Book Sales, Self Promotion and a Netbook

Morning dear reader,

This is the latest/earliest I've written anything on here and there are two reasons for this. The first is that it's Christmas so I'm off work and therefore up late making merry. The second is that I've bought myself a new netbook in the Christmas Sales. My laptop was four years old and struggling and, as my wonderful wife will tell you, I am not blessed with patience. As such, the laptop was beaten to death so I am now blogging on the new machine and very pleasing it is.

Anyway, first things first. A belated Merry Christmas and a pre-emptive Happy New Year to you all. Huge thanks to those who have bought my book, all thirty of you. I know this is not a vast amount, but my promo has been limited to posts on Amazon - lately via my phone - and it's only been available for a month. The fact that I'm averaging a copy a day thrills me as I think that with dedicated promotion and increased availability, my sales can only increase.

Which brings me to self-promotion. Amazon seem to have a real bee in their multi-billion dollar bonnet about 'indie' authors touting their wares. I would have thought that more promotion was a good thing as it benefits everyone. That said, Amazon are doing us all a favour by allowing us to sell in the first place so I'm not complaining. My plan is to make more effort via other means such as press releases and Facebook.

Finally, editing on my latest novel The 24 Hours Jazz Cafe is progressing with a view that an exract will appear on this blog soon before I send stuff to agents and then, depending on the results, publish as an e-book.

Stick with me, we're going places. Thank as ever for taking the time to read this.

Christmas Short Story Out Now!

Evening everyone,

It's been a quick, but very busy week and I'm shattered. But, hot on the heels of my debut novel, which has already sold more than I feared it might, my festive short story is now available. The Storyteller - A Ghostly Tale for Christmas, is out now on Kindle.

It is also available via Smashwords and should be available on Sony E-Reader, WH Smiths Kobo, Barnes & Noble and pretty much every other format within the next week.

It's priced less than a quid and would make the perfect gift what with it being set on Christmas Eve. Plus it's suitably magical too and will hopefully leave you with a warm glow similar to drinking a single malt in front of a roaring log fire while stroking the head of your beloved hound. Or not.

Either way, I hope you like it.