The fifth book in my Lou Elliott series is now underway (at last!)

Hello! Yes I know, I only ever seem to write blog entries when I want something but I really do intend to start blogging more regularly (honest!).

Anyway, I have some important news to tell you about: work is now underway on the fifth book in my Lou Elliott mystery adventure series. I know it's been a long while and many of my readers will probably have thought I'd abandoned it but it's not the case. I've just been waylaid with so many other things which have demanded my time.

But it's great to get back to the series and to pick up again with the characters and find out what they've been getting up to. Lou, Jack, David and Emily are all fine and they've been having a great summer holiday in Snowdonia where they've been camping. The parents of the Johnson children are with them this time, and wrongly supposed that they could keep their eye on them and stop them from falling into another adventure. How wrong can you be!

I am hoping that the book will come out in time for Christmas (2017) but it's possible that it may not be ready until early January. The important thing though, is that book five is on its way and it definitely won't be the last. So watch this space, I will post regular updates on this blog.

And now, if you'll excuse me, I better get back to writing it. Things are hotting up!

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.

Meet the author of Smugglers at Whistling Sands . . . on Whistling Sands

Thousands of apologies for my lack of blogging over the summer, there is no excuse for it.

Anyway, despite my silence, I've sold a good few dozen electronic copies of my children's adventure novel Smugglers at Whistling Sands over the last three months and have been delighted at the feedback I've received from some readers, including a good few who say they are now inspired to visit Abersoch, Whistling Sands and other locations in the book.

Well, on that note, and another apology for the short notice, I will be on Whistling Sands on Sunday, August 26th 2012 from 10am until about 1pm if any readers of my book would like to come down and say hello - or for that matter, any would-be readers. (That's tomorrow as I'm writing this).

Whistling Sands is, as the title suggests, a key location of Smugglers at Whistling Sands and readers can actually tread in the footsteps of Lou, Jack, Dan and Emily during their exciting stay at the beach and imagine what was going through their minds when they encounter smugglers there.

As I say, I'll be there from 10am with my wife and our two young kids, blond-haired boy aged five and daughter, 4. We usually sit near to the rocks on the left hand side of the beach as you step off the road leading down to it - fairly near the beach cafe. I'm the ugly one in black-framed spectacles!

So if you're in the area, do come and say hello. And if you've never been to Whistling Sands before, I'm sure you'll love it. I'd gladly offer to sign books but sadly, it still only exists in Kindle format!

All the above is weather permitting of course. If it's pouring down, we'll make it another day!

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.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Report abuse | Permalink
Comment Comment

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.

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!

Abersoch's top website tells the world about my book!

I'm delighted to say that www.abersoch.co.uk Abersoch's excellent no.1 website (literally no.1 - check Google) has just announced the existence of my ebook Smugglers At Whistling Sands to the world. They have done so far more effectively than I can.

Search Abersoch on Google, and this website comes up first and in its news section, you will now find a good write up on my book which is of course based at Abersoch and other locations along the Llyn peninsula. The news item contains links both to this blog and to the listing on Amazon.

I think it is a measure of how much I rate being publicsed by this site that I have given them the information about my book exclusively. I have not sought any newspaper publicity for it - I am happy to target it directly towards the two markets which really matter - the Abersoch / Llyn peninsula area and lovers of Enid Blyton's books.

I'll blog more very soon on my thoughts about targeted marketing for ebooks, but for now, I better get on with writing of a different kind - newspaper work (which is of course, what pays the bills!).

Traditional methods of publishing remain important

A contact of mine at the Oxford University Press has suggested I send some chapters of my manuscript to them for consideration. The OUP aims to give a two-month decision which is quicker than quite a few people.

Certainly my decision to self publish through Amazon's Kindle shouldn't persuade me to close my mind to traditional publishing methods which is likely to remain important well into the electronic age. In fact, I can't envisage a time when reading a book on paper and ink will ever be replaced by the e-book era. The popularity of e-books simply gives all authors, particularly indie authors, more options than before.

I am pleased to see I am gaining more presence on Google, both my name George Chedzoy and the name of my book, Smugglers At Whistling Sands, are easily searchable. The not so good news is that this blog has not achieved many hits and I have no reason to think anyone has actually yet found my book listing on Amazon, let alone actually taken the leap and paid 86p for it (USD $1.41).

But these are early days, anyone who knows the story of John Locke and Amanda Hocking, will realise that their starts were extremely slow and faltering. For those who don't know, both have gone on to sell more than one million e-books. Indeed, it was the e-book market which saved Amanda Hocking's dream of becoming a novelist - after having suffered countless rejections from traditional publishers.

The worst crime a rookie author can commit is to give up - the journey to making it as an author is a long and rocky one, but I am determined to forge ahead.

The Start of a Journey

The journey, to be precise, is towards the promised land of being a published novelist. I already have made it into print as a journalist, writing features and personal columns in the UK regional press.

But like many hacks, I yearn to make it as an author. I want this blog to chart that journey from the very beginning. The first big step towards being a novelist is to write a novel and I have done that. I have written a full-length 45,000 word children's adventure story called Smugglers At Whistling Sands set in Abersoch, North Wales. The next enormous step is to get it published and so far I have sent the opening chapters to one publisher and been rejected, albeit politely.

My next move should have been to push it towards other publishers and agents but a few weeks ago I discovered Amazon's e-book self-publishing service Kindle Direct Publishing. And I thought: what a potentially amazing idea. And then I learned of the success of people like John Locke and Amanda Hocking who have sold more than a million copies each exclusively through Kindle.

Personally, I never thought e-books would take off but they clearly have and that opens up great possibilities for unknown, self published writers. And so I have for now made the decision to publish my book via Amazon's Kindle. That's not to say that I won't try to get it out there as paper and ink, but for now I am happy to try and promote it as an e-book.

The research I have done into self publishing via Kindle throws up a mixed bag of some authors enjoying regular sales and others not doing half so well. One thing we must all bear in mind is that you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink. In other words, if our books are, frankly, not very good then ultimately, they will not meet with much success.

But what a service like Amazon's Kindle does, via the magic of the internet, is to give people the chance to read your book almost instantly if they should wish - and, one would have thought, cheaply if you are an unknown.

On that note, an unknown is very much what I am. The world does not know George Chedzoy, nor Smugglers At Whistling Sands. Nobody seems to know that it is now available on Amazon for the reasonable sum of £1.71. Not a single person has bought a copy of it since I uploaded it about 10 days ago. I am not aware of anyone in the Abersoch / Llyn peninsula area of North Wales where the book is set knowing a thing about it.

To date, my book has only been read by my wife, my mum, my dad, and my best friend. My goal is to get at least a few people out there, in the world beyond the fields which surround my house in North Wales to take an interest in it, purchase it and hopefully, to enjoy it. My other goal is to get on with the task of writing more books, the next one possibly aimed at the adult market.

So you join me right at the very start of a difficult journey. You may be in the same position yourself, hoping to launch your first-ever book. If you are like me, you won't care if you never make it, you'll only care that you never tried. Here's to having a go!