Leap of Faith

Yesterday was a long day of learning. I published my first book as an independent publisher and also my first ebook, too. I did this because it was the cheapest and most convenient way to self publish but also because I believe epublishing is the way forward.
I've been reading about it for some time and stories about the successes of digital publishing have been making their way into the mainstream media. One of the stories that swayed my opinion, was sent to me by Zak Martin in Spain, in this link.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-13853728
Further reading indicated there were even more people reading books on tablet readers than I ever imagined.
As all things like this, though, there's a gap between the future and the present that requires a leap of faith.
First, I'm surprised how many people expected I would have copies of a printed book to hand them. I'm surprised how many people can't get their heads around a free reader app available from Kindle for iPads, iPhones and MacBooks http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kindle-read-books-magazines/id302584613?mt=8. It makes sense from Kindle's point of view. There's intense competition among the electronic book retailers to capture readers. So it's a good time for readers as books are available at very attractive prices. Postcard from a Pigeon, my collection of short stories, costs less than a cup of coffee, but you'll enjoy more than one cup of coffee reading it.  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007CK9LY2/ref=r_soa_s_i...BE
My next step is in promotion and marketing, hence this blog site; my personal website, http://dermotthayes.com/dermotthayes.com/The_Story.html, my Facebook site, https://www.facebook.com/dermott.hayes and my Twitter site, https://twitter.com/#!/hannibalthehat
They're all part of the epublishing process but I think, ultimately, the final test is in word of mouth. So long as I can get these stories into readers' hands, I believe they'll tell their friends and more people will read them and create a market, future books will help to satisfy. Well, that's the Leap of Faith, innit? 

Publishing your own book is a bit like teaching your child to ride a bike

Publishing your own book is a bit like teaching your child to ride a bike...once you let go, they're on their own. I let Postcard from a Pigeon go last night. It's now available for sale on Amazon Kindle at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007CK9LY2/ref=r_soa_s_i...BE and it costs less than a cup of coffee. Now that it's out there I know I'm going to fret about it but there'll be more. This is just the beginning.
There are a bunch of stories I wrote before that I lost in computer crashes down the years but, as Kurtis Blow sang, these are the breaks.
I served a cheeseburger, fries and coke to Michael Madsen, poet and actor, in Bruxelles of Harry St, last night. I hope that was auspicious. He's now a follower on the BruxellesHarrySt Twitter site. Seemed like a nice chap. Didn't say much but he finished his burgher!

Reflections on a day...

If you haven't died a winter yet, things are looking up. That's one of those phrases stays in your mind from another, unspecified, time and place. You never have to look further than the headlines to find something depressing to dwell on. That's why they say no news is good news. It may all sound like trite banalities but those old sayings have a ring of truth in them.
I work as a waiter and bartender in a city centre pub and I'll tell you, things are not looking good when even Americans count their change and don't leave a tip. There is the persistent story about someone telling visiting Americans that tipping is neither common, nor expected in Ireland. I've often wondered about the source of that story and believe I found it once in an inflight magazine or maybe one of those glassy magazines Bord Failte or the Department of Foreign affairs used to distribute. Whatever the source, I've got an old saying for them: TIPPING IS NOT A CITY IN CHINA.
So after work last night, almost weightless for the lack of change to jingle, I dropped in to say hello to say hello to a friend. He was down in the dumps because he was having a hard time bust his friend's ashen remains out so he could bring him home for burial. How dead do you have to be to get buried today? I wondered. But that's another story. He was watching the protestors stop the Co Laois Sheriff carry out an eviction on a You Tube video that really should go VIRAL.
Here are a bunch of Irish people doing what they really love to do; argue points of the law, defy authority and listen to themselves. Brilliant. Pat Shortt couldn't have written a better sketch but this is deathly serious and soooo right. There was a bounce in my step after I saw this. It renewed my faith in my fellow human beings.
More about how dead you have to be etc in the next blog...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpUjl4LvQM8

Happy days - my numbers' are here

Happy days, I hope. The road to self publication is long and winding but if you take it at your own pace, read the signs along the way, things can work out. In the past six months I've experimented with a few software packages, trying to find the one that could do all the things I needed for self publication on the internet. By trial and error, I arrived at Scrivener, a Mac friendly package that can turn out .epub, .mobi and PDF formats, to cover the demands of most of the digital publishing world.
Once a new thing appears - in the past ten years and most immediately, in the past three years, digital publishing has appeared - and many people said, a bit like 'the talkies', I suppose, that it would never catch on. Those same people are now pondering what type of tablet they should buy. But equally, as the success stories in self publishing have mounted, so have the number of services being offered to those wide eyed, punk pioneers who want to get their publication out there and in the hands of Kindle, iPad and God know how many other digital readers. They will take your writings from a scruffy, digital manuscript and turn it into a shining jewel which they will then launch, with a fanfare and a fair wind, onto the choppy seas of the world wide web. Of course, they've got to pick a pocket or two along the way so if you want that digital conversion done, you'll pay; if you want a cover design, you'll have to pay and so on and so forth.
I look on this whole self publication thing from a punk point of view. Back in the day there was no internet to market your products. Kids who took up guitars played their own shows and raised the money, through gigs and fanzines, to make their own records and when someone heard them, they passed it on, if they were good and then they got a following. Most importantly, they got paid.
Then along came the internet and a new phenomenon for those musical pioneers: a means to put out their music to like minded souls without ever having to bother with the 'music industry', the multi-million corporate giants who were all about profits and the bottom line and forgot about nurturing talent.
Musicians learned a very simple lesson; if you own it, you can sell it and the profits are yours. Colin Vearncombe, aka Black, is a case in point. He withdrew from the corporate music world but continues to make great music which he sells through his own website.
Now I've set up a website. My first book - Postcard from a Pigeon and Other Stories, a collection of 18 short stories - is completed and ready for publication. This morning my ISBN numbers arrived. These are (International Standard Book Numbers) and they're sold in batches of ten and more to publishers. So I've set up my own publishing imprint, Hannibalthehat Books and all my books will be published under that banner with the numbers I've bought.
Postcard will first be available on Kindle for 90 days, to avail of a special offer they've forwarded to those first time writers. So here's to happy days...

Tangier Alley

Since I began living in and around Dublin's inner city in the mid '70s, I've been fascinated with the street names and the pictures and stories they can conjure. In the Grafton St area alone, there's a Lemon St, a Swan Yard and a Tangier Alley. There was once a 'Flint's Croft' between Harry St and South King St. Many other streets have disappeared; such is progress. As a general rule, most of the older street names refer to the prevalent trades practised in their vicinity so what might you make of those three above; Lemon St, Swan Yard and Tangier Alley?
I thought I'd have a go at it but instead of some historic musing, I decided I'd simply use the names for locations and let their ethos do their creative work. A murder or a robbery in Tangier Alley has far more cachet than a bag grab on Suffolk St, don't you think?
Here's some other names: Bull Alley, Cow's Lane, O'Curry Road, Engine Alley, Fade St. OK, I don't think I'd touch the last one after the reality tv show of the same name but the others certainly have possibilities. And I know of an Ebenezer Lane somewhere in Dublin 8.
Anyway, all this came back into my consciousness today while I was trawling through some back catalogue hard disc files and lo and behold, 22,000 words, six chapters or 54 pages of an unfinished novel: Bad Dreams of Tangier Alley!

Postcard from a Pigeon and Other Stories

Postcard from a Pigeon and Other Stories is a collection of 18 short stories that draw material from the past 50 years of Irish life. You can read about me and this book on my website, dermotthayes.com, where you can read excerpts from a selection of those stories. The book will soon be available for download from my website and through Kindle/Amazon

writing

Ok, so here's the story so far. I have osteoarthritis and my fingers are very sore, my knuckles are swollen but I continue to write because that's what I want to do. Since I began my life with a typewriter keyboard, the kind that dominated the newsrooms of national newspapers, I tend to, er, pound the keyboards. Yes, even in these days of ultra sensitive Apple keyboards, I pound. And that's not good for the arthritis, either.
we all do illogical things. We wouldn't be human if we didn't. We wouldn't be Klingons, either. We just wouldn't be very interesting. So we smoke cigarettes and we drink alcohol. We take pleasure in a Big Mac or a Whopper and I still love a full, Irish breakfast. Bring it on.
I've been writing all my life but have always found excuses to avoid it when I could. Illogical, eh?
A teacher I had once told me I could be a writer and I believed him because, not only did I want to, but because I believed it before he told me. I got knocked back a few times later and never met a teacher like him again. So I went into journalism, almost by default. I was pursuing a career in teaching and academia but my heart was never in it. Journalism, I loved and enjoyed until the headlines began to write the story and facts became an inconvenience.
Twelve years ago I began to explore my potential as a writer by writing short stories. I always loved the short story format - the idea of jumping in and out of someone's life and circumstances, in and out of a place; a short visit. It was appealing. I began to write short stories but I rarely showed them to anyone. Then I sent a story to a new Irish magazine and the editor and publisher called me and said he'd like to publish it and he did and I was thrilled. It was better than a front page, lead story, exclusive!
Now I have a collection of 18 stories and I've put them together and plan to publish them, myself. I hope, someday, if you read this, you'll read my stories. Check it out at dermotthayes.com. The book is called Postcard from a Pigeon and Other Stories, published by Hannibalthehat Books©2012