Category Publishing

Escape cover reveal

October 19, 2014 Books, News, Publishing

I'm happy to announce the cover for Escape. Given the aircraft in the book, it was understandably difficult to find images of it in flight, so my original request of a close-up flight shot was not granted. Instead I understand a flight-sim was used to get reference shots, the contrail comes from a 777, and the sunset shot was taken on open land. I actually rather like the results.
Escape short story cover

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A Leap into the Unknown

October 16, 2014 News, Publishing

A while ago I was chatting with my publisher about the type of children's shows we remembered - Bill and Ben, Bagpuss - and about how sad it was that shows like that weren't being made anymore. I jotted down a short children's story in that vein as a joke.My publisher loved it. So did his child. So, rather baffled, I sat on the idea for a week. Which was when I discovered what pester power meant, and that was just from my publisher. Around the time I finished the fourth, I did start to think I might be onto something here. However my publisher does not handle illustrated books or children's books, and those markets could be quite specialist.It took me a while to make a decision, because after what happened with Fire Season, going away from my nice, safe, micro-press and back into

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Finding an old shame

October 13, 2014 books, Publishing

It is well known that authors may have problems reclaiming their rights when a publisher goes bankrupt. Less well known is when getting the rights back isn't a problem but getting the story back is.

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Going Under – special offer

November 6, 2013 Amazon, Promotion

Amazon have recently revamped their Select offer to include something called Countdown. This allows you to discount the price of a book for a set period (up to seven days) instead of making it free for five days. There are some obvious advantages to this - still getting royalties, the range of ways you can offer the discount, and the increase ins sales rank. More importantly, if you were on the 70% rating you still get that even if the price temporarily drops. It looks like a good offer, so I'm trying it out with one of the only titles I still have in Select.From 5th Nov to 11th Nov, Going Under will be slowly incresing from 99cents back to its initial price of 2.99.

"There are plenty of twists and turns that keep you wondering until the

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Standing Guard – Free 30th, 31st Jan and 1st Feb

January 30, 2013 Select

Standing Guard is free to download on Amazon for the next three days: 30th Jan, 31st Jan and 1st Feb, world-wide.

Flying home from their display seems a perfect time for Jim to train his wife on radio procedures. An SOS on a non-aviation channel was the last thing he expected to hear. The laws of sea and air are clear: the person who receives a distress call is bound to assist.

Even if they are in a very old aircraft, over a very large ocean, looking for a very small boat.

Standing Guard is a short aviation story.

Amazon.com
Amazon.co.ukOther Amazon Sites:

Amazon.com (includes India)
Amazon.co.uk (UK)
Amazon.ca (Canada)
Amazon.fr (France)
Amazon.de (Germany)

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Going Under – New Novella Release

January 21, 2013 Select

Amazon.com
Amazon UK

When Karo saw the woman drowning in the canal, she did not think twice before diving in to save the victim. Too late, the teenager learned that the accident was not an accident. Now the people who tried to drown Liz to keep her quiet want to make sure Karo does not say a word.

For Karo, the pressure from police and threats from the attackers are nothing compared to the real threat: the family she changed her name to escape. Changing her identity again means losing everything, but a girl who legally does not exist has very few options. As the pressure increases, Karo needs to decide where to turn and who to trust if she is ever going to be able to leave her past behind.

View on Amazon Worldwide:

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Thoughts on Select

January 3, 2013 Promotion, Select

Amazon UK

Over the last two days I tried out the Free Days offered by Amazon Select. On the 1st January I scheduled a Free Day on Amazon Select for the short story Standing Guard to test how this worked.  I extended this to the 2nd January during the run, as it was gathering momentum. Here are my thoughts on the immediate results of the promotion. Where possible I will add hard figures, which should make this more useful:Starting Rank: nowhere. Final rank (at 8:20 3rd January):Amazon.com #4,117 Free in Kindle Store#76 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Short StoriesAmazon.co.uk#3,047 Free in Kindle Store#44 in Kindle Store > Books > Fiction > Short Stories#76 in

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Another Free Day

January 2, 2013 Select

Still Free for the New Year
Get Standing Guard Free on Amazon today (2nd Jan):

Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk

Other Amazon Sites:

Amazon.com (includes India)
Amazon.co.uk (UK)
Amazon.ca (Canada)
Amazon.fr (France)
Amazon.de (Germany)
Amazon.it (Italy)
Amazon.es (Spain)
Amazon.co.jp (Japan)

Well I've definitely learned a few lessons from the first Free Day with Select, and I'm trying to put my thoughts in order to get a blog piece written.

Due to a promotion later this month, I've just used my remaining free days, which left me with one over. So, rather than stick it out on its own, I've extended this one by a day.

The results so far are

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Free Day – Standing Guard on Amazon

January 1, 2013 Select

Happy New Year!To start the new year with a bang (hopefully),  Standing Guard is free to download on Amazon today, world-wide. 

Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk

Other Amazon Sites:

Amazon.com (includes India)
Amazon.co.uk (UK)
Amazon.ca (Canada)
Amazon.fr (France)
Amazon.de (Germany)
Amazon.it (Italy)
Amazon.es (Spain)
Amazon.co.jp (Japan)

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A Select Affair

December 30, 2012 Promotion, Select

I've put my first title into Amazon Select.

Usually when I release a story it goes to Amazon and Smashwords to get full distribution. However thanks to a computer issue I can't generate .doc files for Smashwords at the moment and I'm writing everything in .rtf,  so Standing Guard went onto Amazon only.  So this gives me a chance to try out Select.Select offers authors two things:  money for borrows,  and the ability to offer their book for free on certain days. For me, the second is the larger advantage. The ability to give away titles through Amazon free is something I usually can't do since Kindle Gifting is unavailable to authors outside the US. So I'm trying it out.

The Day:  New Years Day
The Title:  Standing Guard
The Place: 

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