John L. Monk

DEAR READERS, WRITERS, and people who stumbled upon this blog because of its most popular post ever (“You Can’t Shave a Vagina”):

I am proud to be an Indie Author, and Indie Pride Day is July 1st. What happens on Indie Pride Day? Look, I made a pretty poster to tell you all about it, and there are no vaginas in sight:
A friend asked me today: what is an Indie Author? My definition of an Indie Author is either a self-published author (one who publishes directly, through Amazon and other online outlets), or an author who publishes through a small “independent” publishing house.

Indies are the folks who refuse to submit query after query for months or years to try to get an literary agent. Having an agent is a necessity if you want a book to even be considered by an editor at the big publishing houses.

Here’s a rough…

Dell is a girl who grows up on a remote outpost with herders (her guardians) who may or may not be her parents. They seldom speak or tell her anything, because the mandatory drugs that make them immortal and committed to duty also keep them quiet and forgetful. She has always been on her own to learn, and she’s become literate through the outpost’s telecommunications with its farm. But officially, Dell does not exist. She has no number, no portacath for drugs and no communications wristscreen. She is different in another way: she’s young, an aberration in a loveless world where the only creatures that breed are animals and primitive tribes considered outlaws. And now her guardians are being separated, and she must leave her home and find a place to belong. 

Dell Zero will be 99 cents today and four more days (Kindle ebook). Grab a copy and let me know what you think about its future world.

You know my bookseller friend Peter Snell, of Barton’s in Leatherhead? (He’s the co-host of our Surrey Hills Radio show So You Want To be A Writer.) Peter is a staunch supporter of indie authors, and he mentioned to me that he’d been talking to an indie writer I know who wanted advice on revamping her novel cover.

Oh you mean Alison Ripley Cubitt, I said. Her science fiction novel?

It’s not science fiction, said Peter. It’s a contemporary eco-thriller.

And therein lay Alison’s biggest problem.

So how did she end up with a cover that sent the wrong message? How was she persuaded to change it – because she’d made that choice for a good reason. And what did she change it to?

I thought this would make a useful case study. Publishers often rebrand covers if they keep a title in print a long time, and…