Hi there, just had a glorious month here full of writer events, and here’s a first installment from the Amazon Author Academy day long workshop.

Video Transcript

So a couple of weeks back I went to Amazon Authors Academy at the Celtic Manor in Wales for an amazingly informative and inspiring day about self-publishing, specifically on Kindle.

MD Darren Hardy opened the event, showed us how uploading to kindle works, and then showed us kdp university, kdp community, amazon author insights and amazon associates.

There is heaps of information here and you can hit the kdp community forums if you’ve got something unusual to inquire about.

Two guest authors featured at the event: LJ Ross and Mark Dawson, who between them have sold around about an incredible 5 million books on Kindle. They are both ex solicitors, so am not sure whether that’s relevant – but it’s possibly given them an eye for thoroughness in working the Kindle platform. Now while not in these authors league, I did self-publish a novel on Kindle which became a double Wales BAFTA winning tv film, so am rather a fan.

For those of you considering self-publishing,here are some key takeaways:

Mark Dawson said he writes books he would like to read. It’s important to start writing to see if an idea has legs. Newspapers are great for ideas and he is usually working on one idea with two ideas cooking.

Mark stressed if there is a top single priority for a self-publisher, it’s to grow a mailing list, your most important asset as a creative professional.

LJ Ross usually starts her books with a question and at the beginning of a book, she writes her product description to see if she can sell her book to herself. She stressed just how important it is to view your book as a product, and to see writing as a start up business, one where you’ll be remarketing a timeless product again, and again. She emphasized how you should write for yourself and your readers,not necessarily other writers.

Finally an insight into their writing schedules. Mark does creative writing in morning and then onto marketing and course creation in the afternoon. Louise writes when her five year old is in school – but she’s also quite keen on burning that midnight oil…

Crime Writing Workshop

Last weekend, I was lucky enough to go to a writing workshop run by Matthew Hall, who wrote the gripping BBC drama series Keeping Faith, with over 8 million views on BBC i player. Matthew is unusual in that he is both screenwriter and novelist and succeeds at both. If you wish you’d been there, here’s his book, a guide to Writing Crime Fiction, co-written with historical novelist William Ryan.

So that’s this month’s update – a bit more fan girl than usual, but I thought it worth sharing some up-to-date info from these live events.

May the sentence flow be with you this Autumn!