New Edition December 2015 by Authoright

PG 6 WHAT DO JOURNALISTS REALLY WANT? KATE APPLETON KNOWS.

PG 18 ONE WRITER LOOKS BACK ON HIS NANOWRIMO EXPERIENCE.

PG 20 GO FOR THE GOLD WITH INDIE AUTHOR COMPETITIONS.

NEW EDITION CONTEMPORARY

CLINK STREET AUTHORS REVEAL THEIR NEW YEAR’S WRITING RESOLUTIONS.

PUBLISHING

MAGAZINE

ISSUE 27, DECEMBER 2015

NEW EDITION, DECEMBER 2015

This Issue

HAPPENI N GS December 4

2016 6 12

News In Brief 5

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Welcome

to the December 2015 - February 2016 issue of our quarterly publishing magazine for authors, New Edition. Kate Appleton reveals the questions she’s most often asked by journalists when she’s pitching new books to the press. Her answers wil help you to prepare for PR. Some of our super Clink Street authors share their New Year’s resolutions for 2016. And Josh Hamel discovers the best competitions open to - and celebrating - new and independent writers. Plus author interviews and more!

HAPPENI N GS December 13|

Cinema Book Club: The Muppet Christmas Carol

Tyne and Wear, UK www.tynesidecinema.co.uk/whats-on/book-club No longer content to just discuss a book over a glass of wine? Cinema Book Club allows you to see an adapation of your most recent pick, then offers an informal post-film chat which is open to anyone for free. To help get you in the holiday spirit, the next book club will watch The Muppet Christmas Carol so start catching up on your Dickens.

January 14|

Back on Broadway: Fiddler on the Roof

New York, NY www.92y.org/Event/Back-on-Broadway-Fiddler-on-the-Roof.aspx As one of Broadway’s biggest shows returns to the stage, join stars Danny Burstein, Jessica Hecht, Adam Kantor, Melanie Moore and lyricist Sheldon Harnick discuss this reimagined production and how it introduces a new generation to this uplifting celebration of faith, family and — of course — tradition! Tickets start at $32.

February 14| Books Have Feelings Too

London, UK www.southbankcentre.co.uk Southbank Centre teams up with Discover Children’s Story Centre for London Children’s Book swap. In addition to bringing along your old books to swap, you can make bookmarks and take part in various book crafts being made around the centre. Entrance is free, though the organisers ask participants only bring books in good condition to trade with.

News In Brief BBC launches year-long campaign to promote reading The BBC announced a new campaign designed to celebrate great authors and their works and to get people throughout the UK reading and sharing the books they love. The Get Reading programme will begin in the spring with the BBC Shakespeare Festival 2016 – a major season celebrating the genius of William Shakespeare on the 400th anniversary of his death. The year-long event will include a Get Reading Weekend, a digital and social media campaign from BBC Learning and specially-commissioned programmes across BBC TV, Radio and online.

Orders for Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast surge Hemingway’s memoirs and celebration of Paris has seen a renewed interest in light of the recent attacks on the city. Sales of A Moveable Feast have climbed exponentially in the weeks following the attacks, according to the French publisher Folio, and have appeared scattered among the flowers at memorial sites. “We also received many orders from groups such as Fnac and Amazon, amounting to 8,500 copies,” one Folio executive told The Guardian. “Usually, we sell between 6,000 and 8,000 copies a year.”

Indie bookshops reject Black Friday deals for a more Civilised Saturday In order to fight the increasing ruthlessness of Black Friday shopping, over 100 independent book shops throughout the UK participated in the first Civilised Saturday, offering customers extras that would make the shopping experience more enjoyable like massages or a glass of prosecco while they browsed the shelves. “I liked the idea of an alternative to Black Friday,” Emma Corfield-Walters of Book-ish in Crickhowell told The Guardian. “It’s a bit of a yah boo sucks to the big guys like Amazon, encouraging people to be a little more civilised, in terms of not getting beaten up [over bargains].” When all was said and done, the promotion appeared to be a “fantastic success,” according to shop owners speaking to The Bookseller. The idea first took root in September when The Bookseller Association’s president Tim Walker called for an antithesis to Black Friday at the organisation’s annual conference. Alan Staton at the Booksellers Association said the Saturday events would offer a respite for the weary shopper tired of the crowds. “It’s about discounts, it’s about a feeding frenzy, so we said why don’t we have a ‘Civilised Saturday’, which shows that what booksellers offer is an informed, civilised environment for people to make purchases,” he told The Guardian.

In 2016, I will...

NEW EDITION, DECEMBER 2015

Every new year brings with it a host of exciting new possibilities of what lies ahead. Kate Appleton talks with Clink Street authors about what they hope to accomplish in 2016.

Crikey it’s that time of the year again where we can reflect on our failure to keep a life changing decision past the 31st January - from learning a foreign language (Buenas dias!) to joining the gym and paying for the year upfront but only going once and of course the usual drink less, and I don’t mean water. So this year we asked some of our motley crew, aka Clink Street authors, what their writing resolutions are for 2016. And because they’ll be in print and for the whole world (slight exaggeration) to read there’s the constant reminder from them to stick to their decisions for once - no pressure then...

Declan Milling, author of Carbon Black Having published Carbon Black, the first book in my climate change political thriller trilogy last December, my focus is very much on getting the second book, After the Texans…, completed in the next couple of weeks. The build up to the climate change conference in Paris has been a distraction from writing, but also useful at the same time, as these events are the very sorts of places inhabited by my character, Emil Pfeffer. Once the dust settles on Paris and I’ve managed to get After the Texans… off to the publishers, Emil will be back to work in the final book of the trilogy. My principal writing

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resolution then will be to complete book three in the next twelve months. So Emil had better get a wriggle on, if he’s going to get things sorted out by then. On the other hand, maybe in the end he won’t get it sorted.

Yana Stajno, author of Rules for Thursday Lovers 1. Open all the windows, let in a brisk January air tinged with the smell of fireworks. 2. Write three new pages every day until the new novel and A Year on the Plot – (working title) book is done. 3. Stop associating the c in concentration with the c in coffee, cake and chocolate. 4. Be less strict about the word ‘write’. The 3 pages could include drawings, doodles, lists, phone numbers, symptoms of chocolate and coffee withdrawal. 5. Decide not to be anal about the 3 pages. 3 could be 6 or 1. In fact, 1 is absolutely fine if it’s new work. 6. New work could include editing, punctuation, formatting and the scrunching up of paper. Things always look new if you move them around a bit. 7. The word ‘new’ might need clarifying. New could include new ideas for future novels. Or The Future generally. 8. Work could include reading, research but not on the Internet. 9. Deliver a fully formed new novel – a thriller set in Crete by February. Yes, I’m deadly serious! 10. Deliver A Year on the Plot - 12 months of interconnecting bitter-sweet funny fictional stories, drawings and recipes drawn from my experiences on my allotment. About this, I’m less serious –but that’s because this is a fun book and a fabulous cook is helping me build up a collection of recipes. Which, obviously, I’m going to have to try out. And if these recipes include coffee, cake and chocolate then that comes under the general heading of New Work.

J.C. Norman, author of Spheres Divide Pilgrim of Element My writing resolutions include firstly finishing my current book in the Sphere’s Divide series. This one is centred around a cast of characters not yet introduced into the series and acts as a kind of prequel to the side characters who have yet to

make an impact on the whole of the plot. Once that is done I can then move back on track with the rest of the series. But that whole world aside, I also have plan to finish writing my stand alone story set in the 1940’s Black as Noir. I also have a whole different series planned on a kind of X-Men-themed story based on the idea of comic book-based characters but want to add the idea of debasing powers rather than glorifying them. There is also a series I want to be based around history, as so each story could be set in a different time and country but based on the same premises.

Lucy Branch, author of A Rarer Gift Than Gold As its Christmas time, I’ll go with a nativity analogy. I have a flock of writing resolutions, but the ones I’m going to focus on are my favourites. Not sure a good shepherd should have favourites but never mind. NaNoWriMo has inspired me and got my writing muscles pumping so with my daily word count on the rise, I hope to be prolific in 2016. At the very least, if I can sustain the newly developed stamina, I should produce my first YA fantasy book which is a spin-off from my first novel and maybe even get a draft out of a new mystery thriller novel which I’m penning, again set in my home territory of the art restoration world. Galloping through your word count builds your momentum, but it can be at the expense of quality. This concern has provided my second resolution which is to read and listen to more writing craft books so that by the time I’m onto my second drafts, all the weeds can be plucked allowing the good stuff to rise up and grow. What I love most about being Indie is that I have the freedom to duck and dive into different genres. In terms of marketing, the common wisdom is stick in your category and write the heck out of it. I’m not ignoring this sage advice, but doing something completely new fires me up and so my next resolution is to write a children’s book. If I was traditionally published, this would not be an option open to me, but I have an idea that excites me and I’d like to explore it: that’s the freedom of the Indie world.

NEW EDITION, DECEMBER 2015

Marie Delanote, author of The Healing of the 1lb Baby I don’t see myself as a writer, I see myself as a messenger. My books are there to help people forward, to help to heal the world, Mother Earth and its people; to give insights and help to raise the awareness. It is highly satisfactory to have those fabulous ideas lighten up in my mind. Insights/ answers, which I know will be of great value to many people. That’s why I write, that’s why I love writing! Reach more people, sell more books, publish my next book, finish and publish my third book… Yes, dream BIG, only BIG! It is only self-imposed limits that can stop you from reaching your goal. Have you ever noticed how something is ‘not possible’ until someone does it… Then suddenly, more follow… It is all in the mind! That person who broke the record/ managed to do something ‘impossible’ dreamed BIG and BELIEVED. That person broke down the limiting believe of ‘impossible’ onto that subject for it to open up on worldly consciousness. That’s how we evolve! Everything is ever expanding, thriving on people dreaming! I have finished a fabulously strong book Heal by Intention-Crystal Learning and Oracle Cards, about psychic surgery (healing with the mind) and working with Ethereal Crystals (mind-crystals). Oracle cards accompany the book. This work contains revolutionary methods of healing with the mind. I am very excited to have it published in 2016!

Stephen Childs, author of On Track for Murder My working life, right now, is all about writing. I’m fortunate to be in the position of being able to write full-time - that is when I’m not acting as house-father for our eleven year old. Currently I am working on the second book in the Abigail Sergeant series. This follows on from On Track for Murder and continues Abigail’s life in Western Australia as she is caught up with another murder case. This story delves deeper into her relationships and the life she has created. Of course there are the inevitable hurdles to overcome, and a flirtation with some new technology that isn’t steam-powered. Plot lines are firming up for a third book, which sees Abigail engaging in her love of flight and aircraft development. And, naturally, another murder.

Moving away from the 1800s, many story ideas are being accumulated in my cloud drive. One, in particular, looks at an event that happened in England during defence training in the 1940s, where several women armed forces trainees lost their lives. I’m looking forward to telling that story. I love writing and actually look forward to commencing work each day. I get a real thrill as the stories unfold beneath my rapidly tapping fingers. Even preparing this last book for sale and marketing it with the Authoright team has been a joy and something I look forward to doing again. This really is an exciting business.

Mathew Redford, author of Addicted to Death: A Food Related Crime Investigation As I sit down to draft a short article on “writing resolutions”, and with my deadline approaching faster than Father Christmas on his reindeers (am I the only one who thinks Rudolph’s red nose is an alcohol problem?), I can’t help but notice the irony in what I am about to say. Resolution number 1: Don’t leave everything until the last minute! Now dear reader, I know this is easier said than done but this is a writing resolution I am going to try to stick to for as long as possible. As I start work on my second Food Related Crime Investigation novel, (working title - Know Your Onions, for those interested) I’m determined to set myself some deadlines and to stick to them. When I was writing Addicted to Death, I recognised that I got my best writing done on a Sunday morning, drinking coffee in a nearby shop: ah, my little sanctuary. Which leads me nicely to writing resolution number 2. Writing resolution 2: Avoid distractions. I like order, I like structure - I’m an accountant, sorry - and so if I’ve made up my mind to get some writing done, then I need to make sure I avoid distractions by getting up early and being ready to roll. Hmm. Did someone mention a roll? A bacon roll. Hmm. Or a sausage roll. Hmm. Hold on, what’s this article about again?!

NEW EDITION, DECEMBER 2015

THe personal touch Amanda Nicol considers herself “a mental health refusenik, cancer thriver and passionate about kinder, saner, holistic and sustainable ways to move forward, personally, societally and environmentally.” Her three first novels: House of Bread, Badric’s Island and Dead Pets Society, have recently been rereleased by Clink Street Pubishing. All three novels are extremely personal to Amanda, touching upon different experiences she has had in her lifetime. Diana Rissetto of Authoright sat down with Amanda to hear about what we can expect from these novels, as well as what’s ahead for her. Your three books (House of Bread, Badric’s Island, Dead Pets Society) are all quite different, but I also get the feeling that the main characters in all three have a lot of “you” in them. Is that correct? Yes, we definitely have a lot in common, but not everything. I think that the way my main characters feel about certain things are my feelings too, or have been at some point, but their situations and habits are not necessarily mine. I tend to mix aspects of either myself or other people into my characters, so although it may seem that my books are completely biographical, they aren’t, completely at least. If you are writing in the first person, it’s inevitable that it will come over as ‘you’. Which was your favorite to write? Or is that like asking you to pick a favorite child? I love the process of writing so that’s hard to answer. I get wildly excited by whatever I am working on, but I suppose in that House of Bread was my first ‘child’ it is very close to my heart. Badric’s Island was certainly the most fun to write as it has the most comedy. Although

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Writing a novel is an intensely personal experience, drawing upon and revealing your experiences to the world. For few authors is this more true than Amanda Nicol. Authoright talks with Nicol on how life influenced each of her three books differently.

the themes are serious, they lent themselves to laughs more than the other two. The environmental research I did for Dead Pets Society was pretty devastating, which made it very challenging for me, but I wanted and needed to address these things and somehow find a way through them. What are some other jobs other jobs have you done? Do you think most writers aren’t suited for a typical 9 to 5 life? I’m not sure if many humans are suited for a typical 9 to 5 life! I restored paintings for twenty-plus years, which was a fascinating job, but I spent too much time wishing I was doing something else, like many people. I wrote all three books whilst I was working so it is possible to do both, it’s just a matter of priorities. Not having children helps! How often do you base characters on people from your real life? Has it ever gotten you into trouble with any of your friends or family? I don’t think any character I have written is solely based on one person, but syntheses of many people. I don’t seem to have lost any friends yet! For example in House of Bread, the characters on the ward shared characteristics with real patients, but part of the joy of writing fiction for me is the freedom to create a character, give them a

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background and feel them come to life. I get to the point where I find it hard to believe that my character is actually fictional. You need to feel like that about your characters. If you don’t, no one else will. Can we go through some of the inspirations behind all three books? House of Bread was based on my own experience of ‘mental illness’ (I do not like the term) and being sectioned in my 20s, which was a hugely traumatic life event. It took me ten years to write about it, but I always knew that I would. I wanted to paint a picture of that life and of the people I encountered, as well as explore my own ‘stuff’. There is still a lot of stigma associated with these emotional and environmental disorders that impact on behaviour and affect at least 1 in 4 people at some point in their lives, so the more stories the better. I’m a great one for shouting at the television when things annoy me and TV ads directed at women drive me nuts. Our cultural obsession with youth and beauty is a tyranny for women and encourages and exploits low self-esteem. I had a lot of friends who were actors at that time in London and we used to wander around Battersea Park talking about our usually complicated and dysfunctional relationships. I was restoring paintings then, so could only see an actor’s life from the outside, but I understood how it felt to have to have to compromise dreams for the sake of finances, so Badric’s Island was a coming together of these themes. I couldn’t be an actress in a million years, but it was great fun to ‘be’ Rachel for the duration of writing the book. Dead Pets Society began life as a short story about a self-help group for people who were grieving for their pets, and yes, I had lost a dog that had been by my side for many years and his death made me realise just how much animals bring to our lives, often giving the solace and comfort that in our modern, busy and too often lonely lives, we can fail to get from each other. I was also trying to write an ‘eco-thriller’, Offsetters, about a mysterious disappearance of a young guy who’d been researching some environmental foul play, but soon discovered that I just couldn’t write a book without humour in it, and yet my research into the way we are treating the planet at this time wasn’t in any way funny, so the two projects came together. It turned into a book within a book, my character Mike wrestling with a novel when her dog dies. I pulled things from my own life again, this time setting the book in a seaside town, pretty obviously Hastings to anyone who knows the place. It was very interesting to write two books in one, I have no idea if it really works, but I feel it is probably my bravest novel in some ways. Who are some of your dream literary boyfriends?

NEW EDITION, DECEMBER 2015

One of the first writers that I really loved, for his comedy, humanity, observation and philosophy in Madame Bovary, which I studied at school as part of A level French, was Gustave Flaubert, so dinner with him would be great. As for living people … just too many but I would love to talk to Yann Martel about Life of Pi and hang out with Douglas Coupland and DBC Pierre. If you mean fictional characters, having just watched Far from the Madding Crowd on the plane I’d say Gabriel Oak… Certainly not Mr Rochester. I probably have more dream literary girlfriends! How do you feel about the changes that are happening in the publishing industry? Is it upsetting or exciting? I think what is happening to publishing is great. Technology has given writers great freedom. I’m all for everyone telling their stories. All the arts should be democratic and accessible and if you want to write and have the tenacity to finish a piece of work it is wonderful that you can now get that into print or online. I love great prose and I understand the perceived need for the upholding of some sort of standard, but I believe that we need everyone’s story at this time. Nobody knocks anyone for drawing a picture and sticking it in a frame and the same should go for writing. I’m a perfectionist but possibly because of recent events in my life I can now stay fairly calm when I spot a typo! Sometimes the feeling and intention behind artistic expression is what counts. I’m no expert on the publishing world but for me independence and creative control is really important, so self-publishing is perfect. However, you need help with marketing and have to be prepared to believe and invest in yourself. I love to make notes in books and turn down pages in order to refer back easily, but I do use my Kindle a lot too, especially for travelling. If I really love a book, I still want a hard copy. Five favorite books of all time? Difficult. Books that spoke to me at certain times of my life I wouldn’t necessarily enjoy to the same extent now, much like music. A stand-out novel recently would be A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. I suppose a very few of the books that informed my thinking and stand out in my mind would be Orwell’s 1984 and Keep the Aspidistra Flying (a great inspiration for Badric’s Island) Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, Slyvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, Toni Morrison’s Beloved, Marge Piercy’s Woman on the Edge of Time, Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook and The Grass is Singing – the books I love are those with a social and political messages. At the moment I read a lot

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of non-fiction so am shamefully out of touch with novels. I read a great deal about the environment, holistic health, biology, consciousness and spirituality and I love all sorts of poetry. What are you working on right now? I’m writing a memoir about my experience of cancer, UK cancer treatment followed by treatment in Mexico and exploring the themes very dear to my heart as I do so – the parallels with psychiatric care and the environmental causes of cancer it its broadest sense. What would you do if you saw somebody reading one of your books in public? Would you approach them? Depends if they looked like they were enjoying it or not! I might just run away. Have you ever daydreamed of turning any of your books into a movie or television series? Do any certain actors cross your mind? Of course! All of them! When I was writing Badric’s Island, Rachel was definitely Hermione Norris. I have an actress friend who relates hugely to Rachel, but other than that not really. My dog Molly would love to play Badric but I have told her that a greyhound will never pass for a Labrador. You have used some of the greatest struggles in your life and used them as fuel for your writing. Has writing been a great comfort for you? Yes. It’s hugely rewarding to be able to create something from what can be a lot of fragmented and painful memories and even more so if that can resonate with other people. The feedback I’ve received from House of Bread in particular has been hugely validating and often very touching. I’m very proud of how it helped turn what had seemed utterly disastrous into a very enriching thing in my life. Exploring ideas through fiction is great fun, however difficult it can be. The memoir I’m writing now is obviously all me and that is proving hard at times too. I realised that I was hiding behind fiction in many ways and that’s fine, but this time I needed to own and speak about my particular journey. Dead Pets Society, House of Bread and Badric’s Island by Amanda Nicol are all available at retailers including Amazon.com and can be ordered from all good bookstores. For more information, please visit www. AmandaNicol.co.uk

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The Power of Preparation Kate Appleton is prepared for everything in her role as a publicist at Authoright, and to help you feel the same way going into a publicity campaign, she has written a handy guide to the most common questions she’s asked by the press about the books she’s promoting.’

ournalists always ask, “What’s new?” or “ What’s different?” when they are approached with a story, because it’s crucial for them that what they cover is newsworthy; they need to be able to visualise the kind of headline that will attract their readers. It’s doesn’t need to be scandalous (although that certainly doesn’t hurt) but something that will hook them into running with a story on you and your book rather than on someone else and theirs. This predominantly applies to authors writing non-fiction books; whether it’s biography, diet & fitness, memoir or historical. It’s incredibly important if you’re writing on a subject that has been written about extensively before. So during the preparatory stages of a campaign and during marketing meetings with your publisher or publicist - have to hand a list of specific, unique selling points with the associated chapters and page numbers to hand, and a summary of what makes your book new and different. Be really honest with yourself about that last bit too.

because for them it needs to be newsworthy and they need to be able to visualise the headline that will attract their readers. It doesn’t need to be scandal -although that doesn’t hurt- but something that will hook them into running with a story on your book and not something else. This is predominantly for those writing nonfiction books whether it’s biography, diet & fitness, memoir or historical -and it is incredibly important especially if it is covering a subject that has been written about before and extensively. So during the preparatory stages of a campaign and during marketing meetings with your publisher/ publicist, have ready a list of specific, unique selling points with the associated chapters and page

What’s new about the book or story? - Books Editor, The Daily Mail Journalists always ask; ‘What’s new? or Different?’

NEW EDITION, DECEMBER 2015

numbers and summary of what the book is offering that is different.

Have you got a photo of the author (& photos of the events if non-fiction)? - Features Writer, The Daily Express Okay so we may not all like photos of ourselves or want to have our face looking up at us from a national newspaper, BUT it’s something that I - as a publicist - am inevitably asked for whether it’s to go alongside a book review, interview or first person article. So, like the Brownie Guides, ‘always be prepared’ and have a couple of clear, high resolution head and shoulder photos taken against a blank background - or for something like a travel book it can be on location - ready to share with the world, or your publicist. If you’re writing under a pen name and wishing to maintain anonymity then that’s certainly something that can be worked around -but if you’re happy to have one where you’re looking into the distance or donning sunglasses then those can work just as well! Since we’re on the subject of photos if your book is non fiction or if you’re being interviewed about a personal experience have in mind that photos will be required. All real-life news stories today are photo driven so even if it means digging out the old albums and taking photos of polaroids it’ll need to be done

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and well in advance of media interest being secured!

Are they a good speaker? - Producer, BBC Radio London This might seem like a strange question to ask a writer but it’s one I’m asked regularly and I must respond with a resolute “yes!” if I’m to secure the media opportunity for the author in question. Being able to articulate well is key when you’re trying to promote your book, so it’s a good idea to start practicing in anticipation of broadcast interviews. You need to be well-rehearsed in discussing your book confidently and concisely - you’d be surprised that even the most outgoing person can freeze when faced with a microphone.Things to think about during the preparatory stages and throughout a publicity campaign are the answers to questions like: Tell us about your book or What’s your book about? - this wants me to short and to the point similar to (or exactly the same as) the wording of the opening sentence on your press release. How did you come to write your book/where did the inspiration come from? What do you do alongside writing? - this is delving more into your personal background: what do you do as a career, family, hobbies and interests - it’s a question to get listeners or readers to relate to you as a person and then as well as an author. Whatever happens the golden rule when talking about your book is NEVER respond with “You’ll have to read the book” - even if it’s said in jest!

NEW EDITION, MARCH 2015

Can they write a first-person article? - Editor, The Huffington Post There are some publications like The Huffington Post or even national newspapers like The Daily Express who although interested in the book or you as an author might not have the time to, a. Read the book, or, b. Interview you personally. So to still provide the opportunity of coverage for you as an author they’re happy to have a first-person piece which they’ll publish either online or in print. Equally, the beauty of newspapers being online these days means they require fresh and engaging content more regularly and therefore have more opportunities for you to get exposure as a writer. During marketing meetings with authors I often ask them about their life outside the book to try and dig out ideas for these kind of articles. Even what you might think is mundane because you’re used to it in your own life might be of interest to others who are going through similar changes or experiences for instance; divorce, health scare, travelling the world, drastic weight-loss or maybe you’ve knitted the world’s longest scarf. All these things we can readily pitch out to features editors, even if these stories feel like a far cry

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from what your book is actually about. It’s coverage, plain and simple, accompanied by that vital purchase information for your book. So think carefully about what you could write about, what you have to say, what makes you stand out, what bizarre talents you have and what gorgeous photographs you have to share, and be prepared for PR. It’s usually better to mention something than to leave it unsaid, as you never know what might come of it. And finally….

How old are they? - Features Editor, Marie Claire This is definitely not me being nosey. It’s just the nature of the media beast and can sometimes determine whether they feel you’re a right fit for their readership. -So there you have it. Your publicist (me) is not being nosey, awkward, demanding or hard to please (but then I would say that, wouldn’t I?) as one author summed me up once perfectly “I am not demanding just politely insistent.”

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Trash and Treasure After Martin Etheridge awoke from a six month coma, he was gifted a typewriter to help him communicate, which he then used to write his first book. Authoright spoke with Etheridge about his journey and the power of laughing things off.

Martin Etheridge joined the British Army in 1978 at just 16-years-old. Four years later, he was injured when the truck he was traveling in veered off course and into a ravine. Five of his fellow soldiers were killed immediately, and the driver of the vehicle would die months later. Martin spent the next six months in a coma and on life support. When he woke from his coma, he could not speak or walk and relied heavily on the support of his family. His parents and uncle gifted him with a typewriter, since he could not communicate verbally, and Martin began writing short stories to pass time. It was then that he was inspired to pen What a Load of Rubbish. In the novel, a young man named Malcolm wants to be the best street cleaner the world has ever seen. When Malcolm is replaced by a machine, he spirals into a depression, and eventually ends up, as Martin was, unconscious for several months. When Malcolm awakens, he has a new lease on life ande is determined to prove to the world that he will not be beaten by any new fangled machine. What a Load of Rubbish is an empowering, unique tale of overcoming the odds and finding one’s special niche in the world and is a hilarious story of perseverance that will entertain and inspire and reminds us that anybody can be a hero, as long as they find out what they can - and love to - do and truly give it their all. Martin sat with Authoright to talk about his

inspiring journey—which was often filled with a lot of laughter. Let’s talk a bit about your experiences in the 1970’s as a member of the British Army at the very young age of 16. One day, shortly after I had left school, a mate and I wandered into the Recruiting Office at Hounlow Cavalry Barracks and after the recruiting officer there described, in glowing terms, army life - he sent us to Sutton Coalfeilds recruitwent centre for the weekend and I was sold. I found Army life quite enjoyable, even though my “gift-of-the-gab’ landed me in hot water sometimes, it also earned me quite a few friends. I have always had a very keen sense of humour was able to sing and mimic just about everything and everyone and I became quite a popular member of the battery although not always the most well behaved - I certainly had no intentions of leaving any time soon. But someone up there obviously had other plans and I was medically discharged after having spent several months in coma both in Germany and in Woolwich, England. For want of something else to say, I will quote my discharge report. It reads, ‘Throughout his time with the Battery, Gunner Etheridge has worked extremely hard in his trade as a gun number. He has on more than one occasion stated that this is the job for him and that nothing else will suffice.’

NEW EDITION, DECEMBER 2015

‘He is a intelligent young man, with a keen sense of humour and is an extremely popular member of his Battery. His attitude to Army life whilst serving with his Battery was very positive and indicated that he was intent on making a successful career.’ Imagine the shock when I was forced to leave in coma and when I eventually recovered from that I had to learn to walk again and to talk again. In fact, I had to learn to do practically everything again and of course to use a knife and fork. You wrote the book while you were recovering, on a typewriter gifted by your parents and uncle. Had you ever considered writing creatively before then? My Mum, my dad and my uncle bought me a typewriter when I was in hospital because I was using a comminicator which used cash machine type rolls of paper at the time, a useful tool but people were relying on the machine, rather than listening to me. Therefore they bought me the typewriter so I could practise typing on it in my hospital bay during my free time - to relieve the boredom and monotony of hospital life, after I had mentioned to them that I had started to learn to type on an electric typewriter in occupational therapy. On it, I used to write stories of things that had happened to me at home when I was a kid and in the Army. The first book came a few years later. I wrote the first one on a word processor which I had bought because when I left hospital I always liked to have an audience when I could talk and used to be able to ensure a good audience because of the way I talked, ie: lots of accents, plenty of mimicry, plenty of gesture and sound effects and exaggeration. When I came out of hospital I could no longer do this but I did find that because I had a good knowledge of peoples’ accents I could recapture peoples speech in my writing. I am very interested in the way people speak - this is the reason I write the way I do, ie: lots of regional accents and sound effects. Also, I suppose you could say this book is an experiment in ‘authentic dialect’, so don’t just pick it up a flick through it. Read it thoroughly, and roll the dialogue round your mouth. Try driver, Geordie’s Tyneside warble against Willy Eckerslike’s blunt northern speak. Then mix it in with secretary Germanic Twang. If you can’t do it out loud do it in your head. Really make the characters come alive! Is there a reason you chose to make your main character a street cleaner? Was that symbolic of anything? Yes, before I started writing I read a few childrens’ books from the past and present and noticed that

all the heroes were people in public schools, such as, Tom from Tom Browns schooldays. Then you’ve got J.K. Rowling’s hero, Harry Potter, he gets recruited into a boarding school right at the very beginning! And I thought why are all these characters from these kind of backgrounds. Why not have a main character from the working class. You have mentioned that you hope your book can inspire those to stand tall and strong against bullying. Can you elaborate on that? Do you think that the story can also help a bully be inspired to change their ways? I wrote it for the underdog. Underdogs, like most species of dog, always have their day but will this one. I don’t want to give the story away, so I won’t say much more. But there is a theme of bullying being overcome that runs right through the whole story. But I only realised this when I read the story after I had written it. How often do you base characters on people from your real life? Has it ever gotten you into trouble with any of your friends or family? I base my characters on bits, or different characteristics of people. All people, however nice, or funny they appear have different quirks that aren’t quite likeable (even you and me) and it doesn’t always feel right describing a completely nasty person in black and white - although we know they are out there. I’ve never been in trouble with a member of my family because I’ve never described a whole person to a tee, there has always been a little bit of someone else bunged in with them - that way nobody gets upset or offended - mind you I don’t write not to offend people. If they don’t want to be upset or experience whatever emotion the book they reading evokes, then why are they reading it in the first place. How do you feel about the changes that are happening in the publishing industry? Is it upsetting or exciting? Do you prefer a Kindle or a print book? I feel the changes that are taking place in the publishing industry are great! At least you don’t have to hang around twiddling your thumbs until some literary agency decides you fit its genre. When I wrote this book, for example, after I had written it I sent it off to loads of different agencies and the responses I recieved were really polite and encouraging: you know, ‘Thanks really nice work but we’re a very small agency and aren’t taking on any new authors at the moment. Or, ‘Sorry we’re not publishing books in that genre, etc. In every case I was told: “Don’t stop

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trying,” or something like that. Then I was talking to these blokes who I cycle with sometimes. I told them I couldn’t find an agency to tale me on. Within about a week they came up with this editing agency called Authoright, I read the bumpf they sent me and the rest is history. Five favorite books of all time? Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arther Conan Doyle. I love that story, the setting and location - on the Moors with its very own swamp, Grympan Miar. The way Sherlock Holmes inserts himself into the tale and prepares soup for Dr. Watson when they meet on the moor. The sinister escaped convict from Dartmoor prison. All topped off with a scarey monster, the Hound, a dog brutalized by it’s master - brilliant stuff. Well done, Sir Aurther and so adaptable to film. I like anything by Wilbur Smith, the stories about the African bush wars but his best one ever is, Monsoon, it’s an exciting tale of passion and pirates, it’s like a fairy-tale for adults. Alice in Wonderland is good. But I like the imagery of the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, and Lewis Carol was around long before moving pictures. He must have had a good imagination. Anything by Roald Dahl, because initially I taught myself speak, more or less from scratch by reading his books out load in my back yard. Don’t get me wrong speech therapy departments in a lot of hospitals have helped me. But at the end of the day, they can’t wave a magic wand and say: “you’re cured”. All they can do is give you exercises and instruction and encouragement. Finally, the Richard Sharp books by Bernard Cornwell, they are about the Nepolionic war and although this in days gone by, it describes how life in thos days was so much of a hit and miss afair. No matter who you were or where you were from you just had to make the best of it because you did not how long you would be around for anyway.

reading mate?” and he would say, “I’m reading this book by this brilliant, new author. My God, he’s such an exciting writer…” then I would introduce myself just as soon as I was able to fit my head through the door. What a Load of Rubbish by Martin Etheridge is available at retailers including Amazon.com and can be ordered from all good bookstores.

What would you do if you saw somebody reading one of your books in public? Would you approach them? If I saw someone reading my book of course I would approach them but I wouldn’t introduce myself. I would say something like, “What are you

NEW EDITION, DECEMBER 2015

Surviving November: National Novel Writing Month represents both valuable time to write and an arduous process to complete for the writers that choose to participate. Josh Hamel interviews one such writer on his experiences during NaNoWriMo 2015. Like thousands of writers, Zach Heltzel decided to take up the challenge of writing 50,000 words in only 30 days for National Novel Writing Month. As he prepares for the more unofficial National Novel Editing Month that comes with producing a first draft at such a hurried pace, he answered a few questions about surviving the process and offered advice for those who want to take the plunge next year. Why did you decide to do NaNoWriMo? I decided to do NaNoWriMo because with numerous responsibilities and obligations making it easy to put off scratching the itch to write a novel, it provides a structure and incentive to stop making excuses and plunge into long-form writing. It is amazing how a little bit of external pressure can drive an internal passion to write, making NaNoWriMo invaluable part of my process. This isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t your first year participating. How did it compare to previous efforts? In my first few years of participating in NaNoWriMo, I greatly overestimated how much time and energy I would have to carefully consider the words I committed to the page. With just 30 days to reach a minimum of 50,000 words, rewards can only be found when plowing through the inevitable walls a writer will encounter when crafting a story. In years past, I learned the hard way that I should not try to go from concept to final draft in a month. My plan this year was to brainstorm on the page and get all my thoughts committed to print, allowing me to buff out the scratches over the next few months. This approach was incredibly freeing, relative to my other attempts.

Any particular challenges you ran into? What do you like best about writing during NaNoWriMo? I think I speak for a lot of people when I say there are two challenges inherent to the concept of NaNoWriMo. Almost always, the story you thought you desperately wanted to write falls apart once you reach 15,000 words. This has happened to me every year and when I share this sentiment with fellow participants, they know exactly how it feels. There is also the practical concern of maintaining a steady pace of 1,600+ words a day during the month of

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NaNoWriMo 2015 taken days of outlining and planning to whip into shape. Recognising this compulsion to fix my story as a trap that had prevented me from reaching my word count in the past, I allowed a stream of consciousness to take me through to the end of the month. The result is a messy series of loosely connected stories in the fictional town my original idea was firmly rooted in, unified only by geography and a tendency to have wild tonal changes in the middle. Were you able to complete the 50K challenge? My fingers have yet to recover but they were able to tap out exactly 71,339 words, of which a third might survive future drafts. November, where Thanksgiving and general holiday craziness prove to be derailing distractions just as you hit your stride. What’s the most valuable part of writing during NaNoWriMo? What I like best about writing during NaNoWriMo is expressed through the Newtownian adage “An object in motion tends to stay in motion.” When you haven’t been writing consistently, starting again can be like pulling your tooth out of your ear. Around this time every year, I have fallen off the wagon and NaNoWriMo is the mechanism that gets me back into writing again. I always forget how good it feels. What was your writing process? To paraphrase from Finding Nemo, “Just keep writing, just keep writing, just keep writing, writing, writing.” What was your novel about?

Do you have any plans to continue with the work done? I hope so! I have decided that I cannot possibly look at any of it without cringing until a month or two has passed, but once I can muster the emotional bravery to take another crack at it, I’m excited to continue shaping my work. Advice for those interested in starting next year? The only expectation you should have is to hit your word count. You will be amazed how much easier it is to tell the stories you want to tell when you have words written you want to change. -Zach Heltzel is an author and comedian based in Phoenix, AZ. He has previously written for Playboy and is a frequent Twitter user. You can follow him @zachheltzel.

On November 1, my novel was about a family preoccupied with a storm of crises circling around them while an actual hurricane is about to descend upon their town. The backbone of this novel lasted about a week and a half as the connective tissue began to forge diverging paths that would have

NEW EDITION, DECEMBER 2015

Going for the While writing is not about competing with others to prove whose book is better, that doesn’t mean it isn’t nice to have your work recognized by others. Josh Hamel gives the scoop on the best competitions for indie authors to enter.

n a world where getting your book discovered is often the harder exercise than writing it, every place that can gain your work recognition is important. One of the best outlets to take advantage of are annual awards. Winning an award doesn’t just offer a chance for more publicity, it also signifies to potential readers that your work has been judged and deemed a higher quality than others. Winning any award gives an author’s work more credibility when being marketed. With that said, not every competition opens up its criteria for self published authors. The eight listed below, however, do just that. Some are free while others require a low cost of entry, but they all offer a great chance of getting your work seen with the added possibility of adding a trophy to your shelf. While most of these ar closed for 2015, it’s never too early to start preparing for next year.

IndieReader Discovery Awards

With a panel of judges, including top agents, traditional publishers, PR people, bloggers and book reviewers, the IndieReader Discovery Awards offer a wonderful chance to get your book seen by some of the top influencers in publishing.

2. 3. 4.

Kindle Book Awards

Winners of the Kindle Book Awards will receive a cash prize as well as a substantial amount of free promotion in multiple publications including Digital Book World and the Kindle Book Review.

Reader Views Literary Awards

With a wide list of genre categories open for submission, the Reader Views Literary Awards give a platform to just about every author. Three finalists are chosen in every category and first and second place for each will be awarded depending on each section.

Library Journal’s Self Published Ebook Awards

Each genre winner will take home $1,000 as well as a full Library Journal review and other promotional perks. The awards also offer the chance for you to enter your book in your local library, a great way to be a part of your community and gain some exposure while doing it.

gold 5.

Writer’s Digest Self Published Ebook Awards

WD’s newest competition, now in its third year, is a contest exclusively for self-published e-books. Another entry that is closed for 2015, but with $5,000 cash and feature article in Writer’s Digest on the line, the Self Published Ebook Awards are definitely a competition worth knowing about.

6. 7.

London Book Festival

Who wouldn’t want to be invited as a special guest to be recognized at a gala of some of publishing’s best? Well, win the London Book Festival’s grand prize and that is exactly what you can look forward to.

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Green Book Festival

Though limited to books that contribute to greater understanding, respect for and positive action on the changing worldwide environment, the Green Book Festival is a great reminder that there are many awards other than the ones listed here, many of which cater to the specific niche your book occupies, limiting the number of entries and increasing your chances of taking home the prize. --

ForeWord Reviews Book of the Year

Operated by the only review magazine solely dedicated to discovering new indie books, Foreword Reviews’ INDIEFAB Book of the Year Awards are a great place to get your book read by reviewers, and if you make it to the shortlist, by booksellers. Luckily there is still time to submit for this year. The deadline for entry is January 2016.

NEW EDITION, DECEMBER 2015

Stories from 221B Baker Street After gorging on the Sherlock Holmes stories as a boy, Orlando Pearsonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s only disappointment was that there werenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t more. Now years later, he is remedying that fact. Josh Hamel talks to him about discovering the original stories and writing his own for the iconic character.

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Thanks in part to the Guy Ritchie films and BBC -produced television show, the character of Sherlock Holmes has seen a bit of a modern renaissance. For Orlando Pearson, though, that’s just the world catching back up with his interest in the master detective. With his new short story collection, The Redacted Sherlock Holmes: Volume I, coming out, Pearson discussed with me his favorite Arthur Conan Doyle originals and more. Where did the inspiration for your stories come from? I love everything to do with Sherlock Holmes but I am an addict of the original stories. Recent Holmesiana have relocated Holmes so that he investigates events of the present day. I thought it would be fun to take the opposite approach and bring events into the time of Sherlock Holmes. In doing so I was delighted to give Holmes a life stretching into at least 1947. My idea for my first story came to me when I reread Kafka’s The Trial many years after reading it as a literature student. I found that years of reading and rereading Sherlock Holmes had equipped me with the necessary techniques to spot a clue early in Kafka’s mysterious novel and this led me straight to a plausible solution of the work. Kafka’s The Trial, it turns out, is not that mysterious after all and turning my solution into a Sherlock Holmes story involved not much more than moving the action from Prague to London and adding references to the recent banking crisis. My work can be found on-line as The Trial of Joseph Carr. Like Holmes after he had decrypted the first few letters of the secret code in The Dancing Men, having found one solution, the rest of my stories followed quite easily. It was really just a case of asking the questions or refusing to accept an accepted answer. So, from Volume I of The Redacted Sherlock Holmes, as well as finding the true killer of King Duncan and restoring the good name of the historic King Macbeth, I pose the question of why Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s deputy, flew to Britain in 1941? And, while we are in the disputatious mood that came over Holmes when he smoked his long, cherrywood pipe, why are some industries so much more profitable than others? Is there more to it than luck? On-line Holmes investigates the Resurrection, tracks manuscripts of a great composer whose works would otherwise be lost to us, serves tea to the future Edward VII, and investigates events in South East London which link back to events which occurred long before the birth of Christ. When did you first discover the Sherlock stories?

I first read Sherlock Holmes stories when I was fifteen and loved them. In some ways I wish I had discovered them later as I wolfed them down without understanding some of the distinctly non-teenagerish themes in quite a lot of them. Since then I have read the stories over and over again. I find them particularly soothing when I feel stressed – a point of great importance to the plot of The Fuehrer and his Deputies. I just regret that there aren’t any more of them – something I am trying to remedy! What are some of your favorite Arthur Conan Doyle stories? The Bruce Partington Plans is a brilliant thriller with some masterful deductions. And the criminal is not the person Holmes anticipated. I love Silver Blaze as it also has an unexpected denouement although Holmes is in full control of this story throughout. It also has famous quote after famous quote starting with “I’m afraid, Watson, I shall have to go” and progressing via “the dog in the night-time”, to “a very long shot!” On the way back to London after solving the case, Sherlock Holmes passes through my home railway station. This may not mean much to anyone else but it does to me. He also passes through it in Wisteria Lodge. I find The Yellow Face unusually moving. It is one of the very few cases where Holmes is quite a long way wrong and he asks to be reminded of this whenever he becomes too self-confident. And Holmes’s client, Grant Munro behaves with a generosity towards his wife from which we can all learn. I am also very fond of The Red Headed League. This is, in my view, the funniest Sherlock Holmes story, and provided the inspiration for my first story, The Trial of Joseph Carr. How was writing for such an iconic character? As an addict of the original stories I try to write in a style as close to Conan Doyle as possible. I therefore appropriate words, phrases and, wherever possible, whole paragraphs when whenever I can. I want my reader to feel he is reading a Conan Doyle story. I find the challenge an exciting one but also achievable because I know the stories so well. I feel a real thrill when I reread my works and feel Conan Doyle in the prose. Did anything surprise you while writing? I was surprised by how easily events from very different times and places translated into late 19th

NEW EDITION, DECEMBER 2015

century London. I think this is because the themes explored – death, love, mystery, patriotism, trickery, revenge – are universal and timeless. It is only the names and backgrounds that need to be changed. This may also explain why Holmes has been updated to contemporary times so often and so successfully. How did you find the publishing process? I work as an accountant in the City. The publishing process takes me out of my comfort zone but in a positive way. I have been lucky to meet some good people - my editor, my cover designer, and my publicist have all helped to keep me on track. What is your method of writing? My work is reverential to the spirit of Conan Doyle but also referential to other works. As may be seen from the descriptions of the themes of my wok above, I try and invent as little plot as possible. So while The Minister and the Moguls is largely an original story the others all retell historical events or hijack plots from other literary works or the Bible. I also try to recycle phrases from the Sherlock Holmes cannon and also from the other work to which my story relates. I suspect there are not many writers who strive for a minimum amount of originality but that is certainly my aspiration. The ideas themselves occur to me unexpectedly and often in one chunk. Thus my work on autograph manuscripts more or less dropped into my head whole after a Classical concert. It was a question of getting it down and inserting the maximum amount of Holmesishness that I could muster. Others only came after a struggle – The Minister and the Moguls went through several rewrites, I think because it is the least unoriginal of the stories Do you have any more adventures planned for Holmes and Watson? About to come out are a work where Holmes completes a musical masterpiece of the 18th century and another which takes him into the aftermath of the recent war in Iraq. I hope no one accuses me of seeking to limit Holmes’s scope! The Redacted Sherlock Holmes by Orlando Pearson is available at retailers including Amazon.com and can be ordered from all good bookstores. For more information please visit www.orlandopearson.com

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As a night security guard plots an unlikely sting to steal from his own bank, the sudden realisation that all may not be going to plan may well outweigh the expected gains, in this delightful South East Asian crime caper. RRP £8.99 paperback, £3.99 ebook

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Doing Life in Paradise By Gary Lines

The absurdity of life, and the human condition, is examined through a group of hyper-real characters connected by a tragic and galvanising event that both shapes, and misshapes their worlds, in this thought-provoking literary fiction debut. RRP £7.99 paperback, £3.99 ebook

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Thanks for reading

NEW EDITION CONTEMPORARY ISSUE

PUBLISHING

27,DECEMBER

MAGAZINE

2015