CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

Most of you know I write in multiple genres, and that I use pen names so my readers have a fair idea of what they’re picking up. This way, if they’re not into romance, they know Madeleine Torr is not for them. If they’re too grown up to read young adult and tween age fiction, then they know not to pick up Carlie, and so forth. Anyway, up to now, I have only written chapter books as Carlie Simonsen, and now I want to release young adult fiction so, instead of launching yet another pen name, I decided that Carlie could be the name on those as well. After all, she’s had a little practice in this field. Anyway, the earliest work I have in this genre consists of three complete novels. Without giving too much away, they are as follows: Anna and the Rock Dragons : which was written and revised between 1991 and 1993, and then rewritten between December 28 and 31, 2014. You could probably call it urban fantasy, given it features dragons, but most of Anna and the Rock Dragons is set in t...

There are many who will say that you should never release your first book, or your second or even your third. There are some who say, finish your work, do the best you can at it, (including having it professionally edited) and then put it out there, that your work will improve as you practice your craft, improve your craft, and work at continually improving your craft and doing your best work and that your readership will grow as put more work out. And I agree, but, like many writers I always doubt that any piece I do will be good enough, and like all writers who put their work out there, or submit it to a publisher, I have to find enough courage to write and finish and share my stories anyway. So, why release titles from earlier in my career? Why now? When I have over twenty years’ writing experience, why release something from early on? Why expose work that might be different to what I do now, maybe not as polished—especially on the internet? Why release this work when it will...

Yup - just clear of its last run through, Volume 2 of my 2013 collection is now out in Large Print in the CreateSpace store . Last year’s anthology consisted only of the short stories and poems published in 2012. This year’s anthology consists of all the short stories and poems that I created, edited or rewrote in 2013, regardless of whether or not they have been released. The tales are taken from completed anthologies, and anthologies yet to come, from my blog, and from my notebooks. Most are published as stand-alone stories, but some are yet to be published. Also, where last year’s anthology was a single volume, this year’s anthology is two volumes long. I have divided them up chronologically, according to when the stories were first created and completed. This is the second volume, and it covers work completed or released in 2013. It consists of a mix of poetry, flash fiction and short stories.

Once my files have been reviewed, I receive an email letting me know their ready. To get that title out onto the market I take the following steps: I head on over to CreateSpace and log in, select the title whose files are ready and click on it. This takes me to the Project Homepage for that title. Under the Review column, I click on ‘Proof Your Book’, which usually has a note under it telling me ‘Action Required’. This takes me to the ‘Proof Your Book’ page. I usually select the ‘View a Digital Proof’ option. This allows me access to a digital proofer as well as the ability to download a PDF proof, which I can print and go through with a pen, if I wish. I usually just click on ‘Launch Digital Proofer’, although there is also the possibility of ordering a printed proof. After I click on the ‘Launch Digital Proofer’ button, I am taken to a digital proof of the book. By clicking on the ‘Get Started’ button, in the pop-up box that appears after the proof is loaded, I am able to view...

And on to cover creation. Firstly, some general notes: Once you are happy with the content, make sure your cover is ready for upload. This may be difficult to do, if you don’t know the cover size for the template you’ve chosen, so be prepared to make adjustments the first time, and then write down the sizes of covers you are going to format for on a regular basis. If you hire out for your covers you will need to be able to provide these details to your cover creator. I tend to create the design in GIMP, and then use the base cover I’ve created when creating the front cover for the CreateSpace version. You might use a professional cover designer or some other means to create your cover. Some CreateSpace specific notes: I use the CreateSpace cover generator and this means I cannot have colour to the very edges as the cover generator registers these colours and warns me that I could lose cover content. There is a shaded area in the cover generator that indicates where co...