Authorpreneur Magazine Issue 3 | Page 12

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Learn the technical jargon especially the verbs. Become familiar with the potential of digital gadgets so you can write better for that medium. Change the project title. Add a sub-title, especially for pitching digital projects where only the title and cover may show.

Turn your project into a case study of a new process. I talk about my print picture book‘ Feymouse’ now available as an app on Itunes, as a case study. The ex-Penguin title was a popular, but out of print story about a large and clumsy cat born into a family of highly talented mice. The theme of coping successfully with being different doesn’ t date and the process of becoming an app makes a topical case study.

Currently Kailash Studios is making a documentary on reactions to our co-written‘ f2m: the boy within’, a coming of age novel about transitioning gender. My co-author Ryan is an ftm( female to male) and the transitioning subject is seen as controversial, but our actual novel, which is available in print and e-formats, is not. The documentary medium re-focuses attention on the book and becomes a case study on censorship and gender issues too.

Be strategic in the choice of medium as well as the subject.

Antarctica is a popular subject and I’ ve been an Australian Antarctic expeditioner. Co-writing a speculative Antarctic vehicles animation for pre-schoolers, was a BIG project. There were expensive licensing variables for the producer in terms of merchandising and broadcasting internationally. It is still‘ on ice’. Whereas my novel‘ Antarctica’ s Frozen Chosen’, e-memoir‘ Antarctic Writer on ice’ and the classroom performance scripts and picture book‘ Antarctic Dad’ have been widely used because Antarctica is on the school curriculum.

BIG budget film or animation projects, which require re-writing scripts‘ on spec’ or with delayed returns on income, are gambles and take years. High tech animation requires constantly updated and expensive samples to demonstrate for international festival pitches. However, you gain from working with graphic designers, producers and actors and may write more dramatically or visually next time. All or nothing projects can mean no millions for you but rich experiences.

8. Before being seduced by another‘ new’ idea, analyze why the previous project didn’ t succeed. I am now wary about certain types of digital projects. I aim to balance‘ iffy’ BIG multi-media projects reliant on others’ inputs with smaller projects which I can self-manage. Learn from your mistakes. I tend to get seduced by the enthusiasm of an energetic personality with an imaginative idea, especially if it is a good cause. Ask about potential distribution, copyright and the details of work to be done. Or say‘ no’. Recognize your weaknesses( mine is formatting) and collaborate with others who do that well. Buy or swap skills.

9. Decide on the general direction or genre or format, and keep moving that way, even if detours occur. Share your steps in the process of learning. I used the process of my digital publishing and author branding as participantobservation research for my e and print book‘ Authorpreneurship: The Business of Creativity’. I estimated learning about e-books would take me one year; it has taken three and is on-going. I’ ve collaborated with a skilled graphic designer who illustrated the e-editions. That’ s helped.

10. Your‘ bottom drawer’ is more likely to be a hard drive these days, but some of those projects, which didn’ t get up in their original formats are not a total loss. Let’ s value the effort as a different kind of profit and loss and recycle into new mediums.

Authorpreneur Hazel Edwards is best known for There’ s a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Eating Cake but she also writes across media, age groups and non-fiction. Writing a Non Boring Family History, and

Authorpreneurship, The Business of Creativity are best e-sellers available from:

www. hazeledwards. com