The Future of the Writing Calendar.

To commemorate D-Day, my wartime romance, Our Day Will Come, is FREE to download from Amazon today.

You can find it on Amazon.co.uk

and Amazon.com

and it’s also available on local Amazon sites in Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Brazil, Canada and Japan.

I have published my first ‘how to’ ebook, Love Craft, which is a guide to writing the perfect romantic novel. The ebook is the culmination of my time running romance writing workshops and I have tried to cover all the questions I have been asked. I’ve been helped tremendously by students of mine who allowed me to use their workshop exercises to help me illustrate points in the book.

Tomorrow I’ll be holding a launch party on Facebook. There I’ll be answering your questions about writing romantic novels, so call in and say hello!

Others have covered this subject better and in more depth than me. Womagwriter has several posts on her blog worth reading.

DC Thomson Contracts in which Womag does her best to sort through the fog of the contracts.

This was followed by a Response from DCT editor, Shirley Blair. It’s important you read through the comments too as Shirley answers several questions there.

Most recently, Simon Whaley sought legal advice from The Society of Authors and also spoke to Angela Gilchrist at DCT. You can read his post HERE. (you’ll need to be sitting comfortably as it’s a long post).

So what do the contracts mean for short story/article writers? Basically, DCT buy First Rights to your story, but then they can use it again without paying you (though as I say in the comments on Simon’s blog, I do hope they’d have the courtesy to let you know so that you can at least log the re-use with ALCS). But once your work has appeared in a DCT publication once, you are free to send that work elsewhere. Angela has assured Simon that DCT will not hang on to stories or articles indefinitely.

What do the new contracts mean for pocket novelists? In the past we have been able to sell on to Large Print publishers by sending in the printed copy of the work. DCT have known we’re doing this, but have apparently turned a blind eye to it. Now they will stop us sending in the printed version on the basis they own half the copyright due to the editorial input. So from now on we will only be able to send our original manuscripts to large print publishers. As the LP publishers don’t normally accept original mss, this could cause problems. I emailed Sarah Quirke at Ulverscroft/Thorpe the other week and she is looking into this, but assures me that U/T are as eager to receive our romances as we are to sell them, so she is discussing this with others in the company in an attempt to find a way through it. Another pocketeer pal has contacted a different LP publisher and they too are looking into it.

One thing DCT cannot do is re-use our pocket novels without further payment. Shirley Blair assured us on Womag’s blog that if they wanted to re-use them, there would have to be further negotiations. Neither can they sell them onto a third party publisher (i.e. cutting out the middle man and going to large print) without our permission because just as they own half the copyright, so do we.

Much for the pocket novelists depends now on what the large print publishers say. If they are not willing to take original manuscripts, for whatever reason, it means that we will only be earning £300 (at present) for a 50,000 word novel. We can put them on ebook, as long as we use our own manuscript, but those of who do that don’t earn a huge amount from it. Certainly not as much as from large print, which also brings us Public Lending Rights.

I’m a bit torn about this as when I first wrote a pocket novel for My Weekly, it was £200 for 30,000 words and I didn’t even know, until the lovely Cara Cooper told me, that I could sell to large print. I did it for the challenge and because it was fun. But now I do know, it does colour my judgement somewhat. I can’t un-know it or ignore the benefits of re-selling. Artistic achievement is wonderful, but money is pretty good to have too, especially in Tesco on food shopping day.  On the other hand, I feel a certain amount of loyalty to Maggie Seed at DCT, who has been a fantastic editor and mentor to me, and I’d feel sad to think I could never work with her again. There’s also the thing that if I don’t sell pocket novels to DCT, there aren’t many other markets out there. Yes, there’s Mills and Boon, but I’ve yet to write something that pleases them. So would I be cutting off my nose to spite my face if I decided never to write another pocket novel for DCT again just because I couldn’t sell on to large print?

So at the moment I don’t know what I’m going to do if/when I receive the new contract. Much will depend on what the large print publishers say about receiving original mss. For the record, whatever decision I make in the end will be based on my life and my personal circumstances and not on what other people think I should do.

I hope that all writers affected by this support each other, regardless of what personal choices we all make in regard to the new contract. If people don’t want to sign, that’s up to them. If people do want to sign, that’s up to them too.

And for the first time in its own volume, I have published one of my NaNoWriMo novels from several years ago, called Mary Daniels’ End Game. Set in a dystopian future, it is about a game show where the main characters have to fight for their lives.

All the above will be free to download today. The free status isn’t showing as I type this, so keep checking. You can also download them in your own country if you have a local Amazon. Just google my name or the titles to find them.

Lonesome Ranger FREE today

My Pulse romance, Lonesome Ranger, is free to download today! It was also free to download yesterday and reached Number 1 in the Western charts as the screenshot below shows.

Screenshot of Lonesome Ranger at Number 1 in Western Charts

Short Story Workshop

My Short Stories from the Ground Up workshop starts on 18th May.

Short Stories From the Ground Up.

Commencing Saturday 18th May 2013

This 8 week course will cover such topics as ‘What is a Short Story?’ and ‘What isn’t a short story?’, but it will also start from the very beginning, teaching participants how to create a short story, starting, literally, from the ground up. This will include ‘Beginnings, Middles and Ends’ (in which participants will do three exercises on those subjects that will eventually lead to a completed story), Show vs Tell, creating memorable characters, using dialogue, point of view and finding ideas (plus other subjects I may develop before the course begins). At the end of the course you should have (at least) one story completed. It will also include a critique, by me, of a different 2000 word story (which doesn’t have to be the story you were working on), at the end of the course. It will begin on 18th May 2013 and end on Saturday 13th July 2013. The cost, to include the critique, will be £80 for those paying by cheque/postal order (stirling only, I’m afraid) and £85 for those pay via paypal (to cover paypal costs). All payments by cheque must be received by Saturday 11th May 2013 and state clearly which course you are interested in. Please note that participation is limited to 10 people. Contact me for more details, including payment instructions, if you are interested in taking part.

As with my other courses, there is no need for participants to log on at any particular time during the week, as all the ‘action’ (so to speak) takes place on a forum, where participants can log on anytime it suits them. However, exercises will be posted each Saturday and it is hoped they will be completed by the following Friday.

Please note: This course is aimed at those relatively new to short story writing, or those who wish to improve their existing short story writing skills.

There are plenty of places left, so if you would like to take part, please contact me for payment details. This will be the last short story workshop I run for the foreseeable future, and the last online workshop I run in 2013. My next courses will begin in January 2014 and concentrate on writing novels/novellas.

Ghost Stories and How to Write Them

Today I’m delighted to hand my blog over to Kathleen McGurl, who has written a really enjoyable how-to book Ghost Stories and How to Write Them. Kath appears to have a companion in this post, but I think she’s an imposter for reasons I’ll give at the end…

How to Write a Book in a Week

I’ve known Sally online for ten years now…

Sally: Is it really that long?

Kath: Yes! We ‘met’ on the old BBC Get Writing website, remember?

Sally: How could I ever forget!

… and in all those ten years she has never ceased to amaze and inspire me on two accounts…

Sally: Only two?

Kath: Well, two that I wanted to mention now, if you’ll let me…

Sally: Sorry! (presses lips firmly together and puts hand over mouth)

As I was saying, two accounts:

Firstly, her constant enthusiasm for new projects. Sally has endless great ideas and throws herself heart and soul into her writing She always has several projects on the go at once. And secondly…

Sally: I thought you were going to tell us how to write a book in a week? Loving all the praise, but get to the point!

Kath: I’m getting there… give me time

Sally: (grumbles) This blog post will take a week to write at this rate

Kath: It will if you keep interrupting…

And secondly, the speed at which Sally writes. She’s done Nanowrimo who knows how many times, and can write a Pocket Novel in a month. Anyway, after ten years, some Sallyness must have rubbed off on me…

Sally: Ooh er, missus!

….because I found myself with a great idea for a book and a huge amount of enthusiasm for it. All I needed was a bit of Sallyspeed to write it.

Sally: (polishes fingernails) 120 words per minute, me…

I’d been considering publishing an anthology of ghost stories for a while, but wasn’t sure if anyone would be interested enough to buy it. But then I had the idea of combining it with discussion on what makes a good women’s magazine ghost story, so the book would be a hybrid – part anthology and part How To. Had anyone done that before? I had a quick search on Amazon and could see nothing similar. Worth a try, then.

That was on a Friday evening. I picked out the stories I wanted to include and made a list. I jotted some notes on topics to cover, then worked out a rough structure – which story would best illustrate each discussion topic. I knew I wanted the book to chain from story to discussion to story…

Sally: She’s getting technical again. She does that in the book. There’s graphs showing story arcs and everything.

Kath: It’s not too technical! I love a bit of story analysis. The more you understand good story structure the better able you are to write a story which works, I think.

…so that hopefully, the reader would not be able to put the book down.

I started writing the book on Saturday afternoon. I started at the very beginning…

Sally: (sings) A very good place to start. When you read you begin with A B C…

Kath: (rolls eyes)

… got the introduction written, copied in the first story and wrote its discussion section, and then found I couldn’t stop. The book just poured out of me, and I let it. I followed my structural notes but didn’t edit as I wrote it at all.

Five days later, I’d completed the first draft.

Sally: Thought you said a week?

Kath: I lied. It was 5 days.

Sally: That’s even faster than me!

I should come clean here – the book is 24,000 words long, of which half is made up of the stories which were, of course, already written.

Sally: Ah, so you cheated!

Kath: There are no rules

Sally: There are in your book. All those rules for ghosts…

Kath: Which the writer must determine to make their story work, yes. You’ve got to make your ghosts believable, even if you don’t believe in ghosts.

Sally: You what?

Kath: It’s all explained in the book!

It took longer to edit, proof-read, and format for publishing on Kindle, than it did to write the first draft. That’s what happens when you’re all fired up with a good idea, and you know what you want to write. When that happens, go with the flow and write till your fingers fall off. Harness that energy.

So in summary, to write a book in a week, know exactly what you want to write, have half of it already written, spend long hours writing and make it a short book.

Sally: Better make it a good one too, if you want to sell it. Which yours is, well done.

Kath: Thank you, my dear! And thanks for hosting this guest post.

Sally: You’re welcome. Cup of tea?

Kath: Don’t mind if I do.

***

Thanks Kath! I loved reading that post. You’ve got me spot on (apart from the fact that I’d have offered a glass of Baileys after such hard work!)

 You can buy Ghost Stories and How to Write Them from

Amazon.co.uk

 Amazon.com

 And you can catch up with Kath on the utterly brilliant Womagwriter blog

My title for it is Take My Breath Away, which is inspired by the last words that Marc Antony said to Cleopatra before he died; ‘Take my breath away … with a kiss.’ Sigh. However, sometimes titles are changed so I’ll advise people of the correct title nearer to the time.

It is set in modern Britain, and is about a group of actors remaking the film, Cleopatra under the yoke of mad director, George Cassius. When the actor playing ‘Caesar’, Jason Carter (inspired by Richard Burton rather than Rex Harrison), is murdered, closely followed by a couple of other members of the film crew, Jason’s ex-wife, Patty Carter (inspired by lovely Rachel Weiss but with Taylor’s violet eyes), who is playing Cleopatra in the film, is a suspect. Particularly as she seems to be hiding something. There are no less than two Marc Antonys vying for her attention. One is real-life insurance investigator, Tony Marcus (inspired by James Purefoy), and the other is actor Matt Archer (inspired by Jai Courtney), who is playing Marc Antony in the film. Patty also has an adorable son, Jude.

I absolutely loved writing it, and I will be putting two copies of it into my 50th birthday party giveaway! It should be out mid-July, but I’ll give more details when I have them.

By the way, this is my 11th pocket novel!

I’m delighted to announce that Margaret Shelton is the winner of Kate Long’s signed book, Bad Mothers United. Margaret has been informed and the book will be winging its way to her soon.

Kate was so impressed by all the comments made that in the end she had to put them all into a hat and choose that way! She asked me to thank everyone for their interesting contributions to the competition.

Commiserations, as always to those who did not win, but don’t forget that in August I’m doing my 50th birthday comp, and there’s another chance to win a copy of Kate’s book in that along with loads of other prizes!