Ben Nuttall-Smith's Discovered in a Scream - In Search of the Healing Garden (Rutherford Press, 2017) is a memoir of surviving the debilitating guilt of childhood sexual abuse during the London Blitz. The story is true. Only names and places have been changed to permit publication as a novel. The central character named Paddie is Nuttall-Smith.
He writes:
"One Saturday evening, Paddie and his wife treated themselves to dinner and a movie. The Prince of Tides starred Nick Nolte as Tom Wingo, a trauma patient, and Barbara Streisand as his psychiatrist.
"When three armed convicts break into the Wingo home, violently rape Tom's mother and his twin sister, Savannah, and a particularly sadistic con anally rapes young Tom, Paddie suffered such a vivid flashback to being repeatedly raped by an uncle in London during the blitz, that he froze in his seat and cried audibly.
"After the movie, when everyone else had left the theatre, Paddie was finally able to pull himself together and join his wife in the lobby. Without a word, the couple walked to the car and, as was customary, Paddie got behind the wheel. Within minutes, he had to pull over because he could no longer see to drive.
"'I was the boy in the movie,' Paddie whispered. 'I was the boy in the movie.'"
Following this episode, and a subsequent gun incident during "a student prank" on December 6, 1990, the first anniversary of the massacre at L'Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal, Ben Nuttall-Smith suffered an attack of severe PTSD and the subsequent end of his 33-year teaching career. His marriage disintegrated and Ben moved to a 'Handyman's Delight' on the Sunshine Coast. As part of the healing process, he began writing. He burned stacks and stacks of bitter scribbles while saving many of the better parts.
Fifteen years of writing and rewriting and two expensive edits later, Ben self-published his memoir as The Chameleon Sings (Trafford, 2005 and Revised 2007). The book was then published as Secrets Kept/Secrets Told (Libros Libertad, 2012). Libros held the rights to this and an Historical Novel - Blood, Feathers and Holy Men (Libros Libertad, 2010) until 2017. Following legal release from both contracts, both books were re-edited and republished by Rutherford Press of Qualicum Beach as Discovered in a Scream (Rutherford Press, 2019) and Mad God of the Toltecs (Rutherford Press, 2017).
In Secrets Kept/Secrets Told, the protagonist travels to French Canada where he encounters bullying. At 17, he joins the Navy. Later he is nearly killed during a program to give literacy to blacks in the Southern U.S.
"Desperate to find acceptance and love," writes psychiatrist and reviewer William Hay, "he seeks the spirituality of a Catholic teaching order and discovers the joys of teaching music and drama. After thirteen years of mixed joy and frustration, he leaves the order and marries...
"For all those who have known the horrors of residential schools, persecution for difference, the shame of abuse, stigma and injustice, or who just want to read a wonderful biographical novel of an extraordinary man in extraordinary times, I would urge you to read Discovered in a Scream."
Mad God of the Toltecs (Rutherford Press, 2017), Ben Nuttall-Smith's historical novel, blends Irish, Norse and the pre-Columbian mythology of indigenous peoples of the Americas. Shipwrecked in the Hebrides in the tenth century, an Irish priest and several young monks are enslaved by Norse traders, manage to cross the Atlantic, via Iceland, and descend North America's plains to the steamy jungles of Mexico. Having served as a Brother in a Roman Catholic teaching order from 1956 to 1978, Nuttall-Smith fashioned his truth-seeking heroes on Christian clerics who encounter the majesty of Quetzalcoatl, the feathered god of the Olmecs and Toltecs.
Four of Ben's other books published by Rutherford Press include Flying With White Eagle (Rutherford Press, 2016). Illustrated by the author with pen and ink sketches, this biography relates Ayliffe "Pat" Carey's experiences - as homesteader, logger and bush pilot - provide an exceptional insight into pioneer life on Canada’s West Coast in the first decades of the twentieth century.
While logging his homestead island in B.C.'s Fraser Valley, Pat developed a passion for flying, overcoming countless barriers and setbacks, including crash landings, repairs and alterations to his aircraft.
He speaks matter-of-factly, without heroics, about flying missions over mountains and glaciers, often in dangerous weather conditions and with unsafe cargo. He recalls details vividly - taking us with him on his amazing journeys.
Crescent Beach Reflections (Rutherford Press, 2017) contains 91 pages of Ben's poetry and paintings. Topics vary from Home and Nature, Travel, Vancouver East Side, Memories and a sprinkling of Spirituality.
Henry Hamster Esquire (Rutherford Press, 2018) is an illustrated children's book in large format. Henry is snatched from his cage by Ginger, the family cat. Henry gets away, then is rescued by Jeremy, the neighbour's pit bull terrier, but Henry runs into a rat named Reginald Repulsive and a grass snake that eats mice! The story ends happily when Henry is found by his master, Billy, in the garden shed.
Ben's sixth book with Rutherford is Margot: Love in the Golden Years (Rutherford April 2019). These 99 pages of poetry, love letters, paintings and photographs celebrate the life of Ben's partner who died in their home in Crescent Beach January 16th of the same year. Once again, Ben wrote to heal from his tragic loss.
--
Ben Nuttall-Smith taught Music, Theatre, Art, and Language until he retired in 1991. Past President of the Federation of British Columbia Writers, and a member of the Canadian Writers' Union, he has been an executive member of the Canadian Authors' Association, and an Editorial Board member for the Canadian Poetry Association quarterly magazine Poemata.
Ben Nuttall-Smith's poems and short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies and online publications including All That Uneasy Spring ed. Patrick Lane; Quills Canadian Poetry Magazine; Poemata Canadian Poetry Association; Lucidity Journal of Verse, Bear House Publishing, Houston Texas; Cyclamens and Swords on line poetry magazine.
Ben was the winner of The Surrey Board of Trade Special Achievement Award 2011 for work as a writer and for service to the writing community. He was also awarded an Honorary Life Membership by the Federation of British Columbia Writers, May 2013, "in recognition of extraordinary service and dedication to the ideal of Writers Helping Writers."
*
Not schmaltzy, instead profound, senior romance could be a new literary genre. As boomers continue to grow and blossom in their seventies and eighties like perennials, we can expect to see more books like Ben Nuttall-Smith's heartfelt Margot: Love in the Golden Years (Rutherford $26.40).
"After a lifetime of being lost," Ben Nuttall-Smith found Margot Thomson (1938-2019) for the final sixteen years of her life. She taught him to believe himself as a writer and "to see other points-of-view and to treasure people as they are."
To honour his mentor, guide, lover and partner, Nuttall-Smith -- who has produced five previous books during his partnership with Thomson -- has combined their various writings and examples of her artwork for a permanent literary headstone.
Four months after she died at Crescent Beach, Nuttall-Smith's tribute to her influence on him echoes that of Leonard Cohen telling his Greek island lover Marianne, as she was dying, not to worry because he would soon be coming after her.
With Thomson's influence, he writes, "I believed once more in innocence, forgiveness and all that’s whole and good." Their parting is but an interim stage because "I wait to join you in that other place/beyond all time/when I at last am called."
This is not a sad book. It is celebratory. It suggests seniors' romances can be even more fulfilling than intrepid youthful liaisons because mutual explorations of two wise people can lead to enhanced appreciations of life in all its various permutations.
Born in Regina and raised in Victoria, Thomson was a therapist and activist who excelled in glassworks as well as painting. A brief personal essay reflects on her "deep interest in evoking, through my art, both the beauty and the horrors of life as it unfolds in the present."
Margot: Love in the Golden Years is an attempt to share what it can feel like to be part of an undying love, to be fueled and inspired by a deeply respectful partnership. Perhaps a line from Nuttall-Smith's opening poem captures the book's uplifting perspective
"The opposite to love is not hate/But selfishness."
- by Alan Twigg
++++
Margot: Love in the Golden Years (Rutherford $26.40) by Ben Nuttall-Smith
2020
As boomers continue to grow and blossom in their seventies like perennials, we can expect to see more books like Ben Nuttall-Smith’s heartfelt Margot: Love in the Golden Years (Rutherford $26.40).
“After a lifetime of being lost,” Ben Nuttall-Smith found Margot Thomson (1938-2019) for the final sixteen years of her life. She taught him to believe in himself as a writer and “to see other points-of-view and to treasure people as they are.”
To honour his mentor, guide, lover and partner, Nuttall-Smith—who produced five previous books during his partnership with Thomson—has combined their various writings and examples of her artwork for a permanent literary headstone.
Four months after she died at Crescent Beach, Nuttall-Smith’s tribute to her influence on him echoes that of Leonard Cohen telling his Greek island lover Marianne, as she was dying, not to worry because he would soon be following her.
With Thomson’s influence, he writes, “I believed once more in innocence, forgiveness and all that’s whole and good…” Their parting is but an interim stage because “I wait to join you in that other place / beyond all time / when I at last am called.”
This is not a sad book. It is celebratory. It suggests seniors’ romances can be even more fulfilling than intrepid youthful liaisons because mutual explorations of two wise people can lead to enhanced appreciations of life in all its various permutations.
Born in Regina and raised in Victoria, Thomson was a therapist and activist who excelled in glassworks as well as painting. A brief personal essay reflects on her “deep interest in evoking, through my art, both the beauty and the horrors of life as it unfolds in the present.”
Margot: Love in the Golden Years is an attempt to share what it can feel like to be part of an undying love, to be fueled and inspired by a deeply respectful partnership. Perhaps a line from Nuttall-Smith’s opening poem captures the book’s uplifting perspective
“The opposite to love is not hate / But selfishness.” 978-1-988739-39-7
+++
BOOKS:
A Moment in Eternity (Silver Bow, 2013). Poetry. $18, 978-1-927616-02-4
Postcards (Silver Bow, 2013). Poetry. $18, 978-1-927616-03-1
Flying with White Eagle (Self-published, 2015) $14.95 978-0-9865938-9-5. Republished by Rutherford Press, 2017
Discovered in a Scream: In Search of the Healing Garden (Rutherford Press, 2017)
Mad God of the Toltecs (Rutherford Press, 2017)
Crescent Beach Reflections - Poetry & Paintings (Rutheford Press, 2017)
Margo: Love in the Golden Years (Rutherford Press, 2019) $26.40 978-1-988739-39-7
[BCBW 2020] "Mexico"
He writes:
"One Saturday evening, Paddie and his wife treated themselves to dinner and a movie. The Prince of Tides starred Nick Nolte as Tom Wingo, a trauma patient, and Barbara Streisand as his psychiatrist.
"When three armed convicts break into the Wingo home, violently rape Tom's mother and his twin sister, Savannah, and a particularly sadistic con anally rapes young Tom, Paddie suffered such a vivid flashback to being repeatedly raped by an uncle in London during the blitz, that he froze in his seat and cried audibly.
"After the movie, when everyone else had left the theatre, Paddie was finally able to pull himself together and join his wife in the lobby. Without a word, the couple walked to the car and, as was customary, Paddie got behind the wheel. Within minutes, he had to pull over because he could no longer see to drive.
"'I was the boy in the movie,' Paddie whispered. 'I was the boy in the movie.'"
Following this episode, and a subsequent gun incident during "a student prank" on December 6, 1990, the first anniversary of the massacre at L'Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal, Ben Nuttall-Smith suffered an attack of severe PTSD and the subsequent end of his 33-year teaching career. His marriage disintegrated and Ben moved to a 'Handyman's Delight' on the Sunshine Coast. As part of the healing process, he began writing. He burned stacks and stacks of bitter scribbles while saving many of the better parts.
Fifteen years of writing and rewriting and two expensive edits later, Ben self-published his memoir as The Chameleon Sings (Trafford, 2005 and Revised 2007). The book was then published as Secrets Kept/Secrets Told (Libros Libertad, 2012). Libros held the rights to this and an Historical Novel - Blood, Feathers and Holy Men (Libros Libertad, 2010) until 2017. Following legal release from both contracts, both books were re-edited and republished by Rutherford Press of Qualicum Beach as Discovered in a Scream (Rutherford Press, 2019) and Mad God of the Toltecs (Rutherford Press, 2017).
In Secrets Kept/Secrets Told, the protagonist travels to French Canada where he encounters bullying. At 17, he joins the Navy. Later he is nearly killed during a program to give literacy to blacks in the Southern U.S.
"Desperate to find acceptance and love," writes psychiatrist and reviewer William Hay, "he seeks the spirituality of a Catholic teaching order and discovers the joys of teaching music and drama. After thirteen years of mixed joy and frustration, he leaves the order and marries...
"For all those who have known the horrors of residential schools, persecution for difference, the shame of abuse, stigma and injustice, or who just want to read a wonderful biographical novel of an extraordinary man in extraordinary times, I would urge you to read Discovered in a Scream."
Mad God of the Toltecs (Rutherford Press, 2017), Ben Nuttall-Smith's historical novel, blends Irish, Norse and the pre-Columbian mythology of indigenous peoples of the Americas. Shipwrecked in the Hebrides in the tenth century, an Irish priest and several young monks are enslaved by Norse traders, manage to cross the Atlantic, via Iceland, and descend North America's plains to the steamy jungles of Mexico. Having served as a Brother in a Roman Catholic teaching order from 1956 to 1978, Nuttall-Smith fashioned his truth-seeking heroes on Christian clerics who encounter the majesty of Quetzalcoatl, the feathered god of the Olmecs and Toltecs.
Four of Ben's other books published by Rutherford Press include Flying With White Eagle (Rutherford Press, 2016). Illustrated by the author with pen and ink sketches, this biography relates Ayliffe "Pat" Carey's experiences - as homesteader, logger and bush pilot - provide an exceptional insight into pioneer life on Canada’s West Coast in the first decades of the twentieth century.
While logging his homestead island in B.C.'s Fraser Valley, Pat developed a passion for flying, overcoming countless barriers and setbacks, including crash landings, repairs and alterations to his aircraft.
He speaks matter-of-factly, without heroics, about flying missions over mountains and glaciers, often in dangerous weather conditions and with unsafe cargo. He recalls details vividly - taking us with him on his amazing journeys.
Crescent Beach Reflections (Rutherford Press, 2017) contains 91 pages of Ben's poetry and paintings. Topics vary from Home and Nature, Travel, Vancouver East Side, Memories and a sprinkling of Spirituality.
Henry Hamster Esquire (Rutherford Press, 2018) is an illustrated children's book in large format. Henry is snatched from his cage by Ginger, the family cat. Henry gets away, then is rescued by Jeremy, the neighbour's pit bull terrier, but Henry runs into a rat named Reginald Repulsive and a grass snake that eats mice! The story ends happily when Henry is found by his master, Billy, in the garden shed.
Ben's sixth book with Rutherford is Margot: Love in the Golden Years (Rutherford April 2019). These 99 pages of poetry, love letters, paintings and photographs celebrate the life of Ben's partner who died in their home in Crescent Beach January 16th of the same year. Once again, Ben wrote to heal from his tragic loss.
--
Ben Nuttall-Smith taught Music, Theatre, Art, and Language until he retired in 1991. Past President of the Federation of British Columbia Writers, and a member of the Canadian Writers' Union, he has been an executive member of the Canadian Authors' Association, and an Editorial Board member for the Canadian Poetry Association quarterly magazine Poemata.
Ben Nuttall-Smith's poems and short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies and online publications including All That Uneasy Spring ed. Patrick Lane; Quills Canadian Poetry Magazine; Poemata Canadian Poetry Association; Lucidity Journal of Verse, Bear House Publishing, Houston Texas; Cyclamens and Swords on line poetry magazine.
Ben was the winner of The Surrey Board of Trade Special Achievement Award 2011 for work as a writer and for service to the writing community. He was also awarded an Honorary Life Membership by the Federation of British Columbia Writers, May 2013, "in recognition of extraordinary service and dedication to the ideal of Writers Helping Writers."
*
Not schmaltzy, instead profound, senior romance could be a new literary genre. As boomers continue to grow and blossom in their seventies and eighties like perennials, we can expect to see more books like Ben Nuttall-Smith's heartfelt Margot: Love in the Golden Years (Rutherford $26.40).
"After a lifetime of being lost," Ben Nuttall-Smith found Margot Thomson (1938-2019) for the final sixteen years of her life. She taught him to believe himself as a writer and "to see other points-of-view and to treasure people as they are."
To honour his mentor, guide, lover and partner, Nuttall-Smith -- who has produced five previous books during his partnership with Thomson -- has combined their various writings and examples of her artwork for a permanent literary headstone.
Four months after she died at Crescent Beach, Nuttall-Smith's tribute to her influence on him echoes that of Leonard Cohen telling his Greek island lover Marianne, as she was dying, not to worry because he would soon be coming after her.
With Thomson's influence, he writes, "I believed once more in innocence, forgiveness and all that’s whole and good." Their parting is but an interim stage because "I wait to join you in that other place/beyond all time/when I at last am called."
This is not a sad book. It is celebratory. It suggests seniors' romances can be even more fulfilling than intrepid youthful liaisons because mutual explorations of two wise people can lead to enhanced appreciations of life in all its various permutations.
Born in Regina and raised in Victoria, Thomson was a therapist and activist who excelled in glassworks as well as painting. A brief personal essay reflects on her "deep interest in evoking, through my art, both the beauty and the horrors of life as it unfolds in the present."
Margot: Love in the Golden Years is an attempt to share what it can feel like to be part of an undying love, to be fueled and inspired by a deeply respectful partnership. Perhaps a line from Nuttall-Smith's opening poem captures the book's uplifting perspective
"The opposite to love is not hate/But selfishness."
- by Alan Twigg
++++
Margot: Love in the Golden Years (Rutherford $26.40) by Ben Nuttall-Smith
2020
As boomers continue to grow and blossom in their seventies like perennials, we can expect to see more books like Ben Nuttall-Smith’s heartfelt Margot: Love in the Golden Years (Rutherford $26.40).
“After a lifetime of being lost,” Ben Nuttall-Smith found Margot Thomson (1938-2019) for the final sixteen years of her life. She taught him to believe in himself as a writer and “to see other points-of-view and to treasure people as they are.”
To honour his mentor, guide, lover and partner, Nuttall-Smith—who produced five previous books during his partnership with Thomson—has combined their various writings and examples of her artwork for a permanent literary headstone.
Four months after she died at Crescent Beach, Nuttall-Smith’s tribute to her influence on him echoes that of Leonard Cohen telling his Greek island lover Marianne, as she was dying, not to worry because he would soon be following her.
With Thomson’s influence, he writes, “I believed once more in innocence, forgiveness and all that’s whole and good…” Their parting is but an interim stage because “I wait to join you in that other place / beyond all time / when I at last am called.”
This is not a sad book. It is celebratory. It suggests seniors’ romances can be even more fulfilling than intrepid youthful liaisons because mutual explorations of two wise people can lead to enhanced appreciations of life in all its various permutations.
Born in Regina and raised in Victoria, Thomson was a therapist and activist who excelled in glassworks as well as painting. A brief personal essay reflects on her “deep interest in evoking, through my art, both the beauty and the horrors of life as it unfolds in the present.”
Margot: Love in the Golden Years is an attempt to share what it can feel like to be part of an undying love, to be fueled and inspired by a deeply respectful partnership. Perhaps a line from Nuttall-Smith’s opening poem captures the book’s uplifting perspective
“The opposite to love is not hate / But selfishness.” 978-1-988739-39-7
+++
BOOKS:
A Moment in Eternity (Silver Bow, 2013). Poetry. $18, 978-1-927616-02-4
Postcards (Silver Bow, 2013). Poetry. $18, 978-1-927616-03-1
Flying with White Eagle (Self-published, 2015) $14.95 978-0-9865938-9-5. Republished by Rutherford Press, 2017
Discovered in a Scream: In Search of the Healing Garden (Rutherford Press, 2017)
Mad God of the Toltecs (Rutherford Press, 2017)
Crescent Beach Reflections - Poetry & Paintings (Rutheford Press, 2017)
Margo: Love in the Golden Years (Rutherford Press, 2019) $26.40 978-1-988739-39-7
[BCBW 2020] "Mexico"
Articles: 2 Articles for this author
Secrets Kept / Secrets Told by Ben Nuttall-Smith (Libros Libertad $23)
Review (2013)
Ben nuttall-smith's second novel Secrets Kept / Secrets Told is a memoir of surviving the debilitating guilt of childhood sexual abuse during the London Blitz. The story is true. Only names and places have been changed to permit publication as a novel.
The central character named Paddie is Nuttall-Smith.
One Saturday evening, Paddie and his wife treated themselves to dinner and a movie. The Prince of Tides starred Nick Nolte as Tom Wingo, a trauma patient, and Barbara Streisand as his psychiatrist.
When three armed convicts break into the Wingo home, violently rape Tom's mother and his twin sister, Savannah, and a particularly sadistic con anally rapes young Tom, Paddie suffered such a vivid flashback to being repeatedly raped by an uncle in London during the blitz, that he froze in his seat and cried audibly.
After the movie, when everyone else had left the theatre, Paddie was finally able to pull himself together and join his wife in the lobby. Without a word, the couple walked to the car and, as was customary, Paddie got behind the wheel. Within minutes, he had to pull over because he could no longer see to drive.
"I was the boy in the movie,"; Paddie whispered. "I was the boy in the movie.";
Following this episode, about 25 years ago, Ben Nuttall-Smith's marriage disintegrated, his teaching career fell apart and, suffering from PTSD, he moved to a 'Handyman's Delight' on the Sunshine Coast. As part of the healing process, he began writing. He burned stacks and stacks of bitter scribbles while saving many of the better parts. Seventeen years of writing and rewriting and several edits later, the publisher/writer Manolis agreed to publish the novel.
In Secrets Kept / Secrets Told, the protagonist travels to French Canada where he encounters bullying. At 17, he joins the Navy. Later he is nearly killed while participating in the 1960s civil rights movement in the southern U.S. "Desperate to find acceptance and love,"; writes psychiatrist and reviewer William Hay, "he seeks the spirituality of a Catholic teaching order and discovers the joys of teaching music and drama. After thirteen years of mixed joy and frustration, he leaves the order and marries...
"For all those who have known the horrors of residential schools, persecution for difference, the shame of abuse, stigma and injustice, or who just want to read a wonderful biographical novel of an extraordinary man in extraordinary times, I would urge you to read Secrets Kept / Secrets Told.";
9781926763187
BCBW 2013
Essay 2014
"There is no fast and easy way to become a published author." -- Ben Nuttall-Smith
After Ben Nuttall-Smith self-published a memoir and three books of poetry, a B.C. publisher accepted his first novel and then also suggested turning his memoir into a novel by changing names and places. Now Nuttall-Smith has provided an overview about the perils, pitfalls and practicalities of self-publishing.
--
Okay, so you think you have written a book and you'd like to get it published. You've heard so many discouraging stories about finding a publisher that you're ready to give up before the rejection letters pile up. You've heard exciting stories about doing it yourself so you decide to self-publish. Here is some advice.
1. How to Recognize a Publishing Scam
Many book publishing websites are aimed at novice writers, who are eager to become published authors: "We'll turn your book into a bestseller and sell it on Amazon for a small reading fee." Vanity publishing charges authors a fee to have their works published. Vanity publishing is not legitimate publishing. It is not even self-publishing. Rather it's expensive and the ploy is to get you hooked. Such publishers will sell you add-on services and you'll pay way more than you would if you went to a legitimate editor and had your book designed by someone qualified to help. Also, you'll pay many times more per copy than you would with a commercial printer.
If you sign a contract with such a company, you will never be able to take back your manuscript to have it self-published or trade-published. Also, you'll never be able to use your vanity book as a means of getting a real publisher interested in anything else you might write.
Reputable publishers will not ask for money to read your manuscript. If they like what you've written and decide to publish you, they'll work with you and hope to make their money when your book is printed. Even then, the author will be required to do much if not most of the promotion and sales work. There is no free ride.
There's nothing wrong with companies or individuals selling writers services such as editing, book design, printing, publicity and so on. If you are self-publishing, then you will have to pay these costs. Most authors who have self-published eBooks will tell you the process of listing and selling books on Amazon is simple and costs nothing. If you're unsure, Google "company name - publishing scam" and see what other writers have to say.
2. Self-Publishing
I began writing my memoir when I retired more than twenty years ago. I wrote and rewrote and cut and wrote more until I thought I could go no further. Writers I know share chapter-by-chapter with their friendly writing circle. After the first ten years, I shared mine with my spouse. I asked her to be my most critical reader and she complied. The process was a work of love and it took months. I was surprised and humbled by the many suggestions she made: "I don't understand this"; "You're repeating yourself"; and "This is not what you said on page 237." I followed her suggestions page by page. Then we both read through it again.
A good manuscript can take years to complete. When I thought I was ready, I sent out query letters with sample chapters to publisher after publisher. Within a year and a half I had more than 35 rejection letters. Those were from the publishers kind enough to respond.
I read online advertisements by a number of 'independent' publishing companies who were only too willing to take my money and help me reach my dream of becoming a 'published author.' I decided to go with Trafford. Author Solutions owns the AuthorHouse, Trafford Publishing and a full set of variously named 'publishing houses.' To save money, I did my own layout and designed my own cover.
Within a year I knew I needed to rewrite. I did, and republished. Unfortunately, Trafford kept promoting the old edition, even converting it to an eBook. As time went on, I began to see more badly written books published by such companies, which caused me to regret being in the same crowd. It would take countless emails and letters and several years to get them to withdraw my file.
3. Editing
Next, I wrote an historical novel about Mexico and was determined to find a legitimate publisher. This book required extensive library research and three trips to Mexico. Once more my wife became my primary editor and I went through several rewrites. Characters changed names and some had to go.
Thanks to my experiences with my memoir, I knew I had to find a good story editor. Since I'd written a historical novel, I needed an editor who knew the genre and was even willing to fact check where he or she had doubts. I wouldn't want to be tripped up by an irate reader later on.
The story editor was very thorough. We went through the entire manuscript twice. It's a bit like plowing and harrowing. First dig deep, then smooth into place. She suggested both deletions and additions. The outtakes went into my scrap file for future consideration.
What did all of this cost? At that time, 114,000 words x 2 came to just over $3,000. Since my name would be on the finished work, I considered the editing a worthwhile expenditure.
4. Blurbs
I asked some of the published authors I'd befriended over the years to read my manuscript. I've had fellow authors blurb (endorse) all my books and I will forever be indebted to every one of them. I have since endorsed other new writers. It's all in the family and good promotion. My name appears on other book jackets and people might look for my books.
5. Primary Jacket and Book Design
I have self-published three books of poetry as well as the memoir with Trafford. In each case, I examined a number of published books and copied the opening pages: inside title, copyright page, dedication, index, introduction or prologue. Selecting a six-by-nine inch book size, I contacted a book printer in Victoria to find out about margins and spacing. I found Printorium Bookworks to be very helpful in this regard. Next, I googled the Canadian ISBN Service System and was given a series of numbers for my own use. I found a barcode generator on line with instructions to insert an ISBN number.
With everything else ready, I had a most important task left. I needed to design a worthwhile cover. The cover had to be eye-catching and it had to tell my story, at least in part, with one image. If the cover doesn't catch potential readers' eyes, the book will sit on a shelf until the author is asked to take the book back. Since I also paint, I produced several illustrations for each book before deciding on a suitable cover.
6. Printing
I went with Printorium Bookworks print-on-demand. This way my costs were reasonable and I was not obliged to purchase more copies than I could handle. A proof copy was in my hands within three days and, once I had read through from cover to cover, I gave the go-ahead and had my copies within another week.
7. Promotion, Promotion, Promotion
Here are a few pointers:
-- Develop a web page. Be colourful. A blog can be a great help. This should be undertaken when you first begin writing. That way you'll build up a following, especially if you're not too shy to share your trials as well as your triumphs.
-- Open a Facebook page and build up friends and likes. These people will be there when your book comes out.
-- Join a writing group. Become involved. Volunteer. I discovered my two publishers (they found me actually) through my involvement in Writers Helping Writers. I would recommend joining your provincial organization and the Canadian Authors Association - you do not need to be a published author to join.
-- Attend book launches and readings. This will pay off when you need to organize your own book launch.
5. Attend workshops. The Federation of BC Writers organizes several each year throughout the Province of British Columbia.
-- Attend writers' conferences such as the Surrey International Writers' Conference each October.
-- Carry bookmarks wherever you go and give them out like candy.
-- Make sure to have copies of your book in the car and don't be shy to talk about your book. It's called shameless self-promotion.
-- Get working on your next book.
8. Conclusion
There is no fast and easy way to become a published author. It takes time and effort to learn the craft of writing. The most important point: Rewrite those stories and polish them until they are perfect, then find a good editor.
Ben Nuttall-Smith is the president of the Federation of BC Writers and the author of the historical novel Blood, Feathers & Holy Men (Libros Libertad, 2011) and the autobiography Secrets Kept/Secrets Told (Libros Libertad, 2012). In 2013, he published two books of poetry, A Moment in Eternity and Postcards (Silver Bow Publishing). His poems and short stories have appeared in numerous national and international anthologies and online publications.