Book Publishing – Charlierobinsonbooks

Why I Have No Hair

Well. I mean…if I had hair I would have pulled it out this week. But it was too long for a title. (not my hair) I wonder if anyone reading this has self published a paperback with Amazon. I did it seamlessley with my first book, The Siege of Mr Khan’s Curry Shop, but this one, Who’s Got The Biscuits, ‘Ay caramba’.

And this is why I hate AI… I suggested a man pulling his hair out image. Oh well, pay peanuts and you get monkeys. So, my friends back to the plot. With a paperback you take a manuscript and you set the Trim, the Margins etc… I won’t bore you with whole shenanigns, but for arguments sake let us pretend I did it to the letter. One week later the author’s copy arrives and the margins are wrong. Okay, submit the manuscript again, but this time use the Amazon Template. A week later the second author’s copy arrives, and it is wrong. Not only are the margins wrong but now there are no paragraph indents. I guess AI has something to do with it.

I considered prayer but I’m told there are about 3000 various Gods, and I’m never quite sure which one works. I guess you could pick one randomly, but then you’re denying 2999 others. Is that blasphemy? I know the COE, and I guess the Catholics believe in blasphemy but what about the others? Anyaways, I went for a run instead. I guess I’m probably a Pagan at heart, because that seemed to work, at least it gave me an idea. Start again.

This is when it gets interesting. Here begineth the third submission. The margins are still wrong, but I have several characters in the book. One is called Janine (sassy, sarcastic and loved by all, but no one will tell her 😂) Another character, Mohammed (not the dead prophet) he’s a bit gormless (not the prophet the character). The template decided to change both names to ‘I’. Not throughout the whole book, just randomly. i.e. another character says. “I’m going to get Janine back.” This became, “I’m going to get I back,”

After a zillion YouTube videos on how to format a manuscript, posing the question on Amazon KDP community, because I began to think I was a bit dumb, I was no further and getting nowhere. So, I went for another run 😂

It was on this freezing, wet, cold run that I decided to start again, again. I went through the whole document, took out all the “I’s” and put in the original names. I discounted the Amazon margin guidelines and super duper hi-tec methods. I took a ruler, a paperback from my bookshelf which had the same page count as my book, and used the ancient method of measuring. 😂

Wow, I stand corrected AI got this one right 😉

Eurika! the margins are great, there are no more people called “I” and the paragraph indents are spot on, so from ebook to paperback in three weeks. Of course by the time I finish my next book I will have forgotten all about this adventure and probably repeat every step. Oh the joys of getting old 😂

Happy Trails, folks x

It’s Out There

After all this time I released the sequel to The Siege of Mr Khan’s Curry Shop, out into the world. There’s something strange about publishing a book. I guess it’s a little like your child’s first day at school. Will they be okay? Will the other children like them? Or, the very worse scenario; will they be sent back because they don’t fit in and they’re not good enough 😂

Who’s Got The Biscuits had a title before it had been written. The main character in the first book liked biscuits so, it fits, but I had that title in my head years ago. You know when you are walking or hiking and all those weird thoughts come into your head? (maybe not?) Anyaways that was one of those days.

I know it won’t make me a load of money, but luckily I don’t really care. The reviews of the first one were so uplifting, who needs money? 😂 Plus I’m hopeless at marketing. My secret weapon is Esther Chilton as an editor she not only does an excellent job but she gives you the confidence that when she has finished it is a good book. There is a certain amount of joy from seeing your book out there. I don’t know about you guys but sometimes I read something from my book and wonder if I actually wrote it, now that’s a strange feeling.

Well it’s a short post because I have to put tea on. I think you posh people call it dinner. But up here in the North we have dinner at dinner time and tea at tea time. I’m not even going to get involved in “Supper” what’s that all about? 😂

Happy Trails, folks x

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner

A very busy few weeks lately. Not only getting the new novel ready for publishing, but there’s the running. Esther Chilton sent me the final edit of my book and as always she has done such a wonderful job. Now begins the formatting and final examination. Hopefully it will be published in the next two weeks.

Anyway… back to the plot. Yup yours truly is a winner (twice in fact) We had the Nothern Relay Championships here a couple of weeks ago and I found myself in the A team. No pressure then! Three in a team, and each one of us ran 5k each. Guess who went last of the three? When you take over as last man in a relay and your team is ahead, trust me its not fun haha. But best foot forward as they say. We won with a margin of five minutes.

The following day I had a 10k race, and I wasn’t sure how much the previous day had taken out of me. There was only one way to find out, I guess. An undulating road race with forecast rain, not something I was looking forward to. Luckily the rain held off and the undulations were not as high as I’d expected. Once again it was best foot forward. To have a team win one day is fab. To then have an indivdiual win the following day? Well what can I say! There was a bottle of red wine opened that night. 😂

News of the new book has been social media’d. Hopefully it will be well recieved.

Have fun and happy trails x

Messing With FlexClip

Have you ever heard of a book trailer? They are similar to film trailers and the idea is that the public get very excited and can’t wait for the release. My second novel is very nearly finished and my wonderful editor Esther Chilton is doing the final edit and proofread. I’m not Tom Clancy or Stephen King, so I doubt there will be a hullabaloo in the literary world, but I thought I would give it a go. Neither do I have the backing of major publishers, so it had to be a DIY job.

I then spent a few hours researching free to use book trailer companies (like we all do). FlexClip popped up a few times and so I gave it a go. It was very easy to use, and I was pleased with the outcome. Bearing in mind I am but a simple Yorkshireman. We are renown for being miserable, no idea why, I’m quite happy most of the time. I’m not putting my “masterpiece” 😂 out into the world of social media just yet. I think if it goes out to early my fan will probably forget about it. I would be interested in any comments before it goes public though. Oh! it’s better with the sound up, probably the best bit 😂

Happy Trails, folks x

Do I Need My Book To Sell

People often ask me, ‘How many copies of your book have you sold?’ Which, I suppose is natural. I always give the same answer, ‘I don’t know.’ They seem perplexed by this. How could I not know? I have to go on to explain, I wanted to write a book, if it sells, then yippee! If it doesn’t I’m not going to lose sleep. My debut novel, The Siege of Mr Khan’s Curry Shop, was 20 years in the writing so I’m just so happy that I did it.

My next book took me 3 years, so I am getting better. I recently sent the first 300 words of my upcoming second novel to Writing Magazine for James McCreet to critique. My editor told me I was “brave” he doesn’t pull any punches. For me the first two lines of his summary was good enough. “I wouldn’t be at all surprised to read this at the start of a novel published by a best selling thriller author.” I’ll take that ☺️.

My editor, Esther Chilton, is a Godsend. I am very lucky to have found her as she helps turn an OK manuscript into, what I consider, a good book. So, maybe this second novel will sell and help to eliminate the perplexed look from peoples faces. I’m sure like all things, time will tell. If you have written a book and it’s published but not selling, hey! You have achieved, something so many other people dream of. Give yourself a pat or a high five, or what ever your cultural praise is. I’ve just started playing around with FlexClip where you can create a trailer for your forthcoming book. I’ll let you know how I get on next time.

Happy trails, folks. x

Critiqued

When I told my editor I was going to have the first 300 words of my forthcoming novel critiqued in Writers Magazine she said. “You’re brave!” James McCreet does a wonderful job of stripping your writing down to the bare bones. So I offered it up with some trepidation.

But, I am so glad I did. I’ll take his comments on board but overall I was so pleased with his summary. The phrase ‘Keep the Faith,’ springs to mind.

All I have to do now is complete the final edit of Who’s Got The Biscuits (I love the title but may have to tweak it, dunno)

Set in Bradford and Morocco it’s a thriller but with humour. I had so much fun writing the characters and hopefully will be published this August.

Happy Trails, folks x

New Novel Finished

It’s a curious feeling when you finish a book. It’s kinda sad in a way, because you know that’s it. The characters are done for now, there are no more adventures left for them. Of course, it might be a welcome relief, depending on how much trauma your character has suffered. In my new novel, I know of at least one character who will be very happy to put his feet up for a while. But what’s next?

As you writers already know, now its a case of getting the book out there. Oh, for an agent haha.

“There you go, delivered on deadline. Sort out the marketing etc, I’m off to start my next book. After a well deserved holiday, of course.”

That is the fantasy. In reality I now start the query letters and wait for the rejections. These don’t bother me as much as it appears to bother other people. I know how competitive the market is and so it appears to be a lottery. Now here comes the back up plan. Self publishing:

Luckily after self publishing my first book this won’t be the minefield it was last time. I’m already on Amazon KDP and up until recently KDP select. I have decided to quit KDP Select for a while and try Draft2Digital for the eBook version. I’ve done some extensive research and they are probably my best option, regardless of a lot of poor reviews. These reviews are on Trustpilot and to be honest I’ve heard some poor reviews concerning Trustpilot. So, I’ll give it a go and make my own decision.

Has anyone else self published and what are your thoughts? I’d be interested to know.

Happy trails.

Charlie