Graham Downs's Blog, page 5

Behind the Curtain: An Observation About Email

For those of you who don't know, I use MailerLite as my email service provider. It's about a million times more suited to author newsletters than Mailchimp (click the link to try it out, if you run a business that needs to stay in contact with people).

Around the time that GDPR became a thing (when was that? A year ago now? Maybe more? Time flies), I decided it might be cool to offer people the choice of how they'd like to hear from me.

Prior to that time, I was sending out a regular monthly newsletter, and then other emails spread out randomly through the month, whenever I had something important to say. In some months, I'd send these weekly. In others, fortnightly, and sometimes, my subscribers would get several in a single week. All excluding my regular newsletter.

GDPR made me seriously consider that strategy because, as I understood it at the time, what the bill meant was the users had to consciously and specifically opt-in to communication from you, and they had to do it knowing exactly what that contact would entail.

Long story short, when someone signs up for my email list to get a free book, there are two checkboxes, and they can tick one, both, or neither (you're also not allowed to make that opt-in a requirement for receiving a freebie).

Now, I had expected there'd be some chancers who wouldn't tick either of those boxes. They just want the freebie. Oddly enough, I don't get nearly as many of those as I was afraid of, though; it seems like most people are honest, and understand the concept enough to willingly agree to hear from me.

I also expected that most people who opted in would tick the "Monthly Newsletters" option, and a few would choose not to receive the occasional ones. For the most part, that's held true, but here's what surprised me: some people are opting into the occasional emails, but not the regular monthly ones!

That floored me because I honestly assumed that, in most people's minds, "Occasional" would imply the regular monthly one.

True to my word, though, I haven't sent those people the regular monthly newsletters. But I have no way of understanding why people would want to hear from me occasionally, but not regularly.

Food for thought. As a reader, do you subscribe to any authors' newsletters? What made you sign up? How often do you prefer to hear from them?

By the way, if you'd like to sign up to mine and get one of my books free, click here.

As a Reader, I Choose Bargain Booksy

Free email services offering ebook deals are all the rage these days. You've probably heard of BookBub (every reader's heard of BookBub, surely?), but they're not the only kid on the block. We've also got Riffle Select, BookGorilla, BooksGoSocial... I've subscribed to them all and more.

If you don't know, readers sign up to one or more of these services, give their email addresses, and set some preferences about the kind of books they like to read. Authors and publishers, on the other hand, pay a fee to have their books advertised, and on a regular basis (daily, weekly, or sometimes monthly) the reader gets a curated list of ebooks emailed to them, based on their preferences.

It's a pretty good arrangement: authors get their books in front of readers who are interested in them, and readers get really good deals on the things they like to read most. Many of those deals are even free (Digital Book Today in particular, has lots of free deals).

BookBub's good too, but as a reader, I have to say my favourite such service, and the one that I've bought the most books off of, has to be the lesser-known Bargain Booksy.

Why Bargain Booksy?
See, none of the other services allows you to exclude books which are in Kindle Unlimited from their emails. And we know how I feel about Kindle Unlimited, don't we? (In a nutshell, they're evil. Pure and simply. Read this blog post to get my full opinion on the matter.)

In the past, this wasn't that big of a deal. Aside from the fact that I've only recently developed such strong feelings against Kindle Unlimited (because they've only recently started taking over as badly), it used to be that the chances of a book in one of these emails being in KU was maybe 10%. Now, it's 95%. And since I refuse to buy Kindle Unlimited books on principle, I'm steadily unsubscribing from services that don't allow me to exclude those from their emails.

Mind you, Bargain Booksy doesn't explicitly give you an option saying "Don't show me books in Kindle Unlimited." That would be ideal, but no. You have to be a bit smart about it.

When you sign up for Bargain Booksy (or change your preferences later), they ask you, among other things, where you buy and read books: Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Scribd, Amazon, etc.

Here's the secret: all you have to do is untick Amazon.

Most books you get will include Amazon links as well (because 99.99% of all ebooks are available on Amazon), but you'll only receive them if they're also available in at least one of the other stores you picked.

Smart, hey? ;-)

Over to you: are you subscribed to any of these subscription services? Which ones? Do you ever buy books based on these emails?

Let me know in the comments below.

Happy reading!

Writing for an American Audience: Why do Authors Compromise?

Short post this week.

Did you know that many independent authors go out of their way to appeal to an American audience?

It's true, and it's more prevalent than you think. It can be as simple as a South African or British author going out of their way to use American English, including trying to match their unique phrasings. Or it could be a case of such an author deliberately setting their story in the United States.

I understand the reasoning: as a self-published author, the vast majority of your sales are going to come from casual browsers on online stores, and it's a fact that most such browsers are going to be American, and you want those people to identify with your words.

The thing is, when the author is not American and has never been to America, they sometimes get it wrong. Americans don't just spell certain words differently to every other English-speaking country in the world, they use certain words and phrases completely differently, too. What we call a "handbag", Americans call a "purse". What we call a "pavement", they call a "sidewalk". And when we "career" towards something, they "careen" towards it instead.

And even if they don't get it wrong, I'm sure it works just fine for those random American browsers. But what about when you know for a fact that the author in question isn't American? Doesn't it strike you as odd? Perhaps a little... inauthentic? Why would a South African author not set their story in South Africa, using South African English? Are they ashamed?

Like I said, I understand why. I've heard tales of non-American authors being raked over the coals by American reviewers because they don't know how to spell the word "color" (no "u"), or they don't know what a "sidewalk" is.

Because of this, some authors have disclaimers in the front of their books, saying they use British English, and cautioning the reader against assuming something's a misspelling. As if they're apologising for the variant of English they use. But even that often doesn't help.

If you want your work to be acceptable to the world at large, it seems, it needs to be American.

Now, I've never heard of an American book making any such disclaimer, or even an American author going out of their way to sound British... or South African. So all I can think of is: Are Americans so (how shall I put this) dense?

Or maybe they're just so cloistered. We often like to joke about Americans believing they're the only country in the world, and although they've globalised somewhat over the years, many "average" Americans still believe Africa is a country!

How does the quote go? Something along the lines of, "There is no such thing as 'American English'. There is 'English', and there are mistakes."

I kid, of course. I certainly don't think any of my American friends are dense. And of course, I believe you should be free to speak or write in whatever flavour of the English language as you like and be understood. I just sometimes wonder if I might be the only person who believes that....

The Most Discussed Fantasy Books on Reddit... On Scribd

I recently ran across this list of the "Top 100 Best Fantasy Books" according to Reddit users. Well, actually, it's based on the number of times the books have been mentioned on the site, between 2018 and now. So, more properly, it's actually the top 100 most discussed books on Reddit.

It's an eclectic list and makes for some interesting reading by itself. Since I'm such a huge fan of the subscription reading service, Scribd, I thought I'd take a look at just how many of these top 100 were available on the platform.

I found ten. Out of the hundred than are on the Reddit list, 10% are on Scribd. It's true, I'd have expected more, and I'm not sure why so many authors and publishers decline to make their books available on Scribd. Maybe they don't get as good a deal as we indies do, in terms of royalties (*nudge* *hint* We get paid... a fair bit if people read our books on Scribd. And incidentally, all my books are on Scribd!)

Having said that, it's not all bad news. You should know that I found at least another ten where Scribd only carried the audiobook, and not the ebook. Since I don't personally do audiobooks, I excluded those from this list. And at least another ten were on there, but "Not available in your country" (South Africa). So let's say that, in fact, 30% of the top 100 books on Reddit are available on Scribd, albeit not in my preferred format, or not available where I live.

I've published the list below. Click on the covers to view them on Scribd.

But before you do, I have a great offer for you.

If you click on any of those books, and you're not a Scribd subscriber, they will offer you a 30-day free trial to try out the service and read that book—and others—for free. Don't take them up on that offer!

You see, if you click this link , you'll be able to get a full 60 days' worth of free reading instead. And you'll be helping me out: that's an affiliate link, so if you click it and then sign up, I'll get 30 free days, just for referring you. So please, click here to get your 60 free days .

And now, you may browse the list. :-)

#Title# on Reddit1 Circeby Madeline Miller12 The Song of AchillesBy Madeline Miller73 Neverwhereby Neil Gaiman124 Norse Mythologyby Neil Gaiman145 Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrellby Susanna Clarke436 Viciousby V. E. Schwab537 The Graveyard Bookby Neil Gaiman, Chris Riddell658 A Gathering of Shadowsby V. E. Schwab779 Trail of Lightningby Rebecca Roanhorse8010 A Darker Shade of Magicby V. E. Schwab81

Celebrating True Independence with IndieWide Books

As you may know, a huge chunk of my time these days is being spent fighting against and educating people about the evils of ebook and audiobook exclusivity. The biggest culprit of this is Amazon, who require us to make our books exclusive in order for them to be available on Kindle Unlimited (Which is terrible for authors, readers, and the whole industry. I blogged about it here: Why I Will No Longer Buy Books From Amazon, If They're in KDP Select / Kindle Unlimited).
It's not just ebooks, of course—audiobooks are affected too. And it's not just Amazon, either—although they are the biggest culprit.
With this in mind, I, as a reader, would feel incredibly guilty buying books which are available only at one retailer. So before I buy one, I always make a point of checking for the book on at least one other store.
You can join me on this quest by signing up for my new Facebook group: IndieWide Book Fans (click the image above to visit the group on Facebook).
Here's the "About" text for the group. I hope you'll consider joining:

An IndieWide ebook is a self-published ebook available at more than one retailer. We believe making ebooks exclusively available at any one store is bad for the industry and denies large portions of the world's reading population access to great books.
For this reason, we celebrate those independent authors who have taken the leap and decided to publish their books "wide". Feel free to post your reviews of these books, recommend them to others, and ask for recommendations about what to read next!
Are you an IndieWide author? Feel free to join this group as either your personal Facebook profile or your Author Page! Also, please click Files and add yourself to the Doc entitled "IndieWide Authors". 

Oh, and please spread the word by sharing this post far and... wide. ;-)

Books on the cheap at Smashwords this month

Every year in the month of June, ebook retailer Smashwords does something wonderful (and, I believe, unique).

You see, around this time of year, those in the Northern Hemisphere are all raving about summer and talking about beach reads. Particularly the Americans, with their "we're the only country in the whole world" mentality (no, I'm not bitter. Not bitter at all). Meanwhile, those of us in the South are freezing our cajones off, teeth chattering away as we read all about the wonderful summers those Northerners are having.

Smashwords attempts to rectify that, by running what they call their Summer / Winter Sale, all through the month of June. That way, those people enjoying summer browse for beach reads, while the read of shop for big meaty tomes to curl up with next to the fire.

There are literally thousands of ebooks on sale, with discounts ranging from 25% to 100% off. Click the image below to browse them all.


And in case you were wondering, two of my books are also in the sale. Until the end of the month, you can get A Petition to Magic at 50% off, or Memoirs of a Guardian Angel at 25% off. Click the covers below to visit Smashwords and buy them, before time runs out.



Hurry! The sale ends when the timer hits zero!

Results of 2019 Piracy Survey

The results are in! Last month, I asked you to vote in my anonymous poll, and tell me whether or not you routinely pirate ebooks.
I purposely left the poll open for a really long time, to give as many of you as possible the opportunity to answer.
And now, dear reader, I present the results, for your reading pleasure:
Do You Pirate Books?

The first question I asked was a simple "Do You Pirate Books?" Everyone who filled out my survey answered this question. And here are the responses:
No: 62.8%Yes, sometimes: 27.9%Yes, always: 4.7%I don't know: 4.7%I must say, I'm pleased that only 32.6% of you pirate books in some form. Well, I say "pleased", but of course I'd rather that number was 0%. Still, it's lower than I expected.
On the other hand, we need to talk about something...
What do you mean, you don't know?!Please don't take this the wrong way. I don't mean to poke fun at or offend anyone, but in 2019, with so much exposure around book piracy, it's difficult to imagine anybody being unaware that they're pirating a book.

Just in case, though, here are some rules of thumb:

If an author or their publisher personally emails you one of their books, either in exchange for a review, or signing up for their email list, or because you entered a giveaway, it's not piracy (but note: if you're getting the book in exchange for an honest review, please do the right thing and write that review when you're done).Of course, copying that book and giving it to your friends, or uploading it to a file-sharing site, most definitely is piracy. The author/publisher agreed to give it to you. Not to anyone else.If you see a book for free on a website you've never heard of before, it's probably piracy. But just to be sure, you should search for that book on your favourite platform: Kobo, Google Play Books, Barnes & Noble, etc. If you find it on any of those sites, and it's not free, the website you've never heard of before is probably a pirate site.If you're ever in any doubt, look for a way to contact the author or publisher — you're sure to find a contact form or email address on their website. Until you hear back from them, err on the side of caution and don't download the book.
Why Do You Pirate Books?Anyone who answered either "Always" or "Sometimes" to the question above got asked why they would pirate a book. There were loads of different options, and a place for people to enter ones I hadn't thought of.
Not all of the options were selected, so I've excluded them from the following chart. I also tried to sum up the various "Other" entries into these broad reasons:



Too expensive to buy books legally: 29.4%Not available in my country: 20.6%Book out of print/no longer available: 20.6%No official ebook available: 17.6%Not available on my preferred platform (Scribd, Kobo, etc): 5.9%More convenient/easier than buying legally: 2.9%Not available to purchase in my currency: 2.9%Note: people were allowed to choose more than one answer, so these totals might not add up to 100%.
Too expensive?The top answer people gave for pirating books basically boiled down to the fact that it's too expensive to buy the ones they want legally, but they really want them, so they'd rather obtain them illegally.

On the one hand, it's not surprising that most people chose this option. Money is a topic that's high on everyone's list of priorities, and our knee-jerk reaction is often "I can't afford it." Besides, "too expensive" is a relative term, isn't it? Some people may baulk at spending anything over $4.99 for a book, while others would have no problem paying $12.99 or more for an ebook they really want. Then of course, if you know you can get something for free, even $0.99 might be too much to pay.
On the other hand, pirating books hurts authors. And not just financially, either, since there's no guarantee you would've bought that book even if you could afford it. More importantly, it hurts authors emotionally, because it devalues their work. 
When an author sees that their work is available on a pirate site, how would you expect them to react? Joyfully, because people want to read it so badly they're willing to pirate it? Or with intense sadness, disappointment, and anger, because people value that work so badly that they're only prepared to read it if they can get it for free? That they're not good enough to ever expect people to pay for their stories? Do you think such an author is likely to keep writing books in the long term?
I don't think so. Not one whit.

If you can't afford to buy a book, then rather not read it. Go find other, similar books which you can afford. These days, there's a plethora of affordable books on the Internet. Even free.
Check your local library. If, like me, you prefer to read ebooks, find out if your local library is available on OverDrive or one of the other ebook library distributors. If it is, request the book you want to read. If that book isn't available through the library partner your library supports, contact the author and ask them to add it. You'll make their day!
And if there's no chance of getting the book through the library, get hold of the author anyway. The vast majority of us — especially self-published authors — would be more than happy to send you a (legally) free copy of our books, in exchange for your promise to write an honest review and post it online somewhere. Contrary to you pirating the book, we'd be over the moon to hear from someone who wants to read our work so much that they're willing to seek us out!
Out of Print/No EBook Available?If the book in question is out of print, and there's no "official" ebook version available, this is a bit trickier. Contact the author, if they're still alive. If they're not, see if you can find out who now owns the rights, or who last owned the rights, to it.
Ask them if they're willing to re-issue it as an ebook. Who knows? This might end up being a lucrative career for you if they ask you to handle it!
Not Available?The remaining responses, I'm going to lump together into one basket, and call it "Not available where, when, and how I want to read it."
This is a problem. In the traditional publishing world, publishers still bid for rights to publish books in particular territories and not others. Your favourite book might be available in the United States, but not in South Africa. It's not just books that suffer from this phenomenon: movies and TV shows are notorious for it, In my opinion, this is an archaic, draconian practice that has no place in the twenty-first century.
But even today, self-published authors often fall into the trap of making their books exclusively available on one platform. It's not a country restriction, but it is a store restriction, and often a currency restriction. Most often, that platform is Amazon, to take advantage of various perks, including having their books available in the retailer's Kindle Unlimited program. 
As I mentioned in my blog post on the subject, I do not support this in any way, shape, or form. It is my firm belief that books should be legally available to everyone, wherever they are, on whatever platform they choose, and for purchase in whatever currency they're most comfortable with.
But if any of those things aren't true of the book you want to read, I still don't think that's any justification for pirating it. My first advice is going to be the same as I've been giving all along: contact the author, and ask them to make the book available where you want to read it.
If they're unwilling or unable to do that, then find another book. In this day and age, there are so many places to consume books, and so many books out there, that there's no excuse for piracy.
And if you're looking for a place to (legally) read ebooks, free of charge, try Scribd. Click here to get 60 free days with the platform, to read as many ebooks, and listen to as many audiobooks, as your heart desires. And best of all, the authors get paid when you do.

Convenience?The final reason people gave for pirating books, that I want to touch on, is the idea that piracy is more convenient than buying books legally. Well, I guess that depends on what you consider inconvenient, doesn't it? Amazon, Kobo, and Google Play Books (and I'm sure others do as well) all offer some version of one-click purchasing, where if your credit card is saved on their system, you can just click a button to buy any book, and have it available on your device in moments.

If you find using a credit card inconvenient, Google Play Books even allows you to pay for books using the gift cards you can buy in your local brick-and-mortar store.

Granted, all of the above stores will make it difficult for you to read the books you buy on anything other than their own, proprietary ereading device or app. Enter Smashwords: while they don't support one-click ordering, you can download the books you've purchased to your computer or mobile device, to read on whichever app you prefer. They also support paying for books via PayPal, which means that you never have to share your credit card details with them.

Not convenient enough for you? Scribd also allows you to pay for their service via PayPal (once your 60 trial is up; make sure you click the link to claim that), and once you're subscribed, you don't ever have to buy an ebook ever again. If you find a book you want to read, you click "Read Now", with no friction whatsoever. What could be more convenient than that?!
Nope. With all the options available to you, there's simply no excuse for ebook piracy in 2019. None whatsoever. Now with that in mind, go out there and read more books!

Ebooks aren't REAL Books... Are They?

Somebody posted this meme in a readers' group I belong to on Facebook, and I just rolled my eyes and thought "Here we go again...."


I rolled my eyes because images like this always come with this implied declaration: "Digital books aren't books." And, sure enough, the comments came thick and fast, just as I'd predicted: "Books are better than digital because...""Digital isn't real reading...""Those [digital publications] aren't real books."And just like a few people commented, I'm so sick of this debate. Are you saying that you'd rather people didn't read at all, unless they read books printed on paper?
Let me make this clear:
Paper books are books, but I don't read them because my eyes are too bad, plus I find them inconvenient, and cumbersome to lug around.Digital books are books, and I read them exclusively for a host of reasons that I won't get into here, but have explained to death elsewhere.Audiobooks are books, but I don't like them, personally.Books on Microfilm are booksBooks on papyrus are booksBooks scratched into bark are booksBooks on wax tablets are books (even if they probably won't last too long)Books chiselled on stone tablets are booksThey're all books. Consume them in whatever format makes you happy. But never state or imply that any of the above are not real books - even with some seemingly innocuous comment like "I prefer books to digital".
What I'm more concerned about, to be honest, is when people use "Kindle" as a generic term for "ebook", because some of those comments were actually written as "Books are better than Kindle because...."
I wish we'd stop doing that; it isn't fair to all the other ebook retailers out there. Kindle isn't the only way to consume ebooks, and Amazon isn't the only company that sells them... hell, they weren't even the first to sell them! I can think of at least ten other companies, many of whom were selling ebooks long before Amazon, but are now defunct, because people wouldn't stop equating "ebook" with "Kindle".
In fact, it's no secret that I think Amazon and their draconian business practices are terrible for the whole industry - particularly with their "Kindle Unlimited" service. I spoke a bit more about that in my post Why I Will No Longer Buy Books From Amazon, If They're in KDP Select / Kindle Unlimited, and then again in Want to Read/Listen to Unlimited Books/Audiobooks, Free for 60 Days?, where I mentioned Scribd as a great alternative (which has actually been around longer than Kindle Unlimited has).
So what do you think? Are ebooks "real books"? How about audiobooks? Let me know your stance and why, in the comments... if you dare.

When is Romance not Romance?

This is a follow-up to my post last week, In Which Genre Would You Put These Books?, where I spoke about how difficult "genre" was to define. The title of this one may sound like a brain-teaser, riddle, or joke, but hear me out.

Because all of my books are published and distributed through Smashwords, I like to follow Publishers' Weekly's Smashwords Bestseller list. This list tracks the top-selling books each month, both on Smashwords' own site, and all the retailers they distribute to.

I don't write romance, so I'm often frustrated by the sheer number of Romance titles on the list. Case in point, the April 2019 list. There are 25 books on the list, and literally. the top five bestselling books on that list are all Romance. Then Romance appears again in positions 7, 9, 14, 17, 19, 20, 21, 23, and 24. That's a total of 14 Romance titles, on a list of 25. For those of you who are mathematically challenged, that translates to 56%!

There's no doubt that Romance is a massively popular genre, with loads of devoted readers who devour books at a rapid clip (often reading entire series in a single day), and I've often wondered how we non-Romance writers can possibly hope to break into those coveted top spots. But something someone said to me last month shocked me to the core.

You see, many authors, hoping to capitalise on this enormous popularity, apparently deliberately miscategorise their books at retailers. They create tenuous links in their minds, where if their book happens to have a romantic sub-plot, they can call it Romance. Sometimes, even an incidental love interest will do -- but I'm willing to bet 99% of all fiction has one of those.

No. I was always led to believe that a book can only be called Romance if the main plot depends on the Romance. If the story wouldn't be able to stand without the Romance element. Was I wrong?

I decided to test this theory out. So let's take those top five books from the April list, read through the descriptions, and decide for ourselves whether they're in the right category.

Here we go:

Note: You can click on the covers to find out where you can buy each one. You'll notice that all but one of them are available on Scribd's subscription reading service. If you're not already subscribed, they will give you the opportunity take out a 30-day free trial. Please don't click on that link. Rather use my affiliate link, which will give you 60 days instead (and I'll get 30 days of free time as a reward for referring you). So if you're interested in taking Scribd for a test drive, click here for my affiliate link.
Best I've Ever HadBy Abbi Glines

Summer had returned. The nightlife lit up the coastal town of Sea Breeze, Alabama with scantily clad sun-kissed bodies, live music, the smell of fresh cooked seafood.

Taking it all in, he wondered if coming back had been the best thing. He wasn’t the same man who had driven out of town a year ago on the motorcycle he’d bought after his best friend’s wedding. From the messy blonde curls he’d let grow out, to the tattoos now covering his arms, part of his chest and even the side of his neck, it all represented a part of his journey.

Eli Hardy was back, but he didn’t plan on staying for long.

The Slow BurnBy Kristen Ashley

Tobias Gamble knew from a young age precisely the kind of woman he was going to make his. She was not going to be like his mother. She was going to be like the mother he claimed. 
In other words, she was going to be just right.
And when Toby returns to his hometown of Matlock, Kentucky and claps eyes on Adeline Forrester, he knows she’s the one.
The problem is, his brother Johnny has a new girlfriend. And Addie is her sister. Last, Toby would do nothing to hurt Johnny’s chance at happiness.
Toby hangs around town to get to know the woman Johnny fell in love with. He also hangs around to get to know Addie.
But he’s fallen hard, and he knows the best thing for him—and Addie—is for him to leave.
Addie Forrester is thrilled her sister Eliza found a good, solid man. Johnny Gamble is the salt of the earth. The best guy in the world.
The best except for his brother, Toby.
Toby doesn’t know it, but Addie’s fallen hard too. He’s perfect, except for the fact that he’s hands off and it’s torture, being friends with Toby when she wants so much more.
Addie also has a lot on her mind. She’s got bills to pay, her young son needs food, Christmas is coming and her job at the grocery store just isn’t cutting it.
Toby is steering clear of Addie. Addie is steering clear of Toby. But everyone around them knows this is the slow burn.
Because just like Eliza and Johnny, Addie and Toby were made for each other.
Unforeseen (Vampire Awakenings, Book 9)By Brenda K. Davies

When Jack escapes the vampires holding him captive, he thinks his biggest worries are finding his friends and avoiding the Savages pursuing him...until he stumbles across Charlie. He’s not sure what’s more dangerous, the vampires hunting him or the woman who harbors more secrets than the island where he’s trapped.
Charlie wasn’t expecting Jack to fall into her life, but now that he has, she doesn't know what to do with him. She can’t leave him behind to be hunted, but her growing attraction to him frightens her more than the Savages. Though Jack’s a tempting distraction, love has no place on this island, and Charlie refuses to let him get in her way. She’s escaping the island—with or without him. 
Can they work together to survive the horrors of the island, or will they perish like so many before them? 
Broken SilenceBy Natasha Preston
It has been four years since Oakley, her mum, and brother fled to Australia. With the trials looming, she makes the decision to return to England. Oakley is desperate for closure so she can put the past behind her and move on with her life. 
How will she cope when she comes face to face with the two people that hurt her the most, and the one person that she hurt the most? 
Her love for Cole never faded, but how will he react to her return after so long? Will they be able to put everything behind them in order to have a happy ending?
The Roommate AgreementBy Emma Hart
Let your homeless best friend stay with you, he said. Being roommates will be fun, he said. It's only temporary, he said.He never said I'd fall for him.
You know what isn't 'temporary?' The endless stream of dirty socks in my bathroom and empty food packets under the sofa—and don't even get me started on the hot guys who take over my living room every Sunday to watch sports.
I can't take anymore. 
So I propose a roommate agreement. One that will bring peace and order back to my life, complete with rules that might just stop my newfound crush on my best friend in its tracks.
After all, there’s only so many times you can see your best friend naked before you start to lose your mind.
Rules. They're meant to be broken... Aren't they?

So, I must be honest, having not actually read any of these books. If I look at the blurbs, they all do seem to fit - except maybe the vampire one, which I think may be a bit tenuous. And if I look at the covers (even/especially the vampires one), they all seem to fit - except for Slow Burn, whose cover is quite generic.

It seems like I was misinformed about how widespread this problem is. Either that, or miscategorising your book doesn't work because readers are smarter than that, and won't buy it (so it won't get on these bestseller lists). Or, perhaps they're better than I thought because the blurb and cover fit the genre, but if I were to actually read the book, I'd find that it actually didn't.

What do you think? Do you think authors do this, and if they do, does it work for them? And have you read any of these books? Do you think they fit the genre?

In Which Genre Would You Put These Books?

You know what subject keeps coming up? Genre. Like, what does it mean? You get Thriller, Romance, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Horror, Comedy... and so many subgenres in each. And each one seems to mean a different thing depending on who you are. It's so confusing.

Just the other day I was having a discussion with a friend about whether a popular Fantasy series could rightly be called Sword and Sorcery (I said it couldn't, because Sword and Sorcery stories had to be simplistic affairs with one hero(ine) going around slaying monsters with little moral consequence). This led to a much bigger discussion about what constitutes High Fantasy, with me saying High Fantasy just implies stories set in a created world, but with him saying that a story had to be particularly well written or have some literary significance before it could be classified in that genre.

With that in mind, dear reader, I ask you - what's your favourite genre, and how do you define it?

Furthermore, I'm going to present my own books to you, and ask you to weigh in on which genre you would put them in. I've already made a call for each and put them into specific genre-based categories on the various retailers, but after having these discussions, I'm not so sure if my decisions were right. I'm not going to tell you which categories I chose for each because that might bias you. Please comment at the end of this post, and let me know what you think.

By the way, if you need more information to make your decision, you can click on the covers to visit the books on my website.

Memoirs of a Guardian Angel
Have you thanked your Guardian Angel today?
I never did... now I wish I had.
I now understand the hard work and difficult situations they face every day. That car that veered off course, the knife that slipped or even the close call when you nearly tumbled from a tree.
It wasn't good luck that saved you, it was me.
My name is Adam and I'm a guardian angel.
Tales From Virdura
Explore Virdura, a world of fantasy, drama and magic.
Find out what happens when a dashing young farmer’s son sweeps a neighbouring daughter off her feet.Meet Queen Tricia and the Royal Wizard Solon. Or Queen Celeste, her daughter, as she continues to struggle to come to terms with her new role as queen after the death of her mother.Read about Tobin the Bounty Hunter as he takes down Jarvis, a merciless criminal who brutally slit a blacksmith’s throat.These stories and more await you in Tales from Virdura, a collection of flash fiction stories that take you deep into the world and the lives of the characters who inhabit it.
You can read this book as a companion volume to A Petition to Magic, find out more about favourite characters and meet new ones within the Kingdom.
You can also enjoy the stories separately from the original short story.
Heaven and Earth: Paranormal Flash Fiction

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
-- Hamlet (1.5.167-8)

A perfect introduction into the inner workings of the weird mind of Graham Downs, this collection of flash fiction paranormal stories contains:The Thing in the Window,An Automatic Decision,Telepathic Link,The Witch of Wellington, andThe Christmas Bird.All have been newly edited and polished since publication on his website in 2014, and some with new endings.
It also contains the never-before-published story, Under the Sheets, about an old woman who believes she is being haunted by a strange ghost, living under her bed.
Billy's Zombie
Young Billy MacIntyre has always been a weird kid, always taking every little slight to heart.One day, he decides to exact his revenge on all those simpletons who have done him wrong. And he does it by taking a book of Necromancy out of the library, and raising a zombie from the dead!
Stingers
Thirteen-year-old James Clarke is always being picked on in school. He hates sports, and he particularly hates Stingers, a schoolyard game in which children throw tennis balls at each other. The other kids always seem to throw the ball harder, when it's at him. His physical education teacher, Mr Evans, has no sympathy for the boy, believing he just needs to toughen up a bit.When James returns home from school after a rough game of Stingers, his mother is mortified when she sees the bruises on his arm and chest. She phones the school to try and put a stop to the cruel bullying of her son.
But her phone call only makes things worse, as the bullying escalates to levels that nobody imagined possible.
Stingers was first published in the charity anthology, "I am not Frazzle! And other stories for grown-ups".
Heritage of Deceit
While surfing the Internet at work, Lloyd believes he's found a relic from an old genocide. If he's right, the artefact would be worth a ton of money, and it will give lots of people closure when they find out what really happened to their families.But there's one problem. The artefact--if it really exists--is in the possession of Carla, a shy woman in the company's Accounts Department, and she never lets it out of her sight.
Lloyd seeks the help of his friend and fellow employee, Robert, whom Carla is desperately in love with. Will Robert agree to use Carla's feelings for him to get information about the mysterious object?A Petition to Magic

"Graham Downs opens the door to a fantasy world in his short story, A Petition to Magic, a world of emotions, trust, self-searching and enchanted characters that will definitely leave readers wanting more."

Queen Celeste rose to the throne of Virdura a month ago, after the sudden death of her mother.
Desperate to prove herself, she agrees to hear the case of a simple farmer who claims a neighbour stole his cow.
To help her in this task, she orders her chief advisor, the royal wizard Solon, to cast a spell and divine the truth for her. Solon, however, is keeping a terrible secret. He is unable to perform any magic, and he cannot afford to let the queen find out the reason why.


So what do you think? Care to give your opinion on which genres you think fits each of the above books?

Especially Stingers. It's Young Adult, sure, but that's not a "genre", per se. Other than that, what is it? It's not a Thriller. It's not really a Mystery. It's certainly not a Romance. And it's set in modern times, so it's neither Fantasy nor Science Fiction. What would you call it?

(Image credit R M Media Ltd. See the original here.)