More rejection and a bit of promo

Evening troops,

Thanks to an overkeen spam filter I have only just spotted an email from Lisa Graves (from the 23rd of January!!) saying that my novel Playground Cool is featured on her blog. It would have been a great time to actively promote the link (and it still is worth doing) but I'm annoyed I didn't get the email.

Anyway, the link to Lisa's awesome blog is here. If you scroll down you'll find my book with a link to Amazon to help you buy a copy. Hurrah.

One small negative, today I recieved an email from the Darley Anderson Agency very politely telling me they did not want to represent The 24 Hour Jazz Cafe. Ho hum! It's a long way from being the first and it certainly won't be the last.

In other news I have noticed a small increase in sales today. I generally average about one a day if I don't do any promo, which I haven't since the 21st of January as I've been editing another of my books. Today however I sold six which more than makes up for the agency rejection.

I'm hoping to launch All the Fun of the Fair on Kindle this month so I'll be on the promo trail big time. Keep your eyes peeled because there will an extract posted on this blog, as well as on You Write On where members can comment and review it.

Right, I've had a long week and it's late. So I'm going to drink some beer, play some Xbox and then perhaps a bedtime gin.

I'm now on Kindle Boards!

Afternoon all,

It's a grim day here, gales and rain all the way which is why I'm inside blogging.

I now am a member of Kindle Boards and a very nice bunch they are too. I've created a page for my books, added links, photos, all sorts. I'd recommend the site to anyone who is a keen reader or, indeed, an author.

My Playground Cool product page is here. The Storyteller page is here.

Aside from that I've edited just over fifty pages of the next novel - All the fun of the Fair which will be launched just as soon as I finish editing the remaining 300 pages.

There will be a sample available via YouWriteOn shortly, which members can review.

I have yet to hear back from the agents, or from Bang, about The 24 Hour Jazz Cafe so I'll assume no news is good news.

Right, I'd best crack on and edit more pages because Liverpool are playing Bolton on ESPN at 5PM.

Until next time...

Happy New Year

Hello everyone,

First of all I hope everyone had a fun New Years Eve and I wish everyone a happy and successful 2012.

I've edited 74 pages of The 24 Hour Jazz Cafe with a view to sending it off to Bang by the end of this week, assuming I'm happy with it.

Aside from that I've done a couple of press releases which seems to have a very positive impact on traffic to the blog and on sales. Also, I'm planning an assault on the top ten at YouWriteOn in an attempt to do well in their January Next Big Author Competition. I'll keep you up to speed on that as the month progresses.

But for now, thanks for bothering to look.

Next Big Author

Evening folks,

Our chums at You Write On are running a competition of sorts whereby the lucky winners receive a critique of their work by a leading publisher (Random House or Orion) via the Next Big Author website. I've uploaded the first few chapters of my upcoming novel The 24 Hour Jazz Cafe for consideration so feel free to go to the You Write On website and seek it out to review.

Ta for now.

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...