Nell Grey's Blog, page 2
February 5, 2012
The joys of promotion...
The lovely Mel Comley is on a mission to promote and feature Indie authors on Her Blog, and yesterday it was my turn.
Members of the Amazon Kindle Forum are wonderfully supportive in linking to social networking sites, resources that for various reasons I haven't taken advantage of - it'll be interesting to see how things go.
It would be good to receive a review or two for My Imaginary Life, which seems to attract far fewer downloads than the other Kindle books, in spite of the fact that the cover is delicious - my favourite.
I'm wondering if readers find the 'Adult Content' warning off-putting, although the sex scenes are essential for the story and explicit rather than erotic. I'm left with the thought that graphic violence in books seems to be more acceptable than sex...
Members of the Amazon Kindle Forum are wonderfully supportive in linking to social networking sites, resources that for various reasons I haven't taken advantage of - it'll be interesting to see how things go.
It would be good to receive a review or two for My Imaginary Life, which seems to attract far fewer downloads than the other Kindle books, in spite of the fact that the cover is delicious - my favourite.
I'm wondering if readers find the 'Adult Content' warning off-putting, although the sex scenes are essential for the story and explicit rather than erotic. I'm left with the thought that graphic violence in books seems to be more acceptable than sex...
January 28, 2012
Synchronicity...
It's funny how often these things happen. I'd picked up The Cave by José Saramago and begun to read, and although it almost fell from my hand during the first two or three pages, after a while the style became easier and the characters began to come alive - a dog called Found provided the turning point. It's a slow book though, and may take me some time to finish.
I hadn't yet started re-editing Three Magic Women for Kindle, and had completely forgotten the way I'd written the first person narrative, so imagine my amazement to find that I'd not only given Una a strange way of speaking, but a similar Stream of Consciousness style with speech separated by capital letters rather than speech marks.
Again, that odd sense of reading the work of another author, but so far I've found very little to change. I think the style works well for Una's voice and seems to become invisible after a page or two.
It'll be good to have The Golden Web and Three Magic Women between the same virtual covers, and I'm looking forward to designing a new one when I've finished editing and formatting for Kindle.
I hadn't yet started re-editing Three Magic Women for Kindle, and had completely forgotten the way I'd written the first person narrative, so imagine my amazement to find that I'd not only given Una a strange way of speaking, but a similar Stream of Consciousness style with speech separated by capital letters rather than speech marks.
Again, that odd sense of reading the work of another author, but so far I've found very little to change. I think the style works well for Una's voice and seems to become invisible after a page or two.
It'll be good to have The Golden Web and Three Magic Women between the same virtual covers, and I'm looking forward to designing a new one when I've finished editing and formatting for Kindle.
January 22, 2012
Making it right...
This week I've been re-editing The Golden Web, the first book in what was intended as a pagan trilogy. I've been reading and making slight alterations to the print copy rather than the file, and finding the process very strange - as if coming across the work of an unknown author for the first time and recognizing myself in a past life, which is of course exactly (well, maybe not exactly), what's happening. I'd forgotten many details, many twists and turns and the strange atmosphere created by the voice of the narrator. No wonder I was exhausted - paganed-out - when the final page had been completed. I'd lived it.
But that's the point and why I feel compelled to republish as a Kindle book. Because I realized fairly soon after the second edition had been published that I'd got it all wrong. I should have rested and waited until I'd finished the sequel so it could become the second part of the original book, between the same two covers.
As for the planned trilogy, the ending of Three Magic Women rendered a third book superfluous, although a character from it spoke to me and I began a new and separate work, yet to be completed.
So today, and not without some trepidation, I'll open the pages of Three Magic Women and hear again Una's odd voice, walk with her through the land and relive her journey. Wish me luck.
But that's the point and why I feel compelled to republish as a Kindle book. Because I realized fairly soon after the second edition had been published that I'd got it all wrong. I should have rested and waited until I'd finished the sequel so it could become the second part of the original book, between the same two covers.
As for the planned trilogy, the ending of Three Magic Women rendered a third book superfluous, although a character from it spoke to me and I began a new and separate work, yet to be completed.
So today, and not without some trepidation, I'll open the pages of Three Magic Women and hear again Una's odd voice, walk with her through the land and relive her journey. Wish me luck.
January 19, 2012
Crone fiction, cont...
I'm happy to say that Solitary Pleasures is now a Kindle book. It's good to see the virtual list acquiring ticks - it feels as though there's a small chance of finishing most of my incomplete writing projects this year. A delusion, possibly.
I'm doing things the right way round this time and making it free for the first five days (they start tomorrow in the UK), so hopefully no one here at GR will actually buy it until that time is up and I won't have to feel guilty.
Back to editing today...
I'm doing things the right way round this time and making it free for the first five days (they start tomorrow in the UK), so hopefully no one here at GR will actually buy it until that time is up and I won't have to feel guilty.
Back to editing today...
January 15, 2012
Crone fiction...
This genre business is a pain in the right elbow, and you know how much that hurts when you knock it. Having to decide on sub-categories when publishing on Kindle is necessary I guess, but I need more of those uncomfortably specific creatures before I can decide into which of them to push anything I've written.
So the blurb will have to do, although whether there are enough rebellious crones with small terriers out there to identify with Mattie, Spike and their Solitary Pleasures remains to be seen.
But it's good to catch up and republish my first novel, which has been out of print for a good few years now.
Onwards to The Golden Web and Three Magic Women!
So the blurb will have to do, although whether there are enough rebellious crones with small terriers out there to identify with Mattie, Spike and their Solitary Pleasures remains to be seen.
But it's good to catch up and republish my first novel, which has been out of print for a good few years now.
Onwards to The Golden Web and Three Magic Women!
January 8, 2012
Solitary Pleasures cont...
Spent part of yesterday working on the new cover, a painting of Mattie and Spike gazing out over moonlit downland, which was completed after I finished the novel. The painting was designed to wrap around the book to cover both front and back, so had to be digitally sliced in half and lengthened, as the proportions were wrong for Kindle.
It's never easy to find the perfect font, and I'm not at all sure of the one I've chosen, but I'll look at it again in a day or so and surprise it - that usually works.
So much was going on when I wrote Solitary Pleasures - I felt like a psychologist analyzing a patient as I read it again.
One more read through and tweak needed and it should be ready for Kindle DP next week. Again, the problem of genre rears its horribly specific head. Goodness knows what genre this, or any of my novels are - they seem to occupy some dimension all their own. I only know that unless I write as I paint - with my own vision and passion - I wouldn't write at all. QED.
It's never easy to find the perfect font, and I'm not at all sure of the one I've chosen, but I'll look at it again in a day or so and surprise it - that usually works.
So much was going on when I wrote Solitary Pleasures - I felt like a psychologist analyzing a patient as I read it again.
One more read through and tweak needed and it should be ready for Kindle DP next week. Again, the problem of genre rears its horribly specific head. Goodness knows what genre this, or any of my novels are - they seem to occupy some dimension all their own. I only know that unless I write as I paint - with my own vision and passion - I wouldn't write at all. QED.
January 1, 2012
What next? A decision...
Made a start today on editing and formatting Solitary Pleasures to publish as a Kindle book. It has been out of print a while now - it'll be good to give it a lovely new cover and a fresh lease of life.
I began reading through the file this afternoon and at 10.30pm I'm more than half way through, editing lightly on the way. It's wonderful how time allows one to see more clearly what needs to be done - not much, but as this was my first published novel and written a good few years ago, a slight polish is definitely in order.
It strikes me how concerned I was with causality when I wrote Solitary Pleasures - perhaps I still am. The butterfly flapping its wings. Mattie and her damaged family live on between the pages, but aren't we all damaged to some extent? I think I'm in love with some of them all over again...
I began reading through the file this afternoon and at 10.30pm I'm more than half way through, editing lightly on the way. It's wonderful how time allows one to see more clearly what needs to be done - not much, but as this was my first published novel and written a good few years ago, a slight polish is definitely in order.
It strikes me how concerned I was with causality when I wrote Solitary Pleasures - perhaps I still am. The butterfly flapping its wings. Mattie and her damaged family live on between the pages, but aren't we all damaged to some extent? I think I'm in love with some of them all over again...
December 30, 2011
What next...?
Christmas over, 2012 looming and soon there'll be no excuse to put off all the projects I've promised myself I'll finish before beginning the next. The question is, which to pick up first?
I'd like to convert my print book files and publish them as e-books, carry on with the paintings for the new 78 card tarot that I'm halfway through, finish the novel that I abandoned for The Pen Tarot and the tarot based on The Golden Web that, once begun, seemed less important than writing the sequel, Three Magic Women.
And that's only the creative projects - I can hardly bear to think about all the sorting out and maintenance I ought to attend to in the house and garden.
Perhaps I should make a list and tick things off as they're completed, but I'm not really a list person.
So... No New Year's resolutions that I won't be able to keep - one thing at a time is the way to go. Which one, I wonder...
I'd like to convert my print book files and publish them as e-books, carry on with the paintings for the new 78 card tarot that I'm halfway through, finish the novel that I abandoned for The Pen Tarot and the tarot based on The Golden Web that, once begun, seemed less important than writing the sequel, Three Magic Women.
And that's only the creative projects - I can hardly bear to think about all the sorting out and maintenance I ought to attend to in the house and garden.
Perhaps I should make a list and tick things off as they're completed, but I'm not really a list person.
So... No New Year's resolutions that I won't be able to keep - one thing at a time is the way to go. Which one, I wonder...
December 29, 2011
Learning curve
I was amazed to examine the download figures of the five promotion days for all three books - many of those I thought were freebies turned out to be sales, but - and this is a big BUT - only on Solstice, which was priced at 99 cents. A lesson to be learned. I reduced the prices of the others to match, feeling bad for the few readers who'd bought at the earlier price. There weren't many, but still...
December 28, 2011
One little star...
Well, Memoirs of an Ostrich picked up its first Goodreads rating of one star - apparently on Christmas Day. Didn't like it is fair enough - I've read many books I didn't like - and looking through the reviewer's bookshelf I decided that I'm happy to be in the company of the other single-starred authors, most of whom seem to have an average rating of 4+. It would have been good to have a word or two to keep the little star company though.
