2. Introduction
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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3. Where I began
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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5. What interests me about writing
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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6. Stories – where do you start and
what should you write?
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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7. Whirl of the Wheel
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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8. The Switch
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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9. Building your story
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
Challenges or scenes that 3
build the story
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OH NO!
Tension
1 Rug-pulling moment
Lull
THE QUEST BEGINS
Main event or discovery that starts the story off
Time
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10. Becoming a good writer
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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11. My story is complete!
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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14. I’ve finished . . . what next?
Editing – read and re-read, making notes by
hand or by making changes as you go, on-
screen. 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.
publish
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15. Traditional publishing
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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16. What is self publishing?
Using reputable online sites to produce any
number of printed books or e-books via your
netbook or home computer.
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17. Why self publish?
‘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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18. Seeing my book in print
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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19. Print on demand
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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20. Seeing my book as an e-book
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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21. Spreading the word
I’m published!
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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23. and finally. . .
. . . 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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24. Any questions?
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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Notas do Editor
Remember how proud I was if I was lucky enough to see my poetry pinned to the classroom wall. 3. S till try to be poetic in the patterns of my writing.
In children’s books the hero will be a child who has to overcome a challenge in order to reach a goal.
A. Show Microscope.. READ . . .
Most writers construct their stories to a formula. CLICK
1. Jon Mayhew – Mortlock, The Demon Collector.
CLICK FOR GRAPHIC AND CLAPPING!
1. US based society for children’s authors and illustrators. British Isles section meets socially. 2. Local writers’ networks or writing groups. 3. Most colleges run creative writing courses as evening classes.
The important bit
1. Author Profile for Amazon. 2. Downside – Postage.
eBook formatting is different to formatting for a printed book as page breaks are deleted.