The Crafty Writer has been taking a bit of a back seat lately due to the launch of my new books (which I’ll be telling you about in future posts). But as so many of you enjoy all of the advice you receive from The Crafty Writer I thought it was time to get back in the saddle (if you’ll excuse the mixed metaphor). I have asked Sunday Times best-selling author Mel Menzies, who has just brought out a new psychological mystery, Time to Shine, to give us a masterclass on developing character. Continue reading ‘Developing Character for your Story’
Archive for the 'Guest Blogs' Category
This week’s guest post is from prolific children’s author Alexa Tewkesbury. Alexa’s books are particular favourites of my seven-year-old daughter and mine, so I’m chuffed to host her. She talks about getting ideas, reading other authors and the simple joy of writing for young readers. Are you sitting comfortably? Continue reading ‘Writing for children: getting ideas’
This week’s guest post is from poet Paul Canon Harris who has recently hit the performance poetry circuit. So pour yourself a drink, find yourself a seat, and let’s get on with the show …
I am something of a novice and a Johnny-come-lately to writing and performing poetry. When you are a keen sportsman and most of your pals are alpha-male beer drinkers it takes a bit of courage to come out as a poet! In the last year I have done that, my first collection of poems, Best Before, is now published and I am reading or performing poems in a wide range of venues. Continue reading ‘Performance poetry: a novice dips his toes’
Today’s guest post is by Tony Glover, the latest ‘signing’ for the Crafty Writer’s publishing wing, Crafty Publishing. Tony who has written extensively for theatre and screen has just released the first in a series of crime novels and tells us where he gets his ideas in the first place. It’s all a matter of chemistry, apparently …
‘Where did you get the idea?’ It’s the most banal question – yet the hardest to answer. Creativity is a mysterious affair. Where do ideas come from? How do we access the part of our mind which produces them? Continue reading ‘Novel ideas: the chemistry of creativity’
Do you want to make a full-time career of writing? Your Crafty host Fiona Veitch Smith talks to publisher John Koehler about how to make a career out of writing while waiting for that big break to come along http://www.koehlerbooks.com/how-to-be-a-crafty-writer/
Self-publishing: everyone and their second cousin are into it these days. But is it as easy as it sounds? Self-published author Sam Lenton tells The Crafty Writer about his experience so far … Continue reading ‘Self-publishing: the good, the bad and the ugly’
On The Crafty Writer we like to feature as wide a range of writing styles as possible. However, we’ve never featured writing for comics. That perhaps is because I’ve never met a niche comic writer only cartoonists and artists who dabbled in a bit of writing. Then along came Daniel Clifford and everything changed … Continue reading ‘How to write for comics’
In this final post in the series, publisher John Koehler discusses the role that publishers and authors play in marketing their books. John mentioned to me that in his experience, generally non-fiction authors adapt to the idea that they need to participate in the marketing of their books more easily than fiction authors. But both must do it. I’ll let John tell you how and why … Continue reading ‘What a publisher does – part 3:marketing’
In this second guest post from publisher John Köehler he explains the book design process and the author’s role in it.
Co-operative design
A publisher has the right to essentially do as they please with regards to the creative development of the editing and the design of any given book. But as we established in the previous article about co-operative editing, it is advantageous to the publisher to have the author involved with all stages of the creative process of preparing the book for publication.
The cover
The cover is typically the first design element considered. We want to know exactly what the author is thinking about their cover. True enough they are usually not award-winning designers as we have on our team, but they know their book. Often an author will have a very specific idea of what they want and in many cases come to the table with a design in hand.
Of the 50 or so books we’ve published, we have never used a design offered by an author. Which sounds like it contradicts my point about keeping the author involved, but it doesn’t. The original thoughts and desires of the author may play into a design the publisher comes up with, and for us, it usually does.
We ask authors to not only tell us their written thoughts and share any sketches they have, we ask them to show us 3-4 book covers they like and why they like them. Once again, this is not intended to get the author to do the publisher’s job, but to establish a criteria and general consensus on style and look. For our designers, this gives us much more to work with, and also increases the likelihood we are going to ding the bell and create a cover that is perfect for the manuscript, and gives the author buy-in.
This does not mean that we limit ourselves to the covers we are shown or the written concepts that are shared – on the contrary. They are all a jumping-off point. Sometimes the winning cover comes directly from that process. Sometimes the design team will diverge completely away and try something new and decidedly different than what the author is thinking. Whatever it takes, we do.
We tell our authors that they will be a part of the process, but that when it comes to making creative decisions, it is no longer about them, or us, but it is all about the work of art that we are creating. The cover, like the editing, must be the best cover for the book we are producing. Period. That is a good way of reminding them that while we insist on working collaboratively, it is not their call; if in fact a creative call must be made due to lack of consensus, the publisher will make the call. Regardless of the collaboration and cooperative spirit of the endeavor, there can only be one boss! Surprisingly we rarely have an issue with covers and usually achieve consensus with the author.
Text layout
Design co-operation extends into the layout of the text. The author will review the layout top to bottom, including title page, legal page, acknowledgements, etc. There are usually fewer issues or decisions on the text. Lastly comes the cover spread, showing the back cover, spine and front cover.
Design co-operation extends into other items such as tip sheets, author signing posters and the like. Regardless of the design element, if it is related to the book, we want the author’s eyes on it. Because, like editing, the more eyes the better, and the more likely the author will get behind the book, own it completely and engage readers through promotions and marketing.
In my next guest post for The Crafty Writer I will be discussing marketing and distribution.
John Köehler is the author of five books, including his latest, Billy Blue Sky. He is the founder and publisher of Köehler Books. Köehler Books offers conventional and co-publishing book deals. See here for a discussion of how co-publishing differs from conventional publishing, and here for some tips on how to identify the different kinds of publishing deals.
Your Crafty host Fiona Veitch Smith is talking about the benefits of writing a series over at Martin Willoughby’s Sand and Glass blog. She gives her opinion on why readers, publishers and booksellers like series and why authors should consider writing them. She is also available online to answer any questions you may have. Drop by and join in the conversation! http://mwilloughby.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/writing-series-fiona-veitch-smith.html
