Sunday 28 July 2013

Free? Free? FREE?

What is this free of which you speak? The days you get to price your book at zero on Amazon's KDP Select. (See link for a blog post I wrote a while back explaining how it works). That means you get zero, zilch, nada for each and every "sale".

Why would I want to give my work away for free? Authors say making the first book in a series free generates sales of subsequent books. That may indeed be true for them and if so, I'm happy for them. But I just can't get my head around the concept. I don't want to just sell book 2 (and book 3 soon) of my crime thriller series - I want to sell all 3 books. If I want to make one free, I'll do it when I want and for as long as I want - via Smashwords, which will let me set my own prices.

My books aren't exactly expensive at full price. I work hard to write them - hundreds, if not thousands of hours. I want people to make a decision to buy and hopefully read my books, not download a freebie and probably never look at it. My ebooks cost less than the price of a cup of coffee. Anybody who doesn't consider that one of my books is worth the price of a cup of coffee is not my target audience.

Monday 8 July 2013

OBEs or Oscars?

Political rant time... sorry, but sometimes things HAVE TO BE SAID!

My aunt was one of many children. Unlike her siblings, she didn't marry and have children of her own - my cousins and I were her family. Instead she spent her entire life helping other people. For 40 years she took disabled Guides on holiday; for longer than that she worked tirelessly in the Girl Guide movement and for her church - even to the extent of spending her free evenings making toys and decorations to sell to raise money. And she still always had time for her nephews and nieces.

Some years back, she became ill. At that point my immediate family and I decided to nominate her for an Honours - isn't that what they are for? To recognise service to your country and community? It's a long and complicated process and we wanted to complete it while she was still alive, so at least she would know what she meant to us and the people she cared for. There are endless forms to fill in and "statements" to obtain, but we did it and submitted it. We had an acknowledgement and that was it. Nothing. Zip. Not even a thanks but no thanks. Or a sorry, but we had so many deserving people to choose from. Nothing.

And the Honours go to celebrities - actors and footballers.

Sadly, my aunt passed away several years ago. She is much missed by us and her community in Manchester.

And David Cameron wants to give Andy Murray a knighthood for winning Wimbledon?

Wednesday 3 July 2013

Review Time

I don't make a habit of cross-posting from facebook - but just have to make an exception here with a message from the lovely (and talented) Kate Hanney....

Well, Debbie, I've just finished Hamelin's Child and I'm shell-shocked! My emotions are raw, you've pulled and pushed them all over the place over the last few days, and I now need to some time to recover! Really, I absolutely loved it - it's upset me, it's even given me nightmares, but it's just brilliant. You must be so proud; having such an effect on your reader is no mean feat, and you've done it so skilfully. I've left a review on Amazon, and also downloaded Paying the Piper ... but I might need to let my emotions settle for a day or two before I brace myself and start reading it. x x 

There are days when I love this writing lark!