Lexxy

One of the things you need to publish online is to provide your own covers. For Prince Arkenbright, I really could see the covers done by Alexandra Douglass, aka Lexxy.

Of course I'll need to sell a few more stories before it makes sense to spend money on commissioning covers.

Land of Frost by Lexxy

Game On by Lexxy

Necromancer by Lexxy

If you like her work, you can see more on her website.

How to Self-Publish Online - Part 1

I've had a few people ask me how you go about publishing online. It's actually pretty simple.

The First Step, of course, is to write something you think is worthwhile. Then edit it thorougly, get some feedback and rewrite as necessary. That's the same as any other kind of writing really. In this situation it is perhaps a little more crucial, because there are no editors between you and the world other than the ones you yourself insert into the process.

That means it's very easy to put something out containing embarassing mistakes, and who wants to do that?

The Second Step, before you can be published, is to commission, make or otherwise acquire a cover for whatever it is you're publishing.

It's probably smartest to get something you can use without getting into trouble. You know, don't use other people's copyrighted work without permission and so on.

The Third Step is to go to Smashwords and upload your work. Smashwords has fairly comprehensive step-by-step guides of their requirements, plus some tips. Definitely read those before you upload anything.

Once you upload your work, it takes about twenty four hours before it becomes available, but then that's it, you're published. Smashwords takes about 30% of what you make, the rest goes to your paypal account.

Now, to get people to download and read your stuff that's a whole other thing of course.

That said, if you followed the instructions they gave you, not only are you published, but eventually your work will be available on Amazon and through the iBook store.

I'll go into a little more detail about the process at Smashwords in a later post.

Chen Man

Chen Man is one of the leading fashion photographers in China right now.
It has nothing to do with writing, but many of her pictures are very cool.

Chen Man has a blog here . It seems to mostly be more regular, bread and butter fashion shoots. She also has a website, but it's been very slow in opening so I have no idea what it's like.

Things on the Go

One of the things about independent projects is that you generally don't have somebody bugging you with deadlines. In some ways it's nice, but it makes self-discipline more important. In an effort to make my self-imposed deadlines a little more concrete, here's a list of the things I'm working on now:

• At the Lovely Touch - another short story, more serious in tone about Chinese gangsters in Vancouver. Part of a series tentatively called Danger in Vancouver. This story is finished and is just waiting an edition pass and a cover.
• Unspecified Start-up Project - just maybe Bryna, Brent, Tony and will embark on a independent project. I have some documents to write up about the concept, and I need them done very soon.
• The next installment in the Prince Arkenbright series - I know what I'm writing, I even have a couple of key passages. I just have to find the time to sit down and do it.
• Hong Kong Film Project #1 - I'm working with a couple of guys, Keith and Howard, who have a pretty cool idea for a Hong Kong film. I've started on a treatment of their idea and I need to finish it. Then we'll try to pitch it in Hong Kong.
• Hong Kong Film Project #2 - this is another screenplay I want to write and pitch in Hong Kong, once everything above has been squared away.
• ... and then there are one or two things that I'm not supposed to mention at all; so I won't.

Enough to keep me busy for the next little while.

Welcome to Adventures in Writing

I'm going to join the mid 90s or so and start a blog.

I have 12+ years experience in videogames, I've just taken the very first steps down the path of self-publishing. I've also had a variety of encounters with the film industry, both in Hollywood and Hong Kong and I'm still noodling around with a handful of screenwriting projects.

In this blog I intend to chronicle my various projects and make some hopefully not too dumb observations about being a writer. Sometimes I do other things too, and if they're interesting I'll post about them here as well.

So welcome, gentle reader. I hope you find something worthwhile here on Adventures in Writing.