Wasting Time, Writing Time and Party Time

Well, I wandered up another cul-de-sac by attempting to use Scrivener. There’s nothing wrong with the programme, and I can see how it could be a very useful tool for many writers, but for this writer it proved to be a little too cumbersome. Trying to learn the simple use of just a couple of its features meant that I would spend more time clicking through tabs, files and links in order to get to elements of my manuscript that I would otherwise have to hand and therefore easier to access. So it’s goodbye Scrivener and welcome back pad and pencil. No, I don’t write by hand, but I build a chronology as I write, and this is open all the time I’m writing so I can refer to earlier points of the story if I need to. I jot down my chronological progress by hand and complete the chronology at the end of my writing session. It works for me, and I’m happy with that.

I’ve made reasonable progress with my MS, and have reached 38000 words. There have been diversions along the way of course, and I have finally caught up with a lot of material I had written earlier. Needless to say I have changed a lot of detail and even now I know of an area that I have to go back to in order to correct something.

I have also been keeping my eye on the progress being made by my non-fiction book, A WORD IN YOUR EAR. I have put it on Smashwords and each day I check its progress. Remember: this book was not written to make sales, but as a legacy (if that’s the right word) to our four sons. I don’t think any of them believed their dad could actually become a born again Christian, and on top of that end up preaching. Anyway, the amusing thing about its progress is that I have sold one book (I bought that) and have had 56 sample downloads so far. These are people who are curious about the book and have downloaded the first 15%. I have now upped that to 25%. The fact that none of them were intrigued enough to buy the book (it’s only 99 cents) doesn’t worry me because it was never meant to be an informative, religious work; simply an anecdotal account of my conversion to the Christian faith. But what excites me is that when I eventually get my fiction titles on Smashwords, I’ll be able to monitor the sample downloads and maybe adjust my book promotions accordingly.

I read a linked piece on Facebook a couple of days ago that poked fun at the traditional publishers and laughed at the expected collapse of traditional publishing as on-line publishers like Amazon increase their volume of indie authors. It saddened me to see intelligent people behaving like a bunch of jeering schoolchildren over the (hoped for) demise of traditional publishing. It hasn’t happened yet, and I don’t believe it will. I have a great deal to be thankful for because John Hale of Robert Hale Ltd., a London publisher, has published seven of my eight titles. I have a ninth due out in January. This has given me a wonderful experience in the literary world; one that I may never have had. I am now on Amazon as an indie publisher and enjoying an extended life in book sales.

But what the critics of traditional publishing forget is that there is an enormous amount of dross being published on Amazon and posing as creditable, literary work. It drags most of us down whether we are any good or not, and makes it very difficult to establish a readership without pouring a lot of money in promotion and marketing. If the traditional publishers do eventually go to the wall, it will be because of market forces, and nothing else. But I can’t see that happening; not for a long time yet.

On the domestic front it has been a good week too. Last Friday our church house group met for our usual, weekly meeting, and this was followed by a pool party. It was a lovely day; very hot, and there were about twenty five of us there. I spent about two hours chatting with a couple of guys who had led interesting lives. Neither of them were members of the church, but husbands of two of our lady members. One of them had worked in construction all over the world, and the other had run his own business as well as being a successful band leader.

On Saturday we had a big do at our church. It was billed as an old time musical night, but was in fact a secret birthday party for our church elder who was ninety that day. I sang a duet with a mate of mine. We did the Flanders and Swan song: The Gas man Cometh. It was all amateur stuff of course but we had a terrific night. And that morning my Pastor phoned me and asked if I would like to preach sometime. I was delighted because I didn’t expect to be standing in front of the church bringing God’s word again, bearing in mind that me and Pat are planning to return to UK as soon as I get some kind of clearance from the hospital. I had a blood test last Friday and will be seeing my specialist on Tuesday. No scan yet, but maybe she can hurry something up. Then we’ll know. Wish me luck!