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Beginning an ezine is almost as challenging as beginning a novel. How to engage readers from the first line?
Should one employ the technique recommended to writers? Reading the first lines of favourite novels which hook one without delay can provide a wealth of information, as can analysing the first paragraph and the first page to identify what it is that invites the reader to keep turning the pages.
Even more enlightening is to repeat the exercise with books which fail to capture one’s attention – especially when it has been coined ‘a must read’. Recognising what doesn’t work can be a real win!
Now to find the ideal first line for an ezine. Any suggestions?.

Enjoy your read!  
 

On the shelf   |   Through the lens   |   Out & About   |    Excerpts

The Demise of Bookshop Chains in the UK?

Nigel Farndale, columnist for The Sunday Telegraph in the UK, has suggested that impatience may be a contributing factor in the closure of book shops: visiting a book shop takes too much time, hence readers download instantly to their eReaders (Kindles et al). It seems publishers anticipate that within three years there will be no bookshop chains left in Britain. This gives one pause for thought – how might this affect indie bookstores? What do you think?

Jobs they never told you about …

Golly gosh – there are so many occupations from which to choose, especially for writers. This could be fun: check them out here

Suspense your disbelief - MADE IT IN A MOMENT: IAN BARKER
By jenny

Isn’t it wonderful to read generous articles such as this one?
(No – it is not a typo – the site is called ‘Suspense Your Disbelief’.)
There in the inbox was a message from Rebel ePublishers accepting my novel. Needless to say that night's party was a pretty good one – even though I couldn't actually tell anybody until I'd signed a contract. ...

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Why Parthenon Is the Top Google Search Term Today
Benzinga

Perhaps David Cameron should read ‘Stealing the Marbles’ by our very own EJ Knapp!
He has unconventional views on what precisely constitutes "stealing" those marbles, however, as he has repeatedly refused to return the relics to the ...

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SEX AND DRUGS – A Contributary Factor when Stealing Books?

Publishers’ Weekly have identified that Charles Bukowski, William Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Paul Auster and Martin Amis are the authors whose work is most likely to be filched from book stores in America. It has been suggested that the content of the books by Bukowski, Burroghs and Kerouac – sex and drugs – are the motivating factors.
Are we to assume that a more literary element help themselves to Auster’s and Amis’s novels?

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Homemade Sin – V Mark Covington
Don’t miss this novel when it is released.

Check out the author of this forthcoming Rebel ePublisher’s title >>

Ensure your readers understand what you have written!

The need for punctuation never changes – the response to this need does. There are those who refuse to accept that punctuation affects meaning – necessarily this affects communication. What is the point of writers exerting themselves when they fail to impart the essence of what they have written?
‘An American Editor’ describes the scenario with clarity - click here >>
 To add to this, there is the classic (but old, old …) joke which describes this mismatch between intent and delivery:

An English professor wrote the words:
"A woman without her man is nothing"
on the chalkboard and asked his students to punctuate it correctly.

All of the males in the class wrote:
"A woman, without her man, is nothing…"

All the females in the class wrote:
"A woman: without her, man is nothing."
Punctuation is powerful

QUOTATIONS:

Quotations, both literary and musical, have the potential to be a legal minefield. Make sure your quotations are in the public domain or that you have permission to use them from the author or publishers.
Otherwise – abandon them and create your own memorable phrase or saying.
 

How to Succeed in Comedy Without Really Trying by Ian Barker

He was big for his age. Let’s face it, he was big for any age. Not yet sixteen, six foot seven and built out of girders. Alan had the impressive stature of a public monument combined with the easy grace of a bulldozer.

When he’d first turned up, close to the end of summer term, the rest of the class had fallen silent. Even the back row gang were left slack-jawed. His blazer sleeves stopped several inches short of his wrists and he needed to duck his head to avoid the top of the classroom door frame.

I was sitting next to Mike Collins who leaned across and whispered, “I’ll bet there’s a bolt through his neck.” It was a good line, I sniggered, wishing I’d thought of it and made a mental note to steal it for later use. Across the room I noticed Andrea with a hand over her mouth hiding a giggle.

For the whole of the morning we were in awe. As we trailed between lessons some of the bigger lads – a relative term since Alan’s arrival – ventured a half nod and a muttered, “Alright?” The rest of us kept quiet.

As the day progressed though it became clear that Alan’s size was in inverse proportion to his intellectual capacity. He never put his hand up to answer questions, I wondered if he was worried about damaging the ceiling tiles, and when pressed by a teacher he mumbled, stuttered and invariably got it wrong.

When we had to read aloud in English, Alan did so with his finger tracing the line and in a delivery so halting Mr Winnick took to consulting his watch in between words.

At lunch break Alan leaned against the wall of the science block almost as if he was keeping it from falling over. The afternoon followed the same pattern as the morning, Alan folding himself into chairs like some complex hydraulic bridge and taking little part in proceedings until it came time to reassemble himself to the vertical and leave.

By the end of the day, with the casual cruelty of a group of teenagers, we’d nicknamed him Lurch.

At the end of the second week he answered to Lurch more often than he did to Alan. The back row gang called him “Idiot boy”, but only when he was out of earshot, and I’d realised he was exactly what I needed.  

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