published on 2010-08-09
July was a busy month for us – we’ve done a lot of work behind the scenes to create some great new features over August such as site credits, better promotion tools and personalised journeys to help guide you through publishing and getting the most out of CompletelyNovel. Here’s a quick overview. I’d love to know your thoughts, feedback and any ideas you have around this.
published on 2010-08-06
A ‘heads up’ that the Brit Writers Award are now accepting submissions for BWA Unpublished 2011. The official deadline is 5pm (UK time) on Friday 25 February 2011, but they are closing the competition once they receive 20,000 submissions. The organisation behind the Awards is offering £10,000 to the overall winner which is not a small amount! This year was the first year that they put up the prize and it was won by a children’s book author called Catherine Cooper. You can check it out here at www.britwriters.co.uk You can submit up to three pieces of work for a fee of £10.95 (including VAT). But apparently entry is free of charge for entrants who have declared their association to a BWA member school, business or community organisation by using that organisation’s unique BWA membership number. Did anyone enter the last competition – would be interested to hear your experience of it and whether you would recommend it. Also, if you have any opinions about these kinds of competitions, we’d be keen to hear them!
published on 2010-08-06
Last year we ran a project called 24 hr Book. with the SYP, Spread The Word HQ and if:book and the fabulous award-winning author Kate Pullinger. You can now check out the video made by Sasha Hoare which gives a flavour of the event. A team of writers including Sarah Butler, Kati Rynne Aoife Mannix, Dean Atta, Cath Drake, Ben Payne, Chris Meade, Toni Le Busque, Saradha Soobrayen and Shamim Azad worked with Kate and a team of editors to create the fabulous story A Vauxhall Chorus, set in an allotment in South London where a body is found! We’ll be doing another 24 Hour Book Project early in the next year to keep an eye out and we will let you know how you can get involved. We’re going to be introducing a very exciting international element to it….we can’t wait!
published on 2010-07-28
The price of a book is different for a paperback, hardback or eBook. However the factors which influence that price are becoming increasingly hazy. I’m going to discuss where the value of a book is derived from and how technologies might change the pricing models of the future.
published on 2010-07-26
In the third instalment in our Elevator Pitch series, we took to the elevator with writer Katherine Dixson who has published A Year of Living Musically on CompletelyNovel. The idea is you have just a couple of minutes to get over the essentials of your book and sell it to the publisher standing in the elevator next to you. Let’s see how Katherine gets on!
published on 2010-07-22
Our SSL certificate is being upgraded to 2048bit encryption between 22-24 July 2010. This will cause security warnings in modern browsers. The website is still secure however the security cannot be verified by the security authorities during the upgrade so you will receive warnings when trying to access secure (https) sections of the site.
published on 2010-07-19
Like Bees To Honey is my third novel with HarperCollins imprint The Friday Project. That’s three novels with a real life, flesh and blood publisher. Yet, even with three books listed on Amazon and sitting on bookshelves; I still feel this is not enough. I am not saying that I am ungrateful. In fact, not a day goes by when I am not amazed at my good fortune at being published. What I mean is that ‘just’ having a publisher or ‘just’ having a book published is no longer enough to build a writing career. In bygone years, I am sure writers could secure a book deal and then sit back and wait for fame and fortune to come their way. But those days are long gone and I have quickly discovered that building an audience and attracting potential readers is a joint effort between the publisher and the writer.
published on 2010-07-14
It has never been so easy to create a cover for your book! Check out our online Cover Creator and create your cover in few clicks from existing templates.
published on 2010-07-13
Do you know that Facebook plan to reach half a billion of members by 2012? Are you using it? We thought at CompletelyNovel that you should be completely Facebook, that’s why we are integrating it everywhere it makes sense on your favorite website. Check out the ways you can use Facebook on CompletelyNovel!
published on 2010-07-07
“There’s a guy at work with a mug that says ‘If you fail to plan, you plan to fail’. I’m trying to wean myself off coffee-cup life-management, but I like that one. I think it’s particularly pertinent to fiction writing.” Adam Marek, prize-winning short story writer and novelist pits meticulous planning against improvisation when it comes to the writing process. He’s learned the hard way…so you don’t have to!
Discuss: Film of the 24 Hour Book Project:
Yep – the next one is likely to be much bigger and so it will undoubtedly be harder to keep it al…
Discuss: How to price a book in a digital age:
Glad to be of assistance, it’s just my thoughts on the matter. Interestingly enough the largest m…
Discuss: How to price a book in a digital age:
This is an interesting article Oli. In terms of CN and Ebooks where are we in terms of allowing a…
Discuss: How to price a book in a digital age:
Hi,
We’ve got pdf eBook sales which should be coming out of beta this month. This means most e…
Discuss: How to price a book in a digital age:
Thanks for the update Oli. Will the pdf book option enable automatically for any book published u…
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