Category Uncategorized

Print costs and decisions

September 9, 2011 Uncategorized

Putting the Docks into print will cost £200. That covers the cover artwork rights, ISBN, layout, formatting, proof copies, revisions and then a base twenty copies to get the distribution chain moving. This would be POD, producing a 96 page mass-market paperback. It also gives it a shelf price of £4.99, even after distribution, P&P, author royalty and production, which createspace and lulu can't match.The problem is that right now, I don't have that spare. I can either publish two new ebooks, or put The Docks into print. The print audience is larger, and reaches people that don't own e-readers. It gives me access to bookshops, and to a wider set of reviewers. On the other hand, the best way to promote a book online is to release another book. It's not just the sales of the new books

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Current projects

September 8, 2011 Uncategorized

I've just been formatting some non-fiction for another penname, so I haven't updated the blog in a while.Regarding my fiction writing, I've got a possible Docks novellas in the works, along with a Christmas short story and some notes for other possible pieces. Yes, I have written what happens when he finally ends up in court over the incidents in the Docks, after the end of Conflict of Interest. No, I am not spoiling it.More to the point a short story set in Brooke's Vale turned into an idea for a reasonable sequel to Fire Season. I'm still at the note-taking stage, so it might not go anywhere, but so far it seems to be coming together nicely.

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Conflict of Interest & Amazon

September 1, 2011 Uncategorized

Amazon say they will take at least 3 days to fix The Docks listing. In the meantime I am losing traffic from various features, which is frustrating (and costly) but can't be helped.
On a bright note, so far I have two issues reported with Conflict Of Interest, both in the HTML version only, and both purely stylistic. If the .mobi and .epub versions are correct, which they seem to be, I may leave this to get to distribution faster.
You can see them for yourself at Smashwords
The only other complaint was that on the page for The Docks at the end I hadn't added any nice reviews...
UPDATE: 20:30 and it looks like the Docks listing for Amazon.com is back up:
The Docks on Amazon.com The only problem is that as a UK resident I can't see the price on Amazon.com. Fingers crossed there are no

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Conflict of Interest – Sneak Preview

August 31, 2011 Uncategorized

There is now a trial version of Conflict of Interest working its way through Smashwords.
This version still has one proofing pass to complete, but is up so we can identify formatting errors, anything that would prevent it going to distribution (which takes three days), get the ISBN assigned, the listing and tags ready and so on. The aim is to get the final version live this weekend.
For anyone looking for a preview, here's the link.
Conflict of Interest on SmashwordsThis is a draft, but if you can't wait and buy this version to find out what happens, don't worry. If you pick up the draft, once the final version is up you can download a copy of it from Smashwords free of charge.

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Amazon again.

August 31, 2011 Uncategorized

I will apologise in advance for the tone of this entry, but I am tired, annoyed and lacking sleep.
I was up until 2:48 am last night trying to get this fixed, then up again at six a.m. to call their US office. The operator saw the issue and escalated it, which does not explain why the broken page is still live or the two contacts today who didn't believe the page is broken because they hadn't read the ticket. This is no longer even vaguely funny.
Recovery plan:
1) Add a link to "The Docks" website in the comment section of any feature.
2) Don't launch Conflict of Interest on Amazon Kindle: it will just annoy more readers when they can't get The Docks.
3) Keep chasing Amazon.
4) Suggest to the publisher they get Fire Season onto a different format.
Finally: If it's not fixed by the end of

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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 on

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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".

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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 are

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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!

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The Docks: Father’s Day offer

June 18, 2011 Uncategorized

Get The Docks free on Smashwords with this coupon: CK45G valid until 21st JuneFather's Day Offer : CK45GNow on to the update: The Docks is out for premium distribution, as well as on Smashwords and Amazon, and I should be sending copies out for review. Unfortunately, I'm a little cautious for a few reasons.Spoilers are one: spoilers in a review for a crime story would be a much bigger problem than spoilers for action/adventure.The real problem is the main character. Harry is not a likeable character. He is sympathetic, but only because he's in over his head and he is only in trouble because of his own faint sense of ethics (at least he has one - his accomplices don't). The Docks has an unreliable narrator, in the sense that he's not just deceiving the reader, he's deceiving

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