How to become an author

The classic aim of any budding author is the novel.

You have a story in your head but have been struggling to get it down on paper or (as I did many times) you write a few chapters and then lose the plot!

To overcome this an excellent way to start writing a novel is to use a writing guide that takes you through the process a stage at a time. These guides, like the one I use: New Novelist, help you to plan your book and write each part as you think of it. You don't even have to write it in order - just as it comes to you.

Basically it can guide you to consider and create:

1. The Story Concept
- help you develop a one line summary of your story idea.

2. Story Category
- choose a general Category, which will give you a broad, overall story structure.

3. Story Type
- within the broad structure are several templates, each designed for different types of story. We will help you choose the one which best fits your own story.

4. World Creation
- now from those choices, you will begin to describe the key elements of your story - the characters that will populate the world you are creating, and the environments in which the plot unfolds.

5. Story Creation
- here you begin to tell your tale. You will be guided through twelve steps that break your story into bite-sized chunks, and begin to stretch your concept into a recognisable story form

Following these steps you find you can concentrate on the creation of your characters and the chapters of your story. The details of each character are recorded so you can keep referring to their particular characteristics - like their name, I had a character called Mary who started being called Mabel later in the story!
The chapter guides help you plan out the plot and ensure you spend enough time (in words) on each stage. It helps you control the emotional intensity that keeps the reader interested and wanting to read more.

With a structure planned out you can jump around and write different parts in any order. Why not write the beginning and the end and then the middle? With it all mapped out the whole thing comes together and then you easily create a document that can be sent to be published whether your aim is a bookshop hardback or an eBook on Amazon.

An Authors Bible - The Chicago Manual of Style

It is worth checking out this site. It is the official website for what is commonly known as the Writers Bible as it sets the standard for style of writing. Have a look at: The Authors Chicago Manual of Style

Click the image above for details on the amazing New Novelist program.

Get your FREE eBook with help to get your novel published!

Books are generally categorized by the number of words they contain although there is no fixed rule and may be different with every publisher you speak to.

A rough guide is:

Flash Fiction... 1,000 to 3,000
Short... 3,000 to 15,000
Novelette... 7,500 to 17,500
Novella... 17,500 to 40,000
Novel... 40,000 to 75,000
Epic... 75,000+

I don't know how many times I have started writing a book and not got past about 4 chapters - but my time in America inspired me to get on with it and complete it.

America is a non-nonsense country overall and this does encourage a mentality of 'go on then'.
Or perhaps it was Obama's call 'yes we can'.

So here is my first book - investigating the essence of life.
Many people dream of living forever by transferring into a younger body. But how do you think you and the people around you will react ?
Click here for a free preview:

Sum of Memories in paperback at Lulu


It is now also available as a download!
So if you prefer to read on your laptop or have a Kindle type book reader then this is for you!

Sum of Memories for download

I have already learned a lot from writing this and I know for sure now I can write more books.
I will learn from each individual experience but I hope that each one will pass on a little (or a lot!) of the enjoyment I have in writing them.

Day One - The Best Book Never Written by B. S. Benev. You set the price! from Smashwords.com
Day One - The Best Book Never Written Day One is an unusual piece of experimental writing. Through its obscure story-line the book will face some difficult and often abstract ideas but in a light, slightly sarcastic tone. Both the story-line and the main character will be left for the reader to discover. Buyers can visit www.adonedeal.eu to discuss 'Day One' at any time.

Publishing your new book is actually extremely easy. There are numerous ways ranging from completely free to costing a fortune.

Of course you have to decide whether your aim is simply to publish or to make an income. Are you looking to have your work in print on your bookshelf and as a gift to your friends and family? Or are you trying for a best seller on the bookshelves of millions?

The only type of publishing that is most commonly advised against is that called 'vanity publishing'. These companies are basically only there to take advantage of a desire to get published with no serious service to do anything but provide you with copies of your own book at a high price.
Even if this is your only aim there are much better ways to design and print your book.

Classic Method

The classic method is to send your manuscript to the big name publishers. They will review your work and give you an honest opinion of its quality and whether they want to put their weight behind marketing it. However, these organisations will usually only accept your work if it comes through a literary agent. I imagine they do not have the time to sift through thousands of badly written scripts to find the ones to consider seriously. An agent will filter the submissions down to those that they feel will have a chance of being accepted.
(See later for help in finding a literary agent).

Smaller publishers

There are hundreds of smaller publishers who you can send your work to directly. They will not only review your work but also take it through the complete stages of the creation of the book and cover and printing of the first copies. They will then help you market the book by providing it to well known online book stores.
Some will then provide it to real street book shops but this is where they usually begin to provide a very different level of service.
Printing books is an expensive thing to do and so there are few publishers who will do this in the hope of sales. The big publishers will only have accepted the very best work and so are gambling on their skill of selection. The small ones usually do not have the resources to do this and only provide hardback or paperbacks when they are ordered from the bookstore. This service is called 'Print on Demand'.

Self Publishing

A much more common way of publishing your book is to do it yourself. This might sound an impossible task but is a lot easier than you may think - and is a lot of fun.
Having created your novel (or any other type of book) you can upload it to some excellent online services where you can create a book for free in any format using some very simple tools. You then have a choice of either just making it available to your friends and family or using the many services (not many of these are free) to publish the book into the online book stores and possibly street book shops too.

Lulu.com provide an excellent online service for you to create your book from the script you upload and the online cover design tools. The results are of very high quality as is the print quality you receive when you purchase your first book.

The creation of your book is free and the printing and marketing services are great value for money.

Come and try them out at:

Publish your book on Lulu

Converting your novel into a radio play is fun and quite straight forward. As long as you grasp the concept that the only way the listener knows anything is through the sound they hear!

The radio companies usually have a format they want you to provide the play in but they are all very similar and follow the example below.

1. SCENE 1:

2. AMBIENCE: SOUND EFFECTS OF WASHING UP CROCKERY IN A KITCHEN SINK

3. Jonathan: I would have done that for you, Sarah.

4. Sarah: That's OK Dad. You go and tend to the garden. I love sitting in the bay watching you. It reminds me of when I used to come home and find you and Mum working together. Mum was always weeding the flowers and shrubs and you never seemed to stop digging that vegetable plot.

5. SOUND EFFECT: BOOTS SHUFFLING ON THE LINOLIUM FLOOR.

6. Jonathan: OK, if you're sure. That boxwood border needs a trim so I will go and do that. Assuming Jon hasn't lost my pruners.

7. SOUND EFFECT: BACK DOOR OPENS.

The internet has billions of web sites on it and many of them require new content every day.

To get this content they turn to article website like EzineArticles.com where thousands of people provide free content.
Why do they do it? Because it creates links to their own websites to help move them up the search engines, as well as potential targeted customers from the sites that may publish the articles.

The articles are short and sharp and provide useful content in an easy to read form.

To create an article for someone like EzineArticles you just need to register and get submitting.
The articles themselves can be about almost anything as long as it useful content - and they do go through a rigorous acceptance procedure.

Basically write something that is:

1. between 250 and 1000 words long
2. original content
3. easy to read
4. with a link to your site where you can advertise your book, or blog selling affiliate products such as Amazon books (as on this Squidoo site)