Eyes Wide Open

(This is a long post, please take a deep breath, grab a cup of tea, and dive in.)

And so, here it is, the news I've been hinting at for what seems like weeks, and something I thought I would never, ever say (which just goes to show you should never say never):

The first in the series of books known as THE LONG SECOND trilogy will be published on Amazon Kindle in June 2011, to be followed shortly afterwards by other formats. Later in the year its sequel - BROKEN - and also a third, unrelated book will also be available on Kindle and other e-readers.

Hurrah! Shout it from the rooftops! Rejoice!

It's not, of course, as simple as that.

I'm proud, and apprehensive, to say that I'm publishing them myself. Yes, I know what you're thinking. It's exactly what I've been thinking for most of the past two years, but let me explain...

This isn't failure. This isn't vanity publishing. Nor is this a short-cut to "traditional" publishing or a get-rich-quick scheme. It's none of those things, and more besides. But it is publishing. And, and this is actually pretty important so I'll do one of those rare things and use CAPS for emphasis: I'M DOING THIS WITH THE KNOWLEDGE AND APPROVAL OF MY AGENT.

I've watched the publishing world change beyond belief in the last two years. Two years ago the e-book was little more than a distant possibility, considered by most industry insiders to be at least ten years away from having any significant impact. A year later those same insiders were still insisting that there was a good five years to wait before the e-book became mainstream.

And then Amazon released their latest Kindle and all bets were off. It's hard to say why the current Kindle captured the public's imagination as it has, but there's no longer any denying it. You might still read Amazon's figures about the sales ratio of e-books to paper books and wonder if they are a little manipulated, one way or another, but you can't deny the buzz that now exists. E-books have arrived, big time.

With this arrival has come the ability to easily self-publish in electronic form. I've read countless pages and blogs on what that means, and I know that there are plenty of people who won't touch a self-published book, and for very good reason. I've read some and, to be honest, they've fallen short of the quality I'd expect from a traditionally published work - usually in simple areas such as grammar, spelling and basic story-craft. (I've started reading some books, not knowing they are self-published, but within a few pages the niggles set in, strange formatting quirks that make me go off and check. I'll still finish the book - if it's good enough, of course - but I read it with a different mindset).

Without a doubt, there is an enormous mass of awful, dreadful self-published work out there, and that mass is only going to grow.

So, why am I prepared to join it?

There's one simple reason:

The Long Second trilogy has not been picked up by a traditional publisher and, it would seem that after two years of trying, it's not likely to happen.

Does that mean it's not worthy of being published?

In my (admittedly biased) opinion and that of my agent: no.

But... doesn't that make me as deluded as all those other self-published authors, the ones I've alluded to above?

Hopefully, no. Here's why:

The Long Second has been through at least some measure of quality control, a level which I believe many/most self-published books don't achieve. Of course, friends and family have read it and loved it and told me how wonderful I am/it is, but that's not what I'm talking about.

The Long Second secured me an agent (and had multiple "full" requests before that happened). This means that there are independent people, people with no vested interest in telling me that it's a good story, well written, "tight", cohesive, who have told me these very things. My agent, at the very start of the submission process, told me that "it was in need of very little editing" (that may have been understating things somewhat, I've done plenty of editing on it since).

So, why has it not been picked up by a publisher? That's anyone's guess. Timing, in this business, is everything. There's "no market" for this sort of novel, apparently, or at least not one that's big enough for any of them to take a chance on, because they'll have to invest heavily in taking that chance.

And that's where self-publishing comes in. My investment, relatively speaking - at least in real monetary terms - is tiny. I can afford to take that chance.

Point number 1, then: I've had independent verification that The Long Second (and it's sequel) are worthy and of sufficient quality to be published.

And so we come on to the title of this post: Eyes Wide Open.

What do I mean by this?

Simple:

* I don't expect to get rich from this exercise (though that doesn't mean I won't dream about potential success and what I'll spend the money on);

* I don't think that this will be a short-cut to traditional publication (though I will continue to write to pursue that dream and, in the event that I do well out of this, it won't hurt);

* I am doing it to get feedback, and am prepared to take the bad and the good, in the hope that it will help me become a better writer;

* I do want other people to read the book - I've been told it's good enough and so it would be a shame to consign it to the virtual desk-drawer, never to be seen again.

So, I ask you to do what I've done: put aside your prejudices for a moment, stop seeing self-publishing as the last resort of the hopeless and talentless, and approach it with an open-mind. I know that there will be many of you who (if you would be so kind as to buy the book) will be acutely aware that it's self-published and will be looking for typos and formatting errors, and will see each and every one as justification for their opinion. I can only say this: I have worked really hard to make this book the very best I can, I have scoured it (more times than you would believe) for typos and errors but I don't doubt for a minute that some remain, I have tried to present it in a professional style - adopting (as best I can) the layout of "real" books.

(And if you believe, for one moment, that all traditionally published books are error-free, then I can give you examples including one, from a fairly major author, whose back cover contained a typo, and whose content contained errors. But I won't. I did, though, contact his publisher about the typo...)

I genuinely believe you will be pleasantly surprised. If you are, please tell me and tell your friends and the world. If, on the other hand, it reinforces everything you ever believed, please tell me, I'd genuinely want to hear what you have to say and, if possible, work to make it even better.

I've never believed I was about to be the next J K Rowling, and I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be the next Amanda Hocking, but I'd love to be able to say that Marshall Buckley published on Kindle and, you know, did a pretty good job.

Over the next few weeks (months?) I'll be going into more detail about how I got to this point, what was tried along the way - the highs and the lows - and what I've had to do to get the book(s) fit and ready for self-publishing. I promised to blog much more regularly than before. There's even a new website in the making... I have, you might have gathered, been quite busy of late.

I titled this blog Publishing Dreams right from the start. It's just that those dreams have changed a little.

Thank you. (I'll be sure to let you know when it's finally available).

Countdown

Just a couple of days to go until the big decision is made...

Watch this space on 1 June 2011

New Beginnings

So, it looks like the minor dramas of the past few weeks have come to a satisfactory resolution.

Not, in truth, the resolution I was expecting, but that's actually a good thing. I was half-expecting to be revealing some significant, but not especially good, news. That's no longer the case.

So, do I have any news to share? Unfortunately, no. At least, not yet. Things are afoot. Changes are coming. Decisions have been made and, overall, I'm pretty happy with them.

Just a couple more weeks to wait, just to cross some Ts and dot some Is, then all should be revealed.

The sharp-eyed amongst you may have noticed that the "Current" gadget on the right has disappeared. That's because I'm not currently writing, not while all this "stuff" is going on - there's to much other "stuff" to be dealing with. At the same time, I am writing, but I'm not. And yes, I'm perfectly aware that that appears to make no sense at all. Trust me, though, it really does.

More news in early June. Probably. And hopefully that will be significantly less cryptic.

A Short Interlude

The last few weeks have been interesting (in the same context as the Chinese proverb "May you live in interesting times"). That doesn't necessarily mean bad, just interesting.

I'm going to step back for a couple of weeks or so to consider everything that's happened and what that means, and what the next steps are. Not that anyone is likely to notice very much given the irregularity at which I post here; I'll still be active on Twitter as normal.

I'll probably have some sort of further updates towards the end of May.

Busy Times

This time of year seems to be very busy in the publishing world - especially in the UK - and this year I seem to have become more caught up with it.

Firstly, I have to mention Keris Stanton's brilliant Authors For Japan auctions. I'm not available as a prize/lot (that's probably a good thing) but there are some amazing lots available and it's a fantastic initiative. Get yourself over there now (unless it's finished by the time you read this. You can come back here when you're done).

While we're on the subject of good causes, and while I'm sending you off to other sites, why not also visit the Big Green Bookshop? A great little independent shop that needs our support to survive. There's a meet-up of fellow publishing tweeters there next week. I'll be there, but don't let that put you off as lots of other nice people will be there too. If you can't make it (or even if you can), please buy a book from them. It would really help.

And so we seamlessly segue into the London Book Fair. Seamlessly? Why, yes, because there's a bit of a tweet-up going on there too. And yes, I'll be there. This will be my first visit to LBF. I'm not really sure what to expect, lots of books, I suppose. Hopefully I'll bump into lots of people I know from Twitter and no doubt will end up buying lots of books and then drinking far too much later. There are worse ways to spend your day.

If that wasn't enough, the following weekend is Cambridge Word Fest. I didn't even know this existed, but as it's just down the road (and a short hop on the train) I'm going to pop along and attend a talk or two (one of which will be by Nicola Morgan. I'm going to try not to heckle, but I may pose a question which incorporates a Life of Brian quote. Or maybe not.)

If you're attending any of the above, give me a shout. I'd love to meet you.

If you don't follow me on Twitter, I'm @MarshallBuckley - do join in, it's a great little community: funny, smart, irreverent, helpful...

Look! Over there!

Oh dear. I'm very embarrassed. I had no idea it had been almost 2 months since I last posted here. I'm sorry for all those of you hanging on to my every word for the extended silence.

What have I been up to? Well, reading and writing mainly. I'm still loving the Kindle, but also have a small backlog of paper books to get through.

I'm persevering with MW. It's coming along in fits and starts, but the overall story is still very clear in my mind, I know pretty much all the things that are going to happen to the main character, though I'm now veering away from any personal experience, so things will likely slow down as I have to spend more time on research.

That probably means appealing to the hive-mind that is Twitter. So far I've already received some really useful information from Twitter friends, and I'm sure that will continue. Don't let anybody tell you that Twitter is just a waste of time. Absolutely not.

In non-writing news, I've also started another blog. It's very tongue-in-cheek and won't appeal to everybody. It's in the form on on-going open letters to the heads/designers of car manufacturers (so, if you have no interest in cars, it won't appeal to you). Posts are generally quite short and, hopefully, humorous. Feel free to pop by and have a look: Dear Mr Ford

The future of reading?

Just over a week into the Kindle ownership experience and it's time to share my findings (along with a few thousand others who are no doubt finding exactly the same thing).

It's not perfect, not yet, but it's good. Oh yes, it's very good.

My first experience with an e-reader (e-book reader?) was about 18 months ago when a colleague won an early Sony reader in a competition. At the time I was quite impressed but unsure if I'd want to use one on a regular basis. The way the screen refreshed at every page seemed a major flaw.

The Kindle still has that same flaw. Is it irritating? At first, yes, very. But once you become absorbed into the story you become oblivious to it - as oblivious as the act of turning a physical page. It may seem unlikely when your first see it as it blackens the whole screen but you simply don't notice it at all after a few pages (or more, I guess, if the story isn't grabbing you).

The quality of the screen, on the other hand, really is remarkable and I can testify that the lack of back-light really does all-but-eliminate eye-strain. I've comfortably sat for hours reading it in the same way I would read a paper book. I didn't go for the case with built-in light as I never read in bed so chose the standard cover instead. It's fine, sits comfortably in the hand and never suffers from the problem that some thick paperbacks suffer: namely that the print sometimes runs so close to the spine that it's difficult to read, uncomfortable and prone to shadows from the surrounding pages.

The proof of the pudding, though, came when I switched to another book - in paperback. I had expected it to feel like an old friend and make me realise how imperfect the Kindle was. It proved to be the opposite: it served to illustrate how good the Kindle is.

I can't see me giving up on paper books, not just yet. For starters, not everything is available on Kindle, and how do you get a signed copy of an e-book? But the Kindle is mightily attractive, and the ease of purchase of a new book is compelling.

Finally, I'm going to focus on the iPad vs Kindle debate only briefly. They are not competitors: the Kindle is (to all intents and purposes) a one-trick pony, the iPad a multi-function device. As a techy-geek of course I want an iPad, but it's much harder to justify. The Kindle - apart from being cheaper - has a specific purpose. I've already used it to read and comment on another book and will use it in future to proof-read my own writing. I can't justify the outlay on a iPad as just another boy's toy.

The biggest drawback? We only have one, and when my wife want to read a book I've just finished it's going to be a dilemma as she won't use the laptop or the iPod to read it there, which means potentially relinquishing control of my new toy...