Andy Farman's Blog, page 9
June 24, 2013
From Pixels to Ink
This is my third career, the first lasted seven years and consisted of running around the countryside with guns.
The second involved running around cities with a silly bit of wood called a truncheon, but the last six were cool because I got to hang with TV and movie crews on location, eat really good free food, and fast track through the notoriously slow and strict security at the BBC, all with a flash of the badge.
Going to Buckingham Palace for briefings and meetings was cool too but I had to use the tradesmen's entrance at the side.
But I digress.
The point I was trying to make was that all that experience did not teach me how to format in HTML, how to increase DPI from 72 to 400, or what a gutter was, other than the usual usage of the term.
I converted my two Kindle formatted novels, and the abridged editions into print format and uploaded them to a print on demand company which assured me the cost of production would be $6.10 minimum list price to produce the 500+ pages in each.
The novels were re-uploaded twice as this guttering business had not taken, but then I received an email all was satisfactory. I logged on, pressed 'Proceed' and looked upon the finished product, and the price...$16.10.
The printers have not explained this discrepancy, but it was obvious that hardbacks at paperback prices may sell but paperbacks at hardback prices never will.
My trilogy, at least in print, is now a six part 'ology', which required work on the covers so as not to confuse the buyer.
The Kindle books sell five hundred times better than the paperbacks though, as in I have sold one.
Well it kept me busy I suppose.
Next thing to do is get them translated.
Andy Farman's Novels on Amazon
The second involved running around cities with a silly bit of wood called a truncheon, but the last six were cool because I got to hang with TV and movie crews on location, eat really good free food, and fast track through the notoriously slow and strict security at the BBC, all with a flash of the badge.
Going to Buckingham Palace for briefings and meetings was cool too but I had to use the tradesmen's entrance at the side.
But I digress.
The point I was trying to make was that all that experience did not teach me how to format in HTML, how to increase DPI from 72 to 400, or what a gutter was, other than the usual usage of the term.
I converted my two Kindle formatted novels, and the abridged editions into print format and uploaded them to a print on demand company which assured me the cost of production would be $6.10 minimum list price to produce the 500+ pages in each.
The novels were re-uploaded twice as this guttering business had not taken, but then I received an email all was satisfactory. I logged on, pressed 'Proceed' and looked upon the finished product, and the price...$16.10.
The printers have not explained this discrepancy, but it was obvious that hardbacks at paperback prices may sell but paperbacks at hardback prices never will.
My trilogy, at least in print, is now a six part 'ology', which required work on the covers so as not to confuse the buyer.
The Kindle books sell five hundred times better than the paperbacks though, as in I have sold one.
Well it kept me busy I suppose.
Next thing to do is get them translated.
Andy Farman's Novels on Amazon
June 12, 2013
Ah, reviews and stars. Either the nectar of Gods or the bite of an asp.
I have been fortunate so far in not to have any malicious comments or surreptitious visits by unscrupulous fellow authors of military fiction, although I have been warned that both exist.
Genuine readers are moved to comment for two reasons, they either love all the hard work you put in and the way the prose flow, or they hate it enough to tell the world.
Being in the writing game is the same as being back at school, except whereas the author is sat at his or her old desk (with the old cement hard chewing gum stuck on the underside by pupils long since moved on), the teacher is the great reading public.
Getting a review is like getting your homework back, and if you are like me you move the pages with trepidation like a poker player down to his last ten bob looking at the hand he has been dealt and gulping audibly.
Five Stars is the same as getting an 'A' and knowing your Dad is going to let you go out and play with your mates at the weekend.
Four Stars is an encouraging 'B+' and you still get to go out and play.
Three Stars is a 'C' and you may get to have a kick around in the local park but your Dad will expect you to be home by 3pm and hitting the books.
Two Stars is a 'See Me' and not even a chance at watching John Wayne on the afternoon matinee TV movie.
Do I need to point out that One Star is a 'Continues to disappoint' in red ink' and you may not even get any pocket money this week?
Of course no reviews can be even worse, a complete indifference to your best efforts and being sent to bed without any supper to-boot!
Reviews:
Volume 1 (UK)
Volume 1 (US)
Genuine readers are moved to comment for two reasons, they either love all the hard work you put in and the way the prose flow, or they hate it enough to tell the world.
Being in the writing game is the same as being back at school, except whereas the author is sat at his or her old desk (with the old cement hard chewing gum stuck on the underside by pupils long since moved on), the teacher is the great reading public.
Getting a review is like getting your homework back, and if you are like me you move the pages with trepidation like a poker player down to his last ten bob looking at the hand he has been dealt and gulping audibly.
Five Stars is the same as getting an 'A' and knowing your Dad is going to let you go out and play with your mates at the weekend.
Four Stars is an encouraging 'B+' and you still get to go out and play.
Three Stars is a 'C' and you may get to have a kick around in the local park but your Dad will expect you to be home by 3pm and hitting the books.
Two Stars is a 'See Me' and not even a chance at watching John Wayne on the afternoon matinee TV movie.
Do I need to point out that One Star is a 'Continues to disappoint' in red ink' and you may not even get any pocket money this week?
Of course no reviews can be even worse, a complete indifference to your best efforts and being sent to bed without any supper to-boot!
Reviews:
Volume 1 (UK)
Volume 1 (US)
Too racy Madam? Try on this Abridged size then...
The learning curve continues.......
It is something akin to being hit in the face with a wet fish when you look at your detailed book sales and see someone asked for a refund. "Why?" you ask yourself, but the publisher does not see fit to supply any feedback. Two hundred and four copies sold between 26th April and 12th June will help with the grocery bills but three people hated it enough to ask for their cash back. That is a box of babies formula!
I was fortunate that two thirds of the returnees were good enough to contact me. Both had bought the first volume for their sons but had not seen the introduction's comments about a sexy spy removing her clothes to learn the secrets of others, as sufficient indication that there lurked some sexual content within.
" Arriving at her Kensington flat Svetlana powered up her computer and selected a classical music CD that she placed in the drive before carefully removing her hand made Italian shoes and unpeeling like a second skin the Emilio Pucci sheath dress to stand naked but for sheer black hold-up stockings.
The dress, like her looks, was a tool of her trade. Lingerie would have been visible through the £2000 garment and spoilt the desired effect had she been stopped by the police.As the music began sounding through the speakers either side of her PCs base unit, Svetlana leaned across the keyboard and carefully placed fingers over three separate keys, and paused, letting the music flow forth. If anyone else had been present they would have observed an exquisitely formed young woman in her mid-twenties, clad only in stockings and whose tan lines and full Brazilian showed a preference for G-strings as beach wear. The gleam of Chinese gold at her nether region where a stud pierced a particularly sensitive item, and a pair of tattooed dogs paws on her right buttock gave hint of a somewhat kinky vein running beneath that chic and elegant surface.
Apparently overtaken by the strains of Bizet’s Farandole from ‘L’Arlesienne’and frozen in some Pre Raphaelesque pose,Svetlana closed her eyes as she listened. Thirty-nine seconds into the piece she depressed all three keys simultaneously before logging online. With the anti-tamper software thus neutralised and therefore no chance of the powerful electromagnets incorporated in the speakers from being activated and frying the hard drive, the auburn locks bouncing on her shoulders and tattooed buttocks as she strode elegantly on thick piled carpets through the flat to the shower."
It is a passage that what I would describe as being more sex in silhouette than the graphic swinging-off-the-chandeliers-and-full-on-penetrative-descriptive variety.
Sex-in-silhouette would not of course find favour with ones Granny, indeed the only Granny Approved Porn can be summed up in just four words at the end of a sentence in a book, or accompanied by the camera panning up to the sky before fading out. "And so to bed" was steamy enough for Granny, much to Granddads chagrin.
However, the feedback had value and I learned from it. *Contains some sexual content now sits as a warning at the foot of the intro, and in order to cater for the under 18's I spent an hour editing the text and cover in order to produce an Abridged Edition, which I can happily report was eventually bought by both.
Armageddons-Stand--Abridged-Version-ebook
It is something akin to being hit in the face with a wet fish when you look at your detailed book sales and see someone asked for a refund. "Why?" you ask yourself, but the publisher does not see fit to supply any feedback. Two hundred and four copies sold between 26th April and 12th June will help with the grocery bills but three people hated it enough to ask for their cash back. That is a box of babies formula!
I was fortunate that two thirds of the returnees were good enough to contact me. Both had bought the first volume for their sons but had not seen the introduction's comments about a sexy spy removing her clothes to learn the secrets of others, as sufficient indication that there lurked some sexual content within.
" Arriving at her Kensington flat Svetlana powered up her computer and selected a classical music CD that she placed in the drive before carefully removing her hand made Italian shoes and unpeeling like a second skin the Emilio Pucci sheath dress to stand naked but for sheer black hold-up stockings.
The dress, like her looks, was a tool of her trade. Lingerie would have been visible through the £2000 garment and spoilt the desired effect had she been stopped by the police.As the music began sounding through the speakers either side of her PCs base unit, Svetlana leaned across the keyboard and carefully placed fingers over three separate keys, and paused, letting the music flow forth. If anyone else had been present they would have observed an exquisitely formed young woman in her mid-twenties, clad only in stockings and whose tan lines and full Brazilian showed a preference for G-strings as beach wear. The gleam of Chinese gold at her nether region where a stud pierced a particularly sensitive item, and a pair of tattooed dogs paws on her right buttock gave hint of a somewhat kinky vein running beneath that chic and elegant surface.
Apparently overtaken by the strains of Bizet’s Farandole from ‘L’Arlesienne’and frozen in some Pre Raphaelesque pose,Svetlana closed her eyes as she listened. Thirty-nine seconds into the piece she depressed all three keys simultaneously before logging online. With the anti-tamper software thus neutralised and therefore no chance of the powerful electromagnets incorporated in the speakers from being activated and frying the hard drive, the auburn locks bouncing on her shoulders and tattooed buttocks as she strode elegantly on thick piled carpets through the flat to the shower."
It is a passage that what I would describe as being more sex in silhouette than the graphic swinging-off-the-chandeliers-and-full-on-penetrative-descriptive variety.
Sex-in-silhouette would not of course find favour with ones Granny, indeed the only Granny Approved Porn can be summed up in just four words at the end of a sentence in a book, or accompanied by the camera panning up to the sky before fading out. "And so to bed" was steamy enough for Granny, much to Granddads chagrin.
However, the feedback had value and I learned from it. *Contains some sexual content now sits as a warning at the foot of the intro, and in order to cater for the under 18's I spent an hour editing the text and cover in order to produce an Abridged Edition, which I can happily report was eventually bought by both.
Armageddons-Stand--Abridged-Version-ebook
June 11, 2013
Volume 2 in the trilogy...and back to school
The second book in the trilogy had a number of proofing issues owing to my becoming very much used to producing one off operation briefings and operation plans for all manner events, from small protests to the policing plan for Europe's largest Latin American Carnival. I was a one man band ten years ago and my workload was hefty for each of the three hats I wore. Glossy works of literature that would be archived the day after the operation simply did not require much in the way of finesse. Provided that everyone arrived on time, in the correct equipment, in the correct transport, were fed and knew what was required of them then who really cared if an apostrophe was missing?
Enter Nick Gill, a thoroughly good sort, a well educated and solid kind of guy who does care, very much.
Nick sent me back a sample of the first book he had proofed.
There were so many highlighted errors it looked like a STOP LIGHT.
My style of capitalisation and punctuation was ruining his enjoyment of reading it.
Where there is one Nick there are sure to be many others.
Why spoil all those years research and writing by lazy penmanship, was his reasonable argument and whilst he held down a demanding job he proofed the first hundred pages of the second volume during his daily commutes.
ARMAGEDDONS SONG volume 2 'Advance-Contact'
Enter Nick Gill, a thoroughly good sort, a well educated and solid kind of guy who does care, very much.
Nick sent me back a sample of the first book he had proofed.
There were so many highlighted errors it looked like a STOP LIGHT.
My style of capitalisation and punctuation was ruining his enjoyment of reading it.
Where there is one Nick there are sure to be many others.
Why spoil all those years research and writing by lazy penmanship, was his reasonable argument and whilst he held down a demanding job he proofed the first hundred pages of the second volume during his daily commutes.
ARMAGEDDONS SONG volume 2 'Advance-Contact'
First novel and something of an IT learning curve
ARMAGEDDON'S SONG 'Stand - To' was published on 20th April 2013 and out as a Loss Leader, being my first effort as a novel, and for the first five days it was available as a free download on Kindle. One hundred and thirty eight downloads in the UK, five hundred and sixty five downloads in the US and eighty four elsewhere around the globe.
Hopefully that will result in interest in the two other novels in the trilogy.
ARMAGEDDONS SONG Volume 1 'Stand-To'
Hopefully that will result in interest in the two other novels in the trilogy.
ARMAGEDDONS SONG Volume 1 'Stand-To'
