SelfSelfSelf and Creative Future

I was very pleased recently to get involved with Brighton-based charity Creative Future. They provide training, mentoring and the chance to publish or exhibit to talented people who lack opportunities due to mental health issues, disability, health or social circumstance. Check out their website here for more details: http://creativefuture.org.uk/

They’ve focused a lot on art in the past, so this year for the first time they unveiled the Creative Future Literary Awards (http://cfliteraryawards.wordpress.com). Submissions were welcomed from all walks of life and the winning pieces were to be published in a book entitled ‘The Spark’. With print partners such as Kingston University Press and Myriad Editions already involved, they needed someone to create and publish the eBook version for them, which was where I came in! SelfSelfSelf ended up co-sponsor of the anthology due to the level of support we were able to offer.

I was delighted to be invited to attend the awards ceremony on 27th September at the Small Wonder Short Story Festival at Charleston, where we all heard a stunning array of work read by the writers themselves (for the most part) and ably overseen by best-selling poet, playwright and broadcaster Lemn Sissay.

The eBook is available from Amazon Kindle NOW, with other sites to follow shortly. Go and check it out, it’s a fantastic read and for a worthy cause.

The Busker…

As some of you may know, in addition to running SelfSelfSelf (and many other things) I also worked on What the Dickens? Magazine, designing the whole thing and writing my column on all things eBook-related. So when the mag went through a few changes and decided to put out an eBook of the latest stories and poems they’d received, I was the one they called!

And so here it is! A collection of twenty short stories, poems and flash fiction, it’s well worth a read and is available on Amazon Kindle now:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Busker-Magazine-Collection-ebook/dp/B00DIDKOPW/

(other stores coming soon…)

Phill Gee and ‘Dirty Squatters’

Our latest release comes from former punk drummer and squatter in 1980s London, Phill Gee. Telling the true story of his experiences squatting and surviving in Margaret Thatcher’s Britain, it’s a fascinating insight into the hardships some people experienced during that time, and yet still tells the tale of a vibrant London community.

Especially timely given her recent passing (although I hasten to add this was written and subsequently published by us well before recent events), it’s a vital document of an era that even now is beginning to slip from memory and should not be forgotten.

 

Phill is now living in California, USA and you can hear him talking about his book with a New York radio station here (skip to about 15 mins in).

‘Dirty Squatters’ is available NOW on Amazon Kindle (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dirty-Squatters-ebook/dp/B00BARDY5A) and various other sites in ePUB format.

New releases – Ainee Beland

I’m very pleased to announce the publication of two books by an author new to SelfSelfSelf, Ainee Beland. Ainee is based in Massachusetts, USA.

The first title is ‘Of Things Past; Nostalgia‘, a fascinating collection of non-fiction poetry, prose and other writings intended to get “readers to remember fondly by books’ end that which has passed.” Switching into French towards the end adds another wholly different dynamic to the tales within.

‘Of Things Past: Nostalgia‘ is currently available on Amazon Kindle (https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007RELK5Q) and ePUB on FirstyFish (http://www.firstyfish.com/ebooks/14420/Of-Things-Past-Nostalgia/sm) for £2.99.

Also out by Ainee is ‘The Bolshevik Club‘, an historical fiction tale of Dovima and her extraordinary life. Starting out in Russia and moving by story’s end to the United States, it tells a interesting tale of an ordinary woman and the upheaval around her. Underpinned by real history, it’s definitely worth investigating.

‘The Bolshevik Club‘ is also available from Amazon Kindle (https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007Q3W0IO) and ePUB on FirstyFish (http://www.firstyfish.com/ebooks/14421/The-Bolshevik-Club-Story-of-Domina-an-Extraordinary-Life/sm) for £2.99.

More titles coming very soon! Thanks for stopping by.

New releases!

I’m very pleased to announce that our first two titles are now on sale!

First up is ‘Snack Yourself Slim‘ by Richard J. Warburg and Tessa Lorant, a fascinating look at an alternative approach to healthy eating and weight loss. Taking the idea of snacking and grazing to its logical conclusion and advocating eating more, smaller, meals when you’re hungry it’s an in-depth look at a whole different way of thinking about food. Certainly worth £2.99 of anyone’s money if you’re interested in changing your eating habits and losing some weight!

‘Snack Yourself Slim‘ is currently available on Amazon Kindle (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Snack-Yourself-Slim-ebook/dp/B007JCUMKU/) and ePUB on FirstyFish (http://www.firstyfish.com/ebooks/14384/Snack-Yourself-Slim/sm). More sites to come soon…

In a completely different vein we have ‘The Owl Tree: And The Ballad of the Owl Tree‘ by Roy James Moss. This is a fantasy tale told as an epic poem and is all the better for it. To keep the story going while still telling all in verse is hugely impressive and keeps you thoroughly immersed. Beautiful illustrations also add to the beguiling atmosphere, of which the cover is a worthy addition.

Aimed at younger readers but with plenty to keep any age group entertained, ‘The Owl Tree: And The Ballad of the Owl Tree‘ is available on Amazon Kindle (http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Owl-Tree-Ballad-ebook/dp/B007K81B76/) and ePUB on FirstyFish (http://www.firstyfish.com/ebooks/14385/The-Owl-Tree-And-The-Ballad-of-the-Owl-Tree/sm) for £2.99.

More to come soon!

GoGoGo!

Evening all.

So, today is the day. It took a bit longer than I’d hoped (the fact that I’m also needing to earn a living through my other freelance projects kept getting in the way!) but SelfSelfSelf is go!

We will hopefully be rapidly expanding over the next few months, as more distributors and authors come on board; the more we can promote each other the quicker progress we can all make. I will try and keep this blog updated more regularly in future, not only with developments at SelfSelfSelf, but with information about the wider world of eBooks in general.

For example, today I’ve been playing with the new Amazon KindleGen software. This is a command-line run piece of software; I suddenly feel like I’m 13 again having to use MS-DOS in order to play Wolfenstein 3D! (geek reference…). But I’ve got to get to grips with this stuff.

I’ll also post about new authors and new titles (I have our first published title on the way very soon), as well as possibly more general tech things. But then, nerds do rule the world these days…

I look forward to receiving your writings.

Welcome to SelfSelfSelf!

Hello there!

SelfSelfSelf is a new digital publishing service for writers who want to get their work converted and distributed as eBooks around the world. With no upfront fee, we will convert your words into the major eBook formats (mobi, ePUB, PDF) and upload them to all the major eBook stores. There will be those you have heard of – Amazon Kindle, Apple iBookstore, Waterstone’s and so on – along with many others you may be less familiar with but who are equally excellent.

Sign-up to the service will also include ISBN allocation and a free generic cover design if you don’t have your own (if you do of course then all the better!). All writers will keep 80% of net sales with, as mentioned, no upfront fee for the service. This gives you, the writer, an easy way to get your work online quickly and to the widest audience possible.

There are no restrictions on genre and we won’t be rejecting anything. We believe that the market itself will find the best work and it will sell. Of course we will be promoting our new books and authors on this blog as well as Twitter and Facebook, but any additional promotion you can pull off as the writer will benefit everybody!

We are in soft launch mode at the moment, hence why this is just essentially the blog, but the full launch of all services will begin in December 2011. Our website with full details will be up very soon but if this sounds like something that would interest you, by all means get in touch now at the address below and I can give you further details. I look forward to hearing from you 🙂

hello@selfselfself.com