Mark Cantrell's Blog, page 56

VIEWPOINT: Editing Matters

Editors are not the enemy of good fictionA good editor wants the same thing as a good author - and that's to make a novel the best it can be. So stop being so precious about it, writes Mark Cantrell

 

THERE'S seldom a book written that doesn't benefit from the fresh eye of an editor, but prior to the emergence of the Indie publishing scene, this truth was probably little known - or at least little regarded - by the reading public.

 

Editing is one of those backstage processes that only...

UPDATE: Shaping Silas

Silas Morlock takes a step towards completion

So we step closer to the shadows of a dark future, as envisioned in my dystopian urban fantasy, Silas Morlock, with the news that the first stage of the editing process is near completion.

 

The other day, Peter - my editor at Inspired Quill (IQ) - got in touch to say he'd almost completed this essential step towards my novel becoming a published reality. Once it's done, the manuscript will be back in my eager hands, ready for me to do my bit...

BLOG: Kindle Surprise

Can't quite judge this book by its coverIt's been a long time in the brewing this review, but with such an apparent paradigm shift as the e-reader, Mark Cantrell reckoned his Kindle needed a good long time to bed itself into his reading habits - so what's his verdict?

 

THIS is no epiphany; I'm no fervent convert to the techno-theocracy - and I certainly feel no urge to shout: "Burn the books!" - but I do feel curiously well disposed towards my Kindle.

 

The device has been in my posse...

MEDIA: Exclusive Half-Price Deal On Citizen Zero

Quids In With The Smashwords Summer Sale...
EXCLUSIVE to Smashwords: 

Throughout July you can get the novel CITIZEN ZERO and the fiction anthology ISOLATION SPACE half price in the Summer Sale using code SSW50.

 

At a quid a shot -- $1.58 -- that's less than a cup of coffee for some great literature.

 

Meanwhile, the poetry anthology DEUS EX INSOMNIA is going FREE, just use code SSWIN -- offer ends 31 July 2012.

 

Formats cover the Kindle, Sony, Nook, Apple and other popular e-...

NEWS: Exclusive Half-Price Deal On Citizen Zero

Quids In With The Smashwords Summer Sale...
EXCLUSIVE to Smashwords: 

Throughout July you can get the novel CITIZEN ZERO and the fiction anthology ISOLATION SPACE half price in the Summer Sale using code SSW50.

 

At a quid a shot -- $1.58 -- that's less than a cup of coffee for some great literature.

 

Meanwhile, the poetry anthology DEUS EX INSOMNIA is going FREE, just use code SSWIN -- offer ends 31 July 2012.

 

Formats cover the Kindle, Sony, Nook, Apple and other popular e-...

NEWS: SEO Tips From The Eword

Tips of the trade for surfing more hitsIt might be just a way to promote its business, writes Mark Cantrell, but all the same Manchester firm the Eword has provided a handy insight into the cyber-alchemy of successful search

 

WHEN it comes to getting noticed, there's a lot of 'noise' out there in the Internet 'bazaar' and the crowds swirl maddening beyond the reach of our tinny voices. Some kind of amplification is a must - and that's where search engine optimisation (SEO) comes in.

 ...

BLOG: Hard Sell: Writing The Novel Is The Easy Part

Sailing solo, single-handed and seasick
Writing a novel is hard work, but it's nothing to the blood, sweat and toil involved in trying to sell the thing...

THEY say that writing a novel is one of the hardest things you can do.

 

It's not like writing a poem or a short story or an article, though each of those has its separate challenges and headaches for the poor scribe.

 

But a novel -- that's something else.

 

For one thing it's a long haul. Obviously. Day in day out, the writer is...

ARTICLE: Floodgates Of Indie Publishing

Let the wordsmiths flowAs the nascent Indie publishing scene develops, its greatest challenge is not just to win the battle for respectability, writes Mark Cantrell - but also to avoid becoming a pale imitation of the big publishing corporates

YEARS ago, I wrote that the "floodgates should be opened to a deluge of talent" and now it appears to be happening, but not in the way that I ever envisaged. It's kind of scary, but exciting too, though there are no guarantees that the seeds of a revital...

CITIZEN ZERO: Fortifying The Social Divide

We are all enemies of the State nowIn a society fractured by a gulf between rich and poor, the preservation of the ruling elites' profits, powers and privileges can no longer rely on the conventional democratic mechanisms of the State, writes Mark Cantrell, instead it must mobilise the combined security machines of both State and Big Business against a common enemy - the citizens

 

THE landed aristocrats and industrial barons of the 19th Century had no doubt who were the real 'barbarians'...

BLOG: R.I.P. Ray Bradbury 1920-2012

Every burned book enlightens the worldFollowing the death of author Ray Bradbury at the age of 91, Mark Cantrell laments that he won't be around for the publication of a novel that pays tribute to his best-known work, Fahrenheit 451

ONE might say that my tribute to the author Ray Bradbury make its appearance later this year, when my novel Silas Morlock is published, a good few months after the author passed away.

 

Okay, so my timing sucks but as they say - it's the thought that counts. Th...