The fifth book in my Lou Elliott mystery adventure series has just been published

Hello! It's out there at long, long last - Secrets in the Mountains is the fifth book in my Lou Elliott mystery adventure series. I meant to get it written and published ages ago and it should never have been this long.

Unfortunately, the demands of day-to-day life, not least the growing care needs of our 12-year-old autistic son, lovely boy though he is, are unrelenting and it is a case of squeezing my writing in around other priorities. But what I found while writing Secrets in the Mountains is how great it was to be reunited with my fictional characters, Jack, David, Emily and the irrepressible Louise Elliott. How the Johnson children's poor parents Paul and Liz must worry for their offspring when she's around!

Well no, that's not entirely fair. Lou, now thirteen, is a lovely girl. She's someone who I, as a father of a ten-year-old girl, would be proud to call a daughter. Of course, what's disconcerting about Lou is that lots of strange things seem to happen when she is on the scene.

The children's fifth adventure isn't going to reassure Mr and Mrs Johnson a great deal. Mum and dad rather stick their foot in it with their children this time. They have taken them away camping to a lovely campsite in Snowdonia where Lou, at the start of the book, is poised to join them. Unfortunately, the parents  go and admit to the children that one reason why they've gone camping this year is to keep them well away from those disused manganese mines on the North Wales coast they got stuck down the previous summer. The children love going to the family caravan at Abersoch and weren't very pleased to learn that they had effectively been banned from the place! And all because Jack and David were overheard saying they'd quite like a return visit to the mines.

Mr Johnson seeks to make amends by taking the children out for a treat in Snowdonia and unwittingly sets rolling a chain of events that leads them to what I would say is their most exciting, and at times terrifying adventure so far.

I hope readers of the Lou Elliott series will enjoy the latest addition. It's only available on Kindle at the moment but a paperback version will be coming out shortly. It moves back from the more "mystery detective" thrust of Trouble at Chumley Towers, to very much the "action and adventure" category. It was exciting to write and I hope you will be excited to read it. Do let me know how you get on with it, if you have time! My email address as always is georgechedzoy@hotmail.co.uk

I'll blog some more on the book when time permits.

All the best,

George

Fourth book in the Lou Elliott mystery adventure series now available for advance orders

Greetings! It's been so long since I wrote a blog entry that I couldn't even remember my password. I just fell out of the habit of blogging and, as I alluded to in my last entry ages ago, I was seized for a long time with writer's block.

Furthermore, I also lost my George Chedzoy hotmail account because it was inadvertently deleted so apologies to anyone who has emailed me in recent months and not had a reply. Please do get in touch again.

I know that a number of people have been hoping that I would write a fourth book in my Lou Elliott mystery adventure series, which began with Smugglers at Whistling Sands. At last, I have! It will be published on Amazon on July 4th, 2015, and is called Trouble at Chumley Towers. You can already buy it as an ebook priced £1.99, or the equivalent in other currencies as an advance order. I submitted the final manuscript to Kindle Direct Publishing yesterday evening at 9pm after working throughout the day on last-minute alterations.

Trouble at Chumley Towers is the longest in the series, at just over 73,500 words. Furthermore the age category for this book is more like 10 to 15 than 8 to 12. This book moves genre slightly into detective fiction and away from mystery adventure. The children, Lou Elliott and siblings Jack, David and Emily Johnson embark on a whodunit. A number of thefts have taken place from Chumley Towers, a stately home just outside Malpas in Cheshire. We join them just days away from celebrating Christmas. Lou - who is facing the prospect of a miserable Christmas at home with her uncaring parents - comes to stay with the Johnsons. She's delighted to have the chance to experience a proper family Christmas and also pleased to help lead the others in the pursuit of the thief or thieves targeting Chumley Towers.

I really enjoyed writing this book and getting to know my main characters a bit better and giving them a chance to take on the baddies once again. The items taken from the Towers are not priceless heirlooms but are nonetheless of great sentimental value to its owners, Lord and Lady Somerset. Lord Henry Somerset is the Ninth Marquess of Chumley and the Towers has been in his family's possession for centuries.

Like many aristocratic families over the years, they are struggling with the upkeep of their huge home and grounds and do not have the wide array of domestic staff which would once have worked in a place like this. They open their doors to the public to bring in vital extra income yet as a result, are vulnerable to some light-fingered person out there coming in and quietly taking away some of their treasured possessions. This could be the last straw which persuades them to sell up and move out altogether, which would be a very sad day, not only for them but the residents of Malpas.

I really hope you will enjoy this addition to the series and a chance to catch up with Lou, Jack, David and Emily again. Lou is a teenager now, she has turned 13 and Jack is not far behind her. David is still 11 and Emily 10.

Over the next few days, I'll bring you more news on the new book and what to expect in it. Remember that you can already order it on Amazon and be among the first to read it from July 4th.

Variable sales since price rise, and a fantastic email

If I'd written this blog entry three nights ago, it would have been to report cheerfully that my price increase from 99p to £1.99 had gone swimmingly and had, if anything, helped increase sales.

But pride, as always, comes before a fall. I had four UK sales over the weekend at £1.99 and a sale on Monday evening, but nothing since. I also haven't had a buyer on Amazon.com in over a week. But for now at least, I am going to hold firm at £1.99.

I do think it is a reasonable price - a fair mid-point between the prices that established publishing houses charge and the bargain basement indie brigade who flog their wares for 77p or less. As I suggested in my last post, if authors such as myself insist on selling books that cheap then ultimately writing novels will be reduced to being merely an amusing hobby, never a career, and that would be a shame.

Anyway, cheering me up somewhat is the following fantastic email I received from a reader who clearly shares my love for the Lleyn Peninsula - she's a "northerner" where the peninsula is concerned (Nefyn) while I'm a southerner - Abersoch. This is what she had to say about Smugglers at Whistling Sands:

Hello George, I have just bought a kindle touch and yours is the first book that I have read. It was recommended by my friend as we both have a caravan on the Llyn peninsular mine is at Morfa Nrfyn at Dinas and my favourite beach is Whistling sands!! I have loved your novel what an enchanting story I have read it in two days and being a busy mum with three young children that is a mean feat!! My ten year old is going to start reading it tonight I am so excited to go to Porth Ysgo on my next visit to my caravan I also love pith Dinllaen where the ty Coch pub is on the beach Thank you 

When people take the time and trouble to write to you with comments like that, it really does make it all worthwhile. And that's why I want to make it as a novelist - the sheer satisfaction of producing something creative that others will enjoy.

My children's adventure novel set at Abersoch, North Wales, free on Kindle today!

Well I am sitting here on holiday at Abersoch on the Lleyn peninsula coast of North Wales enjoying glorious sunshine. I've just been down to the beach with my wife and kids and come back to find that I've had three people so far who have downloaded my book for free today.

I thought it would be a nice way to mark being back at wonderful Abersoch to have another free day for my novel, Smugglers at Whistling Sands, in Amazon's Kindle store. So PLEASE take advantage of it, go on to Amazon.co.uk, or Amazon.com and get a free copy of my children's adventure novel.

If you like it, all I would ask is that you mention it to others and - if you have time - consider leaving me a short review on my Amazon listing which will really help me as an unknown author to get known.

The book, as regular readers of this blog will know, is intended for children aged 9+ but is also intended to be perfectly readable by adults. It should appeal if you enjoy good, wholesome, mystery/adventure stories, loosely inspired by the great Enid Blyton and her Famous Five series.

Anyway, enough talking from me, I'll leave you to get a copy of your free book - just click on the Amazon links to it on the right hand side of this page - Amazon.co.uk for British readers and Amazon.com for the American site.

Do let me know how you get on!

Listing back up and a (small) sales flurry!

Well, maybe I should ask Amazon / Kindle Direct Publishing to lose my ebook listing a bit more often. Despite Smugglers at Whistling Sands being unavailable to buy for most of yesterday, I've managed three sales between yesterday evening and this morning.

So I'm really chuffed by that and it's pushed me into the top 100 paid-for books in the category Children's Fiction Action & Adventure. I am going to watch my sales closely for Smugglers - if it does start to take off, I will definitely write a sequel. If the demand is there, then I will be delighted to get headstrong Lou Elliott and siblings Jack, David and Emily back together at Abersoch for another holiday and who knows, possibly fall into another adventure!

Meanwhile, work continues on my second very different book aimed at the adult market. I called it a horror story in a previous post but I don't think it will spill into that genre particularly, I think it will be more in the realms of tense, pyschological thriller. I'm not sure I'm the type to write "horror" if you know what I mean.

I've got nearly 4,000 words written but before I go any further with it I am going to let my imagination guide me into mapping out a full plot. So far, I have just allowed it to gush out of my head but I do think that an author needs a basic structure as a guide - from which one can always stray, of course.

Anyway enough about my fiction ambitions - here's some non-fiction for you: I have a day's newspaper writing to do. I'm working from home today, the sun is shining, it's a fairly blue sky from what I can see through the skylight and so I must prioritise that which pays the bills!

Not brilliant sales but a brilliant new review for my book!

Well, sales have continued to bump along not very fast in this second week since my first free promotion on Amazon. But this is how it can pay off - I've just had my first book review on Amazon.com (I've got two on Amazon.co.uk) - and it's very positive. Four stars out of five from somebody who lives in Illinois, and a nice write-up, which I include as follows:


4.0 out of 5 stars Fun book to read, March 1, 2012
By Happylakedreamer (Illinois) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Smugglers at Whistling Sands (Kindle Edition)
This was a great book to read. I enjoyed the characters and the story very much. It is great to read on a rainy Saturday or while on vacation, especially at the beach. Everyone loves hidden treasure and this book delivers a bit of both that and the mystery of the smugglers. It is a quick read with modern characters and present day life situations that will entertain young as well as old readers. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a good story to keep them entertained.
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Good reviews are vital to have any chance of making it in Amazon's Kindle book store and to have my first ever one on Amazon.com is fantastic.

And here's a bit of exclusive info for you readers of my blog out there - I'm running another free promotion tomorrow Saturday March 3rd 2012, so if you haven't already got a copy of my ebook Smugglers at Whistling Sands, tomorrow would be a great opportunity to do so. Mind you, it's only 77p in any case of course!

Sales-wise, not a great week: Monday: 1; Tuesday: 0; Wednesday: 2: Thursday: 1; Friday (so far): 0.

Tomorrow freebie day, so hoping lots of people will download the book and maybe it will help create a buzz and help to kick sales off. I remain convinced, as I said in a previous post, that it is important for unknown authors to swallow their pride and sell cheap with free promotions.

Free promotion on Kindle has helped - seven sales so far today

I was too ready to feel disappointed about my free 24-hour promotion at the weekend. I have had seven sales today, six on Amazon.co.uk and one on Amazon.com. I feel pretty certain that they may well have been sparked from my promotion.

If so, that is a very good sign, because it is an indication of a sales increase caused by word of mouth from satisfied customers - the same basis on which a good restaurant will thrive. So I have just a nugget of hope that my book might start to take off. The six UK sales all came this afternoon, and have pushed me into three bestseller lists on the paid-for side: (correct as of 8.56pm on Weds Feb 22):

Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #3,307 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
#34 in Kindle Store > Books > Fiction > Children's Fiction > Literature > Action & Adventure
#50 in Books > Children's Books > Fiction > Crime & Thrillers
#78 in Kindle Store > Books > Fiction > Children's Fiction > Literature > Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery & Horror

I am really pleased about this, coming two days short of a week since my new, improved book went back on sale. I was reading it myself on the train to work today and, maddeningly, came across about half a dozen errors that need putting right. But these are minor ones which readers might not even spot (although they may spot ones that I don't see!) - what I am so pleased about is that I had the sense to withdraw the book from sale last October when I realised the plot construction was flawed and needed improving.

I do feel now I've got a book to be proud of - just need more buyers!

Two sales today (which is progress!)

I am quite pleased today that I have had two sales of my book, one on Amazon.com and the other on Amazon.co.uk. That is better than nothing and it does mean that since my book promotion I have sold an extra five. Added to that are the two books I sold immediately prior to the promotion starting.

So that is seven paid-for sales for Smugglers at Whistling Sands since it was relaunched in Amazon's Kindle store Friday. It could start to build momentum from this point, or it could just fizzle out, but we shall see. I believe strongly that I have just got to keep the faith now, I have got the book how I want it and I've got to start pushing it in various different ways.

The twin planks to my strategy as an unknown author is a) sell cheaply - 77p UK and $1.22 including sales tax in America and b) to promote and promote. I shall be using all the remaining four of my free promotion days over the next three months, but spacing them out sparingly.

Tomorrow, my target is to sell three . . . !

And now for the reality check . . .

What a difference 77p makes! I had a total of around 312 downloads of Smugglers at Whistling Sands during its 24-hour free promotion. After this I had three I think paid-for sales fairly soon afterwards. I can't be totally sure of exactly what came after the end of the promotion.

I can be clear, however, on the fact that from 10.30am today all sales have completely dried up. On the face of it, it is very disappointing. But it has to be borne in mind that offering something for free is inevitably going to be easier than charging money.

Insofar as more than 300 people have now got a copy of my book, I think it was a successful exercise. If some of them bother to read it, like it and tell others, then it may help what is an unknown book gather momentum. I suppose it was inevitable that once it went back into the paid-for category sales would revert more or less to what they were previously. I should remember that I've only had it back on sale from Friday - ie. four days ago!

I think it is great that Amazon allows authors five days of free promotion during a three-month period. I just wish it was more than that.

My hope is that some of yesterday's downloaders will read it, review it and get the word out - and that slowly but surely, the paid-for book will get bought. I know how much better it is than the version I published last year, I really think I've got it how I want it now.

At last - Smugglers at Whistling Sands is back on sale!

Hello again, have you forgotten me? I wouldn't blame you if you had! Anyway I have finally come out of hibernation to reveal that I have now got my children's novel back on sale in Amazon's Kindle store - the new, improved Smugglers at Whistling Sands is now back on sale!

If you click on the product link on the side of this page it will take you straight to it. I've listed it for an introductory price of just 77p - the minimal possible. Thanks to the VAT reduction, that is the cheapest it has ever been and there is now about 3,500 words more to read. It was originally 22 chapters long and I've had to create two new chapters to accommodate the extra length.

The important thing, however, isn't that it is longer, but that it is better. It is simply a much better read than before. I had the making of a good book before (if I may say so) but I committed a fundamental error by allowing the mystery involving the smugglers to be effectively solved by the forces of law and order. In short, the kids, and in particular Lou the lead character in the novel, simply did not do enough.

I believe I have now got a far more satisfying, rounded, exciting novel than before - fun where it should be fun - and nail-biting where it should be nail-biting.

It isn't for me to say that it's a good book, that's for readers to judge, but I can hand on heart say that it is in a different league to the earlier version. I had 46 buyers before I removed it from sale at the end of October - if you are one of them, you may find that the version you have already bought is over-written with the new file, it depends on your Kindle preferences. If not I hope you will not be too annoyed with me if I suggest that you might like to purchase the new version. I will keep it priced at 77p for the foreseeable future, and maybe indefinitely, if I can pick up reasonable sales at this price.

Please try it - and if you like it, please consider taking time out to post a review on Amazon, for unknown authors it can help enormously to picking up a wider following.

Bye for now, and sorry for leaving it so long . . .

Right, roll up sleeves - time to get to work on new ending for my book!

It's 9.45 Saturday morning, I've got the house to myself until at least the middle of the afternoon, at last a window of opportunity to make the changes I want to make to my novel, Smugglers at Whistling Sands.

I've been wanting to crack on with it all week, but have had a very busy few days and it's so valuable to have a few hours free and without interruptions. Phone do not ring! (If you do, I may not answer!)

Right, on which note, I'm not going to sit here extending this blog entry any further. I need to be getting on with it. Tonight, the family are going round to some friends in the village who are holding a bonfire party as we remember, remember the Fifth of November. Fingers crossed the weather stays dry.

I will report back on how I got on either tonight or tomorrow, and I hope to be able to report that I have made some real progress. Here goes!

Smugglers at Whistling Sands to get a new ending

I've spent a few hours today, including the extra one from the clocks going back an hour overnight, mapping out a new structure for the closing chapters of Smugglers at Whistling Sands.

As I explained in my previous post, because this is major surgery and not just minor tweaks, I no longer wish to be selling a version I am not happy with and am poised to replace and for that reason the book can't be bought any more.

Such is the flexibility of publishing a novel as an ebook, one can make these changes without having to wait for the end of a print run. I absolutely guarantee to allow those who have bought my book so far to have a copy of the revised ending.
I am very pleased at the progress I have made today in mapping out what I believe to be a better, more satisfying, more exciting ending for Smugglers at Whistling Sands and one which does proper justice to the confident, capable, strong-willed lead character, Lou (Louise) Elliott.

That now leaves me with the small matter of a complete re-write of the last 4,000 words. If the book becomes longer, and it might, then this will be possibly a writing job of some 6,000 words, some of which will ultimately be cut away in editing.

I do feel that I have grown as a writer since I penned this book. I can see flaws in it now that I could not see when writing it. By putting those flaws right, I will then have a novel which I feel I can be proud of and be confident in offering for sale.

How long will it take before I am in a position to sell it again? I'm not sure, but I've set myself a month to get it sorted and back on sale from December 1, 2011. It's frustrating in a way, because I want to be getting on with writing a second book, not fiddling with my debut one. But by getting this one right, I've got more chance of getting my next one right as well.

I've stopped selling Smugglers while I make a few adjustments

At the risk of annoying some people, not least those who have already bought my children's adventure novel Smugglers at Whistling Sands, I have decided to withdraw it from sale in Amazon's Kindle store. This is only a temporary measure to allow me breathing space while I make changes which I believe are necessary.

If these were just purely cosmetic I would keep the book on sale and just upload a revised version to over-write the existing file. But I have grown dissatisfied with a few aspects of the book, in particular, the ending.

I cannot explain why and what I intend to change without introducing a spoiler but I will say this: Lou is the lead character in the novel and I feel I let her down towards the end, cutting short her important role. If I am not happy with the book as things stand, then it is not fair of me to continue to sell it until I am.

For those who have already bought the book, I am more than willing to email you the revised ending when it is ready, just drop me a line.

Writing my first-ever novel has proved a big learning curve for me but it is the act of publishing it, the feedback I've got and the greater awareness I feel I now have about writing a good children's book that has persuaded me to go back into Smugglers and give it a few tweaks.

I can do that best by withdrawing it until the changes are in place.

Price promotion - price of book reduced from £1.71 to 86p

I've decided to cut the price of my Kindle ebook Smugglers at Whistling Sands from £1.71 to 86p for now. Sales have tailed off in the last fortnight, it's my fault because I haven't had the time to promote the book properly but I'm going to start pushing it with a straightforward price drop.

I was worried before that selling it so cheaply could be taken as a sign of poor quality or lack of confidence on the part of the author, but there are so many good books out there for 86p or less. Incidentally, you cannot set your price for less than 86p, but if Amazon become aware it is for sale for less than 86p elsewhere on the internet, such as on Smashwords, then they will cut the price to match. I only sell on Amazon at the moment, so 86p is the lowest it can be sold for.

I have to face facts, I am still an unknown author - I have had 47 sales since mid-summer, none of which have (to my knowledge) gone to friends and family, since I only wanted what I call "genunine" purchases. Forty-seven is a lot better than none, which is the fate of quite a few unknown authors selling their self-published novels. But if I want more I have got to raise my game. Writing the book in the first place is proving to be only half the battle - possibly the easier half.

A bit about my book, Smugglers at Whistling Sands

I said in my last blog I'd give people a bit more of an insight into my children's adventure novel, Smugglers at Whistling Sands, based at Abersoch, North Wales.

Actually, looking back through my earlier blogs, I did talk about it a bit in my entry on August 20th, that said, it's probably well worth offering a reminder, especially for those of you who have only recently discovered my blog.

As I mentioned just over a month ago, Abersoch and the surrounding area is in my blood - I love the place and have been going there on holiday all my life - ie. for 44 years! So when I decided to write a children's adventure novel, the part of the world which has such fond memories for me seemed the obvious location.

The title makes no reference to Abersoch, but refers to Whistling Sands as in "Smugglers At Whistling Sands". As you'll gather from that, this beach does feature prominently in the book, and the sand on that beach does whistle by the way. Well, not whistle exactly, it's more of a squeak - but in all the beaches I've ever walked on, I've known any other sand to make that noise as you walk across it.

The youngsters who feature in this book are on holiday at Abersoch but they do not just stay put there. Their adventure takes them to a number of places including Whistling Sands obviously but also the St Tudwal's Islands, Aberdaron and Porth Ysgo - a remote beach nearby, and the hillside above - and the disused manganese mine to be found there.

The owners of the Vaynol Arms public house in Abersoch might be pleased (I hope) to discover that their premises features in the novel. Oh and the grotty hotel where one of the smugglers stays is, I hasten to add, a figment of my imagination!

The action centres around the Johnson children, Jack, David and Emily (aged 12, 11 and 10 respectively) and a headstrong girl called Lou whom they meet on the beach. It is she who is the catalyst for these rather dull Johnson siblings to spread their wings a bit. And what better time to do that than when they should happen across the activities of smugglers!

As I said in August, there is quite a lot of realism in this story, for all the fact that it is a rather post-modern children's adventure owing some of its inspiration to Enid Blyton's novels which I enjoyed a great deal as a child.The activities of the smugglers are based on real life occurences and if you do a search on Google at the point when the children do their Google search, you might well come across references to real-life smuggling which was in part the raw material for the book.

I could say more, but Downton Abbey is about to start. (Martin in Canada, you may not know what I mean by that but all UK residents will!)

PS: Sales update: four sales over the weekend takes tally to 43 - will I make the big 50 by next Sunday? If I do, as I said before, I guarantee to write a sequel.

Couple more sales and a really nice email is spurring me on to thoughts of a sequel

My decision to put the price of my novel Smugglers At Whistling Sands back up to £1.71 seems if anything to have increased sales. I've had a flurry of three over the last couple of days and an email from my latest buyer very pleased with the book.

Interestingly, she actually thought it was too cheap at £1.71. I don't agree - I don't intend to increase the price on my Amazon ebook any further. £1.71 (£1.49 plus VAT) is the lowest I can charge to qualify for the 70% royalty. At its previous price of 86p I only got a 35% royalty which equated to 26p profit per sale. But at £1.71 I get 99p and I think, for an ebook that is a perfectly reasonable cut. I do not understand why it is that major publishers feel the need to charge almost as much for an ebook as they do for the paper and ink version.

That said, and maybe not everyone knows this, hard copies of books do not attract VAT - but ebooks do and Amazon - as the seller - must therefore apply 20% VAT to the £1.49 cost of my book, hence the VAT inclusive price of £1.71. But I still find it hard to stomach that an ebook, even of world-famous authors, should cost £6 or more. For me, £1.71 is just fine. A smallish sum for the buyer but a reasonable return for the author. Above all - and this is the key reason for dropping the 86p price tag - it is because it puts off more buyers than it attracts.

The sort of person keen to buy a children's novel like this, either as a nostalgic read for themselves or for their kids, aren't likely to need to be corralled into a purchase with an ultra-cheap price.

Anyway, it was great to have a few words of appreciation for the book because like most writers I am inherently insecure and love praise. And I am now seriously turning my mind to a possible sequel to Smugglers. I said I would start one for definite if I could reach a total of 50 sales by the end of September. I am 15 sales adrift so that might be pushing it - but when that milestone is reached, particularly if it's fairly soon, I will definitely consider it.

A few more sales - just wish I could invest more time in pushing my book

Despite having done very little to promote my book - including failing to keep this blog up to date - I have continued to pick up slow but steady sales. In my last entry I had reached a milestone of 20 sales of Smugglers at Whistling Sands. This tally has now leaped to 31 - well I say leaped, it is after all nearly a fortnight since I wrote that entry!

On Saturday evening I had two sales and this afternoon I had another two, which pushed me up to #35 in the top 100 in children's fiction action & adventure category on Amazon's Kindle bookstore.

I badly need to start pushing the book again to build on this - selective use of Twitter and Facebook spring to mind, but it all takes time and I've been very busy with work and also family matters over the last few days.

My very first buyer, fellow fledgling novelist Martin Jones in Toronto, Canada, has done me an excellent analysis of the first chapter of my book, which I'm very grateful for. The value of having a fresh pair of eyes can be summed up in just one observation alone of his - something no-one else has spotted, including my wife! I was selling my ebook with one of the principal characters, 12-year-old Jack, referred to in the first chapter as "John".

John was his original name, but I changed it to Jack ages ago, and thought I had altered every single reference in the book - but clearly I missed one. As soon as I read this, I changed the hard copy of the novel in Word format on my desktop, converted it to ebook format and uploaded it to Amazon to over-write the original file. I am not happy that a good few people will have bought my book with that mistake contained in it - that said, it will create no more than a momentary confusion and I don't think anyone will be that furious with me. But certainly I feel a little furious with myself!

There are three or four other minor changes I intend to make arising from Martin's analysis. And a number of his suggestions I will reject and leave things as they are, grateful though I am for them. It's a sign of strength to listen to criticism and be willing to change your novel - but it's also a sign of strength to reject certain observations and say, "well, I'm the author, that's how I want it!"

I shall soon be sending Martin a little analysis of my own of his part-written book, and I expect him to do the same - maybe take on board some of what I say, and reject some of it. Talking of which, I think it's time I plugged his book in this blog which I am very much enjoying. I find it's whole basis is highly original and unusual. It's called They Shoot Birds Don't They? - and you can find a long extract from it on the writers' site Authonomy.com run by HarperCollins, under Martin's author name MP Jones. Click here to go directly to it. Martin's book is now ranked very highly by fellow members, up to 117 as I write this out of several thousand other books. So take a look!

Talking of which, the Authonomy website is very interesting, not had time to get my head round it properly yet, but looking forward to delving into it in more detail. And I promise not to leave it another fortnight before updating this blog!

Milestone of sorts as I reach 20 sales

Apologies for taking five whole days since I last updated this blog. It isn't a sign that my interest is waning in my book writing project. Quite the contrary in fact, I am raring to get stuck in, both in promoting my current book, and starting to get on with writing another.

I have not been selling well the last few days, there has been a definite slow down, but I think that is probably as much as anything to do with the fact that many people still simply do not know about my book, Smugglers at Whistling Sands.

But tonight I had my 17th sale on Amazon.co.uk and I have now had three sales on Amazon.com making 20 in total. When you consider that those sales have come in little over my first month I should not be too displeased. I am now, temporarily no doubt, back in the top 100 bestsellers in the category children's fiction, action and adventure on Amazon.co.uk - just - at #99.

I think I should mention as well, the power of Twitter - I searched on the key word Abersoch on Twitter at the weekend and a few tweets came up from people who had mentioned Abersoch. I sent a personalised tweet to one of them, the woman in question had already heard of my book, was delighted I had got in touch and promptly bought it, once I had explained how. She also told a friend of hers who has since been in touch via Twitter but who wants to wait until I bring out the hard copy of Smugglers (which I will at some stage).

I mentioned how keen I am to plunge myself into my novel writing ambitions. Unfortunately for me, I have been kept very busy at work recently, not only trying to keep up to speed with my own output of columns, leader columns and features, but having to cover for the farming correspondent who is currently off.

And the more work I have to do, the more I daydream about novel-writing and then take even longer getting stuff done. I need to have more self discipline, dear boy, I tell myself. Unfortunately, I don't always listen, not even to myself!

A five-star review for Smugglers on Amazon

My book picked up a fantastic review last night posted on my Amazon listing from Canadian buyer Martin Jones in Toronto - and it may well be no coincidence that I had two sales overnight, taking me to 9, of which 4 were in the last 12 hours. (Click the Amazon link to my book on the right hand side to see Martin's review and info about the book).

I was sort of dreading my first review so I was delighted to receive such a good one and a couple of criticisms made by Martin were delivered gently and constructively. Book reviews are in the hands of the reader and can be as harsh or as flattering as people wish to deliver them and that's the way it should be.

What particularly pleased me is that he clearly enjoyed Smugglers At Whistling Sands and felt that it had pace and was a page-turner - which is what I wanted. I hope other buyers will also find the time to post reviews and I really do hope I can keep getting the book out there and selling. I am not interested in acquiring riches - what I want is readers!

Martin described my book as "fantastic value" at 86p and said that its low price didn't reflect its quality. He felt it must be a marketing strategy on my part to set the price at that level. He is absolutely right - the marketing strategy is to maximise sales - ie. readers. My research tells me that setting the price low is important for unknown and self-published authors like me if we are to have any hope of readers taking a risk on us. At 86p I am hopefully worth a punt - but why should you pay £4.99 when you've never heard of me before?

Longer term, I would love to make money from writing novels for this very simple reason: if it paid the bills then producing creative fiction is where I want to be. The important point though, is to write for the love of it, and if it pays, it can become the day job. Until then, as the saying goes: don't give up the day job!

A little more about my book based at Abersoch and the Llyn peninsula

A number of people are finding this blog from the Abersoch website www.abersoch.co.uk which is very pleasing and I'd like to give  you a quick introduction to the book and its connections to Abersoch and the Llyn or the Lleyn as many people still spell it.

Abersoch and the surrounding area is in my blood - I love the place and have been going there on holiday all my life - so for 44 years to be precise! So when I decided to write a children's adventure novel, the part of the world which has such fond memories for me seemed the obvious location.

The title makes no reference to Abersoch of course, but instead refers to Whistling Sands as in "Smugglers At Whistling Sands". The youngsters who feature in this book are on holiday at Abersoch but they do not just stay put there. Their adventure takes them to a number of places including Whistling Sands obviously but also the St Tudwal's Islands, Aberdaron and Porth Ysgo - a remote beach nearby, and the hillside above. The owners of the Vaynol Arms public house in Abersoch might be pleased (I hope) to discover that their premises features in the novel.

The action centres around the Johnson children, Jack, David and Emily (aged 12, 11 and 10 respectively) and a headstrong girl called Lou whom they meet on the beach. It is she who is the catalyst for these rather dull Johnson siblings to spread their wings a bit. And what better time to do that than when they should happen across the activities of smugglers!

I don't wish to give too much away about the plot but there is quite a lot of realism in this story, for all the fact that it is a rather post-modern children's adventure owing some of its inspiration to Enid Blyton's novels which I enjoyed a great deal as a child.The activities of the smugglers are based on real life occurences and if you do a search on Google at the point when the children do their Google search, you might well come across references to real-life smuggling which was in part the raw material for the book.

My chief hope is that my novel will appeal to youngsters and indeed adults who either have a connection to the Abersoch / Llyn peninsula area or enjoy traditional Blytonesque adventure stories. There's a bit more info on the book's Amazon listing - you can find a link to it on the right hand side of this page.

Well I better close for now because I am still trying to hack the bamboo roots out at the front of the house and pretty difficult work it is too. Oh by the way, for those of you who have been following my blog and my efforts to actually sell my book, my sales tally has now risen majestically from four to . . .  five! I don't care if that isn't very good, I'm pleased (and if I'm pleased, that's the main thing!).

Right, off to be bamboo-zled (groan).