Month: July 2016

Soooo, I’ve decided to write a new fantasy novel. Perhaps I’ve been watching too much Marco Polo, or been overloaded with the audio Game of Thrones books on the commute, but something inside has stirred and I’ve a lust for writing about fantasy creatures, knights, castles and magic. Luckily, there just happens to be a little world I created several series ago…you know, that parallel place that Inside Evil’s Roberta Arlington ends up. 😉

With that in mind, I’ve begun the first few words of ‘The Forgotten Lands’. Set several centuries AFTER Inside Evil, and wholly in Gathin, we follow Lyllia’s tale as she journey’s in the lands above the North Realm in search of mystical beasts and fabled folk. She’ll be hunting down trolls, uncovering mysteries and discovering just what those terrifying shadow stalkers are. And…I’m doing it all on Wattpad!

This is likely to be a slow burn because I’m still writing the next RENOVO book as well as getting on with, well, every life. But the nice thing about Wattpad is that I can upload new words once I’m done and get instant feedback. I’ll complete the tale on the platform, taking comments and suggestions from you guys the whole way. When it’s complete I’ll no doubt have to unpublish the manuscript if I want to sell it on Amazon etc, but it’s a nice little project.

There are a couple of ‘parts’ already uploaded, so go take a look!

Well, I gave Kindle Unlimited a shot but it simply didn’t work out well for me, so I’m bringing my exclusivity to an end and going wide with RENOVO (and everything else for that matter). For some, being part of KU and offering their work to Amazon Prime subscribers has worked well. In fact, some authors swear by it. They get thousands of page reads per day, their rankings rise and so, in addition to the page-read royalties offered by Amazon, they also benefit from increased exposure and, as a result, enjoy a rise in true sales too. It seemed a win-win opportunity for me, so I launched RENOVO straight into KU without a second thought, closely following it with RENOVO Grounded a few months later.

I was disappointed.

In my best month I think I made about 10,000 page reads. I know many authors getting more than that every day. And that figure is from a new release; currently I’m lucky to get a few hundred page reads. I don’t really know what went wrong; the cover’s good, it’s my best work to date and the reviews are all good too. However, these things happen.

There’s also the issue of exclusivity, especially after it’s come to light that, in a bid to cut down on potential fraud with page-read numbers, Amazon have simply shut down some authors account, no questions asked. If you’re all in with KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) and make your living that way, to have your account shut is devastating. It can take some time to sort out opening accounts at other venues and some, such as Google Play, remain shut for new authors so if you rely on an Amazon paycheck…then your life can pretty much be ruined!

So, the good news is that RENOVO is now up on Google Play and Smashwords, and will soon find its way to iBooks, Nook and the many other platforms on offer. In many ways I’m relieved; I like offering my work to everyone instead of a core audience only on Amazon. I probably wouldn’t be saying that if I’d made my living off page reads; but I haven’t – I’m still an indie prawn struggling in obscurity and fighting the balancing act between finding time to write and trying to pay my bills by other means. RENOVO Grounded is in KU for another couple of days and then I’ll be free of the almighty ‘zon.

Onwards!