David J. Delaney's Blog, page 3

Promoting Book 1, Writing Book 2 and A One Star Review

Okay to start with I’m still having an awesome time floating around the sea of self publishing. It’s a wonderful place to be but has it’s ups and down like everything else we do in life.

First to promoting book 1. I’ve found some really good places to promote The Vanishing. Bknights, who came to me as a recommendation from other writers was great. The result was nice and again were a very easy place to do business with. Pixelscroll were just okay. I sold some but not a lot for the price I paid for them.

Overall though the book has been within the top 20 and top 50 in it’s categories which I’ve been incredibly happy about. The enigmatic Amazon algorithms Gods have picked it up and advertising it here and there.

I also did an Author interview with R J Madigan over on her blog. If you want to check it out head over to http://swordofair.net/blog

Writing book 2 is a tough one. I seem to be taking my time with it. I had a decent 15k done but scrapped it when I felt it just wasn’t what I wanted for book 2 in the Dean Cornell series. I went back to the drawing board. Rewrote the outline in it’s entirety and started the book again. It’s sitting at 4,237 words and I’m happier with it. Not sure what the upper word count is for this one but it’ll be in the 65k to 75k range again.

Now to the one star review. I know this happens to all writers and believe me I’ve now started reading other review of writer who I love to read. Some of the one and two star reviews are just plain mean. Now when I saw mine on Amazon I felt a little shocked, mainly I think because it’s the first but I needed an analogy. Something to compare it to and here it is.

…Do you know when you’re on holiday or it’s been really humid day and mosquitoes decide your exposed skin looks like an all you can eat buffet. Some people spray repellent on themselves. I lather it on because I hate being bitten. So most of us know the feeling that comes from knowing you’ve been eaten alive by the little pests even though you’ve covered yourself in repellent. It’s a feeling of pissed off combined with ‘why me?’…

That’s my analogy. I knew it was going to happen but I still had the shocked feeling of ‘why me?’ Now the next phase (the scratching of those bites) has comes from reading other writers reviews and writing this post but I knew like all itches it’ll pass and I’ll be bitten again someday. I’ll take the One Star on the chin, write the next book and laugh off the next… or buy stronger repellent.

Now lastly I want to let people know what I’m reading and what I’m going to read next as well as links to find these great books.

Reading:

The Witness by Zach Bohannon. Grab a copy on Amazon.

Black Star Canyon, Season One by C.C. Wall. Also available on Amazon.

The Dream Engine (Audiobook) by Sean Platt and Johnny B. Truant. Amazon link here (o:

Gonna Read:

On Writing by Stephen King. Think I need some inspiration.

Sixth Cycle by Carl Sinclair and Darren Wearmouth. This book is smashing the upper end of the Amazon charts and the authors are really nice guys.

Super Charge Your Kindle Sales by Nick Stephenson. This man is obviously some kind of Indie Author genius and if I can learn something from him I’ll sure try.

Anyway, that’s me.

How have things been going for people out there?

Q&A with David Delaney, Author of ‘The Vanishing.’

David J Delaney:

Here’s an Author Interview I did with R J Madigan on her blog http://www.swordofair.net

Originally posted on The Sword of Air:

I am very excited to host this author question and answer with the immensely talented David Delaney.  If you love a good thriller as much as I do then I suggest you grab a copy of his new book ‘The Vanishing,’ from Amazon now!  Read on to learn more about David and his work…

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Q&A with R.J. Madigan, Author of The Sword of Air

This is the first time I’ve played host to another author and I couldn’t be happier to host the fantastic author that is R.J. Madigan. R.J. has written the wonderful title ‘The Sword of Air’. This is an Epic Fantasy set in medieval Ireland and if any of you don’t already know that’s my home country (o;

So, be sure to read through the question and answers, watch the beautiful trailer and sneak peak YouTube links (they are really good) and be sure to buy yourself a copy of R.J’s book from your nearest Apple product

Q1) Why did you decide to write?

A1) As a child I pretty much read anything I could get my hands on. But I wasn’t the kind of kid who told stories or wrote them down. Writing came a lot later for me, several years after I finished university. I joined a creative writing group out of sheer curiosity and went from there.

Q2) What genres do you enjoy?

A2) I don’t have a favourite genre. I read everything from Fantasy, YA, Children’s Literature Sci-Fi, Gothic literature, Poetry to more literary novels and of course the Classics. I think it is important to read as widely as possible if you want to be a writer and to not be snobbish about books.

Q3) What author famous or not, dead or alive, would you like to meet and why?

A3) I would love to go back in time and meet Daphne du Maurier. I want to thank her for writing Rebecca, one of my favourite gothic novels. I am not one for re reading novels, but Rebecca is one work I have returned to time and time again for inspiration. In my humble opinion it is a gothic masterpiece.

Q4) If you had only one question to ask them, what would it be?

A4) I would ask her why she disliked Alfred Hitchcock’s adaptation of her short story The Birds so much. I’ve always wondered if it was because he replaced her beloved Cornish coastline where gales sweep across stark hills and isolated farmhouses with a placid northern California setting.

Q5) What tip or trick would you offer another writer to help their writing process?

A5) To write every day. If you sit around waiting for inspiration to hit you then you will never write anything. I would also advise any new writer to read Stephen King’s – On Writing – which is one of the best books ever written on the craft of writing. I still refer to it all the time.

Q6) You opted for a very unique form of publication for your YA Fantasy novel The Sword of Air. Tell us a bit about the book.

A6) The Sword of Air, is an epic fantasy story set in an altered reality of medieval Ireland. Sixteen-year-old Niamh Kelly’s village is burnt to the ground by the Raven Queen’s Fomor army and her adoptive grandmother is brutally murdered right in front of her. She is forced to flee into the forest of the Nadur with only an old storyteller, her best friend Rauri and his wolfhound Bran for protection. Hunted by the Raven Queen, the brutal ruler of Ireland, and her armies, Niamh desperately searches for the forgotten Fae people to help her. She must find allies and the power within herself if she is to survive against the dark powers of the Raven Queen.

Characters such as the beautiful but merciless Raven Queen, and unforgiving King of the dwarves- Abcan, spring from the page with hundreds of beautiful photographs, that go full screen at the tap of a finger. Sound effects put you inside the action instead of your just being told about it. The cinematic soundtrack adds another layer, telling the story and giving depth to the characters as the book progresses. Short movies built into the story put you inside the characters’ heads, let you see what they see and feel their emotions.

Q7) What first gave you the idea to break the publishing mold and try something so innovative?

A7) Every day authors are publishing new titles and it is getting harder and harder to stand out in such a crowded market place. Apple have given everyone the iBooks author software for free because they have a very forward thinking strategy towards their users. This software enabled me to take my story and illustrate it in a way that is not possible in a normal printed book.

I was inspired by the fiction of Isaac Asimov and Neil Stephenson where books are more than just print. They come alive and talk to you, react and interact with you. The iPad is science fiction made real. No one’s really taken advantage of this new technology. I wanted to use it for my storytelling and the iPad makes this possible.

Q8) How do you put an iBook together?

A8) Good question. First of all I wrote the manuscript for The Sword of Air without any media input. Then I consulted with ‘The Producer,’ (my IT whizz of a friend) to service suitable imagery and music for my story. We wanted to find music that matched the epic tone of the story. It was an iterative process, particularly to create the end chapter movies. I wanted to make sure they reflected the feel of the story at that point. We used iBooks author, iPhoto and iMovie to pull all the underlying constituent parts together into the final iBooks author manuscript.

Q9) What are the barriers to publishing an iBook like The Sword of Air.

A9) Firstly the technology is so new and cutting edge that an iBook can only be read on a Mac or iPad. Therefore if you do not own either of theses devices you cannot read ‘The Sword of Air.’ I know a lot of readers have been frustrated because they cannot access my book. So as an interim measure I have started to serialize The Sword of Air on Wattpad, with a new release every week. http://www.wattpad.com/myworks/34571220-the-sword-of-air.

It has also been frustrating as an author because I have lost out on reviews because people willing to do so do not own a Mac or an iPad.

Another barrier is you cannot publish on Amazon or similar platforms. You have to use the iBooks store to publish your work.

However I still think the greatest barrier for authors wanting to publish an iBook is the steep learning curve involved in using iBooks author. This software is not consumer orientated for the casual user like WordPress or word. This is why I teamed up with ‘The Producer,’ in order to produce the book I wanted.

Q10) Where can we find R.J. Madigan and The Sword of Air on the internet?

You can download The Sword of Air from the iBooks store https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/the-sword-of-air/id954619981?mt=11

You can follow the progress of The Sword of Air on my blog www.swordofair.net.

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Sword-of-Air/855233981196248?ref=hl

Pinterest: https://uk.pinterest.com/authorrjmadigan/

R.J. Madigan

A quick shout out for an Interview I had on Podcast 451

I was asked to join the awesome C.C. Wall on his podcast ‘Podcast 451′ where he interviewed me about The Vanishing. If you have time and want to check it out click on the link here Podcast 451 episode #60.

Week One as a Self Published Author

So, it’s been 1 week.

The book is out and I’ve been scratching my brain and wondering how I’m going to put it in front of readers eyes. It’s only when you sit down to market your book do you realize that it is a whole working role in of itself. I did some research before the book and asked other authors for advice so I wasn’t completely blind going into it but it a vast place to be in.

There are so many options both paid and unpaid to look at and here are the one’s I’ve chosen… so far.

Now my book has 5 reviews as this is published which means there are a ton of places that will not even look at my book until gain a few more reviews. The big hitters like book bub turn down really established self published authors so I’ll have to wait a long long while before they’ll consider me but I have found an awesome alternatives.

Buck Books (http://buckbooks.net/): They can be tough to get into now that they are gaining popularity but still a lot more achievable than book bub. They’re list seems to be growing and authors are claiming to have some great success with them. As buck books is still in that initial growth phase they are free to advertise you book through and from an interview with the SPP recently they are looking to build working relationships with authors.

askDavid.com (http://askdavid.com/): Although not an email list service they do seem to tick a lot of boxes when it comes to Twitter marketing. As twitter marketing can been annoying to receive unless you’ve signed up specifically to receive tweets about new books I think it’s best done by a company like askDavid. Some writers though have nailed the twitter marketing themselves… I am not one. The site it cheap to join at $15 USD for 12 months and with the other resources they use I feel it’s a worthwhile investment.

Kboards (http://www.kboards.com/book-discovery-promo/): If you sell you book on Amazon then you should know Kboards, if not then jump on and have a look. It’s a user generated encyclopedia of Amazon Kindle selling, publishing and any topic on indie publishing you can think of. The other awesome thing is that they promote books too. It’s a $20 service and is email list based but the general vibe on writer forums is that they are a great way to promote your book. I have an ad myself with them coming out on the 20th of March so I can fill people in on how it goes.

Anyway before I talk on and on I’ll leave you with those three for now. I do have more but rather than write a colossal post I’ll leave it for the next.

If you have any book promotion strategies or sites you’d like to share please place them in the comments below. Also if you have any ‘DO NOT TOUCH’ experiences.

Anyway, until next time.

Finally released my Debut Novel The Vanishing

Okay, if you follow my Facebook posts you’ll know that I’ve had a disastrous 48 hours with a computer that decided to retire without telling me and taking half a book of edits and dropbox uploads that didn’t seem to work all of which resulting in a missed pre-order upload date…. I am sure glad it’s over. Luckily I had a print out of all my edits so took a notebook computer I never thought I’d use again and wrote like a maniac. 11 hours later I had them done, another read through and I was finished.

Not wanting to tempt fate any longer I decided to publish. I had no reason to hold the book back any longer.

So if you’re interested in checking it out please follow this link here http://goo.gl/qn3M6Y

It feels good to finally publish ‘The Vanishing’… now it’s time to start the next book…

Author Q&A with Krista Walsh.

Originally posted on The Sword of Air:

I am thrilled to be featuring talented fantasy author Krista Walsh on my blog today.  I have been following Krista at theravensquill.com for a while now and am delighted to finally have the chance to ask her some questions about her work.

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Ups and Downs Before I Publish my First Book… so far

So as some of you know I have my first book coming out soon. It’s really exciting and so much work has gone into it. Here though I thought I’d write a short post about the good and the bad as well as the in between of the journey so far.

 

The bad first )o:

It has to be getting your head around setting up a platform. Nearly a year ago today I set up a blog. I had no idea where it was going but knew I wanted to make some kind of contact with like minded people. Setting up the individual aspects of a platform isn’t very difficult but trying to keep all of it going is. Creating the blog, website and setting up an account on various social media sites is a simple thing to do, the hard part is using them effectively while juggling them all at the same time. I still haven’t done this and from what I can see everyone struggles with some aspect  of this process.

Next is the sheer work involved in the edit and rewrite process. With my previous short stories it was as simple as write, self edit, send. If it is picked up then the editors of the magazine will edit it for you and publish. Now this isn’t everyone’s experience but it has been mine and I got used to the routine. My editor Jennifer Collins did a great job and pushed me in the write direction in terms of story and writing ability but it took a lot of work to get there and I am nowhere near where I want to be… yet. As I have been finishing up the last few edits on my book I took a look at how different it is to the first draft. It’s like its cousin 12 times removed. Not quite chalk and cheese but near enough. It’s a lot better.

 

The good (o:

Working towards a greater goal. This goal for me is becoming a full time or near full time writer. Getting the first book finished and eventually out there is both full of anxiety as well as hope. I’m sure there will be a readers base out there somewhere but its still a frightening prospect. The goal is to have at least 4 titles out there by year end. Unless you nail that breakout title early on, writing seems to be a gradual process.

Next is making connections. I’ve spoken about the indie writing community before but in the last few months I’ve made connection with both indie and traditionally published writers. Everyone has been willing to offer advice, discuss strategy and help out in any way which has been great. I’ve never been a person to network very well but I’ve come to realize it is more about meeting like minded people and offering to help out in any way you can. Generally you’ll get a response and mutually benefit. It really is a great feeling.

 

The Inbetween /o:

I’ve found there is none. I either feel fantastic or completely down in the dumps. It’s peaks and troughs but I still love it. Writing is something I do in my spare time that may or may not lead onto something bigger and that’s exciting. Even if I never make much from my writing I still enjoy creating and I don’t see myself stopping anytime soon.

 

Let me know what you’re experiences have been? I’d love to hear them.

 

Cheers,

 

David

 

My Book ‘The Vanishing’ is up for pre-order on Amazon

I haven’t written a post for a while now, but I have a really good excuse.

I’ve been finishing up my first novel, ‘The Vanishing’. It’s finally come together and I’m really happy with the result.

The link is below to pre-order. It’ll be released on the 19/03/15 (o:

Amazon Pre-order

Who wants to be the Next Top Beta Reader (o;

This is a quick shout out to anyone who would like to beta read my work in the future. I haven’t put it out there until now but I can see the massive benefit it adds to a project which leads me to this request. My next book should be ready for beta reading by April/May. If you’re interested email me at daviddelaney7034@gmail.com

Thanks…