Blog for writers

If you have had a go at writing your own book, or want to know how to do it, there is a blog especially for you. http://lulu.com (the writers' publishing system on line) has just announced their blog.


http://lulublog.com/

There you can find lots of information and hints on how to write your book and publish it.

Having gone through this process some years ago, I can tell you a few things about the process.

1) You need to prepare your work in a suitable format using a word processor.
I used Word for Windows.
Note: If you make mistakes in the text, they will appear in the printed work, so go over it carefully before publishing!
Divide the work up into sections for easy handling. I found individual chapters practical (one for each chapter).

2) When you are ready, upload your chapters, introduction etc to your account on lulu.com and create a cover for it (title, image, author's name etc). Then download the PDF file of your creation to your PC. Note: It may take years of work before you get to the publishing stage.

Go over it carefully to spot problems (formatting errors, spelling mistakes, other boo boos in the story).

When you are convinced you have done a good job, publish a copy in its final form (choose cover, style etc). Note: The format of your pages is something you set when writing your Word document(s). If you do a bad job here, it will show up in the published work, so watch out for that.

It may be wise to have a skilled person go over the work and spot problems before you turn it loose on an unsympathetic public.

News:Fine for Google over French books

A Paris court has found Google guilty of copyright infringement in a ruling which could have ramifications for its plans to digitise the world's books.

The search giant must pay 300,000 euros (£266,000) in damages and interest to French publisher La Martiniere.

It was one of many to take Google to court for digitizing its books without explicit permission.

Google was also ordered to pay 10,000 euros a day until it removes extracts of the books from its database. more here

Footnote:My own novel was one of the books captured by google. The link to the real site is here:Return (by John Durham)

Part of it was made available on www.weread.com

Novel (Return by John Durham) now readable on weread.com

Earlier today I was invited to join weread.com so that online readers could read my book there. Several chapters were uploaded (not all). Now members can get a feel for the story before ordering the book. Note:Lots of the good stuff is still found only in the book, so viewers need to get a genuine copy to find out the ending.
Return by John Durham