<![CDATA[louisepakeman.com]]> Tue, 18 Feb 2020 06:23:45 GMT Tue, 18 Feb 2020 06:23:45 GMT As an individual I have always been a passionate reader and as a writer I have always felt that it was up to writers to support other writers by reading - and buying books or at least getting them out of the library; the latter of course a far cheaper alternative but still helpful to writers through the PLR scheme.


Most avid readers will have discovered that books overseas are frequently less costly than here and browsing on line bookstores can be just as enjoyable as physically wandering into a shop and much easier to locate   individual books as it only takes a flick of the mouse to move from one shop to another and with modern technology one can even look inside a book. Click on the cover of OUT OF TIME on my website and you will be able to read the opening pages..


 The big snag about buying books on line  has been mailing costs. It has always been frustrating to find the book one wants in a bookshop on the other side of the world at an incredibly reasonable price only to discover that mailing is actually more than the book price!


Not any more; The Book Depository in England sends anywhere in the world FREE! Yes, you read that correctly, and what is more they have a huge list including all Louise Pakeman's novels! Click on www.bookdepository.co.uk  and browse through their extensive lists.  You can also see a map of the world showing just what books are going where all the time.


So much for buying the end product, what about publishing and producing books? OUT OF TIME is published by a POD publisher (Print On Demand) which means exactly that, Instead of vast numbers being printed to sit around in warehouses they are printed as required. Saving paper, and trees. Therefore great for the environment. Good for publishers, not so much initial expense, good for writers, for so long as readers  want copies it need never go out of print; and that means good for readers too. In other words this is a win/win way of producing books.


Novels have -  or should have, a theme as well as a plot. The plot is the story, the theme is what the story is really about. The theme of OUT OF TIME is reincarnation and appeals to anyone who has had odd experiences of  being somewhere before, even though they haven’t, or of knowing someone they have never met before; and that includes most of us.

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<![CDATA[Books]]> Tue, 16 Nov 2010 03:08:13 GMT
The rapid advance in technology has changed the face of the publishing world. There are so many ways the aspiring writer can get their work 'out there' to the reading public today without going through all the hoops of finding a publisher, or an agent to find one for you.


At one time 'Vanity' publishing, that is paying to get a book published, was frowned upon as the last desperate measure by the writer of inferior material to get into print. Even so many authors who are now well known took this route to publication. Prejudice dies hard however and those who self publish today find their route to the reading public impeded by the refusal of  book distributors to consider anything that does not come from one of the established publishing houses. So the author takes to the road and confronts book shops directly to be told 'Oh – we only buy from distributors.'


Rapidly advancing computer technology however has improved things, both for new authors and the reading public who now have access via the Internet to a much wider range of reading. POD (Print On Demand) and electronic reading devices such as Kindle make it possible for writers and readers to make the all important connection without the author mortgaging their home and ending  up with boxes of books filling the garage or stacked under the bed. Both methods of giving birth to a book are environmentally friendly.


Recent years have seen a proliferation in the number of self publishing firms and again the internet makes this a much more viable proposition and widens the choice for would be authors who  no longer need to have their books printed  locally. Many of these offer a very good service dealing with all the mundane details such as ISBN numbers, bar codes etc. and putting the book on line on their own websites. Some even arrange publicity for their authors and include their books in catalogues for libraries. Time spent  browsing the web sites of these publishers is well spent.


With so many new avenues opening for writers eager to get in print one wonders why so many spend so much time and energy knocking, figuratively speaking, at agent's doors and  are lucky if they get the briefest of Thanks – but no thanks. It takes a hardy spirit and a great deal  of faith in one's own ability as a writer to survive the constant put downs not only from publishers but agents. This appears to be a relatively new phenomenon, When I launched myself eagerly onto the world as a writer fifty years ago I had no trouble finding an agent, in fact they often found me and it was their encouragement and belief in me that helped me to be the published author I am today.

 
I would urge anyone who really wants to write to go for it, don't get put off and don't believe those people, usually agents, who tell you that you cannot get anywhere on your own, there ARE commercial publishers who will take un-agented material and there are other avenues to get your precious book out to readers.

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<![CDATA[Publishing]]> Tue, 14 Sep 2010 10:02:19 GMT

Writing is a strange profession because it is such a mixture of positives and negatives. On the one hand we need to hole up on our own with only our computer for company, on another if we don’t go out in the world and mix with others what on earth are we going to have to write about? We also tend to rocket up and down between our highs and our lows, our acceptances and our rejections. And always there is the spectre of the blank mind haunting us. Better known as Writers’ Block’ it affects us all from time to time. How do we deal with it? Join the blog and share any good ideas you have.


I have been completely stuck in the doldrums of writers block with the novel I am writing at the moment. I simply had no idea where it or my characters were going next, or even if they would go at all. Things changed dramatically for me recently in a most bizarre way I have never experienced before. I dreamed my way out of the impasse. O.K. others have dreamed up plots I know but what made this so strange was that in the dream I was not me seeing how and what to write but I was my main character. I knew what she was feeling, what she was seeing, and above all what she was going to do. I was her, inside her head. It was quite bizarre. I woke up remembering, so all I have to do now is write about 60,000 words to get my book completed!


That was one of the highlights of my last few weeks, the other was the arrival in the mail of a complimentary copy of the audio version of my last published novel TELL ME NO LIES. It is beautifully read by the British actress Julia Barry. I have long wanted to hear one of my books read to see how I really wrote, Julia read it so well that I found it hard to believe I had actually written it! In fact it boosted my confidence in myself as a novelist and powered my creativity so much that the long road ahead to actually commit my dreamed up novel to paper appears much less daunting.


Another boost I had in the desert of these long weeks of Writers’ Block was the appearance in Large Print of a very short novel I wrote many years ago. It was published as an e-book  and as a serial in a magazine. This book, THE ROOKS OF ROSELEIGH now published as a Large Print by Chivers in the U.K. was written about twelve years ago. And the fact that it has just gone into this new incarnation highlights two important lessons for writers, NEVER throw anything away and Never, EVER part with ALL the rights in its first incarnation.


I know I cannot expect to dream every time the dreaded Writers’ Block strikes, especially as I have no idea how to trigger such a dream, so any suggestions on how to deal with this insidious ailment gratefully received via the blog.  This blog is not just about me and my books but is intended for all writers to share your frustrations and triumphs.

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<![CDATA[May Blog]]> Thu, 06 May 2010 06:13:04 GMT

My apologies for the tardy appearance of a new blog on this web page. I have no real excuse, I was just suffering from one of the common Writers’ ailments, possibly the last, procrastination complicated by  inertia.- There are, it seems, a range of ailments quite peculiar to writers.


WRITER’S CRAMP is well-known, the unfortunate sufferer has such painful cramp in the fingers and arm muscles that holding a pen becomes almost impossible. This became less common with the advent of typewriters and with the availability of computers even less so. This is fortunate for this ailment inevitably led to Editor/Publisher’s Eyestrain which considerably reduced the probability of publication.


WRITER’S BLOCK another unfortunate malady that has been around for a long time. This disease attacks the imagination of the sufferer who finds that the myriad peoples and situations hitherto filling the mind and insisting that the writer commit them to paper have completely disappeared – taken flight to – where? The only cure for this appears to be to sit it out and wait for them to return. If the attack is not too serious it may be possible to lure them back by a process known as ‘association of ideas’. The sufferer sits down in a quiet spot with a blank sheet of paper and jots down a word at random, such as apple then whatever word that brings to mind and so on until something clicks and an idea presents itself.


PROCRASTINATION. the most serious disease of all to infect writers  can be both  subtle and totally devastating at the same time. The main symptom is an eagerness to do anything BUT write. The odd thing about this ailment is that it affects almost all writers in some degree. However much we love our craft it seems we can be lured away from the computer to do - well almost anything. Read other writers’ books, talk to friends on the phone, go on a shopping spree, out to lunch, gardening, a very insidious lure this, walk the dog, housework – you name it you will find a reason to do it. The cast iron excuse we give ourselves is that we have to live, meet people, have experiences, or what the hell are we going to write about? Treatment is strict self discipline,  so many words per day.  A nagging editor, publisher or agent demanding the finished work can be a great help. Success is also a great spur and on that note I am happy to tell you all that I have just signed the contract for my 10th. novel. This is set in both England and Australia and follows two generations of women. It was inspired by the popular saying Your son is your son till he gets him a wife but your daughter is your daughter all her life. The underlying theme of the book  is the mother/daughter relationship. Publication date will be announced on this website as soon as known.

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<![CDATA[First Blog for 2010]]> Mon, 18 Jan 2010 08:39:20 GMT
The more fiction I write and  the more years I get under my belt the more I realise the truth of this. Which brings me inevitably to another point about writing fiction. It must be about the only profession in this day and age where advancing years is an asset not a huge handicap.


It is because truth is indeed so often stranger (and less believable) than fiction that helps to make growing older an advantage. But…isn’t imagination the vital quality that makes a fiction writer?’ I don’t think so – I think it is the seasoning that turns real life experience into interesting and exciting reading with that vital ring of truth, the factor in every good novel that makes the reader keep turning the pages.


How often have you read a novel and felt This is ridiculous – it could never happen in real life and it has lost its hold on you? On the other hand when you recognise the reality of events, emotions, situations, then you can truly relate to the characters and eagerly read on.


The art in writing a believable novel is not to write events exactly as they happen with deadly accuracy, that is biography, autobiography or narrative non-fiction but to search your personal store  of  memories (and here is where the advantage of many years of living comes in) for incidents or events that stand out.


 In  everything that happens in life there are always choices. The way things go depends on the reaction and actions of the people involved. You can take the same situation and change the characters and events will move in a totally different way. As a fiction writer you are in the unique position of playing God. You create the situation, create characters with the personality traits you want them to have, put them together and pull the strings.


The best fiction is based on truth. We can look back down the years and see events that stand out, moments when we had a choice, now we have taken on the role of the Almighty we can shuffle things around, alter the main characters, change the dialogue,  make a different choice this time and see what happens. Here is where your imagination comes in, now you can say and do what you like when at the time you may have felt there was only one possible course to take.


From your rich storehouse of memories pick an incident, or maybe a phrase or a sentence you remember  someone said that has stuck in your memory, use this as the starting point and let your imagination do the rest as far as the action goes but it is remembering and recording your own feelings rather than imagining them that helps to make your fictitious characters ‘real’ and totally believable to your reader.

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<![CDATA[Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction - Part 1]]> Mon, 09 Nov 2009 05:20:52 GMT
My novel OUT OF TIME   opens with a quite bizarre incident that actually happened to me many years ago. The characters are changed, the actual words used slightly different although the underlying meaning is the same, and the rest of the story is pure fiction. An oxymoron if ever there was one, for as I have just said there is no such thing as ‘pure’ fiction as the characters and events that get into novels are a  pot-pourri of memories stored, pulled out and mixed together. Blended by imagination they stand on their own, unrecognisable as people or events from our life. But because they come from memory and experience they have the ring of truth.


When it comes to describing places then we need to decide whether we are going to create our own imaginary country or whether we are going to set our stories in real locations. Here I think the dictum Write about what you know is all important. If you make a mistake someone, somewhere will spot it. I can remember many years ago reading a novel in which a character took a train from Snow Hill Station in Birmingham (England) and arrived at Euston (London). Trains from Snow Hill went to Paddington. To get from Birmingham to Euston one took a train from New Street station. From that moment on the book lost its savour for me because this error had jerked me out of my immersion in the story, I lost my belief in it. A good editor should have picked this up.


I set one of my books in the riverside suburb of Barnes, London. I had lived there for a time and liked it very much and thought I knew it pretty well but my editor knew it better and pointed out to me that I had a street name wrong. That taught me to either have  a map handy or revert to the omnipotent role and create my own town.

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<![CDATA[Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction - Part 2]]> Mon, 09 Nov 2009 05:20:52 GMT

As publishers become thinner on the ground and writers thicker the task of finding a publisher gets more difficult. This has opened the door for self publishing firms. No longer termed ‘vanity publishing’ this form of getting into print for the writer convinced they have something worthwhile to say is a valid option. Modern technology has also made it easier to publish a book at reasonable cost without resorting to enormous quantities destined to be stored in closets, garages, attics, sheds or even under beds while the author struggles to sell copies.

Conviction that I had something worthwhile to say, (or my ego) and the fact that I had already had twelve non-fiction books published, in addition to the ten books of fiction published under another gave me the confidence to offer my book to publishers who had similar titles in their lists. Many ignored me; some turned my idea down flat, one or two said that ‘It was a lovely book and they would like to publish but ….’ The buts ranged from the world financial situation and theirs in particular to my admission that I was not prepared to spend years traveling the world to promote it.

It was when an English publisher who had actually asked to see the whole manuscript, suggested self publication that I first looked seriously at the idea. I contacted self publishers in the U.S. England and Australia. The response ranged from completely ignoring me to inundating me with publicity for their own business and a bombardment of emails. I was totally confused. Then I saw a small news paragraph in the ASA newsletter about a presentation on self publishing in Sydney. Almost as a last resort I emailed the firm presenting this. There was no way I could get to the workshop. I received neither a chilling silence nor reams of bumff but a personal call. After a few minutes I was confident that not only was I in expert hands but that my own ideas would be listened to.

I wrote the book, provided the photos, did the proof reading, fixed the price and said when I wanted it ready. Knowing the vital importance of the cover I asked them to design it. They got the ISBN and barcode, the boxes of books were delivered to my door ahead of the agreed publication date and I had helpful supportive advice throughout. The result is in every way a professional production. I am now faced with the biggest problem of all for self-published authors – selling it! In the desire to actually get into print this is sometimes overlooked.

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<![CDATA[THE SELF PUBLISHING EXPERIENCE Part 1]]> Mon, 12 Oct 2009 05:52:55 GMT
A presence on the Internet is vital. I have a web page with an active blog and a presence on face book But you have to get people on line to see these. Business cards distributed as widely as possible work well.

I have done no paid advertising, but sent review copies to places who have expressed willingness to review. I have approached distributors with an even more depressing result than publishers. NONE have had the courtesy to even email a NO response! Extremely frustrating when booksellers say they only buy through distributors! However small independent specialist shops who already stock my books have placed orders. My biggest sales however are from word of mouth, I have had more than one person order a single copy as a present for a friend and follow with another order because ‘it looks so interesting they want to read it themselves’ Without exception comments on the cover are full of praise.

And the subject of my book? Cats – but a cat book with a difference. It is basically a memoir of my own life through the special cats who have shared time with me. The few publishers that did comment on the subject all said the same thing, it fell between two stools, it could not be classified as a memoir or a cat book! The comments I have had to date from those who have read it tell me that is exactly what they like about it! Maybe publishers and distributors are mistaken in feeling they need to classify books so rigidly.

To sum up I would say publish yourself by all means if you have faith in your work, but do it with professional help. I have talked to people who have done the entire hard slog themselves from getting the ISBN to dealing with printers and they have said how tough it was. Then at the end they still had to sell it.

My advice is write the best book you can and get it produced as well as possible. With interesting content and an eye catching cover the book will sell itself. Each copy that goes out is an ambassador for the others. Even if sales are slow but are mostly at the full retail price you will end up better off than selling through distributors at a huge discount.

THE POWER OF THE CAT by Ann Walker. Can be viewed on the author’s website, www.annwalkerbooks.com and on www.publish-me.com.auThe Power Of The Cat
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<![CDATA[THE SELF PUBLISHING EXPERIENCE Part 2]]> Mon, 12 Oct 2009 05:52:55 GMT
Why do you write? Why do any of us do it? Not for money, and hardly for fame as most of us spend our working lives tapping away in front of a  screen in the obscurity of our own special writing niche with no idea what we will get paid, or even if we will be paid, for our efforts. So what is it that keeps us tapping away?


We love it, For some reason it has us by the short and curlies, it is as necessary to us as the air we breathe. This is both our strength and our weakness. It keeps us going when any sane person would cry quits. That is our strength. It is our weakness because loving writing we are even prepared to do it for nothing, or very low financial return for the many hours of hard slog.


I have wanted to write stories since I was seven years old and had a mastery of the English language sufficient to allow me to do so. One of my very first efforts, a harrowing tragedy, was written for my father when I was about seven and a half. I was in my first year at boarding school so was probably unconsciously expressing my own feelings through my chief character who died 'in the heart of a wood' where she had managed to get lost. My seven-year-old self was certainly lost in the dark maze of boarding school life in those first months. No doubt it was very therapeutic for me to write this, and that maybe is another reason why we write, we need to, we have this deep urge to express ourselves on paper through our alter egos, our imaginary characters. Twenty-five years later when my father died my mother found this early masterpiece of mine tucked securely in one of the pigeon-holes of his desk and returned it to me.


From that first story on I wrote for pleasure. More cheerful stories, mainly about the horses that were the passion of my teenage years. Still at boarding school I wrote stories in the time allotted for homework. I went on writing when I left school. Mainly because no one else seemed to see any point in writing if I didn't also sell I sent my stories off to various likely and unlikely magazines. They returned with the reliability of Homing pigeons and my mother urged me to stop, it was, she felt altogether too distressing. I could not make her understand that it was the writing that mattered; selling would be the icing on the cake.

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<![CDATA[Writing - Why Do We Do It?]]> Fri, 25 Sep 2009 12:49:34 GMT
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