English Podcasts | The Arts

Self publishing a book

Simon Duke talks to Susan about his experiences of self publishing a book, his own book, “Out of Bounds.”

Self publishing a book is popular for many reasons.

Securing a traditional publishing contract may not work for you — they’re hard to get, and you give up a lot of rights when you finally do get one.

Self-publishing should allow you to retain more rights over the final product, offer the product at a substantially lower cost, and give you an outlet to do traditional marketing and advertising yourself.

No matter what your reason, self publishing is a great way to make your book available to anybody interested. Read on for a discussion of the different ways that you can self-publish a book.

Both Simon Duke and Chris self-published their own books.

Despite technology making it both easier and cheaper to self-publish books, going down the independent road is nothing new. In 1931 the author of The Joy of Cooking paid a local printing company to print 3000 copies.

Later Bobbs-Merill Company acquired the rights, and since then the book has sold over 18 million copies.

The contemporary trilogy Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James was originally published online as Twilight fan-fiction before the author decided to self-publish it as an e-book and print on demand.

The key distinguishing characteristic of self-publishing is that the author has decided to publish independently of a publishing house.

In the past, self-published authors had to spend considerable amounts of money preparing a book for publication, purchasing bulk copies of their title, and finding a place to store their inventory.

Print-on-demand and e-book technology have allowed authors to have a book printed or digitally delivered only when an order has been placed.

In 2008, for the first time in history, more books were self-published than those published traditionally.

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Chris Novel writer – The Last Drop

Podcasts, The Arts

Chris Novel writer – The Last Drop

The Last Drop is a hilarious story of how oil is accidentally discovered on a small and up-to-now, unexplored island in The Persian Gulf by two bumbling brothers.

The brothers first inherit a bicycle repair shop from their father who is killed when he falls asleep on a nearby beach – it’s a long story…
Then they acquire a strip of land from their terminally idle, uncle Hilaal, who is tragically killed whilst trying to cool off during a particularly ferocious heatwave.

Rashad has learnt English by watching 1970’s police series, “The Sweeney” and sees himself as the incarnation of Inspector Jack Regan, seizing each and every opportunity to exercise his own brand of cockney rhyming slang and dubious English language skills.

All is pretty much ordinary in the brothers’ lives, until one day, in an uncharacteristic burst of energy, Rashad takes up the work on an abandoned water well, started by uncle years before …

Life changes for the brothers overnight.

The novel is available to buy here and there is a synopsis to give a little more detail about the book.

Chris is based in Toulouse, France – the idea for the books that he has written have all come about via a challenge that is laid down every November (Chris has done this for four years) calle NaNoWriMo – National Novel Writing Month.

NaNoWriMo is a bit of a misnomer as it is a thoroughly international affair, with tens of thousand of people taking part from all over the world. The idea is to write 50,000 words in 30 days – easy…

If you would like to try NaNoWriMo here is a link – it is free and a lot of fun, and who knows, you could have the next bestseller in you.

Chris’ second book – “The theft of Souls.” will be published in early 2016.

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Simon Duke Crime Fiction Writer

Podcasts, The Arts

Simon Duke Crime Fiction Writer

SIMON DUKE was born in Stoke-on-Trent (UK) in 1979. He obtained a B.A. in French with Film Studies in 2001 and has been working in journalism ever since.

He currently lives in Toulouse, France. ‘Out of Bounds’, his first novel, was published in 2014.

‘The Perfectionist’, his second book, will be launched on 19 January 2016. To find out more visit http://simongduke.blogspot.com “

Here’s the back cover blurb for ‘The Perfectionist’:

“Iowa, 1988. An unidentified severed head is found rotting in a corn field. Confronted with this gruesome discovery, Gerry Stokes – an arrogant and obnoxious newspaper reporter – agrees to cover up the affair. But the truth can’t be concealed forever.

More than twenty years later, Stokes must finally atone for his errors as the past returns with a vengeance. Forced into an investigation to discover what happened all those years ago, he stumbles upon a sordid truth: the victim is one of many; people seemingly chosen at random across America by a serial killer at large for more than two decades; a killer with a unique and horrific modus operandi who’s flown under the radar. Still at large the killer seeks to achieve artistic perfection in his methods of execution. He is “The Perfectionist”.

While tracking the killer under the cloak of FBI suspicion, Stokes sets himself an ambitious target and potential path to fame: write a book that leads the police to the killer, a first in the history of publishing.

The stakes are high and the pressure is on. Stokes is in the race of his life to discover The Perfectionist’s identity and publish his bestseller, while forced to bend the notion of what is ethically right.

Here’s the longer synopsis for ‘The Perfectionist’: http://simongduke.blogspot.fr/2015/02/synopsis-perfectionist.html

The ebook for ‘The Perfectionist’ is already available for pre-order on Amazon, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble.

Here’s a link to my first novel, ‘Out of Bounds’ (paperback): http://www.amazon.co.uk/Out-Bounds-Simon-Duke/dp/1495929906

Here’s a link to my first novel, ‘Out of Bounds’ (ebook): http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/out-of-bounds-simon-duke/1118931454

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Chris’ Jokes – Episode 2

Podcasts, The Arts

Chris’ Jokes – Episode 2

Back by popular demand (at least that is what Chris told us to write) is Chris with a handful of fabulous jokes in front of an adoring crowd (he told us to write that too…)

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The Boston Shakers from Liverpool

Podcasts, The Arts

An interview with two members of the rock band The Boston Shakers, who are in France for their annual holiday, where they talk about living in a foreign country and their life and music in Liverpool, England.

Go to the bottom of the page for the podcast and the download link.