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Advice please

By churchmouse | Posted: 11 February 2010

Views: 227
I imagine that every writer would like to see their work published, and possibly give up the day job and write for a living. 
To this end, I have been thinking of in the future, putting together about a dozen of my short stories (Half of which are on this site in first draft form) and making up a book.
I know an artist who will illustrate it for me at no cost, if the stories lend themselves to illustration.
What I don't know, and this may seem very dim of me, is what genre my stories are, and what reader age group I should be targeting.
Any advice would be very gratefully received.
All articles on this website by churchmouse are copyright ©churchmouse and should not be reproduced without the author's prior written consent. All opinions are the opinions of their respective authors and are not necessarily the opinions of The Writers' Circle.
Comments 
Grampa Pogi
11 February 2010
Churchmouse,

Some of your articles would (I think) appeal to kids from five to ten or even from 3 to 15 . . . who knows (this would be securicat, perhaps internet shed, the ducks, forgot the title, Aunt Mabel's), that said, it would be the parents who would buy them and I, as a parent, would think they would appeal to that age group (heck, it even appeals to most of us here :-).  I could see securicat in that skinny thick-covered illustrated book for young ones complete with full colour illustration. We always bought those kinds for the grandkids and if they didn't like it, they make really good doorstoppers. 

I hope this helps and good luck to you and I hope you make it big :-)

Grampa Pogi

ps sssst: if you do make it big, don't forget us here okay? :-)
churchmouse
11 February 2010
Thanks Grampa Pogi. I had a bizarre conversation with a customer today, which got me thinking about publishing. I had serviced this woman's boiler, and we got to talking about writing, via ball room dancing and photography of all things. Any-way she had produced a book of text and photographs of the life of a recently deceased friend. She showed me the book, it was a soft back, with only about 25-30 glossy pages, but very professionally done. I asked her how many she had to have printed, and she told me one! I then asked her how much the book had cost her to produce and she said eight pounds (About ten dollars) I thought that it cost thousands to do!
Apparently you prepare the book on your computer using a free download from this company in London and then send it in. The cost of the book Depends on  what format you want. They charge you say ten bucks and put it on their site for fifteen. Everytime a book is sold, they send you five bucks. They also exhibit the books once a year, and some of the authors have been picked up by publishers.
She is sending me the links and once I have had a look at it I will post a report on the site.
Thanks for your comments, I thought much the same myself, but the view is always clearer looking in from the outside rather than looking out from the inside.
Grampa Pogi
11 February 2010
>>> I had serviced this woman's boiler,
Gee, Churchmouse, she must be real hot :-)

Just kidding, (mind always in the gutter :-)

By all means, do it like she did, and if it's professionally done, who knows, some publishers are just lurking around the corner (just don't know which corner :-). And if you make 5 for every book, that's 1/3rd of the take . . . good deal. Nothing ventured nothing gained. 

Good luck.

Grampa

ps ssst: I posted a new profile picture . . .  it's an old belief that if you rub a smiling buddha's tummy, it will bring good luck :-)
churchmouse
11 February 2010
Hey Grampa, I saw your new picture, and have been desperately trying to think of some-thing witty to say about it, but have failed miserably to come up with anything. Maybe I'm tired. 
Too much boiler servicing perhaps!
Grampa Pogi
11 February 2010
Don't work too hard Churchmouse,

Take a break and send us another one of your classics.  Just do a boiler a day . . . remember the saying "a boiler a day keeps the duckies away" . . . or something like that :-)

Grampa
bobchoi
12 February 2010
Churchmouse, there's only one genre that I think your future book of short stories rightfully belongs to: "Bestsellers"  Ha! (:-    Your writing reminds me alot of Bill Bryson: non-fictional but wickedly imaginative, wacky but believeable... appealing to both the young and grown-up.  Humor, after all, is cross-generational.  The best of luck on your publishing venture and please keep us informed.  I'd love to buy a copy when it comes out.
bobchoi
13 February 2010
Churchmouse, thank you for your comment on my Devil's Diary.  It has not been a popular posting.  I received no kudos and scanty comments.  It's probably because it's not "religious correct!"

Back to the publishing thing.  It's generally acknowledged that the traditional publishers are downright hostile to first-time authors unless you happen to be Sarah Palin or Tiger Woods (God forbid!) The Publishing on Demand (POD) you described sounds like an excellent alternative.  Please keep us posted on what you can find out.

Writer
churchmouse

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Heating engineer by day. Writer of whimsical rubbish by night. Trying to replace the former with the latter. A few articles previously published in club/in-house magazines. Couple of short stories recently ... (Read more)
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