Authors sued by Penguin

Penguin have sued several authors for return of advances and interest.

Just as interesting as the colossal amounts is the subject matter. Nothing that we, as single authors or as a group, could not have written.

Includes a $20k advance for 'a narrative about fishing lures and their history'. Hooked me when I first read the title.

Or what about a two book deal signed for $35,000 for 'a guide to managing Type II diabetes for women' and 'a cookbook for diabetes with approximately 125 recipes'. $35,000? That's more than icing on the cake, surely? Are there 125 ways of saying 'leave the sugar out'?

Will bring more details to next forum.

Notes from our Last Forum

Forum Meeting September 2012

We covered a lot of ground on our return after the Summer break, but here’s a quick summary:

Fallyn and the Dragons

While we were away, Kathy Rollinson, writing as K J Rollinson, has seen her first novel, Fallyn and the Dragons, published. It’s on sale through Amazon and can be ordered through book retailers. It’s also available as a Kindle eBook. It will be reviewed in the October TIM publication, too. Great news, Kathy, well done!

CreateSpace Discounts

We chatted about the ability to use discounts for prospective customers through the CreateSpace website. When you publish through WordPlay, we can set up a series of discount codes to help publish and sell your book. These discounts can be as high as 55% from rrp, and this is the discount that we give to the author. Though you won’t get much (if any) royalty by using this maximum discount, the sales will show on your book sales numbers and improve your ranking.

Also, the author will then be able to then sell books direct, seeing larger profits on those direct sales.

Kathy is using a 25% discount code to give to TIM readers: a great marketing idea.

Kindle News

In August's KDP Newsletter, there is an article about new author, Theresa Ragan, who, after 20 years and dozens of rejects from the traditional publishing route, decided to publish through Kindle. A year later, and she’s sold nearly 250,000 books on the Kindle. Showing that it’s never too late to start, and that, perhaps, readers know more than agents and publishers!

While we’re talking about Kindle; the Fire is now on sale in Europe! Hurrah!

Shorts for Autumn

Our fiction quarterly, Shorts for Autumn, has been returned to us in proof format. Writers are going through their stories now, making final grammar, spelling, and punctuation changes. Then we’ll be uploading and publishing.

Winter Quarterly

Get your pens out, and your fingers working on the keyboard. We need your short stories, up to 5,000 words each (minimum 1,000 per story, over all maximum of 10,000 and overall minimum of 3,000) for our Winter fiction quarterly anthology. Closing date is 4^th November for publication in January/ February.

Birthday Bash

This year our Birthday Bash will be on Thursday February 28^th. We are holding it at a brand new restaurant in Playa Flamenca. The cost will be €17 per person, friends and family welcome. We will have our own private room, and the evening will run as follows (with menu choices):

7pm:      Canapes on Arrival

7:30:      Starter served –

                French Onion Soup

                Chicken Flautas with Soured Cream (Mexican, slightly spicy)

                Moules Marinieres (Mussels in white wine and cream broth, French)

                Mushroom and Herb Risotto (Italian, vegetarian)

                Latina Ensalada (Mixed Salad with prawns and cheese, cumin and lemon dressing, USA)

Lemon Ginger Sorbet

            Main Course –

            Chicken Morrocan Style, with Coriander and Pine Kernel Rice

            Medallions of Beef with Rosti potatoes, Sauce Bordelaise

            Pan fried cod fillet, chives and horshradish mash, beurre blanc

Lamb Zacetas (with sweet chilli, red wine and prunes)

            Seafood Curry, with basmati rice and Naan bread

Vegetarian Paella

Penn Al Erbe (Penne pasta, spinach, broccoli, asparagus tips – vegetarian)

Selection of vegetables and sautéed potatoes on table

Dessert

Bread and Butter Pudding

Baked Cheesecake with raspberry coulis

Dark Chocolate Tarte, vanilla ice cream

Peach Melba

Break

Cheeses and biscuits served at bar

Reconvene at tables for awards

There will be wine and water served at the table during the meal (all other drinks at own expense)

Places can be secured by a €5 deposit, and at the next forum we’ll give out menu sheets, etc.

And finally…

We are trying to arrange a “WordPlay Week with Bookworld toward Christmas, for all new books published this year. So let’s get working toward a fantastic time over the next couple of months, with all getting read! More news on this next forum.

NEXT FORUM MONDAY, 8TH OCTOBER at 11am EMERALD ISLE, LA FLORIDA.

Costa Blanca News

Hey all,

just to let you know, Kathy Rollinson is featured in this week's Costa Blanca News. A great article about alliteration.

More words from us later today,

Speak soon
Michael