Sword In The Tree Review

Just to balance out the one star review listed below, I'm adding the full text of one of the Amazon.co.uk reviews for The Sword In The Tree, just to show that not all my reviews are bad ones.

 

"5.0 out of 5 stars Great book, 11 Dec 2010

This review is from: The Sword In The Tree (Kindle Edition)

I've just finished this on my Kindle and am so glad I bought it.
It's a really funny book about a man who finds himself back in King Arthurs time and is trying to get back to the present. All the characters were written so well I felt I was in the story - a great bit of escapism.
The book is very well written and I will definately be buying more of this authors books if this is anything to go by.
At 72p it was a bargain as well. "

Just adding a note to point out that it's not 72p anymore.

First poor review

I received my first really poor review recently for New York City Legend. It was posted on Goodreads along with a one star rating and is added here in its entirety.

"A strangely dated book, set as it was in, at a guess, the 1990s. The plot centres around a magical realm populated by sprites and a unicorn that's enclosed within a portal on the 26th floor of an office block in New York. The office block is scheduled for demolition, and it's kind of up to Ben Darkly, a ridiculously bland vague-businessman-type-person to save the day. Kind of.

The plot didn't make a whole lot of sense, the romance was kind of token, at best, and the description of magic was very poor. Also, some amazingly casual racism (a character is referred to as 'the most attractive coloured woman he'd ever met'), and just a failure to seriously connect with any character central to the story made this an unrewarding read.

I think other authors have done Urban Fantasy better - notably Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere and Holly Black's Tithe/Valiant/Ironside trilogy."

I admit to being disappointed, especially with the comment about casual racism since that couldn't be further from my mind. Still, everyone's opinion is just as valid and so I repost it here.

It was also the first full length novel that I ever finished and I'm continuing to develop my style, so it's useful feedback.

New books available in paperback on Amazon.com

Others of my books are now available on Amazon.com in an attempt to stave off the silly advertising of Origin.

You can now get To Infinity (and maybe that's far enough), The Sword In The Tree, Stormwreck and New York City Legend all for prices that aren't even a tenth of the ridiculous asking price of the Origin listings.

It's only paperbacks that are listed, though. For the hardbacks you still have to go to www.lulu.com . I'd get the hardbacks listed as well but that $75 a shot and almost the price of buying one of the Origin books. Considering the amount that I sell, it really wouldn't be worth the effort.

If the paperbacks took off, however...

First sale on iBooks

New York City Legend is the first of my books that has been sold on the iBooks platform. I don't know who bought it or if there is more than one, but I did a check last night on iTunes and there was a 'people who bought this book also bought' listing which doesn't exist on any of the other books.

The iBooks listings are out of my control, having been made by lulu.com in conjuction with iBooks, but it's still a thrill to know that someone's taken the plunge on there.

Printed book on Amazon.com

In an attempt to stop anyone getting caught out by the people selling my books at outrageous markups, I've entered the two titles into the Lulu.com marketing scheme and they have now both gone live.

This means that people who order from amazon.com will be able to see and order the Sci Fi Freak's Guide To The Televisual Galaxy in printed form.

It's retailing at about $22 dollars which is better than the $150 dollar price tag that Origin have been quoting.

It's a shame that it doesn't also cover Amazon.co.uk. For UK readers you'd have to go to Lulu.com direct to order.

More Ebooks I Have Read

The Unwise Woman of Fuggis Mire


The Unwise Woman of Fuggis Mire is a spoof on all things fantasy and sets its stall out early with some quirky, fun characters who are all aware of their place within the plot (postmodern or what). There are plenty of good jokes and funny happenings, but somewhere along the line the plot gets misplaced and the plethora of characters just sort of wander around for a while until they finally all come together for a big non-ending. Then we get a second part that tries to make up for that and provide openings for a sequel.

Ebooks I Have Read

Since writing takes such a long time and the proofreading and editing that goes on after is even longer, the number of posts is likely to remain near to zero, so I will add posts regarding ebooks that I have read. This is the review that I left on Amazon for 42 - Douglas Adams' Amazingly Accurate Answer to Life, the Universe and Everything

"Let me first say that I'm a massive Douglas Adams fan and really wanted to like this book since the author was educated in Longridge from whence I also hail. Unfortunately, the long list of stuff that is linked to the number 42 in increasingly thin and fabricated ways (there are lots of 'almost', 'not far from' and 'nearly' 42s mentioned) gets tiresome and, as the author himself admits, seems to be a wikipedia trawl made print.
This is a shame because the book is almost saved by the bit towards the end where the author goes through the story of the birth of hitchhikers and 42 in particular and this bit gets all of the two stars that are awarded. More of this would have been much more fun and more informative and earned a better review."

Great Rock N Roll Doomsday Tour free on ibooks

The Great Rock N Roll Doomsday Tour is now showing up as a free ebook on ibooks for all you lovely people with shiny ipods and ipads.

This is because I made it free on Smashwords I presume, but I didn't do anything to pass that information on to iBooks, so they must trawl the free books on Smashwords to keep their pricing current.

Anyhow, it's now available and free, so catch it while you can.

Slightly overpriced

Last night I was surprised to find two listings on Amazon.com for two of my printed books. A company called Origin were selling The Great Rock N Roll Doomsday Tour and The Sci Fi Freak's Guide To The Televisual Galaxy in hardback and paperback form for over $100 each! This is something of a retail markup since these are currently only available from lulu.com in these formats at not even a third of this price.
Now I happen to think that my work is pretty good. I very much enjoy writing it and reading it afterwards, but even I'm not going to suggest that it's worth a whopping $130.
I did complain to Amazon customer services who said that Origin are well within their rights to buy and sell my book at whatever price they wish on the Marketplace and therefore that's the end of it as far as they are concerned.
I also emailed Origin directly asking where they had bought the books that they were planning to sell at this ridiculous markup and they have not, as yet, responded.
Interestingly enough, however,  the listing for The Sci Fi Freak's Guide To The Televisual Galaxy has since disappeared as mysteriously as it appeared.

I don't have problems with people reselling my books and making money off them if they buy them legally in the first place and Origin do appear to have a very good feedback history, but the listing is really rubbish with no image, no description and this stupid price and I would hate to think that I was being linked to it through being the author.
I will give it another couple of days and then I might leave a review saying that I think it's wonderful, but people should look elsewhere on price.

Great Rock N Roll Doomsday Tour goes Free

In order to have something to announce this blog's arrival, I have today made one of my more ignored efforts on the Kindle free on Smashwords in all available formats. I have also informed Amazon that this is free there in the hope that this will make it free on the kindle shortly thereafter (it worked for New York City Legend which got over 2000 downloads after it was made free before Amazon put it back to its full price.