Michael Gallagher's Blog

April 2020: Lock down! Why not give away books?

Two weeks ago I received an email from Smashwords, the smaller of the two book distributors I use. They were launching a sale called Authors Give Back in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, which aimed to help readers in lock down.

“THIS IS NO ORDINARY SALE: Readers everywhere are going through great difficulty. There’s the difficulty of social isolation as readers shelter in place at home. There’s the real concern that one’s family or friends will be harmed by Covid-19. There’s the economic hardship and uncertainty that touches everyone. As you promote your participation in this special one-time sale, please do so with heart, compassion and sensitivity. Before promoting your participation or a particular title, ask yourself, ‘How can my book(s) make a person’s day brighter?’”

The premise was simple. Participating authors could offer discounts of 30%, 60%, or 100% on one or more of their books. I chose to enrol all six of my novels and to give them away for free. Why? I genuinely wanted to do something to help people in this time of crisis, and here—miraculously—was something I could do with ease. But scratch below the surface and you will see my decision makes good business sense too, especially for indie authors.

One of the most difficult things for an indie author to do is sell their books, even if they hit “the sweet spot” for pricing, even if their readers adore them. Nor does the situation improve if you make them free. Who trusts free books? Surely they can’t be worth much if they’re free? But a promotion like this changes all that, and my sales have rocketed accordingly. They may not make me any money, but they bring my books to a whole new audience, and one which in the future might choose to review them. You can’t buy publicity that good.

Another plus is that Smashwords counts every book I give away as a sale. With each sale I make I become that much more discoverable on their website. Here’s the thing. I first started publishing in 2013, and all of my novels can still be found there by a casual browser. There will be books that were published only last year through lack of sales will have virtually disappeared. So what’s on offer?

Gooseberry. Octavius Guy & the Case of the Thieving Maharajah (#1). Fourteen-year-old Gooseberry once helped solve the mystery of the Moonstone. Now fate is about to throw him a new case, sending him sleuthing round the Victorian capital once more.
“Sometimes you see a book and just know you're going to love it…An absolute treat for fans of Collins’ novel and a successful novel in its own right.”—Emma Hamilton





Octopus. Octavius Guy & the Case of the Throttled Tragedienne (#2). When the leading actress dies in mysterious circumstances during a performance of The Duchess of Malfi, Gooseberry feels duty-bound to investigate. It is, after all, a great deal more exciting than tracking down rich old ladies’ cats!
“Here is a sensational historical fiction who-dunnit that gives nothing away until the very end. To me, it reads like an old time radio show. It leaves you breathless.”—Connie A.




Big Bona Ogles Boy! Octavius Guy & the Case of the Mendacious Medium (#3). This time young Gooseberry investigates a shady Spiritualist medium only to discover that somebody wants her dead.
“This is an absolute gem of a series and quite the most enjoyable set of books I have read in a very long time.”—Anita Dow





Oh, No, Octavius! Octavius Guy & the Case of the Quibbling Cleric (#4). The well-heeled residents of Highbury seek Gooseberry’s help to oust their local rector from his post, little knowing that one of their number has a far more permanent removal in mind.
“I’ve said it before and I’m saying it again—Michael Gallagher is a master storyteller.”—Al Muckersie





The Bridge of Dead Things. The Involuntary Medium (#1). Murky Victorian London. Lizzie Blaylock is about to discover an unusual talent…one that the people around her are keen to exploit.
“I read most of the book in one night simply because I couldn’t put it down and when I finally did it was five a.m. Wonderfully haunting and exciting it receives five stars from me.”—Brittney L. Divine author




The Scarab Heart. The Involuntary Medium (#2). The Valley of the Kings, 1885. Lizzie is about to meet a young woman named Merit, and her life will never be the same again.
“I never thought I would enjoy historical mysteries until I got my hands on this book! Deserving of more than 5 stars, in my humble opinion!”—A. L. Faulkenberry






The sale ends on April 20, 2020, but I will make sure there are coupons in place so they’ll remain free until the end of this lock down. This will be my last monthly post until then. Stay safe. Stay distanced. Stay well.

Happy reading!
Michael

Follow me on Twitter @seventh7rainbow
find me on my website Michael Gallagher Writes
and on Facebook
and visit Murder Most Cozy for a round up of the coziest Crimes & Thrillers reviews

March 2020: Using Twitter to advertise

Last year I ran an advertising campaign for my novels on Twitter, which proved surprisingly popular. The premise was simple. Every second week I’d feature one book each day, a single tweet consisting of a quote from a reader’s review (without listing the book title or author), a non-preview link to where it could be purchased, and the book cover. The USP (or unique selling point) was that the quotes used would never be repeated. Every second week brought an entirely fresh batch, and the campaign ran for many, many months. Earlier this year, however, the inevitable happened. I ran out of juicy quotes.

This was not my only campaign however. You may be aware that each month I offer one of my books to download for free. These ads, which I pin to the top of my timeline and only seldom retweet, start with a brief bit of blurb, include a snippet from a review if space allows, explain that the download is free, and end with a preview-type link that shows a bit of the cover as well as just about listing the title. They are notoriously difficult to write. I have only 280 characters to work with, a good portion of which will be taken up with the link; the blurb needs to reflect what the book is about and draw readers in; the quote needs to make sense grammatically when used out of context while still fairly representing the overall tone of the reviewer and the review. It’s a big ask of anyone, and I am quietly proud of what I regularly achieve.

So what of the future? I recently ran a poll on Twitter, asking if I should start my quote-led campaign over again. The results were not entirely unanimous, but I’m pleased to report that 92% were in favour. At some point this year I shall definitely run it again. In the meantime, I’m giving a lot of thought to a suggestion by Mark Rogers: make use of the historical elements in the novels. Quite how this would look and how it would work I have yet to figure out (given that I like my campaigns to have uniformity), but it’s certainly an intriguing prospect and one that I shall certainly explore.

Which brings me to this month’s giveaway, as March sees the start of Gooseberry’s rotation of books. It’s a set of cozy historical whodunnits set in the 1850s, featuring characters who first appeared in Wilkie Collins’s The Moonstone, most notably Octavius Guy (Gooseberry), a 14-year-old reformed pickpocket who fancies himself a detective. There are now four books in the series: The Case of the Thieving Maharajah, The Case of the Throttled Tragedienne, The Case of the Mendacious Medium, and The Case of the Quibbling Cleric—known respectively as Gooseberry, Octopus, Big Bona Ogles, Boy!, and Oh, No, Octavius! If this sounds like your cup of tea, now is the perfect time to give the series a try. While you’re at it, why not follow Octavius on Twitter @sendforOctavius. Read his daily musings from 1853!

Gooseberry: Octavius Guy & The Case of the Thieving Maharajah (#1). Fourteen-year-old Gooseberry once helped solve the mystery of the Moonstone. Now fate is about to throw him a new case, sending him sleuthing round the Victorian capital once more. Offer ends on March 31st 2020. You’ll find links and details on my website.

“I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and can't wait to read another of Mr. Gallagher’s mysteries. Forget Sherlock Holmes, send for Octavius Guy!”—Brittney L. Divine, author, Smashwords Reviewer (5 stars)


Happy reading!

Michael


Follow me on Twitter @seventh7rainbow
find me on my website Michael Gallagher Writes
and on Facebook
and visit Murder Most Cozy for a round up of the coziest Crimes & Thrillers reviews

February 2020: What has gone wrong with LTER?

LibraryThing Early Reviewers used to provide an invaluable service to publishers, especially to indie publishers like Seventh Rainbow. When we first signed up to it in 2013, it was managed by a guy named Jeremy. Here’s how it worked. We’d offer, say, 50 review copies of the new book. Over the course of a month readers could request a copy. If more than 50 requests were made, then LibraryThing’s algorithm would kick in and choose the 50 candidates most likely to enjoy it based on a handful of books that we’d said it was like. 50 names would arrive complete with email addresses, and we’d send them out. When we started using Smashwords to distribute the copies, we noticed an unexpected—and rather wonderful—effect. Since Smashwords counts giveaways as sales, within days the book became very visible on their site. It tended to stay fairly visible too because of the relatively high number of sales it clocked up.

So, 50 reviews, right? Well, no, not exactly. Some people would realize it just wasn’t for them and would swiftly give up. Some people just wanted a free book to add to their collection. Some people’s circumstances had changed in the interim and they no longer had the time or space in their lives for reading. There was even the occasional person who simply wanted to win a prize and had no intention of downloading their copy (approximately 3 per cent, believe it or not). In fact only 30-35 per cent of winners would end up writing a review and, of these, some were bound to be unfavourable. Which means that, from a single giveaway of 50 copies, we could expect about 12 decent reviews, reviews that could be used to publicize the book—which, after all, was the purpose of doing it.

Then, somewhere around 2016, Jeremy moved on to a different position with LibraryThing. From memory, his post was taken over by two women. It is now held by Kate. Here is what happened with our latest promotion—for Oh, No, Octavius!, which was released last month. We offered 50 copies. 55 people requested it. The list arrived…but there were only 10 names on it! Malane sought an explanation; surely there must be some mistake? Kate replied:

Hi Malane,

There was no error: there were only 10 winners for your entry this month. Although there were many more requests for the title, we only give each participating member of Early Reviewers 1-2 books and each member requests many more than 1-2 titles. Additionally. we have an algorithm that matches readers with books they’ll enjoy and be more likely to review.

I'm sorry if you're disappointed by the numbers, but I can assure you that the winners that receive the book will enjoy it and hopefully generate reviews.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Best,
Kate

10 names. Even if giving members only 1-2 books each encourages more reviews, the maximum we can look forward to is 5 reviews, of which maybe 3 or 4 might be positive. Forget the knock-on effect at Smashwords. That was based on the high volume of downloads. It’s simple maths; despite being a free service to publishers (and one hell of a good idea) it’s no longer worth it in our estimation. We shan’t be participating in any future giveaways.

Thank you to the reviewers who have already posted a review of my book, and a huge thank you to the LibraryThing Early Reviewers who have supported me over the years. I’ve made some good friends there and I shall keep in touch. If and when a new book is released, I promise you will have first dibs.

This month’s special offer is for The Scarab Heart. The Valley of the Kings, 1885. Lizzie is about to meet a young woman named Merit, and her life will never be the same again. Offer ends on February 29th 2020. You’ll find links and details on my website.

“This is not my usual type of read! *However*…this is a fantastic book! Beautifully written, brilliantly conceived, utterly enthralling, exciting and moving.”—Al Muckersie, Goodreads Reviewer (5 stars)



Happy reading!
Michael

Follow me on Twitter @seventh7rainbow
find me on my website Michael Gallagher Writes
and on Facebook
and visit Murder Most Cozy for a round up of the coziest Crimes & Thrillers reviews

January 2020: A new year, a new novel

As the chimes of Big Ben die away, Oh, No, Octavius!—or Octavius Guy & the Case of the Quibbling Cleric, as Gooseberry would have it—is finally released on the public…after three very long years of conception. Four or five days after that, fifty review copies should be winging their way via the internet to those discerning LibraryThing Early Reviewers who were kind enough to request it. So here I sit with bated breath waiting for their response. Will they approve of young Gooseberry’s choices—and by extension the novel itself? Only time will tell.


There was a point in my life when I would read fifty books a year. My career in writing put an end to all that. These days I am lucky if I get to read ten books, and of necessity they will be whatever the Crimes & Thrillers reading group I attend happens to be reading. This year two books that we read stood head and shoulders above the rest.


Lethal White by Robert Galbraith (J. K. Rowling)

So, what’s in store for Cormoran Strike and his business partner Robin Ellacott this time round? A year after Robin’s disastrous wedding ceremony, a mentally-ill young man comes to Strike’s office with a tale about a murder he thinks he witnessed as a child. Realising the police have been called, he flees, though shortly after Strike is offered a lucrative job by the Minister for Culture, who is being blackmailed by the young man’s dodgy brother. A coincidence perhaps? Or something more?

Rowling admits that this is one of the most challenging books she’s ever written and one of her favourites. Mine too. It’s with sheer writerly delight that she taunts us with Robin’s failing marriage, which Robin tries at all costs to keep from Strike. The increasingly annoying wild child Charlotte turns up, hell bent on inserting herself back into Strike’s life. Let’s be quite clear here. This is a series of cozy mysteries, and thwarting the readers’ desire for the two of them to become more than just business partners is an important part of the template, of equal significance, I would argue, to the whodunnit element of the book.

The whodunnit element in this case twists and turns back in on itself (perhaps a little too often), and quite which crime we’re meant to be looking at (and there are potentially many) is never very clear. That said, I was thoroughly happy to be taken along for the ride. On several occasions I was put in mind of Agatha Christie in the nature of the clues and the way they are delivered. Robin twice gets to go undercover—both of which are a joy to read—and Strike is tight-lipped about the theories he forms, preferring his partner to work it out for herself.

As personal added bonus, and one which really made it come alive for me, I happen to live very close to two of the locations in the book. The Minister for Sport and her husband live a mile west of me, near The Blue, and the house Robin and Matthew rent is barely a couple of miles down the road. Even before Rowling named the street, I knew which one it was.

If you’re a fan of the series, you’ll love it. If you’re a fan of whodunnits, you’ll love it. If you’re a cozy mystery armchair detective, I’m sure you can guess what I was about to say.

Police at the Station and They Don’t Look Friendly by Adrian McKinty

This was a very happy accident. Luke, who orders our books for us (and up till then had been choosing some truly dour thrillers) thought that I had requested it. Not so. My heart usually sinks when we get titles like this. Little did I realize what it was: an extraordinary historical crime fiction set in Belfast in the 1980s during the troubles, told in one of the most unique first-person voices I have ever encountered. Certainly worth a look!

This month’s special offer is for The Bridge of Dead Things. Murky Victorian London. Lizzie Blaylock is about to discover an unusual talent…one that the people around her are keen to exploit. Offer ends on January 31st 2020. You’ll find links and details on my website.

“As with all his books, I could easily see this remarkable tale being adapted for a television audience. A thoroughly entertaining and satisfying read”—Alasdair Muckersie, Smashwords Reviewer (5 stars)


A happy new year to all and happy reading!
Michael

Follow me on Twitter @seventh7rainbow
find me on my website Michael Gallagher Writes
and on Facebook
and visit Murder Most Cozy for a round up of the coziest Crimes & Thrillers reviews

December 2019: The Case of the Quibbling Cleric – What can you expect?

Oh, No, Octavius!, the latest addition to my Send for Octavius Guy series, is set to be published on January 1st 2020. For those of you unfamiliar with young Octavius (known variously as Gooseberry and Octopus), he’s a skinny, young lad who is now fifteen years old, and who fancies himself a detective. It’s 1853, and the well-heeled residents of Highbury have a problem: the Reverend Allaston Burr, the rector who’s been foisted upon their congregation by an ancient yet legally-binding right known as an advowson. When a final appeal to Queen Victoria fails to remove him from his post, they turn to Gooseberry for help. As you might have guessed, the Reverend Burr is not long for this world—though I might point out for the benefit of seasoned readers, this time it’s not Octavius who kills him!

So what can you expect? To start with, a corpse with its face battered in but with remarkably little blood in evidence. A torn scrap of parchment in the dead man’s hand, which appears to be in code. An account of the sacking of Highbury Manor during the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381, and the subsequent beheading of its owner, Grand Prior Hales of the Knights Hospitaller. And behind all this lies a faint whiff of buried treasure.

For those yearning for something a little more highbrow, there will be two selections by Mr Beethoven and one by Mr Purcell, the latter sung in the gardens of the Highbury Barn, a most refined nightspot. Oh…before I forget to mention it, there’s also a telescope on the roof of the house and a room full of poisonous plants.

I write cozy mysteries, and I try to make each book in the series different from the rest. This time I’ve removed Gooseberry from his comfort zone, as he and his sidekick George go undercover. How will Octavius cope when he takes up residence with his clients at Highbury House, posing as a schoolboy by day at the Reverend Burr’s school where he is forced to learn Latin? How will he react when he meets the sergeant who’s been assigned to investigate Burr’s murder—especially when he realizes that he may have finally met his match?

Here are snippets of some of the 5-star reviews that readers have posted for this series. You’ll find their full reviews, together with many others, on the Meet the Readers page of my website.

“This series just gets better and better and I just can't get enough of teenage investigator Octavius Guy! I love the way Michael Gallagher writes, with his witty asides and gentle humour.”
—Anita Dow, Goodreads Reviewer

“You immediately feel the dirt of the cobbles and dankness of the industrial revolution in the air. This is backed up by some excellent characters and a plot worthy of Sherlock Holmes.”
—Paul Blake, Goodreads Reviewer

“The writing pulls you along, urging you to turn one more page, then another, then one more, until you have finished the book. Each person in these pages is real to me, so much so that I keep having to stop myself from looking them up online - they’re not really there!”
—Laura Brook, LibraryThing Early Reviewer

“Octavius is at it again! With a less than enthusiastic assistant of George at his side, my favorite Victorian boy investigator sets off to solve a new mystery. Words cannot describe just how much I enjoy Octavius.”
—Bethany Swafford, Goodreads Reviewer

“A pick-pocket turned teenaged sleuth, Octavius is as good at crime solving as he is at relieving people of their valuables. I was hooked from the start and spent as much time trying to guess the outcome as I did laughing out loud. Forget Sherlock Holmes, send for Octavius Guy!”
—Brittney L. Divine, Smashwords Reviewer

This month’s special offer is for Big Bona Ogles, Boy!: Octavius Guy & The Case of the Mendacious Medium (#3). This time young Gooseberry investigates a shadowy Spiritualist medium only to discover that somebody wants her dead. Offer ends on December 31st 2019.

“My favorite Victorian boy investigator sets off to solve a new mystery…Words cannot describe just how much I enjoy Octavius.”—Bethany Swafford, Goodreads Reviewer (5 stars)

Happy reading!
Michael

Follow me on Twitter @seventh7rainbow
find me on my website Michael Gallagher Writes
and on Facebook
and visit Murder Most Cozy for a round up of the coziest Crimes & Thrillers reviews

November 2019: Just who is Octavius Guy?

Simple answer: he’s a minor character from Wilkie Collins’s The Moonstone. I shall let Mr Murthwaite elaborate since he manages to do it without spoilers:

‘Colonel Palgrave! Octavius! Calm yourselves, both of you!’ Mr Murthwaite reprimanded us sternly. ‘Colonel, I’ll have you know that if it were not for this lad here, the little matter of the Moonstone might never have been resolved!’
Colonel Palgrave frowned. ‘The Moonstone, sir?’
‘Before he was elected to Parliament, the MP Mr Franklin Blake was embroiled in a mystery that nearly brought him to the very brink of madness—the theft of a rare and precious jewel. By a concerted effort, he and his friends managed to trace the gem’s location to a certain bank, and yet had this boy not been present on the day the thief redeemed it—well, I dread to imagine the outcome! It is through his efforts and his efforts alone that the perpetrator was ever unmasked. Do not be misled by his age, sir; there is no sharper-eyed, quicker-witted youth in all of England than the lad you see before you in this room.’
—From the forthcoming Oh, No, Octavius!: Octavius Guy and the Case of the Quibbling Cleric

Sergeant Cuff would agree with him. As he says of Octavius in The Moonstone, ‘One of these days that boy will do great things in my late profession. He is the brightest and cleverest little chap I have met with for many a long year past.’

And yet surprisingly few readers (even fans) of Collins’s book manage to recall young Octavius. I’m not sure why. It’s not as if he isn’t instantly recognizable; the nickname his employer’s clerks have bestowed on him is Gooseberry—on account of his bulging eyes. Yes, Collins gave him exophthalmos, potentially caused by an overactive thyroid. I don’t think it’s ridiculous to suggest that he does so in order for the boy to see more—most especially who the culprit was at the bank. Considering he’s little more than a street urchin, he also gave him a rather grandiose name…and a nickname that ranks as one of the most memorable in literature. All of which is a bit of a puzzle, given that Gooseberry is such a slight character.

He doesn’t feature as one of Collins’s many narrators. Indeed, if you run all of his speeches together, you’ll find that he contributes a mere 121 spoken words to the whole of that tome. Here is a passage from the climax that contains 26 of them. It is Mr Bruff, the lawyer (and Gooseberry’s employer), who is currently narrating:

I felt another pull at my coat-tails. Gooseberry had not done with me yet.
‘Robbery!’ whispered the boy, pointing, in high delight, to the empty box.
‘You were told to wait down-stairs,’ I said. ‘Go away!’
‘And Murder!’ added Gooseberry, pointing, with a keener relish still, to the man on the bed.
There was something so hideous in the boy’s enjoyment of the horror of the scene, that I took him by the two shoulders and put him out of the room.
At the moment when I crossed the threshold of the door, I heard Sergeant Cuff’s voice, asking where I was. He met me, as I returned into the room, and forced me to go back with him to the bedside.
‘Mr. Blake!’ he said. ‘Look at the man’s face. It is a face disguised—and here’s a proof of it!’
He traced with his finger a thin line of livid white, running backward from the dead man’s forehead, between the swarthy complexion, and the slightly-disturbed black hair. ‘Let’s see what is under this,’ said the Sergeant, suddenly seizing the black hair, with a firm grip of his hand.
My nerves were not strong enough to bear it. I turned away again from the bed.
The first sight that met my eyes, at the other end of the room, was the irrepressible Gooseberry, perched on a chair, and looking with breathless interest, over the heads of his elders, at the Sergeant’s proceedings.
‘He’s pulling off his wig!’ whispered Gooseberry, compassionating my position, as the only person in the room who could see nothing.
There was a pause—and then a cry of astonishment among the people round the bed.
‘He’s pulled off his beard!’ cried Gooseberry.
There was another pause—Sergeant Cuff asked for something. The landlord went to the wash-hand-stand, and returned to the bed with a basin of water and a towel.
Gooseberry danced with excitement on the chair. ‘Come up here, along with me, sir! He's washing off his complexion now!’
—From The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

A hundred and fifty years (or so) on from its original publication, The Moonstone still brims with warmth and humour and wonderful characters—despite the somewhat archaic language and punctuation. I just hope that Wilkie Collins would approve of what I’ve done with them. Since he was a bit of a rebel himself, I suspect that he might.

Now is a great time to follow Octavius on Twitter @sendforOctavius. On November 1st he began tweeting daily about some of his less illustrious cases. Here’s where things get a bit weird. By December he’ll be tweeting real-time daily updates as the Case of the Mendacious Medium—next month’s free download—unfolds. Read the book…and his tweets!

This month’s special offer is for Octopus: Octavius Guy & The Case of the Throttled Tragedienne (#2). When the leading actress dies in mysterious circumstances during a performance of The Duchess of Malfi, Gooseberry feels duty-bound to investigate. It is, after all, a great deal more exciting than the last case he was assigned to: the tracking down of a rich old lady’s errant cat! Offer ends on November 30th 2019! You’ll find links and details on my website.

“The 'case' for our young investigator is darker and more complex this time, reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes, with twists and turns that sometimes rival Agatha Christie. What I enjoyed most though, was Octavius' personal story.”—Anita Dow, Smashwords Reviewer (5 stars)

Happy reading!
Michael

Follow me on Twitter @seventh7rainbow
find me on my website Michael Gallagher Writes
and on Facebook
and visit Murder Most Cozy for a round up of the coziest Crimes & Thrillers reviews

October 2019: Time to follow Octavius Guy on Twitter

Welcome, dear reader! As some of you will know, I give away one of my novels each month, and October sees the start of Gooseberry’s rotation. It’s a set of cozy historical whodunnits set in the 1850s, featuring characters who first appeared in Wilkie Collins’s The Moonstone, most notably Octavius Guy (Gooseberry), a 14-year-old former pickpocket who fancies himself a detective. There are currently three books in the series (with a fourth on its way): The Case of the Thieving Maharajah, The Case of the Throttled Tragedienne, and The Case of the Mendacious Medium—known respectively as Gooseberry, Octopus, and Big Bona Ogles, Boy!

I think it’s fair to say that recently my Twitter folks have taken young Gooseberry to their hearts. Here are just a few of the kind things they have said:

“Gooseberry is a witty and lighthearted read with plenty of twists. A pick-pocket turned teenaged sleuth, Octavius is as good at crime solving as he is at relieving people of their valuables. I was hooked from the start and spent as much time trying to guess the outcome as I did laughing out loud. Forget Sherlock Holmes, send for Octavius Guy!”—Brittney L. Divine author (5 stars)

“Our young hero, Octavius Guy, pulls it off again! Cleverly plotted and wonderfully written. Great characters, humour, intrigue and historical authenticity make this Victorian-era detective novel a delight to read.”—Alasdair Muckersie (5 stars)

“I just can't get enough of teenage investigator Octavius Guy! The sub plot of his own personal story and the development of the cast of characters had me totally engrossed and entertained. I love the way Michael Gallagher writes, with his witty asides and gentle humour. The characters are totally believable and superbly drawn. This is an absolute gem of a series and quite the most enjoyable set of books I have read in a very long time.”—Anita Dow (5 stars)

If this sounds like your cup of tea, now is the perfect time to try out this series, with the first book free to download throughout October. The second will be free in November and the third in December. Follow Octavius on Twitter @sendforOctavius. Why? Because on November 1st he’ll begin tweeting daily about some of his less illustrious cases. Here’s where things get a bit weird. By December he’ll be tweeting real-time daily updates as the Case of the Mendacious Medium—that month’s free download—unfolds. Read the book…and his tweets!

This month’s special offer is for Gooseberry: Octavius Guy & The Case of the Thieving Maharajah (#1). Fourteen-year-old Gooseberry once helped solve the mystery of the Moonstone. Now fate is about to throw him a new case, sending him sleuthing round the Victorian capital once more. Offer ends on October 31st 2019. You’ll find links and details on my website.

“I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and can't wait to read another of Mr. Gallagher’s mysteries. Forget Sherlock Holmes, send for Octavius Guy!”—Brittney L. Divine, author, Smashwords Reviewer (5 stars)


Happy reading!

Michael

Follow me on Twitter @seventh7rainbow
find me on my website Michael Gallagher Writes
and on Facebook
and visit Murder Most Cozy for a round up of the coziest Crimes & Thrillers reviews

September 2019: You’re self-published. What’s next?

Congratulations! You now have a book to promote. Get yourself on Twitter and use #amwriting and #WritingCommunity hashtags to meet up with fellow writers. If you published through KDP, set up an author page at Author Central and at Author Central UK. Join the Author Program at Goodreads to set up your author page there. Once you have one, you’ll be able to post a blog. Using an RSS feed, you can link that to your Author Central pages, and whatever you write on your blog will get published there too. I would have suggested investing in some paid advertising on Goodreads, where you have access to a vast community of readers. Unfortunately they are closing this service, “to focus our efforts on products that better help authors connect to readers”. Hmmm, as Gooseberry would say.

Join LibraryThing, add your book to your virtual shelf, then lay claim to it as its author. You may be permitted to set up an author page there as well. In any event, what you can do (if you published through Smashwords) is offer free copies of your book to other members in exchange for an honest review. If you did publish on Smashwords, now’s the time to set up your author page there. You might also consider starting your very own blog. Blogger and WordPress are both good.

You now have a much larger online presence than any vanity publisher is likely to provide you with, as well as much better odds of people discovering your book. For further ways to promote yourself, check out two of my former posts, Build yourself a brand, part one and Build yourself a brand, part two.

It’s probably high time I spoke about taxes, at least for UK authors. Both Smashwords and Amazon.com (though not Amazon.co.uk) are legally obliged to withhold 30% of your royalty payments (the “statutory withholding rate”) to cover any taxes that may be owed to the US government. In actual fact, the US and the UK have a reciprocal tax agreement in place. If you are resident in the UK, you are covered by Article 4 of the convention (Code: UK, Treaty Article Citation: 23).

It’s been a steep learning curve, I would guess, but you just saved yourself at least £700 on the basic package from the vanity publisher we looked at back in May…more, if you didn’t splash out on the entirely unnecessary publicity materials they provide. Better still, now that you understand the process, you now have total control over any revisions or updates and, unlike if you’d signed up with a vanity press, you won’t be charged a penny. That’s got to be good news.

Michael Mills, an author who’s considering self-publishing, shares his experience of the process:

MM: When I signed up to KDP and Createspace, I had to fill in the relevant tax forms. They were fairly straightforward and painless for the most part. As a UK resident, I was exempt and it didn’t take all that long in the grand scheme of things. There are two things which are absolute must-haves; a tax number (National Insurance number for my fellow UK residents) and a UK address. The rest is just following a step-by-step process. When I completed mine back in 2017, it was pretty much compulsory to complete the form before you were allowed to publish your book. I remember seeing a warning at the top of the page reminding me to complete it. Once I did so, it took a few days to vet the information and I was good to go. I highly recommend that you take the time to complete these forms and put your mind at ease.

MG: I’m glad that they’ve made tax easier. Me, I’m stuck in an old system with an EIN—an employer identification number issued by the American IRS—and I cower at the thought of filling in the paperwork every three years. I never get it right. Authors from certain other countries may find they are also covered by Article 4 (though the code and the citation will be different). I should also point out that UK authors are then responsible for reporting any earnings to HMRC, and I would suggest that any newly published writers contact them to seek their advice. Make sure you can quote the amount of your royalties to date when you do. If it’s not a lot, you might be pleasantly surprised.

MM: One thing to bear in mind, if you are not a UK resident, is that not all countries can receive electronic payments.

MG: In this day and age, it’s extraordinary! I looked into this and, from what I’ve seen, authors from Canada, Australia, and South Africa (to name but a few of the countries affected) are forced to accept payments by cheque. In some cases, these come with certain conditions attached. You may have to accrue $100 in royalties before a payment is made.

That aside, if you’ve been following these posts, you now the wherewithal to become a self-published author. It’s been a steep learning curve, I would guess, but you just saved yourself at least £700 on the basic package from the vanity publisher we looked at back in May…more, if you didn’t splash out on the entirely unnecessary publicity materials they provide. Better still, now that you understand the process, you have total control over any revisions or updates and, unlike if you’d signed up with a vanity press, you won’t be charged a penny. That’s got to be good news.

MM: You couldn’t be more right. Congratulations indeed to anyone who has managed to finish their author journey. You’ve finally finished your manuscript and hopefully published it. Get to know what social media can do for you as an author and the vast community eagerly waiting to accept you and willingly share their vast and invaluable knowledge. One of the best things I ever did as an author was to join Twitter and start using the hashtags you mentioned. The response was overwhelming. I got to know some amazing authors—present company included—and before long I got to know about Goodreads from your good self, Michael. During the course of our work I have been slowly working to improve my online presence, including starting a blog of my own, claiming ownership of my book on Goodreads, and setting up my author’s page. Even with so much more to do I can honestly attest to a significant rise in the attention my posts, blog, and general interactions as an author.

The first post you and I wrote together was about the rise of vanity publishers and their promise of fame, especially to new authors who often are unaware many of the things we have been writing about. I know this to be true because I was once one of those authors. Though, rest assured I will be putting what I’ve learnt to good use in my subsequent books going forward.

It really has been a steep learning curve and it’s one that I am very glad I took. Vanity publishers have contacted me, and I am not going to pretend what they were offering wasn’t tempting. But their offers now seem lazy, knowing what I do now. I hope anyone following these posts now has the knowledge to go from story inception to being a published author. With a little bit of work and time you won’t have to part with even a dime you weren't willing to spend. For me, from start to finish it has been—and continues to be—a learning process; as the old saying goes, “everyday is a school day”. That had never been more relevant than when I decided to write my first book.

MG: Michael Mills, thank you for joining me these past few months. I wish you all the best for your writing career, sir.

This month’s special offer is for The Scarab Heart. The Valley of the Kings, 1885. Lizzie is about to meet a young woman named Merit, and her life will never be the same again. Offer ends on September 30th 2019. You’ll find links and details on my website.

“If you like a little bit of Victorian social history, ghostly happenings and tales from Ancient Egypt you are in for a real treat.”—Sausage, Amazon UK Reviewer (5 stars)

Happy reading!
Michael

Follow me on Twitter @seventh7rainbow
find me on my website Michael Gallagher Writes
and on Facebook
and visit Murder Most Cozy for a round up of the coziest Crimes & Thrillers reviews

August 2019: A guide to formatting for print-on-demand

There was a time not so many years ago when there were two BIG players on this playing field. CreateSpace and Kindle Direct Publishing. They were not one and the same, as some people believed, though they were both arms of Amazon, and both used identical templates. CreateSpace has now been subsumed by KDP, so I’m not sure whether you can upload to them any longer. Either way, this time preparing your manuscript for publication is all about using downloadable Word templates—and what a bewildering number of templates there are to choose from!

Worry not! Here to help! If your book is a novel then it won’t have a bleed. Stick to the “Trim size without bleed” column. Unless you have a good reason for doing otherwise, choose a standard paperback size. In the UK that’s 5” x 8”. In the US it’s 6” x 9”. Be aware that the template “with sample content” that I downloaded had more than one glitch in it. Fixable, but still annoying. This might be a good place to point out that everything you upload (the completed template—and the cover, if you choose to make your own) needs to be converted into PDFs.

Righty-ho! Time to get down to a bit of cut and paste—front matter, chapters, and back matter. Don’t think about the Table of Contents at all until you have finished everything else. Once you have your text roughly in place, the first decision you will need to make is about the style and size of the font. Choose one that is easy on the eyes. The template I used had 11pt text; I personally wouldn’t go any smaller than that. I opted for 12pt text, which upped the number of pages and the printing costs, and decreased my profit margin in the process…but hey ho! Any internal images used should have been saved at 300dpi (and preferably in B&W, as we shall see later).

All the text done? Now it’s time to make sure the last line on the page of each new chapter is level with that on the next. You may find you have to add a bit of extra space between the chapter heading and the start of the text in order to do this. Great! Now browse through the document. See any badly spaced lines of text, with four or five words hung out to dry because the first word in the next line is too long to be accommodated? By decreasing the spacing between the letters, it can sometimes be made to fit. This is called “character spacing”, and you’ll find it under “format font”; just highlight the text that’s the problem (including the word on the next line) and condense it a tiny bit (bet you anything that vanity publishers don’t do this). There’s a trade-off, however: gently, gently does it, as the effect can be noticeable. Don’t whatever you do use “scale width”. The results are ghastly. As a last resort, you might even consider breaking the odd word with an occasional, well-placed hyphen.

Next decision, and it affects the front matter, the back matter, and the first page of text: what goes on the left and on the right? Grab a few books off the shelf and take a look at how they’re constructed. Typically, important things—like the title page and the first page of actual text—go on the right. You may find yourself adding the occasional blank page to achieve this. Not too many, now, or the conversion will fail. Time to check your pagination is hunky dory, and that your headers, if you are using them, are all correct. By now everything should look perfect. If so, you can finally attend to your Table of Contents.

Next set of questions: B&W or colour for the interior printing? B&W definitely—colour will make the book ridiculously expensive! If you turn your own internal images into B&W yourself, you will have a much greater control of how they end up appearing. You don’t want them to look muddy. And now, what choice of paper? Cream or white? You will need an ISBN, and KDP claims they will provide you with one for free. Only now, when you know exactly how many pages you are dealing with, do you think about your cover—which (phew!) will be in colour. You can create one using KDP’s Cover Creator, or you can download a PDF template (based on your page count and your choice of paper) that shows you where everything has to go.

At this point it might be helpful to talk about something called “colour profiles”. Computers use an RGB profile (Red, Green, Blue) produced by light, whereas commercial printing presses use a CMYK profile (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, blacK) produced by layering inks over white card or paper. Everything will probably look duller, but especially any bright blues, greens, and reds. CMYK does its best, but it just can’t manage them well. Furthermore, CMYK contains only a third of the colours that RGB does. So, that great florescent green you see on your computer will quite likely print up as a dull, mossy sludge on your cover. Bear this in mind and be prepared for some interesting effects.

So you upload your PDF(s) (the conversion takes forever), and now it’s time to think about pricing. After KDP covers its printing costs (a huge whack), you are meant to receive 60% of what’s left. Quite how they do their accounting is a little unclear, but I do know that if you price your book competitively (say at £6.99), you could end up making as little as £0.25p on each sale. Actually, that’s not quite true. Not each sale. Say somebody orders a book. Amazon then prints two copies and, if the second copy is not ordered immediately, Amazon now sells it on as a second-hand book. The problem? You get no royalties from books that are sold second hand. Hmmm, as Gooseberry would say.

Michael Mills, an author who has gone the self-publishing route, replies:


MM: Hi Michael, I couldn’t agree more and, again, I really wish I had known a lot of these things before embarking on the fascinating, taxing and frustrating journey of publishing my first book. Funnily enough, the bulk of the frustration did not come from the dreaded writer’s block. The most difficult part of the whole process (apart from the editing) was the formatting and uploading to KDP. I had so many problems, most of which stemmed from my assumption that writing the story was by far going to be the hardest part of the journey. I fully expected to sit back, relax and push the “turn my manuscript into a glorious book” button.

MG: Lol! Wouldn’t that be wonderful?

MM: Of course, that was when the scope of what I had to do slowly came into focus. I personally found CreateSpace an easier interface compared to the KDP. I logged into my account not too long ago and was directed to KDP. I sincerely hope they adopt all the things that made it so intuitive. And yet there seemed to be no end to the issues I had trying to upload my custom cover art—mistakes that stemmed from my obvious inexperience at the time. Trust me, I have the test prints to prove it. Knowing the difference between what looks good on a screen and how that will look coming from the printers’ is vitally important if you plan to print your book.

MG: You just hit the nail on the head. If you are lucky enough to have the full Adobe Photoshop, there’s a CMYK button you can click on that shows an approximation of what the colours will look like when printed (it’s not available in Elements, note). In my experience: be prepared to be thoroughly depressed! For those of us who use the free, open source GIMP, that’s not an option. We have to wing it. Just make sure to avoid using bright blues, greens, and reds.

MM: The mistake I made was not making allowances for the spine of the book when designing the cover. This, of course, meant that the title and author’s name was going to be completely misaligned. After a few minutes spent on Photoshop—GIMP works fine too—I was able to manipulate the image using the template gotten from the KDP as a guide. I am happy to say, my persistence paid off in the end. However, the burden would have been infinitely easier to bear had I known what I do now.

MG: Custom covers can be a problem. I’ve never tried using KDP’s Cover Creator, and I hear that it’s a little tricky to use, but I still bet it’s easier than making your own. But I don’t want some generic template-type cover for my books; I want something that reflects the book itself. I’m guessing that you do too. Authors who go the traditional route may or may not be consulted about what they would like their cover to reflect, but they generally don’t get any choice in the matter. I wonder if we self-publish because we like to micro-manage everything?

MM: I hadn’t really given it much thought until now but, I think you are right. When I started having all those issues with my custom cover, at one point I entertained the idea of using one of the generic ones. Although many were very nice and appealing, I just couldn’t get over the niggling feeling of wanting it to reflect my exact vision of it. That sounds a lot like micro-managing to me. I felt like I was settling for a “that’ll do” just to be done with it. There is definitely nothing wrong with any of their templates. In fact, I am not ruling out the possibility of using it in the future but, for now, it’s definitely the custom way for me. I especially want to put my newly learnt skills and knowledge to good use.

MG: Hard won skills acquired through trial and error will always be of use, I reckon, even if the technology changes. It teaches you what to expect. Next month we’ll be covering ways to promote a new book. Oh. And taxes…because by now you will be wondering how to get round that damned statutory withholding rate. See you then?


Next month we’ll be covering ways to promote your new book. Oh. And taxes…because by now you will be wondering how to get round that damned statutory withholding rate. See you then?

This month’s special offer is for The Bridge of Dead Things. Murky Victorian London. Lizzie Blaylock is about to discover an unusual talent…one that the people around her are keen to exploit. Offer ends on August 31st 2019. You’ll find links and details on my website.

“I read most of the book in one night simply because I couldn't put it down and when I finally did it was five a.m. Wonderfully haunting and exciting it receives five stars from me...”—Brittney L. Divine author, Smashwords Reviewer (5 stars)

Happy reading!
Michael

Follow me on Twitter @seventh7rainbow
find me on my website Michael Gallagher Writes
and on Facebook
and visit Murder Most Cozy for a round up of the coziest Crimes & Thrillers reviews

July 2019: A quick guide to self-publishing ebooks

Welcome, kind reader or perhaps fellow writer! It’s July, and first up I’d like to tell you about an interview I’ve just done with Twitter’s #1PM Chat, a manically interactive account that is fabulous fun and definitely worth following and joining in with. If you’d care to learn a little more about me, you can read the interview here.

So, you’ve decided to self-publish. I won’t pretend it’s a walk in the park, but the easiest way to self-publish is with Kindle Direct Publishing through Amazon. First you need to create an account. It’s a hassle, but you only need do it the once. If you followed my advice from June and kept to a minimal format, you’re now in a great place to format a copy as a Word .docx file for Kindle. A .doc file might work too; there is a work-around if it doesn’t. Kindle provides you with ample guides on how to do things and with tools to help you on your way. They’ve simplified the uploading process and, if you don’t have a cover yet, you can use their Cover Creator to make one. You don’t need an ISBN (International Standard Book Number—that 13-digit code that you see on books). Instead you’ll be assigned a free ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number).

Some timely tips might be useful here. If you include any photos or images in with your text, make sure they’re saved at 300dpi (dots per inch). This is the resolution required if you later wish to turn your ebook into a print-on-demand paperback. Also, you can provide your own cover if you prefer. If you do—and are from the UK—I would strongly advise you to consider making it 1500px by 2400px (pixels), again saved at 300dpi. Books in the US and Canada tend to have larger covers with a different width-to-height ratio (6” x 9” as opposed to the UK’s 5” x 8”). Either way, make sure it’s at least 1500px wide. Finally, be careful what you sign up for. Some of the schemes KDP offers prevent you from publishing elsewhere (though by this point you might consider that a blessing).

So you upload everything you need to and then what happens? Kindle converts it into an ebook (takes a little while), and then suggests any spelling mistakes it finds (which may not be spelling mistakes at all). At this point you can take a gander at what it looks like on a virtual Kindle device. Everything looks good? Now all you have to do is set your territorial rights (worldwide!), set the price, and publish! Woohoo! You typically wait about 24 hours for your book to be checked and go live.

Another possibility (and one that’s probably not on offer from any vanity publisher) is to self-publish with Smashwords, who distribute to Barnes & Noble, Apple’s iBooks, and Kobo. They require an ultra-clean Word .doc file (a .docx file may not work—it introduces too many extra bits of weird coding), and they are very fussy about how you format your book. Download their Style Guide to learn more. Apple and Kobo require your book to have an ISBN, and Smashwords will provide you with one for free—but only if you meet the strict criteria for inclusion in their Premium Catalogue. You will need to provide your own cover (and a 1500px by 2400px one saved at 300dpi will be perfect), though they have a list of designers you can hire (or you can find one yourself) if such artwork is beyond you. Oh, and you’ll need a Paypal account to receive payments.

So, you set up your account, you head for “Publish” in the header, you fill in the fields as required, and then you upload your files. You’ll be placed in a queue for Meat Grinder, their converter, which will spit out your converted files one by one. Although there’ll be a version for Kindle, the important one here is the ePub. That’s the one your ISBN will be assigned to, if your book makes the grade. Download a copy (there’s no charge because you’re the author) to check the conversion yourself (which you can do on an open-source Calibre Portable that is designed specifically for ePubs and is free to download).

Whereas KDP does minimal checking on books (preferring to let their customers do it for them), Smashwords scrutinizes your conversion more thoroughly. Though your book will be live on their website, it can take several nail-biting days before you hear back from them. Hopefully everything’s OK. Very often it’s not. The main reasons books fail are twofold. First, you ignored the formatting guidelines in some respect (easily remedied). Second, the formatted Word document contains glitches (much harder to fix).

If you took my advice and kept to minimal formatting then formatted a copy of that, this is far less likely to occur—you are already following their “nuclear method” protocol. However glitches can still sneak in, particularly when you’re testing the hyperlinks from your table of contents to each of the chapters. Here’s the Catch 22. You need to test them to make sure they work. But if you test them they occasionally lodge invisible codes in the file that cause glitches. Solution? Always make another copy to test it, to keep your formatted one squeaky clean!

Hyperlinks within the text—or more specifically the bookmarks they link to—can cause another problem. Everything is fine if it’s a chapter or a section of the book. But let’s say you put a link from your Author’s Note in the back matter to a particular paragraph in Chapter 5. Unless you preface the bookmark name you give it (let’s call it “checkthisout”) with “ref_” (as in “ref_checkthisout”), it can end up appearing in the document guide that the eReader makes (as in “…Chapter 5, checkthisout, Chapter 6…”).

One small snag I have occasionally encountered is that Meat Grinder fails to justify the text; it ends up being left aligned with a ragged-right edge (which is the preferred formatting for uploading). Smashwords may not pick this up; it’s up to you to check your ePub file to make sure that all is dandy. The only solution for this is to reformat your Word file, this time justifying what needs to be justified, and upload it again. A pain, I know.

Is all this fuss really worthwhile? It certainly can be. Not only does Smashwords distribute to some powerful online players, they allow (if not downright encourage) you to give away free copies of your book, a really important point if you are trying to attract reviewers or are planning to run special offers. While Amazon may allow you to give review copies away, you will find it’s far less generous. On Smashwords, you can set up coupons to last for a day, a week, or a year (or any period of time, come to that) offering discounts of up to 100%. The majority of the staff are genuinely nice people, who will go out of their way to help you. And then there’s the fact they aren’t Amazon.

Michael Mills, an author who has gone the self-publishing route, replies:

MM: Hello Michael. Once again I find myself not only offering suggestions but taking some very useful notes for my next book. Like I mentioned the previous month, formatting was a major headache for me and I wish I had known a lot of the things I know now, specifically about creating the cover for the UK’s 5” x 8”—or in fact knowing the difference between the US and Canadian standard and how that relates to the UK. I chose to have mine custom made by an artist friend, Levi, and we both had to figure out what the specifications were. A very tedious process.

MG: I can laugh about it now, but I remember going through the exact same nightmare regarding the cover the first time I published a book.

MM: I am very interested in trying Smashwords for my next book. I quite like the idea of their strict guidelines. I feel that will go a ways to forming good habits. One piece of software that I stumbled upon too late but, I will be using it to reformat my ebook is an open source and free software called “Sigil”. It takes you through a step by step WYSIWYG program to format, create and edit ePub. Of course there are tutorials on everyone’s favourite know-it-all site YouTube to guide you through the tougher areas. However, I found it very useful and intuitive.

MG: I too have an old copy of Sigil, and it’s a great bit of software if you are making your ebook yourself, e.g., for sale direct from your own website. Just to be clear, having your own ePub file is not necessary for either KPD or Smashwords, although Smashwords is currently beta-trialling a way to upload your ePub directly. Frankly, I’d only do it this way if it were my only option—they’re even more picky about formatting mistakes.

Next month we’ll be looking at formatting print-on-demand books. Join us then?

This month’s special offer is for Big Bona Ogles, Boy!: Octavius Guy & The Case of the Mendacious Medium (#3). This time young Gooseberry investigates a shadowy Spiritualist medium only to discover that somebody wants her dead. Offer ends on July 31st 2019.

“My favorite Victorian boy investigator sets off to solve a new mystery…Words cannot describe just how much I enjoy Octavius.”—Bethany Swafford, Goodreads Reviewer (5 stars)

Happy reading!
Michael

Follow me on Twitter @seventh7rainbow
find me on my website Michael Gallagher Writes
and on Facebook
and visit Murder Most Cozy for a round up of the coziest Crimes & Thrillers reviews