Andrew McEwan's Blog: Words Are the Gravy On the Mashed Potato of Life - Posts Tagged "beef"
Paperback Riot(er)
It's Sunday eve, there's beef bourguignon in the oven and I've just opened a bottle of wine. Earlier this afternoon The Toon (aka Newcastle United) got a last minute winner. See, life ain't so bad. At least it has its moments. The beef bourguignon is from the Co-op, but hey, it was reduced...
Moving on. My giveaway of The Orange Propeller went rather well and six copies were posted to the lucky winners last Monday. I eagerly await a first review. I love reviews; I just don't get enough. Thus am I planning several paperback releases this year, starting with Subvision in the not too distant future. Giveaways are great for attracting attention to a book. As an unrepresented author the biggest challenge you face is getting read. Add to that the fact my work isn't populist and you've got a steep hill to climb. Nevertheless I am determined to scale the walls and ransack the temple as it were. Noncomformity can be rewarding in many ways. And if all else fails you can always not give a fuck. Thus the many-runged ladder of freebies from myself, ebooks from Amazon and paperbacks via Goodreads, all in the name of the revolution.
An increasing number of publishers are offering ebook packages these days whereby authors pay for proofing, formatting, covers etc. These are all things you can do yourself or, better still, for free using friends and contemporaries on a show-me-yours and I'll show-you-mine basis. To some writers being associated with a publisher, however tenuously, may sound like a good idea. It's certainly not for me. I just don't believe in easy routes to the summit. The killer though is the contract. Essentially publishers are charging writers for the rights to their work, rather than the other way round. If it sinks you lose. If it floats you lose. Either way the publisher wins.
With apologies to The Beatles for the title of this post. But I just had an idea. How about a bookshop that sells only independently published authors? In paperback; with download options, but paper books in say a mobile library type affair? Now where would a person get one of those? And some money.
Beef bourguignon was nice by the way. Wine flowing. Vive la...
Moving on. My giveaway of The Orange Propeller went rather well and six copies were posted to the lucky winners last Monday. I eagerly await a first review. I love reviews; I just don't get enough. Thus am I planning several paperback releases this year, starting with Subvision in the not too distant future. Giveaways are great for attracting attention to a book. As an unrepresented author the biggest challenge you face is getting read. Add to that the fact my work isn't populist and you've got a steep hill to climb. Nevertheless I am determined to scale the walls and ransack the temple as it were. Noncomformity can be rewarding in many ways. And if all else fails you can always not give a fuck. Thus the many-runged ladder of freebies from myself, ebooks from Amazon and paperbacks via Goodreads, all in the name of the revolution.
An increasing number of publishers are offering ebook packages these days whereby authors pay for proofing, formatting, covers etc. These are all things you can do yourself or, better still, for free using friends and contemporaries on a show-me-yours and I'll show-you-mine basis. To some writers being associated with a publisher, however tenuously, may sound like a good idea. It's certainly not for me. I just don't believe in easy routes to the summit. The killer though is the contract. Essentially publishers are charging writers for the rights to their work, rather than the other way round. If it sinks you lose. If it floats you lose. Either way the publisher wins.
With apologies to The Beatles for the title of this post. But I just had an idea. How about a bookshop that sells only independently published authors? In paperback; with download options, but paper books in say a mobile library type affair? Now where would a person get one of those? And some money.
Beef bourguignon was nice by the way. Wine flowing. Vive la...
Words Are the Gravy On the Mashed Potato of Life
...there may be lumps in either or both.
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