Steven O'Connor's Blog, page 8
August 11, 2012
Ptechnodactyls … and the whoas of republishing your first book
Ptechnodactyls from EleMental
(sketch by Aaron Pocock)
Oh whoa. And woe. The number of people I’ve spoken to who appear to think I simply need to push my first book through an ebook-machine and that’s it. I wish. Actually, I’m guilty too, to some degree –I thought it might take me a few days to get my first bookEleMental out again. Several weeks later! And don’t think I’ve been slack. I long for the day I can be slack. At least for a single day … video gaming, reading, watching TV (Iespecially...
July 14, 2012
Back from Bali, Back to writing
The view from my window in Ubud, Bali. I kid you not.
I am back from my family holiday and am working hard to re-establish my writing rhythm. Family holidays are important, and this last one especially so as it’s likely to be the last with the whole family–my son and daughter are getting older!
As a writer, you’re never too far away from thoughts about your writing projects.I may have spent some time sitting on a banana lounge by a pool, but let me reassure you I was still very much engaged in...
June 27, 2012
‘The Age of the Pigs’ – A virtual game
Beware … THE SIGN OF THE PIG.
I’m going to be offline for a few weeks, so I’d like to leave you with my characters Willis, Zeb and Ari playing a futuristic virtual video game from the ‘Mad Pigs’ game series … The Age of the Pigs.I recently featured thischapterexcerpt on the MonuMental page of my website, but for those of you who missed that, Iam now sharing it as a post.
Rest assured, I might be away from my blog posting, but that does not mean I won’t be progressing my novelsElemental and Monu...
‘The Age of the Pigs’ – A virtual video game
Beware … THE SIGN OF THE PIG.
I’m going to be offline for a few weeks, so I’d like to leave you with my characters Willis, Zeb and Ari playing a futuristic virtual video game from the ‘Mad Pigs’ game series … The Age of the Pigs.I recently featured thischapterexcerpt on the MonuMental page of my website, but for those of you who missed that, Iam now sharing it as a post.
Rest assured, I might be away from my blog posting, but that does not mean I won’t be progressing my novelsElemental and Monu...
June 19, 2012
The Man from Uncle doesn’t want my book
Matt Handbury is Rupert Murdoch’s nephew and the owner of Murdoch Books. He’s known as ‘The Man from Uncle’. I received a press statement from him the other day in my inbox. No, I’m not that special – it went out to all of the ‘MB family’ from the publishing house CEO. (Murdoch Books published my book EleMental, through their imprint Pier 9.)
Matt Handbury’s words make for very interesting reading, and it’s rather sad in parts. As it’s a press statement, I can quote from it without worrying th...
June 13, 2012
MotherCraft – My first indie ebook available on Amazon
MotherCraft – A short story, is leading my charge into indie publishing. It’s available on Amazon here and I’m very happy with how it looks. As it’s my trial ebook, my plan was to give it away for free. This in no way means it’s not worth much! I have given to MotherCraftthe same rigor I give to all of my writing and the storywent down very well with my test readers. However, as it turns out, one must put a price tag on ebooks on Amazon. Learning all the time! The lowest price option is 99c....
May 26, 2012
I’ve been to see the editor and I’ve returned home, safe
The cover so far. (A bit plain, I know.)
I was going to write ‘wolf’ in that title –always being one for imagery and allusions–but that wouldn’t be fair. After all, I had a very pleasant few hours with Euan Mitchell sitting in a cafe called the Artful Dodger. Euan Mitchell, with his editor’s cap on, carefully walked me through his four-page structural assessment of MonuMental, plus his hand-written analyses after every chapter.
I include themanuscript’scurrent face page, in case you’re interest...
May 19, 2012
Here’s hoping my pigs are safe. And my dragon too
A happy, safe pig
The one thing nice about handing your manuscript over to an editor for structural feedback is you can relax a little, and maybe even get on with some other things you enjoy doing – like writing a few random blog posts … Hello everyone!
Well, that hasn’t lasted very long.
Euan Mitchell, the highly-esteemed editor I happily engaged, has got back in touch already. Oh. Too quick!
He wants to meet for coffee and to provide me with a walk-through of his thoughts and suggestions about...
May 16, 2012
US tax, ‘foreign entities’, indie publishing and ouch ooch eech
US tax piggy
This week I learnt that the Australian treaty with the US is not as good as the UK’s, Canada’s or Ireland’s. And no doubt not as good as treaties held by a whole bunch of other countries. If you’re an Australian citizen, like me, the best you can hope for when publishing and selling in the US as a ‘foreign entity’ (actually, I quite like that term, spooky and MiB) is a five per cent US tax on your earnings. Everybody else seems to be getting zero per cent. These are the kind of no...
May 13, 2012
I’ve been to the puppet show and I’ve seen the strings
Isn’t that a great phrase? I recently spotted it in a comments box at the bottom of a blog post. The blog topic, naturally, was about self-publishing. The phrase immediately resonated with me. For I too, like the commenter at the bottom of that indie writer’s web post, have been to the puppet show and I’ve seen those goddamn strings (there are a few). Thus, happily, I know which strings I want to pull – to emulate the best bits of the traditional publishing process – and which strings to avoi...
