How important is a good review?

More so than you might think.

Evening gang! Just a quick one tonight because I didn't go to bed until 4AM and I had a busy, but productive, day at work.

Obviously a good review will do no harm in terms of sales etc and I've been very lucky that all my reviews have been brilliant. However, that's not what I'm on about.

The vast majority of Indie authors dream of making it big. Millions of pounds, bestsellers, perhaps an appearance on the Review Show on the BBC and a successful TV adaptation. But then we can't all be Ian Rankin!

The average Indie author, like me, works full time at the day job and writes in any spare time. I sell a couple of dozen copies a month, my paperbacks largely exist for my own satisfaction and to give to my mum and it's unlikely I'm going to end up rich and famous unless I get very lucky.

So when I receive a good review, espeically a really good one, it means a lot because that's the reward for all the effort. I've just received such a review and I was so impressed I decided to include the full exchange. It took place between two members of the Goodreads website, both of whom have read my books.

Member 1: This should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me being as I make no secret of being a bit of a fan of "our Jamie" but here's my opinion/review of his latest book...

I have read all of this author's books and, although most of them have been outside my usual genre of choice, I have enjoyed them all. Now this book IS my usual read so I started it knowing that it had a bit to live up to to satisfy me.
And boy did it... Once again the characters came across so real that I reckon this author does more than his fair share of people watching! The background and description are kept to the right amount, enough to support the story but not too much that they take the reader's attention away from it.
There are a few story-lines running through the book - multiple bodies unearthed, abuse in asylums, euthanasia and, if that wasn't enough, the author throws in a serial killer too. All these stories are quite major and there could have been a danger that there was too much going on in the book but the author manages very successfully to keep it balanced and juggles the stories throughout to give completely satisfactory conclusions.
I am not sure if this is stand alone or if we will be seeing Rhiannon and Tom in future books, I for one would like that very much.   

Member 2:  I knew you'd say this. As soon as I've caught up I shall be following in your footsteps - again!

Member 1: He has excelled himself this time for sure :) well I think so anyway!
Hope you enjoy it as much as I did Ignite.

Member 2:   I've always enjoyed all I've read of Jamie's work. He's got a way with him, you might say!   

Member 1:   He has indeed, especially considering all his books are very different styles/genres...

That's all for now folks.

So I ran into Ian Rankin the other night...

Evening troops,

The wife's watching the Girls Aloud programme on ITV so I thought I'd knock off a quick blog post.

It was our second wedding anniversary on Thursday and we went to Preston where Ian Rankin was doing an appearance to promote his new book Standing in another man's grave.

We hadn't planned it to be our anniversary night out obviously but I'm glad it worked out that way.

We've seen him before in Lancaster and he's a pretty effortless speaker, very laid back as if you're listening to someone in a pub over a pint.

Afterwards we dutifully joined the queue, bought a book and had it signed by the man himself. I've attached a pic. He wrote Happy Anniversary in it too, which the wife liked.

For anyone interested, there's a programme on Boxing Day called Doors Open. It's an Ian Rankin story and Stephen Fry is in it. Probably worth a look.

Right, that's all for now. I've got a few projects on tonight and then, at about 2AM, it's the Rolling Stones pay per view live from New York on Sky. It's gonna be a late one.

By the way, sales are slow this month in America so if you're reading this over there feel free to dive in and make a purchase.

French sales, choking and chimney sweeps

Evening gang!

Exciting news. I've only gone and sold a copy of Playground Cool in France. Why is this a big deal? I suppose it's not in the wider context but I generally sell sod all in Europe unless I'm doing a promo of some sort. Whoever you are...merci! You see what I did there?

In other news, as per my previous post I was struggling creatively so me and the wife went to watch Skyfall the other night. Blimey it's good. Good story, plenty in it for the long term Bond fan, some brave decisions in terms of key characters and all the usual stunt madness you'd expect. Top drawer.

We also went to our local pub for tea the night after which was excellent as ever. A particular highlight was a woman choking. Hang on! I don't mean that it was a highlight to see her choking obviously. You see, I live in a bit of a leafy village full of doctors and retired well to do types. I'm the youngest person on my street by a distance, and the poorest. So the village pub is generally filled with these folk on a nightly basis and it's a bit of a running joke with my friends i.e. the best place to collapse is in my pub because half the NHS are in there every night. So this woman suddenly jumps up from her tea, clearly struggling and immediately someone says "Don't worry love, there's a doctor sat there" and points to the table next to ours.

Anyway the lady was fine, blockage cleared, she sat down and carried on with her tea. It rather summed up where I live and supported the running joke. If you need a doctor, head for the pub.

So after so much entertainment I was all refreshed and ready for some writing. A big help in getting me back into the mood was the superb Imagine the other night featuring Ian Rankin. Today I edited thirty plus pages and am aiming to do the same tomorrow. Good times.

Speaking of Ian Rankin, my tickets arrived today. For our wedding anniversary the wife is taking me to Preston to a reading and signing with my fave writer. Hurrah! Well done wife.

Did I mention we had the chimney swept as well? What a life I lead.

Anyway, enough rambling. Bottom line is, the muse has returned and the book is back on track.

Night folks.

Do you fancy coming to Lancaster Litfest?

Morning folks,

The programme for the upcoming Lancaster Litfest was in the post this morning. It all kicks off on the 17th October and if you've any interest in poetry, fiction, writing or reading in general then come along and have a look.

Just to give you an idea of what might happen. At last years event I met Ian Rankin, he signed my book and saw him again later in the pub over the road. Basically I met one of my favourite authors and it cost next to nothing. How cool? Very!

Anyway, I've littered the above with links so check it out and hopefully we'll see you there. I'll be the one not performing or appearing in any events despite being a local author. Litfest organisers - an invite to do something next year would be much appreciated!!

Right, it's late and I've just bought the new Blu Ray version of Jaws which I'm keen to watch. So in short:

A thick fog has rolled across the bay in the last couple of hours following an impressive sunset so I've spent all night quoting things from the film The Fog. The wife has not seen the film and is not impressed.

We watched Black Swan and weren't thrilled with that either, despite the very lovely Natalie Portman being in it. I spent a lot of the film saying I thought the mother daughter relationship was similar to the one in Carrie. Something to ponder.

Finally, huuuuge thanks to everyone in the UK who has been buying The 24 Hour Jazz Cafe. I'm not sure what has prompted the sudden spike but it's very exciting to see it bouncing up the Amazon charts. Still very little love for it in America though. Come on America, you're missing out! You don't want little old Britain to be ahead of you on this. Quick, start buying my book and show us who's best.

Okay, enough. Movie time.....

Midland Hotel & the Jazz Cafe

Evening gang! Everyone okay? Excellent.

First off, how on earth does an 11 year old child get from Wythenshawe to Rome via plane on his own without a bloody passport? For God's sake the Olympics starts on Friday. Should we not be on top of security at major airports? Just in case you've missed this story here's the LINK TO THE BBC.

In other news, this picture is of the iconic Midand Hotel.

Awesome photo isn't it? Thanks to Crosby Camera Club for the image.You should see the inside of the hotel. In fact, come to Morecambe and stay there. This hotel features in my book The 24 Hour Jazz Cafe. In fact, it's on the front cover.

Not bad is it? Accordng to the reviews it's a pretty good crime thriller too. Sadly in the book the Midland is not open but being redeveloped as it was a few years ago. Then the hotel is burned down at the end. Don't worry, they build something awesome on the site for the follow up!

Anyway, that's the point of this post. I use real places in my books to ground them in reality. Makes the story more believeable. In Edinburgh you can go on an Ian Rankin Rebus tour to see the places featured in the books. I hope one day that folk will come to Morecambe and district for my books in the future and, hopefully, that will help the regeneration of the town.



Interest From a Publisher!

Evening all,

Exciting start to the day today, as the title of this post suggests.

A few weeks ago Ian Rankin (the tip-top crime writer famous for Rebus and now Malcolm Fox) retweeted a message regarding an up and coming publisher called Bang. They were asking for submissions of crime novels, ideally to form a series. They asked for five pages and a brief synopsis via email.

This morning I received a reply which said:

"...I think your novel shows real promise and would like to consider it. Please could you send me a completed manuscript...Please could you also give me more detail about how you see a series will develop from this title and how many books the series might be."

Now I'm not daft, or new to interest from a publisher. I suspect this might well be a standard email sent out to the majority of the submissions received as I know Bang are looking for clients. But it's still positive, obviously, and I'm just nicely excited by it. The plan now is to finish editing The 24 Hour Jazz cafe and email it to them as well as to continue to promote my existing ebooks. If something comes of it, great. If not, I'm no worse off.

As ever, I shall keep you informed on here.

(By the way, I was lucky enough to meet Ian Rankin late last year at a gig he did in Lancaster. He signed my copy of The Complaints. I was pathetically star struck so the wife had to mention my writing and he wished me luck and advised to keep going while I stood there grinning like an idiot. Good times.)

Update on the progress of the novel

Ah there you are.

I've been fiddling around with the various settings within the blogger pages and have changed the layout a bit because it looked rubbish on the computers at work. I've also opted to allow adverts because I think it livens the page up and it seems I'm just that shallow. I've also added some links at the bottom of the page which, like the rest of this blog, will change and grow over time. The link to You Write On is worth a click for anyone with a desire to read the work of others and to post their own work. Essentially it's a peer review site and I've found it useful in shaping my work. The only downside is that you can only really post the opening chunk of a novel because if someone stumbles across an extract from the middle of your book it won't mean a thing to them. Still, if you fancy a search there's five chapters of my latest novel on there from earlier this year. The reviews were pretty good though I do say so myself.

The editing of the first draft of The 24 Hour Jazz Cafe is coming along at pace but in the mean time I'm aiming to add a new page to this blog over the weekend and include an extract of my first novel Playground Cool. It will be the same version that was so nearly published ten years ago so it will doubtless seem a bit dated and, from memory, it was a bit chick lit, but of course it was all the rage at the time. Still, it was good enough for an MA and the good people at the Sheil Land Agency loved it. According to their website Vivien Green still works there. She was my first - and only - agent and I will always appreciate her efforts. Anyway, if I figure out how to upload the pages I will.

Just as an aside I'm currently reading Entombed by Linda Fairstein and it's pretty good. Reminds me of Harlan Coben which is no bad thing. I need to crack on with it though because Ian Rankin and Stephen King both have new books out in the next few weeks. Needless to say, you can read all about these by following the handy links at the bottom of the page.

Until next time dear reader...