Blue Poppy Publishing

How to Format a Paperback Novel for the UK Market

Using Word to Format a Paperback – UK

I make a part of my income from formatting novels for other writers, so obviously it would be madness to give away the secrets of how I do that, right?

Well, maybe that is actually wrong. Some people have time but no money, others have money but no time. If you are one of the latter, and you want your novel formatted just reach out to me and I will do a professional job for you at a reasonable rate.

If on the other hand, you are time rich money poor, then below is the secret laid out for you in full detail. It’s my first final draft (We all know what a first final draft is, right? It’s the one you think is perfect but it isn’t really) so if you spot any mistakes, or if it raises more questions than answers, please tell me.

And just like how some restaurants will supply the recipes for their signature dishes, safe in the knowledge that many customers would sooner leave it to the professionals, I am happy to let you see how I do what I do. If nothing else, some of you might appreciate why my charges are actually a little on the cheap side.

How To Format a Novel in Word

Okay, here’s the link you need. This is a .DOCX file so it is only going to be useful to people using Word 2013 or later. Also, your computer will warn you not to open it unless you are sure it’s from a safe source. I can only tell you, there is nothing sinister in there and you are just going to have to trust me. I can’t prove a thing. But most people coming here probably already know me, so that’s cool.

BasicNovel129x198

This file is set up exactly like a novel with the correct page size and general layout conventions. In addition, instead of consisting of generic lorem ipsum and Insert Title Here, text, the document itself is a step-by-step instruction manual for how to tweak and adjust the settings to suit your own personal aesthetic preferences.

When you open it, I recommend you save a copy with the title of your novel, and then set about dropping your text into place while keeping the original version to check back in case you did anything wrong.

The Bright Orange Swimming Hat – Audio

I have been meaning to get my act together a bit more towards producing audiobooks of some of the Blue Poppy ouvre. As you may or may not already know, The Cream of Devon – an anthology of short stories from the county that rhymes with heaven, is Blue Poppy Publishing’s first official foray into traditional publishing, so it seemed like a good place to start. It comes with the added bonus that it is easier to produce a finished recording of a short story than an entire novel.

This is the first story which has been recorded so far and I offer it to you free in the sincere hope that you will tell me what you think of it and, if you like it, tell others.

The voice work was done by Sarah Kingdon-Ward who, apart from being a talented actor, happens to be my sister so she did it as a favour. I therefore owe her a debt of sorts which I can perhaps repay in the short term by showcasing her talents as a voiceover artist to anyone else who wants an audiobook done. SFX added by me in post production.

The Bright Orange Swimming Hat – By Irene Sugden, from the book The Cream of Devon.

BBC Radio Devon interview with David Fitzgerald – “Fitz”

Dateline: Friday 5th October
Time: 12:09 – 12:19 approx

Well yesterday was an experience and tremendously interesting, and fun.

David Fitzgerald is a lovely bloke who managed to sound interested in my maundering nonsense. I just hope I didn’t send all his listeners to sleep.

I got in touch with the show with considerable trepidation, fearing that I would either be ignored, or worse, rejected as not sufficiently interesting. (n.b. this is why I self-published in the first place, because I dread rejection far too much)

Contrary to my worst fears, Elsa got back to me almost immediately and, to my huge surprise, offered me an interview the very next day!

So there’s me driving down to Plymouth (I had thought the BBC Radio Devon studios were in Exeter) on Friday morning, and waiting in reception, then being brought through by the delightful Elsa and introduced to Fitz.

I knew I wouldn’t have long, and I tried to splurge as much information as I could in an incoherent stream. Fitz managed things with utter professionalism and natural charm, bringing out some of the important points I had glossed over, and making sure I could plug the website.

You can listen again using the BBCs own iPlayer app, This requires an account and you have to be signed in. My interview is at approx 2:09 into the three hour programme.

If you live abroad, or if you can’t bring yourself to sign up for an account, then I have made a recording of the specific bit for you to listen to.

I left thinking of a hundred things I wanted to say but didn’t but listening back over the interview I got about ten minutes and covered almost everything I could have hoped for. Thank you Fitz, and BBC Radio Devon.

Until next time.

Little Bird Publishing friends on the same business journey

Friends in the same business

If you are in business and you see your business competitors as a threat, then I feel sorry for you. There is hardly a business model anywhere in the multiverse where direct competition is not positively beneficial. Indeed, in many businesses it is essential.

I would say that publishing is a good example. It is the almost infinite variety of books that makes them so interesting. If there were not so many books in so many genres, from so many authors, the market would actually stagnate and move backwards.

We, at Blue Poppy publishing have authors at varying stages of interest and development, and too many more would simply swamp us anyway. So it is always nice to find like minded publishers on a similar journey to ourselves, and that is where Little Bird Publishing comes in.

Established by Katie John in 2010 in very similar circumstances to Oliver Tooley founding BPP in 2016 they now have eight or more authors on the books, and everyone involved helps each other with mutual cross-promotion and collaboration. Like us they publish a wide range of genres, but steer clear of erotica and horror and so it is quite probable that our readers will enjoy their books and vice-versa.

I particularly agree with the philosophy of Little Bird, which is fairly well encapsulated in their own words

[Katie] also quickly became aware of the sharks out there, exploiting the new indie author market; expensive vanity publishing schemes, unqualified editors, and people offering to turn authors into millionaires, and USA Today bestsellers overnight. She established Little Bird Publishing as an antidote to this kind of author exploitation and dream peddling.

It’s the same here. We won’t take money up front from authors for anything they wouldn’t spend money on anyway. We’re happy for authors to hire their own editor, cover designer or whatever; or to introduce authors to those people. All we insist on, is that the end product is professional quality such as you would expect from Random House or Bloomsbury.

Blue Poppy; what’s it all about?

Introducing Blue Poppy Publishing.

So, last year, 2016, I finally finished my first full novel. I set up a crowdfunding campaign to pay for a professional edit, cover design, and printing. When the money hit my account I went a bit crazy and spent it all and then some trying to produce a really good product. I hope the seventy-plus backers were very pleased with it. I know I was.

Part of publishing that book ended up with me creating an imprint; Blue Poppy Publishing. I say imprint because it could certainly not lay any claim to being a company. It still isn’t; but more of that in future posts.

Why “Blue Poppy”?

I asked my online friends for name suggestions, but it was my son Morton, who suggested the name. It relates to my grandfather, Frank Kingdon-Ward, who was an explorer and botanist. “The Last of the Great Plant Hunters” was the first person to bring back viable seed of Meconopsis betonicifolia, the Himalayan Blue Poppy.

My first website was all about him, and my very first paid writing assignment was a 1,200 word article about him for “The Great Explorers” by Robin Hanbury-Tenison. (Thames & Hudson ISBN 978-0500251690)

Hence the name.

So what is Blue Poppy Publishing then?

Can we call it BPP for brevity?

It is a very small publisher with absolutely no money, but a big heart and a growing wealth of understanding about the world of self publishing.

We (yes, I can call it “we” now because with the addition of Ben Blake it is no longer just me) are not pretending we know everything, but we are continually learning, and looking for ways to put that experience to good use for ourselves, and others.

We still don’t have any money, but 2017 is the year we will start to change that, in very small ways at first, but building on it.