Publish Your Book

1. Publish Your Book Catherine Condie

2. Introduction • This week is a celebration of reading, writing and publishing books; • Building your story; • Different ways of getting your book published; • Things I’ve learned along the way.

3. Where I began • Queen Edith Primary School, Cambridge; • Writing poetry and short stories – creative writing; • Composing songs with my guitar aged 9 and performing at the youth club aged 11 • 30 years later I began to write Whirl of the Wheel.

5. What interests me about writing • What interests me most is the feeling that a pattern of sentences or collection of words gives you; • Stories, short or long, and poetry are no different to pieces of music – from Vivaldi to Jessie J and each composed the same way.

6. Stories – where do you start and what should you write? • Write what you know or what interests you; • Think of a great plot; • Create your characters and their voices; • Show the action, don’t tell it; • Imagine your story as a film – changing scenes, different atmospheres; • Use Post-its on the wall or in a notebook to order your scenes or ideas.

7. Whirl of the Wheel • A story for 8 to 12-year-olds led by a heroine who happens to be in a wheelchair; • Light-hearted time-travel adventure into World War II – time portal is a potter’s wheel; • Historical account of evacuation; • With goodies and baddies.

8. The Switch • Young teens’ thriller about a girl on a French exchange trip who witnesses a raid at a bar from an apartment window; • Set in Paris, with some spoken French;

9. HOORAY!High point of the story Almost there Mystery solved 3 2 OH NO! Rug-pulling moment 1 Lull THE QUEST BEGINSMain event or discovery that starts the story off Building your story In a children’s book the hero will be a child or animal that has to overcome a challenge to reach a goal. Challenges or scenes that build the story Tension Time

10. Becoming a good writer • Read lots of different styles of books, plus you can read books about writing books; • Have a go and see what you like to write! • Ask your English teacher’s or your parents’ advice; • Start up or become part of a writing group in or outside school; • Find out about local writing workshops or courses (you might consider scbwi.com); • Enter a competition.

11. My story is complete! • Fantastic, take a break and celebrate! • Ask friends, family, teachers to read and comment; • You could send it to a literary consultancy for comment but there is a cost www.cornerstones.co.uk; • Think about posting it online via critique sites like www.authononomy.com or www.youwriteon.com; • Look again at your story in the light of what you have learned.

12. ‘Local’ writers’ networks

13. Critique sites

14. I’ve finished . . . what next? • Editing – read and re-read, making notes by hand or by making changes as you go, on-screen. Go through your writing a final time – line by line to look for mistakes, or ask someone to help; • Think about publishing – you could show your work to a recognised agent or publisher to see if they are interested in taking you on as an author . . . or you could self publish.

15. Traditional publishing • Look through the Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook (published byA&C Black); • Choose agents and publishing companies suitable for your genre of writing; • Each agent or publishing company has a different set of submission guidelines. Most ask for a few chapters by post; • Check for errors in your work, send off your chapters and wait . . .

16. What is self publishing? • Using reputable online sites to produce any number of printed books or e-books via your netbook or home computer.

17. Why self publish? • ‘I have always disliked writing to order; I write to please myself.’ Beatrix Potter • Creativity is a personal thing – self publishing is one answer to keeping it that way.

18. Seeing my book in print • You can take an electronic copy of your work to a local printer where you pay up front, for example, for the print of 250 copies; • Or start a free account with one of the major online suppliers of printed books (print on demand) : www.lulu.com or www.createspace.com. Order one or two copies – they cover costs by taking a percentage of each book.

19. Print on demand • Lay out your pages using the guide at Lulu or CreateSpace; • Upload the document and use the cover wizard to create front and back covers; • These companies will put your book on their websites and distribute to Amazon.com and selected online shops for free; • Think about a selling price for your book.

20. Seeing my book as an e-book • You can do this via Lulu or Createspace or independent sites e.g. Freado/Bookbuzzr , Bibliotastic and Feedbooks; • Kidpub (American organisation) • or set up a free account with Kindle Direct Publishing. Note that e-books are laid out in a different way to printed books; • KDP makes its money by taking a percentage of each book you or others buy. It sends your e-book for free to 5 international Amazon sites.

21. Spreading the word I’m published! • Friends and family, school fetes or your local bookshop – Waterstones and Heffers; • Facebook author page; • Blog/blog interviews; • Twitter; • Goodreads www.goodreads.com; • Free online press releases prlog.org; • Make a book trailer; • Printed leaflets/postcards.

22. Let’s publish a book Lulu publishing wizard

23. and finally. . . • . . . there is no hurry; • so have fun! • and enjoy forming your plot and creating characters; • practise writing a few chapters and see where your story goes; • if or when you finish, you might now have a plan for what you can do next.

24. Any questions? • This presentation Publish Your Book for the Linton Children’s Book Festival 2012 is available at Slideshare.net or via www.catherinecondie.wordpress.com