A few words about The Alliance of Independent Authors

There's a strange discussion going on over at David Gaughran's site about an organisation I myself feel honoured to be a member of, Alliance of Independent Authors. David published an interview with Orna Ross, the founder of ALLi, which has (strangely) caused a bit of a stir on the site. The organisation was even accused of being a scam. You can read the post here.

Having read the many comments, I wanted to air my views on ALLi too.

I've spoken before about what a difference my membership of ALLi has made to me as an Indy author. Writing is a lonely business, so having a community of other Indy writers to call upon for advice, support and a laugh is invaluable.

I joined ALLi after I'd read about it in The Bookseller in the weeks following London Book Fair 2012. At the time there was no other organisation (that I could see) which would fight the corner of the Indy writer. What I didn't realise at the time was, what a forcefield of support for writers the organisation provides, especially through its Facebook group. You ask a question (any question) and not only is it answered incredibly quickly, it's also answered in a professional and friendly manner. There is no one-upmanship, no spamming with your own titles; at the same time a certain amount of self PR is allowed. All of this amounts to a lot of saved time, and as any writer knows, time most certainly is money.

On top of this ALLi also offers a range of other tangible financial benefits - you can read about them here.

I've been a member of many non-profit organisation in my time (I even work for a Finnish charity), but rarely have I found an association, which has such a straight-forward, honest and energetic approach to its cause.

Long Live ALLi!
 

A-Z Blogging Challenge: L is London Book Fair

My theme: Writing and the business of writing

I remember when I first came up from the country to the London Book Fair about five years ago, and was struck by how business-like and un-literary the whole event was. And how lacking in writers something calling itself a Book Fair could be. Plus the agents were nowhere to be seen; they were tucked away in the International Rights Centre upstairs, which wasn't accessible unless you had an appointment. I was reminded of the New York Stock Exchange, where huge amounts of money were being moved but where not a dime nor a nickel was ever to be seen.

But, to reflect the rest of the publishing industry, even the London Book Fair is changing. These days there's something called Author Lounge, with several events aimed at writers. Of course majority of these are companies selling digital publication and printing solutions to writers, biggest one being Amazon's KDP, but there are also many seminars aimed to help us Indy writers produce and sell our books.

Alliance of Independent Writers (ALLi) is organising a series of events, including Kobo book presentations by ALLi authors, and a talks by Orna Ross and Joanna Penn on self-publishing. And there's going to be ALLi's 1st birthday party too! (I can't wait!)

So, this year at the LFB, I will be a busy little bee, attending seminars, meeting many other ALLi authors. I even have a pitching slot with an agent. Wish me luck, I'll be on around two o'clock tomorrow!

I will attempt some live blogging from LBF, so watch this space.

London Book Fair, Earls Court, London 14-17 April 2013

Digital - the new garlic bread?

It's an old joke, 'Garlic bread - it's the future.'

At the London Book Fair I sat through two seminars on the future of publishing. First one was a prediction for 2020 (=digital) and the second a discussion on what's free in the new digital age and where the money is going to be made.

Everyone agreed with the speakers of the first talk that digital is where we are heading (and fast), but where the large publishing houses thought they could make the money was unclear. As an aspiring novelist, I was scared to see people who'd been in the industry for decades looking at best confused and at worst defensive. It was clear that the members of the panel didn't know - or wouldn't say - what they intended to do about the digital revolution, how they plan to make money for authors or themselves, or how they would even survive. A question from the floor, 'Are publishers going to be needed in the future' was left largely unanswered. Another comment from the audience was, 'No-one has mentioned book sellers?' The answer to that was a dry, 'No.'

On Saturday there was an article in The Telegraph titled, 'Is the writing on the wall for books?' I started reading with great anticipation but soon realised it was merely a promotional piece for various e-books on the market and on how to get free downloads. It did have one piece of good news for old-fashioned books. Apparently they are a hard act to follow.

"The book is an exemplary example (sic) of good design, being robust enough to survive spilt cups of coffee, sun cream and sand, or being buried at the bottom of the briefcase or handbag, yet always ready for use."

The LBF panel of publishers cited examples from other industries struggling to adapt to the digital age: Newspapers give away issues, music artists make their money from performances (not cd's or downloads), in the TV and film industry piracy is a business model.

It occurred to me that books have other good features:

1. Books are generally only read once. It's not necessary to store them in the similar way as music or film on an ipod to be listened or watched over and over again by the same person.

2. Books are not current. They last forever, whereas yesterdays' newspaper is today's recycling (or should be).

3. Books are tactile - even paperbacks. They can be shown off on shelves and stroked.

I don't think it's wise to stare blindly at the horror stories from other related industries of moving to the digital age without considering the very unique aspects of the book. Surely the book as a form of communication is older and wiser than the rest of the field?

And no, I've never liked garlic bread much.