My involvement with the beautifully crafted Winters’ Edge Anthology came late, courtesy of my friend, Paul Murphy. He and I belong to a group called Inkslingers Veterans, where anthologies are written to raise money for cancer research. (See Tales from a Carboot Sale, Historical Tales etc on Amazon)
My latest book, Michael (the final in the a historical fiction trilogy, The Triptych Chronicle) is taking me the longest to write of all eleven titles in my list. It’s not writer’s block, it’s not that I don’t like the story arc or the characters.
It’s simply life…
And not the BIP that all we who are/were librarians have used!
When my books are in print, these are the agencies through which they are distributed via the world’s biggest printing agency – IngramSpark (Lightning Source).
It is possible to go to any of those retailers with the ISBN of the book concerned, place an order and the book can be ordered…
My writer’s day, catalogued in the previous post, mentions embroidery which is pretty important to me. It, like writing, is something I will do every day (night actually) without fail. Some women pick up knitting needles or the crochet hook. But me? I pick up a needle and thread.
It’s an odd thing really…
Over the last eight months, my surprise everyday has been to find that both the historical fiction/historical romances and the historical fantasies from my pen have achieved Amazon Bestsellers Rank: (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store) in the Amazon.co.uk store.
Malika Ghandi has the fine credentials needed to write a novel based around the Indian independence movement. Born in India, her family have deeply ingrained roots in the sub-continent. It is my absolute pleasure to have Malika in the Big Red Chair today.
I would like to announce that A Thousand Glass Flowers (US purchase link, UK below) has just won a silver medallion in the 2012 Readers’ Favourite Book Awards.
Initially, to gauge finalists, the submitted novels are read by volunteer reviewers. If a novel is fortunate enough to reach the finalist stage, professionals within the industry then take over and the novels are read by judges drawn from the fields of publishing, agencies, editors, professors of english literature and/or creative writing and so on. So the books are very heavily marked for their quality.
Those of you who know me will know that Gisborne: Book of Pawns had its first ever free promotion last weekend.
So what, you might say?
Indeed, so what?
It was an enormous thing for me to do as an independent author. The KDP Select programme is a scheme devised by Amazon to potentially give a book high visibility – a chance to advance in the ratings. For the writer, (more so for me because I am essentially an anxious individual) it is quite nerve-wracking because one worries if anybody will download the book to their Kindle. Or if one will have any sort of ranking. Or if any sales will follow-on to other books.
Oh, I WISH!!!
Cosmopolitan Magazine offer a cover-generator which is the best fun I’ve had in a week – the last being whale watching in the Southern Ocean 1400 kms off the Ross Ice Shelf last weekend. This weekend I decided I really must make my own headlines for a book that I adored writing.
