Do you have a great opening to a novel - if so, the Words with Jam competition is looking for a fantastic first page for its first page competition which closes tomorrow.

The first prize is £500, with a second prize of £100 and a third of £50. The judges are looking for the most captivating first page (up to 400 words) of a story. Entries can be from a published or unpublished novel, a part-written novel or simply a first page written for the competition. Entries will be judged anonymously.

To enter the competition, click on this link. .


             

Friday is something of a tradition here at Comely Bank Publishing - when there's an 'F' in the days of the week, we like to try our hand at writing (very) short stories...

Happily for us, a Friday Flash Fiction website already exists. Well, OK we were the ones who created it, and it provides creative opportunities for what is rapidly becoming a thriving artistic community.

Want to join in? There are lots of ways you can. The classic Friday Flash Fiction is an original story in 100 words or less. If that's too short, you can submit a longer story and if 100 words is stretching it, then why not try the story in six words challenge?

Go on... flex your creative muscles! You can submit stories here.

An eight-year-old girl is to lead a workshop for young authors at a literary festival next weekend.

Michelle Wilson has already self-published two bi-lingual books for children and her workshop at the Bay Area Book Festival (6-7 June, downtown Berkeley) will cover getting ideas, putting together plots, organising chapters, getting illustrations and publishing on Amazon.

Michelle’s books, Girl with a Magical Unicorn and Lost In Venice are published in English and Italian.

In a prepared statement given to the San Hose Mercury News, Michelle said: “Writing is something magical. You can let your imagination go and create your own world. Reading has even more magic. You can live your dreams through simple stories.”

The Bay Area Book Festival also includes an evening talk with best-selling children’s author Judy Blume.

An estimated 100,000 people are expected to attend the festival.

Social media marketing is the primary means of marketing when it comes to the literary world, and that applies especially in the world of self-publishing books.

A recent article in Mobile Marketing Watch made the points that while every industry has ventured into social media marketing in some way, it is the literary world where this had really taken off.

Reviews and marketing as a whole has had a drastic effect on the literary industry, the article claims, because even established authors with the mass marketing budget of large publishing houses behind them need to join this trend.

But social media marketing has opened the doors for many aspiring authors, and in particular the self-published authors, helping them to promote their new and old books.

 

Deadlines for two writing competitions are coming up this week. First off, The Flexible Persona: Call For Submissions deadline: 31 May 2015.

The Flexible Persona is a bi-weekly literary journal which publishes fiction and non-fiction in audio and print format. The journal is looking for writers in Scotland, England, Ireland, and Wales to submit engaging, character-driven fiction. The word count is 1,200-6,500 words.

Check out the Flexible Persona website for more information.

Secondly, Zoomorphic Magazine is currently looking for submissions of previously unpublished work from writers of fiction, creative non-fiction, science or conservation journalism and poetry that celebrates and defends the animal world.

Writers are invited to submit prose of up to 3,000 words and poetry of a maximum 40 lines. The deadline is 31 May 2015. See the Zoomorphic website for more information.

 
(With thanks to the Federation of Writers Scotland newsletter for updates.)

A digital production manager and former journalist has just self-published his first novel, which came about thanks to his blog.

Cliff Jones’ book Water Runs Slow Through Flat Land, tells the story of a digital journalist who becomes a war correspondent in Afghanistan after discovering the negative impact of social media.

Jones began writing his novel after posting an initial scene on his blog. Talking about his experiences in the Maidenhead Advertiser, he said after he’d written the scene he could see how the story would develop. As he had wanted to write a novel for a while, this had served as the impetus.

After knockbacks from publishing agents, Jones decided to self-publish his book, having has positive responses from his family and friends.

 
The book is about the news editor of an internet company who decides to pursue a different job after an unfortunate Twitter update costs him his job, setting himself up as a foreign correspondent in Afghanistan, despite his lack of experience.

The Independent Book Publishing Professionals Group (IBPPG) has named its best indie books of 2015.

The 2015 Next Generation Indie Book Awards is the largest not-for-profit book awards programme for independent publishers and self-published authors. The awards are judged by industry leaders in independent publishing (including many who come from long-standing careers with major publishing houses).

Independent or indie publishing includes small presses, larger independent publishers, university presses, e-book publishers and self-published authors.

The top prize-winning books in the 2015 Next Generation Indie Book Awards are:

Top Fiction Books

1.       First ($1,500 Prize)  
Topeka, ma 'shuge, by Raymond Hutson (Gilliss Books)

2.       Second ($750 Prize)  
The Magdalene Mystery, by Christine Sunderland (OakTara Publishing)

3.       Third ($500 Prize)  
River Talk, CB Anderson (C&R Press)


Top Non-Fiction Books

First ($1,500 Prize)  
Thrown, by Kerry Howley (Sarabande Books)

Second ($750 Prize)
The Sky and Earth Touched Me, by Joseph Bharat Cornell (Crystal Clarity Publishers)

Third ($500 Prize)
The Wild Horse Dilemma, by Bonnie U. Gruenberg (Quagga Press)

 
Honorable Mention ($250 Prize)  
The Beatles Encyclopedia: Everything Fab Four, by Kenneth Womack (Greenwood Press)

 
In addition, other top indie books were named as winners and finalists in 70 publishing categories ranging from action/adventure to young adult.

Chair of the book awards programme, Catherine Goulet, said: “Our awards program is known as the ‘Sundance’ of the book publishing world. Like other independent artists, many indie book publishers face challenges that the industry giants don’t experience. The indies have to work much harder to get their best books into readers’ hands."

According to Bowker’s Books in Print database, the number of self-published books produced annually has increased by some 437 percent since 2008.

The winners will be honoured in New York during BookExpo America next week. The top 70 books from the awards will be reviewed by a New York literary agent.

The complete list of finalists is available at the book awards website.

A self-published romance writer has achieved Number 1 best-seller status in the New York Times e-book list, according to an article on the CBS website.  

Meredith Wild* is a former tech CEO who published her first novel just two years ago. She specialists in adult fiction (erotica) and is about to release her sixth novel.

She graduated with a degree in English from Smith College, but spent her earlier life developing software. Having read and enjoyed the Twilight series and 50 Shades of Grey, she decided to embark on writing her own erotic romances.

Part of her motivation was wanting to create strong female characters and writing that she herself could relate to. She published online and her husband helped her to promote her books through social media.

Taking the traditional publishing path, she says, was not an option that ever occurred to her. Her fourth novel “Hard Limit” from the hacker series achieved the best-seller NY Times status, attracting note from the publishing houses. She has since struck a deal with Grand Central Publishing for $7 million.

 

*Not her real name.

“That's when I decided to take a little peek at the world of self-publishing. For the briefest of moments I felt like I was holding up the white flag. After all, anyone worth their weight in printing paper knows, self-publishing is for losers who haven't got a book worth publishing, right?”

The Huffington Post ran an article this week by a published author that told of her experiences exploring the world of self-publishing some time ago.

Ghostwriter mystery series author Christine Larmer said her prejudices against self-publishing were overturned pretty quickly. She’d found herself in a position where her book had been placed in front of traditional publishers by her agent, but the publishers rejected it because they felt they could not sell it and it was too similar to other books they had.

Ms Larmer’s feelings about self-publishing rapidly changed when she looked at Amazon’s mystery/suspense/thriller section, where self-published authors ranked higher than traditional publishing successes such as Harlan Coben and Janet Evanovich.

The number one slot was occupied by an author, whose book cover looked like something her teenage son could have knocked up, Mr Larmer noted. She also noted there were email addresses for both Harlan Coben and number one mystery/suspense/thriller writer Rod Hoisington and contacted both, asking for advice.

Guess who replied? She received three pages of tips and expertise from Mr Hoisington without any expectation of return, which spurred her onto self-publishing. Eight books in and she would now say “thanks, but no thanks” to traditional publishing.

Speaking about her experiences, Ms Larmer says: “I can’t speak for all genres of course, but in the world of crime fiction, you’ll never meet a nicer bunch than those who have gone it alone.

“I’ve had total strangers reach out and offer me advice – how to target my blogs, find a good editor [and] post giveaways online. I’ve been invited to join online mystery support groups and had my tweets and promotions reposted over and over by other authors whose only motive is wishing me more sales…

“Self-published authors are an incredibly generous, supportive bunch.” 

What can the average self-published author hope to get from book sales?

According to a survey of author incomes published by Digital Book World, half of self-published authors earn below $999 (£650) a year.

Meanwhile, the average income for traditionally published authors, even taking into account the smaller percentage they get from book sales, was $3,000-$4,999 (£1,900-£3,200).

The survey also reports that hybrid authors (i.e. those who use both traditional and independent publishing methods) are the ones most likely to make the most money.

Writing about the survey, author and book industry researcher Dana Beth Weinberg says the emerging picture is one of the supply of books increasing whilst consumers’ reading habits and spending on books does not keep pace – so most authors (both traditionally and independently published will earn little income.

However, this she views as a reflection of the way that publishing has always been – that only a small number of authors are able to make a living from books. 

On the other hand, changes to the publishing industry mean there are more opportunities for writers than ever before. 

A new publishing website is helping writers connect with editors, proof-readers, designers and publicists, according to a recent article in the Guardian.

Reedsy was set up in November last year to help independent authors and so far has some 3,000 authors on its books, along with a pool of 300 freelancers.

The site states that it prioritises quality – the majority of its 6,000 applicants for freelance connections were rejected.

Co-founder and CEO Emmanuel Nataf has stated his intent to reform the publishing process, as he considers the process “backwards”, with editors and writers sending documents back and forth by email. His aim is to launch a collaborative editing tool this summer. 

A 19-year-old self-published novelist has achieved best-selling status on Smashwords with her Highlander romance novel.

D.K Combs’ The Highlander’s Touch made the book available exclusively through Smashwords, the distributor of independent e-books, without bothering to put it on Amazon or carrying out any marketing activity, according to a recent article in Publisher’s Weekly.

The article apportions some of Ms Combs’ success to the popularity of New York Times’ best-seller list novelist Diana Gabaldon, whose Outlander books are number 1 on the list. (The books have been turned into a TV series by Starz television.) The Highlander’s Touch has been read by more than 7 million, and it has achieved 300,000 votes on writing community website, Wattpad.

Following her high school graduation, Ms Combs decided on self-publishing to help pay her bills and her followers and fans on Wattpad encouraged her to make the leap to self-publishing. She published the book in March 2014, putting seven chapters onto Wattpad for free as a way of attracting new readers.

Priced at $4.99, the book had earned her an almost five-figure sum – and all through word of mouth. She has connected with fans through Facebook, Wattpad and ask.fm, although she left ask.fm following problems with anonymous commenters. Wattpad she regards as a safer and better regulated community.

Ms Combs writes with the help of two friends, who help with plot holes, proof-reading, planning and editing and the three design the covers themselves, using Photoshop.

(Please do forgive crude self-promotion here… Emma Baird’s new novel Two Slices of Carrot Cake is available on Wattpad.)