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BDA Books now accepting manuscript submissionsBDA Books is pleased to announce that we are currently expanding our press to include other authors and is now accepting submissions. More information about BDA Books can be found on its website: www.bdabooks.com.au (or www.bdabooks.com). We will be accepting submissions for consideration for publication of previously unpublished full length novels (a full length novel is usually at least 80,000 words) written in English in the following categories:
We will also be accepting submissions to consider publication of previously unpublished non–fiction works in the field of law (only professional or reference texts in any area of the law) written in English by qualified legal practitioners who have been previously published. The categories in which BDA Books will not accept submissions are listed in the Submission Guidelines. Authors wishing to submit work to BDA Books should visit the BDA Books Submission Guidelines page and download the PDF containing full submission guidelines prior submitting work for consideration. Unless otherwise noted, please refer to these guidelines when submitting work to BDA Books. If you want us to give full consideration to your work, please make sure you have read the guidelines and follow them. The quickest way to guarantee your work is rejected is to NOT follow the guidelines. At this time, BDA Books is only accepting hardcopy submissions by mail (i.e. printed and mailed to us at the address noted in the Submission Guidelines) that meet the Submission Guidelines and does not accept general queries by email. Submissions, or queries about the submissions process, sent electronically (either on disk or sent by e–mail), will not be accepted and will not be answered. We only accept proposals for finished works. We do not consider incomplete works or proposals for as yet unwritten works. There will be only one (1) exception only to the Submission Guidelines: If the standard paper size in your country of origin is not A4 (e.g. if you live in the U.S. or another country where the standard paper size is US Letter – 8.5” by 11” – size), then we will consider a submission on the standard paper size in your country of origin. If an author submits work for consideration to BDA Books and the work is accepted for publication, the author will be offered a publishing contract granting BDA Books first–time publishing rights to the work. We look forward to hearing from you. Add new comment
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Happy New Year everyone! And happy birthday to me!Well, my birthday's not until 12 January... so I'm doing a "12 days of my birthday" celebration and until then I'm offering a 25% discount on the CreateSpace edition of my book, Discovering Wounded Justice: Cruel Menace: https://www.createspace.com/3390160. The special Birthday Celebration coupon code for the CreateSpace version of my book is 8FLE95WT. If you'd prefer a Kindle version before it's available on Amazon, you can get a copy here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/3809. The special Birthday Celebration coupon code for the Smashwords version of my ebook is ZS68G and is only valid until 12 January. Please help me celebrate the New Year and my birthday! I'd like to wish everyone happiness, safety, security and much success (and many book sales for independently published authors) in 2010! Cheers Want instant gratification? Get a Kindle version of my ebook BEFORE it's available from Amazon.comI have a Kindle version of my book, Discovering Wounded Justice: Cruel Menace available at Smashwords. About three weeks ago, Smashwords founder Mark Coker announced a distribution agreement for Smashwords to supply ebooks to the Amazon Kindle Store, with titles to start appearing in the the Amazon Kindle Store in mid-December 2009. http://blog.smashwords.com/2009/11/smashwords-to-supply-ebooks-to-amazon.html http://www.smashwords.com/press/release/16 I'm hoping that the Kindle version of my book, Discovering Wounded Justice: Cruel Menace will be available in the next couple of days, but if you'd like get a Kindle version of my ebook BEFORE it's available from Amazon.com, you can get a copy from: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/3809 Kind Regards What advice do I have for aspiring writers?In my last blog entry, I wrote about a question I was asked about my writing process. Another question I was asked recently was what advice I have for aspiring writers. Firstly: learn English! (Or whatever language you happen to be writing in.) It might sound ridiculous and obvious, but most people don’t pay attention in English classes at school and unfortunately some schools a horrific job in teaching the bare basics of English composition. Language is such a fluid thing and it takes practice to master it, like any subject. I was lucky: my mother started her career as an English teacher, my maternal grandmother started her career as an English teacher and my father learnt English as a second language. I also learnt Italian as my secondary primary language as a child and I studied French and Japanese and a little German in high school (although I’ve forgotten a lot of those languages). So I had a benefit many others might, no probably wouldn’t, have. Secondly: study a second language if you can. You will learn the rules of structure, grammar and spelling of another language which will go some way to helping you understand your primary language. Thirdly: read, read, read. You can learn a lot from seeing how others write. Fourthly: get a tough skin. You’ll get criticism from others and it won’t always be easy to swallow. Don’t take criticism as a personal attack on your soul; learn something and get better. Fifthly, and finally: don’t aspire to write. Write! Write, write and write some more! Regards My writing processOne of the questions I was asked recently was about my writing process. “Do you outline, write in the morning/evening, etc?” When I was working in the legal profession, I’d have to go into an office and spend most of my days there and had a lot less time to pay attention to writing for myself and working on the “business end” of publishing. But since I left working the legal profession and started working just on getting the book out (from home, about 6 months ago now), some days are real train wrecks and others are not so much of a train wreck (when I can get my act together and give myself a list!). One day a couple of weeks ago was a train wreck day – I had to go get coffee for the plunger, go to 2 banks, pay some bills, then the office supplies catalogue arrived and I went out for a printer toner cartridge that ran out a couple of days before (to stop the printer from beeping at me!) and then Violet the cat (she’s a “rescue” cat, saved from “Death Row” a couple of months ago) was whinging so I had to pay attention to her. Most mornings I wake up at 4.30 these days (as that’s when Violet gets up and wakes me up) and wander around the internet for a bit. I’m a member of a couple of online writing/publishing communities with user forums and I try to help out a bit, answering questions about the writing and publishing process and what it takes to get a manuscript polished sufficiently so that the manuscript is “print ready”. There’s so much more to getting a book designed than just hitting the “print” icon from wordprocessing software, so that the book looks as polished and professional as it can. Then I try to do a bit of paperwork (going to the Post Office Box, bookkeeping, etc), then a bit of “marketing” (e.g. updating the web pages, Facebook, blog etc), then a bit of research (e.g. background info for parts of the next book or finding new marketing strategies). And if I’m on top of things, then I try to do a bit of writing (or plot planning) in the afternoon. It’s a bit hard to do the writing part, as some of the ideas I had for my current book I excised and can use for a “forerunner” and the way I ended the book gave me the option to lead into the next one and I jump between them and my brain tries to split itself into multiple directions! This morning was also a bit of a train wreck – I had to chase after Violet to stop her from trying to play with a rather large magpie (a rather large swooping bird that likes to get “nasty” with its beak when it thinks it’s being threatened) and the neighbour’s cat. And I’m going interstate for the weekend (high school reunion, sister’s birthday, grandmother’s birthday, and a bit of a PR trip as well to meet with someone helping me with some PR), so I had some organising to do for that. And then some household chores... combining gas and electricity companies, changing insurance companies, installing the new wi–fi modem... And I’ve been messaging back and forward with a friend who’s just got her hands on a copy of my book and she wants to know when the next one is coming out! When will the interruptions to writing stop! Okay! Time to turn of the internet and get back to writing! No, wait... One more phone call to make to set up another meeting for the weekend... AAGGGHHH! Regards
Belinda D’Alessandro Author Discovering Wounded Justice: Cruel Menace |
