Z.R. Southcombe's Blog, page 25

NZ Independent Book Festival

“More and more people are now understanding the advantages of independently or self-publishing their own books using this type of publishing platform, be it in printed format or eBooks. The festival offers a great way to connect enthusiastic readers with enthusiastic authors.

Thinking about selling books: who is the best person to promote and sell their book than the author themselves? The plan for the NZIBF (see the Facebook page) is for it to continue to grow and become the premier book event of the year, catering to readers and writers of all genres.

With the support of independently and self-published authors, and private literary businesses, many more manuscripts will become the books found under readers’ noses.” – Louise de Varga, NZIBF

Interested? You can share in the festivities by attending the weekend, but also by making it happen! Louise is currently running a crowdfunding campaign on Boosted (hence the video) which you can check out here and donate if you want to: boosted.org.nz.

 

Changes for ‘What Stars Are Made Of’

At the time of inception, What Stars Are Made Of was a personal project. It gave me something to throw myself into while my other manuscripts were with the illustrator or beta readers and it meant I’d have a book to publish by the end of 2014 (I wrote about that here).

It’s been hugely more popular than I ever thought it would be, especially in paperback format, and a couple of bookshops have been interested. However, because I hadn’t envisaged it as a ‘commercially viable’ product, I hadn’t it priced it as such.

When an author / publisher (of which I’m both) has a product stocked by a bookseller, the bookseller obviously needs to take a cut. It’s only fair – but I had not factored the ‘middle (wo)man’ in and so I had priced the book in a way where I barely made a profit. It was a labour of love.

Now that it’s proved me wrong in terms of its commercial value, I am increasing the price so it is financially viable for me and the bookseller, while still being a fair market price. The paperback format for What Stars Are Made Of will now be $24.99.

I also have an exciting new format! Fellow artist Kat Ratcliffe wrote this review and shared how she ripped the pages out and stuck them on her wall like a poster. That got me thinking, and I have finally gotten round to creating a concertina-style book.

The ‘book’ is beautifully printed by Chris at bookprinting.co.nz on a synthetic ‘paper’ which has a plastic-y feel so won’t rip easily on its creases. It’s also printed using UV-resistant ink so the images won’t fade. This form of the book will be available shortly in the shop for $20.

 

The Choices We Make: I am a Writer

I don’t see life as a mountain to climb, but rather, a series of mountains. After each mountain is climbed, there is a choice: do we climb the next mountain? Or, do we decide that one mountain is quite enough, thank you very much, and quit while we’re ahead?

There’s no shame in quitting. Maybe the next mountain just wasn’t the right one for us, maybe it just wasn’t the right time to tackle that particular mountain – or perhaps all we can handle at the time is a nice, easy hill (or a cup of tea and a roaring fire).

I started writing just over two years ago. Before that, I started (and dropped out of) a Visual Arts degree, started (and completed) a degree in Education, then quit my classroom teaching career after a couple of years. By that point, I’m pretty sure my parents were wondering if there was anything I would actually stick with. I was wondering the same thing.

Enter writing. I started a book, scratched it and started again. I started a blog, which went through several changes and has ended up here. Over the two years, I’ve climbed a few modest mountains, and after each of them have questioned whether I should carry on.

The first was when I finished the first draft of The Caretaker of Imagination. I’d written a book! And it was CRAP. Seriously, only my beta readers know the full truth of that statement. It was still super early in the game – most people thought I was just writing a book, not aiming to become a writer. I was ready to quit, knowing I had achieved what many people haven’t: actually finishing a book.

Enter Amanda. We’d connected through online writing groups, and are now connected through pretty much every social platform under the sun. I hadn’t blogged for a while (cause I was giving up, remember?) and she noticed. A quick email from her and I was left with a new resolve to carry on (and she wrote about that here).

Cue next mountain. I was going to get this book to a professional standard, and I was going to publish it by the end of the following year (which would’ve been 2014). It went through SIXTEEN beta readers (who test read and give feedback for revisions) before I was happy with it. It then went through two rounds of proofreading. Whew!

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to meet my goal of publishing by the end of 2014. It was pushed out to March 2015, and I felt like a failure. It was out of my control, however, as it had to be illustrated and printed and I couldn’t do anything about those timelines. To remedy this, I created a wordless picture book, and that became my project while my friends were doing NaNoWriMo.

I had climbed the mountain: It was still 2014, and I had a book ready to publish. The next mountain was to actually publish it, and it was this mountain that I was more scared of. Who did I think I was? Why would anyone buy my book? Even if they did buy it, they certainly wouldn’t like it. Why did I ever think I could do this? 

This was the second time I was seriously close to giving up. I didn’t, obviously. I realised I’d come too far to give up now. If everyone hated it, then I would have reason to put down the pen and return to teaching. Incidentally, I have only received five star ratings on both Amazon and Goodreads for this book, so clearly my fears were misplaced!

The third time was just a couple of weeks ago. Some of you know I’ve had issues with depression and anxiety, and I’ve been experiencing a particularly low period over the last month or so. I was suffering from a bad case of comparison-itis. All around me, people were working their lives away 40+ hours a week, and here was I, following my dreams. How dare I? I thought. These guys are doing their part for society, and what am I contributing? I felt like a burden.

But that wasn’t the real reason. Enter Cassie. She helped me explore these feelings a bit more and I came to realise that it was simply because I am doing something that isn’t the straight-and-narrow norm. I felt that I was going against the grain; it’s difficult to keep justifying your choices when those choices are different to the people around you.

And so I am keeping calm and carrying on. I’m climbing the next mountain, and will be publishing my third book next month: I am a writer.

 

2015 Reading Challenge

This year, I’m taking up two reading challenges. One is on Goodreads, and is a goal to read at least 50 books this year (after an abysmal reading count last year) and the other is the one below.

The point of this reading challenge is to push the boundaries I usually have when I read. Obviously, I choose books that I think I will like. I’m hoping this challenge will help me to discover new authors to fall in love with, or even just open my eyes to appreciate books that I usually wouldn’t.

I’m keeping a track of the books in the 2015 Reading Challenge over on Pinterest – so join me there!

Zenobia – What’s in a name?

So for the last post of the A to Z challenge (which I am determined to finish, even though it’s now May) I figured I might as well make use of my own name!

Growing up, I struggled a lot with my identity. Many young people do. I was born in India and came to New Zealand when I was less than six months old. My parents are both Anglo-Indian, which means they’re a mix of English, Indian, and a couple of other bits. They were brought up in India, but with the influence of British culture.

For me, this meant that I didn’t quite fit into an easy cultural box – I wasn’t quite an Indian (my dad’s specialties in the kitchen are roast potatoes and Irish stew), I wasn’t quite a kiwi, and even though my heritage gives me more English blood than anything else, I’m certainly not culturally English.

So for me, I needed something that was already mine, and was completely mine. This is is where my name comes in. It’s a Greek name meaning ‘daughter of Zeus’ or ‘sent by God’. It was also the name of Queen Zenobia of Palmyra. I wasn’t by any stretch of the imagination a goddess or a queen, but my name gave me something to hold on to that made me feel worthy, important and strong.

Interestingly, not many people actually call me Zenobia anymore! In my late teens, I was given and later adopted the easier name of ‘Zee’ and it stuck. It’s easy to say and easy to remember. More importantly, I began to feel better within myself and didn’t need to hold on to my name to give me that sense of identity and self-worth it could provide.

I don’t think my parents realised any of that when they named me, though. When I questioned their choice of name they said ‘We just liked it’.

There’s a lot in a name.

Be true to You

One of the most important things I’ve learnt in writing is that it’s important for your writing to be true to yourself. This is a running theme in The Caretaker of Imagination – John has to learn to embrace his inner child, Simon has to return to his true piratical calling, Edgar is challenged to become a storyteller once more, and Jess falls in love with baking (and a little bit with Simon, too!).

Personally, I’ve learnt to embrace the storyteller in me through my writing and my art, and to let the not-so-chipper side of me show a little bit more.

X marks the spot

Happiness and balance is something that’s often a part of my decision-making, and in The Caretaker of Imagination, it was very much a part of John’s decisions.

X marks the spot, but sometimes the spot doesn’t hide a treasure chest of cursed gold or blood-red rubies. Sometimes, the spot is that fine balance between what we want to do and what we need to do.

We’ve all been through it, no matter how old we are or what experiences life has thrown at us, and after many years John realises that all he really ‘needs’ to do is what he wants to do – enjoy life!

For my birthday this year, my brother bought me the card pictured below. I think it sums up perfectly John’s lesson in The Caretaker of Imagination.

What Next?

At the launch of The Caretaker of Imagination, a young reader asked ‘What’s next?’

Here are some ideas.

Video

Yep, for The Caretaker of Imagination’s launch, I was lucky enough to have a friend put together a video for me. A picture tells a thousand words, a video tells more:

Stars Make Me Teary Eyed

Earlier this year, I had commented on a post about Instagram. Another commenter read my comment and got in touch with me, asking me more about how I used Instagram. This person was the lovely Deborah Moss (and here’s her beautiful Instagram feed).

I found out that she’s working on a book of poetry, which will be accompanied by New Zealand art, and is an artist herself. After looking at her website, I fell in love with her jigsaw puzzle pieces and enquired about a commission. I was pretty vague – something about stars and tea, I said.

A couple of months later I followed up and ordered the painting. Deborah took the idea and flew with it, and I was blown away by the depth of thought that went into every aspect of the painting.

The big surprise was when it came to shipping – Deborah managed to make it to The Caretaker of Imagination’s launch party, and dropped it off personally!