So When Is It Finished?

Is that finished or famished? Sometimes I am not sure. It goes like this:

Read a few chapters. Think 'Wow, this is actually Ok. No, maybe it is even good.' Feel smug. Make congratulatory cup of tea. Pick up latest Graham Hurley novel. Open at page xxx. Read a chapter. Go back to own writing. Read a few chapters. Think 'Bollocks. What a pile of absolute crap. Couldn't make minestrone soup from the meagre content in here.' Revise proposed completion date to sometime around 2017.

Missed the er... Dagger

Have just seen that the CWA Debut Dagger competition is about to close (5th Feb.). Considering entering, but since I don't have a synopsis finished I think it would be a bit of a rush. Looks like a worthwhile thing to do though, even if you don't win, because various agents and publishers (really? wow!) look over your work. A number of authors who have won or reached the shortlist have been snapped up.

In the beginning and all that.

So, this is it. After years and years of developing websites for others, of coding hundreds of thousands of lines of VB that have been hidden in the depths of the web, of designing databases stuffed with all manner of junk, I have finally got round to having MY OWN SITE.

The purpose, of course, is to promote my writing. That is something that writers are often loath to do. They prefer to sit, anonymous, hiding behind their words as if those words are all that are needed. How I wish that were true. Unfortunately it is not. Ho hum.

Soon my first novel will be available in Ebook format on Amazon and then it will time to face reality. I am going down the self-publishing route while at the same time submitting to agents. A year or two ago this would have been merely the electronic equivalent of those vanity presses, but quite suddenly it seems like the way to go. In a very large part this is down to the Kindle. People are actually beginning to consume ebooks in quantities that make it worth publishing in ebook form alone. The major publishes are in danger of missing the boat unless they change their model soon. Authors can now self publish and get 70% royalties through Amazon. Many people are selling thousands of books a month solely through the ebook market. Check out Joe Konrath, an author who argues the case for abandoning the conventional route to publishing success. His figures make pleasant reading for anybody contemplating going down the ebook road.