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!

My new children's detective novel has notched up its very first sale - in Germany!

I was wrong with my post written about an hour or so ago. My children's detective novel is going live on Kindle at midnight tonight and, because of the time difference, is already on sale on Amazon across most of Europe. And this means that the very first person to be able to read Trouble at Chumley Towers (which is in English, of course!) is someone in Germany!

I had one advance order on Amazon.de and that order has already shown up in my account. I presume the remaining ones will go through tonight for UK customers and tomorrow morning for those who bought it on Amazon.com.

So if you live in Britain and would like to be among the very first to read the fourth book in the Lou Elliott mystery adventure series, you've got just over half an hour to put in an advance order. At £1.99 it is the same price exactly as the other full-length books in the series - and is also considerably longer.

Trouble at Chumley Towers is more in the mystery detective genre than its predecessors which were essentially mystery adventures. Lou is spending Christmas with her friends Jack, David and Emily at their home in Malpas, Cheshire. A series of thefts have taken place from the nearby stately home, Chumley Towers, and Lou leads the others in an investigation to find out whodunit!

I hope you enjoy the book and to those of you who have been kind enough to order your copy in advance, many thanks / vielen dank!

Tomorrow - my latest children's book is published

It's all very exciting. The fourth book in my Lou Elliott mystery adventure series will be published on Amazon tomorrow, July 4th, 2015. Trouble at Chumley Towers is supposed to go live (having been available for a month or so for advance orders) at midnight but with the time difference, I am guessing that will be 8am tomorrow Saturday here in Britain.

Perhaps appropriately for a children's book I am almost childishly counting the hours down to lift off! Well, you're never too old to be enthused about something are you, or at least you shouldn't be! I am really looking forward to giving readers another chance to catch up with Lou, Jack, David and Emily, having taken so long to come up with book four in the series.

I went badly off the boil - not only with this series but with writing in general - and also had other things which took up a lot of my time. Also, during my days in the literary wilderness, I lost touch with a number of people with whom I was corresponding via my George Chedzoy hotmail address, which got deleted by Microsoft due to inactivity. So do drop me a line, anyone who has emailed me in recent months and who has not received a reply - and for that matter, anyone else who wishes to get in touch (georgechedzoy@hotmail.co.uk)

I feel very pleased to be back into writing fiction again and looking forward to publishing my next book, which will be a fantasy adventure novella based on the characters from The Mystery of the Misty Woods. So look out for that in the not too distant future. It's already written, but needs quite a lot of editing before it will be ready.

As for the one after that - it might well be book five in the Lou Elliott series because I am so keen to keep going with those children and join them on further adventures and life experiences. I think they're a great bunch and in Trouble at Chumley Towers they enjoy getting together at Christmas with snow falling and tackling the mysterious thefts taking place from the stately home.

It's also my intention to bring out all my books in print format as well in the coming months - not everyone wants to read off an electronic screen, of course!

I hope you enjoy Trouble at Chumley Towers and I look forward to receiving some feedback on it. Remember - if you want to be among the very first to read it, it's available on Amazon for advance orders for a few more hours, before going live at about 8am tomorrow (British Summer Time).

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.

A long overdue update!

It's over a year since I updated this blog. So much for harnessing social media to help promote my books and win more readers. I ought to pen a blog entry on how best to crawl under a stone and not market yourself. I fear I am something of an expert on how not to do things. I haven't touched my Twitter account in months, nor Facebook.

Anyway, I'll beat myself up over this another time. Here I am, the prodigal blogger returning, repentant, to finally give an update on my progress as an author. In one sense, I have more time than ever to write now, having taken redundancy from my newspaper job in January. Unfortunately that decision - more forced upon me than voluntarily made - played havoc with my need to have an untroubled, calm frame of mind in which to write.

As George Orwell once said, through his character Gordon Comstock (an impoverished wannabe novelist) in Keep The Aspidistra Flying, only a writer can say that that he literally cannot work. It' true - you need to have calm both externally and inside your head in order to be able to write fiction well (apart from all the other requirements to writing good fiction, that is).

In more recent weeks, I think that sense of calm and a desire to write has come back to me. Since I last wrote a blog entry in August 2012, I have penned books two and three in what I now call my Lou Elliott Mystery Adventure Series, namely: The Missing Treasure and Something Strange in the Cellar.

I am now embarking on book four in the series which I hope to have published by Christmas this year (2013). I have just published a short story for Halloween (about 20,500 words) called The Mystery of the Misty Woods, which I have currently got on Amazon for free until this Saturday (October 26th) and thereafter at 77p / $1.24 (approx).

It's getting quite a few downloads in America - nearly 200 in the first 24 hours and has already picked up its first review - a 4-star one from a lady who recommends it for readers in second grade through to fourth grade. I think that's aged about eight to 10 or 11. She herself is 70 and enjoyed it a lot so one might infer that the book is suitable for all ages from eight to 70+!

I hope so, anyway. It is an unusual take on Halloween, I believe - seeking to look into the myths and legends behind the festival and touching on the competing claims of Christianity and paganism to 'ownership'. It's my first foray into the fantasy genre and I enjoyed straying into that category.

I will write more very soon on other aspects of my work and also to give updates on book four in the Lou Elliott mystery adventure series. A number of readers have contacted me to ask when they will next hear from Lou, Jack, David and Emily and are keen to find out how they are getting on.

The answer is they are having a great time and looking forward to sharing their latest escapades with you!

I will blog again very soon . . . (now that I've got back into it!)

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!

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

I haven't got more than about two minutes or my wife will roast me alive - as we're off to a family birthday party.

Just wanted to say that my children's adventure novel Smugglers at Whistling Sands is free today on Kindle. If you click on the links on the right hand side, you can have my book for free, instead of its usual price of £2.49.

Please give it a try and if you like it, consider leaving me a review!

(Sales - have picked up somewhat since I wrote my last review - 4 in week just gone and 5 the previous week. That, as any fledgling novelist will tell you, is a lot more than zero!

And now I better move it!

E-book sales dry up in the summer sun

Now I don't want to be a wet blanket or anything. I know it's great that the sun is finally beating down from a clear blue sky and I don't believe in doing the usual British thing of moaning that the weather's too cold and then moaning that it's too hot.

It's just that two annoying phenomena have struck me today caused by the scorching weather: firstly I went to get my hair cut only to find both barbers I tried had closed early, presumably because they thought all their clientele would be slow roasting themselves in the back garden with too many lagers inside them to be bothered about their coiffure.

And secondly and perhaps more significantly, my Kindle e-book sales have dried up in the heat, as surely as a puddle on the patio. Now I can understand if people are too busy getting pink and drunk in the garden to bother with hair-cuts on a Saturday afternoon, but is the summer sun any excuse for not going on Amazon and downloading reasonably priced e-books (such as mine) for one's Kindle?

After all, not having a back-lit screen, the Kindle is perfectly easy to read in bright sunshine and one would have thought, would be the perfect accessory for garden sun-bathing in addition, of course, to the inevitable can of lager.

But my sales have simply vanished without so much as a puff of smoke. I was selling on average two e-books a day of my children's adventure novel Smugglers at Whistling Sands while it was reasonably chilly here in Britain. Then the sun comes out and for the last few days I've not had so much as a single customer!

I wouldn't say this bitter experience is making me pray for rain or anything, but let's just say that when the cold and wet finally returns, I may well be reflecting philosophically that every cloud has a silver lining.

More excellent reviews and regular, if modest, sales

Apologies for not blogging for a while, I have been pulled in quite a few different directions of late. I am also making progress working out a plot for a sequel to Smugglers at Whistling Sands and two other books - psychological thrillers aimed more at adults.

My sales are running at around and about five a week at the moment at a price of £1.95 on Amazon.co.uk and a broadly equivalent price of $3.15 on Amazon.com. I got my first sale for May on Amazon.com the other day and I really hope it won't be the last!

What is bucking me up perhaps more than sales is positive feedback at the moment. I have had two more 5-star reviews on Amazon.co.uk and, lo and behold, a second review, also 5-star on Amazon.com - possibly arising from my firee promotion day which I held on Sunday. I've also had a couple more nice comments on a forum thread about me and my book on the Enid Blyton Society website. And, not to be ignored, is the fact that other people have ticked the box to say these new reviews were "helpful".

It's all good and I am beginning to think there might be a chance of slowly building momentum for my book, and a definite market for a sequel. I thnk, despite my interest in other genres and aiming books more towards adults, children's novels of a Blytonesque type are more where my heart is - especially if there is any groundswell of encouragement from readers.

My free day went ok - 182 downloads, 93 from UK, 88 from US and, "uno" from Spain (of all places). I think that adds up to 182. I'm hoping that will give me a sales boost in the days ahead.

It ain't all about selling though, I really am finding that writing novels is proving an enjoyable hobby - although I'm not sure my wife and kids always agree!

Another frustrating glitch with Amazon's KDP publishing platform

For the best part of a week now, I have been unable to make changes to my ebook published via Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing because of a maddening technical error.
Last weekend, I made a couple of minor amendments to my listing and to the categories my children's novel was published in. This causes the book to go from "Live" to status "Publishing" in the author's account and until the status changes to "Live" you can't make any further alterations. Usually it takes 12 hours or less but for more than four days my book has been permanently stuck in "Publishing".
Fortunately, it is still available for sale but as a result of this error I cannot alter the price, the listing, the categories, or the book itself.
And worryingly, I cannot withdraw my own book from sale should I wish to - and there might always be reasons why one might need to do that.
I have contacted KDP customer support about it but so far just received the one reply saying that they are aware of the problem and are trying to sort it. But I have no idea when that will be.
To make things worse, I have got my book marooned in the wrong category - Adults Action & Adventure when it should be Children's Action & Adventure. Until my book's status goes Live I am powerless to correct this.
Has it affected sales? You bet - only one this week, when I would normally have expected three or four by now.
I have pointed out to Amazon that bearing in mind people like me are contractually bound not to sell our book anywhere else (a condition of membership of KDP Select) to be left stranded like this for days on end unable to make any changes we deem necessary is just not acceptable.

Update May 4, 2315: Book finally went Live in my account around 11am today after having been frozen in status "Publishing" for around five days. Pleased to say that I made the amendments I wanted to and after going back into greyed-out status of Review then Publishing, it is now Live again, just a few hours later. So well done Amazon for (finally) sorting this problem out!

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.

With some reservations, I've put my ebook price up to £1.99

I've decided to increase the price of Smugglers at Whistling Sands to £1.99, at least as a temporary measure, and see how things go at this higher price.
I have actually seen a marked increase in UK sales at 99p compared to my previous bargain basement rate of 77p for my ebook, although with a drop in sales to the United States.
That said, since my last slightly tongue-in-cheek post, I have had a flurry of sales on Amazon.com which is very pleasing.
I still hold the view that a debut indie novelist such as myself cannot and should not ask the kind of prices that authors with the full weight of HarperCollins or Hodder & Stoughton behind them can command. I have no intention of doing that, but at £1.99 the book is still cheap.
Furthermore, the kind of folk likely to buy a Blytonesque children's adventure book probably don't need to be cajoled into buying the book with a 77p price tag.
I was right to start out at 77p but not to carry on with that indefinitely. I think £1.99 is a good, realistic price which strikes a balance between giving people excellent value for money and providing a reasonable return for the author.
Also, independent writers selling through Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing programme have to be mindful of the fact that if we all screw prices ever further downwards, everyone will turn out to be a loser.
Most readers do not expect to get books for free, nor are they in fact likely to get as much pleasure out of their reading if they feel they have given nothing for it. And there is always the option of going to the public library if cost is a factor. Ultimately, if people cannot make a living out of writing, then there will be fewer quality books.
For me, if I can carry on getting my current rate of sales at a price of £1.99 then there is a chance, albeit small, that I could realise my dream of making it as a novelist.
Undoubtedly I would be poorer than if I remained a full-time journalist. But being rich doesn't interest me - so long as I have enough to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table and maintain a reasonable standard of living I would be happy.
That's not to say I'm unhappy as a journalist - I think it's a good job, albeit an increasingly precarious one, it's just that I would rather spend my time writing fiction which might be read and appreciated for years to come rather than non-fiction which has a 24-hour shelf life.
And there's the question of subject matter. I have just penned a dull but worthy feature about the cost of long-term care in Britain, going in the paper on Monday. By Tuesday, it will only be of any further use to wrap chips in, line drawers with, or to get a fire going. Most probably, it will already be in the recycle bin.
I quite enjoyed researching it and writing it but it didn't exactly lift my heart. I'd rather have spent my time working on my new thriller or a sequel to Smugglers at Whistling Sands.
So, in putting my price up for the book, I will keep my fingers crossed that I can continue to achieve the modest rate of sales I have managed to date. If I can, then the dream of being a full-time novelist is still alive.

Has America fallen out of love with my adventure novel?

I ask this dramatic question because my children's adventure novel Smugglers at Whistling Sands has been downloaded from Amazon.com's Kindle store only a total of once since the start of April. Usually, my US sales amount to around half the sales I get on Amazon.co.uk.

I have been reasonably pleased with the UK sales I've achieved, although to some of you my figures will seem laughably small. I ran a free promotion on Sunday, April 1 which resulted in 102 downloads on Amazon.co.uk and 62 on .com. Since then I've sold a dozen ebooks at 99p (having put the price up recently from bargain basement 77p).

Certainly, it is disappointing at a time when there is some evidence of me building momentum this side of the pond, to have had just one sale in America so far this month. All the more so, in fact, because I get quite a few American readers of this blog.

I have not suffered fewer UK sales at 99p compared to 77p, indeed they seem to have risen somewhat. The biggest challenge of course, for an unknown, self-published author with his debut novel is being spotted. There are plenty of potential readers of a children's mystery adventure story like mine who would be only too willing to pay a pound or a dollar and a half for my book - thousands probably. They just don't know of its existence yet.

But therein lies good reason for optimism for me and any indie author/publisher who believes they have produced a good novel - when it's discovered it will sell - definitely (well, almost definitely!).

Memo to all Americans out there, please give my book a try, I think you'll like its British charm! Click on the Amazon.com product link to Smugglers at Whistling Sands on the right hand side of this page. Thanking you already!

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!

Small price rise for my novel - to push up sales, not decrease them!

Today, I put the price up of my Kindle ebook Smugglers at Whistling Sands from 77p to 99p in Amazon's Kindle store and the equivalent in US dollars.

I have made this decision because I feel that the minimum price of 77p may, in the eyes of the reading public, look a little too "needy" and desperate for a sale and perhaps suggest that the book is of inferior quality.

There are an enormous number of 77p books out there and some of them, it has to be said, are not the greatest of efforts. On the other hand, there are some good self-published books and I like to think that mine is one of them - certainly the reviews so far have been very positive.

For any established author, you cannot indefinitely sell your books at 77p if you hoped to make a living out of it and I don't think anyone would expect people to. But this price rise of mine is not about improving profit margins - that doesn't interest me at the moment, I simply want to get my book as widely read as possible. For the record, the price rise will only increase my royalty by about 5p or 6p per book.

It's worth a try and I can always put the price back down from 99p to 77p if it doesn't work. As for my sales, they have been very modest but they do keep coming, at the rate of one or two a day, fluctuating between zero and three most days, the majority on Amazon.co.uk, but a sizeable few on Amazon.com.

I still wholeheartedly stand by a previous blog entry in which I said emphatically that a new author must sell cheaply in order to persuade readers to give his/her book a try. What I and other indie authors must do is to use every selling strategy at our disposal to push our books - while still leaving time to write new ones, of course!

Fantastic new review for Smugglers!

Incredibly chuffed today to receive another five-star review from Nigel Rowe, a leading figure in the Enid Blyton Society which unites fans of Enid from all over the world.

I enclose a copy of his review below:

5.0 out of 5 stars What an Adventure!, 22 Mar 2012
By Nigel Rowe - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What is this?)
This review is from: Smugglers at Whistling Sands (Kindle Edition)
What a fantastic story! As said before, shades of the great Enid Blyton here - like Enid? You'll love this book! It also cleverly shows how mobile phones and the internet don't alter the danger much - clever ways round always being able to phone the police! I loved the character development, and after a few pages I became attached to them. Really good, and I also hope for several sequels! Mind you, you've a long way to go to catch up with Enid Blyton! A great story in its own right and suitable for all ages.


Nigel has also plugged it on the Enid Blyton forums. I cannot thank him enough for his kindness in taking an interest in the book and - without any pressure from me - to have both read it and, having liked it, backed it to the extent that he has.

Once again, I am left feeling that there are a lot of good people in the world of books, and perhaps you'd expect some good eggs in the Enid Blyton Society. Nigel is definitely one and I hope to meet him and some of the others in the Society one day, which I intend to join very soon, if they'll have me.

I am aware that with Smugglers at Whistling Sands I could be accused of seeking to slightly ride on the back of Enid Blyton, although no-one has actually accused me of that. But if they did I would say this: my book is not intended as a copy but as an original work which was to some extent inspired by Enid Blyton. I think so long as one acknowledges one's debt it is ok. Enid is often derided and certainly she is not beyond criticism but the quality she managed to achieve over 600+ novels is truly the work of a genius.

When you look at her books carefully, particularly the likes of the Famous Fives and her Adventure series, you realise that for all their apparent simplicity and ease, they are the product of a very great talent. If I could be considered half as good as her, I would be happy. As for matching her output, as Nigel put in his review, I have a very long way to go to catch her up. I think that might be what you'd call an unattainable goal - even without the day job!

And I've just remembered something, here's me crowing about another good book review, I myself have a couple of reviews I need to write for books I've bought on Amazon. I must get on with it - if people are willing to take the time to review mine, I ought to review theirs - it's only fair.

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!