An author's thoughts

Think about all those books sitting on your bookshelves, bookcases, scattered around the home, used as an ornament on the coffee table and so on.  Now look at them, the titles, the cover design, the size, the name of the publishing house or group.  Now look who wrote each book, look at their name, their photo, their gender, perhaps even their age.  Ask yourself if you personally know them.

You see I've mentioned this because it doesn't matter about many of those things, all that really matters is that each individual author started in exactly the same way.  All authors have the same motivating forces to complete the book you bought, it starts with an idea.  Every author will tell you that they've started many ideas but never seen them through to a final conclusion, the finished book.  Many authors will tell you that they will have spent months, perhaps years, writing a book only to abandon it before the end, or having got to the end dump it without much thought because it didn't fit in with their intended thought processes.

Yet for all the work and hours, days, months, and years the author dedicates to the craft of writing, that author needs three things to achieve the finished book.  First, the ability to see an idea grow, prosper and blossom over an often long period of time.  Second, a form of dedication that few are able to master successfully.  Third, that having written the book the courage to stand by the personal belief displayed in their writing, and that often takes a lot of courage.  My long departed dad, a magnificent individual, and greatly missed, said that there are two kinds of individuals who do a particular thing, those that do it for love and those that do it for money.  In his eyes the former demanded the highest respect, the latter would remain largely unfulfilled and unhappy; who am I to argue with a sentiment that I follow religiously and know that I am likely to enter the next world financially underwhelmed.


Yet the one joy that being a poor struggling author does bring me, is the reaffirmation of the world as I perceive it to be, and then having the means at hand to question, whether through fiction or comedy, and to speak out against the things I personally find troubling.  It's no great accident that my female characters tend to be the strong ones and the male species less so.  But at the end of the day do my tomes, lovely word, accomplish anything?  Well I'd hope, if nothing else, that they stir up either a positive response or a negative one but first you have to read them before you can find out.

I keep being asked why I chose the eBook format and not the 'traditional' publishing route.  Yes, I've tried the publishing route but rejected because the books I write aren't going to make any publishing house any profit.  So I've opted for eBooks and consequently my books are available throughout the world to an audience I'd never reach by way of publishing houses.  Besides, with the continuing growth of the eBook market, I can afford a wry smile at the news that the best selling author, Seth Godwin, is going the way I've gone because of his growing disenchantment at the way publishing houses operate.

I, like many of you, enjoy the feel of paper in the palm of my hand.  The paperback book is an individual intimate experience and very hard to replicate with an iPad or Kindle, yet the world is changing and such reading appliances are trying to emulate the reading experience of a paperback, in time they will succeed.  Our love of the paper book only goes back a few hundred years to the time of the Gutenberg press, before that the population mass had to entrust their story telling to a minority of individuals; ironically the Gutenberg Project is now trying to save the written word by making eBooks freely available of titles long forgotten or in danger of being lost forever.

As an author I live a fairly isolated life.  Returning to the beginning of this blog all those books you have around you, most of those authors have lived, or live, in the same way because that's the nature of the beast.  All start with the horrible blank page, all develop their individual stories, characters, plots and sequenced events.  All are mightily happy and relieved when the end has been accomplished.  A few authors go on to fame and fortune, and perhaps notoriety.  The vast majority of authors remain the unsung heroes of total anonymity, yet provide a vast body of work, shaped by love, passion and desire and see very little financial for their efforts.  And that is the reason why authors such as I continue to write and publish, their love of books, stories and the never ending quest to protect their right to free speech in a world that tries very hard to control and curtail that right.

Finally, thank you to Mark Coker, CEO of my publishing company Smashwords, for giving me the opportunity to publish around the world.  Thank you to all of you who are actively supporting my love of writing by buying my published books.  Thank you to those who downloaded the sample copies for your interest and I'd hope that would stimulate your further interest in buying the books available.  Any comments you may wish to share with me, please write in the comments section below.  I'd like to interact with my readers so the opportunity is there, please use it.