Should you publish your personal memoire or family story on Kindle?

One of the most exciting aspects of the e-publishing revolution is the proliferation of new writing that wouldn't be handled by the traditional publishers. I'm thinking particularly here of personal memoires and family stories.

I got into e-publishing to help my husband bring his novel Magnificent Britain in front of an audience. It was several months after the launch of Magnificent Britain that I began to think about publishing a diary that my father had written during World War II. I Think I Prefer the Tinned Variety: The Diary of a Petty Officer in the Fleet Air Arm during World War II was released as a Kindle ebook in October last year and I'm really pleased that I took the decision to publish it; my dad, who died many years ago, would have been amazed.

I've downloaded and enjoyed reading several WWII memoires and am currently enjoying reading From Trincomalee to Portsea: The Diary of Eliza Bunt 1818 - 1822 which is a fascinating diary transcribed and explained by Mary Hope Monnery, a descendent of the writer of the diary.

I would urge anyone with a diary, collection of letters or a good memory to put in the work to get it published as a Kindle ebook and here are my reasons why.

You can write about the lives and times of ordinary people which is a wonderful antidote to the mass of books about the rich, powerful and famous. You can relate the big events of history to the life of your own family. When I was researching I Think I Prefer the Tinned Variety: The Diary of a Petty Officer in the Fleet Air Arm during World War II, I found out that the British Pacific Fleet had been ignored at the conclusion of WWII and was known in the literature as "The Forgotten Fleet". You can help to make sure that your ancestor's little bit of history doesn't get forgotten.

You can help readers understand the background to some important historical events from a personal perspective. In Fleet Air Arm Memories 1939 - 1946: Tales of the Brummagem Bastard the author N. H. Mills, assisted by his co-author grand-daughter R. S. Pyne, uses his own records and references to a wide variety of sources to document his experiences as a young recruit in the Fleet Air Arm during WWII. The aspects of his story which relate to the Arctic Convoys are particularly fascinating and have contemporary resonances as the long saga of the Arctic Convoy Medal comes to its conclusion.

You can write to document the way of life of a lost era. In National Service: A Reluctant Snowdrop's Perspective, author Christopher Butler shares his account of the very last months of post-war National Service. We often hear people saying "Bring back National Service" when they're having a rant about some aspect of youth culture they don't like. Well, reading a first hand account of that much vaunted National Service gives some revealing insights into its less positive aspects.

You can write to celebrate the life of a loved and respected relative, friend or colleague. In Our Father's War, the children of a New Zealand RAF pilot have made a compilation of his letters home during World War II. They present a beautifully written account of the life of one young man during that difficult time.

You should write your book because you can! The e-publishing revolution has completely democratised writing and if you've got something to say and you want to share it with others you should make the most of the opportunity. Of course you owe it to your readers to ensure you're offering a good quality product in terms of formatting, proof-reading and use of the English language but the charm and interest in this form of writing lies in its small scale, intimacy, personal details and idiosyncrasies.

There's just one thing before you publish. Make sure you've got a thick skin. You mustn't get upset if readers don't like your book and decide to tell you publically in an Amazon review. I always read the sample of a book before I download it and have never paid for a book that has disappointed me but some readers must just plunge straight in without checking the sample judging by some of the comments that get written.

You might only get a few downloads - who knows? - but the memories and insights you've recorded will be there forever.

10 Good Reasons to Buy an E-Reader

We've been reading with an a-reader for over a year now and are completely hooked. After a few months we realised one was not enough and we bought another: our Kindles are definitely not for sharing. We only use the basic bog-standard version: the first one cost £89 and the second was twenty pounds cheaper. We have a couple of friends who use a Kindle Fire HD but they watch films and surf the internet etc as well as read with it. We didn't want that; we were only looking for a reading device. I haven't tried any of the other e-readers available: the Kindle has been fine for us.

Here are 10 good reasons to buy an e-reader; I'm sure there are more but these are mine.

1. You can get loads of books that are either free, only cost 20p or are very cheap. Some of them are fantastic books, many are well worth reading and some aren't very good. However:

2. You can read a free sample of any book you're interested in before you commit to paying for it or investing your time in it. I usually search for my books on our PC because I find it quicker to get to the free sample, read it, make a decision and download it to my Kindle. Michael, on the other hand, always downloads a sample when he's using his Kindle and reads it when he's ready. Either way there is absolutely no need to download anything you won't want to read and if you end up with a book that you don't like, is badly formatted or poorly edited then you've only yourself to blame.

3. Because you're only making a modest investment you can try all sorts of new writers, genres, styles etc. In the past I used a public library for this purpose but with the Kindle the choice is much greater. I've read countless books that would never have been on the shelves of a public library and my reading experience has been enhanced greatly as a result.

4. You can make the font size bigger and I've found I don't need reading glasses any more.

5. An e-reader is light and easy to carry around. It will hold hundreds of books and is fantastic when you go away from home visiting or on holiday as there is no restriction on the amount of books you can take with you. The last time I went on holiday pre-Kindle I took 12 paperback books and they weighed a ton.

6. The battery on the Kindle lasts for about fifteen hours if you remember to turn off the wifi. It's easy to re-charge and only takes a couple of hours. I don't know how this compares to other e-readers but you should be able to find out easily enough on the appropriate web-site.

7. There is an integral dictionary in the Kindle which is fantastic. There you are stuck into a good plot when up comes an unfamiliar word. Instant definition. Amazing!

8. You can organise your books into folders. I like to tidy things away and have, as Mrs. Beeton said, "A place for everything and everything in its place." If you want to re-read you can find your books easily and you can keep tabs on what you've got waiting to be read as well.

9. Some of the material available would never be published by mainstream publishers. I'm thinking of the explosion of novellas, short stories and family history memoires which are ideal for train journeys or when you're waiting at the dentist. You can find all sorts of unusual self-help books which again wouldn't get an outing from the conventional publishers; and no-one can have missed the e-publishing sensation of 2012 - erotica for women. And finally:

10. Strangers talk to you. Sitting in the car showroom, waiting for the vehicle to be repaired:

"Are they any good?"

"I'm sorry…"

"Those Kindle things. Are they any good?"

"Oh, yes. Yes definitely. Let me give you ten good reasons...!"

Did you know you can get a free Kindle app that works on just about any device? Follow this link for more details Free Kindle App.

We've published these e-books. If you would like to sample or buy any of the books we've written all the details are here:

Magnificent Britain 

by Michael Murray

Smashwords (20% free sample)

Amazon Kindle UK

Amazon Kindle USA

B&N Nook

Diesel

Kobo

ipad and iphone in the ibook store

Julia's Room 

by Michael Murray 

Smashwords (20% free sample)

Amazon Kindle UK

Amazon Kindle USA

B&N Nook

Diesel

Kobo
ipad and iphone in the ibook store

I Think I Prefer the Tinned Variety: 

The Diary of a Petty Officer 

in the Fleet Air Arm during World War II by N. Buckle & C. Murray

Amazon Kindle UK

Amazon Kindle USA 

Spurwing celebrates first year in e-book publishing

The champagne corks popped in our house recently as we celebrated out first year in e-book publishing.

We started with Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) just over twelve months ago. In that time we've gone from knowing nothing about it at all to having three books out: each has found a readership and started to get some good reviews.

I only wrote one of the books myself and in fact I co-authored that with my dad. He died in 1978 but he left behind some diary pages of his service in the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy during World War II. I edited and annotated his diary, started a blog to house his collection of photographs and published I Think I Prefer the Tinned Variety: The Diary of a Petty Officer in the Fleet Air Arm during World War II by N. Buckle & C. Murray in October 2012.

I didn't write the other two books we've published with KDP. They were both written by my husband, Michael Murray. He had been working on his novel Magnificent Britain for over fifteen years before he thought it was ready to offer for publication. Although he received some encouraging comments from literary agents none were prepared to go any further. He was approaching his sixty fifth birthday when he received a "thanks but no thanks" letter from one of the top agencies. They explained that their main function was to promote and defend their existing client base which was somewhat disheartening to say the least. However they did us a big favour: the letter was the catalyst to our joining KDP. We decided we were too old to hang around waiting for something to happen: we would get on and make it happen for ourselves.

Fortuitously, there were stories running in the national media at the time about authors such as Amanda Hocking, Rachel Abbott and John Locke who'd all achieved success through self-publishing. This was inspirational. We didn't expect to join them in the ranks of mega-sellers but their stories pointed the way and we knew it could be done.

We were confident about the quality of the writing, the editing and the proof-reading: we thought we'd got a good product. It was now a matter of learning how to do the formatting and preparation for publishing with Kindle Direct. This proved to be easier than we'd anticipated because the guidance and tutorials offered on the KDP site really work well. If you take the time to read them and work through them systematically it all becomes clear. Also it's essential to read the legal stuff because you do need to know what you're signing up to.

So, just over a year ago we were ready and we uploaded Michael's novel Magnificent Britain. It was so exciting; we rushed to download a copy and even though we'd read it countless times already it was like reading it for the first time all over again.

Six months later in August 2012, Michael completed a (long) short story or novella, Julia's Room. Again the pleasure we found in getting the book out was enormous and knowing that there is a readership out there enjoying the work is fantastic.

Recently we've published with Smashwords and Michael's books are there on the Smashwords site to sample and buy. In addition they have been distributed to other major e-book retailers and are now available for Nook and Kobo as well as Kindle.

If you want to try any of our books there are some links below. You can read so much of a book for free on the Amazon or Smashwords sites that you can easily work out if it's your sort of thing before you buy. If you don't read with a Kindle did you know you can download a free app. which works on virtually every sort of device there is? I've put a link to that as well.

Thanks for reading and hope you'll call back again.

Magnificent Britain by Michael Murray

Smashwords Amazon Kindle UK Amazon Kindle USA B&N Nook Diesel Kobo

Julia's Room by Michael Murray  

Smashwords Amazon Kindle UK Amazon Kindle USA B&N Nook Diesel 

 I Think I Prefer the Tinned Variety by N. Buckle & C. Murray

Amazon Kindle UK Amazon Kindle USA  

Free Kindle App.