Publishing

Monthly round up

It’s been a busy month. I thought it would be useful to round up – even if only for myself.

First up, a long awaited anthology called Aliens: The truth is coming from Tickety Boo Press. It’s got some superb stories in it but I’d like to take a moment to give a shout out to my own in this – it’s one that I hope will take you from left field and stay with you after you’re done.

Second is that I’ve actually sold a novel to the same publishing company. It’s called Dreams of Darkness and is the first in the The Fox’s Hope series. It’s a dark and twisted view of myths. I described it to my editor as Steven Erikson meets Grimm.

Third is that I finally got my assorted stuff together and put a collection of my favourite shorts out. It’s called Tales of Wild Light.

I’ve done a couple of posts about this recently, so not a lot more to say here. Well…except that I can’t stop talking about the cover which was done by a friend of mine, John Haynes.

The original is now framed and on display in my library.

Next up is A People’s War, the sequel to A Family War and the second in The Oligarchy Trilogy. It was due out today but we’re still going through proofing for typos – it’ll be this month and before Christmas but watch this space.

There’s another anthology coming for subscribers to my mail list – sometime in January. It’s called Human Machines and will feature stories set in the world of the Oligarchy in which you’ll learn a little more about some of the most important characters in the trilogy whose backgrounds and motivations are their own and deserve some more attention outside of Helena Woolf’s story.

December 10, 2016 0

Just in case

Tales of Wild Light is now available on Amazon. There’s also the ebook – but hey, if you’ve gone here, then you should have it already! If you’ve taken the free version from the offer – good on you. If you fancy having a real version of John’s cover then I’d suggest getting yourself a physical copy of this one. It’s pretty amazing and with a matt finish looks even more imposing.

Also, if you’d like to do me a massive favour – please leave a review of the collection once you’re done with it.

Stewart

December 9, 2016 0

Dreams of Darkness

This is Maela. She’s the daughter of the High King of the Parade, the combined courts of the Seelie and Unseelie Fae, although not all Fae are members of the Parade, not by a long shot. She’s also in exile, having had ideas considered too dangerous to leave her unharmed. She is of House Dark, one of the elder Fae Houses.

When I was developing my ideas for DoD (as I call it), one of the central themes I wanted to explore was difference. Not diversity for its own sake, but how different peoples and cultures may never see eye to eye simply because their foundations rest on entirely different premises.

Having said that, I explicitly wanted to write a female protagonist whose colour (and Maela isn’t locked into being the same as this picture shows her) was starkly different to that of the other main characters.

I’ll show those characters in other posts – we have a Kitsune called Shaal, an ancient fox spirit and we have Chris, a schlubby white male student from the Great Britain.

For this story, whose ideas impact the entire world, it seemed fitting that the characters we access the tale through represent its very different elements.

I’m writing this now because the novel is done and I’m talking about it with a publisher I’ve admired for a while. I hope to have more news that I can properly share soon but in the meantime, I thought I better start talking about a book that I love, that stands on its own as a proper story but whose world is built for a properly epic cycle to be told within.

November 5, 2016 0

The Fox’s Hope

I can finally come with some awesome news. As of this weekend I sold my novel, Dreams of Darkness to Ticketyboo Press. I can’t tell you just how jump around the room happy I am with this news.

Ticketyboo are a great outfit with some great authors on their lists.

What’s more amazing is that they’ve also taken the 2nd and 3rd books in the series as well. Dreams of Darkness is a standalone novel but it builds a world in which there is a much greater tale to tell and I’m delighted to get the chance to write that larger story and see it come into print. The series, in case you haven’t guessed from the title of the post, is called The Fox’s Hope.

I’ll be posting some pieces about the main characters, the world and the ideas over the next few weeks but this post is just to say….YIPEEEE!

October 31, 2016 1

What do I do next?

I’m at something of a crossroads. I’m in super positive discussions with a publishing house I’ve admired for a while about taking a novel of mine, Dreams of Darkness, through to publication. I’m so excited I’m pacing the house thinking about it whenever I’m not actually working at the day job (and even then…).

The novel is standalone – the story and characters wrapped up in 110,000 words. However, the world they exist within is very carefully laid out for a much grander story that would spread over 9 books…yes 9. It would be an intertwined series of three trilogies whose characters would find one another over the course of the series and accomplish grand things.

Now. A reality check. This may not come to pass. I’ll not really believe it until the 9th book is out and I’m looking back on it all. However, in terms of timing it’s actually thrown me a little.

I’ve worked with Matt at Alternative Realities to bring out A Family War which did well enough (far beyond my initial expectations of a dozen copies to mates!) that it warrants the sequel. We’re currently aiming for the end of November. I’ve just had the final cover artwork through though and am sitting staring at it wondering how I’m going to split myself in two to focus on both at the same time. This would be pretty easy – except that I’ve got to find some time to finish the trilogy with the final book in the series, The AI War.

Then…oh then. I have just finished my first pass at editing a new novel which I’m tentatively calling Immortal Daughter. I’m trying to concentrate on creating a blurb for it but I’m too excited about Dreams of Darkness for which I’ve been staying up creating the history of a world and how the myriad of characters will twist together to tell what I’m hoping is an epic story.

I know. It’s not the worst dilemma in the world. Or even a dilemma really. The actual solution is to take each one in order of urgency (since they’re all important). But right now I’m a little like:

I’ll get there. Hopefully without dropping any of the balls I’m currently juggling. Now, if you’ll excuse me I’ve got a synopsis to write, then a cover to approve, then a final edit to read through, an anthology to put together (if the authors ever get their bios back to me) and a series to plan…

October 20, 2016 0

The price of free

I decided last week in discussions with Matt at AR, that we should put the kindle version of my debut novel up for free at Amazon for 72 hours. That 72 hours runs out tonight. This post is about what’s happened and my feelings about it.

The first consideration was this: lots of people, including a not inconsiderable number of friends, have stumped up proper money for either a physical or ebook copy of A Family War. A decent number of those have then gone on to post very kind and honest reviews about the story they experienced.

I have been really concerned that they’ll feel a little bit cheated that the book has gone for free for a short period. I worry that it might put them off buying anything more of mine in the future because they’ll think ‘I can get it free later on anyway’.

I also worry because they’ve bought the fricking thing, have been supportive and have given me great feedback.

However, at the same time, I’m a fledgling author who’s is trying to establish an audience not just for this novel but for its sequel and all the other ideas that are trapped in my skull screaming to get out. I want this book to get to as many people as possible and create that market that an unknown author like me simply doesn’t have through the machinations of a massive marketing department.

So we come to the event itself – the book has been free since Saturday morning. In that time at least 2,000 downloads have occurred – definitely more as I’m still waiting for today’s numbers to come in. I have NO IDEA how people have found it, I have NO IDEA how it’s got to where it is in the charts – #1 in US Sci Fi, #1 in US Sapce Opera, #111 on the whole kindle store while in the UK it’s been #4 or 6 in the same categories.

I truly don’t understand how people found it at that point or how it’s propelled itself up the charts among other authors who’ve written lots of novels and have well oiled marketing programs. I’ll be trying to figure that out in the coming days with Matt as getting this kind of attention was exactly the kind of outcome I was dreaming of (even though not expecting in any way). It’s something to learn from, to understand and then to figure out how to make it work for me when book 2 comes out.

At the same time, I’m waiting to see if any more reviews pop along, if people continue to buy it when it returns to the heady heights of two bucks a copy and if this does actually help build an audience over time.

I’m an author – loving writing. However, I’m also an author who wants to get his work out there, selling for real money preferably, but also who has just enough self belief to think my work is, on a good day, worth reading. So I wrestle with the idea of creating something and then having to think about how to present it in the best way over time (and by time I mean weeks and months) in order that my secondary wish of getting it in the hands of as many people as possible bears fruit.

The free offer has paid dividends in terms of getting my work out there to literally thousands of people. I have been really tempted to make it permanently free, to ride this wave of people downloading the story to see how far it will take me – the heart gibbers madly, saying thousands could become tens of thousands or even more. Yet I’m listening to those around me who have advised ending the promotion as planned and seeing what happens…Part of me thinks it’s about momentum and that it should stay free, but in the end the argument that it’s actually worth something wins out. We’ll see if readers agree.

Free is tough. I love the people who spent their own money to buy a copy, (I don’t see book 2 ever being free). I truly hope they’ll stick with me as I continue to write and hopefully get published. However, I also really hope that as more people find my work, as some of them even like it, that they will, in future, also think it’s worth paying out their money too!

It’s not that I don’t appreciate anyone who takes the time to try my writing out – trust me I’m humbled that among all the choice out there, you’ve taken the time to pick my stuff up. But I’m trying to figure out how to make this all work and how to ensure that Matt as Alternative Realities thinks it’s worth publishing the next one I send to him.

August 2, 2016 0

The next steps to world domination

I may be overstating the level of ambition here.

Except I feel like that’s what I’m learning alongside my publisher, Alternative Realities. We’re talking every day at the moment about marketing, presence and how to push beyond the audience that already exists and create something larger.

To that end I’ve been persuaded that I need to offer people the chance to subscribe to an email list. I’m going to use it sparingly but I can see the sense. So this is me saying, if you fancy hearing about what I’m up to in the writing space, and occasionally the sword fighting space, since it’s MY website, then sign up.

I will also use this to offer excerpts to people of current WIP for comment, feedback and general discussion, so if you fancy getting your name in my stories or getting the chance to shape plot or characters then you should also sign up for that reason too.

Also, in case you hadn’t heard my debut novel came out a couple of weeks ago now. I’ve put up a free sample on Goodreads – so feel free to head on over there and pick it up if you haven’t already given it a go. There’s a tiny little spot on the left hand side under the cover that says ‘read book’ that has it for you.

ta for now

Stew

June 8, 2016 1

The first reviews

I’ve had my first reviews! From people who’ve actually read the book.

It turns out they enjoyed it – which is pretty amazing. So now I sit waiting for others to voice their opinions too, whether they like it or otherwise.

The dreaded bad review is probably inevitable, and then I’ll discover whether I have a thick enough skin. It’s all very well surviving rejection between agent/publisher and author – but that has the benefit of being in private and often being completely unemotional. Most rejection letters are barely more than a ‘thanks for coming in’.

However, in asking for reviews (and I’ve got a long list now of reviewers on Goodreads who are reviewing for me), you open yourself up to public comment. I have to say, that’s something I’ve avoided like the plague most of my life.

Mates and family reviews should (you know, they’re biased!) be favourable, even if they don’t really dig it, but strangers? Well, you’ve read the comments pages on newspapers, right?

So, as the blog tour starts tomorrow, I’m holding my breath again – hoping that reviews actually arrive in ANY form, but when they do they’re ok – for a given value of ok.

In the meantime, I’ve added a photo of Stuart, who is currently winning the best photo with the book. A reader called Bex is second with her shot of the book in a whisky distillery and on the RSS Discovery (not just any old boat as I was reminded just now). Can you get more bizarre/exotic?

May 31, 2016 0

A Family War – My Cover’s Here!

The cover’s arrived, the cover’s arrived!

So AR are just publishing a short blog on the cover for A Family War, but I thought I’d show it here too. A big shout out again for Lawrence Mann, who did the cover.

I’m really happy with this – it captures the sense of difference between the rich and the poor, the haves and the have-nots. The story is a thriller but it’s based in a world where the 1% really have taken it all.

Politics aside, Lawrence has managed to bring in the feel of the City that plays such a central role in the story, a place where everything man has built is on display. Yet it’s not all sweetness and light – the greatest crimes sometimes occur right out in the open.

AR are going to send the opening chapter out to people who’ve signed up to their newsletter, so get on over there and sign up!

Cheers all

April 2, 2016 0

Stewart Hotston

Hope, Anger and Writing

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