Becoming An Internet Author - Week One

The slow but determined march towards Hobson & Choi self-publication continues. A few days ago, I blogged a little about receiving professional edits on the text and my feelings on same. I think I reached equilibrium by the end, and I'm relatively okay with the direction it's going.

However, there is obviously another side to the whole thing. If I'm self-publishing (or author-publishing or hybrid-authoring or whatever), I obviously have to do all my own promotion. Well, I'm hoping some good reviews will do a bit of the work for me, but I still have to get the book to some reviewers.

All of which means doing some tweeting, some blogging, some awkward-for-me self-advertising. Talking about myself. Becoming an Internet Author. Never mind my damn edits, how do I feel about that?

Hobson & Choi #73: "Behind The Scenes"

The next chapter of Hobson & Choi! Our heroes go behind the curtain at the shopping centre to meet... The Boss!

Sorry, this blog post is running a bit late - the chapter went up at the usual time, six-ish hours ago, but I didn't quite manage to do this. Here it is, though.

And it is the last chapter of the month of June, so if you have time to check it out, maybe vote for as many H&C chapters as you are able, all helps with the monthly Top 30. Ta very much.

And now I have to leg it off once again, but if you want more related to Hobson & Choi, here's a blog post about receiving my first every professional edits on the first storyline. Scary stuff.

Receiving my first set of edits - A Psychological Journey

So, the ongoing plunge towards Hobson & Choi self-publication continues. I sent my manuscript of Book One off to an editor, because if my trip to London Book Fair taught me one thing, it's that you gotta let someone else loose on it.

After all, I'm competing with an array of authors who have editors, I'm bothering to get a decent cover done, so I might as well make sure the insides are up to scratch.

With that goal in mind, I got my book back from the editor about a week ago, and have just blasted through the whole lot of edits once, making changes accordingly. It's a strange experience, getting edited for the first time, and even after chatting to other people beforehand, it's still... interesting.

Hobson & Choi #72: "Upward Mobility"

The latest H&C chapter is up! Marvel as the shopping centre case moves to a whole new level!

Also, if you happen to hiding in the walls of my house, marvel as I force myself to achieve a baseline level of stuff even through a stabbing hangover-headache. Owwwww.

I'm currently editing the text of Hobson & Choi's first storyline for the upcoming self-published edition. The process has been interesting and there will be a blog post, but possibly over the weekend rather than the usual Friday morning, due to said hangover and the fact I'm meant to be out watching the football tonight.

Come on England, etc. In the meantime, enjoy H&C, see you fairly soon!

Game of Thrones: Finale review with finality!

Final Game of Thrones review of season 4! Up now on Dork Adore, featuring various assessments of finality.

And that'll be that. I'll miss them a lot. Still, at least they're back next year.

Is comedy dead? Or just not a great selling point in publishing?

Yesterday, I attended the final day of The Literary Conference 2014, an event thrown by The Literary People at The Literary Consultancy. I attended a few things, drank some nice coffee, and heard a thought that stuck with me: a brief answer uttered by a literary agent during the Pen Factor (literary X Factor) event.

One author read from a work which seemed to place itself as a humour story. Said agent commented that novels which identify heavily as comedy versions of existing genres tend to be a hard sell. After all, comedy is pretty subjective and "parody novels" are rarely amazing, so if possible, it's better to market your comedy thriller (for example) as a thriller, and let people decide whether they like the book on those terms. If they happen to find you funny, bonus.

As someone who writes "funny" stories and mentions that attribute when describing them, this obviously gave me pause. So... time to reconsider?

Hobson & Choi #71 - "Fetched"

The new chapter is up! Do you like Markus the dog? Then this could easily be your moment!

If you don't know who he is, then you're very behind on your reading and should catch up.

In other H&C news, we were #3 on the Jukepop top 30 for May, which was always good. Nice to see we can still get up there among the big boys. Thanks to all voters.

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And now, I ready myself for editing the first H&C storyline for our upcoming ebook edition. Edits due back today. Pretty scary. Blog post no doubt to follow.