Alan Baxter's Blog, page 127

Reviews, word of mouth and Super Users – Guest post by MCM

Today I'm pleased to present a guest post by MCM. This post explores the difficulties in building a fan base through word of mouth, and talks about how reviewers can help us with that.

Recently, I've had some conversations with very smart people about the future of publishing, specifically about how readers and writers can connect directly and make old-style functions like reviewers obsolete. It's a great notion with dangerous consequences, and if you're game, I'll explain why.

Here's the...

Friday flash – Strange Death

This is another piece from the archives. I found this short story while looking for something else and thought I might rework it into a little #fridayflash piece. I hope you like it.

.

Strange Death

'Remind me again why I don't have a quiet office job,' said Detective Hardy.

The constable beside him laughed, a short, bitter sound. He squinted up into the rain falling from the black, menacing sky then looked back down at the corpse lying in the alley. Watery blood ran from numerous gaping wounds, ...

The days are getting shorter

My wife and I popped into a cafe yesterday to grab a sandwich while doing things around town. I was rather disturbed by the menu. Given that I'm writing up this post at 2.10 pm perhaps I should actually be in bed already.

Now call me pedantic, but that's false advertising right there.

.

Formatting error on Smashwords ebooks

A reader was kind enough to point out to me recently that the epub versions of RealmShift and MageSign had a formatting error. It seems that the font size switched between 10 point and 12 point fairly randomly throughout both books on some readers.

I checked this on my iPhone and found that on Stanza Desktop the books looked fine, but once uploaded to the iPhone Stanza they switched font sizes every few paragraphs.

So, having investigated, it turned out to be publisher error. In other words...

A great review for RealmShift

There is nothing better for an author than words of praise from a reader. A reader doesn't have to say anything about a book they read. If they don't like any given book, they usually just don't say anything other than telling friends and family about it. If they really enjoy a book, they'll usually do the same. It's great for authors when someone takes the time to tell the world what they thought, in the form of a review, especially when they really enjoy a book. RealmShift just got this 5 s...

The Telegraph's 20 worst Dan Brown sentences

I'm not bitter at the success of Dan Brown. Really, I'm not. I would love to sell one book for every 10,000 books Dan Brown sells and I'd consider myself very sucessful, but I don't resent his success. Anyone that can sell books in the kind of numbers that the Browns, Rowlings and Meyers of this world do is something that should provide succour to all writers. It is possibe to sell books by the million.

Of course, it does burn a little bit when those books are atrocious, but there's no point b...

Friday Flash – One Thought

I have very little time this week, so I apologise if this little piece is not up to my usual standard. I pretty much wrote it and posted it in a single sitting, which is something I never usually do. I'm sure if I read it again in a day or two I'll see loads of changes that I'd like to make. It's more the exploration of an idea than anything else, a moment frozen in time. It's a piece of imagery that I've had in my mind for a while now. I hope you like it.

One Thought

All kinds of thoughts...

First Blade Red Press anthology open for submissions

My indie publisher, Blade Red Press, is open to short story submissions for its first anthology of dark speculative fiction. Check out all the details here: Blade Red Press, Submissions.

Have a think and send in your best work. It's not a highly paid market right now, but it is a paying market, it is a publication credit and successful submissions will see their work in print and ebook form next year.

Good luck!

.

Review my books and win some more books

Australian spec fic website A Writer Goes On A Journey is running a competition where you can win a couple of spec fic titles for reviewing books or writing flash. You can find all the details of the competition here.

You need to have an Aussie postal address to enter. If anyone is interested in reviewing RealmShift and/or MageSign and posting that review on the site you could win the books. I'd even consider sending out free review copies to anyone that wants to take up the opportunity. If...

NZ Speculative Fiction Blogging Week

That's pronounced "Un Zud Spiculatuv Fuction Bloggung Wik".

Okay, obligatory New Zealand piss-take out of the way, I can get on with the point of this post. (It would be considered un-Australian if I made a post about New Zealand without poking fun at their accent).

So, 14th-20th September is NZ Speculative Fiction Blogging Week.

From the announcement:

This is an opportunity for anyone in (or even with links to) New Zealand to talk about Speculative Fiction, to publicise what they've been doing...