Category Archives: The Red Pen

Digital Publishing: Smashwords v Scribd

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With work on Sanity Juxtaposed almost over, after the proofreading and those changes are made, I’ll be left to format it into the various media types in order to publish it into the wider world. The eBook is due out by the end of the month and then the POD version through lulu.com some time after that.

Sony Reader

You'll be able to read Sanity Juxtaposed on things like the Sony Reader with either Smashwords or Scribd.

For the eBook, the original plan was to publish it via Smashwords as it could then be available in multiple formats and it’s generally easy to work with in terms of selling it and all that.

The problem has been that the requirements for formatting a document to meet their standards have been, quite frankly, a pain in the arse. And the task of turning the final copy into something to go on Smashwords is looking quite tedious. It would also require the final eBook version to be stripped down to something quite basic and nothing more than plain text.

But now looking at what format to go with when publishing the digital version of The Red Pen, Scribd.com is beginning to look more appealing for both. Scribd works well for the zine because it maintains the visual structure and won’t require so much work. And I can still charge for it if I choose.

So doing this for Sanity Juxtaposed as well would be quite simple and then it wouldn’t require completely different formatting between the print and digital versions.

I’m now at a loss as to what to do and am considering abandoning Smashwords all together in favour of Scribd.

Have you had experience with either or both? What are your thoughts? Or are there any better alternatives?

Writing Projects: Late April Update

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FoldersI intend to keep people updated on the status of my projects, though it might not be as regular as my writing goals posts that I post at the beginning of each month.

Capital Comes Dripping – the short story collection

I continue to work steadily on the pieces for this project and it’s at the forefront of my mind more than the other projects. As per my goals at the beginning of the month, I’ve finished Chapter Three of All Fascists are Zombies! – as well as submitting Evicted and My Boss Sucks out yesterday and today.

I’ve also begun work on the rewrite of An Abused Mind according the research I’ve done on homophobia and gay hate crimes. The story is so radically different that it could be considered a first draft.

Barbarism – the novel

I still haven’t touched this but last week another writer/editor asked about dystopian fiction from emerging writers and after some discussion, he wanted to read my first draft. It’s a 53,000 word first draft, which is unfinished and a NaNoWriMo first draft at that so it’s a bit of a gamble but perhaps someone reading it might spur me on to finish it.

The Red Pen – the zine

The Red Pen zine is my new project that I announced last week. My aim was to announce it and get discussion between contributors going which I can say has been a success. Now it’s time to get people moving on their pieces, as well as a piece of my own.

Sanity Juxtaposed – the unpublished collection

After some discussion here on this blog, I’ve decided to take the earlier work, my first short stories and poems, and section off that section of the collection into an ‘earlier work’ section with a little introduction.

Other than that, I’ve done nothing. I need to find a nice chunk of time to go through this blog and the old blog and pick out some pieces to include.

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There might be some overlap between this post and when I report on April’s writing goals at the start of the month, but thinking about these updates and going through each project is really helping to focus.

Another thing I think I need to do is prioritise projects and work out which ones deserve more attention.

New Project: The Red Pen Zine

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Last year, being part of producing my first zine, Southpaw Grammar, was a revelation for me. It was an exciting experience that I reflected on last year, noting that I wanted to do it again.

So I guess it’s no surprise that the ‘secret project’ that I’ve been working on is a zine, tentatively titled The Red Pen.

The ‘red’ in The Red Pen points to the fact that there’s something to do with socialism or socialists, which is kind of true. The project’s contributors are all socialists at the moment, though this isn’t fixed, and this certainly doesn’t mean the end product will resemble some agitational pamphlet.

I’ve been selective about contributors but not contributions, inviting people to submit but also open to other people, mostly socialists, wanting to add something.

At the moment, an email list has been created and I’m trying to facilitate discussion about our pieces and how they’re going, mainly to get an idea of when we might have enough pieces for our first issue.

The zine will include things from flash fiction, to poetry, to creative non-fiction, to anything people can dream up. We plan to release it as a printed zine, a POD version, an eBook and perhaps for Kindle and iPad.

I’m excited about this project and am really eager to see the pieces contributors are going to produce.