Wednesday, July 16, 2025

Writing Blog

 

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.

I am hoping for clear nights from September to December as there are a lot of objects that I wish to photograph for the first time or revisit to use in my books.


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:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/


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.

No comments:

Post a Comment