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Boring but Essential

A Handbook for Authors

This book is boring: I’m sorry, but there’s no other way of putting it. If you want to read something exciting and different, read one of my Agent Smith adventure books; however, if you are any kind of author and want to get your manuscript accepted, this handbook may be boring, but stick with it. There are hundreds of books for sale explaining how to write a bestseller — this is not one of them. Your literary ability will sell your work. The information in this handbook may be boring, but, using zero-cost software, it will prevent your work from being rejected for the wrong reasons.

Available from Amazon – £15 plus p & p.

In Boring but Essential, a Handbook for Authors, I explain how to set up your computer to create manuscripts in various formats. Can I make it clear, I am no computer expert, and I don’t expect the reader to be one either: I am merely an author who has evolved a better way of doing things. This book is a simple and practical guide, showing how ordinary writers can get the best out of their word processors using simple step-by-step procedures. Once readers have followed the set-up details, the time-consuming technicalities will look after themselves automatically as they type, allowing authors to concentrate on the creative aspects of their work.

Why write such a Boring Book?

Boring but Essential came about as, during the past few years, I have spent (wasted) hours and hours correcting, formatting and reformatting my Sam Smith Adventure Series. I submitted extracts of my novels to agents and publishers in the format they required. In addition, I created versions suitable for publishing as E-books and paperbacks. This work proved repetitious, tedious and time-consuming.

I felt so stupid when, after writing and publishing six of my adventure novels, I found that I had written my manuscripts the wrong way from a word-processing point of view! My approach meant that I wasted something like fifty per cent of my time doing things repeatedly that could have been done automatically or more quickly had I set up my computer correctly in the first place.