Imran Siddiq's Blog, page 15

The Simple Creative Writing Book is here

Do you struggle to make time to write?

Does it matter if you’re not sure of your novel’s genre?

How much detail do you need for world building?

What’s the difference between First and Third Person?

Is there guidance on how to structure a story?

What’s a character arc?

How do I write a synopsis?

There are guides and rules that will answer the above, but you might not find them all in the same place.

This book gets to the point – in a simple way. There’s no room for complicated jargon or theory. What do you need to know, and how should you apply it?

Creative writing is about building on an idea, creating great characters, twisting a plot, gripping the reader, and giving life to a world. Words are the life of stories.

Note: There are 3 versions of this book.

$2.99 - Kindle Screenshot:

$3.99 – iBook Screenshot:

$5.99 - Paperback Screenshot:

The iPad iBook version (can be read on iMacs, but not iPhones) is available at $3.99.

Once payment has been received, a copy of the Book will be sent to you within 24 hours.

The Simple Creative Writing Book

iPad iBook

Please supply your Email Address :










The Kindle and Paperback versions can be purchased from:

————————————————————–

 GET A COPY OF THE BOOK FOR FREE!

And here’s comes the giveaway.

1 – Purchase a Kindle or Paperback copy – forward the Amazon Receipt to flickimp@gmail.com - and get Disconnect and Tyler Nitbone e-book sent to you for free.

2 – Purchase an iPad copy - and get Disconnect and Tyler Nitbone e-book sent to you for free.

3 – Blog about The Simple Creative Writing Book – and provide a link to the purchase site http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mr-Imran-Siddiq/e/B00BDSNW9Y and this page http://www.imranwrites.com/2014/03/14/the-simple-cre…g-book-is-here/ , with images taken from above, and you’ll get the Kindle version sent to you for free.

Easy…

Purchase Kindle or Paperback – to get e-books of my novels.
Purchase iPad copy – to get e-book of my novels.
Blog about this book – to get the Kindle e-book copy.

Let’s write.

Interviewed on Social Book Shelves

 

Another great site ‘Social Book Shelves’ has done me the honours of an interview.

See it all here - http://www.socialbookshelves.com/blog/interview-with-imran-siddiq-author-of-disconnect/

 

Author Interview

 

Excited to be interviewed by the fantastic book site – Booktastik.

Read –> http://booktastik.com/?p=1744

Review of the London Author Fair 2014

 

Feb 28 marked the first-ever London Author Fair – and I was there!

Festivals and conferences are plenty throughout the year within the UK, but there are few that are dedicated to the author. The London Author Fair – organised by Authoright – set out to provide a packed day of seminars and workshops that gave insight into routes into publishing. The cost for the day from 9:20am and well into the evening was £95. The venue was Covent Garden.

Some of the workshops:

Although there were some workshops about editing, creating covering letters, and understanding the relationship of writer to agent to publisher to readers, the overall feeling I got from the event was that it was for authors.

Let me clear – if you’re after and event where you can learn in detail about PoV, Prose, Voice, Dialogue, Show not Tell, Character Arc, Conflict, Endings, and much more, then I advise you to attend festivals such as Get Writing, Winchester Writers Conference, or the Festival of Writing.

However – if you want to learn snapshot points about editing and redrafting, the importance of critiques, marketing, promoting, social media, covers, and how you can publish by bypassing agents – (as well as how to submit to agents) – then the LAF is ideal.

There was great input from authors that are successful with indie or self-publishing – and Q+A Workshops by Kobo, Nookpress, CompletelyNovel, Createspace, Kindle Select, and Blurb. If you’re unsure about which Print-on-Demand service to use, then learning from the experts is a must. Of course – I did play Devil’s advocate, and did warn some writers about pitfalls or hidden costs that some of the services didn’t spell out. So, use the event to get insight, but do your background research for which route to use.

On top of that a 1-2-1 literary agent opportunity was also available. As I have said many a time, I can’t recommend a 1-2-1 enough. Having face to face communication is worth more than a letter of rejection. Invest in attending an event.

Things that I would like to recommend for next year are quieter rooms for the workshops – and a better spread for the lunch … but other than that – there was an opportunity to network with writers, and smuggle a business card into their hands.

If you’re self publishing, or need advice about the risks, investment implications, or are struggling to understand how to make an impact into a exploding market, then LAF could be ideal for you.

I look forward to what will be on offer next year.

Q&A with a leading UK Self Publishing Company

 

Sarah Taylor is the Marketing Manager at Troubador Publishing Ltd, the company that hosts The Self-Publishing Conference, where she has worked for nearly four years. She is also the Editor of The Self Publishing Magazine, one of the sponsors of The 2nd Self-Publishing Conference 2014. http://www.troubador.co.uk/

1. How long have you been running, and has your business changed in recent years due to the increase in Self-Publishing?

The Matador imprint is celebrating its 14th birthday this year! I’ve worked at the company for nearly four years  and the company has expanded drastically in that time. The self-publishing boom has motivated us to continually change the way we work and improve our services so that we can continue to offer our authors the highest-quality product possible and a guaranteed route to market. One of the most recent developments within the company is the creation and launch of The Self-Publishing Conference – we held our first Conference last March, and it was so successful that we have now established it as an annual event. The second is next month – 30th March 2014!

 

2. Do you think that Self-Publishing is accepted now as a means to deliver a book?

Absolutely; barely a day goes by without a self-publishing success story of one kind or another. The stigma around self-publishing is starting to be eradicated and, at the end of the day, it’s all about the finished product and the readers. As long as they are getting a quality book that looks good and reads well, I don’t think they mind who has published it. We focus on producing a professionally-designed and book, and are often told that our books are indistinguishable from those published by traditional publishing houses.

There’s also been a massive turnaround in attitudes towards self-publishing from authors – nowadays being an ‘indie author’ is associated with a real sense of pride and independence; authors are increasingly choosing self-publishing as their first option, rather than as a fallback after being turned down by mainstream publishers. One of our most successful authors is Polly Courtney, who rose to fame after publishing two books with us, and was then signed for a three-book deal by HarperCollins. After her last book, with them, she decided to part ways with them and has since returned to self-publishing. She’ll be sharing her experiences in her Conference session ‘From self-publishing to mainstream and back again’.

 

3. How do you compare to other companies that in the past have been seen as Vanity Publishers that ask for large amount of money to produce a novel? (No names mentioned).

Vanity publishing is a largely outdated term nowadays, and one we’ve always strived to avoid association with. When we launched the Matador imprint, we firmly established ourselves at the quality end of the market and that’s been our ethos for the last fourteen years. There are a number of ways in which we feel we differ from other self-publishing firms; we place a big emphasis on editing, design – inside and outside the book – and we offer a full range of distribution and bespoke marketing options.

We also recommend a range of printing options – self-publishing seems to be becoming synonymous with ‘print on demand’, but a lot of authors don’t realise that POD doesn’t suit every single book – until it’s too late. These are just some of the things that Alysoun Owen (Editor of the Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook) and Matador’s Jeremy Thompson will be discussing in their ‘Choosing a self-publishing services provider’ talk at the 2014 Conference.

 

4. Do you support authors with creating their books – or do you provide templates for them?

We do as little or as much work on a book as an author requires. We have authors who supply print-ready files; we have authors who supply their own covers; we have authors who even arrange their own printing. For the majority of authors, who want everything doing for them, we take their book from the original text document to the finished product and do all of the production and marketing work involved.

Some authors choose to handle some of the processes themselves – for example, cover design – and in this case we offer guidance as best as we can to ensure that the end product is as good as it can be, even if we’re not doing the work on that particular component. Matador’s Head of Production Terry Compton will be talking about ‘The importance of cover design’ with Aimee Bell of Author Design Studio at the event.

 

5. How much support can an author get for their launch?

Book launches are something we’ve always felt best for the author to organise – it’s important for authors to take a handle on their own events as it is self-publishing, and it’s also important for them to cultivate their relationships with libraries and bookshops. We are often invited to – and attend! – book launches, but the emphasis is on the author to handle launches themselves. We offer a range of marketing materials for authors to promote their events – including posters, bookmarks and leaflets – and we can supply orders to any retailer that wants to source stock from us directly.

I’ll be touching on this in my workshop on how to ‘Work successfully with bookshops and libraries to sell your book’ along with Maggie Boyd of Leicestershire Library Services and Debbie James from The Kibworth Bookshop.

 

6. Was there a common question from attendees at the The Self-Publishing Conference in 2013?

We were mostly asked about marketing – a lot of authors completely overlook marketing, or think about it once the book has already been published – which is too late. Authors should start thinking about their marketing before they write the book – so that they can identify their target audience, and make sure the book is correctly aimed at that audience – and the bulk of marketing work is carried out in the run-up to the book’s official publication date.

At this year’s Conference, our marketing sessions are the most heavily subscribed – including Ben Cameron’s workshop ‘Creating the best media pitch’ and Helen McCusker’s two sessions – ‘Writing a successful press release’ and ‘Preparing for your first media interview’.

 

7. Are there any advancements in Self-Publishing or E-Books that you can foresee for the future?

We always hear that the print market is declining, but the number of authors still choosing to self-publish with us in physical formats contradicts this theory. Certainly we’ve seen a huge increase in the authors who come to us just to publish their ebook, and a massive increase in those who choose to produce their book both digitally and physically. I think the shift will continue to grow towards digital content, not just limited to ebooks – including apps and audiobooks. At this year’s Conference we’ll have Rachel Gregory and Rosie Grindrod from Matador, who will discuss ebook creation and marketing respectively.  Kobo will also be running a session on ‘Ebook publishing with Kobo’ on the day.

Self-publishing children’s books also seems to be a growth area, which is why we have a dedicated children’s book strand this year. One of these sessions is run by Louise Jordan from The Writers’ Advice Centre for Children, who will be advising delegates on ‘Structuring a children’s book’.

 

8. When an author prints a large quantity of their book to reduce manufacture costs, do you provide a storage service?

We have in-house storage facilities and we also use an external distributor to enable as wide a distribution network as possible. We do provide storage for authors, but we also advise where an author is planning an unrealistic print run. It’s important for authors to manage their expectations and think about how they are going to sell copies of their book – rather than just blindly choosing a huge print run and being forced to store boxes of books for years to come. Neil Clarke from printer TJ International will be touching on print runs in his ‘Working successfully with your printer’ session.

 

Notes for Editors:

Taking place on March 30, 2014 at the University of Leicester, The 2nd Self-Publishing Conference is aimed at any author wishing to self-publish. The Conference is sponsored by Kobo, Writers & Artists, Cameron Publicity & Marketing, Writing Magazine, Nielsen Book, Cornerstones, TJ International, Booked PR, The Writers’ Advice Centre, Matador and The Self Publishing Magazine. It will bring together key figures in the self-publishing sphere for the benefit of self-publishing authors. The Conference takes place on Sunday March 30, 2014, 8.45am-4.30pm, at Stamford Conference Centre, University of Leicester. Registration is £55.00 per person. This includes a delegate’s pack, morning coffee, buffet lunch, afternoon tea and a choice from more than nine sessions on different aspects of self-publishing and a chance to win an amazing Kobo Aura, the premium eReader supplied courtesy of Kobo Writing Life.

http://www.selfpublishingconference.org.uk/

#SPConf14

My Writing Process – Blog Tour

 

I was invited to join the   ‘My Writing Process – Blog Tour’ by   Miranda Kate.   On this blog tour, writers and authors answer questions about their writing process to give a little insight about how they work and the methods they use, in an attempt to help other writers. Her blog that got me involved can be found here.

What am I working on?

What a question to answer. Many, many things. I’m submitting Novel 7 to agents, redrafting Novel 8, and creating a Creative Writing Help Book. The latter is proving to be the most complicated as I’m having to ensure that I’m spot on with advice (from my point of view), and to create a top notch that appeals to all. And somewhere in-between all of that I need to plot Novel 9.

 

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

Unlike my earlier novels, I’m trying to be more realistic with possibilities in Science Fiction. Having topics that readers can foresee in the not too distant future provides more narrative for conflict and the character arc rather than explaining the dynamics of a complicated world. Recently I’ve made the move to have characters that are Asian or of another ethnicity other than Caucasian – to explore culture issues and alternate ways of handling situations that I feel is an area still to be explored fully in YA fiction, especially Sci Fi.

 

Why do I write what I do?

Because God told me to. No – because I’ve been in love with Science Fiction from when I first saw Star Wars aged 4 in 1982. Yes… it struck me from an early age. I was disappointed during my Middle-Grade and early teens at the lack of Science Fiction novels for me to understand, and drifted into reading Fantasy. Although there has been an explosion of YA Science Fiction, the pattern of love triangles, or a teenager with a special gift is over-done, and I want to bring drama into the genre that revolves around the character in new innovate ways.

 

How does your writing process work?

Planning and planning and planning. An idea comes to mind and it usually stays there until I can see an ending. If I can’t see the last scene, the conclusion and the resolution, then I won’t pursue the idea. Once I know the ending, I can then visualise the characters that are present, and in a methodical manner I’ll work backwards to find a good starting point. My way of plotting from the back to the front is a weird one, but it allows me work from high tension to low tension. Of course, I will jump around during the plotting, but the end goal is to have a plot that makes sense for why it happened at all.

Plotting takes about a week and totals about three hours of my time. After that comes the words and at a rate of 15k per week, I can easily get a first draft of 100k done within 2 months. Redrafting usually takes about the same time where I have to think more about the words.

The best tip that I can about writing is that you just write. Don’t think about being perfect when you write. Just do it.

Reviewed by The Self Publishing Magazine

 

This is one of those moments that you look forward to, and hope will occur in your lifetime.

Disconnect – available for Free on Kindle – was reviewed as ‘Editor’s Choice’ in The Self Publishing Magazine Winter 2013.

Yes – it made my weekend.

How to Write – for Teenagers – for Free ?

 

Settle down and think beyond the cosmos just for a moment. What I’d love to do isn’t ground-breaking or hasn’t been done before, however my take on it is more educational and inspirational than profit-mongering.

For the last 2 months, I’ve dropped the odd comment to teenagers about how interested they’d be about learning how to write – or – what (breakable rules) should they consider when writing.

The answer is always – Yes – they’d love to know because there’s more emphasis on reading in schools. Nothing wrong with that, but why do children in particular have to rely on purchasing a 4.99+ book or searching on-line for numerous articles to get their stuff?

Are you still with me?

From that came an idea.

What if I pulled together the 3 years of tips, hints, advice, and good practice about writing (POV, Verbs, Character Arcs, Voice, Show Not Tell, Dialogue, Think Less = Write More, etc) and created a 50 page Paperback on ‘How to Write?’

Yes – I know 50 pages isn’t huge – but believe in it for a moment. Imagine a 50 page – A6 pocketbook with a layout that is more funky than just black text on a white page. A book so light you could carry it around. Sure – you could carry around an on-line copy – but a recent survey that I carried out revealed that 37 people preferred a paperback ‘help’ book to 2 preferring an e-book version.

And 25% of them were teenagers.

So here’s the plan – and then I’ll get to the problem…

1. Create an A6 Book

2. Have copies printed – high quality – but ensuring the cost per copy stays at £1 – and that’s why I’m keeping it restricted to 50 pages.

3. Allow people to purchase worldwide (note that $ versions will be slightly higher, and there will be first class stamp costs for postage in the UK)

4. Also allow people to purchase 5, 10, 100, 250, 500, and 1000 copies (at a discounted rate such as 1000 copies would be £800 including delivery) and have them – with a message by the purchaser – sent to a UK School of their choice.

Okay…at this point – you’re thinking – HUH! – I’m asking you to fund books to a school! How dare !?

Think about it.

You’ve just helped provide a book about writing to children, teenagers that could start a journey of inspiration. Or… they’ll use it as a mat for their soda-drink’s can.

What do I get out of it? Nothing. No profit.

What do you get out of it? A sense of providing for the next generation?

What do they get out of it? Ideas handed to them for Free. The children/teenagers do not pay.

In a world where technology drives us more and more, what’s to say how many children will turn to writing with the passion that we throw at it for most of our lives.

Okay… let’s now get onto the problem.

There are 2 ways that I can set this up.

1. Create the paperback and then have them on standby for printing once I know that someone has made a purchase, and then get them delivered.

2. Use Crowdfunding like Kickstarter – where I set up the packages ie: 1 book, 5, 10, 100… 1000, etc, and hope that people will purchase in advance and then I can have them created and delivered in a bonanza week to the schools.

And of course then there’s the issue of marketing and building a buzz for what’s on offer.

It’s all hard work – but it could be worth it.

So… do you have a view on this? A decent idea from me? A challenge that no-one will care about? It’s not for us to fund books to a school? All opinions will be respected and could influence my decisions.

Yay or nay?

Me and Writing Festivals for 2014

 

I attended my first Writing Festival in 2011 – The Festival of Writing 2011 in York (UK) – and have never looked back.

I met writers that understood blocks, issues, confidence lows, enthusiastic highs – it was rip-roaring brilliant. All of a sudden loneliness became a past-time.

Since then I’ve been actively going to events – especially those with Literary Agent 1-2-1s. Sure there is a cost attached, and I haven’t had a holiday since 2010 (and I seriously mean that – not even Skegness)).

But it’s all worth it.

Below you’ll see a list of where I’ve been (and what I gained) – and where I’ll be going.

Never been to an event? Do it.

Mar 11    Festival of Writing York – Met others and got a reality thrashing about Novel 1.

Oct 11       Getting Published Day London – Given good feedback about Novel 2 (Disconnect).

Feb 12      Get Writing St Albans – Huge confidence boost with an agent/publisher liking Disconnect.

Sept 12      Festival of Writing York – Great comments from agents about Novel 4 – Tyler Nitbone

Jan 13       Self Publishing Conference Leicester – Gained tips about marketing

April 13     Get Writing St Albans – Further tips on how to improve Tyler Nitbone

Sept 13       Festival of Writing York – Brilliant response to Novel 7 – Optic

….. And now onto the upcoming events that I will be attending

Feb 14         London Author Fair – Hope to get more feedback on Optic with agents.

Mar 14        Get Writing St Albans – Will put Novel 8 (current wip) ahead of agents.

Mar 14        Self Publishing Conference Leicester – Hope to pick up more tips.

Sept 14       Festival of Writing York – Will put Novel 8 or 9 (to be written) to agents.

 

Invest in yourself to be at a festival and you’ll pick up more than just reading a book, watching a video or assuming you know all there is to writing. It’s fun. I mean that.

 

Abandoned Pics to Inspire Writing

 

I can’t say enough about a great twitterer called Abandoned Pics who finds great images with a tale behind some of them.

You must visit his images: https://twitter.com/AbandonedPics/media

Some are below – and do click on the thumbnails (on his site) to get a little description. Creepy and inspiring.