Tying up Loose Ends

My viewing figures are going up. When I started this blog in October last year, I had about two readers. One of those was me and the other was one of my sons. I don’t know which one because I have four! They probably arranged to read my blog weekly, one at a time. But now the figures are creeping up and have reached as high as thirteen. Not massive by any means, but as the old saying goes: Big oak trees from little acorns grow. My wife and I are off to Australia in five days’ time. We’ll be visiting one of our sons who lives out there with his family, and we’ll also be calling in on some old friends in Adelaide. On the way over it’s a shopping trip at Singapore and on the way back we’ll have a look at Bangkok. We’ve got two friends staying at the house to look after the dog and cat, so we can feel relaxed about that because they have done this for us before.

So where does that leave me and my writing? Well, I’ve just had my HELL’S GATE paperback launched on Amazon, and will be running a little promotion campaign while I’m away. I don’t intend to push it until I get back from our trip. In the meantime, I’m preparing THE DEVIL’S TRINITY for publication. I have to scan the book because I don’t have the original file anymore. It isn’t too much of a problem, just slow, that’s all. I should have that ready for Acclaimed Books by the end of October. My son, Terry will be doing the jacket for me of course. At the moment he’s working on a revamp of the HELL’S GATE jacket. That might be ready before I leave, but it’s not that vital that he has it finished before I go.

I came to the conclusion that my priority for this year is to have all my books available on Amazon by the end of 2012. If I can manage that, then I can get on with my latest novel which is lying around gathering dust at the moment. The one book I can’t prepare myself is THE BOY FROM BERLIN, because Harlequin have the paperback rights to that and Hale, my publisher has the eBook rights; that will be available on Amazon in November. And although Harlequin will be publishing THE EAGLE’S COVENANT, I have the eBook rights to that. And that’s already been prepared for Amazon. So, with luck and God’s good grace, all my books will be available by year end.

I’ll try and slip in a short blog before we leave on Friday. Happy reading.

Milestone

Milestone

I like to think that there are points in your life that can be singled out as a milestone. Most of us have them; they mean a great deal but would not necessarily be significant to others. The milestone for me today is that I have just downloaded my re-edited Kindle version of HELL’S GATE. Why do I consider that a milestone when the eBook has been available on Amazon for about a month now? It’s all about personal, professional pride (hopefully), and the fact that I have managed (I hope) to have a book on Amazon without any flaws; no typos, no grammar mistakes and no howlers. I wouldn’t let the POD file go up to Amazon until I was satisfied that it was as perfect as I could get it. The re-editing for that took me through five editions before I was happy with the result. The kindle re-editing was a joy too because I had finally got the hang of editing the html file with mobi pocket, doing the search and find, closing the gaps etc., spotting the slight errors in the html codes until finally I was happy with the finished product.

So why, you ask, should all this have such significance in my literary life? The answer lies in the fact that my previous kindles and POD books all had flaws in them that could have been prevented. It was all my fault and it has cost me money to have the editions resubmitted, most of which had to be done two or three times. It’s all part of the learning curve, but the big cost to me was the bad reviews. Even though my three novels picked up some cracking, four and five star reviews, the bad (and sometimes vitriolic) reviews about the typos and poor editing have left a scar across my reputation on Amazon as a reliable writer, in terms of editing etc. The only way back from this is to rebuild my reputation, and this can only be done by very careful editing, proof reading and attention to detail. To that end I propose to launch HELL’S GATE on to the reading public when me and Pat come back from our holiday in Australia and the Far East. I have begun that, in a small way by paying for a couple of weeks advertising on KotC, which I presume means ‘Kindle on the Cheap’, to be run for a couple of weeks in September.

I have a lot of faith in HELL’S GATE. It’s what I call my ‘masterpiece’. At least, that is what it would be if I was a painter, but beauty, as they say, is in the eye of the beholder. So I’m hanging my reputation as a writer on to the views of the reading public. It’s a terrific read and would probably appeal to fans of Wilbur Smith. So, the book is out there, not expensive and available now. Have a look, see what you think. I’m pinning my hopes on this one. Wish me luck!