His Own Mad Demons

This is the cover for my forthcoming collection from Hazardous Press. His Own Mad Demons will include:

The Worst of All Possible Places
Lock In
Their Own Mad Demons
The Fragile Mask on his Face
The True Spirit

These were previously published in Houses on the Borderland edited by David A. Sutton for the BFS, The Black Book of Horror and the Fifth Black Book of Horror edited by Charles Black, Dark Discoveries #15 edited by James Beach, and Back from the Dead edited by Johnny Mains.

His Own Mad Demons will be published on the 26th October and be available as a Kindle ebook and as a printed book from Amazon and other online booksellers. Further details later.

A Kindle for Christmas

Well, I've finally got one, courtesy of Cassie, Alan, Christy, Erin and Neil! Many thanks to you all.

I must admit I was unsure whether I would ever make much use of one, even though I have two e-books out of my own (Goblin Mire and Sendings). Somehow, though, because they have only ever existed as e-books they have never seemed all that real to me.  I will also have a hardback collection of my earlier short stories out in September from Noose & Gibbet Press, The Lurkers in the Abyss. I have spoken to N&G's owner, Johnny Mains, and we have agreed to publish an e-book version of this collection after the print version has been sold out. This will ensure the collection will remain available and widen its market potential. I know there are a people (probably a growing number these days) who prefer to get their books this way.

The debate over e-books and printed books is still a hot issue, and there are those who will never accept e-books as being "real". But for writers I can't see any argument against them. They are an extra market, and an easy one for readers to access as bookshops dwindle in number and as the variety of books sold by  those that remain dwindle even more. It doesn't worry me. There will always be a place for print versions; there will always, I am sure, be a substantial number of readers who will continue to prefer their books in print. On the other hand, there are already many who actually prefer to read their books in an e-book format. The market can cope for both tastes. And with printing technology advancing all the time, with POD becoming better, and more widespread even amongst mainstream publishers, it's good news to writers - and for readers too.

In the meantime I now have about 20 books downloaded onto my Kindle - and the very latest copy of Theaker's Quarterly and Paperbacks.

Self Publishing and E-Books

There is quite a lively debate on the BFS Forum over the small press, self publishing, etc.

One excellent idea put forward was the suggestion that an ideal array of formats for a book to be brought out in the small presses would be a limited hardback edition for collectors (or keen fans of the writer) of 100-150 numbered copies, and a paperback version published via POD, which will therefore be available constantly at a reasonable price, topped off with a e-book version. Using the same cover artwork, etc., this would reduce the overall costs and at least make the book as fully available as possible.

The discussion has now gone on to the issue of distribution and sales - an important matter for anyone spending serious money. And there's no doubt but that this does demand serious work by anyone concerned, including the writer.

Self Publishing

There's an interesting discussion on Shocklines, with writers like Brian Keene participating, on the issue of self-publishing. Leisure Books, which have published most of Brian's books so far, is likely to turn to ebooks only in the near future. As a result Brian is looking towards self publishing. How many other writers of his ilk will do the same?

My own experience with the collection of my short stories that have been due for publication for several years is leading me to wonder whether I should go down this road too. At least all the stories in this collection have been professionally published before, either in anthologies or magazines. I'll give it a bit longer, but if there is still no serious indication that it will be published within the next twelve months, I can see no option but to look at doing a print run myself, then make it available as an ebook. This isn't something I would have even considered some time ago, but times are changing. And fast.

See also this on Brian Keene's website.

My Kindle Books Now On Amazon UK

I have just found out that my Kindle books are now available on Amazon UK.

Sendings and The Worst of All Possible Places are priced at 75p each.

Goblin Mire is £3.01, but I have no control over the pricing for this.

More E-Books News

There was an interesting article in The Independent newspaper today about further developments in e-books, this time involving the influential agent Andrew Wylie.

Times are certainly changing in publishing. Though one thing is certain: ebooks can no longer be ignored and are becoming an ever more important part of modern day publishing, much though I love a traditional book.

Sendings - Price Reduction on Amazon

I have succeeded in reducing its price on Amazon again to $0.99 (plus VAT).

Sendings

Sendings on Amazon - Price Reduction

I have reduced the price for Sendings on Amazon down a dollar to $1.99, in line with its price on FifoBooks. I may reduce this even further, if the system will allow me, to $0.99, just to help with sales, since I am not interested in making money off it.

Anyway, I'll see how this improves the number of downloads. So far there has just been one.

E-Books - An Update

I've left this update a week since my last as it really has gone a bit flat regarding downloads from FifoBooks. The sales so far are:

The Worst of All Possible Places 19 downloads
Their Own Mad Demons 19 downloads
Sendings has increased by 2 to 5 downloads. It's nice to see that this has actually increased, albeit only slightly.

If anyone, who has read either The Worst of All Possible Places or Sendings, would like to put a review of them on Amazon I would be eternally grateful. The links to Amazon are:

The Worst of All Possible Places

Sendings

Into the Dark - novel

Now that I have finished what I think is the final rewrite on this novel I am left with the problem of what to do with it. Should I try sending it off to publishers, even though past experience has shown I can expect to wait up to 12 months or more for an answer, usually no thanks. Or go the quicker but, perhaps, ultimately less satisfying route of putting it online as another ebook, like Goblin Mire or Sendings - except I think this is a much better novel than either of them. It's a problem. The trouble with me is that I would much rather get on with whatever else I get stuck into writing next than go around trying to market what I have already finished, especially when it is so frustrating - and can sometimes impair my ability to get on with writing new stuff. It would be great if I had an agent to do all that for me, but getting an agent these days is, from what I can gather, even more difficult than getting a publisher. I suppose there is no need to make a hasty decision, I have still to finish either George and Glenda or Lucilla. And do a final rewrite on The Return.
One of the worst things about trying to get stuff published are the long delays. I have had a collection of short stories, The Lurkers in the Abyss, in the pipeline with Midnight House for years now, yet that seems little nearer actualling getting published than ever. I have had interest expressed in a second collection of my stories from a British small press publisher - a very good one, too - but the final decision over that seems to have come to a halt and months have gone by since I last had any emails about it.
The funny thing is that for a good few years I have been increasingly more convinced that the only printed collections/novels of mine to appear will be postumous. Call this a stupid, illogical conviction if you like, but it's been there a while - and is growing in validity as time goes by. It happens, though, and to much greater writers than me. Take Lovecraft for example.
Oh well, that's that bit of depression off my chest. Onwards and upwards!

E-Books - Another Update

I've left this update even longer than the last as it really does seem to have gone a bit flat regarding downloads from FifoBooks. The sales so far are:

The Worst of All Possible Places 19 downloads
Their Own Mad Demons 18 downloads
Sendings is the same as before at 3 downloads

If anyone who has read either The Worst of All Possible Places or Sendings would like to put a review of them on Amazon I would be eternally grateful. The links to Amazon are:

The Worst of All Possible Places

Sendings

E-Books - Update

I've left this a few days as it seems to have gone a bit flat regarding downloads from FifoBooks. The sales so far are:
The Worst of All Possible Places now 16 downloads
Their Own Mad Demons now 15 downloads
Sendings is the same as before at 3 downloads

If anyone who has read either The Worst of All Possible Places or Sendings would like to put a review of them on Amazon I would be eternally grateful. The links to Amazon are:

The Worst of All Possible Places

Sendings

E-Books - Update

Yet again, only small increases on two of the books I have on FifoBooks, only the free downloads:

The Worst of All Possible Places now has had 15

Their Own Mad Demons has had 13

Sendings still stands at 3

Hardly dramatic. It will be interesting to compare eventually with the figures I get from Amazon - if, that is, they are any better. At least, though, it costs me nothing.

E-Books - Update

Some small increases on two of the books I have on FifoBooks, though only the free downloads:

The Worst of All Possible Places now has had 14
Their Own Mad Demons has had 12
Sendings still stands at 3

Still, it's nice to see the first two gradually increasing. At least someone is interested.

I have no idea how things are on Amazon. I think I'll have to wait for them  to send me their report as and when.

E-Books - Update

A bit disappointing today. Only one change: one additional upload for The Worst of All Possible Places, that's all.

Going to watch The Plague of the Zombies to cheer me up. That should do the trick.

E-Books on Amazon

My two books uploaded to Amazon are now online.

The Worst of All Possible Places

Sendings

If anyone would like to put a review on Amazon for either of them, that would be great. (Hopefully)

My earlier fantasy novel, Goblin Mire, is also there.

E-Books - Update

Since yesterday:

The Worst of All Possible Places from 11 to 12 uploads
Their Own Mad Demons from 3 to 6 uploads
Sendings remains at 2 uploads, no change

I did download The Worst of All Possible Places and Sendings to Amazon last night but they haven't gone online yet. Possibly another day to wait till that happens. It will be interesting to see how the two markets compare, bearing in mind how much bigger Amazon is, though of course The Worst of All Possible Places won't be a free upload there, but £0.99. Will that make a difference?

E-Books - Further Update

After reading some of the comments on the Shocklines thread on this issue I decided to have a go at uploading a couple of items onto Amazon. The process is quite different to FifoBooks and I had a few problems to start with. But I soon sorted them out and managed it. There's a review period of 48 hours before new items appear on Amazon. 

I uploaded Sendings. I had to price this at $2.99. I couldn't price it lower than this. Likewise, I couldn't upload The Worst of All Possible Places as free, so that's $0.99, the cheapest I could set it for. 
Anyway, that's something else for me to keep an eye on now. It could be a good comparison with the earlier uploads.

E-Books - Update

Since yesterday these are the new stats for the books on FifoBooks:

The Worst of All Possible Places has risen from 6 to 11 downloads
Their Own Mad Demons, which hadn't sold any yesterday, has had 3 downloads
Sendings has risen from 1 to 2 downloads.

Other than Sendings, all of these, of course, are free downloads.

A new thread has started on Shocklines on this subject, which is very interesting. Keith Goeveia, in particular, seems to have done well on Amazon, which is a company I think I'll take a look at next. It could be good to get some comparisons.

E-books - update

No change since yesterday apart from Shaun's very kind download of Sendings.

That's 6 free downloads of The Worst of All Possible Places

No free downloads of Their Own Mad Demons

1 $1.99 download of Sendings 

I think I'll have to put my early retirement plans on the back burner for a while.

So far I have given links to FifoBooks on the BFS Forum, Shocklines and Twitter, as well as here and on Rileybooks' shop website. The thread on Shocklines has already had 202 visits. There have probably been as many again on the BFS site.

Again, it's possibly early days yet. But I'll keep a regular update going just to see.