Farmer Drama

Top-selling book

 My self-published book has come a long way since it first appeared as a paperback in September 2006.  Despite not having the backing of a standard publisher, it is now the top-selling book published by Lulu.com in Great Britain. This is apparent when you visit BookButler which also informs me that the book is the ninth-best selling book in Great Britain for the keyword "drama", just behind "The Empty Space" by Peter Brook.

How did this happen? It's a long story and involves a website, an email newsletter, a lot of work and a fair share of luck.  I am writing a detailed article about the book's journey to success at www.dramaresource.com/printondemand

I am feeling more than a little bit pleased with the book's success at the moment!

Guide to self-publishing

I've learnt about self-publishing the hard way.  However, with over 100 copies of my book selling each month in the UK and USA markets, it seems well worth the investment of time.  Two of my friends have watched my efforts and published their own books with my help.  Daryl Fraser has produced The Inner Traveller's Guidebook, for which I also designed the cover and Jonathan Lambert has published Adventures in Sound, which was originally available through my website as an e-book.  Both have been published through www.lulu.com.  All they have to do now is sell some copies.

To help other people who may want to do something similar, I have written my own guide to Print on Demand (POD) publishing, which can be found at http://dramaresource.com/index.php/Featured-Articles/How-to-publish-a-book.html

Issuu is the new way to publish online

Have a look at this site.  It is a way of publishing anything on line in a very readable, attractive and interactive way.

 

I discovered somebody had uploaded my entire book onto their site and got them to remove it this morning as it was infringement of copyright. Issuu were very quick in responding by removing the material.  It must be a bit of a minefield as people can in theory publish anything on the site.  However it looks so good that I am using Issuu to showcase a sample extract of my book.

 

http://tinyurl.com/5rh2sb

 

Amazon buttons

I wanted some Amazon buttons for my website and couldn't see any available on the Amazon sites, so I made two of my own.  I'm quite pleased with them.  Take them and use them if you like.

Kites are pretty

Took two kites to Holkham today - and here they are ready for take off - the John Barresi Rev and the Prism Mirage.  I bought a lot of kites last year and these two are my favourites.  Robust and responsive, easy to fly.  Today I played with the Rev in the waves, dipping it in and out like a bird.  Actually it was more like taking a dog for a walk - a flying one.  (Click on the image to see a large version)

The Rev takes off

I managed to take my new kite for its first outing today.  I actually bought it in January but its been either (a) too cold or (b) not windy enough.  Today I thought I'd give it a go on Holkham Beach.  The weather was fairly still when I left but luckily I conjured up a breeze for two hours on the beach.  It's a big beach and there's a certain place where the wind fairly whips along if you're lucky.  The kite is a John Barresi signature Rev and is over 7 1/2 feet long, so I needed the space.

Freelance Arts Trouble-Shooter

Unbelievably, I ended up spending 11 months at County Hall as Arts Partnership Manager, although the last five months I've been working part-time, gradually weaning myself back into the freelance world.  As I approached the end of my tenure, there seemed to be little work on the horizon.  However, just in the past two or three weeks several opportunities have arisen, including two scripts to write, two to direct, some freelance "arts trouble-shooting" and some drama teaching. 

Time to plant

Nice sunny day - planted out two double rows of Masterpiece Green Longpod broad beans, and put out a sack of  Duke of Yorks red potatoes to chit by the window.  Although it is late to begin chitting - they were already sprouting well when I bought them.  I'll probably plant them in a day or two.

David launches his new site

It's taken about two and a half months of burning the midnight oil but I've finally launched a totally revamped version of my drama site.  The idea is that it still has just as much free resource material as before but now people can subscribe monthly, quarterly or annually to access loads more material, which I'll be adding to all the time.  I was going to pay somebody to make the site for me but ended up having to learn a whole new way of making sites (using Joomla/PHP) because I was too much of a control freak.  I wonder if people will pay for web pages?

Should the Arts Council be cut?

In the wake of the recent Arts Council cuts to 185 organisations, actors union Equity has launched a nationwide survey to discover members' views on how the funding system ought to work. The union is calling for a fundamental shift in the way ACE operates and is seeking views on how the funding system should be changed.  Take part in the online poll.