Leopold Borstinski's Blog, page 36

Crime fiction list: quality novels herein

This is not so much an announcement to fill your boots but instead is a reference to The Guardian‘s latest crime fiction list. It contains a splendid variety of offerings – something for everyone as the cliche says. Funnily enough, on this occasion we can demonstrate that a cliche is an oft-repeated truth because there is a wide variety and I would be surprised if you didn’t find one book to your taste.

The big difference between this list and others I’ve foregrounded is that The Guardian expects you to pay for the words you read. “Outrageous!” I hear you cry.

“Authors have bills to pay too,” is my immediate response. Writers are not charity cases.

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Thrillers are free if you come here

Thrillers available: all you have to do is point and click. Boots might be made for walking but even if you are stationary, you can sure fill them.

Make your footwear happy.

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B&N shrugs at eBooks and Walks Away

The ongoing battle for the hearts and minds of the eBook reading community continues apace with the announcement by Barnes & Noble (B&N) that it has surrendered and given up pretending to be a technology provider.

Now, forgive me but I have never thought of B&N as a technology provider. I thought it was a bookshop that sold technology just as Amazon is an online store that sells technology. They both have their own kit to flog as well as products supplied by other people and companies. The fact that the article also accuses the company have having a poor website makes me wonder quite who was paying this particular piper. But I have no idea and my opinions are just that: mine and mere opinion.

Amazon currently enjoys about 75% of the eBook market in terms of sales of eBooks themselves. Apple’s iBookstore comes second and the rest are/were way down the field. Is the death of the Nook-as-we-know-it good or bad? Well, if I owned one I’d be concerned how long the gizmo was going to be supported and what level of access to new eBooks I’d have. But I don’t own one. I own a tablet and use apps to access electronic book stores so I’m not beholden to any one of them for my kit.

As a writer I am even more neutral and nonplussed: I’ll follow the money. I don’t think Amazon is good or bad as an eBook sales platform because to me that is all it is. Right now I drive traffic to existing sales platforms like Amazon Kindle and the iBookstore but I would be just as happy – if not more so – if this website became my primary sales platform. Why? I’d receive more revenue for the same product and cost to the consumer. Whoever owns the sales conduit takes a cut of the profit before the writer gets to dip their beak in the trough.

Would you support me if I started selling my books direct in Kindle or ePub formats here? I’ll follow the money. Really.

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Ten Rules for a Crime Novel

I bumped into a fab page referenced on Facebook which was Raymond Chandler’s ten rules for writing a detective novel. As the article makes clear, Chandler wasn’t just providing a prescriptive list, he was being playful by having a go at those detective novels that had preceded him. In particular, he clearly had issues with Agatha Christie.

Funnily enough, although no-one is laughing right now, I too have issues with Christie. As a teenager I consumed a huge quantity of her output thanks to the resources of my local library. But no matter how hard I concentrated on each word on every page, when it came time for the big reveal, I never predicted the bad guy apart from the odd lucky guess. Why? She hid essential information from the reader to make her detective appear smart.

Not impressed. Seriously not impressed.

 

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Thriller books available here: Fill your boots

An opportunity for you to enjoy some thrilling reads without laying out a single pen – internet connection charges apart, along with the cost of ownership of an electronic reading device, the electricity to power it… You get the picture. Or rather, go get the novels.

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The Raging Bull Has Died

The announcement that former middleweight boxer, Jake LaMotta had died created an opportunity to reflect on much more than a dead sportsman. The Guardian’s piece contrasted the life of the man as depicted in the classic film, Raging Bull (1980) with his ghost written autobiography (if that’s not a contradiction in terms) as well as the life actually lived too.

I am no fan of boxing – or almost any sport to be honest – but I loved the film. To be clear, I have been repulsed and admiring of the on-screen character over the decades but the Scorsese/de Niro narrative of stubbon male violence (“You never got me down, Ray.”) has bolstered me through thick and thin. The haunting image of LaMotta’s blood falling to the ground after losing to Sugar Ray Robinson has filled me with mettle on more than one occasion. It is that stubborn refusal to give up; refusal to be knocked down that I admire.

When I read the book I: was disappointed because the boxing life was dull and he showed himself to be no hero at all. That streak of fortitude was not apparent. And from what I’ve read, the man himself was pretty repugnant.

So now he’s dead and all we have left are the relics he left behind: some bit parts in a host of films, a clutch of TV appearances and the strains of opera as an elegaic reminder of an edge when men were men and women were brutalised.

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We Love Putting Children in Danger

This week The Guardian set me thinking about why the dead child is such a common trope. Any article with a still photo from Don’t Look Now is bound to grab my attention but the haunting effects of loss is bound to grab me too.

I believe there is an intrinsic pre-programming within us to want to protect children and for an adult character to lose a child generally creates a tremendous empathetic reaction in most of us. You can almost feel the loss even though it is fictional because the monster is one of our worst nightmares.

To be honest, I am not sure I could introduce this particular trope in my own writing as I don’t think I could do justice to the child-loss motif without trivialising it. But that doesn’t mean I might not try at some point in the future.

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Thriller Giveaway: Boots Alert

Here is another fine opportunity to get something for next to nothing (your email address).

Hope you enjoy having totally full footwear.

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Fill your boots on FREE books

There’s a clue in every headline. Yes this is another opportunity to grab yourselves a bunch of free eBooks so hit the page and stomp away.

You know it makes sense.

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Amazon hits ranking violators

Those of you who use Amazon to feed your Kindles, or for other purchases come to that, should be aware that the ranking of a product is not as benign as you might think. While theory tells us that the more a product is sold, the higher it goes up the rankings until it is a best seller. the reality is that you can use friends and web bots to trick the Amazon algorithms into raising your ranking without commensurate sales.

Many indy authors will find an obscure category in order to be able to claim to be a number one Amazon author. And trad publishers are also desperate to capture the limelight that a high position offers eg Amazon will finally start to promote your title without you having to pay for the privilege.

Over the last couple of years authors especially have complained to Amazon about how easy it is to game the system and finally there is an answer: Amazon has picked out some of the worst perpetrators for some belated but negative consequences. And not soon enough, I say.

To be honest, I’m less concerned about having a tax evading company tell me I’m brilliant and more concerned about making sales anywhere. Real sales that is with real money attached. I know this is a terribly old-fashioned approach to publishing, but I’ll forgive myself just this once.

Does anyone think Amazon was wrong in its actions here?

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