More Publishing Options
Tuesdays at Charlie's, Fermanagh Writer's Group
We were in an optimistic, or maybe foolhardy, mood at Fermanagh Creative Writing Group’s 2011 AGM. Well, that’s my explanation for our decision to produce our first anthology. The previous summer we had desktop published Stories From Charlie’s, a booklet of members’ writings as they had appeared in our local newspaper, The Impartial Reporter. We had bandied about the idea of publishing a collection of our writings before but at the meeting we decided that the book would happen during the coming year. Once we noted the decision in the minutes it was official – and a bit scary.
Founded in 2009, Fermanagh Creative Writing Group was quite new and we had fewer than twenty members. But we were determined to pull together and do this.
In May 2011 we spent one of our weekly meetings discussing and planning the book: what types of material we would include, whether we should have a theme to the collection, how many pages it would be, who would edit it, what printing options we would explore and how we would finance it. The book began to take shape in our minds.
We depended on our members to volunteer their skills and knowledge as we didn’t have any money put aside for the project and didn’t know how successful our fundraising would be. Several members had been involved in other self-publishing ventures and we utilised their expertise. Gordon Williams, who previously edited anthologies for the Shannon-Erne Writers’ Group, agreed to oversee this project. He collected the submissions, edited and planned the book.
New Irish Writing
The new age of the short story is truly here, and is marked by the arrival of a fabulous 32-page supplement in May 2nd's Irish Independent, titled Hennessy Irish Writing Today, 'a magazine celebrating what's best in contemporary literature'. They say "here's something completely new, a quality literary journal featuring top writers and available free to a mass readership..."
An initiative developed by pillar of Irish publishing Dermot Bolger and a man who has an eye for discovering great new writers, Ciaran Carty, with valuable assistance from the Arts Coucil, this bi-annual free magazine features recent winners of the annual Hennessy Literary Awards as well as some of Ireland's biggest literary names. The New Irish Writing competition that inspires it is sponsored by Hennessy - Richard Hennessy was one of the Wild Geese who fled Ireland to join the army King Louis XV, who settled in Cognac and developed the brandy that bears his name - and appears on the last Saturday of each month in the Review section of the Irish Independent. The competition has been the launch pad for some of Ireland's greatest writers like Joseph O'Connor, recent recipient of the Irish PEN Award and whose adaption of My Cousin Rachel is currently a massive hit at The Gate Theatre.
Self Print Publishing Options
If you are considering self publishing and want to hold your book physically in your hand, the range of choices can be confusing. Taking a look at three of the options available, we bring you some users experiences to help you decide.
With the advances in digital print technology it is now possible to produce full retail quality books ‘print-on-demand’ or POD – in a fraction of the time and at a fraction of the cost of traditional offset (or lithographic) printing. This means as a self publisher you no longer have to worry about a minimum print order of 500 or more books - a printer can produce any quantity you need. When Alan Healy self published the first Tommy Storm book, he ordered his stock from China and shipped in thousands of books that filled his garage - books he had to sell in order to recoup his considerable investment.Thankfully print-on-demand technology means that you don't have to do that any more!
Fran Mulcahy recently finished her book Finding Nancy, and wanting a book she could give to her friends and sell through her local bookshop, she went to Frank Kelly, MD of Lettertec in County Cork for advice. Lettertec's website www.selfpublishbooks.ie is packed with information. Fran told writing.ie "I recently completed writing my first book, Finding Nancy, I was keen to find out about printing companies in the south east of Ireland, as I’d decided to go down the self publishing path. Vanessa O'Loughlin recommended the company Lettertec Ireland Ltd based in Carrigtwohill Co. Cork. That recommendation was one of the most valuable pieces of information I took away with me from the Waterford Writers Festival Getting Published workshop.
The following week I contacted the Manager of Lettertec Frank Kelly and from that first contact I received exemplary service from all the staff. I made an appointment to visit the office in Carrigtwohill and was very impressed with the neat, up to date premises and the friendly and helpful attitude of all the staff I encountered. On that visit I spent about an hour with Elaine Barry the Graphic Designer to discuss ideas for the cover design of the book. Elaine provides an efficient and professional service and actually reads the books, to inspire her imagination to produce a design that reflects the story to best effect. She wasted no time reading my book and contacted me later that same day to tell me she was enjoying the story so much she couldn’t put it down! By the following day she’d finished reading it and emailed me the artwork for the front and back cover for my consideration. I was over the moon with Elaine’s work and I didn’t require her to make any alterations; her cover design really captured the heart of the story.
Writing without payment? Is it for you?
Inspired by a post about musicians being expected to work for free (see acknowledgement at end), Elizabeth Murray got to thinking about how people often expect writing to be donated out of good will. This comes in many guises including blogging, stories, novel excerpts, reviews and articles. There are lots of writers desperate to be discovered – but should this mean that they should be expected to provide content without any monetary return?
Many websites and communities that claim adding your content can improve your profile – but in truth, how many of these sites will actually get you noticed? It’s like a David Attenbrough documentary out there: new writers, wannabe writers, newly discovered writers, published authors – they’re all battling it out to be seen, heard, read.
In many cases, you are submitting your work without any editorial structure: this means anything and everything goes. Will this increase your profile? Or is it potentially damaging? After all; don’t you want only your best work to get noticed? Publishing work too early, stuff that isn’t ready or simply isn’t good enough, places you at the bottom of the pecking order, making you the writerly version of plankton or crill. At worst, you’ll be known for writing badly. At best, your free content will get swallowed up in the tumult while helping the website’s google rankings.
It comes down to personal choice, but the way I see it; there are two types of payment: monetary and reward.
Alliance of Independent Authors Dublin launched
The rising popularity of self-publishing is evident as more and more writers choose to take the ‘indie route. Sarah Downey looked at the emergence on the publishing scene of a brand new resource for writers, ALLIA.
The London Book Fair 2012 saw the recent launch of The Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLIA), a new non-profit organisation for writers. Popular author, former literary agent and founder of the organisation Orna Ross described ALLIA as the “latest indication of how online technologies are radically shifting power structures.”
The Irish branch of The Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLIA) had its inaugural meeting in Dublin on Tues 24th April, led by ALLIA founder and Director, Orna Ross (right), and Irish advisor to the Alliance, Vanessa O'Loughlin of The Inkwell Group and www.writing.ie.
The formation of the Irish branch of ALLIA has followed hot on the heels of the London Book Fair 2012 success. This featured key digital providers Amazon, Kobo and Blurb UK and a diverse panel of successful self-publishing authors including John Logan, Linda Gillard, from Texas, League of Extraordinary Authors founder Joni Rodgers, and Words with Jam's Dan Holloway explaining 'How I Went Indie -- And Why'.
"That LBF should open its arms to a self-publishing writers organisation is testament to the fact that we are in the middle of a literary revolution," says Alliance Founder, Irish novelist Orna Ross. "Self-publishing is now the preferred choice for increasing numbers of writers who find they can make a living from their writing without the need of an agent or publisher."
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