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!

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.

40th sale achieved - now for the half century!

Mind you, I've had to wait for it. I'd gone three days without selling and was beginning to think when would I ever get my 40th! But tonight it came, and hopefully somebody somehwere, I have no idea who, will be settling down with a good book tonight: my book.

I suddenly realised something earlier that I have never actually stated in all my blog entries since I began this blog in early August, what my book is really about and my reasons for writing it. And that thought occurred to me as a result of reading the opening couple of entries of a brand new blog by a fellow wannabe children's novelist, Martin Jones of Toronto, Canada, formerly from Lancashire.

Martin has been regularly following this blog and has now decided to set up his own to promote his book, They Shoot Birds Don't They? And straightaway, he's done something very sensible, which is to tell people what the book is actually about! Not a bad idea really. All I've done is sort of vaguely tell people that it's a children's adventure novel set in Abersoch and the Lleyn peninsula of North Wales and I don't think I've exactly given away much else of the plot whatsoever. Of course, there are links to my listings on Amazon but I perhaps could have allowed people more of an insight into Smugglers at Whistling Sands, and the characters who appear in it.

So, it being the weekend tomorrow, I will endeavour to do that. I'll write a blog entry or two letting all those of you, save the 40 who have been kind enough to purchase my book already, know a bit more about the novel. And I'll select a few passages for you all to have a sample read, and see what you think.

Meanwhile, don't just read my blog, read Martin's - you'll find a link to it on the right of your screen, or alternatively just press here and you'll also find out a bit more about his novel, which is largely written but still in the final stages of production.

Have now dropped introductory price of 86p

I don't want to send the Retail Price Index through the roof but I have decided to drop my ultra-low price of 86p and leap back up to £1.71. Boo hiss!

There are a number of good reasons though, and I'll start with the obvious one: Amazon punish anyone selling their Kindle books for less than £1.71 (£1.49+VAT) by allowing them only a 35% royalty. Thus from an 86p sale, I would take only 26p - that is simply not enough of a return to reap an author a noticeable reward for his efforts unless he was lucky enough to sell huge quantities of books.

At £1.71 - I will take 70% royalty (minus an obscure 'delivery' charge introduced at this rate) which gives me 99p - a reasonable sum per book and one which I feel, can leave buyers with the satisfaction that they have paid a fair price for their ebook and the author has had his fair reward.

Of course, the priority for any fledgling novelist should be to acquire a readership - and not worry about trying to make money from it. I still hold to this principle so it may seem counter-intuitive on that basis to jack the price up, but I also feel that asking a mere 86p is sort of saying to people - "look my book may not be very good but come on, I only want 86p for it". In other words, by appearing not to value my own work, I may actually be losing sales.

Let's put it this way, if anyone reading this would like a copy of the book but doesn't want to risk £1.71 on it - then I will gladly send you a PDF of the thing for free - and you can pay for it afterwards if you like it!

Pleasingly, I have already had my first sale at the higher price - making a grand total of 35 sales. When you consider that some people struggle to get anyone buying their ebooks, I think that is a result which I ought to be reasonably happy with.

The value of building friendships for aspiring and unknown novelists

As I am now finding out, trying to make it as a novelist when no-one knows you or what you've written is a tough battle. But it should be remembered that numerous others are also treading the same path and there is so much we can all learn from each other.

You could be negative about this and see it as unwanted competition but that's not my view. To me, other wannabe novelists are friends, not enemies. I am happy to help others to get their books out there in front of the reading public and happy also to tap into their advice..

As you'll know from my recent posts, I have acquired my first buyer for my Abersoch-based ebook Smugglers At Whistling Sands. He has also given me some excellent advice - namely the importance of making one's book or extracts of it available to online reviewers, many of whom will themselves be aspiring novelists - and receiving constructive advice and criticism from the community. Furthermore, that there are more avenues to explore than just selling one's ebook on Amazon.

Someone who has often been a source of inspiration for me to further my ambitions as a novelist is Keith Robinson, who is British but now lives in America and who has recently completed a trilogy of fantasy novels in his Island of Fog series about apparently normal youngsters who develop special powers and who can transform themselves into mythical creatures.

He is also the brains behind an excellent Enid Blyton tribute website, very much underpinned by his own love of Blyton's tales. Keith also writes a regular blog http://www.unearthlytales.com which tells of the ups and downs along his own road to become a recognised author - at this stage self-published but hopeful of winning a publishing deal one day.

Following on from a reply to one of his recent posts, Keith has invited me to plug my book on his Enid Blyton website http://www.EnidBlyton.net This will undoubtedly be a big help. Keith's site is hugely popular among Enid Blyton fans and as best-selling Kindle author John Locke points out, a key element to marketing your books is to know where that market is and target it. And my book is the sort that fans of Enid Blyton may well like (if I say so myself!).

So I am feeling very heartened by the response both from Keith and from my first buyer. Making friends and chatting with lke-minded "indie" authors can be hugely helpful and very rewarding.

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.