Presentation for 9+ age group to be given at the Linton Children's Book Festival 2012 by Catherine Condie.

1. Publish Your Book
Catherine Condie
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2. Introduction
 This week is a celebration of reading, writing and publishing
books;
 Building your story;
 Different ways of getting your book published;
 Things I’ve learned along the way.
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3. Where I began
 Queen Edith Primary School, Cambridge;
 Writing poetry and short stories – creative
writing;
 Composing songs with my guitar aged 9
and performing at the youth club aged 11
 30 years later I began to write
Whirl of the Wheel.
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5. What interests me about writing
 What interests me most is the feeling that a pattern of
sentences or collection of words gives you;
 Stories, short or long, and poetry are no different to pieces of
music – from Vivaldi to Jessie J and each composed the same
way.
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6. Stories – where do you start and
what should you write?
 Write what you know or what interests you;
 Think of a great plot;
 Create your characters and their voices;
 Show the action, don’t tell it;
 Imagine your story as a film – changing
scenes, different atmospheres;
 Use Post-its on the wall or in a notebook to
order your scenes or ideas.
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7. Whirl of the Wheel
 A story for 8 to 12-year-olds led by a
heroine who happens to be in a wheelchair;
 Light-hearted time-travel adventure into
World War II – time portal is a potter’s
wheel;
 Historical account of evacuation;
 With goodies and baddies.
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8. The Switch
 Young teens’ thriller about a girl on a
French exchange trip who witnesses a
raid at a bar from an apartment window;
 Set in Paris, with some spoken French;
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9. Building your story
In a children’s book the hero will be a child or animal
that has to overcome a challenge to reach a goal.
HOORAY!
High point of the story
Almost
there Mystery
solved
Challenges or scenes that 3
build the story
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OH NO!
Tension
1 Rug-pulling moment
Lull
THE QUEST BEGINS
Main event or discovery that starts the story off
Time
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10. Becoming a good writer
 Read lots of different styles of books,
plus you can read books about writing books;
 Have a go and see what you like to write!
 Ask your English teacher’s or your parents’ advice;
 Start up or become part of a writing group in or outside school;
 Find out about local writing workshops or courses (you might
consider scbwi.com);
 Enter a competition.
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11. My story is complete!
 Fantastic, take a break and celebrate!
 Ask friends, family, teachers to read and comment;
 You could send it to a literary consultancy for comment but
there is a cost www.cornerstones.co.uk;
 Think about posting it online via critique sites like www.
authononomy.com or www.youwriteon.com;
 Look again at your story in the light of what you have learned.
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12. ‘Local’ writers’ networks
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13. Critique sites
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14. I’ve finished . . . what next?
 Editing – read and re-read, making notes by
hand or by making changes as you go, on-
screen. Go through your writing a final time –
line by line to look for mistakes, or ask
someone to help;
 Think about publishing – you could show
your work to a recognised agent or publisher
to see if they are interested in taking you on
as an author . . . or you could self publish.
publish
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15. Traditional publishing
 Look through the Writers’ and Artists’
Yearbook (published by A&C Black);
 Choose agents and publishing companies
suitable for your genre of writing;
 Each agent or publishing company has a
different set of submission guidelines.
Most ask for a few chapters by post;
 Check for errors in your work,
send off your chapters and wait . . .
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16. What is self publishing?
 Using reputable online sites to produce any
number of printed books or e-books via your
netbook or home computer.
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17. Why self publish?
 ‘I have always disliked writing to order;
I write to please myself.’
Beatrix Potter
 Creativity is a personal thing –
self publishing is one answer to keeping
it that way.
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18. Seeing my book in print
 You can take an electronic copy of your
work to a local printer where you pay up
front, for example, for the print of 250
copies;
 Or start a free account with one of the
major online suppliers of printed books
(print on demand) : www.lulu.com or www.
createspace.com.
Order one or two copies – they cover costs
by taking a percentage of each book.
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19. Print on demand
 Lay out your pages using the guide at Lulu or CreateSpace;
 Upload the document and use the cover wizard to create front
and back covers;
 These companies will put your book on their websites and
distribute to Amazon.com and selected online shops for free;
 Think about a selling price for your book.
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20. Seeing my book as an e-book
 You can do this via Lulu or Createspace or
independent sites e.g. Freado/Bookbuzzr ,
Bibliotastic and Feedbooks;
 Kidpub (American organisation)
 or set up a free account with
Kindle Direct Publishing. Note that e-books are
laid out in a different way to printed books;
 KDP makes its money by taking a percentage of
each book you or others buy. It sends your
e-book for free to 5 international Amazon sites.
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21. Spreading the word
I’m published!
 Friends and family, school
fetes or your local
bookshop – Waterstones
and Heffers;
 Facebook author page;
 Blog/blog interviews;
 Twitter;
 Goodreads
www.goodreads.com;
 Free online press
releases prlog.org;
 Make a book trailer;
 Printed leaflets/postcards.
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22. Let’s publish a book
Lulu publishing wizard
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23. and finally. . .
 . . . there is no hurry;
 so have fun!
 and enjoy forming your plot and creating
characters;
 practise writing a few chapters and see where
your story goes;
 if or when you finish, you might now have a plan
for what you can do next.
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24. Any questions?
 This presentation Publish Your Book
for the Linton Children’s Book Festival
2012 is available at Slideshare.net or
via
www.catherinecondie.wordpress.com
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