Well, at least BtB is back in it’s rightful place – on a Sunday (and free of bullshit, I might add).
Sooooo, fellow ebook-eaters, what does this Sunday have in store then?
Hmmn, well, I wanted something different this week. AND I think I have found it.
BUT, as always, I will let you decide. I mean, who am I to pass judgement?
What about this then?
Sometimes, the end of the world needs a little help.
Simon Gray stopped fighting years ago when he left the Army, but the CIA has made him an offer he can’t refuse: the opportunity to take down Guatemalan arms dealer Yum Cimil. Cimil considers himself Maya royalty, and is planning worldwide destruction to usher in the Maya Fifth World on December 21, 2012.
Simon knows all too well the damage Cimil is capable of. This time, it’s stolen nukes and a presidential kidnapping. Decades earlier, it was more . . .personal. Now he’ll get his chance for revenge, but stopping Cimil won’t be enough. Homo sapiens isn’t the only hominid with skin in this game, and Simon must prevent an attack that threatens the very existence of the human race.
Well? Answers to Saffi at…
Edward G. Talbot have a few books out, you can check them out here and guess what? We have something in common! No, it isn’t that we both write thrillers and a have penchant for t-shirts with humorous slogans (it’s not what you think), but that EGT is a writing partnership, just as SD is. How cool eh? See, two (slightly warped) brains, four hands and one and a half hearts (I’ll leave you to figure that one out) are better than one, even if you DO have to share royalties!
So, without further ado, ‘cos I know you have things to do, as have I, here’s the link thingymebobs:
Oh, and before I forget, here’s the pretty cool cover image. *sigh* If I was anymore bullshit free, I’d be writing a regular blog about it!
And so, signing off from yet another post that didn’t mention our sales figures, the publishing industry or what we were drinking in the morning (can vary btw, depending what day of the week it is)… oh, or any of our books! Ho hum, you know where to go for that crap!
No, I don’t mean it was a smaller event than usual, it is from one of THE greatest and funniest shows that I have ever seen (aside from Ab Fab and Will & Grace, that is) ‘Friends’. See here?
London, baby! Sigh… anyway, not too much of the brown stuff, remember, Saffi?
Well, have a look! This was the view from outside the day before it opened, following the digital conference. Looking gooood!
So, the journey began at Newark Station, ‘cos believe it or not, London is NOT close to everything in Britain!
Just in case you didn’t think there WAS a Newark in England!
And… the view from the platform (no, not 9 and 3/4′s, that comes later!)
Sooooo, setting off to The Big Smoke in the freezin‘ April sunshine (without a coat, I might add. Duh, it is April!) this jet-setting, best-selling author (oh, hang on, nope, that’s not me, that’s my partner-in-writing-crime Mark Williams. See here for his take on that) travels the only way there is: First Class! Ahem, anyone who knows me, knows that is NOT how I roll, BUT, when I booked this in advance, I got such a deal, that I couldn’t resist. I mean, come on: I am a best-selling, soon-to-be-published slash the most-successful UK (truly) indie author, right? (Plus, with only one and a half working arms, I didn’t fancy sharing a double seat with a commoner! )
Soooo, it had to be done. It’d be rude not to!
Anyway, this was the view from the not-so-cheap-seats as the train hurtled toward a place I have only visited for three reasons prior: 1) Because my parents MADE me 2) For a sporting event of concert or 3) for business/meetings.
And THIS was the silly, misguided sticker on the window! pffffft
Ooops! Hello! Do you KNOW who I am? Sheesh…
So, onto Sunday. The day before the fair. I was lucky enough to have arranged to meet a reader who I had exchanged emails with relating to Sugar & Spice (and whose story is featured on my sister blog HERE. Look out for a SHOCKING update to her story soon!) and we spent the whole day in the pub, drinking mucky, London beer (mine through a straw as I can’t lift a pint), watching football, moaning about humanity and the legal system in general and basically forging a friendship that will undoubtedly last a lifetime. See, there are some HUGE perks to being a writer. You know who you are MRS!
Fast-forward to Monday morning. Eeek!
OK, so it is fair to say (no pun intended) that A) I have never done this before and B) I have a major physical impediment at the moment that makes it difficult to shave underneath my right arm, let alone barge thousands of people out of the way to get to the Amazon KDP stand to moan about them losing our book for almost six weeks! (I mean, come on, really? Did they have a stand with fist-proof glass? No!) So, I walked up the Earls Court steps with MAJOR trepidation, my new Sony cans on my head and my heart in my mouth. Hey, I AM human you know!
Here’s my view:
Gu-ulp!
And I was right to take that swallow.
The place is incredible.
I took a photo of the stand list so that I could find my way around (with one arm and a whole coffee table full of brochures that I had managed to procure walking through the main entrance – hello! You want me to hold my badge up at the same time?) and when I had finally fought my way through the wall of Chinese paparazzi to look at it and get my bearings, realised this was one of fifteen columns, starting with ‘A’! I knew then, that I was doomed.
So, what do you do? Well, knowing I didn’t have scheduled meetings until 1300 and 1800, I did what any sane girl-writer would do, I called a bloke!
Matt Horner of ebookpartnership.com fame (who are on my blog links btw) had messaged me the day before and asked to meet up with him and his wife and business partner and I am soooo glad I did! After spinning around with my finger to my lips, dropping my leaflets and gulping back copious amounts of bottled water, I finally found them and brought some sanity back to my predicament. I met him and his lovely wife for the first time (having spent almost two years conversing with them via email, seeing them convert our first ebooks into digital and now forming a mutually beneficial ebook distribution association), got my bearings and actually calmed down. I did (well, sorta) know someone there.
Thank you Matt and Diana! You are not only ultimate professionals, but you saved my life!
And so to the rest of the day. Well, for those of you who have never visited The London Book Fair (of which I am now not one) it is awesome! The buzz, the mutual interest and general love of air-kissing, can probably not be replicated anywhere else. (anyway, our French publisher certainly agrees!) The vibe as you enter the venue is something that if any writer could describe it, then they are onto a winner. BUT: It is also, most definitely NOT BS free!
I might get slated for this, but hey…
I found most of it (as I knew I would) very pretentious and a meat-market for the industry (so-called) insiders to peddle their wares and self-congratulate.
I SAW NO/VERY FEW WRITERS!
I saw LOTS of publishers, lots of adverts for books (which you would expect I guess) and lots of stalls with smartly dressed people who had no doubt rehearsed their elevator pitch for quite some time.
Speaking of the ‘elevator pitch’, here’s one: (not a pitch, but one more reason why the book fair, ISN’T about books) – I had a message from our agent, saying I should pop up and see her to say hello, before meeting later that evening (away from the fair). Get this. I wasn’t allowed!
I stood in an infinite queue of wanna-be-repped-like-they-needed-to-be-authors, stand and agent name number in hand, only to be told that I couldn’t see her, without an appointment! Fortunately, I had our wonderful, super-efficient (deal to hard-cover publication in 8 months, not-so-scared) publisher to meet in the meantime, so that took the sting out of it!
Not only did she tell me that ‘Paraphilia’ (the translated French version of Sugar & Spice) is completed and that she had arranged 4 days of publicity in both France and Belgium, with press, media and TV interviews galore, but they were sending 300 hardback copies out for promo to bloggers, reviewers, papers and journo’s alike! She even produced a glossy brochure with yours truly (as in, Saffina Desforges partnership) slap bang in the middle of it!
THAT was the highlight of being at the fair, that and sending our newly acquired agent home in a taxi after two bottles of wine and a conversation that will never be repeated!
Now please don’t get me wrong. The fair is A-MAZZIng as Scott Mills would say, and it is a GREAT way to meet people whom you have worked with/conversed with over continents and the net, who happen to be in the same place at the same time, but I cannot help thinking it is a bit like stepping through the wall at the station and ending up somewhere else.
(see below)
I wanted to be here:
And ended up here:
I needed two days’ sleep when I got home (not as many as our agent probably needs after a whole three days there ‘Speed-author-dating’) but it was still a thrilling experience.
What I am NOT convinced about however, is that is was free of the sloppy stuff. In fact, I reckon it might’a been a TOTAL BS-fest and I was too scared to notice!
Either way, I’ve been, I’ve survived and I will probably be there next year. Although I hope, the future’s purple and not brown.
Until next time… (when normal service will be resumed) stay BS free!.
No, it’s not some snazzy title for a work in progress fantasy/sci-fi novel (although I can almost see the cover image now!) this is a serious blog post. A very serious post indeed.
Usually, I reserve my SM0D&L blog for promoting indie authors and their works, as well as some light-hearted banter and seasonal posts, but today, the darkness really is taking over.
Given that a lot of my subscribers and readers are indie authors, I thought it was the best place to post my new non-fiction horror story.
Let me start by saying this: Amazon have, so far, been very good to us.
OK, so their algorithms remain a complete mystery and it is clear that they are heavily influenced by trad publishers BUT, it is fair to say that up until a few weeks ago, we had shared a mutually beneficial, if not somewhat distant, relationship.
It is also fair to say that the mighty ‘Zon have made a great deal of money out of us. Out of the 100,000 plus sales we have now amassed for our debut crime thriller ‘Sugar & Spice’, over 95% of them have gone through the Amazon coffers, most at a 65-35 split in their favour. We have also now sold in excess 10,000 copies of ‘Snow White‘ via them too.
So what’s my problem? What am I moaning about I hear you ask? Well, are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin…
Two weeks ago tomorrow, our book disappeared.
OK, that’s not strictly accurate (hey, I’m a writer) the LINK to our best-seller disappeared from the Amazon.co.uk site.
The book was still showing as ‘live’ in KDP, but if you tried to click on the cover (if you could find it) Amazon displayed a ’404 page not found’ error message.
Fourteen days later, this is still the case.
Now, I am no I.T. genius, but in my limited knowledge of all things technical, that is a simple page link problem right? So how come it has taken a fortnight (and counting) to fix it?
Annnnnnd, if we had uploaded via a huge publishing house, would it have taken that long? Methinks not.
Here’s the latest response from them to one of my numerous emails:
Hello,
I’m extremely sorry for the delay this issue has caused. One of my colleagues is currently working with the appropriate department regarding this.
It usually takes 1-2 business days for this sort of research, but in this case it’s taking a little longer. I’m very sorry about this delay.
She’ll be in touch shortly with an answer for you. Thanks for your patience.
Regards,
Extremely sorry?? What? Like ‘over two weeks worth of £1.49 at 70% worth of sales and a rank drop that would rival the plunge on the Nemesis ride at Alton Towers’ sorry?
No, I’m sorry. It’s not good enough.
We have sent six or seven emails requesting a detailed update and received the above stock response. Along with a polite ‘no, we will not be reimbursing you for your lost sales.’
So where does that leave us?
As most of you know, we have recently launched our digital imprint MWiDP and have started uploading books on behalf of other authors via KDP. We now have over 65 titles live.
It’s fair to say that that in itself has had its issues and is no mean feat, but we have persevered and are almost there, but what if it happened to one of their books? In fact, there’s quite a few ‘what ifs’:
What if this had happened to us when Sugar & Spice was at number two in the Amazon UK Paid 100 chart and was selling almost 1,000 copies a day????
What if one of our MWiDP authors has huge success and is in a great position and the same occurs?
What if we checked the Ts & Cs of the KDP contract and found that we might have a case against them for lost earnings?
What if we had been relatively unknown authors and this was our first experience with publishing via Amazon?
What if it happened to more than one book?
What if a first time reader clicked on the link, couldn’t download your book and decided never to bother with your books again?
What if it ruined your chances of a career being a successful writer?
What if…
The list is endless and no doubt all questions will remain unanswered by Amazon, but it has certainly scared the beejeebies out of us.
There is an interesting guest post on Joe Konrath’s blog by Stephen Leather that highlights the power of Amazon and what it can do for you, but what about what it can do TO you?
This error could have ended our writing career before it started.
Fortunately, it will end up being more of a minor disruption then the end of our dreams, but it is still very worrying. Without the might of a traditional and powerful publishing house behind us lowly indie authors, we can’t compete.
Now don’t get me wrong, like I said, uploading our books to Amazon has changed our lives and will probably end up being the spring board to fulfilling our writing aspirations and they have revolutionised the way we read and the publishing industry as we knew it, but writer beware, things can go wrong!
Mark mentions on his blog how Amazon’s reign at the top might be coming to an end and it has certainly given us food for thought when it comes to the future of our companies and where and how we choose to publish in the future.
I am hoping that our issue is resolved very soon as we get into the run-up to what should be a bumper festive period and beyond, but I am afraid to say, my love affair with ‘Zon and all things Amazon is slowly losing it’s simplistic sparkle.
We shall keep you posted on any further developments.
Saffi
UPDATE: Latest email received from KDP yesterday = still no sign of the book!
Hello Sarah,
I understand your concern, and I apologize for the trouble you’ve been having.
This issue had already been raised to our tech team for research, and they’re currently working on a fix. They have identified that the issue is with a search attribute associated with your Kindle title. I have now notified them to have this worked upon on top priority, and get it fixed ASAP.
We should have this resolved very soon. I will also have one of my team members check on the status of the issue constantly, and get back to you as soon as the issue is resolved.
Again, I’m very sorry for any inconvenience caused due to this delay.
As summer (did I miss it?) fades and gives way to Autumn, the theme will change with it; so from the happy, bright and sparkly, we will slowly tone the hue down until it is dark – very dark.
I didn’t want to leap too abruptly, so I searched for a guest post from someone who didn’t have a particular agenda and also, didn’t label themselves as a specific genre writer; something to ease us all into the sombre months and posts ahead.
I stumbled across Karl Jones.
Karl is pretty new to this crazy game and after much cajoling, he agreed to pop in and have a quick chat about why he writes, what he writes and how he sees the publishing landscape at the moment.
Over to him.
This is my first blog article, and to be honest I don’t have the slightest clue what I am doing, but Saffina has kindly asked me to try and put something together so here goes.
When first asked to write for her blog my immediate response was, um, ah, and numerous other monosyllabic ways to express a lack of thoughts, though of course I didn’t pass that on to Saffina. Instead I asked her what sort of things she would like me to write. Once I got over the shock of being asked that is; after I all, I may be a writer but I haven’t published yet, I am still editing my first novel.
The answer to my question was that I should write about why I write, what I write about, and my thoughts on the new age of publishing. That prompted another bout of um, ah, not to mention holy crap, I have to think, this is not good. Experience has taught me I am at my worst when I have to think. Acting and reacting seems to work well for me but stopping and thinking, I don’t do so well at that.
I think fortune is on my side on this particular day however, I was down the pub watching Liverpool beat Arsenal, great result, and I haven’t yet sobered up completely so here I am at the laptop just letting my fingers run away with themselves.
I suppose I should be logical and start with the first question; why do I write?
I write because, well if I didn’t write I am fairly certain I would go crazy, crazier than I already am at any rate. Ever since I was at school I have found my head to be filled with a never ending series of characters, scenarios, and plots. Some of them are good, some I think are great – I reserve the right to believe they are great no matter what anyone else thinks because they’re mine so :-p – and others, well others are best excised from my mind with a scalpel and cremated before they can grow too big.
Not only does writing stop me going crazy by clearing a few characters and plots from my overloaded brain, it provides me with an opportunity to relieve some stress. When I encounter people who annoy me, for whatever reason, I find it incredibly therapeutic to introduce them into one of my books as a victim, even if their character in the book couldn’t be recognised as them by anyone but me, and then to do something brutal to them. It’s perhaps not very nice of me to kill people in my books, regardless of whether they know they are in them, but if it makes me feel better and they don’t know I think it is better than doing anything to them in real life.
Saffina’s second question was what do I write.
This is a much harder question to answer. What I write, and by that I mean actually finish from start to ‘The End’ is generally crime fiction which I suppose falls into the thriller category, although I’m never sure about that. I also write the occasion horror short story. I enjoy horror, and have a number of storylines in my head in the horror genre, not to mention sci-fi and fantasy; almost anything with the exception of romance I suppose. The trouble is I am just not as good at writing in those other genres as I am at crime, though I hope someday to get around to completing some of my other ideas, if only to get them out of my head and clear some space.
The last question put to me was about my thoughts on the new age of publishing.
This question is so easy it doesn’t require any thought; the new age of publishing is fantastic, a wonderful opportunity for anyone like me who has either always wanted to write, or who has been writing for years but either been rejected or too fearful of rejection to even send their work off. Too often in the past books have been rejected, not because they aren’t good, but because agents and publishers aren’t confident of making money quickly enough, or because they have a misguided notion of what people really want to read.
Amazon, with their Kindle platform and their decision to initiate KDP – Kindle Desktop Publishing -, not to mention other sites like Smashwords have changed the game, tilting it heavily in favour of independent writers like myself.
No longer is it necessary for us to go through the anguish of spending years writing and rewriting only to have our work rejected because it doesn’t fit a narrow demographic that will earn millions in just a few months. Now we can release our work ourselves, not only that but we can potentially make more money by doing so.
This is not to suggest that everything is rosy for the independent authors of the world, far from it. It is still important that we take the time to edit our books as carefully as possible, and to create a good cover in order to catch a potential reader’s eye. An indie author’s book that is not as perfect as it can be runs the risk of scaring readers away from future books. Then again I have seen numerous examples of top name publishing houses releasing books by well-known authors that are riddled with spelling mistakes and punctuation errors, I find that far more disgraceful than an indie author who, like me, doesn’t have the money to spare for a professional editor and has to rely on friends and family to hunt for the inevitable mistakes that even the most stringent of searching can miss.
Those are my thoughts on writing, such as they are, thanks Saffina for giving me the opportunity to express them.
P.S. hurry up with the next Rose Red book, I want to know what happens. Lol.
Thanks Karl and we can’t wait to see your debut novel out there! You see, it wasn’t that scary!
Speaking of scary – my favourite time of the year is creeping up on us like an extra in a zombie movie and I can’t wait.
Her Love is “to die for.” Azra just wants a loving relationship, But her kind of love kills. Ousted from her world, pursued by a Police Detective for crimes against men, her prospects of mortal love look bleak. That is, until she finds the one man strong enough to survive her. But he’s the one chasing her, and he harbors a dark secret of his own. Can they survive each other or will their secrets destroy them both? See the book trailer on the author page, or on youtube.
Ok, I promised that each week I would host a book by a fellow indie-writer on my blog. Here it is, the first one:
Into the Shadows – by Karly Kirkpatrick
(YA Paranormal)
Paivi Anderson has it all—friends, a spot on the varsity basketball
team, wonderful parents, and quite possibly, her first boyfriend. It
was everything a freshman in high school could ask for. Her perfect
life begins to crumble when she discovers her name on a list
distributed by a power-hungry presidential candidate. How could anyone
think of Paivi as an Enemy of the State? Could it be because of her
special powers? No one was supposed to know about them, but the
mysterious messages in her tater tots say otherwise. In INTO THE
SHADOWS, Paivi quickly learns who her friends are and is forced into a
reality she didn’t see coming.
Good afternoon!
Well, what an eventful few weeks it has been for me!
For those of you who are not familiar with my other projects (please see my sister blog: http://saffinadesforges.wordpress.com) then you may not be aware that I have already completed a novel for which I am currently seeking agent representation and have a couple of other writing projects on the go (as well as Equilibrium).
Sugar & Spice (see other blog for full details) is causing me some issues. Let me explain: Although I have had several positive rejections due to content and suitability of representation and NOT writing style or readability, most literary agents are reluctant to take this particular book on board due to the nature of the story. I understand fully, it is not everyone’s cup of char (readers, agents and publishers alike). So…….I have decided to go it alone!
Rather than write to agency after agency and receive the same response: “It’s good, but we daren’t risk it….” I have decided to lose my e-publishing virginity and go it alone!
I am currently refining the final version of S&S and will be uploading it onto Amazon Kindle within the next few weeks. Whether it sells or not I guess remains to be seen, but it will allow me to get on with my other projects (which are much more marketable and not quite as controversial) and hopefully make a name (and some money!) from S&S at the same time.
I will publish some short posts as I go about my Digital Text Platform cherry popping experience with Kindle (and hopefully others such as Smashwords etc) and keep you updated with the whole experience.
Wish me luck!
Saffy.
PS. Happy Hallowe’en!!
