Blog

It takes an abundance of courage and hard work to write and then self-publish a book. It’s difficult to imagine an author who hasn’t at one stage asked themselves, “Why am I doing this?” Perhaps they even contemplated giving up. When doubts strike, it helps to read...

Fancy earning some extra income from your writing with little additional effort on your part? If so, an organisation called the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) is for you. Its somewhat mysterious workings can make it seem like the writers’...

If your book has been assigned an ISBN (International Standard Book Number), then once it’s been published and registered with Nielsen, which supplies ISBNs in the UK and has a database used by bookshops and libraries across the globe, you are required to carry out a...

Most indie authors channel their sales through online outlets such as Amazon, as it’s convenient (it does all the legwork), international and provides customers with an option to buy the eBook, too. But if you’re a dyed-in-the-wool bibliophile (and if you’re a writer...

Nick Brown, a former teacher and sixth form college principal, was awarded an OBE for his work before leaving his career at the age of 55 to become a writer. In the decade since then, he has established a loyal readership for his supernatural thriller series based...

For bookish folk, an image of utopia isn’t hard to conjure up, as it no doubt involves a comfy place to sit and endless shelves stuffed full of novels, memoirs and every other genre under the sun. Perhaps even a trip to the grocers would involve a browse through some...

It isn’t just typos and spelling mistakes that will distract your readers from your writing; the design of your pages is also key to holding their attention. Poorly formatted paragraphs and jagged, clumsy edges will prevent them from being fully immersed in your work....

Author Sue Welfare turned down a deal from a large publishing firm to try her hand at indie publishing – and she has never looked back. Sue achieved her dream of becoming an author in her mid-30s after winning a Mail on Sunday fiction competition in the early...

A. Bello describes how she went from being a 12-year-old comic fan with a cracking idea for a children’s book to becoming a successful self-published author. When I was a kid, the female characters in children’s books often had to wait patiently for Prince...

When journalist Barbara Copperthwaite decided to write a book, she entered the most challenging, and exciting, phase of her career. Here, she describes the highs and lows of self-publishing her resulting novel, a psychological thriller called Invisible. Naively, it...

Indie author Andy Leeks’s commuting hell changed his family’s fortunes. Working from home has its disadvantages, but a big plus factor for me is that my daily commute from my kitchen or living room to the office takes all of three seconds. I’ve left...

Let’s face it, no one purchases a book on the basis of its beautiful typesetting, but well-presented pages will enhance the reader’s experience without them even noticing. It’s a bit like viewing a famous painting in an art gallery; we are not meant...

Ambitious indie authors know that successfully self-publishing an ebook or paperback involves getting to grips with the business side of their venture. They become experts in marketing, social media and the ins and outs of editing and cover design. But there’s...

Dr Carol Cooper was on a plane on her way to her father’s funeral in the States when the idea for her debut novel One Night at the Jacaranda – which she has recently self-published as an ebook and paperback – first popped into her head. She scribbled...

When Tom Mackenzie self-published a memoir, focusing some of it on his extraordinary early life as Britain’s last foundling, his son Grant, 26, advised him that he needed to ‘put himself about a bit’ in order to get noticed. So Tom, 74, duly went...

Bestselling author Al Jackson jokes that she has always worked with words, only now the ones she writes are far more interesting. The mum-of-three from Arizona used to type and edit medical notes for a living, but decided to turn her hand to fiction five years ago...

When reading the author bio in a book, there is a certain much used phrase which is always liable to send me a little green with envy. It’s the one that begins: ‘the author divides their time between…’ What follows is usually a perfect...

As writers, we’d all love to travel to far-flung places in search of inspiration, but often we’re stuck with mining for ideas right where we are. And this was no bad thing for indie author Tom Brown, whose two novels were born from experiences at work and...

  Identical twins and writing partners, C L Raven (Cat and Lynx), are so in tune with each other that whenever they write a book or short story together, they take it in turns to type two pages each. Their ideas flow together so naturally that you would never...

Whether you believe in ghosts or not, it’s hard to resist the lure of a good spooky story. From Catherine Earnshaw’s blood-curdling presence at the window in Wuthering Heights, to the destructive supernatural forces at work at the Overlook Hotel in The...

As the nights draw in and the thermostat gets turned up, it’s not uncommon to dream of escaping to warmer climes where enjoying some proper heat doesn’t result in a costly energy bill. Twenty years ago, writer Joe Cawley had such fantasies as he toiled...

People self-publish their work for a host of different reasons, and I’ve discovered that there’s often a touching tale behind the printed story.  As a boy, Tim Sharville loved it when it his mum, Marion, read to him. Only the imaginative stories she told...

I first interviewed Kit Berry back in 2008 for a national magazine. She told me how she was in her mid-40s when she had a ‘now or never’ moment and decided to pursue her dream of becoming a writer. The former teacher finished her first book – Magus...