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Is it worth entering writing competitions?

29 March 2012

Last year, I heard about a competition organised by an independent theatre group that was looking for new writers. The prize was to work with a director on refining the script and then to have your play staged. A representative from the theatre company spoke to a group of writers, including me, and told us there were no preconceived ideas about what kind of play they were looking for. We should let our imaginations run free.

Recently, I saw the two winning plays and they were brilliantly staged. But they were also something of a let-down: they covered religious conflict, teen pregnancy, and knife crime. They’re difficult issues, but they’re very easy from the point of view of commissioning theatre. Nobody is going to complain if someone invests money in those kind of productions because it’s just what theatre groups are expected to do. It would have been truly daring to commission a farce, a sci-fi play, or anything else that felt a bit fresher. That would have really helped to discover new voices.

I hadn’t submitted anything for this particular competition (I didn’t have a strong enough idea, and I was working on promoting Web Design in Easy Steps, and writing iPad for the Older and Wiser at the time). Watching this play made me realise that I’m highly unlikely to ever write the kind of play that could win, though. I ended up quite pleased that I hadn’t found the time to submit an entry because I’m just not the kind of writer they’re looking for.

I’ve entered a few writing competitions over the last couple of years when publishers have been looking for someone to write stories for their characters or plot outlines. I was a close runner-up twice in competitions organised by one publisher, which is a frustrating place to be, although it’s possible I might be lucky third time around if I give it another go.

Seeing this theatre production and thinking about my recent competition entries made me question whether it’s worth entering writing competitions. The upside is that the prizes can be hugely beneficial: they can raise your profile and give you new creative opportunities to find an audience and tell it a story. If a competition prize helps you to create a new work, you’ll learn a lot along the way, usually from people with much more experience than you. Competitions are often the most approachable way to break into a new style of writing too, because they welcome all-comers.

But the downside is that you’re writing to somebody else’s agenda, and sometimes you don’t even know what that agenda is. There will nearly always be safer options for the judges to choose than your work. There might be entrants with a stronger track record, or stories that tick more boxes.

You’re also going where the competition is fiercest. There might be hundreds or thousands of writers who are writing something to the same brief as you are. When the judges are choosing from similar submissions, how can you make your work stand out? Minor differences between the submissions become hugely important, in a way that they wouldn’t in most other contexts.

Whenever you write, you’re in competition, of course. You’re vying with other writers to win an agent’s representation, a publisher’s budget, and a reader’s attention. But when you come up with your own projects, you can use your ideas and style to differentiate yourself and stand out. You might be the only person who’s writing fiction about how technology is affecting the music industry, or at least you’ll be within a select niche. When you enter formal writing competitions, you have to run with the herd.

Not all competitions are the same. Some give you a lot of freedom to shape the story to your own vision, and to take the characters in new directions. Some give you detailed feedback, which might be valuable, depending on who’s giving it. And some have prizes that, even with the odds stacked against you, are well worth the gamble. Many will push you outside your comfort zone, and teach you something about writing, purely through the experience of creating your submission. You only become a better writer by practising, and I don’t regret spending time on anything I’ve written.

Writers should remember, though, that their time is precious and they can only write one thing in any given moment. It’s easy to get seduced into entering competitions, instead of cracking chapter one of your new novel, which perhaps begins a more difficult journey.

What do you think? Are writing competitions worth the time?

Labels: books, journalism, writing

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Five short pieces of book news

15 January 2012

I just wanted to write a short blog post to round up a few snippets of news about my books:

Lulu is running two special offers applicable to my novel University of Death. You can pay no shipping using the code WHOASHIPPINGUK305 or you can save 25% of the book price using the code LULUBOOKUK305. I believe these offer codes work on all books in Lulu's store. My novel takes a comical look at the music industry and has had rave reviews from magazines including Record Collector, Music Tech and Metal Hammer. Find out more and download the free sample here, but don't delay! Both offers expire 31 January 2012 and only apply to books bought through Lulu's website. The novel is also available as an ebook on iBooks, but I can't create a link for that so you'll need to search in the store (sorry!).
Web Design in Easy Steps is following in the footsteps of iPad for the Older and Wiser, and is an Amazon bestseller. It's currently #1 in the categories for website design; web graphics and animation; and books published by In Easy Steps.
Tata McGraw-Hill has published an edition of Web Design in Easy Steps for sale in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Bhutan. It's wonderful to know the book is helping people in all these countries to create their websites!
Saga Magazine has published a review of iPad for the Older and Wiser. It says the book "will have you set up on your new device in no time". See a scan of the review here.
If you got iPad for the Older and Wiser recently (thank you!), you might have missed that there is a free supplement available for it here, to explain the latest software updates available for the iPad.

Labels: books, iOS5, iPad, university of death, webdesign, writing

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The Beatles Yellow Submarine iPad ebook signals the future of iBooks publishing

09 December 2011

Apple is promoting a free ebook of The Beatles' Yellow Submarine, which shows the capabilities of the new version of its iBooks app. It's fantastic fun for younger readers, and a showcase for what the concept of a book might become for everybody.

There have been lots of apps that modernise the concept of the pop-up book. My friend Chris Stevens created the Alice for the iPad app, which is one of my recommended iPad apps. It uses clever physics simulation for the reader's interaction with the pictures, so that the characters move as if on springs, or respond realistically to you shaking the iPad. He shared the code to do this in his book Designing for the iPad. There are lots of other people who have created apps for their books too, so that readers can interact with them in memorable and engaging ways.

The interesting development here is that the Yellow Submarine app works within the iBooks app, which further blurs the lines around what defines a book. The iBooks app is great. I was really impressed with the user experience iBooks offers with my own books (including iPad for the Older and Wiser), but so far it's been mainly about reflowing text, searching text and viewing images. It hasn't offered a huge amount of interaction. Maybe that's because I don't usually read children's books, but in any case, I haven't seen anything like the Beatles app working as iBooks content, and the fact I had to upgrade iBooks to get it to work suggests this type of interaction is new to iBooks.

The Yellow Submarine book is everything you would expect: colourful, surreal, and interactive. The animations are quite subtle: it's not a video, but small parts of the image move, such as a waving hand or a waggling tongue. You can tap pictures to make them perform other moves and can sometimes drag pictures (such as butterflies) around. The Sea of Holes is fun, with The Beatles popping up and down like a whack-a-mole game. There's an option to have the book read aloud to you, with the words lit up as each one is spoken. The app includes embedded videos you can play within the page, and short bursts of music that are played when you tap some of the characters. The only disappointment is that the music bursts are quite short. I haven't bought the Yellow Submarine album from iTunes, but I do have many of the songs from albums I've bought on CD and it might have been nice for there to be a way to integrate playback of those.

There's still some work to be done on refining the user interface. The problem is that there can be a conflict between the book's content and the iBooks controls. For example, you can often touch a character to make them sing or move. Indeed, the whole point of the book is that you touch things to see what they might do. If you touch a character that doesn't have an action assigned to it, though, iBooks is likely to interpret that as a tap on the app, and turn the page or show/hide the iBooks controls. It feels broken when you touch a character to see what they might do, and it turns the page, or when the controls keep popping in and out of view as you try to explore the book.

These new iBooks capabilities create fantastic opportunities for book authors and publishers: it's easy to think of educational content that would benefit from simple animations, embedded videos or interactive elements (such as lifting the flap to reveal an answer). It's also a nice way to add value to written content. Authors often have access to audio recordings or other research materials which would be considered bonus features on DVDs, but which don't really have an outlet in book publishing.

To get the app working, you'll need to update your iBooks app (tap the App Store icon on your iPad, then tap Updates at the bottom, then find iBooks in the list, and then tap Free). Then go into the iBooks store and download the Yellow Submarine iBook. If you put the book into the app before you upgrade the app, it won't work unless you've previously upgraded to iBooks 1.5. Here's a direct link to download the Yellow Submarine ebook. There's more information on updating apps and downloading ebooks in iPad for the Older and Wiser.

Now I have the urge to check in with Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and catch up with Henry the Horse, Lovely Rita and all the other surreal characters there. Cue the music!

Labels: Apple, books, iPad, music promotion

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Holy Zarquon! My iPad book is a bestseller

01 December 2011

My book iPad for the Older and Wiser is officially a bestseller. It's currently the #1 book on Amazon.co.uk in the Silver Surfers category, and the #1 book on Amazon.co.uk in the computer hardware category. It holds the second position in the chart for all computer science books.

You could argue that all the niche charts make it easier to get a bestseller now, but there’s still a lot of strong competition out there. It’s nice to know that my book has charted above every other book about the iPad and every other book about computing for the over 50s.

Screen grab showing the Amazon ranking

The book’s sales ranking overall is #1,655 out of all the books Amazon sells, which puts it ahead of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (#2,808), Pride and Prejudice (#1,925) and The Catcher in the Rye (#1,834). That’s somewhat tongue-in-cheek: these books have sold steadily over a generation or more, and will continue to do so for decades to come. But it’s still nice to think that for a brief period my book was more popular with Amazon’s customers than some of the most famous books in English. And this is the highest ranking I remember any of my books getting on Amazon, too.

The response to the book has been fantastic. I attended a U3A meeting recently and the members there were really enthusiastic about the book and the iPad. It’s been getting some great reviews too. Many thanks to everyone for their support with it. You can find out more about iPad for the Older and Wiser here. It's available to buy in all good bookshops, including Amazon.

Labels: books, iPad

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Choice Magazine recommends 'iPad for the Older and Wiser' as a Christmas gift

20 November 2011

The November 2011 issue of Choice Magazine includes a review of iPad for the Older and Wiser, which is the book of the month. The review concludes: "If you are wondering what to ask for next month for Christmas, then an iPad, together with this book, would keep you amused and entertained for hours, and prove a very useful resource to boot."

You can see the full review below, and read more about the book (including more excerpts from that review in text so they're easier to read) at my webpage for iPad for the Older and Wiser.

iPad for the Older and Wiser, Microsoft for the Older and Wiser, Social Networking for the Older and Wiser, and Web Design in Easy Steps are all out now and available on the shelf or to order from any bookshop. You can also find easy links to buy online in my shop.

Scan of review from Choice Magazine of iPad for the Older and Wiser

Review reproduced by kind permission of www.choicemag.co.uk

Labels: books, Christmas, iPad

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Publication day: iPad for the Older and Wiser

09 September 2011

iPad for the Older and Wiser has now been published, and I've just received my box of author copies. Even though I've seen the laid-out pages for the whole book, it doesn't really look like a proper book until you've got the lavishly printed copy in your hand, so it's a good feeling to see all the months of work solidified in the finished product. The screenshots and photos have come out great, and Stephen Long has created some colourful cartoons to introduce each part.

The book is also available in a range of digital formats for reading on ebooks, including Kindle and iBooks. In due course, I'll add links to those in my shop, but if you prefer digital, you can probably find the book by searching for it in your preferred store.

Today I've also published the list of the top 20 best iPad apps (no longer online) which appears in the book. With my books, I try to provide links and other resources on this website to save readers having to search for things I can more easily just give them on this website. The online version has been enhanced with some videos demonstrating three of the apps, and links to all the apps so you can go straight to them in iTunes. Did I include your favourite iPad app? If you've got another to suggest, feel free to leave a comment or email me.

Labels: books, iPad, iPad 2

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How to customise your blog for the iPad

08 September 2011

Although I use Blogger myself for managing this blog, I typically recommend Wordpress as being more fully featured. I use it for some other blogs I write, and it’s a bit more flexible and more powerful than Blogger, especially for newcomers. I wrote a section outlining the basics of getting started with Wordpress in my book Web Design in Easy Steps.

When I was looking around one of my Wordpress-hosted blogs recently, I discovered a new section in the Appearance section of the settings. If you log into your Wordpress dashboard, and scroll down, you should see ‘iPad’ in the Appearance section, on the left. These settings give you the option to upload an image that will be shown when someone launches your blog from an icon on the iPad’s home screen, and to upload a cover logo. These help to give a visit to your blog a more native app-like feel on the iPad. By default, the option to display a special theme for iPad users is ticked, and you can confidently leave it ticked.

Although I’ve been using the iPad a lot, especially while writing my book iPad for the Older and Wiser, I hadn’t visited any Wordpress blogs with it, so I was intrigued to see what this was all about. Basically, with the theme selected, Wordpress presents your blog in a format that is optimised for the touch screen and that will be familiar to iPad users when they view it. On the iPad, you see boxes containing headlines and a short summary of your story. When you tap one, a window opens to show the story in full which can be dragged up and down. To move between the pages of summaries, you swipe sideways to turn the pages. The whole experience is similar to the superb Flipboard app, which turns updates from social networks and your favourite websites into a magazine-like experience.

This is a great innovation from Wordpress: it feels like a native app on the iPad, and doesn’t require any additional work from the content creator, nor does it interfere with the experience for those using desktop computers. If you want to see an example of it, try visiting Finepixtrix, a photography blog I picked from Wordpress’s homepage, with your iPad. It features some great photography by Grahame Hall, who lives in South Africa. On a desktop computer, his blog looks much like this blog: the blog posts are stacked on top of each other and you scroll down the screen to read them. On the iPad, it’s more like a magazine, with headlines and images laid out neatly on the screen, so you can quickly find what you want to read. This screenshot shows the blog’s iPad theme:

If you have a Wordpress blog and want to offer iPad visitors a similar experience, the good news is that Wordpress is already doing it for you. However, you can make the experience even slicker by uploading a splash image and logo in your Wordpress settings. If you customise your blog for the iPad, leave me a comment and I'll check it out.

Labels: blogging, blogs, books, iPad, iPad 2, webdesign

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Is it worth buying a 3G iPad?

01 September 2011

If you’re wondering whether you should get the 3G iPad or just get the Wi-Fi one, there’s a new tool from the BBC that might help you to decide. The BBC invited volunteers to download an app for their Android mobile phones, and the app tracked where mobile signals were available. In total, 44,600 people submitted 1.7 million hours of data across the UK.

What it means for you is that you can enter a postcode on the BBC’s UK mobile coverage map, to see whether there is 3G coverage in that area. If the map is green where you live, it means there is coverage. If it’s purple, it means there is 2G coverage, which is slower but will still work on your iPad. The white areas have no data, which means nobody participated in the survey there. (It doesn’t matter that the data was collected using Android phones, because the iPad uses the same network).

If you have somewhere you might want to use your iPad regularly and won’t have access to free Wi-Fi, it’s worth checking it to see what the 3G coverage is like there using the BBC’s map. Technology news site The Register warns that you should take the data with a pinch of salt: if there’s one square showing superior coverage to all the squares around it, that’s probably a blip in the data. But the data should be broadly accurate and is based on actual coverage experienced by people using mobile phones.

As my book iPad for the Older and Wiser explains, Wi-Fi is usually free to use at places like cafes and in your own home. 3G requires a payment, typically a subscription that allows you to access a certain amount of data in a certain timeframe (such as 1GB in a month, which would be enough for about 200 songs or 10,000 web pages, according to O2’s estimates). Generally, I’ve found it helpful to have a 3G iPad for when I don’t have Wi-Fi coverage, including when in the car or when my home Wi-Fi network goes down.

UPDATE: My Friend Mark who lives in Shropshire says: "Don't believe the map 100%... says I get 3g when in fact very occasionally I get an unusable 3g signal and most of the time I hardly get a 2g one!"

Labels: books, iPad, iPad 2

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iPad for the Older and Wiser: book trailer

09 August 2011

Here's a short film my publisher has made to promote our book iPad for the Older and Wiser, which is coming out in September. The video starts with an introduction to the book, and then covers my five top tips for getting the most out of the iPad, especially picked for the Older and Wiser audience.

The video was made by the marketing and media team at the book's publisher, John Wiley & Sons, and they've done a fantastic job of creating this film. Hope you enjoy it! I didn't write a script for it, so I was improvising, which probably made it harder to edit. Next time, I'll definitely write a script.

Meanwhile, the book is going through the last stages of production. I've finished proofreading the pages and checking the index, so the next time I see it, it will be as a real printed edition. Exciting times!

You can order your copy now (it's an ideal Christmas gift for relatives with an iPad too!) to benefit from Amazon's pre-order price guarantee, which ensures you'll pay the lowest price Amazon offers from your order until the publication day. The book will also be available in all good bookshops.

Labels: books, iPad, iPad 2, video

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News on three book projects

14 April 2011

It's been a while since I updated the blog, so I've got three bits of news about books I've written to share with you.

Firstly, Web Design in Easy Steps has now been published. It's a full colour 240-page book in the popular In Easy Steps series. It starts by looking at the web design challenge, and then discusses what makes an effective website (with chapters dedicated to content, navigation and layout), before going into more depth on how websites are built. There are chapters dedicated to HTML, CSS and Javascript, and there are tips on using tools such as Flash, Dreamweaver and Wordpress. There is also advice on plugging in to social networking sites and adding a shopping cart. The book concludes with a look at how you can promote your website and measure what your visitors do on the site.

I have written extensively about website design in the past, for magazines including Internet Magazine, Business 2.0 and Internet Works, as well writing and editing a monthly newsletter about usability for a couple of years. I've also managed a few commercial website design projects in the past and am now working on updating my own website to reflect more of the good ideas in the book. Find out more about Web Design in Easy Steps, including how to order your copy, here.

The second bit of news is that Microsoft Office for the Older and Wiser is now available for the Amazon Kindle. You can get a free sample sent to your Kindle device from that link. For more information on the book, see the website for Microsoft Office for the Older and Wiser. I was really pleased with the structure and content of this book. It takes readers from no knowledge of the Office suite up to being quite sophisticated users through a series of projects. The book covers Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. There's also a bonus chapter on email using Windows Live.

The third piece of book news is that iPad for the Older and Wiser is now available for pre-order. I've written over half of it now and it will include coverage of both the original iPad and the features that are exclusive to the new iPad 2. The book will be published in September 2011. Wish me luck with drafting the last chunk of it and let me know if you have any favourite apps to recommend for the book!

Labels: books, iPad, iPad 2, Microsoft Office, webdesign

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Some thoughts on Apple's iPad 2

04 March 2011

Apple yesterday announced the iPad 2, an enhanced version of its iPad tablet computer. This is of particular interest to me because I'm now writing a book about the iPad, called iPad for the Older and Wiser. I'll add more details to this site in due course, but you can already pre-order iPad for the Older and Wiser at Amazon.

So what's new with the iPad 2? Firstly, there are two cameras. One is on the same side as the screen, so it can film you while you're using the iPad. This is useful for video calling, something for which the iPad is a natural fit. The other camera faces away from the device, so that you can take pictures using it, and see what you're photographing on the iPad's screen. That will be a helpful addition, although probably not as useful as it is on the iPhone because the iPad is a bit big to hold up in the air as you try to frame the perfect picture. Perhaps we'll see specialist iPad tripods emerge though, which will make it easier to use this camera, especially for shooting HD video.

two iPads running Facetime to show video conferencing

Two iPads showing the Facetime video conferencing app. Photo courtesy of Apple.

Apple's proud that the new iPad is thinner. While it is remarkable how much computing power they've squeezed into a device that thin, I don't think this really matters to most people. The original iPad was remarkably thin, and there comes a point at which it doesn't really matter how much thinner it gets. We probably don't want the iPad to get too thin, anyway, otherwise it'll start to feel insubstantial and fragile.

The new iPad can also process faster than what we will now start calling iPad 1. It has a multicore chip, which means its processor can do two things at once. That doesn't necessarily mean it will do, though. Depending on the apps you use, they might need to be rewritten (by their creators) to take advantage of the extra processing capability. Combined with the reported improvement in graphics speed on iPad 2, we might start to see richer and more immersive games as a result of this. We should also expect to see operations like search, bulk calculations (if you use it for work) and PDF processing speed up over time as the apps we use catch up with the technology.

Although Apple has often had a gap of several months between a press announcement and its product release, the iPad 2 will be in the shops in the US next week and is scheduled to follow in the UK shortly afterwards. The iPad 1 will continue to be sold, and its price has been reduced. This seems like a smart move: the iPad 1 remains a great device, and will satisfy many people who don't want to pay the extra for the video cameras.

The iPad 2, though, opens up a whole new realm of possibilities. The video filming could work well, if a tripod becomes available, and the video conferencing will, I'm sure be a hit. The Nintendo DSi never really made the most of its built-in cameras, but with Apple's open ecosystem of thousands of developers, I'm sure we'll see some innovative and fun apps taking full advantage of them before too long.

What do you think about the iPad and iPad 2? Feel free to leave a comment below.

Labels: books, iPad, iPad 2, writing

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Out now: my book Microsoft Office for the Older and Wiser

15 October 2010

Book cover: Microsoft Office for the older and wiser

My book Microsoft Office for the Older and Wiser has just been published, and it's looking great. Writing a book is a satisfying process, and it's rewarding to see the ideas take shape. But it's always a good day when the box of author copies arrives and you see, touch and even smell all the words and pictures you created in the form of a book for the first time.

The publishing firm John Wiley has done a great job on the design and layout of this series, and it's printed in full colour on glossy paper. I worked hard on creating screenshots that would look good in the book, and I'm pleased with how they've come out.

The projects in the book show you how to make the most of the Microsoft Office Suite, both Office 2007 and Office 2010. There are three chapters dedicated to Word, two to Excel, one to mail merge using both applications together, and then one chapter each for PowerPoint and OneNote. There's also a bonus chapter on using email to share your Office documents. The book concludes with an appendix on using keyboard shortcuts, a glossary and an index. Each part is illustrated with a brilliant cartoon by Stephen Long.

One of the things that was important to me was that I didn't just teach people how to carry out the projects in the book. I wanted readers to understand what they're doing and why, so that they can carry out projects of their own. Each chapter concludes with some suggestions of other projects that can be undertaken using the skills in the chapter, which I hope will help to inspire readers to experiment with their own creations.

I have some bonus content I'll be adding to this site in due course: a few bits that there wasn't room for, and a few tips articles I'd like to write for this website. For now, you can visit the microsite for the book Microsoft Office for the Older and Wiser to take an illustrated tour through the projects and find the supporting resources promised in the book.

I've also created a video on Youtube, which shows all the screenshots from the book. For best results, watch in full screen and HD. Click the four arrows icon in the bottom right to go full screen, and click the 360p to change it to 720p. When you've finished, click the four arrows in the bottom right to go back to the normal screen again.

If you'd like to order the book (thank you!), you can do so through any bookshop by quoting ISBN 978-0470711965. You can also order Microsoft Office for the Older and Wiser at Amazon.co.uk.

Labels: books, Microsoft Office

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Using templates to make book writing easier

31 March 2010

I've just started work on a new book (more news on that later), and one technique I've used which saves a lot of time is to create a basic template that I can use for each chapter.

In this book, as in many practical non-fiction books, there are highly formatted sections (introduction, summary etc) that are the same in each chapter. Each of these sections needs to be formatted using the right styles in the publisher's Word template.

So I've created an empty chapter. It has placeholder copy for the chapter title and all the headings and styles that occur in the same place in every chapter. It doesn't cover the body of the chapter and all its subheadings - it just covers the regular features that are always there in the same place.

This has two advantages: firstly, it saves time. I don't have to worry about formatting the chapter title ten times because I've already done it. Although that in itself doesn't take long, the template I've created uses nine different styles and has fifteeen different content elements that require formatting, so the time does add up. All these bits are guaranteed to be in every chapter, so it's work I have to do anyway. I've just chosen to do it once, rather than doing it 10 times.

The second advantage is that it means I can get up and running with a new chapter straight away. I don't have to mess around with styles because that's already done - I can just start writing. Given that one of the challenges is to create momentum on a new chapter, having these templates makes the whole project run much more smoothly.

Labels: books, Microsoft Office, writing

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Book to the Future: How ebooks will change writing

20 March 2010

Within five years, Wiley's higher education division might be publishing exclusively in digital formats, according to its sales and marketing manager Neil Broomfield. Wiley is the publisher of my book Social Networking for the Older and Wiser, so this is particularly interesting to me. The Older and Wiser series is a good example of a market that will continue to demand print for some time to come, but it's possible we'll see books for many other audiences go exclusively digital.

Since I got an iPod Touch a couple of months ago, I've had a great experience with ebooks on it. I've been using GoodReader to read PDFs. There's a huge amount of content available (legally) in PDF format, including books from Sitepoint, The Pragmatic Bookshelf, and O'Reilly. I've been using GoodReader to read and it's been a mostly great experience, although sometimes it can feel a bit like reading a publication through a letterbox.

There are also some apps dedicated to particular books. I'm enjoying Seth Godin's reboot of Unleashing the Idea Virus, which includes video snippets to help bring it to life. Roger van Oech's Creative Whack Pack is a really nice application too, and there are some great illustrated books including Foxfire (a manga-style cartoon strip) and some apps based on Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep. Each one of these takes a moment to learn because you turn the page in different ways, so that might be one area where the iPad's support for ebooks can add particular value.

Not all content works perfectly on the iPod. The Retro Gamer app is great, but feels a bit like reading by microfiche. Magazine pages aren't laid out to be read top to bottom, so you end up scrolling all over the place to find the next chunk of content. It costs a fraction of the price of the printed mag, though, so the value proposition is still strong.

I'm also finding that I enjoy the convenience of having multiple publications with me at once, and having them in such a compact form. I've always dipped into and out of books. Most of the time I've got several books on the go, but that's so much easier to do when using a digital reader.

The implications for writers are interesting. Users are coming to expect a little extra in app-based books, so writers need to think about how they can add rich media and interactive features. It's relatively easy to create bolt-on bonuses, but making it integral to the proposition is much harder. The tiny screen size and the way that people dip in and out will also favour books with lots of subtitles and short sections.

One concern with ebooks is pricing. I have seen reference ebooks priced the same as hardbacks, but I'm not sure they're selling in any quantity. The price point tends to be below £3 in the UK, although some titles can push it to £5. It's extremely common to see apps priced at 59p (of which the publisher/author keeps 41p).

The low price point is offset somewhat by the ease with which apps can be distributed. I'll be writing more about this in a while, but it's not too hard for authors to self-publish an iPhone app and tap into all the iPhone and iPod Touch owners out there. Actually driving downloads (even free ones), is much harder, of course, but the challenge of self-publishing has always been in the promotion.

For some time, I've advised that journalists should learn basic HTML. We're still at the stage where learning to build apps is quite technical, but tools are starting to emerge which will help automate much of this. The next generation of writers might need to be more experienced in creating interactive content if they are to connect with readers. Even if they do not need to program, they'll need to be coming up with compelling ideas for apps that readers want.

Labels: books, ebooks, iPhone, iPod, publishing, writing

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Finished drafting Social Networking for the Older and Wiser

16 October 2009

Phew! I've finished drafting 'Social Networking for the Older and Wiser' now. It's been a great few months, digging deep into social networks. Some of them are networks that I wouldn't naturally have come across before (such as Saga Zone), and others are networks that I'm a big fan of (including Facebook, Twitter and 43Things).

At times it was confusing dealing with multiple logins, having multiple versions of myself out there in cyberspace, making friends with each other (myself?) and chatting away. But apart from that, it was great fun and wonderful to take on another book-length project and to complete it in a few months. (My previous book was a novel that took two years).

The shape of the book changed during drafting. The original plan was to dedicate a chapter each to 13 social networks, but it became clear during drafting that it would be a more useful book if it focused its attention on leading networks. The book covers 9 different social networking sites in detail now, with an appendix dedicated to introducing the other networks out there.

From now, the book goes through a technical editor, comes back to me to make any final edits, and then goes off for design. I should see the page proofs in December, it should be printed early 2010, and in the shops in February.

I've set up a dedicated page for the book now and will add to this over time, building up a minisite with more information on the book. The plan is to include the table of contents, excerpts, all the links on one page (so you don't have to type them in), reviews, and other goodies. If there's anything you find particularly useful or interesting on book websites, let me know and I'll see if I can add it for you.

The book can be preordered from Amazon now. Amazon guarantees that you will pay the lowest price between when you order and when the book is published.

Labels: books, publishing, social networking, writing

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The most awful book of 2009: free chapter online

30 September 2009

Generally speaking, I recommend publishing free chapters of books online. Readers can thumb through the real book in a shop to get a flavour of what it's like, but to stimulate sales online, a free sample is essential.

However, this only applies if the book is good. If, say, you're a former Eastenders actress who has got a book deal purely on your name; and every paragraph you write makes readers wince; and your publisher thought it would be funnier to deny you the services of a decent copyeditor; then the following advice applies: on no account publish the first chapter online.

I cannot describe how awful Martine McCutcheon's first chapter is in a way that will make you appreciate the horror. It's repetitive, has weak characterisation, banal dialogue, awful description, terrible brand placement, lots of irrelevant chit-chat and filler. Nothing happens. It's like a case study in how not to write a story.

This is the first of three novels she is threatening to unleash. I'm certain she's not working with a ghost-writer (she could afford a good one, if she were). I've got nothing against her personally and it's great that she's exploring her creativity and learning to write novels. Everyone has their story to tell, and is entitled to their creativity.

But, Pan MacMillan, really? Shouldn't you have passed this one by? Waited until she had more finely tuned her craft before unleashing it on the nation? Offered her coaching maybe so that she met the basic standards for publication before going ahead with it? Given her an editor, perhaps? Celebrities get signed because they're guaranteed to shift units, but this book is so bad I can't even see it doing that.

Labels: books, publishing, writing

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Social Networking for the Older and Wiser: Available for pre-order

20 July 2009

As you might have heard, I'm burrowing deep into social networks at the moment to write about them for a new book, which will be published by Wiley early next year. The book is entitled "Social Networking for the Older and Wiser" and will provide friendly guidance on using the internet to find old friends, make new friends, and socialise online.

I'll be updating this site with more information over time, including a breakdown of the websites and tools that will be covered, a free sample and helpful resources.

The blog might go a bit quiet while I'm focusing on the book. I don't tend to write much about writing while I'm doing it (firstly, it's a distraction, and secondly I don't flatter myself that people are sufficiently interested in how I work).

If you're ultra-keen, Social Networks for the Older and Wiser is available now for pre-order on Amazon. (Yes, they're using a slightly different title to me, but I'll have to clarify that later). Amazon's pre-order guarantee means that if the price drops at any time between your order and the publication date (even for a day), you'll only be charged the lower price. I've used it before (for the Prince O2 book/CD set) and am happy to recommend it.

If you're connected to me on any social networking sites, please excuse any weirdness that might happen to my profile as a result of testing out different features. You might occasionally see two of me. And if you think that's odd, I'll actually be both of them, having a conversation between myselves.

Labels: books, social networking, writing

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Michelle Harrison: How she got published

14 July 2009

I recently attended a talk by Michelle Harrison, author of The Thirteen Treasures, which won the Waterstone's Children's Book Prize 2009. Michelle was wearing a red top, because wearing something red is one of the ways you can protect yourself against fairies.

In The Thirteen Treasures, a 13-year-old girl can see fairies, but they're nasty and punish her for talking (or even writing) about them. The girl (Tanya) gets the blame for the mess the fairies make, and is always in trouble with her mum. When Tanya is sent to her grandmother's house to give her mother a break from all the chaos and destruction, she comes across a girl in the woods. That girl, it transpires, was the same one who disappeared 50 years ago. How is that possible? The book unravels the mystery, and the part that the fairies play in it.

It was inspiring to hear about Michelle's journey to publication. We occasionally see stories in the press about authors who get a lucky break, but don't so often hear about those who persevere through countless rejections.

This is what Michelle's journey to publication looked like:

Spent a year drafting
Sent draft to publisher
Three months later, received a rejection
Sent book to six agents
Five said no
One said they liked it, but didn't want to represent it yet
Michelle edited the book using their feedback, and sent it back
They sent a longer reply, outlining bits they still didn't like
Michelle edited it, and sent new versions back to the agent three or four times, incorporating new feedback, over a period of 18 months
The agent turned it down
Michelle took another look at the book herself, decided she didn't like one of the characters and rewrote to make the character stronger
She spent "the longest time" on a cover letter to go with this submission, and then approached the top agent on her list, a name she had been too intimidated to approach before
They asked to meet up and then quickly signed up to represent the book. It had taken four years to get to that point.
The agent shopped the book around publishers
A number of publishers rejected the book, with some requesting that the book be edited for a younger audience
Simon and Schuster signed the book

Following the book contract, Michelle worked with the publisher on edits. In her talk, she stressed the importance of trusting the publisher, whose team will be highly experienced in creating books that sell. The reason there's no fairy on the cover of the book is that the publisher said it would put boys off from reading it.

During Michelle's journey to publication, there were many points at which she could have given up. Winning the Waterstone's prize is as much a testament to her perseverance as her imagination and talent for writing.

Labels: book review, books, publishing, writing

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Book review: Brand New Day

18 June 2009

Business autobiographies are usually written by household name entrepreneurs, and marketed with the promise that you too can achieve riches beyond your wildest dreams. Most of the investors from Dragon's Den have spent some time on the bestseller lists and Richard Branson has three books to his name.

These books are often inspiring, revealing how far you can go with the right mix of entrepreneurial flair, hard work, creativity and a little luck. But they're also written by people who started their businesses decades ago, and so tend to be light on the early history. The mental gulf between a millionaire and a reader who hasn't yet made the first sale is hard to cross.

With her book Brand New Day, Lara Solomon builds a bridge. The book is her diary from 2004 to 2007, and shows how she set up a new business from scratch. By the end of the book, the company has six staff and has turned over AU$250k (£120k) in three months. The book is inspiring, in part because the steps Lara takes are small steps anybody could take, if they were comfortable with the risk and had equal drive.

The product is a mobile phone sock, available in a wide range of designs, with a different one reproduced in the corner of each page (nice touch). To be honest, it's not a product I could believe in and not one I could see myself buying. But one thing that's made Lara's business a success is that she's persevered even when others didn't share her enthusiasm, and she's created a market in the process.

Key themes throughout the book are the challenges Lara has recruiting and retaining good staff, the emphasis placed on building the Mocks brand, and the extent to which Lara has to work outside her comfort zone to get things done. The book reads like an honest account of those first entrepreneurial steps, and provides a rare insight into what goes on in a smaller business. Laroo, the company behind the Mocks, is based in Australia so there are a few cultural references I didn't get, but most of the lessons are applicable internationally.

Lara's self published the book, so if you'd like to read a sample or order a copy, head over to the Brand New Day website (link no longer available).

For more small business advice, check out my book Small Business Websites That Work.

Labels: book review, books, business, customer service, publishing

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A novel solution to book piracy

02 June 2009

As ebooks become a larger part of the book industry, publishers and authors could face the same challenges from piracy that record labels and musicians have over the last ten years.

A piece in the Bookseller last week said that the Publishers' Association had identified 800 illegally uploaded works and removed 90% of them using a new anti-piracy tool.

What caught my eye about the story was the suggestion that publishers might adopt similar spoofing tactics to those used by the music industry, where fake copies of a work are uploaded by the copyright owner to confuse the pirates.

The commitment that people make to a song is minimal compared to the commitment made to a book. If you're playing a song and it turns out to be a lecture about how you should be buying it instead, you could just click 'stop'. How annoying would it be if you were 200 pages in to a pirated copy of some romantic fiction novel, when a bunch of pirates swing in on ropes yelping like Tarzan and just start killing everyone? (er... in the book, obviously). I can see a lot of creative opportunities for authors who work with publishers to create spoofed versions of their works...

Labels: books, publishing

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Visit www.sean.co.uk for free chapters from Sean's coding books (including Mission Python, Scratch Programming in Easy Steps and Coder Academy) and more!

Discover my latest books

100 Top Tips: Microsoft Excel

Power up your Microsoft Excel skills with this powerful pocket-sized book of tips that will save you time and help you learn more from your spreadsheets.

Scratch Programming IES

This book, now fully updated for Scratch 3, will take you from the basics of the Scratch language into the depths of its more advanced features. A great way to start programming.

Mission Python

Code a space adventure game in this Python programming book published by No Starch Press.

Cool Scratch Projects in Easy Steps

Discover how to make 3D games, create mazes, build a drum machine, make a game with cartoon animals and more!

Raspberry Pi For Dummies

Set up your Raspberry Pi, then learn how to use the Linux command line, Scratch, Python, Sonic Pi, Minecraft and electronics projects with it.

Earworm

In this entertaining techno-thriller, Sean McManus takes a slice through the music industry: from the boardroom to the stage; from the studio to the record fair.