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Out at last

edited January 2013 in Writing
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Oy-Yew-ebook/dp/B00B2JV1OM/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1358689871&sr=1-3

It's been a long time coming but it's good to have it out there at last. Thanks to all who helped me decide on the cover - hope you like it. All likes and reviews very much appreciated.

Comments

  • Looks great, Ana. It must feel great getting it out there. Wishing you lots of success with it.
  • Well done ana s. It has a look inside option which is good.
  • Congratulations, Ana. Your baby is born!
  • It looks great! Good luck with it.
  • pbwpbw
    edited January 2013
    I love the final cover. I've bought it & will review/like when I've read it. I look forward to reading it, ana. Very best of luck and congratulations on launching it!
  • I've bought it too.
  • What a great cover. Briliant. When I have money to spare I look forward to buying a copy.
  • Well done! Wishing you much success with this.
  • Thanks all for the lovely words of support and to pbw and Nef for first ever sales, do hope you'll find it worthwhile.
  • Congratulations, ana, the cover looks fab!
  • Oy Yew was longlisted for the Times/Chicken House Award.

    Well done on ALL your achievements. Must be great to see this out there now. - Sell Sell Sell!
  • Congratulations and good luck with sales.
  • Splendid news ana - the cover looks great.
    I'm sure it will do well.
  • Looks great, Ana! Congratulations!

    Is it worth expanding on the reference to the Times/Chicken House Award, ie say what it was an award for, as it's quite a prestigious one so worth mentioning. Also have you got any quotes about your writing from Barry Cunningham you could use?
  • It's a big achievement to win that award.
  • [quote=Lou Treleaven]have you got any quotes about your writing from Barry Cunningham you could use?[/quote]

    He did say 'thank you' when I handed him the ms. There was a postal strike around the deadline so I went to his quaint offices in the quaint town of Frome and he came to the door himself wearing checked trousers and a bow tie looking like a cross between Rupert Bear and Mr Toad.
  • LOL! I've been there. They invited me to go and talk about a picture book manuscript I sent them.
  • I once had dealings with The Chicken House.

    They requested the full manuscript of one of my books and we had telephone discussions about when it would be published - two years down the line, I think. Several meetings were had by 'the board' and then they said - sniff - due to financial reasons it had come down to making a decision between mine and one other manuscript and the other one won. Very nice people though.

    So near, yet so far . . .

    ana, I think I saw that award advertised. You don't need to answer if you'd rather not, but wasn't there a hefty fee for entering?
  • I think it was a tenner which isn't bad to win a contract and a £10,000 advance. Might have gone up since then.
  • When you put it like that, it doesn't seem so bad!

    Anyway, back to the topic. Well done again!
  • [quote=Tiny Nell]I once had dealings with The Chicken House.[/quote]

    They wanted me to change one of my characters so fundamentally it would have spoiled the story - and also the theme which was friendship, as that was what their last book was about.

    They will not represent an author who has an agent. another little strangeness.

    But that award is a brilliant one and to be long listed is a fabulous achievement - I know the standards as I have had several friends do judging for it.
  • Wow, Tiny! So near and yet so far indeed! How frustrating!
  • My little legs are still pedalling. One day!
  • Well done, TN! Never say die!
  • Perhaps we should write a picture book together, Nell? Double our abilities?
  • Congratulations, Ana - best of luck with sales and reviews.
  • Congratulations, Ana! It looks like a great story and the cover is wonderful!
  • The idea is intriguing and it does look good. Congratulations.
  • I've finished Oy Yew! and reviewed it, ana. I think you are a very clever and subtle writer. I've put the reviews on Amazon and goodreads.
  • Aaah! First review, and such a lovely one. Thanks so much - you've set me on, duck, as my g'ma would say.

    I'm on Ch25 of Far Out. I'll be reviewing end of week hopefully.
  • Just downloaded it and hope to read it soon.
  • I'm gona get me one of these Kindles. Lovely cover anna s and have read inside, Argos here I come.
    Congratulations anna s and well done.
  • Oh dear, I'm a techi disaster. I put the review up and realised I hadn't starred it. It wouldn't let me do it without removing first, then it wouldn't repost, so I tried twice more. Nothing came up. Thought I'll try again later and now it's up x 3. I'll go and take 2 down if poss. I was super impressed that you wrote that in 2 weeks. 2 weeks! Did you have the structure and characters in mind already? There's definitely room for a follow up (in which Nigel is reconstructed from a trace of DNA on a roman candle :)).

    Just got a lovely review from Oz on Amazon.com. I've always wanted to make someone stay up late because they had to keep turning another page. You can probably tell by now I'm not the person to ask about things like iPads.
  • pbwpbw
    edited February 2013
    I see you've sorted the reviews, so you are tecchier than you thought. Sometimes the smashwords site is slow to process the request and then it can be confusing.

    TBH, I was impressed I wrote it in two weeks. I had been thinking about it for two months before Nanowrimo started and I had done some research. I'd been obsessed with folk singer Donovan's song, Mellow Yellow, for some weeks - no idea why I should be thinking about his lovely music at this particular time.

    I'd had a lot of "in my head" chats with the engineer who was fretting over Saffron & living in the slum, and how was he going to get them out of it, etc. Then Marianne appeared, because she invited me round to tea with the engineer (actually that scene happened back in July). And one day, all four of them appeared over the horizon, holding hands & that's when the story kicked off.

    The hardest bit was getting a skeleton plot in place with the right story arc, and the points to move from Part 1 into Part 2 into Part 3, but it is vital to do that before you start on the nanowrimo roller coaster. The intense pressure of the nanowrimo timetable (50,000 words in 4 weeks) pushed the story out. By day 9 I was exhausted so I pushed even harder to get the book out. The psychology of nanowrimo is SO clever.

    So yes, the first draft was out in 2 weeks - 50k words. I spent the rest of November adding and editing and continued that process up to Christmas, working with a proof reader, for the 2013 edition.

    EVERY reader has complained about Nigel's fate (don't want to do the plot spoiler here) and I've just had a message from sis's iPad. "Re: Nigel, how COULD YOU?" (Caps sic). And I miss him too, so I think, yes...I like your idea.

    What about your waifs, do they have more story to tell? (Again don't want to do a plot spoiler), but I absolutely loved them, their names and their conversations and their points of view.

    Off to look at your Amazon review, now.
  • [quote=ana s]in which Nigel is reconstructed from a trace of DNA on a roman candle[/quote]

    Would you mind expanding on the roman candle - you mean the firework kind? Your story logic intrigues me.
  • http://readreviewed.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/oy-yew-by-ana-salote.html

    Just reviewed it - brilliant read.
  • Thanks so much, Baggy, for that really lovely review, especially for your time when you have a lot of reading to do. It's such a boost to know someone likes what we do. The sequel is about half written. I've just reached the point where all the threads are coming together. I'm hoping to have it done by Sept but I'm a serial redrafter so watch this space.
  • [quote=ana s]The sequel is about half written.[/quote]

    Ooooh!
  • I read the preview of Oy Yew and think it seems excellent, so I've bought it, but sadly as I have two essays due at the end of the month I have to wait until then before I can let myself read the rest!
  • Hope you're enjoying success with the book, Ana. I'm going to buy it later.
  • Thank you very much. Just checking proof copy of print version. How is it you miss errors on screen that jump off a real page - or is it just me?
  • No, it isn't just you, Ana. I've started printing my stories when I'm editing, and there's always something that leaps out at me which I missed on the screen.
  • pbwpbw
    edited August 2013
    Oy Yew the paperback is climbing the Amazon rankings.

    I reckon if a few more of us TBers could put in an order, we could see it rise some more.

    Do any of you have children or grandchildren who would like a witty and ironic story of waifs and orphans? Christmas gift maybe? Stocking filler? Raffle prize for school or local community event?

    I've ordered mine.

    So exciting!

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Oy-Yew-Ana-Salote/dp/1782996591
  • Mine arrived in the post this morning!
  • Oooh good, that means mine won't be far behind.
  • Bought it.
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