwagon tonight. Updated the manuscript to add ISBN and publisher details etc.

The more you look into this, the more nooks and crannies you find. When I get the book published I have to send a copy to the British Library, which is nice. But then I discovered the whole CIP catalogue thing. So, I've submitted the book to the catalogue. If you're going to so something etc...

It's all a bit chicken and egg. I'm not sure if I can still submit to Amazon now coz I think the CIP thing will take a wee while. I suppose the good news is that this gives me some time to do a final proof read (groan).

Since it is all taking a while now, I've added a link from The Beatle Man website so you can buy it now. No point in losing sale :-(

Introducing The Band

After almost interminable provarication, I finally decided on my publishing name, so, gentle reader, I give you "Closed Loop Publishing" (Yes, I have got a degree in Electronics, very rarely referenced and almost entirely forgotten.)

Now I have to prepare the book for publication. Good news is that review is flooded in. A creditable "enjoyable romp" from McGenius. I'll settle for that. I was never trying to redefine the world/genre/anything else. That was the plan way back when when I started, getting away from the navel gazing of Orion's Belt and have a bit of fun.

Thanks to Bri, I also have the spectre of sorting more typos and, as my reader will understand, that's not my favourite past time so, as a result, further progress has been, well...

Still, I have the Xmas hols to give me some time, so maybe then. I can tell you are all getting terribly frustrated with the wait .

I Have In My Hand...

No, not that. I finally got the proof copy of my book and, I have to say, I am pleasantly surprised. I pretty much got the formatting right, a few small things to tweak, which I will do in the revision before it goes to distribution.

Not got the distribution underway yet. Hopefully get the form in tonight. I've been a busy butterfly on something else. Of which, more later.

So much for the soft launch...

Well, the plan was to wait until I had all the ISBN/Amazon nonsense completed before telling people how they could buy the book and releasing it on the world but some quirks of the system have let it loose to those kind souls keen enough to buy a copy before I've had a chance to check that the formatting is OK.

The process requires you to make the book available before you can buy a distribution package. Then Google spiders the page and, whoosh, you can find it and buy it very easily. How long it will take to turn up? I have no idea. There seems to be talk on the forums that UK printing is a little slow at the moment.

I've ordered my proofing copy, so I would still recommend not to plunge for a purchase until I made sure it was OK. But, if you are feeling like a risk taker and want the, soon to be rare, edition with no ISBN number on it then have a look here.

I'm not getting anywhere fast with distribution. I ordered the distribution package on 15th November and have heard nowt since (despite repeated attempts to find out what is going on). I will collect all my experiences to date in a later post.

So, thanks to you 3 bold adventurers that have taken the plunge so far.

Marketing, Shmarketing...

And so thoughts now turn to marketing a book. A bit of an impasse while I await all the ISBN gubbins, so I'm having a think about promoting the book. Clearly, if you write it, they don't come, so something needs to be attempted to overcome that.

I'm not entirely clear on the plan but I've got a few thoughts. My intention is to share what I attempt to do in this regard herein and be as accurate as I can about the relative success or failure. I'm not expecting miracles.

Obviously, I'll start with harassing everyone I know and take it from there. I've started the revamp of The Beatle Man website to get it ready for the influx of reader.

Still to decide how much of a marketing budget I will allow myself. It won't be a lot but I think there is more to be learned from trying a few things. Should be interesting to see what can be acheived promoting a novel.

I'll definitely NOT be buying a "self promotion kit" which seems to consists of a pointless collection of paper.

Muted, Pointless Drumroll Please...

Don't all get too excited, but here is the World Premiere, latest version of the front cover. It will maybe get a little tweak before the final version goes out to distribution. Alternatively, I'll have got bored of it by then and will have a whole new one.




And just when you thought it couldn't get any more exciting, here's the latest back cover too...

Fun-Dabby-Not-Dozy

Well, the plan is working. I'm having fun. Despite it being a little bit fiddly at times, getting The Beatle Man prepared to publish is proving a lot of fun. Not been this energised with it for a long while. So the main goal is being acheived.

It's going pretty quickly now too. A lot of reading and learning but its coming together. Next stage is to sort out the publishing/distribution which, if I've read things correctly, seems reasonably simple.

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions for names for publishers after my appeal on Facebook. I particularly liked Barry's suggestion of "Scott Who?". Sorry Baz, won't be using that one.

I think it'll be in the e-shops before (or soon after) Xmas. I assume the world can't wait. Watch out for the world premiere of the new cover on this blog sometime very soon.

Onward

So, here we are. I've submitted The Beatle Man to a couple of publishers and a few agents and been rejected by all. This would seem to be expected and advice would tell you that you keep on submitting and see how you get on. Well, frankly, I can't be arsed. Its not much fun at all. And what is the point if its not fun?

So, I'm going to have some fun. I'm going to prepare The Beatle Man for self-publishing on Lulu. The simple fact is, I don't know if its good enough to be published or not. I think its good but that really isn't a consideration in the process. You get no feedback, you can make no objective measure of quality, you just have to punt it into the darkness and see what happens.

Sure, I could pay one of these wretched services to read/review/feedback, but that is even less fun.

This is the plan. Lulu and have a go at whatever viral marketing I can muster. It won't be successful, but it will be fun. Formatting/designing/the whole ISBN process. Unless you are one of the poor sods I badger to buy a copy!

I hope to have it ready for the new year. But, knowing me, it could take me that long to decide on the font for the front cover.

This is not an admission of failure*, just an admission of laziness with the process. I once read an article in the Sunday Times where they had submitted the 1st three chapters of very famous books to publishers and saw them all get rejected. Now, my book isn't as good as any of those. Go figure.

Hey, and if its good enough for Radiohead, I can claim to be all 'new model'.

The main thing is that I will be able to draw a line under The Beatle Man and get on with Terra Exitus, still stalled in the "WTF" phase.

* well, maybe a little bit

Plotting...

Slowly and surely they drew their plans against us*. I've done very little work of an evening, there is no denying it. I think I need my holiday which, luckily, arrives next week. The plot for Terra Exitus is moving along but I'm struggling with the fact I can let go of some of the original ideas I had, despite not being able to make them fit the narrative. Obviously, this will have to happen but I'll need bits to replace them. And, as happened with The Beatle Man, making one bit of plot work tends to kick other bits out of shape. At least I'm doing that in advance this time, not as I typed.

Although this time, it is almost more of clash of themes. I have a strong idea of the central theme, but the only plot that makes sense just now, doesn't quite fit with that. So changes are required. (By lucky hap, I think I just worked out how as I typed this! Thankyou pointless rambling!)

So, its nearly time to sit down and start writing. And there is an odd feeling. When I did this before, I had no idea if I could write a whole book. I've done that now (good or bad, rejected or otherwise). But still, I sit down now with more belief and crucially, with the challenge being to make it good, not just to see if I can make it to the end. As I discovered before, however long it takes, that's the easy bit.

* I must re-read that.

The Life of a...

Busy doing nothing, working the whole day through. Which is the problem I suppose. Still, after a brief pause to well, laze about, I'm off and running with the Terra Exitus plan. I've still not convinced Stuart that it is worth writing, but I'm ploughing on anyway. I want to see if I can get it into a shape that I really believe in enough to dedicate at least a year or more to complete. Thing is, I know from the small amount I have tried, it will be pretty tough to write in the style I want it. But that is probably the most attractive thing about it. I have proved (to myself at least) that I can complete a competent novel. That's not to say it will ever get published (by anyone other than me) but for the next one I know I need to stretch again and try to get something with more of a hook. And, as it happens, something a lot more downbeat.

In other news:

• Much excitement on the Beatle Man front. Received my first rejection from those lovely people at Snowbooks. I still think they are great. It was an important rite of passage. Roll on for the next one!
• Not forgetting my esteemed commission to write on Stuart's blog.
• I have started a plan for a book of children's poetry.
• Just got an email to ask if I would like to supply photos as reference to an excellent US painter, which is nice.
• Think I'm heading back to Mumbai soon, which will be great. Its going to be quite busy though, so I may be frustrated on the photo front.

One final note to mark the passing of my beloved Renault Laguna. Someone ran into the back of it and it didn't even look scratched. The people fixing it had other ideas and the insurance company wrote it off. Swines. Now I need a new car and its very tedious.

Broke the rules...

Ok, I said I wouldn't write any of the new book until I finished The Beatle Man. And I suppose that's true. It is 'finished'. Its just that really should be sorting out a decent synopsis. But I've got a cold and I'm really not in the mood. So I wrote this instead. The (potential) opening paragraph of Terra Exitus. Whether or not it survives is a long way down the road.

I saw him standing by the flower stall at the end of South End Road. He looked alone. A kind face. I waited a while to make sure he didn't call anyone. Leaving the train station, I crossed the road, walked passed him and headed up the hill. At the hospital entrance, I called him again with the next location and headed off towards the coffee shop on Haverstock Hill.
The table in the window was free as I had arranged. The world walked by. Steam rose from my coffee. I ate the small round biscuit with a single bite. He came in and looked around, his eyes finally finding me tucked in the window. His scarf unwound from his neck, he sat down and smiled.
"Finally" he said, breathing heavily from the walk up the hill.
"This is the last time, yes? Do you have the tape recorder?"
I wanted to get started. It was dangerous to take too long. "OK, its running, off you go." I had thought through what I was going to say a number of times but now, faced with this one last chance, I didn't know how to start. I looked out the window again. I could hear my own breath. I started.
"In the beginning..."
I stopped. That wasn't the best to way to start. I laughed but didn't smile.

Be interesting to see if it stays like that.

And now...the end is near...

And so we arrive here. At the edge of a cliff.

After many years of toil, the manuscript of my first novel is ready to submit. Which simply means I'm sick of the sight of it. But I think that's normal. I found as I did the last two readthroughs that you enter a dangerous period. One in which every bit you read starts to look rubbish and you feel compelled to change it. Its quite hard to get that balance right. A lot of the time you hate it simply because you've seen it too many times.

Now I have to struggle with a synopsis. I had one for a while back and it is guff. Need to start that again. You would think it would be easy. But it ain't.

Then there is who to send it to? I've decided that my very first submission will be to SnowBooks. I love the ethos of their site and it means that I have already read the rejection letter! After that, well, I'm still working on that.

The best news is that the process of really digging in and getting it finished has really fired me up to write again. The plan for Terra Exitus is coming along well (although several fairly important aspects are still changing on a daily basis), not to mention the sizeable plot whole in the mid-section. But that will come when I can put the hours in.

The other night, to celebrate the fact that I wasn't going to touch it any more, I designed a front cover for a bit of fun. It came out like this:



Yes, that's Eurostile again (for all you font fans). Expect it to appear in self-publish format in a few months time :-)

Proofing versus Reading

There is no denying it, I'm not finding proof reading very easy. Obviously, I can't for a minute suggest that reading my own book is dull, but proof reading is very dull. Trouble is, its a weird mix of reading and parsing. You have to pay very close attention to every word, whilst at the same time keeping an eye on the flow. Before you know it, you are reading and not proofing and you have to start the whole page again.

This is best explained with this oft quoted example:

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in
waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist
and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can
sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed
ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh?

This is exactly what happens when you proof read. You simply don't notice mistakes. Your brain can replace entire incorrect wards with the correct ones without you noticing.*

And, to put no to fine a point on it, that makes it far harder to proof-read than you imagine. I'm sure you can get good at it. But I'm only on page 59 and its going very slowly. Still, I'll get there.

Website of the day:
Great photos, lovely implementation.

Track of the day:
Well, the randomiser was kind today, some real crackers, Shangri-La by That Petrol Emotion gets an honorable mention but the standout of the night was surely One Step Beyond by Madness. Suddenly I was 12 again. Top. Another point of note is that the new laptop can drive my Sennheisers far better than the old one. Volume, at last!
(I'll try and get that last.fm recent tracks thing integrated with the blog something soon)

* see what I did there?

The Silence of the Editor

Quiet round here. I'm editing the Beatle Man. Its going OK. In the re-read I made myself laugh. I take that as a good sign. I'm at Chapter 11 and I've come to one of the first and biggest excisions. Dropping a character and a small sub-plot. Its strangely painful but, I believe, as necessary as the original inclusion was pointless.
I should complete the first complete pass by the end of the week. Then its time to get writing again, I have at least 10 new scenes to write to make the revised plot make sense. I'm looking forward to that bit, following the narrative exposition mantra so closely did create some fun stuff to do. Then I'll be doing the flow work with the storyboard (which I'm very glad I took the time to do).
I seem have to become grammar-blind though (not that I was ever 20-20). During the editing process I am strangely compelled to add commas, dunno why, it just seems to be the done thing. I need to resist because in quite a few situations I've been punctuating out my arse, time to get the Strunk and White out again.

Website of the Day:
This is lovely. Whatever it is.

Track of the Day:
Aaaah, Clair de Lune just came on (sounds great on the new Sennheisers). Its such a great piece of music. And since I'm in the mode of Pacino film references...