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Saturday 12 September 2015

Where does it all come from?

I wonder myself sometimes, most of the posts on this site, and perhaps many others are a link in a chain reaction, someone posts on the net and the search engines lob it down the line to a feed and a new reader picks it up. Maybe the post fits a sequence of thought already trundling through the reader's mind and away they go...

Fingers dancing like dervishes across the keys, totally confusing the spillchucker with obscure elements of language, or simply dreadful spelling because the words are tumbling out faster than the keyboard can cope.

(Do you ever think it would be a good idea to think straight on to the machine - knowing what goes through my head at times, definitely not!)

A lot of the posts are sparked off by something I have read or picked up across the Internet. Feel free to comment on anything you see or read, drop me a note via the contact here or at cheekyseagull.co.uk. Grab a sample of the books at smashwords or from the linked retailers. Be daring and buy the entire book(s) (Resists urge to plead and grovel to generous nature of lovely reader!)
Give it a review, tell me what you like about it - OK, yes, tell me what you thought was totally crap too.

I tell myself there are no bad reviews, some I will like, others maybe not so much. Oscar Wilde famously remarked there is no such thing as bad publicity, and the Duke of Wellington is remembered for publish and be damned. The context may not be exactly the same as ours, but the risk is the same.

Positive thinking helps, but negative reviews go with the job. I publish (self-publish) and you read, and review.

I write the books, you, dear reader, write the reviews. I scribble down the stories I want to write, there is no-one leaning over my shoulder telling me what to put down: and I acknowledge and respect your freedom of expression, even when it smarts a bit!

Enjoy the books and the blog, I'm off to write some more...

Thursday 10 September 2015

Cheap at Twice the Price?

E-Book sales fall after new Amazon Contracts; the article in the Wall Street Journal (and posted at The Passive Voice) examines the recent sales figures in the wake of the recent negotiations between the corporate giant and the major publishers.

All is not well, the initial results show a downturn in sales, with books from the big five averaging over $10 compared to all the other 2015 e-books marked up at $4.95.
I'm having to do a bit of guesswork here, working the calculation that the reaction to spending $5 as opposed to $10 is similar to that between £5 and £10 in GB pounds. I'll quite cheerfully dug into the pocket for a £5 purchase, but £10, calls for a bit of thinking about. It is possible to find e-books priced the same as hardback, and higher than the paperback. The latest top 100 on Kindle shows no books priced above $10.