Leopold Borstinski's Blog, page 9

A Review of reviews

Last week was the end of the Casino Chiseler blog tour so I thought I’d share some of the nice things the reviewers said of the fourth book in the Alex Cohen series.

★★★★★ “I was on the edge of my seat for the majority of the book and I really loved the twists and turns. This is a must read series for Crime Fiction lovers.” Jessica Belmont

★★★★★ “This is fast and furious reading. The book spans a decade in Alex’s life and it positively speeds along, carrying you in Alex’s devastating path. It’s enthralling, compelling, thoroughly entertaining stuff, punched with violence throughout. ” Alex J Book Reviews

★★★★★ “The 1940s span of Alex Cohen’s life has to be the best written in the series to date! By showing the roots of Sin City’s reputation was there from the start with organized crime and the sheer scope of the kind of money made, Leo Borstinski has definitely written a winner!” Puzzle Paws

★★★★★”An edge of your seat crime thriller that will blow you away. Highly Recommended.” Surjit’s Book Blog

“It is a brilliant gangster thriller, it’s both nail-biting, brutal, gritty and exciting, yet there is a classy, glamourous and sophisticated feel to it that I really enjoyed delving into.” Chicks, Rogues and Scandals

Thanks, as ever, to Emma at damp pebbles for organising the tour and helping to deliver another great event for me.

Election days

I am hoping you might have noticed that I try to avoid talking about contemporary events, but I feel the need to mention that sometimes voting can be very important. Am I talking about what has been going on in the US? You decide.

Back in the 1950s in Cuba, there was a democratically elected government that was removed in a coup by a General Batista who knew he was about to lose the popular vote. Roll on a handful of years and the people get restless and dislike Batista’s flavor of far-from-benign dictatorship. The Castro brothers appear on the scene attacking Batista’s military strongholds and the rest, they say, is history.

Why do I mention this? Well, while the people of Cuba were dealing with the consequences of the macro politics in their country, American gangsters moved onto the island to turn the place into a Latin American Las Vegas. And, naturally, that is where Alex Cohen steps in as I write Cuban Heel, book five in the series.

Vote often, vote early…

Alex Cohen Website Exclusive

I have mentioned before that leob.ws is my preferred place for book sales to take place because I see 97% of the revenue instead of no more than 70%, and sometimes way less than that. Well, today I am announcing a book collection which is only available to buy on the site and nowhere else on the planet.

The first four books in the Alex Cohen series are available as a single box set at a cost of $9.99/£9.99. That is the cheapest way I know for you to get your hands on all four books. To buy them individually would cost $17.96/£17.96 and to buy the three-book set and book four, Casino Chiseler separately would be $14.98/£14.98.

I am only going to keep this 9.99 boxset on the site for a while so that readers of this newsletter can take advantage of the offer. Then it will vanish from the Internet, never to be seen again.

Fill your boots.

Leo

PS You’ll be able to buy the book for your Kindle or ePub reader and downloads are delivered using BookFunnel, which many newsletter readers will have already used to get their free novellas when they joined up in the first place.

Casino Chiseler Blog Tour

I thought I’d let you know that the latest release from the Alex Cohen series, Casino Chiseler is halfway through its blog tour–with thanks to Emma at damppebbles.

So far, the reviews have been wonderfully positive I am pleased to be able to report but we have another week before the jury is in.

Next week, I am hoping to be able to tell you about a website exclusive offer I’m going to make available. I just need to finish getting it ready…

Leo

So long to steam

A reminder that back in the summer I asked newsletter subscribers if they would be interested in a monthly shot of steamy chapters from me and sufficient numbers indicated they were for me to deliver three doses called Awakenings.

Some people were kind enough to buy the dollar scribblings but I must confess that not enough subscribers followed through to make the project viable in the medium term, so I have stopped it. They are still available for purchase but they are no longer easily visible on my website, the only place you can get hold of them. To those who joined me on the journey, I thank you.

For those of you who have subscribed to the newsletter in the expectation of a continuous belch of steamy writing from me, I must apologise again–as I did at the beginning of the summer. If you want to gracefully withdraw from the newsletter, I will totally understand.

My focus over the next year or more is on my crime and thriller writing as that is proving most popular at the minute. The story of Alex Cohen continues–and I have just released a box set of the first three books for the ludicrously low price of 9.99, compared to 17.96 if bought separately.

Leo

Google as much as you want

Just another update from me and a couple of things that have happened over the last two to three weeks.

I am aware that I have been silent of late–almost from the moment I announced I was starting to write book 5 of Alex Cohen, Cuban Heel. Instead, I have used the opportunity to let you know about various free and cheap book collections which I’ve been involved with. Well, the first thing for me to say is that my intention is to reduce the number of these collections I offer you because I am not going to be including my books in them as much as I used to. If this is the main reason you subscribe then I won’t take any offence if you unsubscribe immediately. You will miss out on all sorts of things, but other writers’ discounted books won’t be one of them.

The second, and more interesting item at least for me, is that I have withdrawn all my books from sale on Google Play. This happened in the same week as Google changed its terms and conditions for writers and I’d like to explain what went down. Until the week just gone, Google had the right to discount the price I set for any of my books, a practise which the other major retailers did not do. They price match but they don’t spontaneously take the price of your book down.

At one point in the summer, Google had discounted the price of Bowery Slugger in Australia and then Amazon did a price match to the Google-invented price. The only way I could get Amazon back on track was to pull Bowery Slugger from Google sales. Then Amazon did another price match and took the price back to where I wanted it set. Because I was sick and tired of this happening, I removed my books from Google earlier this month.

The same week, like I said, the company changed its terms and decided to behave like all the other retailers and only price match. At some point in the future I will revisit my decision but so far the search engine giant has cost me money due to reduced royalties from Amazon Australia sales. As background, I get 35% of a $0.99 sale and 70% of the $1.99 and above book fees.

To put this in perspective, I receive about 97% of the cost of the book when you buy direct from my website because I only have credit card transaction fees to pay. This is why I mention my website so much when I talk about my books–and it is the only place I can easily offer discounts to friendly folk like you who receives my newsletter regularly.

What is the point of this ramble? To say I’ve left Google and to give you the context as to why I’d prefer you to buy direct, if you are comfortable receiving books from me via BookFunnel.

Enjoy.

Leo

Suspense Thrillers

Well here is another opportunity for those who like their stories with an element of suspense and a modicum of thrills–called Suspense Thrillers and comprises a fine collection of novels to buy at very reasonable rates. I hope you find something of interest. I am sure you will.

Fill your boots.

Thriller Giveaway

And another opportunity hurtles toward you at a rate of knots. This time it is an action thriller giveaway in October called Action Adventure Thriller Giveaway and it really does what it says on the tin.

My recommendation would be to pop over to the collection and grab as many of the 50 free books as you can lay your hands on and then hibernate for quite some time as you plough through your TBR list.

Fill your boots.

Casino Chiseler launch

Before I wrote the first Alex Cohen book, I imagined our eponymous hero going off to war and never being seen again. How wrong I was. Casino Chiseler is the fourth book in the series with at least seven books in total.

This time Alex finds himself in 1940s Vegas at the time when Bugsy Siegel is looking to build and run a casino. Early reviews have been four and five stars (thank you to those who have been kind enough to leave a review) and it has been my second most successful launch day, beaten only by book 3, Midtown Huckster, so you will not be alone in making a purchase.

Now the book is live on all the main sales platforms–Amazon, Kobo, B&N and Apple. I have decided not to continue with Google Play as I wish to have greater control over the pricing of my own books than that service will allow.

Grab your copy now for $4.99, £4.99 or €4.99 depending where you live.

Fill those boots!

PS As a special offer to my newsletter subscribers, I am offering the Kindle and ePub book at half price–only 2.49– from now until October 17 but only from my website at www.leob.ws/chiseler using the coupon code 50offcasino. Fill your electronic boots.

October Crime Thrillers

And have I got an opportunity for you? Yes, I do. This time the collection is called October Crime Thrillers and contains a number of novels in the thriller genre which are available in the month of October.

Perhaps I should have made sure you were sitting down before I laid them bombshell on you. I apologise, but fill your boots anyway.