Two authors share their thoughts on technological developments. What do they think of eBooks?
Tweeting author boosts sales
A writer in Staffordshire is using Twitter to introduce a 14 century ‘chav’ heroine to a global audience.
Michael Eardley says improved access to technology provides greater opportunities for self publishing but does mean the writer also becomes the PR machine.
“Something like Twitter or MySpace or some of the other social sites – they’re not a totally easy option, because you do have to still dedicate time and effort to them. It is still work. And you’ve got to be prepared to set aside time in the day and you’ve got to make it work”.
Michael writes fiction based on historical fact, often called faction. He uses tweets to promote things like the characters he is writing about or story developments he happens to be working on.
“The whole basis of self publication, whether it’s music, poetry, writing, technical issues even. You can sit down and do it if you want to. It’s the freedom I think I like, for good or for bad”, he says.
“I don’t just put a twitter out saying, please buy my book”, he explains, “I’ll put a twitter out describing the heroine from the 14th century? She was married three times, never had any legitimate children, lived with a bloke for twenty years and had five illegitimate children. She was a blackmailer. She was a scrapper. Am I describing a chav?”
His novel Letter from Poitou was picked up by PublishAmerica following what he calls a “scatter gun” PR effect. This involved saving the novel as a text file, burning it to CD rom and posting the CDs to relatives and friends in the UK and the US. He also sent postcards to people he thought might be interested in his book.
Although PublishAmerica printed and marketed Letter from Poitou, Michael thinks his more recent promotional work using social networks like Twitter has led to more sales than through more conventional channels over the last few years.
Naomi Alderman
Her first novel, Disobedience, was published in nine languages and won the Orange Award for New Writers. She is currently developing a creative writing software application for the iPhone. The application will send suggested writing topics to subscribers every day, which she hopes will be enjoyable.
Speaking of technology, what would she include in her dream eReader?
What suggestions does she have for eBook providers to be innovative?
What might the eBook mean for the publishing industry?