Self Publishing Experiment.

When I started this blog back in 2006, it was with the aim of recording my journey to achieve the "impossible": a traditional publishing deal, via a literary agent, for my works of commercial fiction. I had no desire to approach vanity publishers - I wanted to get my books onto the shelves of bookstores up and down the country.

In 2010, contrary to all of the naysayers and the admittedly enormous odds, I achieved my goal and am now a happily contracted full-time author. And at the end of 2012, being so incredibly busy with my writing, I blogged here that I would be moving away from this blog as it had achieved all that I had hoped it would and would remain as a record for other aspiring writers who might come this way of what I went through.

However, with the swiftly changing face of the publishing industry now consumed by the incredible rise of digital print ( enough of which has already been written across the Internet ) I have decided to do something that many of my readers and followers might think a bit odd. Having achieved a traditional publishing deal, I'm now going to attempt self-publishing alongside my traditional contracts.

The reasons for this are many and varied, but the driving force behind my decision is that those who succeed do so by adapting to change: survival of the smartest ( hopefully!). The digital market is not just here to stay, it is the future. After studying the publishing world for several months, and talking to many other authors from both sides of the divide, I have decided that if I don't get involved in it, then the new market might well pass me by before I can make my mark upon it.

The simple truth is that authors these days no longer need rely only on major traditional publishers to get their work noticed. The list of names who have achieved enormous success through self-publishing is growing every day and those who have done so got there not by luck at all: it was through the same hard work as any author, traditionally published or not.

One of my books, written for a major publisher, was recently turned down not because it was unready or poorly written ( in fact the editor in question loved it ). It was rejected because "the market was not receptive to it right now". In other words, "people aren't buying that kind of book so we can't guarantee a profit in buying it". That book is my newly self-published YA title, "Soul Seekers".

The reason for me deciding not to simply accept their decision but to self-publish is that everybody who read the draft of the novel loved it. To me, that means that other people will probably love it too. Traditional publishing is a business, and if a business model looks bad then it's not wise to put money behind it. But for the self-publishing author, the trials of convincing a marketing department and a sales department that a title is worth buying are removed. There is little outlay required, and the book can be on the market within weeks. Then the really hard work begins - effectively promoting that work.

So, in summary, I'm going to record an entirely new journey. While I remain hard at work on traditional publishing contracts I'm also going to self-publish titles which are turned down for business and market-forces reasons by traditional publishers, and see whether their decisions were the right ones or whether my gut instinct for a "good" book is better.

The new journey starts here. This blog is active again and I'll try and post updates as regularly as my schedule allows. I should point out that this will not involve me endlessly posting adverts for my novels: I don't believe in that kind of "spam marketing" as it annoys the hell out of me. Instead, I'll post what I learn, how things are going in terms of sales, how sales improve ( again, hopefully ) as I learn to promote the books and so on.

Let's see if one of the BIG publishers was wrong and I was right...

SOUL SEEKERS!!

I'm excited to announce that my brand new Young Adult title "Soul Seekers" has launched on Kindle both in the UK and the USA. The UK price for the book is just £2.01, a great bargain for the first in a series of supernatural thrillers for younger readers.

If you have children who enjoy reading, please do give Soul Seekers a try!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Soul-Seekers-ebook/dp/B00DM5EBDM/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1372317069&sr=1-1&keywords=dean+crawford+soul+seekers

"Apocalypse" FREE for one week on iBookstore!

Yes, it's here! "Apocalypse" is iBookstore's Book of the Week and is a free download from today.

It's had 14 reviews, all of them 5 Stars! That should tell you all you need to know about whether this is a bargain promotion or not.

Enjoy!

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/apocalypse/id506086725?mt=11

THE CHIMERA SECRET!!

It's almost here!! And I can reveal that the promotional price for the fourth Ethan Warner novel on Kindle is just £0.99!! This price will be available for one month only, and will end when the mass-market paperback is published. Don't miss the bargain price!

In addition, Apocalypse ( book three in the series ) will be iBookstore book of the week and will be available for one week as a free download from June 25th! This is a tremendous offer and well worth grabbing if you have not yet read any of the series. This version will also contain a sample chapter of The Chimera Secret, so if you're smart you could get both books for a bargain!

Enjoy!

CrimeFest 2013

I had a great time at this years' CrimeFest in Bristol. Despite appearing on a 9am panel next-door to another featuring international best-seller Jeffery Deaver we still drew a fair crowd and had a lively discussion about the joys and pitfalls of science and technology in thrillers.

My fellow panellists as seen in the photograph were the excellent moderator Emlyn Rees, authors L. A. Larkin, Alex Blackmore, Richard. J. Parker and myself.

A cracking time, and I hope to be back next year once again.

THE CHIMERA SECRET and SOUL SEEKERS!!

Awesome news!! In June and July I will have not one but two books being published!!

The fourth title in the Ethan Warner series, THE CHIMERA SECRET, will be released on June 20th, 2013 as an e-book at a special promotional price which I'll reveal closer to the time. The mass-market paperback will be released on July 18th.

In addition, a brand new Young Adult series will be launched at around the same time on e-book. The first novel in the series, "Soul Seekers", will also be available from Amazon at a promotional price.

Below are the covers for the two novels, featuring awesome new artwork that really grabs attention.

I'll update here with further news as soon as it's available...

 

 

Standing out from the crowd in publishing.

I've been reading a lot of blog posts lately by aspiring authors clearly disillusioned with the current state of the publishing market and daunted by the ( admittedly ) tremendous odds against achieving a traditional publishing deal.

Some have questioned whether it's worth approaching agents any more; others whether it's worth trying to complete with X millions of other titles, digital or traditional. Many show hints that they may abandon the chase as they don't relish maintaining a strong on-line presence to help advertise their novels and feel that their chances of success, in any published medium, are hopeless.

While it is very true that breaking through these days is extremely tough; that the publishing industry is going through immense change; that the ability of aspiring authors to self-publish via Amazon has changed the game, and that it may seem impossible to gain the attenion of a major publishing house, people were saying the same thing 30 years ago. It's just that the reasons for everything being so tough were different to those of today. It's ALWAYS been hard to break through.

No author, agent or publisher can predict the "next big thing". If they could we'd all be rich and famous. Except we wouldn't, because we'd all be doing it and the next big thing would therefore no longer be unique. The only way to stand out, to agents and to publishers, is to write the best book that you can. It may be galling when terrible novels like the Shades of Grey trilogy achieve such incredible success, but it should be noted that the author ignored the publishing industry and simply wrote what she wanted to. She self published, did well, got a traditional deal and the rest is history.

The moral of this story is not that self-publishing will propel you to global fame and fortune. For every E. L. James there are probably 100,000 self-published authors who have sold not a single copy of their treasured tomes. The moral is that you should write what you want to write about. Pick something about which you are passionate, that makes you feel that you cannot wait to put the story down on paper. If you want to buy self-help books on writing, go ahead. Attend conferences and speak to industry professionals, read other novels similar to your hoped-for best seller. But above all be passionate and excited about EVERY project you start because if you're not excited about it, believe me, that luke-warm enthusiasm is what will end up on the page and in front of an agent in months, or years, to come. Why take half-measures? Pick a subject that fills you with a great spark of excitement and your novel will be all the more vivid and colourful for it. THAT is what publishers and agents are looking for.

I recently read several Tweets by my literary agent, Luigi Bonomi Associates, ( paraphrased ) : "I'm reading a manuscript that is so good I want to live in this book: and they call this work!"

That author, whoever they are, probably just got through as you are hoping to and as I once did. It happens. If it didn't, there wouldn't be a publishing industry.

Stick with it.

Global Warming: the big deception.

Very occasionally I have posted here about the on-going confusion over mean global temperatures and the arguments on either side of the divide. These posts often get more comments than those on my books, which says something about how people view this most contentious of issues.

Recently I posted a comment on a fellow writer's blog ( The Scribbling Sea Serpent ) that mentioned my point-of-view on this, and got a response from a suitably anonymous person who clearly knew nothing about science, decrying my "denier" cult and blabbering on about the scientific consensus on global warming.

Today, across much of the media, it has been revealed that the rise in global mean temperatures over the last two decades has been: nothing. Data corrections via the Met Office and others have meant that all previous scaremongering predictions have not only failed to materialise, but have now been revised down. Our planet is indeed warming, but the slowing trend observed completely flies in the face of the endlessly repeated mantra that Carbon Dioxide output, which is still rising, is driving temperature change. It isn't. No matter which way the data is observed, human activity cannot be the principle driving force behind our planet's warming trend.

Millions of people have continuously ranted about the scientific "concensus", and all they've achieved is to reveal how little they know about science. There is never a "concensus" in science: there was once a concensus that the sun must be made of coal, its heat derived from gravitational collapse. Close, but no cigar. If our brightest minds had simply relied on "concensus" back then, we wouldn't have learned very much about our world today.

Science is all about the data, about continually revising that data and ignoring our own bias. The latest data crushes the decades of scaremongering by people like Al Gore and the IPCC. Should we sit back and relax? No, of course not. Climate change is real, and something's definitely happening. But next time you hear somebody say that they know all about the scientific concensus, just ignore them. Data is all that matters, and all proper scientific theories are subject to new data that can bring them down if their predictions can be found experimentally invalid. Anthropogenic global-warming is a scientific theory that has been found invalid. I can only hope that the political world, instead of worrying about the fall out from admitting such a catalogue of error, will allow research to move on and root out the real cause of our changing climate, or simply prove that observed temperature changes are within normal global parameters....

Of course, further data could reveal new information that reverses these new discoveries: however, the latest models suggest that warming has peaked, for want of a better description, and that the trend represents a cycle of rising and falling temperatures. Perhaps the latest rise has been influenced by human activity, but not enough to alter the cycle itself? Who knows. Only time, and better data, will tell us. Saying that there is a "concensus", or that the science is "settled", will never tell us anything.

For those who would like a more detailed write-up of why climate science has revealed the lack of anthropogenic warming, from a qualified scientist, then please read the following link:

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/01/18/a-climate-of-scepticism/#more-77781

The recent news reports are easily found on Google etc.

Dean Crawford Books Facebook page.

For anybody who would like to continue seeing regular updates, I have a Facebook Fan Page which has been running for a while. All interesting bits of info and updates will be posted there, rather than on this blog;

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dean-Crawford-Books/227989043878445

Feel free to "Like" the page if you want to. The more likes I get, the more interesting stuff I can do on the page!

IMMORTAL launch in USA & Canada

For readers in the USA and Canada, the hardback of "Immortal" launches tomorrow, January 8th. It's already had favourable reviews from Publisher's Weekly and industry bloggers. Below is the great cover design by Touchstone USA.

Moving on.

I started this blog in 2006, just as I was beginning work on a novel ( my fifth ) called Genesis. This novel, after three major re-writes and a new title, Covenant, gained me representation by a powerful London literary agent named Luigi Bonomi and was the subject of a fierce trade-auction between several major publishing houses.

Since then life has become rather busier. I became a father, which is a remarkably time-consuming but hugely rewarding experience. Covenant was a Sunday Times paperback bestseller, as was the sequel Immortal, which was recently featured as Starbuck's Book of the Week and achieved the highest day-one redemptions in the history of the chain's promotion. Apocalypse, the third book in the series, is also currently selling well and two more Ethan Warner thrillers are to be published in 2013.

The huge effort that goes into writing two or three major novels each year only leaves me a little time to devote to digital media. So at the end of 2012, six years after starting this blog and seventeen years after I began writing, I'm now so busy that I am unable to maintain every account that I began so long ago. I started this blog to record my hoped-for journey from aspiring author to published writer, and amazingly I succeeded and achieved the purpose of these pages. Therefore this will be my last "regular" blog here.

I will occasionally post as new books are launched, however I firmly believe that writing success is not to be found through Facebook, Twitter, Blogger or anything else. It's to be found by consistently writing great books, and that is where I want to focus my attention because it is readers who will decide who succeeds and who fails.

If you're a fan, keep reading. If you're an aspiring author, keep writing and dreaming because I am living proof that, sometimes, it happens to you.

D.C.

Writing a novel diary: Part 6

It's almost finished!

The final task for me is the line edit. This is the final read-through of the novel, ideally done after leaving it alone for at least a month. I originally did not believe that I would be able to do this due to a looming delivery deadline, but a glance at the contract revealed that I actually had four more weeks than I'd thought. This break away from the manuscript is as an essential task as the edit itself. No matter how good I may ( or may not ) become at writing, I always miss things or make mistakes when trying to perform a final read-through and edit the moment I finish the structural editing. Like most people, I just can't help but skim lines with which I've become over-familiar, or not think deeply enough about dialogue that already seems to "do the job". A month spent working on something else is not time wasted, and allows me to read the novel with fresher eyes.

So, simple tip: Forget about your novel for a month before attempting the final edit.

For this job I sit at my desk, coffee at the ready and with a series of Post-It notes for each character's personalities attached to the desk in front of me. I also have a paper and pen in case any major errors in plot or narrative should appear. Then, I read the novel. Simple as that. I try to enjoy it while just keeping an eye open for any dialogue that sounds out of character; prose that could be shortened or polished a little; actions that maybe seem designed to push the plot rather than portray character, and so on. And of course I look out for typos and grammatical mistakes.

Generally, this final task takes me about a week or so as I make little adjustments. Virtually every page gets something done, even if it's just a simple word swap. Incidentally, this is the time that I use to look out for opportunities for descriptive passages, the chance to take a basic portrayal of a scene and make it something special. Eg, early in Apocalypse  I described a "set of towering cumulonimbus soaring above the horizon glowing in the light of the setting sun." After my line edit this became: "...the sun was sinking between towering cumulonimbus clouds that soared like angel's wings.."  Simple, but effective.

The line edit usually shaves a couple of thousand words off the novel as contractions and better use of words reduce excessive narrative and dialogue becomes smoother, sharper and more dynamic. When I reach the end of the edit, I'll save the completed novel in at least three different places for safe keeping and then send it to my agent and editor. And that's it.

Except that finishing the novel is only the beginning. Two or three months later my editor will send me her own general edit, where she will begin to help me shape the novel into an even tighter product. This edit takes several weeks to work through, and is followed a few weeks later by her line-edit, which takes a few weeks more. Then there's the copy-edit a month or two after that, and then the page-proofs before the novel goes to print, usually a couple of months before publication.

And then the whole process is done again for the novel's publication in the USA.

This is how modern novels are created and the editorial process ( after the author has delivered their manuscript ) is much the same for all authors writing for mainstream publishers. If being a novelist is your plan for the future, then perhaps the best final piece of advice I could give is to become a great self-editor and willingly accept all constructive criticism, because editing a novel ready for the crowded market takes far longer than writing the novel itself.

This is the final part of my writing diary, as all the stages after this have been detailed in prior posts concerning the publication of earlier novels. I hope that it has been of help to any aspiring authors reading my blog, and if it helps any of you achieve publication then it will have been worth it.
And you owe me a drink.

"Immortal" USA Goodreads "give-away"!

For all fans of my books in the USA, Goodreads and Touchstone USA are running a "give-away" for the next few weeks on the Goodreads site.

It's free to enter, and the prize is a bound galley of Immortal. There are only 18 copies available so if you're looking forward to the sequel to Covenant, sign up before they're gone!

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13547523-immortal

Writing a novel diary: Part 5

So, it's done!

Actually, I finished the first draft of the fifth Ethan Warner book a week ago, but have been so busy that I haven't had the chance to write this installment of the diary. The UK launch of Book 3, the USA and Canada launch of Book 1 and the various promotions have kept me occupied.

The finished first draft came in at just over 90,000 words, which is a little shorter than most of my previous titles. However, this is a great thing because it allows for expansion rather than the more usual effort of trying to bring the word count down. Editing with one eye on length is much harder to do.

Over the past five weeks it has taken to produce this first draft, I have used pretty much emptied my bag of tricks to maintain a steady rate of wrtiting, largely due to having a twenty-month old daughter running around at the same time. Much as I hate it, I have to close my office door to her and get on with my work while my other half looks after her. As you can imagine, small children are noisy, so I usually don headphones and play music as I work, often soundtracks to movies that set a tone which matches the novel I'm working on. For this novel, I listened to a lot of James Newton Howard's scores for movies like The Sixth Sense, Signs, The Village, the Lady in the Water and Unbreakable: no prizes for guessing that the novel is a chiller.

For me, music really helps me lose myself in the story - although after a while I turn it off when dealing with more complex scenes. It's not something that works for every writer, but I've always had what's been described as a 'visual' writing style and the mental imagery conjured by music helps me a great deal.

I set myself a writing goal of at least 3,000 words per day. The months of pre-planning and plotting allow me to write at this pace, knowing that the basic storyline is set and I've always got information available to me for the next scene. I never get writer's block. I do however get writer's pain-in-the-shoulder-and-achy-eyes syndrome, so I stop every hour or so and walk about a bit / have a cup of tea to break the cycle. When in full flow I can write over a thousand words per hour, but usually I'm a bit slower than that. Writing from 9am to about 4pm each weekday gives me enough time to produce my daily word count and lets me have the weekend off.

In the case of this book, during the writing process I produced about eight A4 pages of notes 'on the fly' describing different possible plot outcomes, character changes, missed opportunities for tension and conflict in scenes and relationships and other general ideas that appear like flashes of light as I'm writing. These are all now collated for the next stage of writing: the first edit.

( NOTE: Ideally, I would now leave the novel alone for a month before looking at it again. However, with the delivery deadline being  December 31st 2012 there is no luxury of a break: this has to be handed in first thing in the New Year so I'm diving straight back into the work. )

Before the first edit, I go through my notes and re-write them in order to match the plot of the story, checking details and thinking about how it all comes together with what's already been written. Further margin notes and reminders are made, usually in red ink to help them stand out, and what is essentially a full-edit is the result. I then start from the beginning of the novel, adding in the new changes, altering existing scenes to match new ideas, adding / altering or removing characters as required and also doing a general edit for typos and bad grammar. I don't spend too much time on the prose as this has it's own edit pass later. For now I'm concentrating on structure, making sure that I've got all the scenes that the story requires, have removed all the ones that it doesn't and that the whole thing hangs together well and makes logical sense to the reader.

This process takes at least two weeks and I'm currently half-way through it, drawing lines through each of my notes as I go along. This pragmatic, logical approach allows me to keep improving individual scenes while also keeping an eye on the novel as a whole. As soon as this task is complete I'll switch immediately to the next edit: my line edit, which is the polishing of the novel from front to back in terms of narrative, prose, dialogue, character and pace. I'll cover a few interesting tricks and tips for that process in the next post.

Promotions!!

Awesome news: "Immortal", book 2 in the Ethan Warner series, is currently pick of the week at all Starbucks stores across the UK. Grab your copy while you can, and get teaser chapters from book 3 for free!

http://starbuckspickoftheweek.com/

http://instagram.com/p/Shy25Pv8UQ/

Also, "Covenant", my debut in the series, hits shelves in the USA and Canada today as a mass-market paperback. If you're living stateside and fancy grabbing a copy, it's being published by Pocket Books and should be available in all major stores!

The Next Big Thing Blog Hop!

I was recently tagged in a blog "meme" called The Next Big Thing by soon to be published blogger Kate http://scribblingseaserpent.blogspot.co.uk/

So, here's my question and answer session!

What is the title of your next book?"Beast", although the publisher may change this.

Where did the idea come from for the book?

The novel is the fourth book in the Ethan Warner series. All of the books in the series take subject matter than people believe is myth, and reveal the facts behind the legends.

What genre does your book fall under?

Thriller.

What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

All of my manuscripts have been sent to Hollywood, which is encouraging. If a movie did come out of it, the hot favourites are Hugh Jackman for Ethan Warner, and Eva Mendez for Nicola Lopez.

What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?

Not every other species of human died out....

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

I am represented by Luigi Bonomi of LBA, and the books are published internationally by Simon & Schuster and Touchstone USA.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

6 months, including all research.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

I think the late Michael Crichton's Congo might bear a resemblence to Beast at some levels.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

My imagination! I enjoy revealing unknown facts within novels, especially when those facts concern things that people believe to be paranormal or supernatural.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

The fact that we as humans are surprisingly less capable than many of our most recent ancestors. We're not as unique as we once believed...

And in turn I tag:

http://matthiltonbooks.blogspot.co.uk/

http://colburysnewcrimefiction.blogspot.co.uk/

http://talliroland.blogspot.co.uk/

http://jenblackauthor.blogspot.co.uk/

http://diariesofamodernmadman.blogspot.co.uk/

APOCALYPSE NOW!!

The Apocalypse is here! Not literally, hopefully: the next novel in the Ethan Warner series hits shelves tomorrow across the UK and Commonwealth, and of course on-line. Get out there and grab a copy!

Writing a novel diary: Part 4

So, after months of preparation, I sit down and start writing. I have my chapter map beside me, my character descriptions nearby and I'll also have typed up or copied and pasted research into a folder on my desktop for easy access whilst writing. Internet ready, cup of tea made, seat adjusted, knuckles cracked and away I go!

Something that a lot of people struggle with when it comes to writing a full length novel is procrastination. Sudddenly faced with the prospect of having to type anything up to 100,000 words, doing housework, gardening, food shopping and watching television suddenly become much sought-after past times. I've met quite a few authors who suffer from this, and read of many more on their various blogs etc.

Sitting down and writing for the better part of 8 hours a day is, frankly, quite difficult. I have my own way of dealing with the issue: I just break my day up into sections. I only sit at the computer and write for a maximum of about two hours at a time. In between these mini-marathon sessions I'll go for a walk, do other chores, read somebody else's novel etc. These little breaks help to ease any difficulty with motivation ( and also give my eyes a rest !).

On average I write about 3,000 words per day once I've started a first-draft, and this usually yeilds a complete manuscript in about a month. This is largely due to the fact that I'm fortunate enough to be able to write full-time, working five days a week. When I was holding down a full time job, as the vast majority of authors do, I used to write for an hour or so most evenings and then all day on Sundays. I used to complete a full manuscript in about two to three months back then.

Writing a novel is ultimately about having the determination to sit down and get started. It's much like physical fitness, in that it's often said that the hardest part of getting fit is getting out of the door with your trainers on. You just have to sit down and get on with it. I used to find that even when I really didn't feel like writing, once I actually sat down and got started the hours would fly by and I'd suddenly find myself staring at 10 completed pages. Once you're on your way, it gets easier.

As I write the first draft, I often discover new and unexpected opportunities to adjust and improve the story line. There are two ways to deal with this. As a rule, it's worth just continuing on with the draft after making notes about the new idea. This avoids having to deal with repercussions of the new idea later in the draft, and having to think on the fly as you write later scenes in the book. It can be tricky to mentally juggle everything at once and keep creativity flowing, so this is the method I generally use. New scenes and stuff can be added in the re-drafts and edits. Very occasionally I'll alter something whilst writing a draft, but generally only if it requires one or two extra events or scenes that are easy to add: maybe a character says something, that later becomes important to the hero of the story. A quick note in my chapter map reminds me to add the new realisation later, and all's good.

There are also a few "habits" that some authors say you shouldn't do when writing a novel, and chief of these is that you shouldn't read a novel whilst writing one. I used to subscribe to this point of view, fearing that reading somebody else's work might somehow contaminate my own, but in recent years I've rejected this. Reading whilst writing just serves to give you a distraction, a reward and escape if you like, for all your hard work, and often provides great inspiration. I recall reading action scenes in other novels and thinking to myself: "Look how dynamic that was compared to the action scene I wrote. I could do so much more with my own work when I start the edits!" Bottom line: if you like reading outside of your own work, just carry on - you've already got your own story sorted.

Another temptation for an author is to re-draft a chapter immediately after completing it, just a little brush-up and tidy. DON'T! Start with page one and keep on going, all the way to the end. The reason for this is that you'll keep tinkering with previous chapters and slow your own progress, perhaps never even finishing the novel. Furthermore, it's only after a break away from a draft that you really see how good or bad it is. Redrafting on the fly NEVER works, so don't do it. Sure, make notes at the end of your writing day on things you felt you weren't happy with, ready for the edits that will come later, but don't dwell on them. Keep moving forward.

A final tip for avoiding procrastination, writer's block and inspiration all at once: at the end of your writing day, make sure wherever possible that you finish writing in the middle of a chapter. Don't be tempted to finish it. If you're in the middle of a great scene that you're enjoying, then definitely leave it. You'll come back to the manuscript eager to keep going and excited to continue the story, much as your readers will hopefully be when they get to the same chapter. That enthusiasm will remain as you continue into the next chapter, keeping you moving forwards.

In the next post I'll describe a few methods that I use to help capture my imagination in order to "lose myself" in the story, and also some ways in which to improve dialogue, narrative and creativity whilst writing.

ETHAN WARNER BOOK 5: As I write this, I am currently at the 25,000 word stage of my latest novel, two weeks into the draft.

The e-book revolution.

It seems that virtually every post I read at the moment regarding the publishing world concerns the big questions about the rise of digital print, of self-publishing, of the role of agents and publishers within this ever changing environment and of how it's all going to come crashing down around us etc etc etc.

Personally, I don't get what the big fuss is. Ancient Egypt once did a cracking trade in papyrus reeds until paper came along. Coal was essential for foggy London postcard scenes until electricity sparked into life. Vinyl records were all the rage until a flashy little disc appeared, and that flashy little disc is now itself disappearing with the rise of digital memory.

Things change. Those who move forward and change with it tend to succeed - those who grumble and dig in their heels tend to vanish with yesterday's news. One of the big questions hangs over the price of digital books: why so expensive? Why can't they be cheaper? Why should we pay nearly the same for a Kindle book as a paperback? Well, I agree, from an author's point of view - cheaper e-book titles make for more sales, which makes for a happy author and publisher. But the same people asking those questions are often also those who lament the demise of the traditional bookshop, and what do they think will happen to traditionally published books if all electronic titles are re-branded at, say, £2.99? They'll vanish, of course. People will use bookshops as super-sized shopping lists, jot down the titles that they see on the shelves at £7.99, then pop off home and download them for less than half the price on the Internet.

It is, I suspect, inevitable that electronic print will eventually all but replace traditional books, but the publishing industry is right to make that change slowly. If they re-branded their pricing structure overnight, virtually every bookshop in the country would close within months, the entire print industry would suffer a catastrophic loss of business and corresponding loss of jobs / livelihoods etc, and there would likely be an outcry over publishers abandoning their roots in favour of quicker profits from digital print. They can't win, whichever way they go. Those readers who prefer physical books are far outnumbered by those who would rather save a fiver, especially these days.

It's true that some e-books are hugely over-priced, but most are already a couple of pounds cheaper than their three-dimensional counterparts and represent a saving. I'm sure that over the coming years that price gap will increase as digital slowly but surely overtakes traditional publishing. Better to let it do so at a manageable rate than to let an entire sub-industry implode on itself.

And while we're on the subject, self-published authors may rejoice at the chance to be put on an even keel with their more famous traditionally published brethren. Don't bother. Publishers will still be able to provide their authors with something of extreme value: advertising power. Just because indie author Clint Cumperdink might one day find himself next to Clive Cussler on Amazon's author list doesn't mean he'll be seeing his books in the same position on the ranks. This isn't to detract from the fact that there are many talented authors self-publishing out there. However, sites such as Twitter and Goodreads are awash with indie authors "following" 30,000 people, proclaiming themselves as "Amazon best-sellers", writing reviews slating traditionally published authors and telling all of how it "should be done", but their sales figures reveal the real picture. They're utterly unknown, and no amount of blogging, Twittering or reviewing will help them. They should be busy sharpening their writing skills, not flapping about on the Internet.

Publishers, agents and editors of established publishing houses will all survive the current chaos because they can provide the brand awareness and advertising reach that virtually no author can achieve on their own. And only the best and most commercially viable authors will be able to gain their representation, just as is the case now. If you want to be one of those authors, keep writing, keep improving your skills and keep searching for an agent and a real publisher, because the more everything changes, the more it stays the same.

Writing a novel diary: Part 3

Before I sit down behind my computer and start frantically typing out the 100,000 or so words that make up each of the Ethan Warner novels, I like to be certain that I have a plan that I can follow. I'm not the type of author who can sit in front of a blank screen and just start typing. Much like Frederick Forsythe, who at last years' CrimeFest in Bristol revealed that he plots and plans for months before writing, I love having an ABC guide that keeps me on track during the process.

To this end, I write three final documents:

The first is my Chapter Map. Using my ( often copious ) notes gathered over many weeks or even months, I start with Chapter 1 and write a brief, succinct line about what should happen in that chapter. It's usually just a few words, and I sometimes will add a few more in red pen if there's something important that must occur which has major consequences later on in the story. These are my plants and pick-ups - information given to the reader, sometimes very subtly, that come into play much later. Sometimes it's a red-herring, other times it's something that's said or done that must occur in order for other later events to make logical sense. For instance, if Ethan realises that a vehicle is about to blow up, he must logically at some point already have learned that there's a bomb on board.

The Chapter Map usually covers about 60 chapters or so, written on a couple of sides of A4 paper. Although as the novel is written and re-drafted this map may change, it serves as a vital guide that prevents me from waffling on to long or losing my way in the plot.

The second document is my Character Map. For each character in the story I write a short paragraph that describes their nature and motivation within the story. As I write each chapter of the novel, I refer to these notes depending on who's appearing in the relevant scenes. This provides consistency in the way characters in my novels act and speak, ensuring that they are all as distinct as possible from each other in the reader's mind.

The final document is the Synopsis. Many authors hate writing a synopsis, especially those who don't like to plan ahead too much. But for me it serves two vital purposes. Firstly, because a synopsis should flow like a brief version of the story it can often highlight errors in logic or scenes that perhaps stretch the reader's imagination too far. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, it provides an update to my agent and editor, giving them a detailed account of how the final novel will appear and the chance to raise any questions or doubts they may have about the work.

I write my synopsis in the same manner as the novel: double spaced, Times New Roman, 12 point, and try to keep it about 12 pages long. It's not easy to cram an entire novel efficiently into such a small space but the final product can often be as tense, interesting and gripping as the final novel. It's a case of bringing all of the energy and interest you're hoping for in the final work and distilling it into a single, short document that should entice and excite anybody who reads it. Think of the movie trailers you see at the cinema: although a synopsis should not be overblown like a movie trailer, and should remain a logical blow-by-blow account of the story, that doesn't mean it can't be an exciting read.

With the synopsis done and a thumbs-up from my agent and editor, it's time to sit down and get writing! In the next post I'll reveal a few of my tips and techniques for dealing with motivation, discipline and further ways of avoiding writer's block.