The Kindle tactic...

This is the plan...

  Amazon have suggested an idea that the boss of Night thinks is a good idea.

I do too, as it turns out.

  We give Amazon three months exclusive access to my book, (Division of the Damned, in case you didn't know) and they give me, (well, Night publishing) five days of promotion per month, for those three months.

  Sounds a dream as Amazon are by far the biggest distributor of ebooks and promotion is something you just can't get enough of, right?

I wonder what this promotion entails though?

  Whatever, who am I to ask, Tim knows his stuff a lot better than me, it's in his interest to sell Division so I'll go along with it. Another author, Mike Church, author of the very funny, "Dayrealing", is on the programme now and he seems happy with it.

  If I'm honest, I'm just happy that "Division" is finally going to be out there and that it's being published by a firm I'm MORE than happy to be connected to. It really is the most supportive collection of writers I have ever known on the net.

  I've been lucky in my forays into the cyber world of writing. There are so many forums, writing websites and dubious publishers out there that are either full of self-important, bile fuelled idiots or out-and-out rip off merchants, that it's hard to know where to go? To actually have found a, "community" of like-minded individuals like Night, AND that it's a money making business, is actually very lucky indeed... take my word for it.
(BTW, how I despise that word, "Community". It's been so over-used by rioting Chavs talking about how their communities rose up against the police etc etc. that it makes me squirm to have to use it. I hate it but it's the only one that makes sense so deal with it)

 

  After a very, very brief dalliance with Authonomy, the Harper-Collins peer critic website, (you give me a good review and I'll do it for you), I moved on.  A lot of people on Night like Authonomy but I didn't. The forum is jam-packed with angry, unsatisfied souls whose arrogance and rudeness is eclipsed only by their sycophantic ravings about how good Harper-Collins is.

  However, that's where the bad times stopped. I landed next at Struggling Authors, which moved nicely on to Night. How lucky is that then?

  This is a bit of a pants post, I know. However, after the initial part about Amazon I had nothing more to say, so I wibbled a bit.

  OK, as you were.

Take it easy.

Reg. ;-)

Double DOH!

... and it gets worse :-(

OK, so I send the story off and I'm thinking, "What could possibly go wrong now?" as I pat myself smugly on the back... ... ...

A lot, that's what.

The next day I received this polite but alarmigly cryptic message from the guy in charge.

"My assistant editor has read through your story and has a minor problem. The version you sent us still seems like the work in progress, has all the red and blue deletions and the like. "

Because I'm about as proficient on Word as I am at Astro-Physics, I managed to send the document off without accepting the edits.

So all the lines and boxes that appear while editing WERE STILL THERE !!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!

How embarrassing is that then?

If this story is accepted, then it's one in the eye for those who claim that editors and publishers have no soul, lol.
The covering letter actually read,

Dear blah blah,

So, embarrassing, here is my third attempt at submitting my story,
"The Ides of March" for your Vampyre Anthology.

I am so disappointed in myself... :-(

As you were.

Reg :-/

DOH !!

I've just sent a short story off to a website.

I spent ages on pumping it up to the required word count and formatting it to their expectations, (every publisher wants their submissions, "just so". You'd have thought they would have made a standard for this sort of thing by now, eh?)

Then came the covering letter. Because I wanted to casually slip in my idea about the Classical Horror anthology I'm on right now, (not an easy thing when you're trying to pitch for your short story AND sell them an idea for something that hasn't even beem written yet), I had to give it extra special attention, be extra clever with my wording and extra blah blah fishcakes, whatever, you get the idea..

Yeah, well I finished it and was pleased with the whole package. I mean REALLY pleased.

The covering letter read like a dream and after attaching the Word doc. for my short story, I pressed send and patted myself on the back. Job well done, thought I... ... Not.

After pressing send I noticed a Word doc still open. It was my short story, formatted to their requirements but NOT SAVED !!! DOH !!!
So basically they recieved the old format and it looked nothing like what they had demanded on their website.

I saved it, copied and pasted the covering letter onto a new email, attached the document and wrote above the writing for the official covering letter:
Dear mr. Blah blah,
  This is my second attempt at sending you my submission and it's due to
the fact that I forgot to "Save" the title, my name, word count and
email address in the original document.
How embarrassing is that?
So... apologies and onwards.

Do you think they'll mind? LOL.
Whatever, life goes on, eh?

Reggie ;-)

Has it really been that long since I last posted??

  Has it really been that long since I last posted???

  Wow...

  So, what's been happening?

  Well for once, a lot!!

  Tim, the guy in charge, the boss, the head man, the top dog, the big cheese, the head honcho etc. etc., has sent me the first 14 chapters of edits to peruse at my leisure.

  14 chapters may sound a lot but it's not; but what the hell, the editing process has finally started and we're up and running!!!

  Actually, I'm quite excited about it.

  I had a scan through what he's done, changed something and sent him it back.

  I've just read back what I've written and realise how totally mundane that sounds, but dear reader, I can assure you it's not. I've been dreaming of this for years now, literally!! A publisher is going through my work, preparing it for marketing, I mean HOW COOL IS THAT???

  Very, in case you're wondering.

  Anyway, so what else is new?

My story about The Wooden Wolf of Troy is coming on nicely, despite my tight schedule and recent run of parties and shifts. I'll be on that after I've posted this.

  The band I write lyrics for, Gods Will Be Done, are now recording their second CD, The Apex Predator.

  Now, unlike The Book of Blood, their first CD, I don't know all the songs on this CD very well at all.

  Yes yes, I wrote the lyrics and sometimes heard the music before the rest of the band did. However, it was all very basic, worked out on a computer and definitely not how the band performs the songs.

Of all the tracks on the new CD I know four very well indeed, the rest I haven't heard with a singer at all, so it's going to be very, very interesting....

  So, now you know peeps.

  The book won't be out for Christmas, but I'm hoping the rush of Kindles that everyone will be buying for Christmas will boost the ebook market and thus my sales; as it's going to take some time before "Division" comes out in paper.

OK, take it easy.

Reg.

PS: Haven't Liverpool done well recently??? Great stuff :-)

The new cover.

I never actually saw the point of learning to draw while I was in school.

After two years of studying for my art O level/GCSE examination I managed a resounding, "U" grade, (Unclassified: as in not fit to even be looked at because it's so bad.)

So I think it's safe to say that, when it comes to the study of transferring ideas into pictorial form, I rank amongst the biggest failures in the records of Bryn Elian School.

It's nothing to be proud of, I hear you cry; and rightly so!

I despise the whole Chav culture that celebrates idiocy, eulogizes ignorance and smiles fondly at indolence. The whole, "I'm cute cos I'm thick" attitude leaves me angered and slightly perplexed at its popularity.
However, I just didn't see the point.


My blinkered view of the future was to either be a reporter or a soldier and nothing else seemed important.
What was I going to do when the communist hordes sweep across the plains of Northern Germany? Knock 'em dead with a great Ilfochrome Classic print?

It made more sense at that time to go out with a cassette deck and listen to The Clash with my mates, rather than do Still Life down the park; and at least the album was called, "Combat Rock"!

It sounds awful, I know, but that was the way I ticked around 1982/83. I tried hard in other subjects but with art I just didn't see the point. If only they had given me my first choice of woodwork...

Whatever, that is all by the by, because luckily for me I have talented friends who not only do kick-botty tattoos, but can also transfer pictures on paper straight onto the computer screen.

How clever is that??

Yes, once again The Chief, (AKA Chris Salmen of Combat Colour) has come up with a brilliant cover for my book.

I originally asked him if he had any problems with me using the Div. of the Damned logo he came up with in 2007, (is it really that long ago?) and he said, yes.

Yes, as in he does have a problem with me using the old logo.

"Harumph," thought I until I read the next line, he does have a problem with me using the OLD logo because he wants to make a NEW logo!!!

How cool is that then??

(Very cool, in case you're wondering.)

Anyway, here it is, the proposed cover for The Division of the Damned.

Enjoy...

Cool or what?
(Don't answer if you don't like it, lol)

OK, I'm off to mow the lawn now, take it easy.
Reg. :-)