Book launch Announcement

24th November 2011 at Farthing Books.

Signed copies will be available at the shop during normally business hours, while the launch party will be in the evening from 7pm-9pm. Refreshments will be available. More information is available from the shop.

For information, please contact Farthing Books Tel. 020 8660 7688, 21 Chipstead Valley Rd, Coulsdon, CR5 2RB (http://www.farthingbooks.com).

We would like to cordially invite you to

"The Docks" Book Launch

to be held at Farthing Books

on

24th November 2011

Right, now the formal part is out of the way, I'd like to say a very big thank you to the owner of Farthing Books for allowing me to use her store for a launch this close to Christmas. Farthing Books is one of the newest independant bookshops in London, based on the Surrey Borders in Coulsdon, and specialises in discount books, remainders and unusual titles, as well as second-hand stock. With two train stations nearby and a car park opposite it isn't hard to get to.

If you drop in during the day I will probably be there - sorting things out for the evening and hopefully signing copies for interested readers. The evening will be pretty relaxed (as I'm not the outgoing type) with food, drink and hopefully interesting people to meet.

The only other bit of news is that Waterstones are now taking pre-orders for The Docks. You can order it online or instore, and they are also offering free P&P within the UK for online orders.

The Docks Book Launch - planning

Well, it's official. The Docks is going into print. It can now be pre-ordered from the website, and the distribution chain is kicking off. I was holding off on updating because I wanted to submit a picture of the actual book, but that won't arrive for another week. (For anyone curious, Paypal is being used for pre-orders as it accepts dollars and euros)

Pre-order "The Docks" in print
£4.99 (Free P&P)*


*Overseas orders not guaranteed to arrive before christmas.

What I need to plan now is the book launch. I have options: ask Waterstones, ask an indie bookstore or hide in a room above a pub. The only option not currently available is the Fire Season method of a very large games convention.

I'd like to support an indie bookstore, but this leaves me with all the planning. As a low-budget release it's not getting much investment from the publisher. Weekends and evenings would be best for me, friends and family, but most bookstores want to do a launch on a week day during business hours. Catering I can arrange from local shops, depending on what the locations rules are on food. Is this supposed to be something where I sit in a corner and sign books, or a general meet and mingle? Also, if it is an indie event, how do I make sure they get the best out of it as well as me? And I need to do all of this with virtually no budget.

I love a challenge.

All I know for sure right now is that it will be in November, and in the South London area, and if the venue allows the wine supplier I want it will be a very merry evening.

Anyone interesting in attending, please drop me a note or use the comment box below.

Meanwhile, its a good day for features: Fire Season is being featured on Bargain ebooks today (here). At the same time The Docks is being featured on No Trees Harmed. I promise I didn't plan this!

Vanishing reviews and spreading your risks

This is interesting and currently the hot topic on book blogs: Amazon are removing reviews. Not just in ones or twos, they are emptying entire review accounts. These reviews aren't abusive or spoilers or anything to do with the content, they are detailed reviews written by bloggers and book reviewers. These are people who run their own blog and cross-post their reviews to Amazon, not the 5-star schemes out there. The current theory on many blogs is that Amazon is removing anything cross-posted to make sure that any reviews on its pages only appear on the Amazon site.

If this is true, this could badly affect indie books including mine, since the majority of my reviews on Amazon are by book reviewers not readers. As I don't make most of my sales from Amazon, it would be difficult to persuade readers who bought books elsewhere to post their reviews on the site. Other authors are in a similar position:

• Amazon is on a Rampage to remove Book Reviews
• Reviews Accidentally Deleted by Amazon or Cover-ups and Denials?
• Amazon denies removal of Reviews and shifts blame

Despite the theory, the truth is more complicated: no one actually knows why Amazon is removing reviews from entire review accounts. They haven't commented, and the sites affected have been unable to find out, as Irene Watson of Reader Views mentions. The reviewers who have been hit include large sites like Midwest Book Reviews, with 60,000 books reviewed. Basically the belief is that Amazon is taking the line that any review posted on their site may not be posted anywhere else - including the reviewer's own page. If this is true, it could be a response to Google's new search weighting, which reduces the value of repeated content. However, Amazon has in general benefited from that change, so it seems unlikely. Another theory is to do with FTC regulations, but sites like Publishers Weekly and other industry review giants offering pay options have not been hit yet, so this seems unlikely.

Regardless of the cause, there are a lot of copyright and legal issues involved with this including the actual ownership of the reviews, but other bloggers will cover them in detail. I'd like to focus on the effects of the action, which I believe may have unintended negative side-effects.

One unexpected side effect of this may well be disproportionate damage to small press and indie sellers. While larger publishers can get reviews in mainstream media - television, radio, newspapers - smaller press will use blogs and social media extensively due to a smaller budget overall, and as a greater proportion of their spend. If the reviews are lost in proportion, then a large publisher may lose 10% of it's reviews, while a small press loses 80% or more. For example Mark Whiteway lost ten reviews in this purge. I've lost one - that's 20% of my Amazon reviews.

The second side effect I can see? Readers going to places like Goodreads to get reader reviews instead of Amazon (it's where most of my reviews are). Unfortunately for Amazon, Goodreads offers a full selection of places to buy books, so there's no guarantee customers reading reviews there will then buy from Amazon.

The third issue? Those same book bloggers, authors, and publishers, whose reviews have been lost then removing Amazon affiliate links from their sites. Since many bloggers support their blogs from affiliate links that isn't a small amount of money. Given the loss of affiliates in some parts of the US due to tax issues, upsetting more does seem like a rather odd business decision.

The fourth, and most disturbing one? An increase in the ethically unsound pay-for-5-stars schemes, where the reviewer has rarely even read the book. Because these five star reviews are not cross-posted anywhere, they aren't going to be caught by this sweep or removed. The accounts created for these schemes are treated as disposable, so if Amazon blocks one they will just create another. This means fake reviews are safer than reviews from book reviewers, giving small press an unintentional incentive to use these schemes.

However, since Amazon has made the decision it will proceed, even though the reasons behind it are unclear.

What can you do as a small press author? Remember Amazon is, when it comes down to it, just one distribution channel - in fact I'd go further: it's one retailer. If you are selling ebooks, make them available from Barnes and Noble, Sony, Smashwords, Apple etc. In fact you can do all those at once by using Smashwords, who also offer .mobi so you don't lose the Kindle market.

Paperbacks? If you have an ISBN there is no reason why you shouldn't be listed on multiple retailers. If you can get a distribution listing - through Ingrams in the states or Gardners or Bertrams in the UK, or with full distribution through one of their sub-groups - it should show up on multiple online bookstore retail sites. These include Waterstones, Smiths, etc. Shelf space can be harder, but again with a listing on any of those distributors or their linked suppliers, in the worst case scenario you can go into the shop and ask.

Reviews? Link them from your website to the book bloggers' websites. Have a link or widget to display your reader reviews from other sites e.g. Goodreads. Shelfari and Librarything have similar options.

It is a basic business lesson: over-reliance on one channel to market is unwise, no matter how large they are. Amazon needs to be one of the arrows in your quiver, not your bowstring.

In business-speak I could go on about Single Points of Failure, Theory of Constraint etc. Instead I'll suggest you should consider the question "If Amazon disappeared tomorrow, where would I be?"

If you can prepare for that, then changes like this one cause a lot less stress.

What do you think?

The Docks in print?

My big news for the week is that The Docks may be coming out in print, handled by the same publisher that did Fire Season. It's a small-press arrangement, but once again the book will be getting distribution and shelf space. With luck, it might even be out in time for Christmas.

A 96 page mass market paperback, it would be on the shelves at £4.99. I thought this was a bit high until I went to my local Waterstones and checked the prices on comparable titles, which start at £5.99 and go up. Since everything else on the deal seemed reasonable I've taken the plunge and optioned the print rights.

The ebook got good reviews, so I'll be chasing quotes for the back cover. After all, comments like:

"I definitely recommend The Docks for a fast, entertaining read!"
Gathering Leaves Reviews

should help get some interest and hopefully sales.

There are a few more blog features on The Docks due out later this week, so I'll tweet them as they happen.

Now back to writing.

A week of promotion

As well as writing on the various ideas I've got at the moment, this week has mainly been focusing on Promotion.

I was introduced to Project Wonderful last Wednesday. It is an interesting site, allowing users to bid on advertising space on a variety of sites of all subjects and sizes. My publisher promptly opened an account as a test and put a small amount of cash into it. Perhaps because it is targeted, the banners for The Docks appear to have a better return than Google Ads, both in terms of views and clicks.

At the same time, I'm trying to arrange a few guest blogs here (look out for Nov 2nd!) and just sent off a magazine article for the new Indie Firsts Magazine due out in December.

That's all just for The Docks. Fire Season has been sent out for more reviews, and has been submitted to Virtual Pulp Press bookstore, where I'm hoping it will be accepted into their Aviation Adventure section. Their store has a very nice collection of books, but make sure adblocker is turned off or you won't see them!

In other news, the Guardian has launched a loyalty card for Independant Bookshops. It's not currently valid in the ones near me, but I'll be keeping an eye out in case that changes.

On top of all that, I've got another 6,000 words written. Just for once, I'm actually glad it's the weekend!

Update: Virtual Pulp Press have just added Fire Season to their listings.

Fire Season on Smashwords

After much discussion with the publisher, Fire Season is now available on Smashwords. This means it is available for the Nook, and in epub format for the Sony and other eReaders. There's also a DRM-free .mobi version available here for Kindle users. Fire Season will be coming to other stores, like Barnes & Noble etc. in the next few weeks.

It's still controlled by the publisher, managed by their account, and just linked to my Smashwords account. It seems rather odd to have something I can view but not directly edit. Given the number of epub downloads of Arrival, it seems sensible to have the main novel available in that format.

The only other piece of news is that adverts for The Docks should start showing up this month. I've been pointed in the direction of Project Winderful, who manage advertising for a range of online sites. The problem is that many of them are webnovels or webcomics, so my daily TBR (to-be-read) pile is growing.

SampleSunday? Harry and Dating problems...

Rather than a sample from a book, here's a short piece inspired by a reader's question. I was asked why Harry wasn't having more success with the ladies. All I can say is, can you imagine his typical date at the moment?

"That's a nice neighbourhood." She glanced at the menu, and I hoped she wouldn't order anything too pricy.

"I'm sharing a house with my brother." I added, without mentioning I was sleeping on his couch at the moment. "So what do you do?"

"I'm a personal assistant. I work for a Vice President at Goldman Sachs." Classy lady. Why did I keep getting set up with them? What had my brother put on my profile? "What do you do?"

"I work in security. Security assessments." I could see her opinion of me dropping and suddenly remembered what my brother had drilled into me. "I'm a consultant." She thawed slightly at the magic phrase and, heartened by my success, I went on "What would you like to drink?".

"Surprise me." She glanced at the wine list and smiled. I glanced at it and suddenly realised I couldn't read it. Italian, French, floral script, it was a problem. I caught the waiter's eye, and he obligingly came over as I held the winelist up.

"A bottle of the house white?" I asked. White wine wasn't usually my thing, but with the prices in here we could split it. She didn't look happy. "If that's alright with you?"

"Fine." The waiter took the order and left.

"So what do you think you'll have for starters?"

"Just the salad."

"OK. So did you go anywhere nice on holiday?"

"Yes. Off to Greece for a month. I got a great tan." I could see. I could also see my chances of getting close to it vanishing into the distance. "Have you been on holiday anywhere?"

"Not recently. Work's been busy." She nodded sympathetically.

"So how did you get into security? It sounds interesting." I'd hoped she wouldn't ask that until the end of the date.

"I did some time. When I got out I sorted my life out."

"What for...?" She asked, warily.

"Armed Robbery and Manslaughter." She looked up, horrified, and I added lamely. "I've reformed."

"Ah." She went back to the menu, obviously hoping I wouldn't notice her easing her hand to her pocket. A moment later her phone rang.

"Mind if I take this? Hi Sandra, What's up?" By now I knew the script so well I could mouth along with it. An emergency and the date cut short. Polite goodbyes, and a refusal to let me call her a cab, or take her home or anything. It was classier than the ones who went to the toilet and never came back. I even got a peck on the cheek as she left. It still left me with a bottle of overpriced wine and an empty chair.

"Would sir like that order to go?" The waiter had returned, and seemed sympathetic. For a moment I wondered about phoning a friend to join me, and checked the time. The Boar would be filling up around now. I might as well join my mates there.

"Yeah. Thanks."

The Docks

Crime novellas focusing on Harry, a chap who isn't entirely succeeding in going straight...