Blog Archives

Servant of the Crown hits 6th place in Kobo epic fantasy category today

30/1/2018

I have found that writing a book is now simply the beginning of the self-publishing journey. There is so much more involved in being your own publisher once you finishing writing the book. You have to decide if you will sell it only on Amazon through their KDP Select, which allows readers to borrow books, for a set monthly fee. I felt that I did not want to put all my eggs in one basket, so I choose to go 'wide', which is to say making it available on multiple platforms, including kindle, kobo, iBooks, Nook, and ePubs at smaller distributors.

This past week, we released Servant of the Crown Internationally through multiple independent online retailers. My first book is now available in over 60 countries, and we will launch the second book in all outlets at the same time later in February.

Each outlet has its own raking and review system, which makes gaining traction in one particular market harder to do without spending a significant amount of money on marketing. This is why I like kobo; they work with their authors to help promote books for the benefit of both parties. Yesterday, we participated in a promotion which placed Servant of the Crown in one of kobo's daily promotions. Wow, has it ever taken off.

The book moved from over 5000th position to 8th in one day (this is out of over 18,000 books in the epic fantasy category). We decided to keep the momentum going, and have been doing some other promotions today and not only has it maintained its newfound position, but it has moved up to 6th spot!!

I want to thank all my readers for deciding to purchase 'Servant of the Crown', which encourages me to continue on the 3rd book in the series which is already about 15% finished!

0 Comments

Grammarly is a great program for editing

29/1/2018

0 Comments

I just received my weekly Grammarly update, and I thought that I would share this great program with my readers. During the days I am an IT instructor at a local private college, and one of the courses I teach is technical writing and grammar. Interestingly enough, I found that I had many questions about the correct format for many things, especially the dreaded semi-colon. Technical writing and writing for a novel use completely a completely different ruleset from each other; what works for IT jargon doesn't work well in a fantasy novel. (That was an example of a dependent clause, hence a semi-colon)

Grammarly has been an excellent tool for me in my writing. It reminds me when I am using too many passive sentences. If you want to know what is a passive sentence, basically if you can add 'by zombies' to the end of your sentence, it is passive. A book flows much better with the characters doing the actions instead of the surroundings acting upon the characters. It also allows you to choose the style of writing you are doing, from academic to short story and everything in-between and then changes the rules to match the document you are creating. (Funny story, I used Grammarly for this post, and it told me that 'passive' was an overused word and suggested inactive instead)

You can use it for online for free, and it will catch the more glaring issues. We chose to purchase the program, and now have it installed along with Word, making editing that much easier. They also send you a weekly report card, and honestly who doesn’t like scoring in the 95th percentile and higher! Do remember, it only suggests changes. We still have to go through and double check everything, as rearranging the structure of a sentence can change the intended meaning, but overall, it is a very worthwhile tool.

In this week's update, you can see that we have used it to review the complete second book, Sword of the Crown, which means that it is almost ready for you to read. Keep checking back to the website for our cover reveal and the official release date!

0 Comments

Great resource for the medieval time period

14/1/2018

0 Comments

As a history buff, I have lots of reference books on various subjects. These range from uniforms and tactics of the Napoleonic period to World War Two tanks and such. I’ve also always had a fascination with the medieval period. I even have a copy of ‘La Morte D’Arthur’ by Thomas Mallory, sitting on my bookshelf. It’s an interesting read, but a bit dated in its prose, obviously.

Being able to visualize characters in a story is important to the telling of the tale, so anything I can find to help me ‘round out’ the character is useful. Now, don’t get me wrong, the Internet is a great source of information, but it’s almost too good! A simple query can suddenly turn into an hour-long expedition as you follow hyperlink after hyperlink into the endless ends of the web.

As an author, I like to write, so having resources that are easy to use and complete is of paramount importance. For Christmas, my wife gave me a copy of “The Medieval Warrior” by Martin Dougherty. She purchased the book at Chapters (a Canadian book store for those of you outside of the true north), but it’s available online at their website, along with Amazon. (Links included below for your convenience.) Be warned, if you like eBooks, prepare to be disappointed, the book is only available in print form, which, in my opinion, is a good thing. The rich illustrations would not translate well to a kobo or kindle.

It’s an excellent book, broken into sections on Knights, Foot, Archers and Siege Weapons & Specialists. There is a wealth of detail here, including some great illustrations showing armour and weapons, even tactics. If you’ve ever wondered what a knight's training might be like, this book is for you, but don’t think that’s all that’s here. Details and illustrations touch on other types of cavalry as well, including Mamluks and Mongol cavalry.

The information in this book gives you a good understanding of the period without dragging you down into endless explanations and details. Truly a book for anyone who is interested in the subject.

You can find it on Amazon.com

0 Comments

Sword of the Crown is on track for a February release!

12/1/2018

0 Comments

Today I want to share with you how well the editing of 'Sword of the Crown' is coming along. We are on track for a mid-February release! I do find it interesting that even though I wrote it over six months ago, I still chuckle at the funny parts. This new book has quite a few humorous scenes, for Beverly is a character who tends to speak her mind frequently. When we are working on editing it, whoever is reading, speaks out loud, making sure to infer the right tone to the characters. We often have to stop for a chuckle break. For example, here is a small little preview for you. To set up the scene, Beverly, when she is sixteen, is MADE to travel with a chaperone to visit her uncle.

“I don’t know why you have to wear that thing,” her new 'best friend' said in disgust.
Beverly looked down at the sword strapped to her waist. “This?” she asked innocently.
“Yes, it’s not very ladylike. Why do you insist on wearing it?”
“Because my warhammer is too awkward in the carriage,” she said, smiling.

There is also an element of sadness at times, for many things have to happen to Beverly along the way to mold her into the great knight she becomes. Recently, we were reading through a particularly poignant scene, and Carol had to stop because she was crying so hard. I took over, but I must admit that it was hard to read, and I too had to stop for a moment or two to collect myself. It definitely was a hard scene to write, but you truly understand who Beverly is and what drives her after reading it. I look forward to hearing if my readers can figure out what scene I am talking about when we release the book in February.

0 Comments

An extremely helpful site for self-publishers!

11/1/2018

1 Comment

Deciding to become an author can be a daunting task and just starting the process can seem overwhelming at times, at least it was for me. As I have mentioned previously, I spent many hours combing the internet to become better acquainted with my new hobby. Luckily, early in my search, I found author Joanna Penn, who has created a nice website full of articles and links about the whole indie process. When I first found her site, I immediately identified with her because she had also always wanted to be a writer, plus she was in IT for many years, as I have been.

From writing to self-publishing to marketing, she has everything you need to know at your fingertips. I should point out that she is a bestselling self-published author herself, in both the fiction and non-fiction areas, so she is a knowledgeable resource. She shares her success and her failures in the hopes that you will not make the same mistakes that she has. I like that she has a lot of free advice available, but is also honest that this is a business for her, so you need to expect there to books and courses for sale as well as the advice.

It was from Joanna’s website that I learned about Scrivener, a tool I have talked about before, and still use every day. She also has a podcast with over 300 episodes covering all manner of topics. For more information, check out her website, The Creative Penn

1 Comment

Great way to start a new year!

9/1/2018

0 Comments

Welcome back to all my fantastic readers. I have been quiet for a few weeks to enjoy the holidays with friends and family. I hope everybody had a chance to relax and have a few moments of peace as 2017 turned into 2018!

Now I am back in the saddle, so to speak, and raring to share great news with everybody. Over the holidays, I completed my third book, Mercerian Tales, but I am thinking of adding one more story to the anthology. I will make my mind up about that this week, but none the less, it will be going to the editor at the end of the month, and will be ready for publication sometime in late March early April!

Some other exciting news on the book front. 'Sword of the Crown' is nearly finished its editing process, and is on track for a mid February release date.

As you may notice, I am working backwards by book, and saving the best news for last. I was recently interviewed about my first book, 'Servant of the Crown' by Whitney South, of OurLondon.ca newspaper. She wrote a fantastic article, and I wanted to share it. Click on the image to see a full page version.

0 Comments

Servant of the Crown hits 6th place in Kobo epic fantasy category today

Grammarly is a great program for editing

Great resource for the medieval time period

Sword of the Crown is on track for a February release!

An extremely helpful site for self-publishers!

Great way to start a new year!

Author

Archives

Categories