Book – BEING AN ACTOR- published

Hello Friends…..at last my book – BEING AN ACTOR – is ready to read.  It is on Kindle ….print and Ebook and also on Audible, should you want to listen to it.   Here’s the link.  I do hope you take a look or have a listen.

This all started, when webmaster and friend Aaron Day  of Thrive Web Designs, said….” write a book”…to keep the brand Jane Merrow going.   He’s always been a keen advocate of that since we designed and built my web site, with him whizzing around the computer, designing and programming and me standing behind him giving instructions  and suggestions.   We have come a long way from that now…his business has been bought up and has grown accordingly and my online presence with the site and social media is helping to somewhat revive my career.   Who would have thought.   It’s all been fun and not too stressful.   Why should it be, we’re not trying to build an empire?   And these things should not be taken too seriously.

I asked old pal Julian Glover (Game of Thrones etc). to write a forward for me.   I have known Julian over the years, but had not seen him recently until me met up, when we both did a signings event last year in the UK.  Also it was a delight to meet his wife then, the excellent actress Isla Blair.   Julian and I both worked at the National Youth Theatre under wonderful Michael Croft, at different times and then we did an schools’ production of “A Winters’s Tale” together for ITV in England.   Smashing person is Julian and a terrific actor.

I have to say doing the book has been a bit stressful as it has been a whole new experience and I have turned to old friend Google for “how to” and ” what is” along  way….did you know that all books have ISBN numbers to identify them.   You can have the same title as another book ( I do, it seems, as I found out after I had published it), but the ISBN is the unique ID.   I self published with the help of the other old friend Amazon, who virtually does everything for you along the way.   Even though it means giving up a serious slice of the sales income, it’s worth  it for an amateur like me.   If you’re a proper serious author, with an ongoing writing career, then a professional publisher is the way to go, that’s if they’ll take you!   There’s so much involved with writing a book and then getting it to market.  The other necessary ingredient is the Design.   It’s all very well to just write the words …but it needs a proper layout – a design to get your ideas across and as this is more of a booklet, a manual, I wanted an engaging design with some lively illustrations.  I found a delightful  illustrator online courtesy of  Fiverr.com.

Fiverr.com is a very useful online Directory (recommended again by Aaron), which will link you with all sorts of useful people and services around the world, who will work remotely for you at a very cost effective price.   My Illustrator was based in the Philippines (I think)… we never talked,  just exchanged emails.  I sent her a rough draft of the book and explained what kind of pictures I wanted and where.   Shawm came up with the goods and I was happy.   The illustrations keep the tone of the book light hearted, I think.  Had my mother been alive, I would have asked her to do it as humorous illustrations were part of what she did!

Nyk Fry, man of many talents did the audio engineering, recording and editing the audio files.   This is the third time we have worked on Audible recordings..we have just finished doing Hazel Raises the Stakes and That Crazy Witch by MZ Turner.   Had a good time…hard work, we laughed a lot, argued, but it all came out fine in the end.   Of the joys of being a creative, working with other creatives!

The Design Company here in Boise  – Design Works- did a lovely job of the design and layout…thank you Kelly Mitchell and Jeanne Core.    Again…there’s so much more involved that one thinks!! Jeanne did the layout for print, so when it came time for Aaron to upload the book for online, there was a mad discussion about whether the high definition PDF file would work for Kindle.   This after severe warnings from Amazon that Kindle did not like PDF,  only Mobi files, which would involve more time and work, I made an executive decision to ignore Amazon for once and we uploaded the PDF files.   It worked.  So here I am with a book available for sale.   The miracles of modern technology.

My film ABOUT ANDY, which can be viewed on this site…is about just that…the miracles of modern technology and who, ultimately is going to be in charge, us or the robots!!  Do watch it!

So my friends you have a book to read, or listen to and a film to watch courtesy of your truly!

More anon!