Autumn is Coming September 16th
The school summer holidays are over and life returns to
normal for those in the northern hemisphere. Teachers welcome new pupils to
their schools, university graduates start their first job (if they are lucky,
these days!), morning traffic returns to its dismal norm, the temperatures drop
and the evenings get darker.
Many astronomy retailers say that this is the golden time
for telescope sales. Many people are buying their first telescope and looking
at the night sky in detail for the first time. Many will go on to become expert
astronomers but others will try it for a while, maybe until the evenings start getting
lighter in the spring. Some, especially children, will leave it behind and try
other hobbies instead. That was me, decades ago.
I knew about the lunar craters, phases of Venus and Jupiter’s
moons but what I didn’t know was that there were loads more objects I could
enjoy seeing without spending a single extra penny.
If you look at most astronomy books, there are some very
good ones. Mostly, they are beginner books and the rest for experts and
theoretical cosmologists. I have written mostly for the “intermediate” level,
the astronomer who has done the “beginner” bit but doesn’t know where to go
next.
My book “Being An Astronomer” is a good place to start. It
tells you what you can see with modest equipment, or none, and tells you how to
get started with astrophotography. It also introduces how to progress to other
branches of astronomy or even just continue being a beginner. It is not even
expensive to buy. You can read it on an Amazon Kindle. If you don’t have one,
you can go to their website and just download the Kindle app on your PC or
smartphone.
To buy it in the USA, here is the link:
This is the link for the UK:
Progress August 25th
My page count for “Astronomer Reincarnated” has now reached
179. This is over half of my target length of 300-350 pages. I have included a
lot of new lunar images of better quality than my pre-existing ones. I also have
included some new images of deep sky objects, most notably the Andromeda Galaxy
(M31).
https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/54743126046/in/dateposted-public/
I need a big rethink on the next edition of “Being an
Astronomer”. I may remove descriptions and images of objects that are out of
reach of beginner instruments.
Progress and Thoughts on Paying for Book Services August 17th
I’ve had a few issues off-field. They are not the sort of
things that I share on social media but they are serious enough to disrupt not
just my writing but my life in general.
As I mentioned in my last post, my works in progress are all
dependent on images. I’ve been taking a lot lately and the quality of my moon
photos has gone up a few notches. That means that I will be replacing (at
least) some of my older moon images with new ones. That is the nature of
writing non-fiction. New information comes to light and books need to be
re-written.
As an author, who is active on social media, I get a lot of
offers to edit and promote my books. I’m not suggesting that some editors and promoters
are not excellent but remember one thing: They need you to pay cash up front!
They won’t accept a percentage of your royalties instead. There’s no guarantee
that any cash you pay will be recouped from sales. So it’s a gamble, like
betting on a horse, buying shares or paying a job coach to help you find a new
job. If you are short of money and, especially if you need to justify the
expenditure to a partner, I would steer clear of it.
I’m lucky in that my editing skills are very strong, gained
from years of practice reviewing technical manuals and training course
materials. A book or magazine article full of typing and grammatical errors will
not impress anybody. You can use some free or low cost tools and just do the
hard graft yourself.
I’m not great at marketing. I post on astronomy boards and I
have a books page on my web site:
http://philippughastronomer.epizy.com/About_Phils_Books.html
It hasn’t made me rich but astronomy is a very niche market. Maybe a marketer might help but maybe my books are reaching somewhere the limit of how many astronomers might actually buy them. I don’t honestly know.
Further Thoughts on Word Count August 4th
I reached another milestone, as “Astronomer, Reincarnated” surpassed
150 pages. This is despite a word count of just over 9 000. As the main subject
is astrophotography, it is a genre where the ratio of images to text is probably
one of the highest. It is probably even higher in many books for young
children. So it follows that, for many book genres, that page count is more
significant than word count.
Yet, page count introduces its own challenges. I’m inclined
to think that the optimum number of pages is about 300 to 350. One recent book,
“Astronomer, Reinvented”, reached a mere 235. That was enough, maybe more than
enough, to show and tell the story of a phase of my astronomical life. I did
not continue with it, as the era covered by “Astronomer, Reincarnated” had
begun and it was a very different era to those preceding it, so needed a
totally new book.
My, as yet untitled, book on stars is a more extreme case. I
have written the words, with only some better versions of the photographs to
include. As an aside, astronomy readers will metaphorically, rip a book to
shreds, if they perceive the images to be sub-standard, even of they are good
enough to cover the topic.
At the other end of the spectrum is my beginner book “Being
an Astronomer”. I felt that the book was “finished” about 2 years ago but are
non-fiction books ever finished? There have been new developments in amateur
astronomy and I had to keep it current. I’m also adding new images of objects I
had never photographed before to the next edition. The page count of the
current draft is 367. With about another 20 pages of images to come, I need to
decide whether to run with a longer book or remove some sections.
As I mentioned in a previous
blog post, page count is not as critical for self-published books, nor
for non-fiction, but writers must consider the needs and expectations of the
readers.
Astronomer, Reincarnated Update July 27th
I reached another sort-of milestone with one of my
works-in-progress. I had written up everything to-date. Such is the life of an
astronomy writer is that most, if not all, books need observations and photos
to complete them. It once took me four years to finish a book because the weather
got in the way!
Astronomer, Reincarnated is the account of my photos taken
with my smart telescope, the Seestar S50. To date, I am pleased with what I
have been able to do but I am only four months in. Similar to Astronomer,
Reinvented I have written about what I tried, what worked, what didn’t and what
(if possible) I did to fix it.
Most of my recent photos were taken, as part of this
journey:
Writing Advice July 23rd 2025
Writers don’t just write. We market our books, do some research
(if applicable) and advise other writers. I wonder at times, if our writing
advice is not so much to remind other writers, as to remind ourselves. A lot of
writing advice is very generic and mostly aimed at novellists. Most writers who
post on public forums are novellists. I have never known whether that means
most writers are novellists or just those who blog about writing. I have
written magazine articles and so has a close relative. I write primarily about
astronomy, so I’m a non-fiction writer. Here’s a look at some of the advice
given out and my views on it:
Don’t give up the Day Job
Yes, I agree. Most writers make no money at all and, of
those who do make money, it does not make a living income. Even if,
hypothetically, you match the income from your day job, it does not follow that
you will next year or the year after. Also, if you write full time, you become
very isolated from daily life and that is harmful if you are a novelist.
Write every day
Many writers actually do write every day, seven days a week.
They might miss out a few days where there is a celebration, such as Christmas
or birthdays. I would suggest that it is not necessary to write every day. If
you have a day job and a family, it just won’t be possible. Set realistic
targets and accept that life gets in the way sometimes. Also, you will spend a
lot of time refining and editing any writing project, probably at least as much
as you spend writing.
You need to write 1 000 Words a Day
Related to the above, there are no hard and fast rules,
unless you have a deadline from a publisher. Even then, you should look more
towards weekly targets and allow time for refinements and editing. Other than
that, 20 good words are better than 1 000 bad ones. If your book includes images,
it is more about page count than word count.
Each Genre of Book has its own total Word Count
Yes, this is true, especially if you are writing a novel and
you are hoping to get a publishing contract. The general guideline for a novel
is 80 000 to 120 000 words but some genres, like science fiction and crime
drama have more rigid requirements. However, if you are self-publishing, it is
not as important but readers can be put off my books that take a long time to
read.
You need some sort of formal Training to be a Novellist
From my experience, some form of creative writing course is
a help. I would suggest that, as a minimum, you should have a basic
understanding of human psychology. The exception is when you are writing fantasy
but, even then, I would suggest that the characters are believable, even if
they are non-human and are not in a traditional setting. I once had what I
thought was a great novel idea but a publisher explained the reason why it wouldn’t
work.
Update July 22nd 2025
Life gets in the way of writing, something I will blog about
another day. Astronomer, Reincarnated crossed the 100 page boundary. Yes, it
needs a lot more sections to be written but also requires more time outside
with my smart telescope. With the weather being poor, I managed to catch up a
bit with writing.
Update July 16th 2025
For a list of published books and a description of them,
please refer to:
http://philippughastronomer.epizy.com/About_Phils_Books.html
I had not been writing very much at the time of writing.
Instead, I was outside taking photographs or on my PC processing them.
Sometimes, I even add them to my books or replace existing photos with more
recent, better versions.
I currently have three works in progress (WIPs). As they are
all dependent on photos, this does not cause any problems.
Astronomer, Reincarnated (due Spring 2027)
This is my main project. It chronicles my adventures in
Electronically Assisted Astronomy (EAA). It started when I received a “smart”
telescope for a milestone birthday. It enabled me to photograph objects that I
had not been able to before. I have visited lots of deep sky objects and
revisited some of the more interesting ones. To see my images, see:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/
Keep watching, as this gets updated several times per week.
Guide to the Stars (working title, due Spring 2026)
This is a departure from my usual genre of astronomy book.
Although it is of interest to astronomers, it is also suitable for the general public,
even those who have no intention of looking through a telescope. It explains
the different types of star, how they work and how they are born, live and die.
This is done using words and diagrams that can be understood by people without
a scientific background.
I have completed the text of this book, well as complete as
any writer will admit! I made some minor revisions today to clarify the
different types of nebulae.
The main issue is that I need better versions of the
photographs I have taken. I may also add some photographs of new example
objects. Whilst this does not improve the content of the book, it will improve
the aesthetics. People say “never judge a book by its cover”. Unfortunately
(for writers!) they do, as they also judge a book by its graphics.
Being an Astronomer (7th Edition, due whenever!)
This is my beginner book.
The 6th edition contains an introduction to EAA. This
has been expanded for the 7th edition but the main enhancement will
be the addition of new objects (or replacing existing photos with better ones)
in the Constellations section. I am doing this in parallel with new images from
Astronomer, Reincarnated. Whether I will add any new constellation descriptions
or new sections is debatable.
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