Going Live

Ebook week's alive. 

Reminds me of Brian Blessed in Flash Gordon,  with his famous exclamation at the durability of the eponymous Hero.

"Gordon's alive!"

It's with us again, Read an Ebook Week is upon us, check out the offerings at Smashwords or your favourite ebook distibutor.

Open the door, have fun

Martyn

Authors still giving back!

The smashwords Authors Give Back Sale is on until the end of May, currently set to wind down at midnight on the 31st.

Don't rule out the possibility that they end date may be rolled out again, a lot of us will be adjusting our plans for a while to come yet. The restrictions are easing, the mental strain isn't. and will linger long after the socially visible aspects of this situation,

I revisited the smashwords blog where the authors give back sale was first announced and carried on reading to the bottom of the page and on into the previous post and found a delicious story about bakers and cookies, analogous to the predicament of the independant writer, or any writer. 

We're getting a glimpse of what happens when the little guy who makes the superb  goodies is taken out of the equation. No one expected it to happen this way. 

Mark Coker, posts the story from Nicky Charles in the Smashwords blog post  post of the 5th March, The Baker and the Pot of Gold. The piece is a response to Mark Coker's review 2020 Publishing Predictions, Hose of Indie on Fire. A yearly reflection on the state of Independant publishing. To use his own words from the review,  a 'State of the Indie Nation' piece. 

A bite for all appetites. the lighter side in Nicky's cookie tale, and Mark's more serious offering, and not stodgy.

Enjoy

Martyn

Authors Give Back Sale at Smashwords

Life changes and the shift in normal has been profound in many countries, including my own, Smashwords have thrown their weight behind finding ways of coping with self-isolation and quarantine.

The Ebook comes into its own, available online, twenty four hours a day via the regular distribution channels. Check out the Smashwords site for Authors Give Back titles. Discounted or free to download. From today until the 20th April.

Enjoy a fantastic choice of authors and stories.

Stay well, stay safe, wherever you are.

Martyn

Update Read an Ebook week

The latest from Smashwords to authors, is sign up for Read an eBook week.

Preparations are underway for the annual read an eBook week sale. Discounts and promotions on the site. Find your new favourite author at the Smashwords read an eBook week page.

Kicks off Sunday 1st March.

Unfortunately there is an extra day to wait this year, February has put on weight, gone up to 29 days.

Coming soon, Read an E book week 2020

A whole seven days to gorge!

Seven days dedicated to the wonder and variety of electronically formatted literature.   The first full week in March. The ebook distribution site, Smashwords usually has a dedicated section. You'll find over half a million books on the site, and 82,146 of them are free. 

True, the touch and smell of the printed pages is missing. The page curling under your thumb and the smell of new ink and paper blended caught between a well-made cover is a bonus,  I don't want to lose that.

For ease of handling, a library  snug in your pocket has a plus. For those of us who look back on our tender years and find modern small print a strain.  (I disagree with my optician, small print is getting smaller. More precise digital printers make the best use of space - a whole new twist on shrink to fit.)

The variable fonts of the electronic page, the switch from day to night viewing. The choice of page colour, creating a better contrast with the text. Adjustable brightness,  online, offline reading. Multiple app platforms on one device. It works for me. 

Childhood hours spent late in the night tucked under the covers, balancing a torch and a book to find out what happened next, a back lit page would have made it easier and with an auto shut off to save the batteries after I’d fallen asleep.

The other side of the coin, spoilt for choice, and that's the key to read an E book week, seven days to dig out that new writer, the new voice that touches the sweet spot and draws you back for more.

Over on this side of the water, we also have the delights of World Book Day, 5th March. Most of the world marks it on the 23rd of April, the United Kingdom (including Scotland and Wales) and Ireland get into it earlier.

The date is a focal point on the calendar, the idea is to encourage reading. Print or digital,  tablet or phone, wherever your app may be. Accept the mission, to make books available to all. 

Check it out

Martyn

Working things through

Occasionally the best decision is to pull back, regroup, lick your wounds and work out a new way forward.

The seagull question raised its head once again, and I know that previous considerations have ended with a decision to stay with the old bird, this time it's different. I'm letting it go.

Recent events have brought about a change in perspective. A reconsideration of my outlook.

So, with that in mind, from the 1st of March the Grange thrillers will undergo a thorough overhaul.

The Grange series will remain available, but the texts will be worked on behind the scenes. The idea is to reboot the series under a new flag later in the year. Dates and times are still in the formative stage but I'll try and keep you posted on how things are developing

The website, cheekyseagull.co.uk will remain as a limited footprint on the Internet for the immmediate future.

Now, I have work to do, so if you will excuse me.

For the time being, Cheerio.

Best wishes

Martyn

Grab what you can...

July is here, and The Grange series is enrolled at Smashwords in the Ninth Annual Summer/Winter Sale. 

Whatever the season, wherever you are;  the discounts are lined up, the best sellers of the future waiting to be discovered and enjoyed. Iceline is, as ever, free to grab, and for the duration, Control Escape, What You Ask For and The Obedience of Fools are yours for half price, a 50% discount on their normal retail price, click on the link and enter the code SSW50 when you make the purchase.

Have fun, grab a piece of the action!

Start now...

Sunday, at last, a plethora of literary gems waiting to to be snatched up - OK - downloaded.
Read an eBook week is here.

Ready, press start

Check out The Grange series at Smashwords, enter the code RAE50 at the checkout.

Check my author page at Smashwords

 Browse the Smashwords read an eBook week page

Go find yourself a gem

Be alert...

Your country needs lerts!

Yeah, I know, it's an old one, goes way back as far as I can remember, but joking aside yesterday's email flagged up advance notice of something bang up to date.

The Ninth annual Read an eBook week starts next Sunday. The 5th to the 11th of March; seven days of discounts, freebies and hidden treasures revealed. There's more information about the event on the smashwords,blog

Maybe the kick up the back end I'm looking for to stop me feeling grounded, bogged down, or whatever; get my finger out, pull my socks up. Slot in whatever vernacular descriptive you feel is appropriate.

Give myself the Gibbs head slap and get back on track.

So what are you waiting for?

Sunday, of course.

Keep an eye on this space, check out Smashwords and follow the links from wherever you are, to where you want to be. The Grange stories will be discounted.

Grab an eBook for a discount or a freebie and enjoy yourself.

If Sunday is too far away,  nip along to Indies Unlimited and check out Thrifty Thursday.

Don't forget to pop back on Sunday!

Starting over

November 1st, another year and another challenge for hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, of writers?

NaNoWriMo swung into gear at 00:01 this morning wherever you are in the world. If you are heading out for the first time into uncharted waters with your first attempt at the fifty-thousand word - thirty-day challenge good luck and enjoy yourself, and the same good wishes go to all the veterans of past NaNoWriMo years.

I'm giving it a miss this November, focusing on completing works in progress.

The finished novels are available through the major eBook retailers, check out the links from cheekyseagull.co.uk  Click the drop down  menu, each title has its own page; or visit the series page at Smashwords for The Grange.

Grab yourself a piece of the action, a good thriller for the dark winter nights is just what you need.

Offline - Gone to Earth

Gone to Earth comes off line tonight, I shall unpublish the work in progress at Smashwords. Not ready for the premium catalog the uncompleted text has noly been available as a download at Smashwords.

Gone to Earth is, effecively going to earth, like the fox pursued by the hunt, heading for cover only this time, not to hide. but to be completed, so when it appears again the whole story weill be revealed.

April is the month for getting stuck into the job, so I should find myself in various corners of the house, depending on the time of day or evening, or if the weather is kind enough, outside ejoying the spring sunshine and the steadily lengthening evenings.

The rest of the Gramge Thrillers remain available through all channels and for the rest of the month at Smashwords, discount codes are available

Iceline -free as usual.
Control Escape - enter TP79Y at the checkout
What You Ask For - enter NT97R
The Obedience of Fools - enter JD95K

Reaching the line

"Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to hang in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully," was Dr  Samuel Johnson's take on a deadline. Not something we are likely to face, even if we consider writing in the same vein as Bill Shankly, the legendary manager of Liverpool Football Club, who considered the game to be more important than life and death.

Chris Baty, founder and chief instigator of NaNoWriMo considers the dead line to be the writer's secret weapon. Douglas Adams  always enjoyed the sound of them whooshing along as they sped past.

Deadlines, not facing the hangman, or speeding by, but a limit. Self set, and policed, by the independent. There's the rub, self control makes them potentially flexible. Ideally they should give enough time for the job to be completed with a smidgeon of leeway, and not come up like you're running at a brick wall, even if it can move ahead of you.

The next deadline comes up tonight as Read an eBook week closes its doors and the discount code (RAE25)  at smashwords expires. The alternative codes remain valid,  on this blog and  at cheekyseagull.co.uk for the individual Grange Thrillers.

Which brings me to the plan, it's a bit formal calling it a plan at this stage, more a what am I going to do next arrangement.

Two projects,  both of them Grange Thrillers, Gone to Earth and  ClearWater, both unfinished and frankly, Gone to Earth needs a kick start, so, in need of a dead line, I've given myself a prompt. April, twenty five thousand words and hopefully a first draft put to rest by the end of the month. The protagonists are mustering for the final denouement and the scene will shortly be set, once Josie Burke has figured out the necessary deployment.

The plan is to unpublish Gone to Earth, to pull it offline until the work is finished. Once that's dealt with Clear Water takes the head and will be the focus.

When the time comes I'll keep you posted as to how things are progressing.

Read an eBook Week starts here....

Read an eBook Week kicks off for 2016, seven days of discounted and free ebooks at Smashwords. The Grange thrillers are involved, with a 25% discount code - especially for this week.

Check the links with the books at their Smashwords pages;

Iceline -free as usual.
Control Escape - enter RAE25 at the checkout
What You Ask For - enter RAE25
The Obedience of Fools - enter RAE25

Flag them for your e-readers, give your friends a nudge towards new writers and books at the summer promotions page.

World Book Day, here again!

 

Today's the day, World Book Day, check the website for the latest updates on the day's progress. and to throw in my sixpenn'orth discount codes are online for all The Grange thrillers at Smashwords

Iceline -free as usual.
Control Escape - enter TP79Y at the checkout
What You Ask For - enter NT97R
The Obedience of Fools - enter JD95K

Gone to Earth is still a work in progress and the unfinished text is available free at Smashwords.

Buy one for yourself, point someone in the right direction; head for The Grange.

Encourage reading, you know it does you good!

Grab a piece of the action; enjoy!


The Grange, Thrillers and Suspense, ebooks by Martyn Taylor
The codes expire on 31st March, 2016.

Reading this month?

Read an Ebook month kicks off tonight, as the last stroke of the witching hour fades into the silent darkness, March comes in, Roaring like a lion, or a page turning maniac, devouring words voraciously.

In the spirit of the event, discount codes are available for all the priced titles on the Grange
Iceline -free as usual.
Control Escape - enter TP79Y at the checkout
What You Ask For - enter NT97R
The Obedience of Fools - enter JD95K

Gone to Earth is still a work in progress and the unfinished text is available free at Smashwords.

A shameless plug, driven by a good idea, encourage reading, you know it does you good!

Grab a piece of the action; enjoy!


The Grange, Thrillers and Suspense, ebooks by Martyn Taylor

Looking ahead

January already kicked into touch, the march of crossed out days snaking across the calendar into February, Candlemas, Groundhog day gone already and the meteorological prognostications made for the next six weeks, and before we know it the march of time will have reached - March!

By virtue of an Order by the 41st Parliament of Canada, First Session, Motion M-293 was passed asking that the month of March be declared Read an E-BookMonth.

The Order reads:

Reflections

NaNoWriMo packed away for a another year, chalked up the fourth win with Clear Water, a look at the beginnings of the Grange and its residents and visitors, still very much a work in progress and unlike earlier NaNo novels, this one is strictly off line.

The word count was posted regularly so visitors to cheekyseagull could keep tabs on how the challenge was progressing through November, but the actual writing was behind the scenes. It has meant that things have been quiet here for the last month, and thanks to all who dropped by during that time.

The Train Now Standing...

The complete text of The Obedience of Fools went through auto-vettor earlier tonight (22 October) and is now being processed for Smashwords Premium catalogue in preparation for distribution, retailing at $3.99, and for a limited period with the discount of 25% by entering the code BE23Z. (Valid until the 30th November).

The book cleared Premium Catalogue selection just after midnight Friday and will be on its way through distribution in the next few days, Follow the  trail at smashwords and further down the line when The Obedience of Fools appears at the online retaillers. Direct links from cheekyseagull to the online stores will be installed as and when the book appears.

Enjoy, keep up with the action at The Grange at smashwords!

Smashwords summer event - discounted ebooks

The Mid Year event at smashwords, all through July ebooks are discounted for hours of holiday reading.
Control Escape and What You Ask For are down to 50% of their new price, $2.00 each with the code SSW50 at the checkout. at the end of the month they revert to $3.99, grab a piece of the action and what else is on offer at the July Summer/Winter Sale.

Website update at cheekyseagull.co.uk - smashwords links

At the other place where I occasionally hang out on the web at cheekyseagull.co.uk. I've plugged in a few modifications to the book pages. Each of the Grange Novels now has a direct link to smashwords to make life easier. Simply click on the button that says download or buy now on the home page or on the individual book page and grab your own piece of the action.

Enjoy!