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

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!

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.

One week on - and I'm back at my book again

Apologies for not updating before now. Can't believe a whole week has flown past since my last blog as I prepared to tackle the rewrite of the ending to Smugglers. I didn't get as much done as I wanted, partly because I didn't actually get until the middle of the afternoon before the front door opened and wife and kids returned!

Not that I resented them coming home earlier than I had anticipated but well, I felt a bit rueful that I didn't get as much time on the book as I had planned. That said, I got quite a bit done, and I will now continue apace this morning - again with the house to myself for an hour or two.

'Nuff said - here goes! Hope to be able to report at the end of this weekend that the book isn't too far from going back on sale.

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.

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!