UK Amazon Kindle Forum discussion
Meet the Authors
>
R J Askew ~ One Swift Summer
message 851:
by
R.J.
(new)
Jun 05, 2014 09:26AM
Hurrah, she's happy with the edit .. and the title. A poetry collection is definitely in the making. And, above all she is actually a bloody good poet. Many of her poems are exquisite. Way to do yet thought before I can coax her to actually publish them. People will love her poems.
reply
|
flag
Hurrah, I may have found a local visualiser .. fingers crossed she will do me a new cover. And then I can relaunch Watching Swifts and launch In The Room With Three Doors properly. The cover art issue has delayed me. But I will solve it.
Meanwhile, the editing is going well .. I've read about 650 poems written by a girl in Dorset .. I've selected 142 and am aiming to narrow those down to 72 .. once that is done and she is happy with the selections I will re-read and edit them line by line .. she's a lovely poet. Next year I will get a collection of my own verse out and write a full length story. Meanwhile, I have one possibly two shorter writes in mind. And the question of covers and relaunches.
My trans-Atlantic collab is alive and well. The freebies are doing well and actual sales are rising and regular now. We have another relaunch and will have a new offering by early Autumn.
So wish I cld get some more audio work done, but the covers must be sorted first.
Now off to the Courtyard Cafe. The owner doesn't know it yet, but I've earmarked his art caff as my future reading base. Need to get my Createspace ass in gear first though. No point reading without having physical product to shift. Not everyone likes reading on a screen and it seems some still crave their signed copies. And who am I to ever disappoint? *bows*
p.s. There is a little community radio station above the cafe also. Can you sense me salivating? Not that I am an ambitious wolverine, mind.
*bows*
My sister has had a great deal of success with local (and not so local!) radio stations, R.J. They are looking for something new and different, you should get in touch and see if they'd like to do and interview or reading or something.I'm in the middle of organising one at the moment, I sent the host all the books of mine that he was interested in, so that he can read them, get some questions together and give his own opinions. It might be worth a try to see if they're interested???
4 groups of 18 verses. 72 verses in all. each group to comprise a similar mix. but with the running orders cunningly varied. each group of 18 to comprise enough material for a solid gig. Now I just need to get the poet to agree to my verse selections. then I can get into the really, really, REALLY interesting bit .. the actual edit fooling with words. That's the bit I love. People usually miss a trick with titles also. They just have to work hard. I reckon I will recast about 1/3 of the poets titles. I will also try to knock about 10% of the words out of the whole. I can't alter the structure, form or content much, but I can definitely tighten, sharpen and speed up the read hit.
All that matters is giving the reader something to make them blink.
Poems are hit and miss. If every third poem strikes home that is an excellent ratio. If I get a buzz out of every 1 in 10 poems when I read the stuff I am happy. To serve up a product that delivers a 1 in 3 success ratio wld be job done.
It's great editing other writers' because we learn so much about our own game. And to my mind verse is the very best writing form there is, the very best practice for writing good prose because we become far more acutely word aware. And a poet is of necessity mean with words. Hardy wld approve I think. When he got fed up of writing for a mass market he just S T O P P E D and admitted to himself that the short stuff was what he really really wanted to do, what he had to do. I love that. Hardy is my hero because he turned his back on prose and had a 2nd career as a cracking poet. Most people don't get what it takes to be a poet. I swear to you poetry is the sprint event at the literary games. There is a purity in poetry. Read some and see. It will improve your life no end. Trust me.
Start with D.H.Lawrence. The more you learn about verse the richer your mind will be. Good luck. Report back. *bows*
Received a royalty cheque from Amazon tdy £78 .. a novel experience. *tortoise*
Every so often things happen in this game which lift the spirit. Two such have happened to me in the last 24 hours.
I got my first royalty cheque ydy. And tdy - more importantly - a stranger sent me an email pointing out a couple of literals in one of my stories.
The email moved me because the reader had bothered to offer a little help out of the blue. Above all they took the time.
R.J. wrote: "Received a royalty cheque from Amazon tdy £78 .. a novel experience. *tortoise*"for which book, Swifts or the collaboration?
Swifts .. the collab has done a lot better.
Chimp change. No breakthrough. No momentum. No word of mouth. The reading publik is an obese dragon, diabetic n blind. Not in good shape, unable to cope with the slightest effort.
true but still dwarves anything I've made
That's how I felt for 2-1/2 years. I don't care about the collab, which is just a conceit. I only did it to try and boost my own story, but that has just not happened.
Latest novella finished,38,000 words, first edit more or less done. Cover designed. Just have to turn it over to the proof editor now. Then my partner will sell it. Sweet.
September Ends is doing rather well, I'm pleased to say - anonmymous*Best Independently Published Romance of the Year Award, eFestival of Words, August 2014.
*AMAZON # 1 Best Seller - Artistic Erotica, British Poetry, Contemporary Poetry & World Literature
*Goodreads Book Of The Month - Modern Good Reads, July 2014
September First is now also nailed down, will be out in a few weeks.
September Ends gets Wikipedia mention .. at the very end of the entry for 'epistolary novel' .. sales also gathering force after the story won: Best Independently Published Romance of the Year Award, eFestival of Words, August 2014. The story will soon have 100 reviews on amazon.com, too. yours
*anonymous*
Yes, I am definitely invisible here. No one can see these words. For the best, I suppose.
Misspell something, the world and his mother will squeeze into your thread to tell you off!!! ;-P
Are you wearing your invisibility cloak?
One simply cannot stress the impotence of good spulling.
I'm quite fond of a good spulling!
The problem with this invisibility cloak is that I can't see my own hands on the keybored ..
Yes, and its really difficult to take it off too!
After which, you will never find it again! ;)
The trouble is you can't see the edges of the cloak when it is deployed. And because you have no body orientation, one's balance can be even more compromised than normal. Still, it is handy for slipping into places unnoticed. That said there are few places I actually venture into. The danger of being bumped into while invisible is too tiresome. That said, that said, it is a great delight so steal up to people huddled in deep conversation. The things people say! Or to peer over people's shoulders as they tab their lives away into their various hand held devices. Or course most of the time they are sending pointless tweets. Isn't it astonishing how some people will send thousands of tweets yet never actually say a single thing? But such is the nature of this great gannet colony we call society. Of course the greatest fun is typing on people's keyboards when they can't see one doing it. The mischief one may have!
Tis I, ye caught me! Invisible no more. *bows*
You have very pointy ears. Spock must be jealous!
So that's where all those typos come from.
R.J. wrote: "I can text with my ears."Now thats impressive! Some people can't text with their fingers!
Yes, you'd be surprised just how versatile show-pointy ears can be.
Can you write a book with them?
my latest most newest, bestest story yet, out tmr .. the last word in the hot shot September series https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog... ........... September First ... cracking cover and some sweet lines .. bloody tragic to read though .. such is life .. for some
Good luck - hope it does well :)
Cheers Gingerlily .. I'm readying for more ankle biting in the Indie author cage fight. Joy!
I suggest wearing a good solid pair of hiking boots.
Hmmm, then my threadbare Hi-tec gortex rambling shoes won't get me far!
Yay!!! For RJ!!!Have a brilliant release day!!! ;-D
my new story is out there Indie love Jack Savage too much > http://amzn.to/1pqRl31 < #Indie #bipolar #poet #genius # > http://amzn.to/1pqRl31 < pic.twitter.com/zUHZ8VNMO6 ........... September First
September Ends wins its 100 th review .. on the last day of September .. exactly 1 year on since publication .. have look .. its companion stories are on their way, too *bows*
'heart-breaking novel of mental illness, creativity, and profound love.' ...... so says the first review of September First .. the prequel to September Ends .. which won its 100 review on Amazon ydy, September's end
Your perfect National Poetry Day read .. September First .. here's a flavour from the reviews:"I highly recommend this heart-breaking novel of mental illness, creativity, and profound love."
"The writing is intense, wild and amazing, paying tribute to the fact that Indie questions her own mental state. Fast and poetic her mind races and keeps the reader on their toes, with passion and creativity that made me sit in awe as I was reading the book."
"It is often said how close madness and creativity or even genius can be linked and this is the feeling I got from her. Self-doubt, madness in love, desire and passion ooze from the pages..."
September First << experience it yourself >> September First
Hurrah! I have a new front cover. And a new title. Now to ponder a relaunch. I found a graphic designer plying his Apple Mac just round the corner - in what used to be an undertakers. Nice.
Help .. can anyone tell me how to contact the librarians here pls? I need to change a front cover and I believe only a librarian can pull the right levers. Thanks X
Help .. can anyone tell me how to contact the librarians here pls? I need to change a front cover and I believe only a librarian can pull the right levers. Thanks X
Post in the agony aunt thread, or the good morning thread, R.J.I have done it myself, but it was a bit trial and error. You have to upload as a new version. Once that is done and you have two versions of the same book, you combine them as the being different versions of the same book, and then edit the new one to be the primary version.
Thanks very much David, I'll give it a go. I still owe you a read. I have your Fuel on my Kindle. Will get there.
UK Amazon Kindle Forum
Books mentioned in this topic
One Swift Summer (other topics)One Swift Summer (other topics)
Death and the Penguin (other topics)
Death and the Penguin (other topics)
The Owl Service (other topics)
More...
