Saturday 24 July 2021

Why Feisty Women?

 


We have a call for submissions about “feisty women”. Why not about feisty men, asked one of our male authors. Part of the answer is that we can’t publish everything. We’re doing quite a lot already: short story anthologies, single author anthologies, flash collections, YA novels, children’s fiction, including picture books, and my own Schellberg Cycle. 

How this came from the Schellberg Cycle

The House on Schellberg Street started off as a young adult novel, set during the 1930s and 1940s. At the same time it was an historical novel and it does stretch the YA label: the girls are in their early teens at the beginning of the story and in their early twenties but the end. Each novel has suggested at least one other. Although most have them have young adults in them and are readable by young adults they are more than young adult novels. What is a common thread? Feisty, courageous women.

If I ever escape form the Schellberg Cycle, I have some other historical novels in mind and they all involve women who do well in a man’s world.

 

Fiction and non-fiction

We’re interested in novels, memoir and biographies. We prefer memoir and biography to read like fiction so it will use using some fictional devices: narrative balance, engaging dialogue, pace and tension.  

 

Mslexia influence

Yes, I am influenced by this writing magazine. It has always made me feel extremely comfortable. I read a lot of the books that it recommends or at least advertises. There is something here about women being allowed to behave like women instead of having to mimic men. “Behave like women” is a packed phrase and shouldn’t be confused with “women behaving the way men expect them to”.

 

What does our feisty woman look like?

She gets on with things. She has courage. She surprises you in what she manages to achieve.    

 

Find the submission guidelines here: http://www.chapeltownpublishing.uk/p/submission-feisty-women.html                    

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay      

Saturday 10 July 2021

In Fields of Butterfly Flames by Steve Wade

 


See in our online bookshop

How we came to publish this one

The Basilwade Chronicles started off as serial published on CaféLit. A couple of sections were then read on a local radio show. This gave us the idea of making it into an audio book. The talented John Guest really brought the stories to life.   

 

The title

Somehow the title suits the audio book even more than it did the original paperback and e-book. Wouldn’t it be great if it made it to BBC Sounds A Book at Bedtime?   

 

Some notes about the process

We were on a bit of a learning curve when submitting the book to Audible. Still, we’re getting there. This is now our third audio book. We encountered different problems with each of the three.    

 

The cover

The cover is adapted from the original book cover. A cover for an audio book needs to be square and very high resolution. Apparently people still buy CDS!  Have you spotted something odd about the bride on this cover?     

 

Some notes about style

This is a quirky romp. John Guest reading makes it even quirkier.

 

Who we think the reader is

It’s good to listen to these stories. They’ll make you chuckle. Perhaps something to listen to while you do the housework? Or work in the garden? Or go on a long journey? Take care with the latter. You may find them distracting.    

 

Finances

This product is in the black – just.  No upfront costs were accrued. 

 

What else

We’re really pleased with our CaféLit serials and we’re looking at making more audio books. For this and one other book we’ve used a volunteer voice artist who is working for royalties alone. As we’ve provided the voice artist we gain the whole royalty provided by ACX. For another book ACX provided the voice artist so we only get half of the royalty. We’re now looking at using a company to provide the voice, so that the royalty will be split between the writer and our publishing company only.      

 

Review copies

It’s always great if you can buy the audio book, or download it if you have a plan, and give us a review. Just click on the link to be taken to Audible / Amazon. If you would like to review and you are strapped for cash, just get in touch for a free review copy.