Robin Crumby's Blog, page 2
May 3, 2017
Hurst Castle restoration project
Great to see Hurst Castle featured on BBC South Today showcasing the important restoration work they are undertaking.
Ironically, the bulk of the £1m being spent by English Heritage will repair the 20th century additions to the castle complex, many of which were concrete structures built during the Second World War.
Interviewed by the BBC, English Heritage Properties Curator Roy Porter said:
“We’re looking at the concrete structures added around 1902 and also to the top of the castle in the 1940s. These were thrown up in a hurry at a time of national emergency. Our job is to make these temporary structures permanent and protected for the future.”
The castle will remain open to the public during the work. English Heritage hope the restoration work will be completed by October 2017
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April 20, 2017
Privacy Policy Page
This privacy policy has been compiled to better serve those who are concerned with how their ‘Personally Identifiable Information’ (PII) is being used online. PII, as described in US privacy law and information security, is information that can be used on its own or with other information to identify, contact, or locate a single person, or to identify an individual in context. Please read our privacy policy carefully to get a clear understanding of how we collect, use, protect or otherwise handle your Personally Identifiable Information in accordance with our website.
What personal information do we collect from the people that visit our blog, website or app?
When ordering or registering on our site, as appropriate, you may be asked to enter your name, email address or other details to help you with your experience.
When do we collect information?
We collect information from you when you register on our site, subscribe to a newsletter, fill out a form or enter information on our site.
How do we use your information?
We may use the information we collect from you when you register, make a purchase, sign up for our newsletter, respond to a survey or marketing communication, surf the website, or use certain other site features in the following ways:
• To ask for ratings and reviews of services or products
How do we protect your information?
We do not use vulnerability scanning and/or scanning to PCI standards.
We only provide articles and information. We never ask for credit card numbers.
We use regular Malware Scanning.
We do not use an SSL certificate
• We only provide articles and information. We never ask for personal or private information like names, email addresses, or credit card numbers.
Do we use ‘cookies’?
We do not use cookies for tracking purposes
You can choose to have your computer warn you each time a cookie is being sent, or you can choose to turn off all cookies. You do this through your browser settings. Since browser is a little different, look at your browser’s Help Menu to learn the correct way to modify your cookies.
If you turn cookies off, Some of the features that make your site experience more efficient may not function properly.that make your site experience more efficient and may not function properly.
Third-party disclosure
We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside parties your Personally Identifiable Information.
Third-party links
We do not include or offer third-party products or services on our website.
Google’s advertising requirements can be summed up by Google’s Advertising Principles. They are put in place to provide a positive experience for users. https://support.google.com/adwordspol...
We use Google AdSense Advertising on our website.
Google, as a third-party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on our site. Google’s use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to our users based on previous visits to our site and other sites on the Internet. Users may opt-out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google Ad and Content Network privacy policy.
We have implemented the following:
• Demographics and Interests Reporting
We, along with third-party vendors such as Google use first-party cookies (such as the Google Analytics cookies) and third-party cookies (such as the DoubleClick cookie) or other third-party identifiers together to compile data regarding user interactions with ad impressions and other ad service functions as they relate to our website.
Opting out:
Users can set preferences for how Google advertises to you using the Google Ad Settings page. Alternatively, you can opt out by visiting the Network Advertising Initiative Opt Out page or by using the Google Analytics Opt Out Browser add on.
COPPA (Children Online Privacy Protection Act)
When it comes to the collection of personal information from children under the age of 13 years old, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) puts parents in control. The Federal Trade Commission, United States’ consumer protection agency, enforces the COPPA Rule, which spells out what operators of websites and online services must do to protect children’s privacy and safety online.
We do not specifically market to children under the age of 13 years old.
Fair Information Practices
The Fair Information Practices Principles form the backbone of privacy law in the United States and the concepts they include have played a significant role in the development of data protection laws around the globe. Understanding the Fair Information Practice Principles and how they should be implemented is critical to comply with the various privacy laws that protect personal information.
In order to be in line with Fair Information Practices we will take the following responsive action, should a data breach occur:
We will notify you via email
• Within 7 business days
We also agree to the Individual Redress Principle which requires that individuals have the right to legally pursue enforceable rights against data collectors and processors who fail to adhere to the law. This principle requires not only that individuals have enforceable rights against data users, but also that individuals have recourse to courts or government agencies to investigate and/or prosecute non-compliance by data processors.
CAN SPAM Act
The CAN-SPAM Act is a law that sets the rules for commercial email, establishes requirements for commercial messages, gives recipients the right to have emails stopped from being sent to them, and spells out tough penalties for violations.
We collect your email address in order to:
• Market to our mailing list or continue to send emails to our clients after the original transaction has occurred.
To be in accordance with CANSPAM, we agree to the following:
• Not use false or misleading subjects or email addresses.
• Identify the message as an advertisement in some reasonable way.
• Include the physical address of our business or site headquarters.
• Monitor third-party email marketing services for compliance, if one is used.
• Honor opt-out/unsubscribe requests quickly.
• Allow users to unsubscribe by using the link at the bottom of each email.
If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from receiving future emails, you can email us at
• Follow the instructions at the bottom of each email.
and we will promptly remove you from ALL correspondence.
Contacting Us
If there are any questions regarding this privacy policy, you may contact us using the information below.
www.hurstchronicles.com
22 Springfield Road
London, UK SW19 7AL
United Kingdom
robin.crumby@novatumgroup.com
Last Edited on 2017-03-09
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February 24, 2017
The rise of the indie author: digital disruption gathers pace
‘Everyone has a book in them and that, in most cases, is where it should stay’ or so said Christopher Hitchens.
There’s a revolution underway in book publishing. Over the last few years, Authorearnings.com data shows digital book sales from independent (self-published) authors remain on course to outsell those from traditional publishing.
Up until 2014, if you wanted to have your novel published, then you needed an agent and a publishing deal. For 99.8% of aspiring authors that meant the end of the line. No publisher meant no distribution and no readers. In many cases, that didn’t mean your novel wasn’t good enough, it meant it wasn’t commercially viable.
Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) changed all that. Launched around 2008, KDP allowed authors to self-publish their book and earn up to 70% of royalties on sales.
It all sounded almost too good to be true. All you needed to do was upload your book to the Amazon platform and hey presto, thousands of people would buy your scribbles and you could retire on your new passive revenue stream. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.
Over the last year or so, I’ve been undertaking an enjoyable voyage of discovery in the world of self-publishing. After nearly 20 years of co-founding and growing Melcrum, a research and training business, now part of CEB, I wanted to do something I’d always talked about but never found the time to do: write a novel.
For anyone who fancies themselves as an entrepreneur, self-publishing is a lot of fun. From the creative writing process itself to working with an editor, proof-reader, advance readers, book cover designer and formatting for digital devices, there’s a lot of work to be done before your book is even ready to upload.
For years, independently published books got a bad rap for poor quality. Not many people knew about self-publishing so telling friends that you didn’t have an agent or a publisher was like admitting that you didn’t wear underwear. It prompted a variety of reactions from disapproval to pity (the self-publishing bit I mean). The first assumption is that your book didn’t make the grade and that self-publishing is a last resort. However, for many authors, myself included, self-publishing is a choice.
So why choose the self-publishing route?
For a start, you retain control. You are master of your own destiny. You can do as much marketing and promotion as you want. You can experiment with different platforms such as Facebook advertising, Twitter, Amazon Marketing, Google advertising and others to generate awareness and ultimately readers and sales. You can choose to make your book free and run competitions and giveaways. For many authors, retaining control is everything and making your book a success is hugely fulfilling.
That doesn’t mean to say that traditional publishing is inherently bad or redundant. Lots of successful authors have chosen to switch between models, and back again, and speak highly of both approaches.
What it does mean is that to be successful, aspiring authors now have a choice. If they just want to write and don’t want to roll up their sleeves and get involved in the ‘business’ of selling and marketing books, then a traditional publishing route is probably right for them.
So what works when you’re launching a book?
I’m still learning as I go, but already there are many lessons I’ve learned. For a start, as tempting as it is to press publish and be done with it, the reality is that your novel won’t be ready until it’s been through successive rounds of edits and corrections. Self-editing is not advisable and feedback from your friends and family is unlikely to be free of bias. The good news is that digital publishing allows for unlimited revisions. The bad news is that you’re never done and eventually, you have to step away and recognise that further changes will only make for incremental gains, at best.
On the sales and marketing front, the best advice I was given was to sign up for Mark Dawson’s Self Publishing Formula 101 course which has been outstanding. Mark is a best-selling author who has created a step-by-step guide to every aspect of the process. His SPF team has established a community of like-minded authors helping each other out and sharing what works. Mark Dawson is living proof that this self-publishing approach works.
Through experimenting with Goodreads Giveaways, Amazon free promotions, enrolling your book in Kindle Unlimited, you quickly learn what works and what doesn’t. There are a lot of people out there who just want freebies and will probably never pay for your next book, write a review or help spread the word.
Because my first novel Hurst is book one in a post-apocalyptic thriller series, I’m playing the long game and am very happy to either give book one away or sell it for a notional $0.99 to help build an audience. By the time I’m on book five or six, my hope and expectation is that I’ll have grown a loyal readership and be able to charge a reasonable amount for the digital version or audio book, certainly enough to repay costs and earn a living.
Printed books are another story though and the economics of printing remain rather against the low-volume author. For example, Amazon is happy to print your book on demand but in return they pay the author a token royalty and the lowest price available is $15 or so. Unless you are prepared to print copies and sell them direct (not recommended), digital publishing remains the only real viable publishing route.
So as I race towards my self-imposed publishing deadline for book two, I can’t say enough good things about the self-publishing experience so far.
Have I made any money from self-publishing?
Not yet. I’m still underwater from the upfront investments, but with over 1,000 books sold so far in 9 months, I’m confident that with more books and more selling time, this will become more than just a hobby and prove a nice little earner.
If anyone wants to get a copy of Hurst, you can download book one for free by joining The Hurst Chronicles Readers’ Group.
Further reading:
Meet the bestselling author you’ve never heard of
http://www.selfpublishingformula.com/mark-dawson-the-times/
Self-Publishing And ‘The Quality Question’: It’s Called Rigor
Surprising Self-Publishing Statistics
Publishing’s Digital Disruption Hasn’t Even Started
http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2015/publishings-digital-disruption-hasnt-even-started/
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February 7, 2017
New Reader Group Launching
Ahead of the launch of book two in the post-apocalyptic dystopian series, The Hurst Chronicles, I am pleased to announce that I’ve created a readers’ group where fans of the series can join advance reader teams and get exclusive content ahead of the official release.
If you’re interested in volunteering as a beta reader, please sign up to the group here and let me know.
When you sign up to the Readers’ Group, you’ll also receive a link to download book one with my compliments.
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August 15, 2016
New map added
Remember the sheer delight and fascination of opening ‘The Lord of the Rings‘ or ‘The Hobbit‘ for the first time and seeing the map of Middle Earth set out with the realms of Rohan, Gondor, The Shire and Mordor. Somehow it just brought the whole book to life and was a handy reference as the story progressed.
Or the opening credits to ‘Game of Thrones‘ as the viewer is whisked from kingdom to kingdom, location to location, in a breathtaking tour of Westeros.
Got me to thinking…
I’ve had a fair few readers who are unfamiliar with the real-world locations featured in ‘Hurst’ requesting a map to bring it all together. Now I was all set to find a real geographical map and then I stopped. Wouldn’t it be more fun to create a map that one of the characters could have created that features the key locations in the book only. A handy guide for the reader as they explore the Solent. From No Man’s Land Fort to Yarmouth, to Fawley Refinery, Milford on sea, Osborne House, Carisbrooke Castle and Portsmouth. Now you’ll always know where you are.
Enjoy.
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July 15, 2016
Author Interview: It’s Write Now
Thanks to Ellen Appelgren from It’s Write Now, a great website that highlights new books and Kindle offers. Ellen kindly featuring book one of The Hurst Chronicles on their review website along with an author interview. You can read the full interview on the It’s Write Now blog and an extract follows:
Today I’m chatting with Robin Crumby, the author of Hurst, the first book of the The Hurst Chronicles which he describes as a near-future thriller set at a castle on the south coast of England in the aftermath of a pandemic virus. It’s a story about the dystopian societies that have emerged and the power-plays that result. Think ‘Game of Thrones’ meets ‘The Walking Dead’ but without the zombies!
Robin, thanks for sharing your time today. I’d like to start today by talking about the background of your novel, Hurst. How did the idea for this book begin?
Hurst Castle, where the book is set, is a real castle built by Henry VIII five hundred years ago. I’ve walked there many times along a mile of shingle beach. It’s a stunning and remote location that inspired my story.
So, you’ve been to this location many times before you started writing?
Yes, The book is set in an area that I know well. As a child, I spent many weekends and holidays exploring the Solent and Isle of Wight, sailing dinghies and boats to places like Cowes, Yarmouth, Beaulieu and Lymington.
Since you started the with the location and your childhood memories for inspiration did you do any research?
Yes, I spoke to many people in the local area where the book is set to unearth some of the stories and history surrounding Hurst Castle. I also spoke to friends in the military who advised on some of the hardware and operational procedures featured in the book.
Has anything that you’ve read or specific authors contributed to the inspiration for this novel?
I read a lot of books, of all different shapes and sizes, but the authors that inspired me most to start writing were Cormac McCarthy rereading ‘The Road’ for the second or third time, Emily St. John’s ‘Station Eleven’, ‘Outpost’ by Adam Baker and M.R. Carey’s ‘The Girl with All the Gifts’. I wanted to write like them but create a story set in an area of the world I loved that juxtaposed the ancient and the modern, so a sci-fi story set in the near future at a castle built by Henry VIII.
After you had your background setting, how did the characters come to you?
There are a lot of characters in the book drawn from all walks of life and loosely based on people I have met or known. I found it stimulating to imagine how people might behave in this new post-apocalyptic world and avoid the clichés you find on TV shows where everyone seems to know how to fire a gun or wield a knife in combat. How would real people react in those life-threatening situations.
That idea of putting real people into challenging situations is intriguing. Did you put much of an emphasis of putting themes or ideas like this into your writing?
Very much so. One of the main themes in Hurst is nature vs nurture, so what makes man behave in the way he does. In the absence of law and order, how quickly would the life degenerate into feudal chaos? Another theme is man’s thirst for power, whereby a leadership vacuum has emerged and quickly filled by rival players seeking to rebuild the world according to their own beliefs or philosophy. Many divergent dystopian societies clash and jostle for survival and supremacy.
You’re addressing some big ideals here intertwined with the lives of these characters. Did you have characters that you wanted to stay with longer to see how this played out?
This is only book one of a series. So the characters will develop as the story progresses. I’m a disorganised writer so it’s exciting for me to start thinking about what happens next without having a predefined plan for the ending. That means I get to write the story in an iterative fashion which makes the writing process a lot of fun.
What did you find the most rewarding thing about writing this book?
For me, writing is a very collaborative and iterative process. The feedback loop with readers and other writers is paramount. It takes a whole ‘village’ to write a good book and hopefully the end result is testament to that collective effort.
Do you feel that your paid work has influenced this book?
I co-founded my own publishing and events business which I ran for 19 years. Part of my role was copywriting websites, proposal documents and business plans, so I think that training and copywriting discipline translate well into fiction writing.
How long did it take for you to write this book?
It took about a year, writing part-time while I was running the business.
What are you working on next?
Have started work on book two of the series and am hoping to publish it in early 2017.
I’m looking forward to seeing the release of that instalment. Now, I’d like to change it up a bit and talk about you as a reader. What are you currently reading?
I’m rereading ‘The Day of The Triffids’ by John Wyndham which was also set in the same region as ‘Hurst’.
What was your favourite book as a child?
I loved the ‘Lord of the Rings’ by J.R.R. Tolkien
Is there a book that you wish that you would have written?
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Do you have any philosophies that you live by?
Not especially but I am a great advocate for equality. If I had a catchphrase it would be ‘Keep things simple’ and ‘Don’t waste time worrying about things you can’t control’.
And finally, what is your favourite quote?
“If you’re going through hell, keep going.” Winston Churchill
Thanks again for your time today Robin, and I’d like to wish you luck with the second volume in the Hurst Chronicles.
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July 8, 2016
Amazon Kindle Free Download Weekend runs 8th July-10th July
I wanted to let you know that, until end of day Sunday July 10th, you can download a free Amazon Kindle version of book one in the series by following these links.
Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/1Rd4Roh
Amazon US: http://amzn.to/1NDCKEn
Please can you share this link and message with anyone you think might be interested in reading book one. As a self-published author, I’d be grateful for your help in spreading the word.
So what’s Hurst all about, I hear you ask?
‘Hurst’ is a near-future thriller set in the aftermath of a pandemic virus. But don’t go thinking that means it’s all zombies and sci-fi nonsense. It’s not. It’s set in the real world. It’s a story about good vs evil, nature vs nurture, humanity stripped bare, set at a castle on the south coast of England. It’s been described as a cross between ‘The Day of the Triffids’, ‘The Road’, ‘Lord of the Flies’ and ‘The Hunger Games’! Or ‘Mad Max on the Isle of Wight’. It’s suitable for a young adult audience and older.
Don’t just take my word for it, you can read all the reviews on the Amazon page to judge for yourself. It was a lot of fun to write and hopefully as much to read too.
If you’ve already read the book, please take a moment to write a review on Amazon or Goodreads. It’s doesn’t need to be glowing, just honest.
Paperback version now available
If you prefer your books printed, I’m pleased to announce that today also marks the launch of the paperback version. However, it’s not free. Courtesy of Amazon UK publishing economics, you can grab your copy for the princely sum of GBP9.99.
I’m also doing a limited print run so will be sending copies to all the many people who’ve supported me in reading successive drafts and squashing those last remaining gremlins and typos.
Thanks in advance for your support.
Rob.
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July 1, 2016
Amazon Kindle Free Download weekend confirmed for July 9th-11th
Spread the word…
To celebrate the launch of the print edition of ‘Hurst’, I’m pleased to confirm that the latest digital version of Hurst will be available to download from Amazon between July 9th-11th.
The last free Amazon Kindle weekend generated close to 600 downloads, including some people who insisted on waiting and paying. Here’s hoping we can do the same again this time round.
Thanks again to everyone who’s supported the launch by sharing the link, writing reviews, Tweeting, sharing Facebook posts and the like to help build awareness. Your efforts are, as always, hugely appreciated.
Robin
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