Gamesday Italia and Other Stuff
Just a quick note to say I am getting ready for Gamesday Italia in Modena. I am really looking forward to this. Also for all you writers out there, a book recommendation; 2K to 10K: Writing Faster, Writing Better. This is one of the shortest and best books about writing I have read, and certainly the best book about writing I have read this year. It’s by Rachel Aaron, of How To Write 10,000 words in a Day fame and it covers not only how to increase your word count, but how to edit efficiently and well, and probably the Read more…
Author’s Notes: Stealer of Flesh
I know, it’s a bit silly to be writing up the Author’s Notes five months or so after the book was released but what the hell– I’ve been busy and I’ve been sick and these things get done in their own time. Stealer of Flesh is a book that Amazon made possible. Seriously. All of my life I have wanted to write something like it but I was born at the wrong time. In order to explain that we need to rewind to when I was a very young teenager. I grew up reading, among other things, lots of good, Read more…
The E-book Experiment: Year One
On 7th July 2011 I uploaded my first e-book to Amazon. It went live on the 8th. I was curious as to how it would go. 6 months ago I published the data I had collected over the previous few months, and said I would report back again in six months. Six months passed. I was flattened by flu on the anniversary date but I took a snapshot of my sales with the idea I would write them up as soon as I felt better. Other factors lengthened the delay. More illness, deadlines and a holiday without access to the Internet intervened. Read more…
Death’s Angels Finally Free In The UK
As of Tuesday evening Death’s Angels, my dark fantasy tale of mercenary soldiers in a world haunted by ancient demon gods, is free on Amazon UK as well as iTunes UK. That means you can now download the book for free most anywhere I can manage it, should you feel so inclined. Why have I done this? Glad you asked. It all started with my post about the general disappointment in the indie community caused by Amazon’s tinkering with its algorithms for free promotions using the Select program. The net result of this has been that books no longer get the Read more…
Death’s Angels Free
Just wanted to make a quick announcement that Death’s Angels, the first book in the Terrarch series will be available free for a limited time on Amazon.com, B&N and iTunes US and UK. For some reason, it refuses to go free on Amazon.co.uk but you can download it from Smashwords. Alternatively, if you get really desperate, you can email me with your reader type and I will send you a copy in a format suitable for your machine.
The Disappointment With Free
Around last Christmas Amazon brought in its Select program which among other things allowed independent e-publishers to make their books free for 5 days in a 90 day period. The results of going free were, in some cases, astonishing. I should know— it worked for me. I made my book The Inquiry Agent free for five days during the holiday period and when it came off the promotion it jumped into the top ten bestseller lists for its category, and hit 70 plus sales a day for a while. This was in historical mysteries, a genre in which I have Read more…
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