So that was Christmas!

Another festive day is done. Too much food has been eaten (a pork roast in our case), and many gaily wrapped presents have been opened.
I hope you all had a great day, wherever you happen to be in the world!

By the way, if I could just embrace the true spirit of the season (ie. crass commercialisation), if you happened to get an eReader from Santa, my novel, Crystal Eyes, is available from pretty much all the main eBook retailers. I'm just sayin'...
Even bought my dad a Kindle for Christmas - there's nothing I won't do for an extra sale!

The Price is Ri...Wro...oh hell, I don't know

Money.  A discomfiting subject, crass and unsavoury, yet a necessary one.
The reason why money is on my mind (and I got my mind on my money) is that I'm trying to work out what the hell I ought to be charging for my first Novel (Crystal Eyes, now available at all good eBook retailers!).
There are several things to balance: how much do I think it's worth? What's the market rate? How low can I price it without seeming to devalue it? How high can I price it without putting people off?

There is no guide out there that says "Yes, this is the correct price!", you just have to try and make it up as you go.  I'm guessing, in other words.
On the one hand, I want people to read and enjoy it, that gives me satisfaction, but on the other hand, I dream of making my living writing novels and a lot of work has gone into the creation of Crystal Eyes.
The thing is, away from the headline grabbers like Rowling, Pratchett and Martin, the marketplaces of the Kindle and iBooks are flooded with other authors just like me and we're all trying to get our books read and, maybe, if we're lucky, get some cash.  It's a minefield and I have no idea what I'm doing.  I have the horrible feeling that no one else does either, despite the number of Guides to Selling Your eBook that are available!
And all of this is before you get into the whole Amazon KDP Select business - I really don't know what to make of that.  Not convinced it's a good thing for a little inde author like myself.
Also, my book's just gone live on iTunes, which I'm thrilled about, except iTunes seems to be entirely ignoring exchange rates - it's 99 cents in the US and 99 pence in the UK.  This means that anywhere else that sells Crystal Eyes in the UK is effectively undercutting Apple and I have no control over how Apple set the price - it's sent to them through an intermediary company called Smashwords.

It's all terribly confusing so, rather than try to puzzle it out, I'm going to make a coffee and Baileys (mmmm) and play Star Wars: The Old Republic (short review: meh. Good, not great, doubt I'll sub to it)

Reviews!!!

I felt I had to write a blog post to celebrate getting my first reviews for Crystal Eyes on Amazon, both 5 stars!

The very first one was on Amazon US (and can be found here) and the reviewer got in touch via Twitter to mention it.  It was a very gratifying and exciting moment; very satisfying to discover that I'd created something that someone had enjoyed!
It was a well written review and certainly made some very valid criticisms (his point about the first chapter being long and delaying the start of the story was one I wrestled with a great deal before publication - that opening section was deleted and added back in about four times).

His homepage is http://dlmorrese.wordpress.com/ and I think it would be well worth your time to check his work out.

The second review appeared on Amazon UK tonight (apparently left by one R. Rat...), and again it was 5 stars!

A huge thank you to both reviewers, and also to the one random sale I've had on the Spanish Amazon store.  I don't know who you are or how you stumbled on Crystal Eyes, but gracias!

This has been a good day.  And now, back to editing my NaNoWriMo novel

NaNoWriMo and beyond!

As another fabulous NaNoWriMo comes to a close, I thought I'd look back on a month of hectic wordage.
I shall start in somewhat smug fashion and declare myself a winner!
Yay, me!

It's been a fun November, helped by the fact that I really enjoyed the story I was writing - a lighthearted fantasy novel called Heroes Wanted that should, hopefully, be ready for publication in spring of next year.
There was some sadness as well, with the passing of Anne McCaffrey.  As a callow youth I spent a great deal of time reading her Dragonriders of Pern series - she created a fantastic world in which it was a joy to spend time, one that was a huge influence on me and a driving force in cementing my love of words and literature.  Now that NaNoWriMo is over, I find myself with an urge to go back and revisit Pern.  It has been too long...

Back to NaNo:
I did fall quite a long way back for awhile.  This was entirely my friend Karen's fault - she came to visit for a weekend.  There was boozing, there was gaming, there were excellent fish and chips in Lytham, Lancashire.  What there wasn't, was writing.

Luckily, I had booked the last full week of November off from work, to dedicate myself to catching up.  I eventually finished on the last day of my holiday, Sunday the 27th.  It wasn't all writing: I played some Skyrim (awesome) and the Star Wars: The Old Republic beta (less awesome - more on that in another post).  But that week was, for the most part, a whirlwind of words.  Felt good, felt damned good!
So I treated myself to a Sonos Zoneplayer from Amazon - I love this thing!  Beautifully simple to set up and use, amazing sound.
Anyway, the first draft of the novel is pretty much done.  It needs much work, some fleshing out in places, scenes need tweaking and the dialogue needs a going over but, overall, I'm quite pleased with it.
So pleased in fact, that I've decided to give you, yes YOU!, a free eBook!  A copy of my debut novel, Crystal Eyes, no less!
Take yourself over to http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/99280, stick it in your basket and, when you reach the checkout, enter the code CM23Y to get it for nowt!  That's free, gratis and for nothing!
Once bought, it can be downloaded in formats suitable for any eReader - Kindle, iPad, Nook and so on.

Enjoy...I hope.

NOTE: The voucher code will expire on Saturday the 3rd of December.  After that, you gots to pay!

Bugger it all

Just a short, sad update.
My friend's ball in aid of Breast Cancer Care had to be cancelled.  In order for the venue to let her have the space for free they required a certain number of people to be attending and I'm afraid the numbers just didn't come forward.
It saddens me that there weren't enough people willing to go for a good night out in aid of an excellent cause.

Even though it didn't work out it was still a great thing she tried to do and it did raise a good chunk of money for BCC in the end.

So here's to Kirsty Winskill, the world's pre-eminent Buffy expert, for trying to make a difference.