Tim Atkinson's Blog, page 69
April 11, 2013
Dinner party guests of yesteryear: Who is your ideal?
A great game to play at dinner parties with friends and family is to think about who you would have at your dream dinner.
Assuming that you’re not going to cause any offence by implying that the current roster of guests wouldn’t be invited, that is. Take it in turns to go round the table and ask each person who they would have as their ideal guests for a dinner party. Each guest gets to choose five other people, either living or dead whom they would invite (they can even be fictional if you like - it's your party and your game).
Just as a person's friends reveal a lot about their character, you can learn a lot about someone from the people they would choose to have sitting round their dining table. What, for instance, would you make of someone who invited Napoleon, say, or Winston Churchill? Interest in history, perhaps? Or politics? It might be safer to assume that someone who invited Michael Schumacher or Sterling Moss to dinner would be rather keen on motor sport. And any male guests inviting Brigitte Bardot or Kate Moss are really dreaming.
Who would you have at your dinner party? Sharing a meal is something humans across all cultures have in common. And the inexorable rise of the TV dinner doesn't seem - yet - to have dented sales of dining room tables. The food, clearly, is the main draw. But so is the company. But the fact that - no matter how you know someone, whether from work or a sports club, choir, or - sitting down to dinner together gives you a chance to really bond and find out what makes people tick. That’s why the dream dinner party game works so well. It's an ideal opportunity to sit down with people you find fascinating and find out more about them.
Of course it’s only a bit of fun - but think about what you want to know about your dream guests and then apply the same logic to your current guests and your dinner party can enter a whole new dimension.
This is a guest post from Sainsbury’s. Thanks to a great range of tables from Sainsbury’s you can always have a great setting for your dinner party, whether it’s a fantasy party or just with regular friends.
Assuming that you’re not going to cause any offence by implying that the current roster of guests wouldn’t be invited, that is. Take it in turns to go round the table and ask each person who they would have as their ideal guests for a dinner party. Each guest gets to choose five other people, either living or dead whom they would invite (they can even be fictional if you like - it's your party and your game).
Just as a person's friends reveal a lot about their character, you can learn a lot about someone from the people they would choose to have sitting round their dining table. What, for instance, would you make of someone who invited Napoleon, say, or Winston Churchill? Interest in history, perhaps? Or politics? It might be safer to assume that someone who invited Michael Schumacher or Sterling Moss to dinner would be rather keen on motor sport. And any male guests inviting Brigitte Bardot or Kate Moss are really dreaming.
Who would you have at your dinner party? Sharing a meal is something humans across all cultures have in common. And the inexorable rise of the TV dinner doesn't seem - yet - to have dented sales of dining room tables. The food, clearly, is the main draw. But so is the company. But the fact that - no matter how you know someone, whether from work or a sports club, choir, or - sitting down to dinner together gives you a chance to really bond and find out what makes people tick. That’s why the dream dinner party game works so well. It's an ideal opportunity to sit down with people you find fascinating and find out more about them.
Of course it’s only a bit of fun - but think about what you want to know about your dream guests and then apply the same logic to your current guests and your dinner party can enter a whole new dimension.
This is a guest post from Sainsbury’s. Thanks to a great range of tables from Sainsbury’s you can always have a great setting for your dinner party, whether it’s a fantasy party or just with regular friends.
April 8, 2013
Why readers need self-published authors
We're back! (And, yes we did, thank you - lovely! Want to see the pictures? Ok then, maybe later...)
In my absence I was fortunate to have two splendid guest-blogs by a couple of first-rate bloggers and authors who have one thing (apart from first-class writing) in common - they've both self-published their work, and very successfully too.
Despite being introduced at last year's Brit Mums conference as an 'expert' (ex-pert, that's for certain!) on self publishing I haven't actually had that much experience. I've only self-published one of my own books, and that was because I was keen to utilise the get-out clause in a contract with a 'traditional' publisher who - as far as I could tell - was doing nothing much yet still taking 90% of the net proceeds of my sales.
But there's more to self-publishing than simply doing the job (better) yourself. I'm passionate about the whole process, proud to have helped others do it (via my own Dotterel Press imprint) and persuaded by the amazing success-stories of many indie authors (as well as the fact that many established authors are trying it) that self-publishing is here to stay and might even become the new model for the industry.
And that might be a good thing for readers, too.
Because creative industries everywhere - from publishing to television and film-making - are crippled by the influence of the dreaded 'feedback loop'.
The idea that big publishing is built on sales isn't new. But the money-driven principle that because we've liked something in the past we'll enjoy it in the future is stifling creativity. Big publishers are the supermarkets of the book world, telling us (as readers) what we like and what we don't and what we can and can't consume. Driven by sales, the big beasts want to re-create the past. But things are changing, and not just in the world of book-producing.
All over the country farmers markets, niche outlets and specialist online retailers are putting the consumer back in touch with the producer. The success of London's Borough Market was built on the principle that the big supermarkets don't always know what the customer wants - and haven't the time or the inclination to broaden our horizons.
But shoppers - and readers - soon become bored; the familiar becomes stale and sales stall. Publishing houses fold, or merge. But - like the banks before them - lessons are not always learnt. Authors are mere 'brands' (or cash cows) and must slavishly stick the the formula for success as laid down by publisher. Heaven forfend if they suggest writing something new, original, exciting. Editors must have been weeping into their Lattes when J.K. Rowling announced there would be no more Harry Potter. And yet how hard it had been for her to break through with the new idea in the first place. Now, Harry Potter would probably have become an internet sensation. (Canny Ms Rowling has retained the rights to eBooks and, guess what, is publishing them herself!) Back then the first Harry Potter was a dog-eared pile of paper being hawked with increasing desperation round traditional publishers unwilling to touch it (if they could be bothered even to read it) because it wasn't what was making money at the time. Ergo it wasn't what they - the publishers, the editors - thought readers wanted.
How wrong they were...
So, thanks again to Ben and Mark for guest-posting and congratulations on their respective publishing success. In a very real sense they are the pioneers of a new and exciting template for writing and publishing - one that puts readers directly in touch with authors and raises the bar on creativity and innovation.
Long may it continue.
In my absence I was fortunate to have two splendid guest-blogs by a couple of first-rate bloggers and authors who have one thing (apart from first-class writing) in common - they've both self-published their work, and very successfully too.
Despite being introduced at last year's Brit Mums conference as an 'expert' (ex-pert, that's for certain!) on self publishing I haven't actually had that much experience. I've only self-published one of my own books, and that was because I was keen to utilise the get-out clause in a contract with a 'traditional' publisher who - as far as I could tell - was doing nothing much yet still taking 90% of the net proceeds of my sales.
But there's more to self-publishing than simply doing the job (better) yourself. I'm passionate about the whole process, proud to have helped others do it (via my own Dotterel Press imprint) and persuaded by the amazing success-stories of many indie authors (as well as the fact that many established authors are trying it) that self-publishing is here to stay and might even become the new model for the industry.
And that might be a good thing for readers, too.
Because creative industries everywhere - from publishing to television and film-making - are crippled by the influence of the dreaded 'feedback loop'.
The idea that big publishing is built on sales isn't new. But the money-driven principle that because we've liked something in the past we'll enjoy it in the future is stifling creativity. Big publishers are the supermarkets of the book world, telling us (as readers) what we like and what we don't and what we can and can't consume. Driven by sales, the big beasts want to re-create the past. But things are changing, and not just in the world of book-producing.
All over the country farmers markets, niche outlets and specialist online retailers are putting the consumer back in touch with the producer. The success of London's Borough Market was built on the principle that the big supermarkets don't always know what the customer wants - and haven't the time or the inclination to broaden our horizons.
But shoppers - and readers - soon become bored; the familiar becomes stale and sales stall. Publishing houses fold, or merge. But - like the banks before them - lessons are not always learnt. Authors are mere 'brands' (or cash cows) and must slavishly stick the the formula for success as laid down by publisher. Heaven forfend if they suggest writing something new, original, exciting. Editors must have been weeping into their Lattes when J.K. Rowling announced there would be no more Harry Potter. And yet how hard it had been for her to break through with the new idea in the first place. Now, Harry Potter would probably have become an internet sensation. (Canny Ms Rowling has retained the rights to eBooks and, guess what, is publishing them herself!) Back then the first Harry Potter was a dog-eared pile of paper being hawked with increasing desperation round traditional publishers unwilling to touch it (if they could be bothered even to read it) because it wasn't what was making money at the time. Ergo it wasn't what they - the publishers, the editors - thought readers wanted.
How wrong they were...
So, thanks again to Ben and Mark for guest-posting and congratulations on their respective publishing success. In a very real sense they are the pioneers of a new and exciting template for writing and publishing - one that puts readers directly in touch with authors and raises the bar on creativity and innovation.
Long may it continue.
April 5, 2013
Guest blogger Mark Richards
Today's guest blogger is writer and blogger Mark Richards. His chosen specialist subject is 'Why Character Matters' and he writes...
A fine, manly title for a blog. And my apologies if you thought it might be written by your old headmaster…
But I’m in academic mode. Let’s talk about text-books for a while: the ones you bought when you were about six months pregnant. How to be a Dashed Fine Parent or whatever it was called. (And didn’t us Dads breathe a sigh of relief when we read the chapter on Sore, Cracked and Bleeding Nipples… Got off lightly there, lads.)
If you were still reading somewhere close to the end of the book – if the sleepless nights hadn’t got to you by then – you might have come across a paragraph or two on the character of your children.
It’s important whatever you do not to characterise your children. Labelling your children ‘The Clever One’ and ‘The Naughty One’ can harm their development and give them a negative self-image. Plus it can intensify sibling rivalry.
All jolly good stuff, and absolutely right.
Unless you happen to be writing about your children…
Because for bloggers, I think the opposite might be true.
Let me introduce you to my children, as they feature in my blog at Best Dad I Can Be:
• The nerdy/geeky nine-brains-but-can’t-tidy-his-bedroom one
• The sassy, opinionated, far-too-sexually-aware typical teenage girl one
• And the sensitive, understanding, teenager-you-can-talk-to one
I think it’s the same whether you’re writing a series of books, establishing a brand or blogging about your children. If you want people to come back to you, there has to be a simple and consistent message – and strong, clear, identifiable characters are part of that. Why is the Dragon Tattoo trilogy so successful? In large part because Lisbeth Salander is such a compelling character – but not perfect, by any means.
If anyone wants to discuss this with me, I’m always happy to talk about blogging and you can reach me either via my blog or through Tim.
PS This blog was written by the slightly overweight, going grey, useless-at-DIY and watches-too-much-football one…
A fine, manly title for a blog. And my apologies if you thought it might be written by your old headmaster…
But I’m in academic mode. Let’s talk about text-books for a while: the ones you bought when you were about six months pregnant. How to be a Dashed Fine Parent or whatever it was called. (And didn’t us Dads breathe a sigh of relief when we read the chapter on Sore, Cracked and Bleeding Nipples… Got off lightly there, lads.)
If you were still reading somewhere close to the end of the book – if the sleepless nights hadn’t got to you by then – you might have come across a paragraph or two on the character of your children.
It’s important whatever you do not to characterise your children. Labelling your children ‘The Clever One’ and ‘The Naughty One’ can harm their development and give them a negative self-image. Plus it can intensify sibling rivalry.
All jolly good stuff, and absolutely right.
Unless you happen to be writing about your children…
Because for bloggers, I think the opposite might be true.
Let me introduce you to my children, as they feature in my blog at Best Dad I Can Be:
• The nerdy/geeky nine-brains-but-can’t-tidy-his-bedroom one
• The sassy, opinionated, far-too-sexually-aware typical teenage girl one
• And the sensitive, understanding, teenager-you-can-talk-to one
I think it’s the same whether you’re writing a series of books, establishing a brand or blogging about your children. If you want people to come back to you, there has to be a simple and consistent message – and strong, clear, identifiable characters are part of that. Why is the Dragon Tattoo trilogy so successful? In large part because Lisbeth Salander is such a compelling character – but not perfect, by any means.
If anyone wants to discuss this with me, I’m always happy to talk about blogging and you can reach me either via my blog or through Tim.
PS This blog was written by the slightly overweight, going grey, useless-at-DIY and watches-too-much-football one…
The Best a Dad Can Be...
Today's guest blogger is writer and blogger Mark Richards. His chosen specialist subject is 'Why Character Matters' and he writes...
A fine, manly title for a blog. And my apologies if you thought it might be written by your old headmaster…
But I’m in academic mode. Let’s talk about text-books for a while: the ones you bought when you were about six months pregnant. How to be a Dashed Fine Parent or whatever it was called. (And didn’t us Dads breathe a sigh of relief when we read the chapter on Sore, Cracked and Bleeding Nipples… Got off lightly there, lads.)
If you were still reading somewhere close to the end of the book – if the sleepless nights hadn’t got to you by then – you might have come across a paragraph or two on the character of your children.
It’s important whatever you do not to characterise your children. Labelling your children ‘The Clever One’ and ‘The Naughty One’ can harm their development and give them a negative self-image. Plus it can intensify sibling rivalry.
All jolly good stuff, and absolutely right.
Unless you happen to be writing about your children…
Because for bloggers, I think the opposite might be true.
Let me introduce you to my children, as they feature in my blog at Best Dad I Can Be:
• The nerdy/geeky nine-brains-but-can’t-tidy-his-bedroom one
• The sassy, opinionated, far-too-sexually-aware typical teenage girl one
• And the sensitive, understanding, teenager-you-can-talk-to one
I think it’s the same whether you’re writing a series of books, establishing a brand or blogging about your children. If you want people to come back to you, there has to be a simple and consistent message – and strong, clear, identifiable characters are part of that. Why is the Dragon Tattoo trilogy so successful? In large part because Lisbeth Salander is such a compelling character – but not perfect, by any means.
If anyone wants to discuss this with me, I’m always happy to talk about blogging and you can reach me either via my blog or through Tim.
PS This blog was written by the slightly overweight, going grey, useless-at-DIY and watches-too-much-football one…
A fine, manly title for a blog. And my apologies if you thought it might be written by your old headmaster…
But I’m in academic mode. Let’s talk about text-books for a while: the ones you bought when you were about six months pregnant. How to be a Dashed Fine Parent or whatever it was called. (And didn’t us Dads breathe a sigh of relief when we read the chapter on Sore, Cracked and Bleeding Nipples… Got off lightly there, lads.)
If you were still reading somewhere close to the end of the book – if the sleepless nights hadn’t got to you by then – you might have come across a paragraph or two on the character of your children.
It’s important whatever you do not to characterise your children. Labelling your children ‘The Clever One’ and ‘The Naughty One’ can harm their development and give them a negative self-image. Plus it can intensify sibling rivalry.
All jolly good stuff, and absolutely right.
Unless you happen to be writing about your children…
Because for bloggers, I think the opposite might be true.
Let me introduce you to my children, as they feature in my blog at Best Dad I Can Be:
• The nerdy/geeky nine-brains-but-can’t-tidy-his-bedroom one
• The sassy, opinionated, far-too-sexually-aware typical teenage girl one
• And the sensitive, understanding, teenager-you-can-talk-to one
I think it’s the same whether you’re writing a series of books, establishing a brand or blogging about your children. If you want people to come back to you, there has to be a simple and consistent message – and strong, clear, identifiable characters are part of that. Why is the Dragon Tattoo trilogy so successful? In large part because Lisbeth Salander is such a compelling character – but not perfect, by any means.
If anyone wants to discuss this with me, I’m always happy to talk about blogging and you can reach me either via my blog or through Tim.
PS This blog was written by the slightly overweight, going grey, useless-at-DIY and watches-too-much-football one…
April 2, 2013
Self-publishing: a quick guide
Today's guest-post is by author, blogger, and man-about-town Ben Wakeling. I've followed Ben's progress closely - not least because his (self) published books have often outsold my traditionally-published titles. The truth is, self-publishing works if you're prepared to do the hard work; traditional publishing works if the publisher is prepared to do some work. But not all of them do, or are able (or willing) to.
While 'getting published' (in the sense of sending of a manuscript, having it read, edited and launched on the reading public by a traditional publisher) is in many ways harder than ever, it's never been easier to 'get published'. And, like them or loathe them, Amazon - whether through the e-reader or through their physical listings - level the playing field between the big beasts of the book world and us small fry. Not that Ben is small in any way. He writes...
It is an understatement to say that the marketplace is full to bursting with authors at the moment. Literary agencies receive hundreds of submissions every week, and only take on two or three new clients every year. For many, the dream of seeing their book in print seems at risk of remaining just that: a dream.
Which is why many authors (both new and previously published) are moving towards self-publishing as a way to see their work in black and white. Depending on the self-publishing route taken, it can cost thousands of pounds or nothing at all.
The manuscript for my first book, ‘Goodbye, Pert Breasts’, was send to a long list of literary agents, and in return I received a sizeable stack of rejection letters. When you’re ankle-deep in letters saying the equivalent of ‘thanks but no thanks’, you tend to become demoralised, and so I turned to self-publishing. I never harboured visions of being an international best-selling author, and so the decision to self-publish was – for me – an obvious one; especially when I discovered Lulu, one of a number of self-publishing organisations which are completely free (being a print-on-demand publisher, they just take their cut of every copy sold). Creating the book was easy, once formatted to fit the dimensions of the final product: and, within minutes, it was listed on the Lulu website.
There are distribution packages which can be purchased from Lulu, beginning at around $75; but, as standard, your book appears on Amazon, and I wasn’t after much more than that. They provide you with an ISBN for free; and, if you need extra help with formatting, or cover design, services are available at a cost.
And so, within minutes, I had become a ‘published’ author. I have put ‘published’ in inverted commas because, to be honest, self-publishing feels like running an egg and spoon race with the egg glued down: you still feel a sense of satisfaction when crossing the finish line, but it is tempered by the knowledge that you haven’t gone down the traditional route.
In fact, self-published books are the bane of every literary agent’s life: the nature of self-publishing means that anything can enter the market without a need for proof-reading or proper cover design. As a result, there are a number of self-published books out there riddled with poor grammar, incorrect spelling, factual errors, and a general poor quality of writing. But let’s not tarnish every author with the same brush: by the same token, there are a number of self-published books on the market that are of the highest quality, the author only forced to self-publish because of the reluctance of agents to take on new clients. Indeed, many authors have landed themselves an agent and a book deal off the back of self-published material.
But there’s the other side of the coin. If you self-publish, you are not only an author: you are a marketer, proof-reader, cover designer, and much more. There is an argument that authors publishing in the traditional way have many of these things done for them: the publisher will appoint a proof-reader to correct any mistakes, a graphic designer to create an attractive cover, and a PR company to boost publicity. As a self-published author, you have to put in the time, effort (and sometimes money) required to carry out all of these functions yourself. You can hire external help, but at a cost – something which not everyone has the luxury to afford.
It’s a struggle, but getting your book noticed through your own hard work can be done. Social media can work wonders for getting the word out; in addition, there’s local news outlets, forums, and various other channels through which you can publicise your work. Many self-published authors organise book signings in their local town or village; something which I’ve not yet worked up the courage to do.
It is also possible – and very straightforward – to publish your book on the Kindle through Amazon. This is a wise move: I have sold ten times as many ebooks than paperbacks, and the royalties are much greater. The revenue from the sale of a paperback book is pence, once everybody has taken their cut; with Amazon Kindle Publishing, you can receive 70% of the sale price straight into your wallet.
Kindle Publishing also allows you to give your book away for free, for five days in every three months. Whilst not generating any revenue, of course, it is a great way of getting your book into people’s hands. After that, it’s a case of trusting that word of mouth will generate additional sales once the free offer expires. For example: earlier this year I listed ‘Goodbye, Pert Breasts’ and ‘Teething Pains’ for free for five days. They were downloaded a total of 7000 times, and on the back of that I sold nearly 300 copies the next week alone, with both books reaching Number 1 on Amazon’s Top 100 books on Fatherhood. Both books now make regular appearances in the Top 100; something which I attribute largely to the free giveaway.
And so, whilst self-publishing might not be ideal for everybody, it’s a great way of seeing your book in print, and selling a few copies to boot. As long as the content is sound, professional and free from errors, it will do you no harm. My final tip: believe in yourself, and your work, one hundred percent. If you do that, and people can see your enthusiasm for your work, you won’t go far wrong.
While 'getting published' (in the sense of sending of a manuscript, having it read, edited and launched on the reading public by a traditional publisher) is in many ways harder than ever, it's never been easier to 'get published'. And, like them or loathe them, Amazon - whether through the e-reader or through their physical listings - level the playing field between the big beasts of the book world and us small fry. Not that Ben is small in any way. He writes...
It is an understatement to say that the marketplace is full to bursting with authors at the moment. Literary agencies receive hundreds of submissions every week, and only take on two or three new clients every year. For many, the dream of seeing their book in print seems at risk of remaining just that: a dream.
Which is why many authors (both new and previously published) are moving towards self-publishing as a way to see their work in black and white. Depending on the self-publishing route taken, it can cost thousands of pounds or nothing at all.
The manuscript for my first book, ‘Goodbye, Pert Breasts’, was send to a long list of literary agents, and in return I received a sizeable stack of rejection letters. When you’re ankle-deep in letters saying the equivalent of ‘thanks but no thanks’, you tend to become demoralised, and so I turned to self-publishing. I never harboured visions of being an international best-selling author, and so the decision to self-publish was – for me – an obvious one; especially when I discovered Lulu, one of a number of self-publishing organisations which are completely free (being a print-on-demand publisher, they just take their cut of every copy sold). Creating the book was easy, once formatted to fit the dimensions of the final product: and, within minutes, it was listed on the Lulu website.
There are distribution packages which can be purchased from Lulu, beginning at around $75; but, as standard, your book appears on Amazon, and I wasn’t after much more than that. They provide you with an ISBN for free; and, if you need extra help with formatting, or cover design, services are available at a cost.
And so, within minutes, I had become a ‘published’ author. I have put ‘published’ in inverted commas because, to be honest, self-publishing feels like running an egg and spoon race with the egg glued down: you still feel a sense of satisfaction when crossing the finish line, but it is tempered by the knowledge that you haven’t gone down the traditional route.
In fact, self-published books are the bane of every literary agent’s life: the nature of self-publishing means that anything can enter the market without a need for proof-reading or proper cover design. As a result, there are a number of self-published books out there riddled with poor grammar, incorrect spelling, factual errors, and a general poor quality of writing. But let’s not tarnish every author with the same brush: by the same token, there are a number of self-published books on the market that are of the highest quality, the author only forced to self-publish because of the reluctance of agents to take on new clients. Indeed, many authors have landed themselves an agent and a book deal off the back of self-published material.
But there’s the other side of the coin. If you self-publish, you are not only an author: you are a marketer, proof-reader, cover designer, and much more. There is an argument that authors publishing in the traditional way have many of these things done for them: the publisher will appoint a proof-reader to correct any mistakes, a graphic designer to create an attractive cover, and a PR company to boost publicity. As a self-published author, you have to put in the time, effort (and sometimes money) required to carry out all of these functions yourself. You can hire external help, but at a cost – something which not everyone has the luxury to afford.
It’s a struggle, but getting your book noticed through your own hard work can be done. Social media can work wonders for getting the word out; in addition, there’s local news outlets, forums, and various other channels through which you can publicise your work. Many self-published authors organise book signings in their local town or village; something which I’ve not yet worked up the courage to do.
It is also possible – and very straightforward – to publish your book on the Kindle through Amazon. This is a wise move: I have sold ten times as many ebooks than paperbacks, and the royalties are much greater. The revenue from the sale of a paperback book is pence, once everybody has taken their cut; with Amazon Kindle Publishing, you can receive 70% of the sale price straight into your wallet.
Kindle Publishing also allows you to give your book away for free, for five days in every three months. Whilst not generating any revenue, of course, it is a great way of getting your book into people’s hands. After that, it’s a case of trusting that word of mouth will generate additional sales once the free offer expires. For example: earlier this year I listed ‘Goodbye, Pert Breasts’ and ‘Teething Pains’ for free for five days. They were downloaded a total of 7000 times, and on the back of that I sold nearly 300 copies the next week alone, with both books reaching Number 1 on Amazon’s Top 100 books on Fatherhood. Both books now make regular appearances in the Top 100; something which I attribute largely to the free giveaway.
And so, whilst self-publishing might not be ideal for everybody, it’s a great way of seeing your book in print, and selling a few copies to boot. As long as the content is sound, professional and free from errors, it will do you no harm. My final tip: believe in yourself, and your work, one hundred percent. If you do that, and people can see your enthusiasm for your work, you won’t go far wrong.
March 27, 2013
Oh! Dr Beeching...
It's fifty years since the infamous Beeching report began the inexorable decline of branch lines up and down the country. In an attempt to save money and improve rail travel we lost some of the loveliest railway lines in the land, as well as some of the most romantic names: Tumby Woodside, Windmill End, Blandford Forum, Corfe Castle, Adlestrop, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Midsomer Norton.
I've a soft spot for pre-Beeching branch lines having written my first-ever paid piece of writing - aged 12 - about a model railway I'd created. It appeared in the Railway Modeller magazine in 1980 and I was paid the princely sum of £12 for seeing my name - my words, and photos of my train set - in print.
Ah, model railways. It's about the only thing Rod Stewart and I have got in common. (Well, we both sing but one of us makes an awful noise lot more money than the other, but no matter.) Here's a song I often sing (unless the public pay up) about those long lost lines, and it's a cracker of nostalgia for the railways of yesteryear.
Personally, I've always felt there's more to running things like railways than merely making money and it's interesting that a goodly number of the lines Beeching axed have been re-opened either as heritage or commuter routes. Even some of the stations mentioned in this song have been spared or else re-opened. But let's not allow mere truth get in the way of a good story.
Here's The Slow Train by Michael Flanders and Donald Swann and sung - not by me, nor Rod Stewart (I'd like to hear him try!) but by them...
I've a soft spot for pre-Beeching branch lines having written my first-ever paid piece of writing - aged 12 - about a model railway I'd created. It appeared in the Railway Modeller magazine in 1980 and I was paid the princely sum of £12 for seeing my name - my words, and photos of my train set - in print.
Ah, model railways. It's about the only thing Rod Stewart and I have got in common. (Well, we both sing but one of us makes an awful noise lot more money than the other, but no matter.) Here's a song I often sing (unless the public pay up) about those long lost lines, and it's a cracker of nostalgia for the railways of yesteryear.
Personally, I've always felt there's more to running things like railways than merely making money and it's interesting that a goodly number of the lines Beeching axed have been re-opened either as heritage or commuter routes. Even some of the stations mentioned in this song have been spared or else re-opened. But let's not allow mere truth get in the way of a good story.
Here's The Slow Train by Michael Flanders and Donald Swann and sung - not by me, nor Rod Stewart (I'd like to hear him try!) but by them...
March 25, 2013
Hosanna!
... to the son of David. (That's me by the way - my dad's called David.)
And yesterday (in case you didn't know) was Palm Sunday, when churches everywhere commemorate Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem.
There's another reason to sing Hosanna this year, and that's the fact that there's now just a week to go before the season of Lent ends and - with it - my rather poor attempt to give up alcohol for forty days. You can read how it started here. What I haven't told you is how the wagon wasn't so much fallen off as spectacularly crashed mid-season, only to be re-mounted with the aid of a rather nasty week-long sickness bug.
I've ha no excuses. I've been helped both by Sorelle who sent some rather pleasant low alcohol wine and by a case of Welch's excellent grape juice which now comes in three new varieties - Rosé Grape Light, Purple Grape Light and White Grape & Raspberry. They're all surprisingly refreshing, very tasty and have the added bonus of making you feel doubly virtuous as a glass of Welch’s counts towards one of your five a day.
You can either drink them neat (as I've been doing) or use them as a mixer. They're delicious over ice, mixed with sparkling water or simply straight out of the fridge and there are plenty of fun mocktail recipes on the Welch's Facebook page.
But don't take my word for it. Try some yourself. I've got a mixed case to give away to one lucky reader over on Twitter and the competition is running all week. All you have to do is find my Welch's tweet, give it a re-tweet and you'll be in it to win it. And while you're there, why not keep up to date with the latest Welch’s product information, recipe ideas and tips for keeping healthy by following @Welchs_UK?
Cheers!
And yesterday (in case you didn't know) was Palm Sunday, when churches everywhere commemorate Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem.
There's another reason to sing Hosanna this year, and that's the fact that there's now just a week to go before the season of Lent ends and - with it - my rather poor attempt to give up alcohol for forty days. You can read how it started here. What I haven't told you is how the wagon wasn't so much fallen off as spectacularly crashed mid-season, only to be re-mounted with the aid of a rather nasty week-long sickness bug.
I've ha no excuses. I've been helped both by Sorelle who sent some rather pleasant low alcohol wine and by a case of Welch's excellent grape juice which now comes in three new varieties - Rosé Grape Light, Purple Grape Light and White Grape & Raspberry. They're all surprisingly refreshing, very tasty and have the added bonus of making you feel doubly virtuous as a glass of Welch’s counts towards one of your five a day.
You can either drink them neat (as I've been doing) or use them as a mixer. They're delicious over ice, mixed with sparkling water or simply straight out of the fridge and there are plenty of fun mocktail recipes on the Welch's Facebook page.
But don't take my word for it. Try some yourself. I've got a mixed case to give away to one lucky reader over on Twitter and the competition is running all week. All you have to do is find my Welch's tweet, give it a re-tweet and you'll be in it to win it. And while you're there, why not keep up to date with the latest Welch’s product information, recipe ideas and tips for keeping healthy by following @Welchs_UK?
Cheers!
March 22, 2013
In the Shade of the Mulberry Tree
That's the title of a remarkable new book by blogger, author, and Yorkshire County Cricket Club supporter Catharine Withenay. We often exchange tweets about the state of our dear old 'summer' game, but recent Twitter exchanges have instead focussed on her debut publication, a compelling memoir of time spent in Zambia.
In the Shade of the Mulberry Tree is a winner (I've already started reading it in preference to the tottering Shard of unread books by my bed) so instead of talking about the contents I've invited Catharine to talk this morning about her journey into publishing. She writes..
My family moved to Zambia because of my husband’s medical research; the reason for returning to the UK in 2007 was his career. Finding myself in a new city, knowing no-one, I had lots of time on my hands and writing about our Zambian experiences became essential to retain my sanity. My youngest had just started school and I had all day to myself to write. There was so much to say - losing passports, meeting Mutende, adjusting to the pace of life, getting my hair cut, travelling around the country, The Bishop and The Professor.
Within two years we had moved on again. So had the book: from a dodgy first draft to endless efforts at editing. And some attempts at acquiring an agent, with no success. It is hard to know if a book is worth publishing. One often repeated piece of advice is that you must ignore all the compliments from your friends and family and writing group because they are just being nice. That’s tough, because they are also your main support group and the people who will get you through the tricky days ahead.
Time ticked on. Last November I set myself the NaNoWriMo challenge to write 50,000 words in 30 days. I knew I had more than one book in me about Zambia and I was determined to get it down on paper (well, into the computer’s memory at least!) I failed the challenge, but somewhere in the midst of it I decided that enough was enough: I knew my writing was good enough and I had to self-publish the book I’d written.
Editing, proofreading and book cover design cost me money - quite a lot of it! But nobody wants to read something that has been flung together on a wet afternoon in Grimsby. [Not that there's owt wrong wi' Grimsby - Ed.] With all this in place, I had finally come to the first of my deadlines for publishing. I investigated various printing options. One publisher quoted me for printing 150 books, and I realised that I would have to sell 148 of them in order just to break even! As I suspected that I would give more than two away (my father, my husband, my children - just for starters!) this seemed a false start.
My second route was Print on Demand. This scheme means that every paperback bought is printed to order: there are no spare copies lying around gathering dust in a storage facility. Again, I looked into various options but CreateSpace came out best because of its connection to Amazon (where millions of books are bought) and the pricing. By formatting and uploading it myself the only costs I incurred were to purchase proof copies, in the region of $10-20 each including postage from the US.
I did have qualms about using Amazon, particularly as their stinginess in paying UK tax had just surfaced in the news, but the process was straightforward. Having logged in, they list of series of questions and tick boxes (e.g. Book Title, Author name, sizing, paper colour) and provided me with an ISBN number for free. I downloaded their template, copied and pasted my manuscript, and set to work. I am an accountant by profession and (yes, this does make me sad) I found the logic and discipline of setting out page numbers and section breaks, and the correct fonts and headings, remarkably therapeutic. (Well, motivated by tea and the promise of a cookie every few chapters, I was in my element!)Other PoD suppliers had additional costs for providing these services and I decided that was money I could save quite happily.
All authors want to hold their book in their hands... but that is not the only route. Indeed, it isn’t even likely to be the most profitable route, despite my efforts to save money. The main sales are likely to be in ebooks. Preparing that document for uploading was another
kettle of fish entirely! The lead time is a lot less (once finished it is online within 12-24 hours) but the tedium of formatting for Kindle and other devices involved a lot more chocolate. Publishing books is clearly not going to be good for my weight loss campaign!
Having set all that in place, the only thing left to do was to market the book. I wrote a blog post Being a butterfly doesn’t come naturally in which I expressed how this side of publishing a book is not up my street. Some people are natural social animals and self-promoters: I’m not. It may be made worse in that the book is about me, so it is as if I am saying to everyone, “Hey! Spend your money to read about me and my exciting life!” Which I am saying, but it feels uncomfortable. (And it was exciting. And terrifying. And confusing. And fun. Just in case you would like to go and buy the book!)
Has it all been worth it? Yes! I still stare at the books in wonder that I actually created such a beautiful object. My friends are enjoying reading it, and my children will have it as a lasting record of their early years. Is it going to make me a multi-millionaire? I doubt it. I shall probably break even, perhaps enough to buy myself a treat. But I have enjoyed the process and I’m proud of the end result.
Would I do it again? I have nearly 50,000 words from last November to edit and rewrite: of course I would do it again!
In the Shade of the Mulberry Tree is available on Amazon in both paperback and Kindle editions and is highly recommended.
In the Shade of the Mulberry Tree is a winner (I've already started reading it in preference to the tottering Shard of unread books by my bed) so instead of talking about the contents I've invited Catharine to talk this morning about her journey into publishing. She writes..
My family moved to Zambia because of my husband’s medical research; the reason for returning to the UK in 2007 was his career. Finding myself in a new city, knowing no-one, I had lots of time on my hands and writing about our Zambian experiences became essential to retain my sanity. My youngest had just started school and I had all day to myself to write. There was so much to say - losing passports, meeting Mutende, adjusting to the pace of life, getting my hair cut, travelling around the country, The Bishop and The Professor.
Within two years we had moved on again. So had the book: from a dodgy first draft to endless efforts at editing. And some attempts at acquiring an agent, with no success. It is hard to know if a book is worth publishing. One often repeated piece of advice is that you must ignore all the compliments from your friends and family and writing group because they are just being nice. That’s tough, because they are also your main support group and the people who will get you through the tricky days ahead.
Time ticked on. Last November I set myself the NaNoWriMo challenge to write 50,000 words in 30 days. I knew I had more than one book in me about Zambia and I was determined to get it down on paper (well, into the computer’s memory at least!) I failed the challenge, but somewhere in the midst of it I decided that enough was enough: I knew my writing was good enough and I had to self-publish the book I’d written.
Editing, proofreading and book cover design cost me money - quite a lot of it! But nobody wants to read something that has been flung together on a wet afternoon in Grimsby. [Not that there's owt wrong wi' Grimsby - Ed.] With all this in place, I had finally come to the first of my deadlines for publishing. I investigated various printing options. One publisher quoted me for printing 150 books, and I realised that I would have to sell 148 of them in order just to break even! As I suspected that I would give more than two away (my father, my husband, my children - just for starters!) this seemed a false start.
My second route was Print on Demand. This scheme means that every paperback bought is printed to order: there are no spare copies lying around gathering dust in a storage facility. Again, I looked into various options but CreateSpace came out best because of its connection to Amazon (where millions of books are bought) and the pricing. By formatting and uploading it myself the only costs I incurred were to purchase proof copies, in the region of $10-20 each including postage from the US.
I did have qualms about using Amazon, particularly as their stinginess in paying UK tax had just surfaced in the news, but the process was straightforward. Having logged in, they list of series of questions and tick boxes (e.g. Book Title, Author name, sizing, paper colour) and provided me with an ISBN number for free. I downloaded their template, copied and pasted my manuscript, and set to work. I am an accountant by profession and (yes, this does make me sad) I found the logic and discipline of setting out page numbers and section breaks, and the correct fonts and headings, remarkably therapeutic. (Well, motivated by tea and the promise of a cookie every few chapters, I was in my element!)Other PoD suppliers had additional costs for providing these services and I decided that was money I could save quite happily.
All authors want to hold their book in their hands... but that is not the only route. Indeed, it isn’t even likely to be the most profitable route, despite my efforts to save money. The main sales are likely to be in ebooks. Preparing that document for uploading was another
kettle of fish entirely! The lead time is a lot less (once finished it is online within 12-24 hours) but the tedium of formatting for Kindle and other devices involved a lot more chocolate. Publishing books is clearly not going to be good for my weight loss campaign!
Having set all that in place, the only thing left to do was to market the book. I wrote a blog post Being a butterfly doesn’t come naturally in which I expressed how this side of publishing a book is not up my street. Some people are natural social animals and self-promoters: I’m not. It may be made worse in that the book is about me, so it is as if I am saying to everyone, “Hey! Spend your money to read about me and my exciting life!” Which I am saying, but it feels uncomfortable. (And it was exciting. And terrifying. And confusing. And fun. Just in case you would like to go and buy the book!)
Has it all been worth it? Yes! I still stare at the books in wonder that I actually created such a beautiful object. My friends are enjoying reading it, and my children will have it as a lasting record of their early years. Is it going to make me a multi-millionaire? I doubt it. I shall probably break even, perhaps enough to buy myself a treat. But I have enjoyed the process and I’m proud of the end result.
Would I do it again? I have nearly 50,000 words from last November to edit and rewrite: of course I would do it again!
In the Shade of the Mulberry Tree is available on Amazon in both paperback and Kindle editions and is highly recommended.
March 19, 2013
Win a Little Punk London Stick-and-Play t-shirt
A couple of weeks ago this arrived in my inbox:
Thanks to daily school-run duties I rarely manage term-time trips to London these days, but I was keen to support the event, not least because Little Punk London very kindly sent Charlie a Christmas present last year. Here's a picture of him wearing it:
I know what you're thinking. Nice. But... well, seasonal. How much wear will he get out of it? Will it still fit him next year?
Well, with Little Punk London ('the first and only children's stick on and play designer t-shirts... hours of fun, beautiful to wear' as they themselves put it) such things don't matter. Because once Christmas was over Charlie was able merely to peel off the velcro decorations and create an entirely new look! Something he can do again and again.
And so can you. Because to celebrate the launch of their brand-new range Little Punk London is offering one lucky Bringing up Charlie reader a fun item of clothing from their collection. All you have to do to win a groovy stick-and-play alphabet t-shirt is enter below and the winner will be chosen by this time next week (i.e. Tuesday 26th March).
So go ahead (little) punk!
Make my day...
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Thanks to daily school-run duties I rarely manage term-time trips to London these days, but I was keen to support the event, not least because Little Punk London very kindly sent Charlie a Christmas present last year. Here's a picture of him wearing it:
I know what you're thinking. Nice. But... well, seasonal. How much wear will he get out of it? Will it still fit him next year?
Well, with Little Punk London ('the first and only children's stick on and play designer t-shirts... hours of fun, beautiful to wear' as they themselves put it) such things don't matter. Because once Christmas was over Charlie was able merely to peel off the velcro decorations and create an entirely new look! Something he can do again and again.
And so can you. Because to celebrate the launch of their brand-new range Little Punk London is offering one lucky Bringing up Charlie reader a fun item of clothing from their collection. All you have to do to win a groovy stick-and-play alphabet t-shirt is enter below and the winner will be chosen by this time next week (i.e. Tuesday 26th March).
So go ahead (little) punk!
Make my day...
a Rafflecopter giveaway
March 16, 2013
The Sound of Silence...
It might seem odd for the second in my occasional series of video posts to focus on sound rather than pictures. But audio is so integral to today's video - and poor sound can ruin otherwise excellent footage and spoil good film.
On the iPhone (which - on the principle that the best camera is always the one you have with you - I now use all the time) the sound is recorded not - as you might expect - by the phone mic (which is adjacent to the speaker at the bottom of iPhones 4, 4S and 5) but by a dedicated microphone situated next to headphone jack at the top of the phone. Blink, and you might miss it. Or mistake it for the sort of button into which you insert a pin to extract a SIM card or do a factory re-set. But whatever you do, don't stick a pin in it! Because that little aperture conceals an amazingly sensitive (albeit mono) video microphone - good enough for Auntie Beeb on the move to record broadcast-quality interviews (as I can personally attest).
But not good enough - quite - to match the amazing HD video quality of your iPhone clips. And not stereo, either. But for as little as £25 you can acquire a handy little external mike - the iRig MIC Cast - to add an extra aural dimension to your recordings.
Its features include a unidirectional pickup pattern to minimize background noise, a stereo mini-jack headphone socket so you can accurately monitor what you're recording, two different sensitivity settings to record close-up or distant sound sources and it comes with an adjustable desktop stand for convenient iPhone/iPod touch positioning during recording.
As with other IK Multimedia microphones, it includes 2 free apps: iRig Recorder, an easy-to-use voice recording/editing app, and VocaLive, a multi-effect processing app especially for singers. But if you're serious about music recordings you'd probably want to invest in the more sophisticated iRic Mic and I'll be reviewing this more fully in a later post.
For now, though, let the proof of the pudding be in the eating. Here are two short clips I recorded this morning. The first uses the iPhone 4's built-in microphone; the second is recorded in exactly the same way, just minutes later, using the iRig MIC Cast. See - or rather, hear - for yourself:
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On the iPhone (which - on the principle that the best camera is always the one you have with you - I now use all the time) the sound is recorded not - as you might expect - by the phone mic (which is adjacent to the speaker at the bottom of iPhones 4, 4S and 5) but by a dedicated microphone situated next to headphone jack at the top of the phone. Blink, and you might miss it. Or mistake it for the sort of button into which you insert a pin to extract a SIM card or do a factory re-set. But whatever you do, don't stick a pin in it! Because that little aperture conceals an amazingly sensitive (albeit mono) video microphone - good enough for Auntie Beeb on the move to record broadcast-quality interviews (as I can personally attest).
But not good enough - quite - to match the amazing HD video quality of your iPhone clips. And not stereo, either. But for as little as £25 you can acquire a handy little external mike - the iRig MIC Cast - to add an extra aural dimension to your recordings.
Its features include a unidirectional pickup pattern to minimize background noise, a stereo mini-jack headphone socket so you can accurately monitor what you're recording, two different sensitivity settings to record close-up or distant sound sources and it comes with an adjustable desktop stand for convenient iPhone/iPod touch positioning during recording.
As with other IK Multimedia microphones, it includes 2 free apps: iRig Recorder, an easy-to-use voice recording/editing app, and VocaLive, a multi-effect processing app especially for singers. But if you're serious about music recordings you'd probably want to invest in the more sophisticated iRic Mic and I'll be reviewing this more fully in a later post.
For now, though, let the proof of the pudding be in the eating. Here are two short clips I recorded this morning. The first uses the iPhone 4's built-in microphone; the second is recorded in exactly the same way, just minutes later, using the iRig MIC Cast. See - or rather, hear - for yourself:
<
