2011 round up

It's been a busy year. I've gone into ebook for the first time, released a book on Kindle and launched two paperbacks. Not bad for my first year of devoted writing/publishing. Other items include the blog, the website, finding a few boards to get advice on, finding a new ad provider and even going back to writing a few more articles. Overall, I'd have to say it has been a busy year.

The last few days are not going to be any different. I think I've found a way to resolve my problems with the Project Wonderful ads. Part of the issue was that each of my sites had to have seperate ads, and on their own these subsites don't get enough traffic. After swapping a few emails, they actually have a way to link traffic from all the sites together under one, so this morning I've added it.

If it works, that will be a very nice start to the new year.

Conflict of Interest is back being edited. I've still got a lot of writing to do, so once the Christmas flood of work is over and I have a bit of time, hopefully I'll be able to get down to writing. There's a short story in the Fire Season world that was originally going to be my Nano-novel that needs editing and research but is basically complete.

And finally, another standalone novel, now at 60,000 words and likely to double that by the time the draft is complete.

For now, if I don't find time to blog again, I'm signing out for 2011.

Have a Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas
and a
Happy New Year!

Widgets and websites and blogs

The ongoing saga of the missing books continues - we're now at three orders not filled that I know of. Please could you let me or the publisher know if you ordered a book and it has not arrived.

Moving onto a brighter note, there's new Smashwords widget on the blog, which is part of a whole third-party set of marketing tools in development to help authors market their Smashwords books.

Also, I have a blog interview up today with J E Taylor:Dishing it up With VH Folland.

An update on bookstores

After some detective work, it turns out that the books have indeed not arrived with stores. The distributor lost the order.

I've taken the practical approach. I've spoken to the shops, who were kind enough to resubmit the order. Author copies have been handed out where possible and, now the orders have been resent, with any luck at the distributor's end The Docks will be in bookstores for Christmas. Otherwise you can still order it online or over the counter.

Hopefully at some point in the near future (read: next five minutes), I'll be able to get back to writing.

On a brighter note, I have an interview on J.E.Taylor's blog coming up, so look out for that, and I'll link it here when it's up.

And finally, about another author. Nick Davis, formerly a White Dwarf feature writer and now a novelist has just released a new book. Something of a change in direction, it's definitely a children's Christmas read.

A Teddy Bear Tale (available from Amazon or Smashwords is a charming tale of a teddy bear fighting the monsters under the bed with a touch of dark humour thrown in. Worth a look for anyone with younger children.

A Christmas Problem

I am signing in because it has been a few days since I wrote. I am still here, I am still writing, but right now, I am trying to resolve a fairly major problem. My books were ordered by Waterstones in early November for Christmas. The bookshops haven't received them.

I suspect I am about to miss the entire Christmas market, which is not a good thought. In fact, it could be called a fairly major problem. Once people get back to me, I will give an update here.