Motivations, Highlights & Challenges – part 3
Motivations, Highlights & Challenges – part 3 by Digby Hartridge What have I discovered about editing and publishing, house styles and book production? I had some grounding. Part of my brief in one of...
Writing
Motivations, Highlights & Challenges – part 2
Motivations, Highlights & Challenges – part 2 by Digby Hartridge Studying the history of Africa, especially in the late Victorian and Edwardian eras, has been instructive. Over the last twenty or thirty years there...
Motivations, Highlights & Challenges – part 1
Motivations, Highlights & Challenges – part 1 by Digby Hartridge It’s been suggested I write a few words about how I came to write my biography of Sir John Willoughby, 5th Bart, and here...
Labels: attract or avoid?
As a publisher, I don’t like to label our books, apart from what one needs to do for ISBN purposes. And for that, I use broad categories. My reason for not labelling a book...
Rhotacism – mispronunciation of ‘r’
I was intrigued to discover that there is a condition called rhotacism – I assumed, having come across so many communities in East Africa where ‘r’ is pronounced as ‘l’ that it was more...
The author’s journey
If you’re wondering about the writing process and how it works, here are a few posts by different authors. David Vann on becoming a writer and how he does it. Adam Rabinowitz explains his...
Horripilation
A few books in the TSL collection give me horripilations: The Good Vicar by RJ Whitfield, and especially the Lucifer’s Child trilogy by Gideon Masters And I really didn’t expect to find the word...
Drafts – how tedious
Every author I speak to complains about rewrites and working through drafts. My author self does too, although to be honest, it can sometimes be quite a cathartic process – but that might be...
Book settings: London
One of TSL’s straplines is #SupportingLocal. For TSL, local is wherever we want it to be as we have links in Africa as well as the UK and the US and into Europe and...
The joy of language
Language is a funny thing – it’s fluid, it appears to be constant but the use and meanings of words change. When we arrived in the UK from South Africa, we quickly learnt to...
Dangling Participles
A reviewer once contacted me to tell me that his review would be slightly delayed as he had spotted a dangling participle and a significant other in his life just would not let him...
Book publishing and marketing – reality checks
Getting sales of a book is really challenging – ask just about any author or publisher. Marketing a book though is easy, you press a few buttons and social media does the rest. However,...
The value of writing groups
Authors are all different in the way they work, some like to work indpendently whilst others need/like the encouragement and motivaton provided from other authors. As a result, there are numerous groups supporting authors...
Understanding Copyright
These links have the helpful explanations and advice on copyright. Copyright basics by ALCS Debunking myths of copyright by J Degen Copyright across the globe – the impact of free access Organisations supporting...
Handwriting
23 January is #nationalhandwritingday I am really grateful to my school history teacher (we had the same amazing woman for 5 years) who taught us to write an A4 page in 10 minutes. She...
Authenticity in writing
Authenticity in writing (#writing #review) I’ve come to the conclusion I’m a fussy reader. As an historian, my reading material although narrowly focused on World War One in Africa varies between traditional academic texts...
The sign of a good book
What is a ‘good’ book? For me, it’s rarely a best seller. It’s a book which makes me think and spot something new every time I read it or one I’m not likely to...
Language – crossing boundaries
With the increase in cross-boundary and cross-cultural writing, it’s important that the writer gets the language of the protagonists right but also to ensure that the reader knows what is meant. The importance of...
Dyslexia, Deafness, Disabilities, Disorders … Don’t Dominate
Why do we label people? Labels get in the way yet despite (in spite) of the barriers many creative people have to face, they achieve. TSL values the diversity learning and other challenges bring...