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 This week is a celebration of reading, writing and publishing books;
 Building your story;
 Different ways of getting your book published;
 Things I’ve learned along the way.
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 Queen Edith Primary School, Cambridge;
 Writing poetry and short stories – creative writing;
 Composing songs with my guitar aged 9 and performing at the youth club aged 11
 30 years later I began to write
Whirl of the Wheel.
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 What interests me most is the feeling that a pattern of sentences or collection of words gives you;
 Stories, short or long, and poetry are no different to pieces of music – from Vivaldi to Jessie J and each composed the same way.
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 Write what you know or what interests you;
 Think of a great plot;
 Create your characters and their voices;
 Show the action, don’t tell it;
 Imagine your story as a film – changing scenes, different atmospheres;
 Use Post-its on the wall or in a notebook to order your scenes or ideas.
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 A story for 8 to 12-year-olds led by a heroine who happens to be in a wheelchair;
 Light-hearted time-travel adventure into
World War II – time portal is a potter’s wheel;
 Historical account of evacuation;
 With goodies and baddies.
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 Young teens’ thriller about a girl on a
French exchange trip who witnesses a raid at a bar from an apartment window;
 Set in Paris, with some spoken French;
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In a children’s book the hero will be a child or animal that has to overcome a challenge to reach a goal.
HOORAY!
High point of the story
Almost there Mystery solved
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Challenges or scenes that build the story
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OH NO!
Rug-pulling moment
Lull
THE QUEST BEGINS
Main event or discovery that starts the story off
Time
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 Read lots of different styles of books, plus you can read books about writing books;
 Have a go and see what you like to write!
 Ask your English teacher’s or your parents’ advice;
 Start up or become part of a writing group in or outside school;
 Find out about local writing workshops or courses (you might consider scbwi.com
) ;
 Enter a competition .
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 Fantastic, take a break and celebrate!
 Ask friends, family, teachers to read and comment;
 You could send it to a literary consultancy for comment but there is a cost www.cornerstones.co.uk
;
 Think about posting it online via critique sites like www.authononomy.com
or www.youwriteon.com
;
 Look again at your story in the light of what you have learned.
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 Editing – read and re-read, making notes by hand or by making changes as you go, onscreen. Go through your writing a final time – line by line to look for mistakes, or ask someone to help;
 Think about publishing – you could show your work to a recognised agent or publisher to see if they are interested in taking you on as an author . . . or you could self publish .
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 Look through the Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook
(published by A&C Black);
 Choose agents and publishing companies suitable for your genre of writing;
 Each agent or publishing company has a different set of submission guidelines.
Most ask for a few chapters by post;
 Check for errors in your work, send off your chapters and wait . . .
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 Using reputable online sites to produce any number of printed books or e-books via your netbook or home computer.
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 ‘I have always disliked writing to order;
I write to please myself.’
Beatrix Potter
 Creativity is a personal thing – self publishing is one answer to keeping it that way.
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 You can take an electronic copy of your work to a local printer where you pay up front, for example, for the print of 250 copies;
 Or start a free account with one of the major online suppliers of printed books
(print on demand) : www.lulu.com
or www.createspace.com
.
Order one or two copies – they cover costs by taking a percentage of each book.
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 Lay out your pages using the guide at Lulu or CreateSpace;
 Upload the document and use the cover wizard to create front and back covers;
 These companies will put your book on their websites and distribute to Amazon.com and selected online shops for free;
 Think about a selling price for your book.
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 You can do this via Lulu or Createspace or independent sites e.g. Freado/Bookbuzzr ,
Bibliotastic and Feedbooks ;
 Kidpub (American organisation)
 or set up a free account with Kindle Direct
Publishing . Note that e-books are laid out in a different way to printed books;
 KDP makes its money by taking a percentage of each book you or others buy. It sends your e-book for free to 5 international Amazon sites.
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I’m published!
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Friends and family, school fetes or your local bookshop – Waterstones and Heffers;
Facebook author page ;
Blog/blog interviews;
Twitter;
Goodreads www.goodreads.com
;
Free online press releases prlog.org
;
Make a book trailer ;
Printed leaflets/postcards.
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Lulu publishing wizard
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 . . . there is no hurry;
 so have fun!
 and enjoy forming your plot and creating characters;
 practise writing a few chapters and see where your story goes;
 if or when you finish, you might now have a plan for what you can do next.
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 This presentation Publish Your Book for the Linton Children’s Book Festival
2012 is available at Slideshare.net or via www.catherinecondie.wordpress.com
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