Publishing | Fenlandphil's Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Publishing’

6 Sep

A Guest post from Stephen Oliver

Posted by fenlandphil in A Following Wind, Authur, Stephen Oliver, Where the Wild Winds Blow. Tagged: Publishing, Stephen Oliver, Writing. Leave a comment

Stephen is a member of our local U3A writing group.

He is an excellent writer. His stories are well written articulate and above all entertaining. Most of Stephen’s work is within the Science Fantasy genre it is always a good read.

Some of his short stories are published by Whittlesey Wordsmiths in their anthologies, Where the Wild Winds Blow and A Following Wind.

Here are Stephen’s thought on Submissions:

Submissions

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about submissions to agents and publishers, given that I’m sending out three different books and a whole bunch of short stories to them. I have come to several conclusions about how much work is involved, what information you need to know, and how much preparation you need to undertake.

I’ll call the agents and publishers AP’s to shorten the article.

I now have around a dozen different versions of my manuscripts on the computer. Some AP’s want double-spaced, others 1.5 lines spacing. Some want Times New Roman, others Courier New. Some want indented paragraphs, others require no indentation, but want an extra 6 point space at the end of the paragraph. And so it goes.

Then comes the file formats: .txt, .doc, .docx, .rtf., .pdf. Attached to email, embedded within it, or uploaded via the submissions page. In the latter case there are often length limits on the number of words or characters in the upload space, often not stated.

How much do the AP’s want? 5 pages? 10 pages? 30 pages? 3 chapters? 50 pages or 3 chapters, whichever is the shorter? The whole manuscript? (Hurrah, but don’t count your chickens yet; I’ve been rejected at this point, too.)

The bios: short, long, one-liners. How much do they want to know?

Publishing histories; what have you already go out there? Short stories or books? Self-published or traditional?

Social media links. Are you on Facebook? Pinterest? Twitter? Instagram? Are there any interviews available? If so, where? What are the links?

To read the rest of his blog Click on the link:

http://stephenoliver-author.com/2020/09/05/submissions/

6 May

A Following Wind

Posted by fenlandphil in A Following Wind, Book, Publishing, Sunrise, Sunset, U3a, Whittlesey Wordsmiths, Writing Group. Tagged: Fenland, Publishing, Sunset, Writing. 2 comments

A following Wind front cover

Our U3A Creative Writing Group, Whittlesey Wordsmiths, is working on a new book, a follow up to Where the Wild Winds Blow, our first very successful attempt at writing and publishing. This new volume has the title: A Following Wind.

I am working on a new front cover for the book, something that conveys both a movement by wind and our Fenland landscape. Over the years I have managed to take photographs of what is for many people the defining feature of our landscape, the skies. Often at their most breathtakingly beautiful during sunrise and sunset.

The cover may be slightly different depending on the template restrictions but please take a look at it and let me have your feedback.

11 Dec

A few thoughts on retirement

Posted by fenlandphil in Book, Dog, garden, gardens, Publishing, Retirement. Tagged: Book, cycling, Dog, Flying Scotsman, garden, Publishing, Royal Institution, writers block. 2 comments

My granddad with his prize-winning garden around about the time I was born

When I was younger I never thought that retirement could be a full time job, I should have done, my Granddad had warned me.

Most Sundays when I was a young lad I would call round to see Granddad and my Grandmother. One Sunday, Granddad was in the lean-to green house on the back of his large shed. His shed had been his workshop before he retired. As he stooped down to pick up a watering can I asked him,

“What’s it like being retired Granddad?”

He turned to me and said,

“Son, I don’t know how I used to find the time to go to work.”

The last few months have been pretty much full with publishing our writing group’s first book, an interesting experience. Amongst all that I had a trip to the Royal Institution in London and a train ride pulled by the Flying Scotsman, a brilliant birthday present from my wife.

Walking my son and girlfriend’s dog twice a day occupies a good chunk of time, cycling once or twice a week makes a big inroad too.

I am trying to unblock my writers block that has lodged itself in my novel. I need a clear mind and fresh thinking, possibly, a cycle ride on my own will work its magic.

4 Nov

Stephen Alexander Author of Peter and the Dwarf Planets

Posted by fenlandphil in Book Review, Peter and the Dwarf Planets, Stephen Alexander. Tagged: Astronomer, Book, cat, Olympia, Publishing, Writing. Leave a comment

Author Stephen Alexander with his book Peter and the Dwarf Planets

I had the pleasant opportunity to have a conversation with Stephen Alexander, author of Peter and The Dwarf Planets.

Stephen is married with two small children and heads the Modern Languages department at The Neil Wade School in March. He is a keen cyclist and astronomer.

Stephen had concentrated his efforts in the past writing adult fiction but a desire to write for his son provided the stimulus for Peter and the Dwarf Planets. A question from his son about the stars in the sky was the inspiration for his book. When Stephen himself was a young boy his father a keen amateur astronomer introduced him to the night skies and the celestial objects that populate it, an interest that persists to this day.

Peter and the Dwarf Planets is a beautifully illustrated by Laura Coppolaro a locally based illustrator. It is a short book ideal for its target audience of four to six year olds, the engaging story is in verse and features a boy and his dad exploring space keenly watched by Matou the ginger cat.

My daughter teaches the book’s target age group and has taken it to share with her class. She thinks it will be ideal for her class of predominantly boys.

Peter and the Dwarf Planets is published by Olympia Publishers.

Hopefully, Peter and his dad will have further adventures to share with his fans both young and old in the future.

6 Oct

Rudi Jennings

Posted by fenlandphil in Publishing, Rudi Jennings, Whittlesey, Writing. Tagged: Book, Book Review, Novel, Publishing, Writing. 2 comments

Rudi Jennings with his book The Last Myon at Whittlesey Library

A few weeks ago in August I had the opportunity to meet the author Rudi Jennings at Whittlesey library. Rudi is a local author living nearby in Wisbech, at present, he grew up near there. Writing is fitted around running his pest control business. Rudi draws on his experiences in the personal protection service to give colour and to inform his plots. His first book The Last Myon has been snapped up and published by Olympia Publishers, a truly remarkable result for a new author. A new book is underway, a stand-alone novel following on from his first.

I was able to ask Rudi how he writes and where his inspiration comes from The Last Myon or to be more precise its first few chapters were the result of a dream. His writing takes the form of, in his words pasting ideas on a storyboard linking the characters piece by piece until the individual characters and their actions form a complete cohesive story. A trip to Tesco’s provided the diversion needed to enable him to resolve a problem with his plot which had dogged him. I suppose, every little helps.

He writes as ideas come to him during the day, recording his thoughts on scraps of paper or emailing them to himself. Breaks and lunchtime provide Rudi with writing opportunities during his working day. Once home from work, the scraps of paper are collected then filed or pasted onto the story board.

Rudi’s first book is an interesting read, the characters we have been introduced to will no doubt grow and develop in future work. There is the implied promise of a series with these characters featuring in the world Rudi has created for us.

Keen that children are encouraged to not only acquire the love of reading and books but also stimulated to write themselves, Rudi has visited local schools to promote this message. He is hoping that children become inspired to record their thoughts, share their experiences and tell the stories within them.

17 May

Whittlesey Wordsmiths

Posted by fenlandphil in Whittlesey, Whittlesey Wordsmiths, Wordsmiths, Writing, Writing Group. Tagged: Publishing, Samuel Pepys, Whittlesey. 1 comment

Lattersey Nature Reserve Whittlesey the walkway in Autumn

The walkway at Lattersey Nature reserve the beauty of this scene constantly changes with the seasons

Whittlesey Wordsmiths are fortunate to have within their ranks, two published authors, winners of fiction writing prizes, a very able editor/ proof-reader and a talented biographer.

Set up under the Whittlesey U3A umbrella this local group meets monthly at the Scaldgate Centre in Whittlesey. Meetings are held every first Thursday of the month from 11am, anyone is able to attend a free taster session but will need to join the U3A to become a member of the group, the fee is £3 per meeting to cover venue costs.

At recent meetings we have been fortunate to have had presentations by two local authors on the intricacies of publishing a book, both in print and online. The talks were informal, informative and very instructive. Thank you Stephen Oliver and Stuart Roberts. Like many commonplace objects that successfully manage their function, we ignore the container, giving it little or no regard but delight only in its contents. In the same way that we ignore the jar the jam arrives in, caring little for its design, construction and functionality, so it is with a book. We care little for the printing unless the quality is so bad it makes reading difficult, little for the binding (unlike Samuel Pepys) but only on the written words within.

Publication, its details, fonts, layout, sizes, printing, copyright and a myriad other things, though only covered briefly, were for most of us a completely new field.

A current project is to produce a collection of work by the Wordsmiths in time for Christmas, these talks were a help in focussing attention on the job ahead. The content is being assembled with ease from the increasing pool of talent, that is the group. The hard work will probably be assembling it into a finished product, not the filling but the container.

Fenlandphil's Blog A blog from the low country

Posts Tagged ‘Publishing’

A Guest post from Stephen Oliver

A Following Wind

A few thoughts on retirement

Stephen Alexander Author of Peter and the Dwarf Planets

Rudi Jennings

Whittlesey Wordsmiths

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