Category Archives: literature

Print Books?

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Thus far I have published 4 collections of short stories and 1 longer work. All my books are available solely in ebook format.

For some time now I have been considering producing print versions of my books using the Print On Demand (POD) services of Createspace (https://www.createspace.com/). My reasons for considering POD are:

  1. Not everyone likes ebooks and the availability of my stories in exclusively electronic format means they are not reaching people who might otherwise read them.
  2. Even among ebook readers there exist many book lovers who also purchase traditional (print) titles. The availability of my stories in both formats enhances the choices of such readers.
  3. There is something attractive about the feeling of permanence of print books which, to me at least is lacking in the new kid on the block, ebooks. I, personally like having books on shelves and I am far from being alone in this desire to be surrounded by physical works of fiction and non-fiction.

Having said all that,I hesitate to embrace POD as my longest story, Samantha runs to 29 pages and I am not sure whether people will pay for print books of that length. I could get around this issue by producing an anthology of my writing. However this would, I understand mean that I would lose all my Amazon reviews as these pertain to the individual titles, while an anthology is a different beast and would be reviewed as such.

In short I need to give this matter much more thought rather than jumping in feet first. Any advice from authors who have both ebook and print versions of their works available would be most welcome as would comments from readers of both formats.

 

I Am Sailing

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As those of you who follow this blog will know, my name is Kevin. Yesterday I received the following text from a friend who was, at that time on his way to France via cross channel ferry,

“Just leaving Harbour. Where told the captain’s name is Kevin. Should I be worried?”

My friend’s text made me smile as, being blind there is no way in which I could hold down the job of captain. However, giving the matter a little more thought I arrived at the following brilliant solution to how a blind man might captain a ship. My guide dog, Trigger is trained to avoid obstacles so why not teach him the following additional commands:

  1. Bark once for rocks dead ahead.
  2. Bark twice for another vessel dead ahead and
  3. Let out a continuous howl when the boat strikes submerged rocks or an iceberg.

Does anyone have the contact details for shipping companies please? I’m taking time out from my writing to apply for the position of ship’s captain. God save me and anyone else who sails with me!

 

Kevin

Author Interviews – A Great Way For Authors To Promote Their Work And Readers To Learn About New Writers

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Kev Cooper (no relation to yours truly) offers a great (free) author promotion service. Kev’s Author Interviews allows authors to promote themselves and their work by answering questions supplied by Kev. The interviews also act as a great way for readers to learn about new authors. For further information please visit http://kevs-domain.net/author-interviews-and-contact-information/

For The Good Of Humanity (satire)

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For the good of humanity we must sacrifice the paltry joys of the here and now for the ultimate bliss of tomorrow.

For the good of humanity we must abandon the selfish goal of individual fulfilment for the common good.

For the good of humankind we must place freedom on the backburner for we are building an earthly paradise where “the people” shall rule.

Yet Eden remains, floating, somewhere forever out of reach while “the people” shrug their shoulders, and smile or weep.

 

Written after reading an article on North Korea).

 

Abandoned

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Rain sodden corpse, in a churchyard. Abandoned, unclaimed, slowly decay setting in.

Once you wowed audiences. Your music had couples dancing, romancing. Many a love was born as you filled the air with melodies sweet.

Now your heart is still. No more tunes will eminate from your once mighty chest.

An old piano, your notes immovable, choked with rain water, you stand by the church, sadly waiting to be taken away.

 

(On Thursday 2 October my mum, her partner and I came across an abandoned piano, in the church close to my home. When first discovered it still worked. However due to heavy rain the piano’s notes are now immovable. How the instrument came to be in the churchyard I have no idea but, at time of writing it remains there).

Managing The Online Distractions

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Many thanks to author Linzé Brandon for hosting a guest post by me, on time management, (http://linzebrandon.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/managing-online-distractions-guest-post.html). Please do check out Linzé’s other posts and, of course her books which can be accessed here, (http://linzebrandon.blogspot.co.uk/).

Birdsong On An Autumn Evening

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An Autumn evening. The park deserted save for me and my dog. A solitary birds sings. Entranced I stand, his song bringing thoughts of sorrow comingled with joy. Beauty, pain and happiness, contradictory emotions stir within my breast.

The lonely bird continues to sing, his voice filling the darkening park.

Distant sound of traffick. I linger, reluctant to break the spell.

Later, the pub full of noise. Yet, through the din I fancy, dim and distant, the singing of the birds can be heard.

Come Back My Little Oxford

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We have all done things in life which we later regret. As a child (teenager) I owned a Braille edition of The Little Oxford Dictionary Of Current English. I regularly consulted the dictionary (all 16 braille volumes of it)! To ascertain the meaning of words with which I was unfamiliar. It was an invaluable resource and, in retrospect I can not, for the life of me recollect why I decided to donate The Little Oxford to The National Library For The Blind in Stockport (UK). My decision to donate was no doubt connected with the proliferation of online dictionaries (why retain a dictionary which occupies a whole bookshelf when one can ascertain the same information by logging onto Google or another internet search engine of your choosing)? However I now regret my hasty decision, and wishing to obtain an updated replacement I logged onto the Royal National Institute Of Blind People’s (RNIB’s) website, only to discover that the Dictionary is no longer available in Braille.

Why the desire for a paper dictionary? Online dictionaries are convenient in that they do not take up shelf space. In addition an internet work of reference can (unlike it’s print counterpart) be easily updated. However online dictionaries (the free ones at any rate) tend to be chock full of advertisements (I hate wading through ads to find what I am looking for). Additionally I dislike being online while writing. The ideal, for me at least is to turn off my mobile, log off the internet and close e-mail thereby ensuring that I can concentrate, 100 percent on my writing. Also, to be frank I like leafing through paper dictionaries, perhaps at the age of 45 this love of traditional sources of reference is ineradicable. I suspect that in years to come paper dictionaries will become quite collectable. It will be a talking point when someone has on their shelves a copy of the last print edition of The Oxford English Dictionary but, in the meantime I still regret the loss of my 16 volumes!

http://newauthoronline.com/2014/04/21/shed-a-tear-for-the-oed/