Andrew’s Comments (group member since Mar 06, 2014)

Andrew’s comments from the Bisky's Twitterling's Scribbles! group.

My new collection of short stories, Something Nicer, has been out for almost a month now. But today, it's available for just $0.99 / £0.99 as it's being promoted by the nice people at EBookSoda.

What happens when ET doesn't phone home, but stays for 30 years? When the evil clown under a child's bed carries on lurking in the shadows through sixth form? When a cat decides catching mice is over-rated, and fixes her ambitions on becoming an art critic? Or when the Internet becomes sentient, and googles the best way to overthrow humanity?

With a cast of ghost zombies, senile witches and cloned Santas, this second volume of short stories from Andrew K Lawston develops the author's unique way of looking at the world, and ensures you'll never look at a stepladder in the same way.

Something Nicer on Amazon, like Ken it's cheaper than coffee, until tomorrow afternoon!

I get really grumpy. For about five minutes, in the privacy of my own home. There's nothing like a cathartic stomp around the flat, and some coffee in your favourite mug.

The trouble only starts when people leave their internet connection on while they're stomping.

It's a fun book, and I do heartily recommend it.

I want to have at least two novellas/novels out in 2015, not including the one that's in the final editing stages as we speak. And I need to blog more, maybe once a week if I can?

I had a fun 2014 pootling away on translation projects and short stories, but I need to get some serious stuff written this year.

When shopping around my Casanova translation, Hirst Publishing were the guys who convinced me I'd be better going alone. I spoke to Tim over the phone, and he seemed personable enough, and genuinely excited about my book.

He sent over a contract, etc, which suddenly struck me as a bit odd - although I'd sent him a proper pitch letter, he'd not yet read a word of my translation. It just smelled a bit fishy. I signed the contract, but never returned it. I thought I'd wait and see if he chased me for it before making a decision... and he didn't.

A couple of years afterwards, when I was starting to wonder if I'd made the right decision, I started seeing things like this online:

http://showaddywaddy.wordpress.com/20...

And that made me feel a lot better about sticking the book in my top drawer for a bit.

The thing is, at the time I pitched Hirst, this guy gave every appearance of being truly successful. He'd found a great little niche publishing memoirs and biographies of [mostly] Doctor Who stars, and as I have a few mutual friends in that world, I had a list of glowing testimonials as long as your arm. Everyone I knew in the Doctor Who fan scene was impressed by the fact that I was going to be published by Hirst Publishing.

TL;DR - These guys are very, very clever. And even an initially reputable publisher with the best intentions can end up ripping you off.

I've read so much conflicting information about this process. So far I've not had enough earnings from the US to make it worth my while even applying to be honest. They're welcome to their $0.10 a month, and I hope they build many libraries with the revenue they withhold from me :)

I'm doing both. I self-publish, and I work with various small presses. I don't see the need for an either/or approach. I have greater control over some of my self-published work, but the small press stuff gives me greater visibility in new markets, and raises my profile overall.

Oh, every couple of hours. More if I have a promotion or something.

I have a problem, I know.

Ann wrote: "Andrew wrote: "Gosh, and I just picked up the first book in Ann's Rehab for Superheroes series - it looks utterly brilliant!"

Thanks! I hope it lives up to your initial impression :)"

It was great, and you have your first Amazon UK review for it now :)

Gosh, and I just picked up the first book in Ann's Rehab for Superheroes series - it looks utterly brilliant!

Ann wrote: "I've picked up the following:

Something Nice - Ten Stories by Andrew K Lawston
Not to be Read at Night by Sandrine Spycher
Stand Alone by PD Workman
Guarding Angel by S.L. Saboviec
Shadows of the..."

Thanks, Ann! I really hope you enjoy the book!

Judging by your writing (which is excellent!), J.David, I think the book of mine which is most likely to appeal to you is my collection of quirky short stories, Something Nice. It's up at http://bit.ly/1mrv04v (link will take you to your local Amazon store as I'm a bit vague where everyone in this group comes from).

Now, now. There's more than one way to fillet a penguin.

Finding the right word/phrase/character beats on the first draft isn't incompatible with having fun while writing.

I just use Smashwords for iTunes. And I don't worry about it too much because they've only produced 6 sales in two years of publishing. And all of those were over a year ago.

Even the most ardent Apple disciples of my acquaintance use the Kindle app for e-books. I don't know anyone who seriously reads anything in iTunes.

Though I suspect in about 23 minutes someone will post below and indignantly assure me that they read nothing but iBooks.

(Spoiler: I won't care)

If you can find the budget, my sister in law is a former Big Six designer of fiction and picture books who has just started offering her services to indies and self-pubs. She (and her Pratchett/Blackman/Pasolini stuffed portfolio) can be found at www.facebook.com/lawstondesign - she's a professional, and her rates reflect that, but she might cut you a deal if you mention my name.

I've laid out adverts for magazines and that sort of thing in the past on a very ad hoc basis, so I'm not completely clueless when it comes to gimp, etc. But this is my experience.

Book 1: own photo (taken in a pub garden with my phone), laid out with gimp. Results look home made and cosy. This is actually the look I was going for, but readers don't know that and have stayed away in their millions.

Book 2: Amazon's cover creator. Niche film studies thesis, which will never be an impulse buy for anyone. The Amazon option was the quickest and easiest way of getting some sort of cover together. It looks horrible, but fine.

Book 3: a saga. I did an initial cover with a photo of myself 18th Century costume doubling for Casanova (vain? Moi?). A friend rightly threw up his hands in horror and encouraged me to buy the rights to a photo which he then laid out in InDesign. Trouble was, it was his first book cover (as far as I know)

Then my professional book designer sister-in-law saw his effort, and didn't throw up her hands in horror, but did suggest a bit of a rethink. She overhauled the cover completely, as well as correcting the formatting on the paperback's interior.

And ever since she did that, people started buying the book...

I think the moral is, go to the designer in the first place, whether that's someone trying to expand their portfolio with nominal paid work on Fiverr or a proper freelance rate.

If you're interested in an unreliable first person narrator, I have to say that Engleby by Sebastian Faulks is an absolute masterclass in the form.

It really depends what I'm doing. A deadline does tend to get the best results out of me for short stories, but for longer work and translation I try and do a modest chunk a day.

David wrote: "Good idea - maybe a run to the pub? hummm..."

A walk to the pub is not unheard of... then I do some writing in the pub to make me feel less guilty about it.

I tend not to have much music on, unless there are other noises which are even more distracting and I need to drown them out.

In that event, I tend to go with stuff I know very well, so I can just enjoy passively. Manic Street Preachers, Blur, Meatloaf, Pink Floyd. I'm not cool, I don't care.