I haven’t blogged in a shockingly long time, mainly because we (my girlfriend and I) have just had a baby who was, unthoughtfully, born 3 months premature so I’ve been otherwise engaged. Anyway, a nice surprise was this review from Publishers Weekly which was actually initiated over at BookLife. They offer FREE book reviews so
Category‘In A Right State’
New Review for ‘In A Right State’ at Sci-Fi Kingdom
As a debut self-published author you seem to spend most of your time begging kindly asking for reviews. 60% of these requests are ignored, 35% reply (which is amazingly scholarly and decent of you) and then 5% reply AND post a review (which is unbelievably generous of you). So you spend a lot of time
New Review for ‘In A Right State’ at SFCrowsnest
Amongst the huge wastes of extended, frozen time within the publishing landscape, occasional glacial changes happen, breathing a little fresh air upon your dry, scaled skin before finally eroding it into the desert forevermore. I got a book review. It’s over at SFCrowsnest, one of the oldest SF related sites out there, so they know their onions.
The Business of Giving Away a Novel
My novel, ‘In A Right State‘, was launched in June 2014, about 18 months ago. The sales stats are pretty shocking. Sold about 30. So, what now? I could keep the status quo and also hold fast to the principle that art costs money but, in reality, where is that going to get me? A
How To Get Your Book Into The British Library
I recently got this handsome letter from ‘The British Library‘ informing me the paperback version of ‘In A Right State‘ is now taking up valuable space on their hallowed shelves. Well, it’s deposited, not yet indexed, so it’s probably propping a door open or straightening a wonky table leg. So how can a self-published slice
Shortlisted for the ‘Lord of the Book Covers’!
Completely Novel, print-on-demand publishers of ‘In A Right State‘, have short-listed the book for their first ‘Lord of the Book Covers’ competition. The winner is the cover with the most votes, so go here – http://completelynovel.com/articles/vote-for-your-favourite-book-cover – and vote by clicking the tick box next to your favourite cover and then adding your email address. Vote
Self-Publishing: Is it worth publishing a ‘failed’ novel?
I’m classing a ‘failed novel’ as one that has been submitted to agents and publishers over a year or two without having achieved a sale or any/much interest. This is what happened with ‘In A Right State‘. ‘In A Right State’ is my first novel and I sent it out to about 40 agents and
Self-Publishing: Do I need an ISBN Number?
ISBN numbers are a big worry for a first time self-publisher, at least it was for me. They smell of officialdom and when you start looking into it, the smell intensifies with cost – Nielsen UK ISBN Agency – £144 for 10 ISBN numbers! What is an ISBN? Here’s the official answer from ISBN International;
Self-Publishing: Lessons Learned
A year on from self-publishing my first novel, what lessons have I learned? What would I do differently next time? What mistakes did I make? Even though my sales have been pretty poor, I don’t think I made many mistakes. I experimented and as a result there’s a few things I won’t be doing again,
Self-Publishing: Paid Advertising, Is It Worth It?
Once you’ve written a book, edited a book and published a book, you need to promote the book. We know this, but how? You can go asking and begging for book reviews, you can try marketing/PR stunts, you can go on a social network and blogging frenzy to drum up some business and you can