Sorry, Forgot You Were There…

I did mutter something on Twitter about delaying publication, but it’s not really enough. So, here’s the thing. Due to circumstances beyond my control, Book 2 was delayed. I was ready to publish, edits done.

The time while i waited gave me thinking space.

****

Book 2 is now not going to be released until i finish Book 3. Book 2 is complete, the Beta Readers loved it. No doubt I’ll do another edit, but due to those circumstances i couldn’t control, I was going to have to delay the release.

Book 2 took longer than I thought, about nine months, and I had a lot written to start with. It’s really good though, I’m glad I took the time. I hadn’t announced a publication date, wary of possibly having to change it, but was planning to release the book mid-April, and people did know I was close to publication, so figure I need to let them know I’m now finishing the trilogy first.

I’m learning from experience, at least in places. Book 1 suffered from a lack of promotion. The sales figures speak for themselves. It has only sold when I had time to promote it, despite being in the 10 top-rated books on Smashwords for nearly 12 months, and with a free sample (20% of the book) for anyone to look at.

I didn’t have time for promotions, being busy writing Book 2. Something for those self-publishing to remember, you really are doing everything yourself. I’ve decided I need time to promote the trilogy properly. I had already said to a number of people that I was glad that I self-published, but that it would have been easier if I’d resisted the pressure to put Book 1 out, and instead got the trilogy done first.

In my defence, I was planning a paper edition only a month before publication, which would have been easier, as being epublished (with no paper version) meant being in the forefront of a new publishing paradigm. Because i’d been planning for paper publication, being shafted that time (the person who was going to invest in me was just messing with my head for fun) meant when it all blew up, i was actually adrift without a plan at all.

For a while there I wasn’t sure epublishing would catch on, but fortunately for me, the Kindle and other ereaders have become commonplace. In the meantime, I’ll be re-releasing Book 1 – The Birthday Dragon - after a last run-through to remove stubborn typo’s. It will be Edition 4. Am sure I’ll get it right eventually.

Polo Shawcross wishes for a new life, but the Birthday Dragon brings a ghost who says he’s not one, a best friend who thinks he’s gay, and a very bad reputation. Polo’s crazy extended family keep trying to kill him, and he becomes an unwilling party to treason. Nanny Black says he’s like the goddess of death with testicles. Despite this, he’s considered a fine companion for the heir to the throne.

Nobody has noticed that the Crown Prince is in love with Polo or that the half-brother with the eating disorder is trying to kill him, and Mother’s still in denial over Father’s alcoholism. Polo doesn’t know where he fits in, but discovers that shapechanging is harder than it looks.

Adventure with more than one twist, set in a vivid new world where Men might be Dragons.

The story hasn’t changed, the editing is just a little more coherent, and there are fewer typos. The sheep are still suicidal and Polo Shawcross still has the kind of appeal he’s quite happy to take full advantage of. He still ends up escaping the farm, getting tangled in the machinations around the throne, and learning about the sexual possibilities of vegetables from the wife of the Kavar ambassador.

Thanks to all the people who encouraged and assisted me in getting The Thing this far. It’s called The Thing because it’s part of this Thing. It’s huge, I’ve been writing in this universe for over a decade, learning about it.

Always, at the birth of the Dragon Kingdom, there was a hero.  I couldn’t help wondering, what was he really like? The man from the songs and the legends, the man who united Theus. And so, I sat down with Polo Shawcross and his journals, and began to take notes.

****

My sincere apologies to those lovely people waiting. I have no new publication date other than I’m hoping to get it done this year. I’m not starting from scratch with Book 3, but I may not make it inside 2012.

Thanks for your patience.

copyright 2012 http://stinginthetail.wordpress.com

I will never do that…

I was never going to learn to type – no kidding, this was when i was growing up last century (horses and carts weren’t even invented yet, because they only came after electricity, but we had manual typewriters and iceskates, even in Western Australia).

You see, if i learned to type, i’d never escape the steno pool – in 1975, a woman with ambition did not learn to type. Being typists was something women did in droves before men learned to use computers (email happened) and made the steno pool obsolete.

Steno is short for stenographer – someone who took shorthand (a form of hieroglyphs men couldn’t read), and operated the Gestetner machine and made it spit blurry purple copies. Men didn’t know how it or typewriters worked. All that stuff was women’s work. (No, am not joking at all.)

To my disgust, when they wouldn’t let me do woodwork at school i had to learn typing instead. To my surprise, it came in very handy, as though i’d discarded my idea of being a poet, turned out being a writer was something i wasn’t going to grow out of, and of course, computers were about to change the world completely.

I also learned to sew, much against my will, forced once more to do it while the boys did woodwork or metalwork. It too turned out to be stunningly handy, and i really think everyone should learn at least to sew a button back on. Meanwhile, as electricity was introduced, along with hair-dryers, (in my early 20′s, back before there was internets), I discovered computers.

I did not want to learn computers. At all. However, there was this game. Like many people before me, i was hooked. I don’t remember the name of it, but it came on a cassette tape. Yeah, it was the Dark Ages of Computing.

By the mid-80′s things were moving much faster – and the lights no longer dimmed when the rich woman down the road started up her electric toothbrush. Though i do wonder, in these days of moar RAM than a girl can swallow comfortably, how in the name of God did i write my first book on a machine with only 20 megabytes of disk space and a RAM so low it was in triple-kilobytes? (360k i think.)

The only way to accommodate the hugeness of my average-size 125,000 word scifi fantasy – basically a small text file by today’s standards – was to split it into small enough chunks. I kept splitting it until it was loading in seconds, not minutes. Yeah, that 125,000 ended up cut down to twenty chapters that each were separate documents, so the machine didn’t choke.

I fought against learning to cook. Oh teh stupid! Cooking is a joy, a pleasure, an expression of art, sustaining and tasty all at the same time. Being able to feed oneself something fabulous (as simple as good bread), is cool. Fortunately i absorbed quite a bit from being around women cooking and then being forced to attend cooking classes at school.

I was never going to …. well, pick almost anything i said NEVER to. It seemed the Great Siamese Cat in the Sky liked to mess with my head, and if i said NEVER, it was a guarantee the thing would happen.

I was never going to self-publish. Oh har-de-freaking-har.

copyright 2011 http://stinginthetail.wordpress.com

Forty Days and Forty Nights….

Well, i cracked the Self-Imposed Social Media Exile after 40 days in the Desert and started dropping into Twitter. I missed Twitter. Facebook i missed so little it’s brought me to a decision.

Naturally, it was something i already knew but had buried under deluded ideas of book promotion.

I hate Facebook. There, it’s said. Hate. Hate. Hate. Well, dislike intensely, at the least. Anyone i like on Facebook, i already like on Twitter and their blogs. If we need more contact we have email and can talk on the phone.

My Facebook Account as Polo Shawcross (my writing alias) is Deactivated and this is now a Facebook-free zone. I’m going back to Twitter - where a person can be free.

Of course there's such a place as West Arsecrack - Google Earth doesn't know everything.

****

In other news, i was stuck on Book 2 #TheThing and couldn’t get past the first two chapters – then about 6am i woke up, and thought “That’s it!” Suddenly figured out there is a character missing from the first two chapters, (one who can easily be picked up) and now i can get on with writing.

****

Obligatory Bit Where I Try to Turn You On to E-Books
Mine In Particular

As one reader put it – “If JRR Tolkien, Douglas Adams, Jane Austen and Phillip K Dick were to collaborate on a book, they might write something like this.” It’s also been compared to Terry Pratchett, Connie Willis, and “like Carry On Blackadder meets The Graduate – with added stimulants.” So obviously i drugged everyone because they thought it was very funny too. If it would get me reviews, i would totally do it.

Polo Shawcross wishes for a new life, but the Birthday Dragon brings a ghost who says he’s not one, a best friend who thinks he’s gay, and a very bad reputation. Polo’s crazy extended family keep trying to kill him, and he becomes an unwilling party to treason. Adventure with more than one twist, set in a vivid new world where Men might be Dragons.

Book One of the Polo Shawcross Journals – “The Birthday Dragon” is currently Top 10 on the Smashwords Highest Rated Sci Fi & Fantasy charts and available in various formats including those to suit the Kindle or any other e-reader. You can read 20% free to see if you like it before you buy, and read the reviews in full. It’s not on Amazon, but it is on Smashwords, the Apple iBookstore (for iPads and other Apple devices), Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo and the Diesel eBook Store.

If you don’t have an e-reader but have a computer, there’s a free Amazon download that gives you the look and feel of an e-reader on a computer screen. (PC version is here and there’s a Mac version over here. PC version is very good, don’t know about the Mac one.)

copyright 2011 http://stinginthetail.wordpress.com/

Competition Time!

Win a copy of The Birthday Dragon – just say on Twitter you’d like to enter the competition, or leave a note here – or you can email stinginthetale at hotmail dot com.

That’s all. First Competition closes in about seven hours. (Midnight Friday in Australia.) Entries must be in by then, in case i’m still awake and do the draw. Winners will be notified, and noted here and on Twitter. Oh, and on Facebook if i remember.

Again on Saturday, same drill.

And on Sunday (Australian East Coast time so Saturday US)

This is to celebrate the damned thing – aka #TheThing reaching 10 weeks of publication, the heights of the top 5 Best Rated Scifi Fantasy Books on Smashwords – and somehow managing that despite being completely invisible unless you switched the Adult filter off.

It’s not invisible any more. So you can win a copy. Enter.  It’s a damn fine book. Funny, character-driven adventure. Don’t just take my word for it, read my reviews.

First Competition WON (see comments below – gave away 2 books) but all entries that didn’t win will go into next draw – will be drawn 20th August midnight my time.

Second Competition also WON – gave away 3 books – when i catch my breath, i may do another one. Stay tuned. 

Third Competition won by @_tractorgirl_ @_PDT @dhympna – congrats to all.

copyright 2011 http://stinginthetail.wordpress.com/

Headdesk Times A Million

I confess, i was getting freaked. Panicking even.

Book published, check. Sending people to Smashwords, check. Them looking at the book, some of them buying it, check. Giving it away in a few competitions, check.

And where’s the through traffic? I put it down to my book not showing up in the first pages of either Best Sellers, Most Downloads (some books are free), or Highest Rated.

So, how will they find my book? I’ll have to get it rated, i don’t have enough sales to get it on the bestseller lists, and i’m not yet desperate enough to give it away to drum up publicity for Book 2.

I worked hard, trying to get people to review it – did very well, and got some wonderful reviews. Smashwords was doing what it says on the box, sort of – i wasn’t getting sales, but the sales i did get in my first month (so in the last quarter), Smashwords promptly (quarterly) paid royalties, which are generous per book. (85% of the cover price comes to me if sold from the site.)

Still, despite sitting on front page of Smashwords Highest Rated Scifi And Fantasy for weeks, nothing. For a month, nothing. Not even someone downloading the sample?

I mean, really, is my intro that bad? I decided to rewrite (to an earlier edit) Chapter 1. Waited. I rewrote the blurbs. Waited.  I rewrote them again. I cried some.  Waited. No impact. Nothing. Nobody even looking at it, unless i went on a flurry of self-promotion. Then, to make things worse, i couldn’t always find it in the listings.

I was beginning to wonder if i’d over-estimated the pull Smashwords might have by itself. I did think they had some people wandering through. Then i found someone with a bunch of fake reviews. Was everyone fake? (I reported the fake, action is pending or being taken at various sites across the net – more later.)

My book wasn’t always visible, but i assumed they had a slightly glitchy search, and shrugged it off.  What could i do? Most of the time i showed up, and always on the Sci Fi Fantasy listings. Then i disappeared from the SFF pages. Completely. I could see where i should be, the books ahead and behind me in rankings, but i wasn’t there.

I waited. Maybe questions had been asked and my book was invisible because i reported the fake? I cleared my internet cache. Another day. I cleared cookies, cache, and discovered i was still invisible. I think i cried again then.

Now, I’ve had the year (or so) from hell. I no longer have a family, and my health’s deteriorating in scary ways. My book was the one bright shining thing i had. And now what i thought was my main marketing tool was useless.

I simply don’t have time to do what i thought Smashwords could do for me. In fact, i wouldn’t have self-published if i hadn’t investigated them and self-publishing very thoroughly, and decided their way was the only feasible option – unless i went the traditional route of finding representation and a publisher.

Now, by self-publishing without a decent market, i’d completely destroyed my career. That book is the first in a series, and if i’ve published it in the wrong place, i’m screwed. I think i cried some more. Then, i pulled myself together.

There must be a reason, it had been 4 days or so, it was now reasonable to ask wtf.  So i did, politely. And she (lovely helpful lass from Smashwords wrote almost straight back) said it’s there, page 5 or so on my comp on the main ‘Highest Rated Smashwords books’ pages.

Phew, i thought, and went to look. Several hours later, having cleared everything again, i asked Twitter friends to help out. Could anyone else see it? Five couldn’t, and i wasn’t in the index either. I thought aha! But then one could see me. Huh? Oh wait, bet she’s on a Mac. She wasn’t.

She was using exactly the same WinXP with Firefox as me. Meanwhile,  i logged back in and noticed something. A tiny something, top right of the page.  Adult Filter is ON

Bah humbug to adult filters, i said to myself, and of course I switched it off and magically, there i was. At number freaking 3 on the best rated SFF! I didn’t even know i’d made it there!

I wrote back to Smashwords, so if the nice lass had similar hysterical authors, she could sort it out in a snap. Then it hit me. I would never get any passing traffic from Smashwords. The only people who would see me were those who noticed the Filter and switched it off.

I cried some more. Mr Whatsit was getting damp. Then i said, i’m taking the Adult rating off.  He thought would be fine, i checked with others who’d read it, decided to do it.  Nice lass at Smashwords said that was okay, was up to me. (But of course, i now hope nobody is horribly shocked by suicidal sheep or permanently emotionally scarred by Polo’s mother.)

Then I noticed the “voluntary” Adult rating wasn’t even on most of the Erotica on the site!  After a fairly short time, (an hour or so) my book is now showing. To anyone. I’ve already had several people look at the sample. No sales yet, but that’s cool – you don’t have to buy it if you don’t like it. I’m fair, i keep telling you.

I’ve noticed another writer like me, with a well-reviewed book (genuine reviews, i checked) who’s also marked her book Adult. I marked mine adult thinking it wasn’t a children’s book. So, if you’re self-publishing, and thinking of using Smashwords? Don’t mark your book Adult content.

I’ve just wasted ten weeks of promotion for a book nobody could see unless i linked directly to its page. Every time i posted the Highest Rated chart – unless they knew about the Adult filter and switched it off – they looked, and assumed i was posting the wrong link, mistaken, or lying because my book wasn’t there. And get this, NOBODY SAID ANYTHING. Fortunately, i’d posted the direct link a lot, but some of my best retweeted posts were for a link that didn’t show my book.

In a few days, i’ll get it together, relaunch the book with a competition, and pretty much start from scratch. In the meantime, another sample’s been downloaded, am getting steady interest now people can actually see me.

There’s a lesson here. I’m too mangled to figure it out.

****

In the meantime, The Birthday Dragon is still at Number 3 - and anyone can see me.You can also download a free sample to see if you like it.

If you have a Kindle, Smashwords provide downloads for you, as they do for every other kind of ebook reader. If you’re like me, on a PC, you can download FREE Kindle software. If you’re on a Mac they have it too.

copyright 2011 http://stinginthetail.wordpress.com/

I am writing this from the Stone Age…

Yeah, net problems, expected to persist for at least a couple of weeks. (Hint to any despot trying to take over world via net – don’t do it from Australia. My marketing campaign is kinda floundering without reliable telephone or net.)

Trying to consider it a useful break to catch up on writing, but I miss Twitter and the baby hippos. Oh yeah, and don’t ask me about Rupertgate, i am totally out of the loop.

The guest post i did for MYOB went very well, by the way – thanks to all my Beloved Minions Visitors who dropped across to read and comment, it’s good for us all to go travelling every so often. And gosh, the discipline of writing short stuff. *waffles on for hours*

In the meantime, if you haven’t read my book yet, then you don’t know why it’s *drumroll please*…. Number 6 on the Smashwords Highest Rated Science Fiction Fantasy Chart.

Ha, am totally going to sell some more copies soon – come on people, we’re into double figures! Funny, i never thought i’d be critically acclaimed (at least by readers) and it wouldn’t translate into sales. I am pretending it will be fine, and writing Book 2, while finding typos in Book 1.

Mr Whatsit says patience. I say patience my arse, i’m going to kill something, it will be good publicity. The others, i tell him darkly, will fall into line. Unfortunately, without a decent internet, i can’t generate proper fear PR so the stupid woman across the road who thinks my yard is her right of way is safe… for now.

Hint – The Birthday Dragon is at Number 6 because it’s excellent. Read the reviews, they say so too.

“If JRR Tolkien, Douglas Adams, Jane Austen and Phillip K Dick were to collaborate on a book, they might write something like this.”

I totally meant to do that.  (No, i don’t think i’ll ever get bored with that review. All of them are ravishing, but it’s also v handy for quotes.)

The cool people who do know why Polo Shawcross is so irresistible (and an idiot) are giggling at jokes, discussing his inability to keep his pants on, and demanding to know when Book 2 is out.

In time for Christmas, if i manage to finish it. Plot is fine, book half-written (Book 3 is in same state) but being fleshed out.

Why aren’t you missing Polo Shawcross already? You can read 20% free here, along with those beautiful reviews. And it’s only $4.99 – it’s available on Smashwords (in all e-reader formats), Barnes&Noble, Kobo, and in the Apple store.

If you don’t have an ereader, no excuses (you don’t want me coming round your place and crying on you, do you?) because you can get  free Kindle software for the PC or Free Kindle Software for the Mac.

I’ve downloaded the PC version – it’s really very good. Much nicer reading experience on a screen. Now, let’s see if i’m able to post this.

copyright 2011 http://stinginthetail.wordpress.com/

Five Ways I Messed Up My Business Launch

I’ve done a guest blog over at MYOB – Mind Your Own Business – about the business side of my self-publishing launch.

Five Ways I Messed Up My Business Launch

Well, the five top ones, anyway. I made every mistake in the book – and i know better! (More at MYOB)

If the link doesn’t work for you

http://mybrc.myobnet.com/2011/07/07/5-ways-i-messed-up-launching-my-business/

cut and paste the line above

2011 http://stinginthetail.wordpress.com/

Come in Number 12, Your Time Is Up

The voices-outside-my-head, the ones i’m prepared to listen to, say it’s time we did another blog post. We’d like to say nah, and go back to writing, but apparently the voices bought a real cattle-prod on eBay, so we’re being very good.

I am still hyperventilating every time the book is downloaded, or the sample is. The book’s reached the unbelievable status of number 12 on the Smashwords charts and stayed there for most of the week (for Highest Rated Science Fiction Fantasy books).  Dropped to number 15 today, aw.

“If this is at all representative of the fantasy genre, then I’ve obviously
been a fool to myself for ignoring it.” (Smashwords review of The Birthday Dragon)

Mr Whatsit had to put up with me going round saying “Number 12!” a lot. And then reading my reviews to him, repeating the best bits over and over. He’s hiding downstairs, so you’re my next captive audience.

****

Review of The Birthday Dragon
by: David Willanski on June 30, 2011 :
If JRR Tolkien, Douglas Adams, Jane Austen and Phillip K Dick were to collaborate on a book, they might write something like this.

****

I’m being compared to more heavyweights (Pratchett, Willis) and am cautiously hopeful. I know the book is good, but i’m a realist – this is an ebook. A small market, but a growing one. I’m not represented, i have no publisher, i have no marketing budget. I do have reasonable distribution, through Barnes & Noble, Kobo, etc, thanks to Smashwords’ reach.

To not get an agent or a publisher was a deliberate choice.
How terrifically avant-garde of me.

****

Why do you think this book’s appealing to people who aren’t that into scifi or fantasy?

People like a good story. As readers have said (Smashwords reviews),

“This is a great adventure story with lots of twists, humour, wonder and, best of all, suicidal sheep.”

“Most importantly – a sci fi styled book that has a lead character who is full of attitude and humour; not taking himself or the folk around him too seriously.”

Setting is secondary, science is secondary, (though it must be thought out, planned, and researched) but it’s the story of the people that’s primary. So you don’t need to be into science fiction, or fantasy, or whatever. Like to read? Like an adventure with some smiles? You’ll probably like this. (and you can read a big chunk for free to see.)

“Yes there are castles, but they’re weird floaty things that I could quite clearly see were spectacular. Yes there are royals aplenty but they’re basically a bunch of drug taking sex addicts. Hardly the Windsors. More like Carry On Blackadder meets The Graduate – with added stimulants.” (Smashwords review)

I’ve been heavily influenced by science fiction writers like Jack Vance, who would put you on a world with mer-people , then take you on a detective story. I like my fiction developed, not just a few cipher characters to hang the science- or dogma-heavy plot on.

I love it when the writer takes me away.

****

I’m not a huge fan of a lot of fantasy, and completely understand people getting turned off it- i’d never have bothered again either, if the only kind I read was full of archaic language and one-dimensional characters, with the plot copied from a template.

And of course, everyone writes dragon books the same. Someone’s not allowed to have their own dragon, yawn, they’re misunderstood, yeah yeah.

This isn’t really a dragon book (a marketing department wouldn’t have let me call it The Birthday Dragon), it’s based on the premise of what if the people were the dragons?

They got that way with genetic engineering, not with waving a wand – but as the ghost-who-says-he’s-not-one tells Polo, when Man created Dragon, he accidentally created real magic.

As a reader, I’ve always tried to learn as a writer from what irritated me, what left me feeling cheated, and what left me thinking yes, i loved that book.

In my DM’s on Twitter, someone said “i love it” when talking about my book.

What can i say? My life is perfect.

****

You can read other reviews and get a free look at the book -
about 25,000 words, 20%, a decent chunk to sink into.

Copyright 2011 http://stinginthetail.wordpress.com/

Some light reading…

Short Excerpt from

The Birthday Dragon

Book One of the Polo Shawcross Journals

****

Smashwords Edition

ISBN 978-1-4580-8526-9

Copyright Polo Shawcross 2011-12

Cover Design and Artwork By Derek Armsden Design

****

Chapter 1 – Somewhere, Somewhen

It was a while before I realised that I wasn’t like the commoners. They were human. Father was human. Grandmama, Mother, and I were only descended from humans. I was also descended from Mother, something that even before I went to school was a worry.

Welcome to the world of Emo PR

Second Competition was won by @agent_x and @bastardsheep who both get an ecopy – congratulations and enjoy.

****

Honestly, i have been trying to promote the book, but a death in the family (not my side) and a flood later, i’ve only managed a bunch of Tweets and a competition, and it’s already been 16 days since i published.

Oh yeah, and i joined Facebook, which i don’t know how to use. I’m Polo Shawcross on there, if you do know how to use it. I am good at friending back.

What i really need are reviews - i have one, now i have two! They both really liked the book, (i have the gift of making you want to turn the page – woot) and i achieved top rating – you can see reviews on the page the book’s on. Also, it’s not a kids’ book – it has sex and drugs, along with that page-turning adventure.

Humans bioengineered themselves, creating a new race, Dragon, and creating something that – quite accidentally – looked like magic.

Thousands of years later, their descendant Polo Shawcross is about to find out what it means to have a Dragon in the family.

So go see, read 20% free, or i’ll die, and it will be YOUR fault. Wait, have we done guilt already? I was going to make people read The Thing (as it’s affectionately known) by running through a gamut of manipulative emotional techniques.

Damn, i missed a trick with the floods, i could have deliberately made myself homeless and then whined about it online forever after, thereby garnering heaps of attention, probably a house from a well-meaning charity, and getting lots of pity sales. (Pity sales are like pity fucks, but the glow lasts longer.)

So, the floods: we’re alive, hasn’t reached house yet (though ran in a little at the back, with the wind), but the floods stopped a metre from the back door (a yard). We’re not doing too badly, not been declared a disaster area yet, though 30k’s north of us is. (Less than 20 miles.)

Oh wait, i’m supposed to be making a meal of this – not making out like we’re fine. If you don’t buy my book *looks pitiful* my house will fall into the lake! OMG, and it will be your fault!

We may still possibly flood later today/tonight or over the weekend – that will also be your fault, nothing to do with torrential rains, bad storms, and stupid people building houses in flood zones.

Sorry, i don’t think i can manage this emo thing – do i have to cut myself? I am not at all sure i’ll be able to keep a straight face. Maybe i could persuade some professional victim to do it, and film it, pretend it’s me? Sounds plausible.

I reckon it’s much easier to bribe you, so here it is. Buy the book or when i take over the world you will be the first to the wall. Hang on, i do think that may have been a threat, not a bribe. I’m really not good at PR.

However, if you join me in the glorious revolution – yeah, yeah, you only have to buy the book, or at least read the first few pages (you are allowed to decide not to read, we’re a despot, but we’re fair) – then you’ll be sweet.

If all goes according to plan, we’ll all be living in Queensland with our Hello Kitty Kalashnikovs, in our own private enclave. Yes, you may have to occasionally peel grapes, but you’ll be alive. Worth thinking about, eh?

In the meantime, i’ve decided on another competition – because some PR is better than none, or at least i’m assuming.

This competition, I was considering something cool like infiltrating the Vatican, but then i remembered this, and realised there’s no need.

So, for competition number 2… just follow the simple instructions at the top of this post.

I personally don’t like reading on the comp – but i discovered that both Adobe and Amazon do free PC versions of their readers which make it rather pleasant.  (Amazon Kindle for Mac is here.) There are also plenty of apps for that, i believe some of those are free, but phones just aren’t my speciality – someone mentioned Stanza for the iPhone as being good (and also free, at least to try).

People are also put off ebooks by the awfully intrusive DRM copy protection – my book is on Smashwords and (like all their books) doesn’t have DRM copy-protection.

This makes their books much easier to download, and you can have them on different devices without problems. Also, if your machine loses its data, you can still get another copy of the version you bought.

I am aiming at a print version – would love to do a limited edition artwork – but until i sell rather a lot of $4.99 ebooks, that’s for later.

****

Oh dear,  i think the lake is rising again. *sighs and looks as if i might cry* Okay, so you’re feeling guilty? Excellent – do have a look at my book. 

****

STOP PRESS – am in the Smashwords Premium Catalogue,

(no, you don’t pay for it, you have to meet certain requirements,

and be read by their staff)

so now *drumroll*….

The Birthday Dragon by Polo Shawcross is now available

at the Apple iBookstore, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo and Diesel.

Even later STOP PRESS… the lake has returned its usual place, at the end of the garden, no longer touching distance from the house. For this, we are rather grateful.

Copyright 2011 http://stinginthetail.wordpress.com/