With 8 boxes of my memoir, The Baby Box, hot off the press, it is time to concentrate on marketing and selling. However, before that I want to run readers through the process of publishing with Matador, now established as the leading publisher for those who want DIY publication. The first step for me was … Continue reading THE PRE-PRODUCTION STAGES OF PUBLISHING
At the weekend, I listened to Jeremy Thompson, Managing Director of Troubador Publishing, talking to @PaulTeagueUK about the 7th Self Publishing Conference to be held in Leicester on Saturday 27 April. As usual Jeremy was easy to listen to, informative and enthusiastic. I first heard about Troubador’s self publishing company, Matador, two or three years … Continue reading The Start of the Journey towards Publication
At a recent gathering of friends, someone announced she was having a book published in 2019. During questions re content and date of publication, it emerged the book was a memoir. I volunteered that I, too, was having a memoir published in the coming year but that mine was a self-publishing project. All discussion stopped … Continue reading New Year, A New Project
The old year ends on a high note. My memoir is finally on it's way to the printers and it's possible the book might be available earlier in 2019 than we expected. Which means I should head on over to my Troubador/Matador website to see what I should be posting there. Just one seasonal thought. … Continue reading Christmas 2018
I'm applying to renew my UK Passport and also need a tourist visa for Russia. This is going to take several months and I might have to use the services of an agency for the visa. This is not the first time I've needed a Russian Visa, so I'm hoping it'll be straightforward. But first … Continue reading UK Passports, Certificates of Birth and Adoption
It's Advent and we're all thinking of what we can either give or receive for Christmas Presents. These below will not necessarily make good presents to give or receive as anyone with a secret history of a baby given away or being adopted or of adopting a child might prefer her memories to remain private. … Continue reading Books
Following stories on social media, I have discovered how desperate so many women and men are to trace their birth mothers, and how women, who ‘gave away’ their baby in adoption, long to contact their child now they are adult. Reading their words, has made me re-consider the whole practice of, what was, if not … Continue reading Adoption Matters
I have a completed manuscript which I am trying to place. It began as the diary of a certain two years of my life which soon became a complete history. I amended a chapter of the manscript to read as a complete piece and submitted it for the Fish Short Memoir Prize. It was shortlisted. … Continue reading Memoir…or not?
My memoir is complete. I have written all want to write. I have told my story. I have lost count of how many drafts I've created. I've been writing various versions of this history for the last 16 years. Lesson 1. The first draft won't do. Most writers create, destroy, re-create. Writing takes a long … Continue reading You think you have finished…
Are you the busiest unpublished writer in existence? At times it seems I could be. Like now. I have too many projects to keep up with but I don't want to give any of them up. There's this blog, for instance. Why am I late with writing a new blog? Because there's no one sitting … Continue reading Too Many Irons in the Fire
