New Year, New Venue, New Writing Buddies!

So, what do you do when you run a group that has become so popular that it has outgrown its venue, needs to adapt to changing ideas and technology and, generally, move with the times?

Answer: You reorganise!

This is just what we have done within Writing Buddies for the 2015 season.

We have loved every minute of meeting at the Mercure Dolphin Hotel on the High Street but recently it was very apparent that we were trying to squeeze too many into a small space.  So, with many thanks for two successful years at this venue, we have moved to the Seminar Room at the Central Library, Civic Centre, Southampton. We will hold our first meeting there tomorrow, Friday 6 February.

We have also taken the opportunity to revamp the group and present it more professionally. Writing Buddies will stay a not-for-profit organisation but members will now pay a membership fee to join (£15 a year) in addition to the £2 meeting fee. New members will have one free meeting, to get to know the group. Casual members will be welcome at £5 a meeting for a maximum of three meetings.  Proceeds from these fees will be used to fund our notetaker and guest speakers, as well as pay for essentials within the group.

In addition to an increasing line up of guest speakers, new this year will be writing practice, set discussion topics, opportunities to help run the group, writing competitions and an online magazine.  Phew!  We love a cream tea at Christmas, so this is one thing we have retained from the past.

The meetings are open to anyone who is actively writing (or who an interest in an associated field, such as editing, illustration or photography), willing to participate and wanting to have some fun.  Writing Buddies come from all walks of life, are aged from mid twenties to over eighty, write in all genres and are a rich mixture of amateur and professional.

So, we hope that the New Writing Buddies will be as popular as the old.  If you fancy giving us a try, do come along to meet us.  Our meeting dates are on the diary page of this blog.

Writing Buddies November 2014

The regular monthly meeting of Writing Buddies convened on Friday 7 November 2014, at the Mercure Dolphin Hotel, High Street, Southampton, at 2.00 pm. There were eighteen present.

Good News

Ray’s second book is due for launch on 4 December 2014, at the New Bridge Public House, Woolston. He is not fully decided on the title, but it seems logical to keep the same title as his first one, From War to an Iron Figher  but call it Volume 2. It was commented that the first book had had a successful launch at the same venue, with literally hundreds present. The group wished him well. One piece of advice was to keep the cover artwork the same, but to change its colour as this would indicate a new book in the series.

The group wished Jacqueline luck, as she is one of ten shortlisted for the Greenacre Writers writing competition for creative writers and tutors.  

Chrissie has sought advice from publishers in Cromer, Norfolk, about submitting a novel by the beginning of next year. Salt Publishing were very encouraging after her previous novella submission. She also met an agent at the University Theatre in King Alfred College in Winchester, who gave her advice.

Eileen submitted an e-book through Kindle, using Kingstar and later discovered there were margin problems, so she had to re-format. However, in the meantime, (about an hour) someone had actually bought one, so she had to apologise and send them a correct version. It was ironic because the book was based on a real life experience with a twist, about a builder who actually turned up, and came back when he said he would!

Jimmy mentioned that Aloejimmy Publishing was going from strength to strength. He has sold 53 copies of his children’s book, Jayden The Naughty Goldfish, as a Kindle e-book. (He gave a breakdown of global sales: 1 in Spain, 6 in the UK, 12 in Japan and 34 in USA). He has also sold 29 books in his Sundance Gang series. 

Jacqueline mentioned We Buy Any Books as a place to examine to buy and sell books. She put in a code for her own book, Bottles and Pots, which they were offering at £2, which is only 10% more than she is offering it at, and one of her Milly detective books at just £6, both of which she thought was good value.

Bill recently went to a talk about privately published books at Winchester Library. He recommended a visit to the Winchester Discovery Centre.  

Penny gave a talk about her book, Haunted Southampton, at the Shirley Women's Institute. 

Anne is nine chapters into her book and trying to get photographs for the cover. She has seen a style guide to formatting and is considering Smashwords and Kingstat software. Bill insists formatting software is unnecessary as it can be done through Word.

Christine went to a meeting of the new Southampton Chamber of Art, which is to support writers, authors and artistic and musical creativity. She said it may be good for offering support and networking, but it might be a case of going to several ineffectual meetings. She will monitor the group on Facebook and make a decision about whether to attend any further meetings. There was an Education Officer there who mentioned funding resources. One concept that may be of interest to the group was speed networking, where members briefly meet one to one to exchange contact details to promote their cause. It was suggested that Writing Buddies should leave some business cards with the group. Calvin warned of being beholden to the council after applying for funding, but it can raise a group's profile.

Discussions

Crowd funding in general and organisations such as Front Row and Kickstarter in particular were discussed as a way of presenting an idea and asking for funds to make it a viable project. It can cover various areas of the arts, including book publishing. As the average writer earns very little they often have to obtain public funds elsewhere. Both Terry Pratchett and Paul Kibbie have used Kickstarter in the past. Money is pledged in return for a stake in the project, should it become profitable. It was pointed out that the project could flop, so investors could lose their money. Bill mentioned drawbacks for those proposing a project, such as financial targets not being met and the time lags that can occur.

Royalty free photographs and music were discussed. Flickr is a source of royalty free images. Penny mentioned that if a picture belongs to someone else (copyright) you must seek permission to use it. Bill said he has used software (photo publishing) that turns photographs into pictures, and then it can be edited into a variety of finishes (eg. embossed, sketch, oil painting etc.)

An aspect of self-publishing comes up regularly at Writing Buddies’ meetings and this meeting was no exception. Rob said he has a basic aversion to Amazon, so for e-publishing he uses Kobo, LuLu or Barnes and Noble, but Ray said that these cost about £120 and, as e-books can sell for as little £1 each, he claimed this was very expensive.

Guest Speaker – Calvin Smith, founding member of the Friends of Portswood Library

Calvin spoke about the challenges of setting up the Friends of Portswood Library, following a chance remark by his daughter who, when they were walking back from the library one night, enquired, "Where would we go if there were no library?"

The Friends of Portswood Library now has 40 - 50 members. The aims of the group are to promote, protect and modernize the library, in order to serve the community. The group hosts a variety of events, for example, children were invited to bake a cake based on their favourite book. Other events include charity coffee mornings, Armed Forces Day displays and author book signings. It also serves as a community hub and invites guest speakers to deliver talks to the members. Penny, Jacqueline and James have all given talks to the group.  The idea of a Friends group has now spread to three other Southampton libraries.

Calvin talked about the future of Portswood library, which loans about 500 books per day. All the libraries are under pressure from possible closure, merger, reduced staff and shorter opening hours. The group is continually frustrated at never being taken into the decision-making loop. They have enlisted the support of a local journalist, and they intend to lobby the Education Services department of Southampton City Council, by claiming that "some stuff can't be done off a spreadsheet." The group does not want decisions dictated by budgets, yet the council seems to see the libraries as being frequented by undesirable people. He pointed out how few amenities for adults with learning difficulties there are, which is one area where the libraries help.  The Friends of Portswood Library want to get their Reading Club back, but they see the spectre of the Isle of Wight hanging over them. Here there is a policy where the council never supports volunteers, only librarians and professionals.  Calvin’s view was that they should top-cut management and train volunteers to do more.

In 2015, Portswood library is 100 years old. A 99-year-old library user, who has been visiting the library for 79 years, will join in the centenary celebrations.

The next Writing Buddies meeting will be on Friday 6 February 2015.  Everyone is welcome.

Writing Buddies August 2014

The Writing Buddies met on Friday 1 August 2014, at The Mercure Dolphin Hotel, High Street, Southampton. James Marsh led the discussion.

Good News

Jacqueline’s interview with Josephine appeared in The Voice, and she is one of five joint winners of a flash fiction competition for a 200-word story. Although there was no tangible prize, there was an interview on their blog, the story on their website, and a badge for her blog, which has created some new followers on twitter, as well as impressing her granddaughters! 

Penny was hoping to take up her invitation to book sign at the War and Peace Show in Folkstone, but had an accident the evening before and so could not attend.

James took his books to the War and Peace Show, with his son. He is working currently on his new gangster image and a book in the same vein.  He is busy with AloeJimmy Publishing and is also editing a book.

Lisa is publishing on many platforms, including Createspace, but she said there are no benefits in publishing other people’s books. She noted that it can be difficult to get some people to realise that they have to pay to download books, and they are not free copies.

Richard (Hardie) told us about the success he is having with his Temporal Detective Agency series, (published by Crooked Cat Publishing), whose basis is time travel between the time of Camelot and the twenty-first century. He passed around copies of his two latest books, Leap Of Faith, and Trouble With Swords. There were to be (full costume) themed book-signing days at the bookshop in Lee–on-Solent and at Calliope Gifts, 12 Westbrook Walk, Alton in August.

Josephine mentioned her review in Forester Magazine for a book called 25 Ways To Lose Customers, which she called a good mixture of humour, common-sense and courtesy.

Events

On 9 October between 6.30 and 9.30 pm, the National Museum of the Royal Navy in Portsmouth, are hosting a poetry slam evening for visitors (poets and poetry appreciators) to come along to the museum and be inspired by their newly opened HMS – Hear My Story galleries. Attendees will be invited to create their own poetry for the event, on the theme of war, remembrance, and reconciliation through the stories and experiences of those who actually served through conflicts. These will then be read (performed) and the winner will be announced at the end of the evening. More details here.

  

James is giving another reading of his work at Bitterne library and for the Southampton Writers Circle.

Discussions

- The difficulties with getting an agent:

·      many agents will only take one or two new writers a year,

·      a one in three chance of getting published,

·      one in 1,500 chance of it becoming a viable proposition.

- The importance of getting material online, using Facebook and twitter, and other social network sites.

- Characterisation:

·      Characters take on their own personalities

·      Some advocated characters first, then plot.

·      Readers aren't always sympathetic to well rounded, all action hero types, but like downtrodden characters, who sometimes get it wrong.

·      Don’t make it too complicated.

- The difficulties of producing front covers for books published on Amazon.

Guest Speaker: Josephine Shaw on ‘How To Produce A Perfect Manuscript.’

·      Think of the end result. What is the writer trying to achieve? Have they done it? What does it do to the image of the writer?

·      Did the reader get what they wanted from the book?

·      Put the manuscript away for a while, and then come back to it as a reader.

Editing and proofreading are the cogs that push your book through various processes and stages.

Editing

·      Checking for grammatical and spelling errors, and word repetition

·      Ask does it sound right?

·      Is it complicated or confusing?

·      It should not be monotonous, nor should it have to be re-read to be understood.

·      Use the opening words of the first chapter to start the journey – you need to get the reader engaged quickly. The writer has the obligation to write it in a such a way that it is easily understood, however the reader has no contract to 'stick with it', if it is hard to follow.

·      Are the characters 'real'? Do they act in character - unless acting out of character forms part of the story?

·      Remember your genre. If you leave the manuscript for a while, re-read what was written previously, and continue in the same vein.

·      Are sentences too long or too short, and are there too many?

·      Cut any superfluous material. Avoid verbosity.

·      Can you make it sharper, slicker, easy flowing?

·      Does it need a contents page or an index? (non-fiction).

Question from the audience, is there a strategy to stop editing?  Answer: If you still love it continue, if you hate it, then it's probably ready.

Proofreading

·      Punctuation – is it correct? Use a reliable reference source.

·      Check for missing words, duplicated words, spelling errors, typing errors.

·      Re-read yourself, or preferably get someone else to proofread.

·      Does there need to be a change in the physical sentence construction.

·      Avoid 'Americanisms'

Remember: What You See Is What You Get

·      pay attention to chapter and paragraph sizes.

- Are they consistently laid out?

                     - Check indentations and font.

- Consistent headings?

·      be aware that spell (grammar) check, although useful will not do it all.

·      It is easier to proofread from a printed page, but to have it printed may incur costs.

The standard of your manuscripts also impacts on your image, which is portrayed to influential people. 

The next meeting will be Friday 5 September, at the same venue. The Guest Speaker will be Penny Legg on photography for writers.

  

Writing Buddies, June 2014

The regular monthly meeting for Writing Buddies was held at the usual venue,the Mercure Dolphin Hotel in Southampton on Friday 6 June 2014, at 2.00 pm, and was attended by 30 persons.  It is great to see that so many writers find the meetings useful!

Good News

James' latest book, published by The History Press, A 1940s Childhood, From Bomb Sites to Children’s Hour, which tells the 1940s story from the child's point of view, is selling fast. He is book signing copies at Watersone's in West Quay, Southampton, on Saturday 7 June.

   James was also at Portswood library reading his children’s book, Jayden the Naughty Goldfish to a group of small children, which he described as a ‘new, exciting and amazing experience.’

Calvin is organising an Armed Forces Exhibition, to be held as part of a larger event at Portswood Library starting 10.00 am on 28 June. Penny will be opening the event and giving a talk on her military history book Under the Queen’s Colours and James will be book signing copies of his history books.

Lisa advised the group that Harlequin are looking for romance writers to submit material for a clean romance book, from week commencing 9 June. you need to submit a completed first chapter (although you do not need to have a completed book), as a first round submission after which they will contact you if they are interested. Details from Harlequin.  

Janet T has had two more poems accepted to be included in an anthology, Forward Poetry published by United Press. 

Michaela is book signing at Petersfield Book Shop on 7 June and will be joining Richard at October Books in Portswood, Southampton on Saturday 21 June.

Richard's book Leap of Faith made the final twelve in the People's Book Prize 2014. He was also featured in an interview in the Daily Echo.  He was the guest speaker at the Romantic Novelists Association lunch on 3 June.

Welcome Newcomers!

Rob, who is multi-disciplined mainly in fiction and songwriting, with his genre being crime-books, scripts and short novels. The fact that there is a large amount of talent in the room was expanded on by Penny who emphasised the fact that we support not only writers, but also artists, photographers, illustrators and others.

Melanie is a romance writer who has had material accepted by Harlequin.

Charles, a novelist/memoirs writer, who has had his book A Life In Bits published by Mereo Books. 

Penny thanked everyone for their help and support of the Writing Buddies Fifth Anniversary event which was very successful. We appeared in the Daily Echo on 2 June and Penny promoted the exhibition at the library on Radio Solent’s Katie Martin show.

The possibilities of 'meet the author' events, to enhance the profile of the group were discussed, as was an anthology proposition from JMD Publishing, which was turned down.

Podcasting was discussed.  This has come up regularly recently at the meetings.  Bill and Lisa have experience of the technicalities of setting it up and Penny, Bill and Lisa will be meeting to explore the way forward with this.

James mentioned that his blog has reached the 1,000 hits mark. He advised having one and putting everything you do on it. It pays off as his books have sold through his.  

Josephine recommended a couple of reference works to explain 'foggy' words and phrases, by Simon Heffer called Simply English  and Strictly English.

Lisa was our guest speaker on the subject of copyright. Notes on this talk will follow.

The next meeting will be on Friday 4^th July at 2 pm at the Mercure Dolphin Hotel. The guest speaker will be Tessa Warburg, the owner of The Thorn Press, on publishing.

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, WRITING BUDDIES!

It was party time for us at our May 2nd meeting. We celebrated our fifth birthday, with more than thirty members at our regular venue, The Dolphin Mercure Hotel in Southampton. As we were a larger group than usual, the hotel very kindly allocated a delightful upstairs meeting room, one in which Jane Austen once danced the night away!

Penny, who with Pam founded the flourishing group in 2009, treated us all to wine and luscious cake, so it was quite an event. Even Catherine’s young twin girls were able to join us!

Group News

Former policeman Jim Brown’s talk on Murder in Southampton was to take place on May 7^th at Portswood Library.

Jimmy’s latest book for The History Press, A 1940s Childhood, From Bomb Sites to Children’s Hour, had just been launched, with a foreword by famous crime writer Peter Livesey.

Mo had given a reading from A Blues for Shindig  at the Cockpit Theatre in London, and her next reading will be from her forthcoming new novel.

Jim Brown has a new book out, Southampton's Lucky Jim: A County Borough Copper in the 50s and 60s. 

Catherine has a story in The Romaniac’s collection of stories and flash fiction, Romaniac Shorts. The Romaniacs are members of the Romantic Novelists’ Association (RNA). Catherine recently won a place on a very enjoyable writing course through the RNA.

Gerry, who now lives in Alicante, belongs to a writing group there - Wordplay Writers’ Forum. Not long ago the group won Writing Magazine’s Writers’ Group Award. Gerry recently published his novel Farrell’s Last Case, and offered members a free download. He is currently writing the sequel, Witches’ Mountain.

Lisa informed the group that http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom was accepting comedy scripts for the next few days.

Jacqueline and her husband each entered the local Union Learning Centre short story competition; results are not yet out.

Barbara Dynes has a new book out, Masterclasses in Creative Writing . Barbara writes for Writers’ Forum and for The Voice.

Robin is writing on health and social care, and education. He edits and distributes the internet newsletter The Voice, with articles on the written word from both reading and writing perspectives. Several Writing Buddies have been interviewed by Josephine for The Voice. The newsletter is free to receive by email; contact robin@robindynes.co.uk

Bill attends Southampton Sight Writing Salon; he suggested Buddies might consider individual podcasts.

New member Margaret used to write, and is back again now and keen to restart.

John has just released an ebook of his poetry: Love Poems by JPF Goodman. (http://jpfgoodman.wordpress.com and scroll down.) He read some of his work at the final day of the Ship to Shore event at the John Hansard Gallery in Southampton, and was soon to read again at Write Angle, an event in Petersfield. Podcasts of both these readings can be seen on his blog as above.

General discussions followed. These included whether we should do individual podcasts and who might help with these. Lisa mentioned she had marketed a book she’d written under a different name, promoting it in both names in social media. It was initially offered free, and entered Amazon’s top 100 free books. She recommended low pricing for better overall revenue.

Calvin runs Friends of Portswood Library. He hopes the library will become a community hub including for writers, and any members wanting to promote their books by readings or launches can contact him at calvin@calvin-smith.co.uk Several members had given talks or readings there already, and more are to come.

Our forthcoming exhibition at the Central Library was discussed. Members would jointly set up the books, articles etc on Monday 12^th May in time for the opening by the mayor Councillor Ivan White at 2pm. The exhibition would close on the 17^th. Christine planned to make a celebration cake for the event and there would be wine too.

Josephine then gave a very helpful talk on administration for writers. She reminded us of the importance of documenting every event and all income and expenditure, and suggested ways of doing so. Questions followed and the group thanked Josephine for her advice.

Writing Buddies will meet again at The Dolphin Mercure Hotel, High Street, Southampton from 2 to 4pm on Friday June 6^th. The last half hour will include a talk by Lisa on the topic of copyright.

Blog notes by Jacqueline Pye

Writing Buddies in 2014!

Twenty-two Writing Buddies joined the first meeting of 2014, on Friday 7 February, at the Dolphin Hotel.  It was great to see so many and good to welcome new writers to the group.

Good News

James started the session by telling us that he had three books ready for submission through his own publishing company, Aloe Jimmy. The first will be a volume of the David Collins and the Sundance Gang series and then a children's book with the central character, Jayden the goldfish.  After this will be the first of the Far End of the Tunnel trilogy. 

Patricia was sending work to several websites, but was reticent to add further at this stage.

Jacqueline now has both her books on Good Reads.  Bottles And Pots has been described as 'a story of murder, rivalry and jealousy', which she likes. She did a book signing event for her 'Milly' detective novel at October Books, in Southampton. The Friends of Portswood Library group have selected her to judge a cake competition on National Libraries Day. The event has a children's books theme.

Brian signed books at Waterstones in Milton Keynes in January, as they were supporting local authors. However, Waterstones seemed to have different rules for different stores (Manager's Discretion), which they seem to change at will and it is hit and miss if an author is offered a signing or not. However, he was persistent and he was invited to the book shop.  He sold five copies of each of the books he was promoting. He commented that his persistence was really necessary and warned that writers, particularly self-published authors, must be prepared to stand their ground.
   Brian is also editing a work based on private letters from First World War serviceman, describing trench life. 

Josephine reviewed four books for Good Reads, and she was offered two new books to review. This was considered to be a good way of keeping in touch with what was new to the market. 

Mo was invited to do an interview at BBC Radio London, in conjunction with their reviewing her book, Blues for Shindig. However, when she got there, they hadn’t read the book, so she had to do a more general interview, about writing. She managed to ‘plug’ Writing Buddies, and later tweeted about the event.

Pat brought some samples of her Silverfinger Press books, which were shown to the group.

Tessa had previously had work on knitting published some time ago by Victor Books, all of which she had sold. She had made the decision not to do any more due to the typesetting problems associated with knitting patterns. However, it was a coincidence that she was contacted by the Bishop of Leicester (aka The Knitting Bishop), from Melton Mowbray, asking if there were any more of her knitting books  available, as he wanted to use them in a knitting group he was running.

Six new members introduced themselves.

Jane is interested in producing some historical work and has attended Cavendish College courses. A  teacher and radio journalist, she has also been heard on BBC Solent as a radio player (reader) for a full range of writers.

Steven has been in the book world for forty years. He has just started competition writing and is looking to share experiences, get tips and help. He also mentioned Cosmo Funnel as useful.

Margot said she has had ‘a book in her head’ for about three years. She went on an Open Study writing course by Diana Cambridge, but wants to learn more about the routine of writing. 

Andy is interested in paranormal type magazines and has written some articles and interviewed personalities for these. He is in the early stages of producing a version of a paranormal book, as he has ‘spotted a hole on the market.’ However, he has heard that someone else is doing something similar and wants to wait for this to come out and then analyse it so that his work does not clash with theirs. He wants his to be fresh and different.

Margaret is interested in writing short stories and is looking for inspiration.

Beryl has done some family history research and been involved in a local history competition. She is a member of the Eastleigh Local History Society but prefers to write her own work, with a short story bias, with a view to them being published privately.

Discussions

Waterstones

The position of Waterstone and their changing attitudes to author signing was the first topic of discussion.  Waterstones had approached Penny's publisher to ask if she would join other authors in a day of  book signing, but then cancelled at the last moment, despite ordering in huge stocks of her books for the event. She agreed with Brian that the company did not seem to have a clear set of guidelines on author book signings.

Independent Book Shops

Local book shops, or the lack of them, was discussed.  October Books in Southampton is still open, as are other independent shops in Lee On Solent and Petersfield, but the one in Hythe has closed and one in Salisbury is about to close. This makes life very difficult for authors as outlets diminish. It was also mentioned that Hampshire County Council might be a little interested in promoting children’s books at Readers Days.  Writing Buddies will keep an eye open for book promotion events and report them back to the group.

Public Libraries

Public libraries and their fate were a cause for concern. These can be immensely helpful to writers as their staff are knowledgeable and can sometimes answer questions that authors might have.  Massive cuts to libraries have happened, and further library cuts are to be announced in many areas. Calvin Smith has started a Portswood, Southampton, library support group to keep that local library open. Lymington library is being re-furbished – Margot is going to find out about it’s future.

Festivals

Literary and other festivals were discussed.  These can very useful to writers and readers alike.  Brian pointed out that authors should act like a medieval troubadour, touting their work around, as it is a very competitive market place. Authors need to target their market, know where to sell and even organise events. He mentioned the recent Lantern Festival in Milton Keynes, where he sold forty-three copies of his books, but even that was down on the seventy-eight he sold the previous year.  Mo mentioned the Winchester Writers' Festival, where she had won three prizes and sold some books and Christine mentioned how badly run the The West Cork Literary Festival, Ireland, had been.  Margot said the Sherbourne festival was small, but friendly enough, with lots of big names. The North London Literary Festival has a useful speed pitching event.  

Reviews

Some Writing Buddies had written book reviews but others had not.  In writing a review the author needs to be honest as reviews help to sell good material, but also identify what to avoid. Penny is about to review Jane Riddell's, Words'Worth: A Fiction Writer's Guide to Serious Editing, which covers the ‘nuts and bolts’ that perhaps many are not aware of. General consensus was that people DO READ reviews.

Local History Writer Needed
The Bevois Mount history group is looking for a local history writer.

The Writing Buddies Email Information Loop
One of the benefits of membership of Writing Buddies is the behind the scenes email information loop, run via the Writing Buddies Yahoo Group.  All Writing Buddies are encouraged to join the loop as it is a valuable resource between meetings. The loop can be reached via: https://uk.groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/writingbuddies/info 

Fifth Anniversary Exhibition
To celebrate the fifth anniversary of the founding of the Writing Buddies group in May 2009, there will be an exhibition of work at the Central Library, Southampton, between 12 - 17 May 2014.  All Writing Buddies, past and present, are encouraged to submit work for the display.

Guest Speaker

Josephine Shaw gave the first of the new series of writing-related talks. Her topic was Presentations.

At the March meeting, Margot will be speaking about her work teaching creative writing to the blind at Southampton Sight.

The next meeting is at 2pm on 7th March 2014.  Everyone is welcome.