SPJA - Structural Editing

 Editing is one of the biggies when it comes to self-published fiction, and the confusing thing is that there are many kinds of editing. Terms like proofing, editing and copyediting are sometimes used interchangeably, which doesn't help.

Deanna Hoak, a freelance copyeditor, has a blog post on Proofreading vs. Copyediting which should be required reading. (This is where I must recommend Pauline Nolet, who worked on my Hal Spacejock novels.)


When talking about editing, I'm referring to structural editing, and instead of going on and on about the subject I'll just point you to Jodi Cleghorn's blog post. (Don't you just love the labour-saving hyperlink device?)


Okay, now we're on the same page. Many self-published books need structural editing, most need copyediting, and they all need proofing.

How much you spend depends on your budget, your desire to make your book as professional as possible, and your publication schedule.

Structural editing can by provided by people you know. Just get your book into their hands, warn them it's an early draft, and ask them to point out one or more of the items from Jodi's post. The important thing is to tell them you're not asking for a pat on the back (or a raspberry). You don't have to overload your readers with a big list of things to look for - maybe split the tasks so that one person is just reporting back the most boring scenes in the book, or all the places they stopped reading and put the book down, or where they stopped reading and never got back into it.

This is why structural editing can be fraught, especially if you're precious about your work (or your relationships!) It's also why you must regard this as a first draft. I can't emphasise that enough. Tell your readers you want them to tear it apart, because this is an early version of your novel which can only improve with their help.


You'll have to convince yourself of the same thing, because if you start getting defensive and arguing with your first readers, you're sunk. We all know artistes who refuse to touch a word of their perfect prose - well, us working writers suck it up and get on with it.

By the way, you can't rewrite a novel and give it back to the original first readers. Even if they agree to read it they won't be coming at it fresh, and at best they'll skim it. Instead, give it to another set of readers. If you don't have many people to ask you can always split the book into chunks, write a brief summary of What Has Gone Before, and hand each person half a dozen chapters along with the relevant summary. Next time around, give them a different half dozen.

I always promise a signed copy of the book and I mention my first readers in the acknowledgements. (Always check with them first. Some prefer first name only, some don't want to be listed.) If you're not going for a print edition, consider a one-off ebook with a custom opening page thanking the person for their help.

That's freebies, what about a structural edit you have to pay for?  I've detailed the process my editor and I went through in a website article called 'Working with an editor'   This was on the publisher's dime, and the work I handed in was complex and intricate and needed a fair bit of untangling. What I'm saying is, don't expect anything that thorough without a large cheque (or check.)  Each pass through the book is another edit, and in the article I also mention copyediting and proofing, which are separate stages.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

SPJA - different types of self-publishing

If you're following my SPJA (self-publishing journey acronym) series, I need to make one thing clear: My goal is to release a new junior/middle-grade science fiction series which is indistinguishable from similar titles released by major publishers. I'm hiring the same professionals the publishers do, and I'm asking them to do the same job.

If your intention is to publish your writing so you can share copies with family and close friends, you're reading the wrong blog. There's absolutely no point spending hundreds (or thousands) of dollars producing something which is going to sell ten or fifty copies. You can get by with generic cover templates, clipart and the spell check & grammar tools in Word or OpenOffice.

Next: If you want to publish a professional novel but can't write fiction to a professional standard, you need to hone your craft before wasting good money on a fantastic cover and centimetre-perfect proofing. You cannot take lousy writing, polish it up, slap a cover on it and sell heaps of copies. (Yeah, I know .. insert obligatory 'What about Big Name Author X?' gag.) Contrary to popular belief, fairies and angels don't die en masse when a lousy novel is self-published and heavily promoted (aka spammed) across writing forums and Facebook. It's just hard to get other people to buy it, and if they do they'll probably litter the amazon listing with one-star reviews.

How do you judge whether you're writing professionally? Hell, I don't know. I thought I was ready after I sold a few short stories to paying markets, but looking back at my work from 1999/2000 has me backing away with my eyes firmly closed and my hands warding off evil.

Actually, there is a way: manuscript evaluation. For a first novel and an author with no publication credits of any kind, I'd say the evaluation is absolutely essential. Think of it as a driving license.

Like many things in life, you can pay for it or you can butter people up until you get it for nothing. If you pay for it you get a pro job with a guaranteed outcome. If you want to go for free, you need to join a writing forum and participate in the 'submit your work' section, reading and reviewing other peoples fiction before you unleash your efforts on them. (A ratio of five reviews to one submission is acceptable, but check the forum rules.)

The only problem with the free method is that people will sometimes go easy on you, hoping you'll do the same for them. It can become a bit of a ra-ra love-in, where nobody has a bad word for anyone else. If you scan the forum and everyone's on first name terms, awarding each other gold stars for average-looking efforts, move on.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Define your goals (SPJA)

When I first decided to self-publish the Hal Junior series my intention was to be as low key as possible. Edit and polish the book, give it a suitable cover, register the ISBN and make it available on Kindle and in print editions.  I was thinking Createspace for the paperbacks, which limited distribution to the US, and I had some vague ideas about looking for POD companies in the UK and eventually, Australia.

In the meantime I was planning to ship 50 or 100 copies from Createspace (US) to Perth, and thanks to the high Aussie dollar it was pretty cost effective.

Then I got an email from friend and local small press publisher, T. (hey T!). I'd emailed about order forms - the wholesale ones you send to bookstores and libraries and so on - and mentioned I was thinking of shipping in a few copies. T suggested I look at Lightning Source International. What was the first thing I saw when I opened the LSI web page? We just opened an Australian office - with local printing.

That's when I wrote to the publishers sitting on my Hal Junior subs, asking them to hit the delete button. It's also the point where my 'low key' plan went straight out the window.

As long as you register an ISBN, LSI books are available to every library, bookstore and school in most countries worldwide. It's POD, so they're not stocked anywhere - I won't be doing book signings at local stores, for example - but LSI's prices, and the way they allow publishers to set the trade discount, give me global reach at a very competitive price.

I can sell Hal Jnr in Australia for $11.95 and pocket five to ten times the usual trade royalties. Most kids' books sell for $14.95 and up here.  If I sell 500 copies, that's the same income as 5000 through a major publisher ... plus I'll never go out of print. And finally, there's the ebook editions as layer of cream on top of a very nice cake. No lie!

With all this rather good news pouring in, 'low key' just didn't cut it. I got serious about editing and cover art (more on these in later blogs)

I've also been reaching out to Junior Fic/Middle Grade bloggers, reviewers & teacher librarians, promising future review copies and/or guest posts as applicable. If you fit these categories (or promote Junior/Middle Grade spec fiction in any way) please leave a comment or contact me.

So that 'Define your goals' part ... what are you trying to achieve by self-publishing your work? Low key release or all-out assault on the market?

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

SPJA, week three

Now we're live - I'm writing this post at the end of week three. SPJA = self pub journey acronym

During this week I made a momentous (and very late) decision. I was playing around with the new ebook covers and I decided to see what they'd look like with a portion of Dion Hamill's Hal Spacejock from the cover of Hal 3. I snipped out just Hal's head and shoulders, with Jasmin standing next to him, and ... wow! It looked fantastic. (I can't share it because it's a rough hack job and the artist probably wouldn't appreciate me doing this to his work.) What I can do is show you the original cover (left) and the new cover (right) and you can sort of picture the middle third of the original cut out and expanded to cover the black background in the new cover. (Ignore the WASFF award pasted all over the front...)


Anyway, five minutes later I tracked down Dion's email, told him about the re-releases, and asked if he was interested in doing new covers. Impulsive, moi? I also asked about professional cover art for Hal Junior.

Dion is a traditional artist - pencil sketch first, then - I believe - acrylic on board. You can see examples of his work on his website.

Dion wrote back, and let's just say we're organising things. Because Hal Junior is slated for October (ebook and print), it turns out we'll need to do that cover first. Dion was very keen, and he's already got an idea which he's working on as I type this.

Proofing is always an issue for self-published works, but I had a cunning plan. I offer review copies of the first book through my site, and when I send them out I offer the next in the series as a freebie if you find a typo. One eagle-eyed reader scored all four, one after the other, and as a bonus I've offered them a signed copy when the first book is available in print. I uploaded replacement ebook versions of Hal 1 and 2 right away.

While that was happening starting work on DOC versions for Smashwords. Kindle is a given if you want to sell ebooks, thanks to its dominance, but I've read varying opinions on Smashwords. My take on it? Smashwords = distribution to the places Amazon cannot reach, like iTunes and other 3rd parties. Can't be a bad thing, and it's only a few hours work to prepare the file for upload.

I finished that last night, and during the day I also worked on Hal Spacejock 5. I know where this book is going now, and all the Hal activity has rekindled my passion. It's just so awe-inspiring to know the whole process is in my hands: I can finish Hal 5 by Christmas and publish it in January or February if I work hard enough. That's optimistic, but you don't get anywhere without deadlines.



To round off week three, this morning I had an email from a Hal Junior first reader (She's a fan of the adult series.) We hooked up on Skype to discuss her findings: She really enjoyed the book but found a bunch of typos and had a few questions. I ended up with two pages of things to look at, which is great. I also sent her an e-copy of Hal 4, and will send a signed Hal Jnr when I get my first copies.

All in all, three frantic weeks. There are now 20 reviews for Hal Spacejock book one on Amazon, and they're all four and five stars. That's great until someone thinks 'hah - I'll soon fix THAT'.

I'm sure I've missed a lot of stuff but the Freemind map is keeping me sane.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

The SPJA, week two

SPJA = Self Publishing Journey Acronym.

Week two

Week two was a busy one. I decided to read Hal Spacejock and fix any little rough patches. I hadn't read it since 2003 and let's just say it took a while. I smoothed a few rough patches, broke a few long scenes into smaller ones, and inserted some new gags & puns. It's over 80,000 words, which doesn't sound much compared to a fantasy door stop but is plenty when you're weighing up every sentence.

There was also the small matter of transferring data to my Spacejock Handbook (another Freemind file, this one packed with place names, items, characters, products and companies from the four books. It's a very useful approach for series writers, and my editor suggested it a couple of years back after she'd had to contend with commsets, comm-sets, comsets and communication devices - many of them in the same book.)

When the final polishing was done I used the new proofing export from yWriter5 and loaded the resulting whole-of-novel RTF into OpenOffice for spelling and grammar checking. Afterwards I saved the RTF and imported the scene content back into yWriter.

I added a neat trick to yWriter recently: you can tag a scene as 'html', and the contents will be exported to the ebook file as-is, without any further processing. This allows me to set up the title page, copyright, series list and so on using manual html codes (centering, bold, italics, font sizes ... even inline images)

The resulting HTML file I converted with Calibre, the open source ebook library software. This generates a mobi file suitable for uploading to Amazon. No steps in between - you just click export in yWriter, convert the file with Calibre, that's it.

I uploaded Hal Spacejock using the Kindle Digital Publishing dashboard, entered the correct ISBN, added the cover and then set the price. (I won't be discussing ebook pricing now. There's plenty out there on the subject.)

Within an hour the dashboard showed the book's ASIN, and I could use that to bring up an embryonic ebook page on amazon.com. In my todo-list I had a section called 'do this when you have the amazon ebook page link', and I went through performing all the steps - adding the link to my website, mainly. Once the amazon page was fully active I shared it on Google+ and Facebook, and updated my sig on various writing & reading forums.

The final part of week one involved sending Hal Junior out for a little more feedback. I'm too close to it to spot flaws, and this is where you need someone else to give you the bad news. I still have to do a 'humour draft', which is where I apply a laughter polish to the whole book, refining the jokes so they're maximised. I never do this stage until the text is done, because I don't like to waste time being funny if I'm going to cut the whole chapter a week later. Let me tell you, writing comedy is really hard work.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Self pub week one

I've decided to blog about my self-publishing experience. I went through all this ten years ago so I know the process, but others might get some use out of my steps, mis-steps and findings. I'll try and keep you up to date along the way, until we arrive at the destination together.

This particular post is a bit of a retrospective, because in the scheme of things I'm already into week three.

(Before I start, a little background: I self-published three novels about 7 or 8 years ago, wound up with a publishing contract, saw four novels trade published across Australia and New Zealand between 2004 and 2008, then got the rights back. When I say I'm self publishing, I'm actually re-releasing those four trade-published novels to new markets. But wait, there's more... as a bonus I will also be self-publishing an entirely new middle-grade science fiction series. As a double bonus, I'm also going to be releasing POD editions using Lightning Source (LSI) so you'll get those gory details too. Now, back to the plot ...)

Week one on the SPJA (self-pub-journey-acronym) was nice and organised, with all my effort going into the huge spidery freemind diagram which will guide me through the entire process.

I created nodes for each book, then sub-nodes for the ebook and print releases, and then really went to town. This is just a tiny fragment:

I felt like Rimmer preparing for an exam, only I trust the outcome will be slightly better. The great thing is that I can tick the nodes I've completed, collapse whole trees and easily shift things about.

During week one I registered ISBNs for Hal 1-4 in ebook and print (the latter excluding Aus & NZ), and also for Hal Junior ebook and print. I still have a block of ISBNs from 2001, which gave me a head start. If you're beginning with a blank slate you'll need to organise this.

A brief aside: Should you go for your own ISBNs, or just publish to Kindle and Smashwords without bothering? Answer: Are you publishing a book or sharing your work? If you're publishing a book - really publishing it - get the ISBNs. On the other hand, if you're on a tight budget and you're not planning a print release, skip the ISBNs.

You'll need one for Kindle, one for Smashwords Epub, and another for the print edition if you're going to issue one. (The latter can be reused across printers, e.g. LSI and/or Createspace, as long as the edition is identical. You do need different ones for the Kindle and Epub editions.)

Once you get the ISBNs you have to register them with Bowker. This involves filling out a form with the book details, thus linking them to the ISBN. These details go into a universal catalogue (which is why you need distinct numbers.)

Paperwork complete, the next item on the agenda was cover art and design. Everyone, and I mean everyone, recommends hiring a professional, but I went ahead and did this step myself. My focus was on getting the ebooks up quickly, and I just wanted a cover where you could read the title and subtitle from the other side of the room. Unlike print editions, with ebooks you have this great 'redo' button where you can easily upload a replacement cover.

I know it's stark and very black, but it'll do as a placeholder. Because the books have already been released and reviewed I have a huge file of blurbs and snips to pick from, and I reckon a blurb is worth a thousand images. (More on covers later - we're still on week one.)

The final step in week one was to go over the ideas I had for Hal Junior cover art. I wanted a thumbnail or a pic embedded in each chapter, and I'd already gone through the book marking sections. I didn't want grand sweeping vistas, just line art of items mentioned in the text, or visual gags, or diagrams explaining things more fully. (E.g. the closed loop food recycling system on board ships & space stations.) Having a picture meant I didn't have to info-dump every couple of paras.

Hey, maybe adult spec fic authors should learn to draw!

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Kindle editions out now (Hal 1 & 2)

Hal Spacejock (book one) and Second Course (book two) are now available for purchase worldwide via amazon.com, amazon.co.uk and amazon.de. They're DRM-free, no rights restrictions, and each contains 80,000+ words of frenetic, lunatic science fiction.

Check the first link for the biggest selection of customer reviews. All those 5- and 4-star ratings certainly put a smile on the dial.

Hal Spacejock:
Hal 1 Amazon.com ($3.99)
Hal 1 Amazon.co.uk (GBP 3.40)
Hal 1 Amazon.de (EURO 3.40)


Hal Spacejock Second Course:
Hal 2 Amazon.com ($3.99)
Hal 2 Amazon.co.uk (GBP 3.40)
Hal 2 Amazon.de (EURO 3.40)

Just Desserts and No Free Lunch have already been uploaded, and should be visible RSN.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Publishing an ongoing series

I'm a series author and I'm not ashamed to admit it. I love coming up with new ideas and seeing how my characters react. I love referring to previous events in passing, usually mocking myself in the process. (In book four, one of my characters points out they've already had enough mis-adventures to fill three lousy novels.)

Unfortunately the bookselling trade isn't geared for an open-ended, ongoing series, so if you're writing one, there are a few things you need to know:

First, no publisher is going to offer you a contract for six, or ten, or fifteen series books, even if you've already written them. You'll be lucky to get a contract for three, and that's if they form a self-contained trilogy.

It costs a fortune to edit, proof, design, publish and market a book. Publishers are basically big money gamblers: they weigh up the odds on each title, put up their stake and roll the dice. If the title does well they collect on the bet - as does the author. On the other hand, a poor throw means losses.

There are many, many reasons why a book fails to do as well as the publisher expected. It could be the cover, the blurbs, the writing style, the theme, the genre, the competition, bad luck ... and a hundred more. Most often, it just fails to make a big enough splash. (Let's face it - when ten thousand books are launched across the publishing spectrum, mathematically speaking only a handful can become bestsellers.)

No problem, you think. Books two and three will gee things up, and then people will seek out the first. I'm afraid not, because your first book will no longer be sitting on bookstore shelves.

Picture a conveyor belt of books entering one side of a huge warehouse. The belt is stacked with row after row of books. There are big piles of some (headline authors) and small piles of the rest (midlist and newbies)

Let's fill the warehouse with people - our bookstore customers - lined up three deep on either side of the belt. Now and then they grab a copy when something takes their fancy.

At the far end of the warehouse the belt goes into a giant mulching machine. Once a book reaches that point, it's done.

Twenty years ago this belt was one or two feet wide and it moved pretty slowly. There was plenty of time for buyers to inspect all the books, and if they missed something they could chase it down and grab a copy.

Ten years ago the belt was four feet wide, and it was moving twice as fast. There was still time to find a particular title, but it was harder.

Now the belt is 20 feet wide and it's moving at 200 miles per hour. Books appear and disappear so fast they're shipped from the printers to the recyclers, with a brief detour to bookstores along the way.

I'm not suggesting the ratios in this example are entirely accurate, nor that it's precisely how things work. I just want you to picture that 200 mph conveyor belt stacked with books when you're telling yourself that the release of books two and three in your series will drive people to book one.

So what's the solution?

I can't speak for everyone else, but I'm planning 15-20 novels in one of my series, and possibly 5-10 in the other. As per my blog of a few days ago, I believe the time is right for me to skip publishers altogether and hire the professionals myself. (Editing, cover and interior are the three biggies. For ebooks interior design is less important, provided you know exactly what you're doing. On the other hand, getting the guts of an ebook designed for you is much, much cheaper than paying someone to lay out a printed book.)

Am I expecting to outsell trade publishers? Hell no. But I'll make five to ten times as much per copy, so I can afford to sell only 1/10th as many. On top of that, I'm hardly going to can my own series because it's not selling enough copies.

Believe me, if you indie-publish and make a success of it, agents and publishers will come calling. When they do, you may have six or seven books they can release in rapid succession, increasing your chances of building that all-important audience.

To me, it's the way to go. I've never been comfortable with the glacial pace of publishing, and this way I work to my own schedule, please my own fans, and build my own career.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

The future of the Hal Spacejock series

For six years now I've tried as hard as I could to make the Hal Spacejock books available to readers in the UK and USA. I signed with a literary agent in England, I talked my publisher into selling the ebooks via my site, I ran monthly competitions and posted copies all over the world at my own expense, but in the end it just didn't happen.

Until now.

I just re-acquired the worldwide rights to my Hal Spacejock novels. Kindle editions will be available as soon as Amazon finishes processing the upload (24-48 hours?), and I've signed with Lightning Source to offer trade paperbacks via their UK and US printing facilities.

The printed editions will probably take a month or two, but expect to see them before October. I'm very excited about this, as you can imagine.

I realise POD printing isn't the same as books in shops, but I've set the UK price to GBP7.99 and the US price to $11.95, which I believe is reasonable for 350-380 page 5.25" x 8" trade paperbacks. (Correct me in the comments if I'm wrong.)

The ebooks will be 3.99 or 4.99, depending. I know there's a lot of noise about .99c ebooks, and I may occasionally drop the price over 24 hours as a special, but I think $4 or $5 is a reasonable price for an 80,000 word professionally-edited novel.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Why I'm self-publishing

Over the past 12 months I've been working on a new science fiction series for younger readers (junior/upper primary/middle grade). I've had a lot of fun with it, and when I was reasonably happy with the first book I sent it to my current publisher to see if they were interested.

Although they really liked the book they recommended I take it to a bigger company, for reasons including distribution and the fact I was planning to write two or more of these a year.

I duly submitted the manuscript to a larger publisher in June, but over the next two months I started thinking. (Dangerous pastime...)

(c)2011 Simon Haynes

Eventually I came to the conclusion that I'd rather self-publish my new series. I'm planning a whole run of them, and the way the book-selling trade is set up it's next to impossible to launch and maintain an ongoing series. (I shouldn't complain because it's even worse in TV land, where amazing shows like Firefly are cancelled because they didn't sell enough shaving cream or nappies.)

So, I withdrew my submission, dusted off my old imprint, dug out my block of ISBNs and signed up with a POD company. I've been prepping Hal Junior: The Secret Signal, and the first book in the series will be released in October 2011 on the Kindle, on Smashwords and in print (using LSI). Hal Junior will be available worldwide.

This certainly won't be my first foray into self-pub, and I'm sure it won't be the last. At heart I'm equal parts businessman and artist, and I love to get my hands dirty with the product.

Once this title is published I'll be able to focus on my next project. Over the next few weeks I'll also be blogging a lot more about my experiences.

(c)2011 Simon Haynes

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Hal Junior - getting closer

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

A Hal moment of my own

For the past decade I've been writing novels about a broke, error-prone freighter pilot called Hal Spacejock. 'Error prone' explains why he's forced to land his spaceship on the remotest landing pads in the dodgiest spaceports ... and I use 'land' in the broad, all-empassing, 'well, at least we survived' sort of way. *

Over the past twelve months I've become a cycling nut, riding everywhere on a bike even when a car was clearly the better option. (A 30km round trip to deliver a large metal frame to a powdercoater springs to mind.)

These two facts ARE related, and I'm about to tell you why.

Picture the scene. I'm returning from a shopping centre and it's raining heavily. Naturally, I'm riding my bike. You'd think I was caught out by the weather, perhaps riding to the shops when it was sunny only to watch in horror as storm clouds gathered. Nah, it was raining heavily when I set out on my 20km ride. The phrases 'cycling nut' and 'even when a car was clearly the better option' should have clued you in.

Clad in wet weather gear, squinting against the driving rain, I was negotiating a bike path Slartibartfast would be proud of. I don't know why, but in Western Australia they design dual-use bike paths by flinging wet spaghetti at maps and tracing the contours with an HB pencil. I don't know why they bother putting lots of gears on bikes, because you rarely get out of second before the next 45-degree bend. But I digress.

There I am, rowing home on two wheels, when I encounter yet another bend in the path. At the time I was shaking my helmet to get the drops off, and thus distracted I missed the six-inch drop and the deep, soft sand on the side of the path. Actually, I missed it but the front wheel didn't.

I was travelling at 30km/h, which is pretty nippy for a heavily-laden bike with panniers, but as I went over the handlebars I still had time to grin at the shocked look on the face of an approaching dog-walker. She was at least a hundred meters away, so she was unlikely to get hurt by collatoral damage from my fall, but obviously she hadn't been expecting this impromptu circus act.

By now I'm eight or ten feet in the air, which is a novel experience even for me. (I'm 6'3", and I ride an XL size bike. When sitting in the saddle I tower over other riders like an SUV owner in a sea of convertables.)

As I describe a graceful arc, arms outstretched, I glance back to make sure my bike isn't going to hit anything. The bike is upside down, cartwheeling, but I don't think it's going to hit me. It still hasn't dawned on me that I'm going to hit something, and very soon.

I'm still in mid-air, and I'm wondering how I can incorporate a bike crash into my next novel. Then I remember I've already made Hal Spacejock fall off a jetbike, a fence, several buildings and a planet or two. All of them were really funny at the time.

The ground approaches, and I put my hands out. Now, at this point I should note that I never ride without my fingerless gloves. They're specially designed with a thick pad over the palm, and I wear them because I went over the handlebars of a motorbike when I was fifteen and not having the use of my hands for a couple of weeks was very frustrating.

At this point, time sped up. I felt the ground on my hands, I absorbed the impact by bringing them sharply towards my face, I rolled right and used the momentum to drive me to my feet. The bike slithered to a stop alongside me, I bent to pick it up, then climbed aboard and rode past the dog-walker, who was still rooted to the spot with her mouth wide open.

For two days I had a very minor ache in my right shoulder, but I got off very lightly. I'm still riding my bike when a car would be the better option, and I have full use of my hands.

* Hal 1

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Where next for Hal Junior?

When my current publisher passed on the Hal Junior series (see my previous blog post) I realised I was sitting at a fork in the road. Start the submission/rejection merry-go-round, or go straight to ebook?

I must admit I was tempted by the idea of publishing an ebook right away. Commission a cover and internal art, edit and polish the text and then make the work available to all and sundry via the magic of Amazon, Smashwords and my own website. I've already published a number of short stories this way, and my ebook-generating scripts could be rejigged in a matter of minutes.

If this were an adult series I wouldn't have hesitated: you'd be able to buy & download the ebook right now. Unfortunately I don't think the market for kids ebooks is there yet - lack of dedicated readers in kids' hands, most kids books seem to be bought as gifts, etc, etc.

Therefore I have two queries for my junior Hal Spacejock novel out at the moment, and one submission. Each of these Australian publishers specify a 3-4 month response time, and I'm not expecting any favours just because I've been published before.

If I haven't heard anything positive by the first week in September I'm going to prepare the ebook edition of Hal Spacejock Jnr book one. If nothing else I'll be able to put that one out of my mind and move on to book two.

(Cue overwhelming sense of deja vu. A decade ago I went through the exact same process with the adult Hal Spacejock series, only back then we didn't have dedicated ebook readers. I put out an ebook version first, followed by a POD edition, and there were three books in the series available before I finally scored a publishing deal in 2004.)

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Slings 'n' arrows 'n' silver linings

This was a bit long for Twitter, so I've turned it into a blog post of sorts.

I've mentioned my new Hal Spacejock Junior series a few times, and a while back I decided to post all the ups and downs I encountered on the way to eventual (hopefully) publication. Today was a down and an up.

I submitted the first book to the Hal Spacejock publisher a couple of months ago, then put it out of my mind to get on with other things. The response came this morning, and the upshot was something along these lines: We loved the book, we're pleased you offered it to us first but we think it needs to go to a bigger publisher.

I'm not kidding here, my initial reaction was 'bring it on!' I loved writing this book, I believe the series has a big future and now that future lies squarely in my own hands.

So, I have some homework to do. I'm going to make a list of aussie publishers putting out kids books and find out who to approach, and then it's submission time.

I'll keep you posted.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Writing Children's fiction

In my article on how to get published I mention how important it is not to get hung up on selling your first novel. Sometimes it takes three or four completed novels before a writer brings it all together and makes that all-important sale.

There's nothing to say those three or four novels have to be full length adult works.

By way of example, last year I finally sat down to write the junior SF novel I'd had on the back-burner for a couple of years, and it was so much fun I went straight on to write a second novel in the series ... and half of the third. It was a different experience to writing my adult novels - lighter, more enjoyable ... and quicker.

After a few months of editing I put aside the junior novels and went back to my current adult work ... and what a revelation that was. I usually strive for clean, unvarnished prose with a minimum of description (x10 when it comes to junior fic) but I realised I could easily cut 10-15% of Hal Spacejock book 5 just by tighting up the writing.

And that's why I'm going to suggest the following. If you have one or two adult novels doing the rounds and can't face writing another just yet, why not write a childrens book? I aimed for middle grade (roughly ages 9-12), and my goal was 25,000 words of fast-moving and entertaining reading. I had a lot of fun with it, and it made a nice change from the vastly more complex adult novels with their multiple viewpoints, twisty subplots, and sheer word count.

Most of us have kids, or neices & nephews, or grandkids, or someone in the 9-12 age group. I didn't stress about writing the next Big Thing (as if!), I just pictured a couple of my younger relatives reading the book, and wrote the sort of story I hoped they'd enjoy.

Changing gears to write a shorter childrens book may just give you the tools you need to sharpen your adult works. If it doesn't work out, so what? I told myself 25,000 words was a nice bit of practice, if nothing else.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Hal Spacejock ebooks and signed copies

Just a quick update - My publisher has kindly allowed me to sell Hal Spacejock ebooks and signed copies via my website.

The ebooks are 4.99 each (mobi, epub and txt format included) or 15.99 for all four. When your payment goes through the ebooks are automatically emailed to you as attachments.

The paperbacks are all signed copies.

Details here: http://www.spacejock.com.au/BuyHal.html

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Exercise is good for you, laziness is not

Near the end of July I got off my backside and started using my pushbike to run local errands - shopping, post, banking, whatever. After a few days I realised I was riding up to 20km on some trips, and right there I made a mid-year resolution to ride at least 20km every single day. It's fun to pull up Google Earth and map cycling routes, there are no parking or traffic worries, life seems more leisurely and you get more time to think than you do in a car.

So, back in July my character sheet read something like this:

Weight: 92kg (202lb)
Height: 190cm or 6'3"
BMI: just under 25
Avg blood pressure: 160/90 (mild hypertension)
Resting heart rate: mid-70's.
Wii Fit age: about 64 (imparted with unseemly good cheer)
Armour Class: 1*


That's what 5 years working from home at the computer screen does to you, even if you watch what you eat.


When I started I couldn't ride 3km without getting out of breath, feeling like my legs were falling off, and panting like a dog in the midday sun.


Since July I've ridden 2600km/1600 miles, or 22km/14miles per day. My longest trip was 65km (40 miles), and last weekend I did 130km or 80 miles across both days.

Bearing in mind it can take three years to develop the right cycling legs, what's the new improved Simon like?

Nowadays it takes 5km before I'm even warmed up, and I can ride for at least three hours non-stop at a decent pace. I can still sprint at 40-45km/h by the end of it too.

Weight: 82kg (180lb) - down 10kg/22lb
Height: 190cm or 6'3" (surprise!)
BMI: just over 22
Avg blood pressure: 119/79 (Optimum!)
Resting heart rate: 59-60
Wii Fit age: 33 years old!
Armour Class: 8*

The results have been so great my new target is 80kg and I'm definitely going to continue riding at least 20km per day. I'm also saving a lot of fuel: I now use about one tank of fuel in my car every three months.

So, if you have fond memories of childhood cycling and your fitness is getting a bit iffy, why not have yourself measured for a bike (2nd hand is fine) and get out there? Take care, obviously, and I suggest a refresher course on your local rules of the road, because they vary a lot from state to state and from one country to the next.


PS the title of this post comes from a song on a Wombles album.

* Just checking you're awake.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Short intermission

October 2009 - I decided against participating in NanoWrimo 2009 because I needed to finish editing Hal 5 into shape.

October 2010 - Same, only one year later. (And believe me, I put a lot of work into Hal 5 during that time.)

The problem is I really, really liked Hal 4 and yet it's important the next book be even better. That's a hell of a challenge when you're working on an early draft of what is supposed to be your most amazing work ever - it's unpolished, it's incomplete, there's very little humour and it feels like you have a mountain to climb.

So, three days before November 1 I had a brainwave. Why NOT do Nanowrimo 2010? For some time now I've wanted to write one or more Hal Spacejock Junior novels featuring my character as a ten-year-old. My wife has been advising me to do this for ages, and over the past five years I've probably done ten author visits to primary schools for every one appearance for adult readers, despite the fact Hal Spacejock was written for the teen/adult market. (E.g. Hitchhiker's Guide)

In the end I decided Nano is just one month - and Hal 5 is already a year late anyway. I figured I'd knock off two 25,000 word junior novels (let's call them parts 1 and 2 of the same book to satisfy the nano nitpicks) and then go back to Hal 5 on the 1st December.

So, what progress? I'll tell you what progress .. it's day 14 and I've just capped off the completed first draft of Hal Junior book one (26,000 words) by writing a killer ending. It's so refreshing to have one viewpoint character and no subplots.

In a few minutes I'll make a start on book two, which is like ... wow.

Only problem is, now I have to top book one ;-)

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Simon Says ...

I'm on Twitter these days.

I'm also doing a lot of bike riding, and I've been taking snaps around Perth to show that Western Australia isn't all red dust, mining and desert:

Near the Leach Hwy/Kwinana freeway intersection:


Near the Riverton shops/library:


Bike path near the library:


Bike path near Riverton bridge:


Kent St weir:


Boardwalk in Applecross:


Bike path suspended below the freeway bridge:


Bike path suspended below the freeway bridge:

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Kindle - first impressions

I ordered a Kindle from Amazon recently, using a bit of store credit and a bit of my own hard-earned. I've been tempted by the Sony Reader in the past but there have been so many different models and revisions I never knew which to look for. Sometimes you can have too much choice.

First things first: I don't like the gleaming white plastic frame around the Kindle screen. In a well-lit environment it just makes the 'e-paper' screen look dull grey. What they should have done is make the frame a duller grey than the paper, so the paper looked crisp and white. (When this thing's out of warranty I'm going to investigate taking it apart and applying a coat of grey to the case.)

Once your eyes filter out the crisp white border it's easy to forget you're reading an ebook. I've had great success converting text and html files using the free version of the Mobipocket reader (runs on Windows, don't know about others) and the Kindle shows up as a removable drive when you connect it using the supplied USB cable, which makes tranferring ebooks a snip.

The text display is excellent, by the way. I believe it uses 16 shades of grey, which means anti-aliased fonts, and I had no trouble reading at the default font size. If you need larger fonts you just hit the text button and use the four-way control to navigate the menu. Easy!

There's a brief flicker when you change pages, but if you time it right you can blink at the same time. Refresh eyes & screen together - works for me.

The device comes with wireless networking which apparently uses the mobile phone network, and it also includes a basic web browser. Nowhere on Amazon (or repeated web searches) could I find any reference to data charges, but I can't believe it's a free-for-all. I do know the Kindle was already linked to my Amazon account when I unpacked it, so I've disabled all wireless features on the thing until I know for sure. (I downloaded a few pages, and will wait a few weeks to see whether my Amazon account shows any new charges.)

The storage space is around two gigs, which translates to a humongous mountain of reading material. Get onto Project Gutenberg, download a selection of ebooks, put them through yBook2 to reformat them, then export to plain text with the paragraphs all sorted. What a way to catch up on a few thousand classics - starting with Three Men in a Boat.

I found the Kindle comfortable to hold and use, so no problems there. It's a solid device, well-made and sleek but not too heavy.

Unfortunately the Kindle has a very slim USB connector which doesn't match any of my other gadgets, which means when I'm out and about with the laptop I can't use the single cable I carry for my digital camera, TV tuner dongle, backup drive, etc. Not a major issue, just a minor irritant. Plus the Kindle cable is very long, whereas you only need a short one if you just want to apply a quick charge from the laptop. (The US version comes with a wall wart, but overseas editions have to make do with USB only.)

In summary, I'm very happy with my Kindle. I have over 3000 paperbacks stuffed into my house, and I can see myself replacing many of them over the next few years. Obviously I'll always keep hold of treasured books, because it's not all about the words. For example, I have a complete set of Famous Five novels in hardback, some of them first editions, and my 1955 copy of 'Martin Magnus on Mars' took me almost 20 years to find. But there are many other books in my collection which don't have that sort of history, and I'd be happy to store those as electronic files in case I ever wanted to read them again.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)