How it works.

Generally speaking a work in progress  available at Smashwords and ineligible for the premium catalogue will be free to download. Once the text is complete and proofed it will be submitted and a price attached.

What You Ask For passed the  premium catalogue selection and is now in the ebook retailers supplied by smashwords (until 2 March 2015 What You Ask For has a 50% discount code at smashwords enter AY63P at the checkout - the code isn't case sensitive).

Feedback on any story is welcome.  Drop me a line through the contact page.

Currently The Obedience of Fools and Gone to Earth are listed as works in progress, free to download at smashwords. Drop in and help yourself.

Iceline the first Grange novel is available at smashwords and through all the distribution channels as a permanent free download.

Chase your ebook down through the links from cheekyseagull.co.uk/iceline.

What's the connection?

Cheekyseagull: I've been pondering the title for a couple of weeks, thinking if I should look at it from a different angle. This is not the title you would expect to find promoting ebooks and digital publishing.

A lot of writers have their name and, or the title of their books, or series of books in the website name. I have come across some really eye catching titles and headers across the web and the best of luck to all of you.

Cheeky seagull is a name with personal connections, and the idea of it generally puts me in a positive frame of mind. I owned the domain name and cheekyseagull email some time before Iceline was published and I chose to launch myself on to the Internet as an independent author who self publishes.

The first domain name was cheekyseagull.net, and the name is still active, pointing towards .co.uk, and when .uk became available in mid 2014 I took up the option and that points to .co.uk. so  cheekyseagull followed by .net .co.uk or .uk will land you on the site. Taking all that into consideration you might think that now is not the moment to have second thoughts.

It's not about second thoughts, but perception, am I really comfortable with it: yes, but what about the connection between seabirds and publishing? They may seem strange bedfellows and yet familiarity has made such connections seem natural.

The short stiff with the white shirt and the black tux is already familiar, so why not a cheeky seagull chasing the action?

P-P-Pick up a Grange story from the cheekyseagull and let's see this bird fly.

Who wrote that one?

Couple of weeks ago before I got stuck into NaNoWriMo I was doing the rounds checking the links from cheekyseagull to Apple and the other distributors. Basically checking which ones had the new covers for Control Escape and What You Ask For in place.

I dropped on to the Apple page for Control Escape and then clicked the links for other books by the same author.

Racked up across the page were a line of books all by Martyn Taylor, but half of them were written by my namesake. Another Martyn Taylor, (same spelling) his titles were local history around Bury St Edmunds in East Anglia. He works through a publisher. I publish independently and at the moment work exclusively in digital formats. I have plans to move into POD some time in the new year, again working independently.

I queried the situation with Smashwords who checked it out and reported back. Apparently there are no individual author pages on the Apple website and all publications by authors with the same name are listed together.

What are you looking for?

New covers for Control Escape

   and What You Ask For 

Both stories went out with a rush cover job. Neither of them giving any insight into the action taking place behind the image. So over the summer I got my head behind it and worked on a new design. Both are now out there and should have reached the retailers with the new cover image.

Control Escape is a replacement for the the original. I believe it works much better. It certainly does for, me, I shall soon see if it does for the book

What You Ask For is new in the distribution channels outside Smashwords. So it may be the first glimpse some readers have had of the book, we'll see what happens here shall we. It has made the jump from being a free WIP to paid, $2.99. Until January 2 it has a 50% discount at Smashwords.
Enter AY63P at the the checkout.

Christmas Treats - offer extended

A couple of weeks to go and you're thinking about that satisfying read, the one that helps the dinner go down and keeps you turning the page. What You Ask For is now out on the premium channels, 

and at Smashwords, and to make the adjustment between a free work in progress and a paid download, there is a discount code for smashwords, when you get to the checkout enter the code AY63P (valid to 2 March 15) and get 50% off

Get 

50% off this Christmas

at