My new year’s thanks goes to the staff at the Writing Magazine.
They have printed an article about my publishing process for my novel Missing.
On Page 47.
I have copied the short article below for your enjoyment.
A Process of Discovery
‘The idea for my novel Missing crept into my head and would not go away,’ writes subscriber James McEwan.
‘Lately, I was attending a lot of family gatherings and discovered a few of my relatives were not who I thought they were. Three children who started school with me were my father’s cousins and not mine as I believed.
‘My idea for the novel was simple; what if you knew nothing about your parents and relatives?
‘Before I wrote Missing, I had an ending in mind, and I worked backwards to create the plot and story. This helped me to adjust the outline and create a structure before I started to write. I prepared a fictional family tree going back three generations and researched the elaborate legalities of inheritance regarding land ownership.
‘I attend the monthly meetings of Indie Author’s World at a Waterstones bookshop in Glasgow and the group encouraged me to publish the book independently by creating my own imprint (Alibrasphere) complete with ISBNs. They also reviewed my cover versions and offered editorial services. Having this support gave me the confidence and added obligation to finish writing the book.
‘I used KDP to print various proof copies until satisfied with the paperback cover and the formatted content and when ready I released the e-book Kindle version. Although Amazon provides worldwide distribution and visibility, many bookshops, (I am advised), in the UK will not order directly from them. I wanted my book to be available from all the bookshops and therefore I set up an account with Ingram-Spark, this provided print on demand service for the paperback and also a wider distribution of the e-book for other digital reader devices.
‘Missing, is available from bookshops and to read on Kindle, Apple Books and Kobo.
‘Taking the independent choice for a first novel resulted in a lot of hard work, and I envy those authors who have a traditional publishing organisation to support them.’
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James McEwan 