• crab2One more spread to go on my Crab story, Nip! Nip!

    My very first books were only fourteen sentences long. Nip! Nip! is only 41 words long. When my first books came out, I was often told how clever I was to be able to write such short stories. I’d not thought that was supposed to be difficult. In those days I suppose I thought that you start small and learn to write longer. Many people think that you write children’s books and then grow up to write adult books. (It doesn’t work like that.)

    catndog
    When I was told that it was hard to write short, I found I couldn’t do it anymore. Only in the last four years have I got back into the swing through a book I did called Cat and Dog, that had no words at all. Then I did a couple of stories that fitted into a Phonics regime, so I only had a few letters of the alphabet to play with – S A T P I N M D – for example. Writing a story like that is a bit like doing a sudoku puzzle or carving a walrus tusk. The story is in there already, you have to work at it until you find it.

    Now that I’m older and wiser, also know that waiting around for inspiration is a waste of time. The secret is to just get down and do the work. Working hard at a problem gives inspiration a chance to drop by. Sitting on the beach drinking beer only gives you sunburn and a hangover. There is no substitute for getting out a pencil and paper and working out a problem.

  • The local press is quite amazing. We had a small literary festival in town last week. The Dean Heritage Centre decided to join in and I’ve lent them some artwork for their display of local authors work.

    The local paper accompanied an article about the exhibition with a picture of the Ginger Ninja cover and a photo, taken from my website, of me building my studio. It read as though I was building it now.

    While shopping, Several people have given me little smiles and nods. The lady in the bank asked how the building was going. When I understood what she meant, I had to explain to her that it has been built for the last three years!

  • I’m listening to Chris Anderson Free: The Future of a Radical Price. I’m listening for free on Spotify.com. Yes, they found a way to get me to download the software. It’s on my desktop, I’m getting the feel of it and, if I’m never going to pay a subscription, I’m being advertised to, so they are getting what they wanted and so am I.

    This week had an interesting talk with Marlene Johnson, MD of Hachette Children’s Books, and Rhydian Peters, Chairman of Peters Bookselling Services, about our digital future.

    I think Chris Anderson will get to the Ubiquitous Candle argument about books soon. Candles used to be everywhere. people needed them and bought them. With electricity, candles had no use any more, so they became an art/gift item, made in smaller numbers so the price went up. The same will happen to books. They will become free. There is no way to stop the obvious without destroying the internet. Books will become gift items sold as souvenirs of the web item.

    I now completetley “GET” the free thing. My job is doomed! Why go buy a book when you can get something similar on the net? specially now that Google is to turn Chrome into a net Os. Your netbook will startup and be online instantly. No waiting. The internet is your hard drive. I feel the moment I’ve been predicting for the last ten years has probably arrived.

    But I just want to carry on doing what I do best. I guess that’s what the candle makers said and coopers and the fletchers and the lino manufacturers.

    I know there is a demand for what I do – the difficulty is making a living from it online. I think I have to become an online author and illustrator. I think I have to build my name/brand so that I can begin to sell more than just books. Build a fan base, I suppose. The trouble is my fans come and go so quickly, I don’t really keep them as life-long fans who buy books. Perhaps I should have gone into something adult – each year I have to capture a whole new market. It’s exhausting!

    So: I’m going to open up my artistic life. Include my fans. Let them know what I’m up to – maybe do more videos on YouTube, then maybe I could sell artwork and posters and cuddly toys too. I’ve started putting free content on my site already. See the Dark Claw Saga. Read the story and you will be able to buy merchandise from CafePress too. I think I should litter those free pages with adverts then offer a premium subscription service advert free. There has to be a way through this and I think talking, blogging and Podding about it can only help create interest. It’s going to be a massive amount of work, but should be fun too.

    Now, back to my free audio book. Oh, did you want a review? It’s very thought provoking – how’s that?