In pulling together material for my next book project (short story collection), I’ve been doing some digging into my early published works. And we’re talking really early. I’ve been doing this for a scary long time! (Dude – the 1980s called and they want their chapbooks back!) For some reason, this caused me to lay out a bunch of my published works in chronological order, left to right, top row to bottom (click to enlarge).
This past weekend, I was one of 40 authors promoting my books at WordsFest on the upper level of the Covent Garden Market in London. Because of the timing (having just received my first batch of hard copies of my second novel Risk), the festival became the ideal occasion for an unofficial book launch.
Heard any good books lately?
One of the things I love (or have come to love) about my job is that I do a lot of traveling by car. This might not normally be seen as an upside, but in my case it means I can spend many (fully paid) hours enjoying books.
The final proof copy has at last arrived, been drooled over and approved! It is a thing of beauty. Love the cover, love the interior, love the back jacket and the glossy feel of it in my hands. Absolutely blown away. The convenience of my e-reader is amazing and I’m so excited to sell my book in that format, but there’s nothing like a hardcopy to excite the senses. So, let’s make this official… I am proud to say that my novel “Once Were Friends” is now launched into the world.
During my ongoing journey to publication of my novel “Once Were Friends,” I came across a free e-book entitled “Smashwords Book Marketing Guide” by Mark Coker, the founder of Smashwords. The following 41 excellent suggestions are explained at length in the book.
What do Margaret Atwood, Paulo Coehlo and Cory Doctorow all have in common? They’re writers, yes, but what else? Actually, they have all posted their work on Toronto-based Wattpad, as have I. I actually joined a couple of years ago but only began posting my work in the last month or so.
I’m really excited to present the book cover for my first project, a novel called “Risk” which I will be posting on Wattpad starting this week. I will probably be posting a couple of chapters a week. I’m lucky to be married to an incredible artist who came up with this cover for me, as well as another one which is in the works. We spent a lot of hours today fine tuning the fonts, images and color choices, all of which I’m really happy with. Continue reading
My wife and I did a driving tour of England a few years after we were married and, being English majors, decided we really should hit some of the literary hotspots. This was 1995.
We drove through Historic York, up to Scotland and through the Lake District, pulling off when the road signs seemed interesting. One of our stops was Tintern Abbey. I don’t know why, or what we were looking for there. Maybe the ghost of William Wordsworth. Continue reading
Before getting started on this daunting journey, I asked around for some feedback on what tools were absolute requirements and what ones I could do without. My feeling is that the more I can keep my costs down, the quicker I will begin to see a return on my investment.
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Mark Victor Young 
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