Morning Peeps!
It's been some time since I featured one of my fellow authors and today, I'm pleased to introduce you to David Ebsworth.
David's writing career is similar to many other writers; endeavouring to go the traditional route and then turning to the independent one. Reading David's bio I was pleased to discover that as well as spending part of his year away from the UK like myself he is also a keen sailor. I miss those lovely long days of sail under a glorious sky and exploring new waters! I envy you David - perhaps it's time we dusted off the charts stored in the loft and thought about running away to sea again!
David Ebsworth is the pen name of UK writer, Dave McCall. David grew up in Liverpool during the Sixties, and now lives in Wrexham (North Wales) with his wife, Ann. They share a love of travelling (China, Canada and the USA, South Africa) but the great passion of their life is Spain, where they now spend a fair amount of each year. David has this to say about the changes in his life.
'I was coming up to retirement in 2008 and keen to find some new challenges. I'd come across a story that intrigued me - the tale of Bonnie Prince Charlie's support by English Jacobites, and particularly those in Manchester - and then realised that nobody had used this as the subject for work of historical fiction. So I started writing The Jacobites' Apprentice (SilverWood Books, ISBN 978-1-78132-0090-9) and, by the end of 2010, I had just about finished, including a major re-write. It's something of a blockbuster (650 pages) but I had some very good independent reviews and was persuaded that it was good enough to warrant looking for a traditional publisher. I received the normal batch of polite (and understandable) rejections but I was appalled by the fact that most of the agents and publishers that I contacted - even though I followed thier submission guidelines closely - were simply too rude to even send an acknowledgement.
‘So I started looking at the opportunities to self-publish. It was a bit of a gamble but I liked the idea that this would be similar to starting a small business and, with help from SilverWood Books in Bristol, I managed to publish Jacobites in March 2012. By that time, I'd realised that there was considerable mythology surrounding traditional publishing - the myth, for example, that publishers pay reasonable lump sum advances to authors whose work they accept; the myth that publishers will automatically get their authors' work onto bookstore shelves; and the myth that publishers make any real effort to market their authors' books. In addition, it became clear to me that the economics for new authors almost always favour indie publishing over more traditional methods.
‘I soon developed a real interest in marketing - all the normal stuff including my own website (www.davidebsworth), Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/pages/David-Ebsworth/372113212814491), Twitter (@EbsworthDavid) and Pinterest.
‘Jacobites was selling well but, meanwhile, I had started on a second novel. The Assassin's Mark (SilverWood Books, ISBN 978-1-78132-100-3) is a political thriller set towards the end of the Spanish Civil War and is based on the true but previously untold story of the battlefield tourism that rebel General Franco introduced while the conflict was still raging. Assassins was published in March 2013 and has been well received.
‘Book number three is now written too - The Kraals of Ulundi: A Novel of the Zulu War - and awaits publication, hopefully in the first half of this year, while work is progressing steadily on my fourth novel, which will tell the tale of those French women who fought on the battlefield of Waterloo.
‘I keep to a fairly strict writing routine, regardless of whether I'm in the UK or Spain. I start at 7.00 each morning and write until just after 9.00. Then I swim and think about what I've written. Next, it's off to a favourite coffee bar to make corrections and write for maybe another hour or more. The afternoons are devoted to marketing unless, of course, I manage to indulge my other favourite eccentricity - sailing. On the one hand, it takes a level of concentraion that excludes everything else. But on longer passages, with the sails set and a fair breeze on the beam, there's nothing like it for stimulating the creative juices.’
Thank you David for letting take a look at your life and writing career - and thank you, readers for taking the time to drop by. If you're interested in any of David's books they are available on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk I have enclosed the link below to The Assassin's Mark if you're interested in reading more. Simply click on the appropriate book cover.
Other books: Jacobites' Apprentice
Thank you! Take care.
Faithx
It's been some time since I featured one of my fellow authors and today, I'm pleased to introduce you to David Ebsworth.
David's writing career is similar to many other writers; endeavouring to go the traditional route and then turning to the independent one. Reading David's bio I was pleased to discover that as well as spending part of his year away from the UK like myself he is also a keen sailor. I miss those lovely long days of sail under a glorious sky and exploring new waters! I envy you David - perhaps it's time we dusted off the charts stored in the loft and thought about running away to sea again!
David Ebsworth is the pen name of UK writer, Dave McCall. David grew up in Liverpool during the Sixties, and now lives in Wrexham (North Wales) with his wife, Ann. They share a love of travelling (China, Canada and the USA, South Africa) but the great passion of their life is Spain, where they now spend a fair amount of each year. David has this to say about the changes in his life.
'I was coming up to retirement in 2008 and keen to find some new challenges. I'd come across a story that intrigued me - the tale of Bonnie Prince Charlie's support by English Jacobites, and particularly those in Manchester - and then realised that nobody had used this as the subject for work of historical fiction. So I started writing The Jacobites' Apprentice (SilverWood Books, ISBN 978-1-78132-0090-9) and, by the end of 2010, I had just about finished, including a major re-write. It's something of a blockbuster (650 pages) but I had some very good independent reviews and was persuaded that it was good enough to warrant looking for a traditional publisher. I received the normal batch of polite (and understandable) rejections but I was appalled by the fact that most of the agents and publishers that I contacted - even though I followed thier submission guidelines closely - were simply too rude to even send an acknowledgement.
‘So I started looking at the opportunities to self-publish. It was a bit of a gamble but I liked the idea that this would be similar to starting a small business and, with help from SilverWood Books in Bristol, I managed to publish Jacobites in March 2012. By that time, I'd realised that there was considerable mythology surrounding traditional publishing - the myth, for example, that publishers pay reasonable lump sum advances to authors whose work they accept; the myth that publishers will automatically get their authors' work onto bookstore shelves; and the myth that publishers make any real effort to market their authors' books. In addition, it became clear to me that the economics for new authors almost always favour indie publishing over more traditional methods.
‘I soon developed a real interest in marketing - all the normal stuff including my own website (www.davidebsworth), Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/pages/David-Ebsworth/372113212814491), Twitter (@EbsworthDavid) and Pinterest.
‘Jacobites was selling well but, meanwhile, I had started on a second novel. The Assassin's Mark (SilverWood Books, ISBN 978-1-78132-100-3) is a political thriller set towards the end of the Spanish Civil War and is based on the true but previously untold story of the battlefield tourism that rebel General Franco introduced while the conflict was still raging. Assassins was published in March 2013 and has been well received.
‘Book number three is now written too - The Kraals of Ulundi: A Novel of the Zulu War - and awaits publication, hopefully in the first half of this year, while work is progressing steadily on my fourth novel, which will tell the tale of those French women who fought on the battlefield of Waterloo.
‘I keep to a fairly strict writing routine, regardless of whether I'm in the UK or Spain. I start at 7.00 each morning and write until just after 9.00. Then I swim and think about what I've written. Next, it's off to a favourite coffee bar to make corrections and write for maybe another hour or more. The afternoons are devoted to marketing unless, of course, I manage to indulge my other favourite eccentricity - sailing. On the one hand, it takes a level of concentraion that excludes everything else. But on longer passages, with the sails set and a fair breeze on the beam, there's nothing like it for stimulating the creative juices.’
Thank you David for letting take a look at your life and writing career - and thank you, readers for taking the time to drop by. If you're interested in any of David's books they are available on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk I have enclosed the link below to The Assassin's Mark if you're interested in reading more. Simply click on the appropriate book cover.
Other books: Jacobites' Apprentice
Thank you! Take care.
Faithx
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