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Conflict of Interest rewrite
August 23, 2011
Uncategorized -
I took a risk at the start of the month, pulling an edited and ready-to-be-released version of Conflict of Interest back because I had a sudden idea. Yesterday I showed the first revised draft of the new version to the beta readers. They like it. Specifically, from the feedback I got, they liked it enough to read in one sitting and forgot to eat their pringles while reading.
Looks like the risk paid off.
Going from 'good' to 'gripping' makes it worth the delay and rewrite. It will be a while yet before it is ready to come out (Q3 instead of August) but I'm a lot happier with it.
The slightly embarrassing thing is that the sample I released last month is part of the book that hit the cutting room floor. Please look at it as bonus content.
I'd also like to say thanks to Marvin onRead More -
New websites & Riot Relief
August 19, 2011
Off-topic -
A small marketing update. Rather than the basic website (a Google site) that is currently up, a set of new sites under the VHFolland.com URL are being put up.
The first two are now live:
The DocksConflictFire Season and my own site will be moving under this setup soon. As always feedback would be welcome.
On the topic of riot relief, the Reeves family have set up a fund to rebuild the Reeves corner area. It isn't just their own 150 year old business, but all the small businesses and houses that were affected (twenty-eight families lost their homes and possessions).
The fund accepts Paypal, as well as credit cards or cheques. For anyone who pledged to Mark Thompson's campaign, this is where you can redeem the pledge.Rebuild Reeves Corner
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A general update and appeal
August 12, 2011
Off-topic -
I haven't posted here, or much anywhere else, this week. For those of you following events in London, you can probably guess why. The end of the week was spent cleaning up the fallout, something which has been delayed by the fact that many sites are still crime scenes or outright unsafe.
If you would like to help, please view #riotcleanup or follow @riotcleanup for details of planned cleanups.For more ongoing relief efforts, the Evening Standard has details here.
An Appeal
Which brings me to a local tragedy: the destruction of Reeves Corner and House of Reeves. Founded in 1867, the House of Reeves store has been a landmark in Croydon for longer than living memory, run by five generations of the same family. It was completely destroyed on Monday night by the looters.
More thanRead More -
Pen names
August 2, 2011
Articles and Opinions - One of the most common questions that comes up is about the use of pennames. Recently, the arguments over the use of real names on Google+ and Facebook which include several authors losing profiles because they are listed under their pennames, have really brought attention to this.Several people assume that aliases or pennames must be used to be evasive or commit fraud, and yet this is not the case at all. This is a brief summary of some of the reasons why authors may use a penname, and a few known examples.Ghost writing or work for hire, I am leaving off this: in those cases the author has taken the decision to write work that will be released under someone else's name, where they often surrender most or all rights and may not receive royalties. This is not the same as a conscious choiceRead More
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Conflict cover
July 30, 2011
Uncategorized - A quick update or two. First, I just received a draft of the Conflict of Interest cover, once again produced by Razzle Dazzle Designs.Any feedback would be welcome.Also Fire Season will be up on Indie Spotlight today. Read the feature and article here.And finally a slightly unexpected effect of D.A.Boulter's Indie/BBoS project was a sudden boost to The Docks, which briefly jumped to 37K in sales rank yesterday for the first time. The details can be found here: Kindleboards. Of course, an endorsement like that gives me a lot to live up to with the next book. Better get back to work on "Conflict".Read More
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Give an indie book a chance?
July 27, 2011
Uncategorized -
If you pick an indie author's book up, what are the chances it will be good?A few weeks back I took part in an experiment on the Kindleboards. D.A. Boulter volunteered to purchase up to 20 books with only one criteria: that the title hadn't sold anything on Amazon that month. I volunteered The Docks. The results are now in (full results here).In total he picked up 15 books, and has read the first seven. In summary all were enjoyable reads, and only one was marked down for proofing and editing issues. He comments that
"‘Mountains of dreck’ may exist out there but, within this small sample of non-selling books, I didn’t find it."
It is a good point. I've heard people refer to self-publishing as "putting the slushpile online" but I have also encountered raw unedited slush. There areRead More -
Conflict of Interest SampleSunday
July 24, 2011
SampleSunday, The Docks -
This sample is from an unpublished piece: A short sheak preview sample from "Conflict of Interest". This is still being edited, so I don't guarantee it won't change before the book comes out.
I stowed the papers in my own safe and secured it, hiding it as best I could in the cramped room. There's no point in stealing something if someone else takes it off you before it can be safely passed on. Then, brushing myself down, I reminded myself the job was only half done.
The second part should be simpler. Shoving the gear, ropes and knife I'd used for the first stage under the bed, I pulled on a non-descript dark green fleece and flipped the hood up to hide my face from cameras.
I walked out of the building where I'd rented the office – cash. no questions, they were desperate
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An update
July 22, 2011
Promotion - Things are rather busy at the moment, but so this is just going to be a status update.Conflict of Interest, the sequel to The Docks, is undergoing a lot of editing. The first round of editing added extra plot and tightened up the action. Now it's back for a second re-read and I'm hoping the editor likes it. I'm working on replacing the Googlesite with a decent website, hopefully something which looks a bit better and is more likely to sell books.The real problem right now is promotion. Due to contract restrictions from my work, I am very limited in what I can do to "promote or endorse" a product - one reason why I use a penname. However, it has been confirmed this does mean I can't use my real name for things like Facebook and setting up a fanpage, or even admin my own fanpage, because itRead More
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The Docks (Crime novella) is an undiscovered gem!
July 13, 2011
Uncategorized - The title is taken from the feature that lovethyauthor have just done on The Docks. Reviews and comments like this make writing worthwhile, or at least let you know some readers like what you're writing.*Bargain!* The Docks (Crime novella), 4 stars, is an undiscovered gem!Read More
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The Docks – a new review
- "Great short story that I highly recommend and I look forward to reading more from this author!" Read It, Review ItThe Docks just got its first review, a solid 4 stars from Read It, Reviewed It. I'm delighted and rather relieved since I'd heard that novellas did not do well online. It was a nice piece of news to end a Friday with!The Docks is available on Smashwords and Amazon, with samples available free on both. Alternatively, it was last week's SampleSunday, and the first chapter can be read here.Read More