Wednesday, 8 February 2012
Wednesday, 25 January 2012
After Dark Adventures
OK, after several years of being too poor to go on holiday or to do anything much besides work, Andy and I have decided that we need a really big adventure. It has to be fun, interesting, and creative.
Oh, and it also has to cost nothing - Peasy!
After much thought we decided to find unusual and quirky things to celebrate each month throughout the year, starting in January. We regularly celebrate Burn’s Night (what with Andy’s Scottish ancestry) but it didn’t seem any where exciting enough to call it an adventure, so we delved into our books and quickly discarded several other ideas.
19th January: St.Wulstan’s Day. As that would have only involved a trip up the motorway to Worcester to visit his tomb is wasn’t any where nearly enough fun.
20th January: St Agnes’s Eve would have allowed us to dabble in divination, but the various ceremonies involving the summoning of wraiths of future lovers seemed like a dubious activity for a married couple to engage in.
Then we came across the story of Bevil Blizard, ‘The Last Necromancer of Winchcombe in Gloucestershire.’ He’s said to wander the graveyard on the anniversary of his death on January 24th, and his story grabbed us for a number of reasons-
1. We live in Gloucestershire so travel costs would be minimal!
2. Who doesn’t love wandering around graveyards after dark looking for deceased necromancers?
3. Zombies are terribly trendy at the moment and will appear in the second of my Brighton Trilogy books, which will be published this year at Halloween.
You can follow our graveyard adventure on YouTube – Jarek Adams Investigates
You can read Brighton Sucks as an e-book or now Print on Demand – just follow the links on my website.
Wednesday, 7 December 2011
In Fear of Feedback
When we send our works of art out into the world we do it in the hope that everyone will love what we’ve slaved over. But that’s not terribly realistic is it? We do need feedback for lots of reasons. It can help us to make our work better, as although it’s often hard to receive criticism, if it’s well thought out, it can really help you to improve your work.
Good feedback is lovely, and is worthy of celebration if it comes from a trusted source. If it comes from your mum, or another devoted fan it’s still nice, but not quite so useful.
Bad feedback makes you feel horrible. Rule one – do not call the person an ignorant numpty, even if you think they are. Shout and scream in private, but then calm down and try to see if there’s anything that rings true about the negative criticism that you can then use to make your work better.
Conflicting feedback when one person says they really like the death scene in chapter four, but another person says you can’t possibly keep that death scene in chapter four. Hurrah, you’ve got the best of both worlds here. Choose which opinion you trust most and act accordingly. Everyone has opinions, and you need to decide if what they’re saying is useful, or if it’s just something that’s peculiar to them.
Structural feedback, when people criticize spelling, grammar, or technical details about the presentation of your work is really valuable. Thank them and make corrections immediately.
Golden Rule: Don’t let it get to you. How important is the person who has given you feedback? Are they in a position to help or hinder your work? Let’s say Richard & Judy announce on national telly that your book is the biggest pile of tosh they’ve ever seen. Well at least they’ve noticed you, and let’s face it your sales would probably rocket!
Just to make you feel better, the review below is for George Orwell’s 1984
‘Give me a break. The writing was lousy, the concepts and ideas were questionable’.
Amazon Reviews. Yes if we’re on there we need them, but if your book is clearly described, and if you offer a ‘try before you buy’ then the people reading your book should already be on your side. So be brave, ask for feedback and use it well!
If you've read my book 'Brighton Sucks' I'd really love to hear what you think, and if you really like it I truly value your opinion and would really appreciate a review on Amazon.
Tuesday, 1 November 2011
Halloween Hijinx
OK so last night was the launch of Brighton Sucks as an e-book on Amazon. Here’s what happened for those of you who weren’t able to follow me on Facebook.
My last book, Bitter Roots started in the charts at around 64,000, but Brighton Sucks started at about 20,000 as there was a shorter period between publishing it and launching it. That felt like less of a challenge, but the pressure to do well was weighing heavy on my shoulders as it was only a week since I ran an e-publishing course and really needed to show that what I taught was right. Failure was not an option!
The charts are usually updated every hour so if all goes to plan you can watch your book steadily climbing up. But for a very long time last night nothing happened. I really mean nothing – no numbers changed at all. That was worrying.
But then my book suddenly lurched down the rankings by a couple of thousand places. Time to panic? Well, strangely this happened with my last book, so I didn’t crumple into a sobbing heap, I just held on until the next chart update. And phew, it jumped straight into the top 50 at No.46! That was higher than my last book’s final placing (49), and already high enough in the charts to call it a best seller! But through the next few hours it kept climbing steadily to No.30, and finally peaking at No.26 in the Paranormal Fantasy chart. As a tiny independent publisher that’s a really great achievement!
This morning it is still in the top 50, and I now need to keep spreading the word to keep up those sales figures.
Thank you to everyone who bought it. Thank you to everyone who hasn’t bought it yet, but is going to – please don’t forget! And to anyone still not sure – don’t you want to read a quirky book that wouldn’t quite fit on a mainstream publisher’s list, but is a best seller anyway?!!
Here’s the link one more time
And at £1.71 it’s cheaper than a cup of coffee, but will keep your little brain cells sparking for many hours longer than a simple jolt of caffeine.
Sunday, 30 October 2011
Why Wage War on Writers?
The attacks seem to be coming thick and fast, and the propaganda has started.
What am I talking about? Writers becoming divided by changes in the publishing world, and viewing emerging technologies as threats instead of opportunities.
I saw a comment thread on Facebook started by the Arvon Foundation where a string of established authors bemoaned the fact that more and more authors want to learn about how to get published instead of tirelessly honing their craft. As someone who has just taught a course about how to get e-published I worry that established authors feel they have to guard the doors to their exclusive club, and to keep out the unwashed masses.
If it were true that all books that make it into print were of an exceptional quality the argument would be stronger. But any wander around Waterstone’s will turn up mountains of dreadful books that have made it into print, just as any hour spent with a group of unpublished authors will unearth exceptional pieces of writing that may never reach beyond the odd competition win or inclusion in a small press anthology.
Perhaps this is just fear of change?
But for readers the myriad of emerging technologies offers the chance to select what they want to read, not what has been selected for them. And from these previously ignored gems hopefully will emerge new authors with new things to say. No longer will a book have to be deemed suitable for a 10,000 print run before being considered for publication. Readers will be able to find quirky and unique books, while books with mass appeal will still sell in droves. And even established authors can benefit from the opportunity to e-publish back catalogues of work that their publishers can’t see the benefit of reprinting.
So what’s all the fuss about? The music industry has survived the transition from vinyl and CDs to people downloading tracks. Once upon a time all books were hand written by monks, but then the printing press was invented. No doubt there were people then bemoaning the end of literature, but was it really such a bad move, making the written word available to the masses?
The story circulating this week has been that people with e-readers are choosing to read low-brow works as without book covers on view they feel free to read what they want to read and not what they feel they should be reading. What’s so wrong with that?
I’ve never been particularly political, but this is one revolution that I’m happy to be a part of. I will proudly be promoting my e-book tomorrow when I launch it on Halloween evening. Is it a great tome of significant literary merit? Probably not. But do I think readers will enjoy it? Of course that’s what I hope, and as readers are who I write for, I feel justified in using any means I can of reaching them with my work.
I wish the best of luck to all authors at any stage of their careers, and hope the idiotic skirmishes soon die down as we all move forwards into a brighter future for anyone with talent and determination.
Wednesday, 26 October 2011
New Book Launch
Back in March I was lucky enough to get my first novel ‘Bitter Roots’ into the top 50 of the Amazon Kindle charts, making it an instant best seller! But I was only able to do that with the amazing support from all my friends and people I’ve met through various writing and networking activities. The book sold really well to begin with, but as I was waiting for a publisher to make a decision about producing a print version I stopped promoting it and sales have now dwindled – the publisher is still in the process of making a decision!
So, as I now have a new book all ready to go I have decided to go with indie publishing and to take on the hard task of marketing the book myself. I will make a print version available in November, but getting the Kindle version into the charts is the first step. In order to do that I will need as many
people as possible to buy it on the same night, and the date I’ve chosen is Monday 31st October – Halloween! That’s where you come in.
Every single sale will help push my book up the charts!
But do you want to read it? Brighton Sucks is an Urban Fantasy with plenty of action, some tongue-in-cheek ideas on vampirism, and a healthy smattering of steamy sex. Oh, and it only costs £1.71 You can find it by clicking on the link below.
Not convinced yet? To see if it’s your sort of thing, you can read the first chapter on my website www.jarekadams.com
I’ll update everyone on the sales results on my Facebook page throughout Halloween night, or here on my blog
Why help me? Getting my book read is my primary goal, but I’ve also been sharing my knowledge about e-publishing by running a course to help other writers get success as Indie Authors. So I’m trying to support others in return for the support I’ve been given.
Please tell anyone who you think may be interested in a cracking read for the dark winter evenings. If you don’t have any kind of e-reader you can easily download a free kindle app from Amazon, and then there are loads of books you can buy cheaply or even download for free onto your computer, so it’s worth doing even if you decide not to buy my book.
And finally, if you do buy it and you do like it, please leave feedback on the Amazon site as this can also help to build those all important sales.
Many thanks, Jarek Adams
Monday, 24 October 2011
Supporting Other Writers
OK, I’m not exactly a millionaire author just yet, but over the past few years I have been lucky enough to learn a lot about writing, and publishing, and especially e-publishing. Which is why, along with my husband Andrew Thorn, I ran a course last Saturday called ‘e-Publishing Know-how’.
A group of eager students gathered with us in the historic Gloucester Guildhall where we spent the day whizzing through everything from setting yourself up on Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), to formatting your work, as well as writing blurbs and designing book covers. We also looked at some of the marketing techniques I’ve picked up from the many other generous Kindle authors out there.
As an added bit of excitement we also we also e-published my latest novel ‘Brighton Sucks’ during the day as a demonstration of how easy it is for writers to get their work out to readers via KDP. I’ll be launching it in the UK on Halloween, and will keep the people who attended the course informed about this as an ongoing part of sharing my experience.
The most gratifying piece of feedback I’ve received so far about the course is this: ‘You did exactly what it said on the box: I feel excited, informed and confident about moving forward into my venture in epublishing. Today I am working on a new blogspot, and have already prepared stuff for my new website. I have chosen a name to write under, got two new ideas for stories, planned a press release and planned a marketing initiative that I'm really excited about - and only 24 hours have passed. Thank you both so much for having enabled me in this way. I'll finish with just three words - FAN-BLOODY-TASTIC!’
As ever when a group of writers come together I am always pleased to see how helpful and supportive they are. Email addresses were swapped so that people could continue the writing friendships they made on the day, and so I’m sure the knowledge and experience we all shared will pass on to other writers out there.
It’s an incredibly difficult time for writers at all stages of their career, but it’s also an amazingly exciting time, with new technologies offering writers access to readers that they’ve never had before. The whiff of snobbery about self-published authors is being gradually replaced with amazing success stories of Indie Authors who are sidestepping the gatekeepers and building their own publishing empires.
Good luck to all of you!
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