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Wider… Wider…

Indie authors are often faced with the dilemma of staying tied to Amazon to enjoy the benefits of exclusivity, or of going wide and publishing to multiple platforms. Although I have experimented with KDP Select in the past, and might again, my instinct is absolutely to go wide. The thought of being tied to one retailer does not fill me with pleasure, however good they may be.

So, I currently publish all my ebooks in four different places: Amazon, Kobo, Google and Smashwords (for B&N, Apple etc.) Recently, however, I’ve added a fifth string to my bow: PublishDrive, who reach a bunch of markets the other distributors don’t – including some big ones in parts of the world I haven’t been able to get to before.

I’ll let you know how it goes, but it seems like a no-brainer to me: always good to have as many possible outlets as possible…

Novel Progress

So, novel progress: I currently have three novels in various stages of development. Here’s where they’re at:

Engn II: The Clockwork War – haven’t got a publication date or a cover yet, but this will be appearing through Curiosity Quills press later this year.

The Eye Collector – the first in a series of magical urban fantasy detective stories. Not sure if this will be trad or indie published yet – it’s completed and currently with a bunch of agents to see if it matches any of their wishlists…

Dead Star – the first volume in a galaxy-spanning sci/fi trilogy. Almost certainly going to be indie published, as I’ve found sci/fi and space opera does well there. I’m about 50,000 words in with maybe 40,000 to go. And, strangely, I’ve already written the third volume. If things go really well I might get the whole trilogy finished this year.

And then after that there’s this list of about twenty other novel ideas that I’d love to write…

The Genehunter in Paperback

I recently decided to overhaul my backlist to ensure everything like covers and blurbs are as perfect as I can make them. I also want to go as wide as possible with my books, including setting them up for purchase as paperbacks (maybe even hardbacks) and audiobooks.

The Genehunter is kind of my guinea pig book; it’s the one I always pick first for these things. I’ve done quite a bit to it: re-encoded it in ePub3 format and updated its cover and so on.

It’s now also available in paperback. I’ve decided to use two distributors: Amazon KDP for Amazon (obvs) and Ingram Spark for everyone else. So far as I can tell, this gives me the best combination of wide availablity and integration with the mighty Amazon. I have acquired an ISBN (978-1-9993395-0-0, oh yes) and soon I’ll be sending a copy of Simms’ adventures off to the British Library as it’s now a paperback published in the UK. Pretty cool.

It’s interesting to compare the quality of Ingram Spark’s printing to Amazon’s though. My Ingram Spark version looks really good. It’s exactly how I hoped it would look. The Amazon verion though? Not so much. The paper isn’t as good and it isn’t as well printed and my sample copy came with a massive crease right down the front cover. It’s poor.

Maybe I was unlucky. I’ll certainly leave my KDP Print version up on Amazon – but I’m very glad I went Ingram Spark too. In my view, they’re the ones to use for professional indie paperback publshing…

The Clockwork King – New Cover

Fantasy novella The Clockwork King has a new cover as I felt like the old one didn’t quite match the tone of the story. The new one is much better…

Full details of the novella here.

January Book Promotions

The complete Cloven Land Trilogy is available at 40% off over on the Kobo Store right now (Jan 16 2019 – Feb 3 2019) – just enter the promo code 40JAN at:

https://www.kobo.com/p/boxsets40au (Australia)

https://www.kobo.com/p/boxsets40 (Canada, UK, Rest of the world)

A brutal multinational corporation. A land ruled by necromancers. One girl in their way…

Contains Hedge Witch, Wyrm Lord and Witch King, as well as the prequel novella, Hyrn and bonus short stort The Waters, Dividing the Land.

“I loved it. Pulled me into the world and wouldn’t let me go … wonderful.”

“a thoroughly enjoyable read” – British Fantasy Society

Meanwhile, if you haven’t got book one in the trilogy, Hedge Witch, it’s available as a free download for a limited time over in the Reading is for EVERYONE! and the Teens in Fantastic Fiction book promotions – along with a whole galaxy of other great books. Do check them out.

Reading is for EVERYONE!

Teens in Fantastic Fiction

Sci/Fi Noir anthology Future City Blues is also available for free in the Birthday Party Book Promotion from January 20 until February 10th.

Check out what else is on offer here.

Finally, The Genehunter is also on promotion at Kobo between January 24th and 28th.

“As thought-provoking as it is entertaining” – Sci-Fi Indie eBook Reviews
“Reminded me of some of the best William Gibson books”
“I read this series and loved it. I read it a second time and loved it more”
“Cracking good read”

Find The Genehunter on the Kobo store here.

Welcome!

Hello? Is this thing on?

Welcome to the blog section of my new web site. Everything has been thoroughly revamped: my old Blogger site and blog have been replaced with this shiny, new WordPress site, powered by the AuthorPro theme. My old site and blog still exist over at Spellmaking, where they’ll remain as items of historical interest…

Lots to come in the weeks and months to come as this site and my web presence as an author evolves. Stay tuned!

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