Part 3.
O.K. You've sent your valuable mss around all the reputable AAS agents and been rejected. There are now several routes you can try: literary competitions, the vanity press, POD or self-publishing.
As an unpublished first-time author of fiction, you can do an internet search of literary competitions. Problems: some, like the current Amazon 09 competition, restrict residents of some countries, e.g. France! (I don't know why). The second is whether you are eligible if you have published other works in the self-publishing field. The rules are often ambiguous. The prize for the winner, though, is great: a contract by an established publisher.
The next thing you might want to consider is the vanity press. I wouldn't! The vanity press publishes books at the author's expense. Just remember: if someone wants money from you up-front - whether to read your mss or to publish it - they ain't legit! Unlike legitimate publishers, the vanity press makes its money from you, the author, rather than the paying public. So, what's the difference between that and self-publishing?
Self-publishing is the publishing of books by the author, rather than by established, third-party publishers. The key distinguishing characteristic of self-publishing is the absence of a traditional publisher. Instead the creator or creators fulfill this role, taking editorial control of the content, arranging for printing, marketing the material, and often distributing it, either directly to consumers or to retailers. All rights remain with the author, the completed books are the writer's property, and the writer gets all the proceeds of sales. Remember: there are many reasons why authors choose the self-publishing route. If you choose carefully, the process is free for all on-line sales, legitimate and offers an option for your customers to either buy on-line from your chosen self-publishing company or to order from Amazon and walk-in bookstores directly. To make you feel better, here are some best-selling authors who started off by self-publishing: William Blake, Virginia Woolf, William Morris, Oscar Wilde, James Joyce, Benjamin Franklin, Rudyard Kipling, D.H. Lawrence, George Bernard Shaw....to name but a few.
So, if they did it, so can you.
Next week, I'll show you the mechanics of how to actually self-publish your mss with a reputable self-publishing company. Don't miss it.
6th December 2008
I see that a former English newsreader and Clothes Show presenter, Selina Scott, has complained to Channel 5 TV about age-discrimination. And I thought, so what's new? On the day that I hit 61, I look around me and see that the international media is as one: youth and beauty are everything. But at least in Britain male news presenters are often old (presumably signalling age and wisdom), whereas on French TV all the male newsreaders seem to be young, slim and absolutely georgeous (one called Francois Picard is a case in point). But what on earth has happened to all those female air hostesses, presenters, beauty consultants and models of yesteryear? They, together with all my pens of yesterday, have been consigned to that giant rubbish dump of life - hidden from all prying eyes.
Perhaps that's why it's so difficult to find a birthday or anniversary card in France. Maybe they think that if we don't celebrate it, getting older won't happen! Sometimes I buy what looks like a greetings card, only to find after I've bought it that it is in fact just one piece of cardboard and doesn't actually open. Reminds me of a similar card I received from a relative a few years ago: 'This card is like me - it never does what it's supposed to!'
But I'm sure that things are beginning to change as we oldies become a greater proportion of the populace. Governments are starting to realise that if they need our vote, they can't hide us away any longer. And Selina Scott, at the grand old age of 58? Yes, she won her age-discrimination court case against Channel 5, being awarded a suspected quarter of a million payout.
Chance for me yet then.
P.S. Don't forget to read Part 3 tomorrow of my serial: I'm NOT a celebrity - get me published!
Perhaps that's why it's so difficult to find a birthday or anniversary card in France. Maybe they think that if we don't celebrate it, getting older won't happen! Sometimes I buy what looks like a greetings card, only to find after I've bought it that it is in fact just one piece of cardboard and doesn't actually open. Reminds me of a similar card I received from a relative a few years ago: 'This card is like me - it never does what it's supposed to!'
But I'm sure that things are beginning to change as we oldies become a greater proportion of the populace. Governments are starting to realise that if they need our vote, they can't hide us away any longer. And Selina Scott, at the grand old age of 58? Yes, she won her age-discrimination court case against Channel 5, being awarded a suspected quarter of a million payout.
Chance for me yet then.
P.S. Don't forget to read Part 3 tomorrow of my serial: I'm NOT a celebrity - get me published!
5th December 2008
As you will have gathered by now, I like old traditions - particularly those from the '50s when I was growing up. So, when we moved here, I was delighted to discover a tiny, but wonderful, cinema in the nearby town of St. Antonin. Despite its strange name (Le Querlys), it shows some marvellous films. Depending how brave you are, there is a selection in the French language, plus others - mostly English. And the proprietor somehow manages to obtain all the latest films even before they are premiered in the UK. Inside, it has that wonderful intimate feel I remember from the Gaumont in the '50s: all velvety chairs packed close together. You almost expect to see an usherette walking backwards down the aisle, shining a torch on the selection of Kiaora and Walls icecream. Ah, those were the days.
It seems that even today there are others who feel the same way, as a legendary club returns to its music hall heyday. Paris music hall Le Palace has reopened after being abandoned for over a decade. For those old enough to remember, it was famous for hosting such stars as Maurice Chevalier and Charles 'AsNoVoice', followed in the '70s by such names as Gloria Gaynor, the Bee Gees and Donna Summer. Following a 3million euro re-fit, the venue has now been transformed. But when I read of the new performers there: a French comedienne Valerie Lemercier, and next Spring Jane Birkin, former wife of Serge Gainsbourg, I wonder.
You can certainly transform a building, but how do you bring back the stars of yesteryear? I watch the X-Factor every week, hoping that Al Jolson will waltz on to electrify everyone with 'Mammy'. Will the new venue in Paris be able to bring back Edith Piaff? As Bruce Forysth would say: I don't think so. Domage!
It seems that even today there are others who feel the same way, as a legendary club returns to its music hall heyday. Paris music hall Le Palace has reopened after being abandoned for over a decade. For those old enough to remember, it was famous for hosting such stars as Maurice Chevalier and Charles 'AsNoVoice', followed in the '70s by such names as Gloria Gaynor, the Bee Gees and Donna Summer. Following a 3million euro re-fit, the venue has now been transformed. But when I read of the new performers there: a French comedienne Valerie Lemercier, and next Spring Jane Birkin, former wife of Serge Gainsbourg, I wonder.
You can certainly transform a building, but how do you bring back the stars of yesteryear? I watch the X-Factor every week, hoping that Al Jolson will waltz on to electrify everyone with 'Mammy'. Will the new venue in Paris be able to bring back Edith Piaff? As Bruce Forysth would say: I don't think so. Domage!
4th December 2008
One of the biggest difficulties facing new arrivals in France is how and where to find help with day-to-day problems. As usual, the level of your competence in French is crucial - not so much in working out what to say on the telephone, but, as we've found to our cost, in understanding the answer! So, my heart sank when I realised we needed to find someone to fix our dishwasher. I know - hardly an emergency, but little things can build up when you live in a new country. Well, over the last few weeks, armed with the Pages Jaunes (yellow pages) and the telephone, I tried several electromenagers depannage (appliance breakdown) places. Each time they were very polite and promised to get the engineer to ring me back, but - you've guessed it - nobody did. Could it be that they wanted nothing to do with a mad foreign woman who couldn't even explain herself properly? The problem with the phone is that you have to rely solely on the words, without the help of gesticulations, facial expressions etc. So, in complete frustration, we walked into an electrical appliance shop in nearby Caussade and asked for their assistance. Much better. Not only did they contact their own engineer for us, but he actually turned up chez-nous yesterday. Of course, nothing is simple in life: he said he had to take it away to the factory for a repair estimate.....somehow I can see the necessity for a new machine looming on the horizon. Yet more money. Oh well, c'est la France.
3rd December 2008
The French sometimes struggle to come to terms with this internet age. Living here is a curious mix of the ancient and the modern, each jostling for position in a land famed for its love of tradition and old values. On the one hand, no-one seems to knock anything down, preferring to leave in situ all those ancient, wonderful chateaux and riverside watermills - waiting for the arrival of les rosbifs (the English) to spend vast swathes of money on renovation. But, on the other hand, the French still feel they are the most superior people on earth so don't wish to be left behind in this internet age. Sometimes I get a fit of the giggles when I see an IT engineer struggling through some ancient stony portal in order to establish a broadband connection in one of the oldest villages in the world. Never the twain shall meet?
Well, now French TV seems also to have come of age. There is a plan for the French government to launch its own 'Web TV' site, with proposals to respond to questions about public services and reforms. However, comme d'habitude with anything new, the public is up in arms. Enter stage left, government Information Services Minister Thierry Saussez, who tells everyone not to worry. "Propaganda is saying the president is the greatest', he says, "so we don't be doing that." Quite. Everyone knows that we don't need a web TV for that: the man himself is more than capable!
Well, now French TV seems also to have come of age. There is a plan for the French government to launch its own 'Web TV' site, with proposals to respond to questions about public services and reforms. However, comme d'habitude with anything new, the public is up in arms. Enter stage left, government Information Services Minister Thierry Saussez, who tells everyone not to worry. "Propaganda is saying the president is the greatest', he says, "so we don't be doing that." Quite. Everyone knows that we don't need a web TV for that: the man himself is more than capable!
2nd December 2008
Good health is vital to us all - indeed, it was the primary reason for our moving to a country where the health care is one of the best in the world. But, there is one affliction that looms larger than all others, and about which we all seem to fear more than anything else. Yes, it's that dreaded word: cancer. Every so often, hope is stimulated when reading about the latest advances in curing the disease, only to fall again when nothing obvious is happening. However, I was particularly interested to hear that the French PM, Francois Fillon, has just unveiled the world's most powerful cancer weapon: the Arronax cyclotron (named after the Jules Verne professor in Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea). How the machine differs from smaller machines already in existence is that it can make much larger quantities of injectable substances which target cancerous areas directly, rather than the alternative chemotherapy, which is not targeted and doctors just proscribe and hope it works. In the past, typically a doctor would remove the tumour, if at all possible, and hope that the person gets better, but often the cancer would persist in the body, ready to fire up again. This new radioactive medicine would kill for ever those micro-tumours lurking in the body.
Having lost a brother earlier this year, plus a mother, grandmother, aunt and grandfather decades ago - all through cancer - I fervently hope that this new machine can do what all other measures have so far failed to do: stop the big C time-bomb. Of course, what I really hope and wish for is for someone to discover the fuse that lights the bomb in the first place. Now, if Jean-Francois Chatal, the professor of nuclear medicine who developed the Arronax, and the rest of the Nantes research team could only come up with that.....
Having lost a brother earlier this year, plus a mother, grandmother, aunt and grandfather decades ago - all through cancer - I fervently hope that this new machine can do what all other measures have so far failed to do: stop the big C time-bomb. Of course, what I really hope and wish for is for someone to discover the fuse that lights the bomb in the first place. Now, if Jean-Francois Chatal, the professor of nuclear medicine who developed the Arronax, and the rest of the Nantes research team could only come up with that.....
1st December 2008
Some time ago I wrote about a national English-language newspaper in France called the Connexion. It is particularly valuable to us because however hard we try to speak and understand French, it's never the same as reading the news in your own mother-tongue.
The December issue has just arrived, hot off the presses, and guess what? On page 44 is a picture and review of my book 'Pensioners in Paradis'! The books' page, which is sponsored by W.H. Smith, is entitled 'The twenty minute book review' - they say that in the interests of fairness, time and first impressions, each book gets 20 minutes.
Anyway, thought you might like to read their review (sic):
"Pensioners in Paradis
Olga Swan, 200 pages, ISBN 978-1-84799-415-8
The opening chapter to this book makes you want to read on. It tells the story of two English Midlanders who, experiencing disaster when their livelihood is burnt down at the local market, decide to give it all up and move abroad.
You immediately strike an affinity with the couple, written from the wife's point of view and who refers to her husband only as Him. There is clever use of detail, description and sayings which can really make you identify with the characters and you are eager to see how their adventure unfolds.
The blurb says 'Read hilarious accounts of how they adapt to la view francaise' but from scanning the contents it seems the tales of France do not begin until part two. However the author looks set to tell tales with a certain wit and humour already proven at the beginning of the book. With chapters entitled Searching for that Dream French House and Communications and panic: The French telephone system there will, no doubt, be many more scenarios with which readers will identify.'
Fame at last? Not quite, but I'm getting there.......
The December issue has just arrived, hot off the presses, and guess what? On page 44 is a picture and review of my book 'Pensioners in Paradis'! The books' page, which is sponsored by W.H. Smith, is entitled 'The twenty minute book review' - they say that in the interests of fairness, time and first impressions, each book gets 20 minutes.
Anyway, thought you might like to read their review (sic):
"Pensioners in Paradis
Olga Swan, 200 pages, ISBN 978-1-84799-415-8
The opening chapter to this book makes you want to read on. It tells the story of two English Midlanders who, experiencing disaster when their livelihood is burnt down at the local market, decide to give it all up and move abroad.
You immediately strike an affinity with the couple, written from the wife's point of view and who refers to her husband only as Him. There is clever use of detail, description and sayings which can really make you identify with the characters and you are eager to see how their adventure unfolds.
The blurb says 'Read hilarious accounts of how they adapt to la view francaise' but from scanning the contents it seems the tales of France do not begin until part two. However the author looks set to tell tales with a certain wit and humour already proven at the beginning of the book. With chapters entitled Searching for that Dream French House and Communications and panic: The French telephone system there will, no doubt, be many more scenarios with which readers will identify.'
Fame at last? Not quite, but I'm getting there.......
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
