Flash Fiction 2

Hi All,
Those of you who are following the antics of Fred Tench in The Fishing Detectives series, will be pleased to know that book 3 is well underway. In fact, I would say that I am about two-thirds of the way into completing it. The plot of the book centres around some metal thieves and Fred’s team taking part in the Police National Fishing Championship. Although Fred and his colleagues are essentially pleasure anglers, Fred has another reason for needing to do well in the match and he pulls out all the stops.

I am also getting quite hooked on writing short fiction so I though I’d let you have a couple of new examples to read.

Modern Art
Wendy hadn’t expected to be thrust into the limelight. She respected great art, so it came as a big surprise when the art experts did cartwheels after seeing the abstracts she’d done for amusement.
Sitting in the TV studio, listening to the famous host introduce her was embarrassing on a scale that she never thought possible.
“And tonight ladies and gentlemen, I have the pleasure of introducing Wendy Taylor, who has wowed the world with her brilliant use of colour. Perhaps Wendy, you could explain to the art world how you do it.”
“Yes, it’s pretty easy really, I’m colour Blind.”

Quick Thinking
The light aircraft was falling slowly from the sky, but the pilot remained calm and joined his terrified passengers. One was well dressed, while the other was obviously a backpacker.
“I’ve got bad news,” said the pilot, “there are only two parachutes.”
“Well I’m a captain of industry and I make quick decisions, so I’m having one and you two can fight over the other,” said the man in the suit as he grabbed a chute and jumped.
“I’m sorry,” said the Pilot
“We’ll be alright,” said the backpacker, “the captain of industry has just jumped out with my rucksack.”

If you enjoyed these bits of short fiction, you may also enjoy my book of short stories, “No Fishing In Here: Just Short Stories” which is available on amazon.
Please click here to go to my website for details and the link. click here

Flash Fiction

Hi all,

Although I like short stories, I’ve never really been a fan of flash fiction, especially when the word count is limited to 100 words. However,  I recently started subsribing to an indie author newsletter which features what they call a, ‘drabble’ at the end of each issue.

I enjoy reading the newsletter, but they always seem to be short of 100 word stories and put out a call for more. The upshot is that the reward for supplying the stories is a link in the newsletter which takes the reader to the author’s web page at Amazon. Anyway, I’m always on the look out for ways to promote my books and though I’d give it a whirl. The first one was difficult because it is hard to condense any story down to that number of words, but I’m starting to get the hang of it.

Below are my first two flash fiction stories.

Title:  Rock On

Robbie loved rock music and his Walkman was his constant companion. The bass throbbed in his earphones as he moved along quickly with the rhythm of the music matching his footfall.

He especially liked Bon Jovi and was enjoying ‘Living On A Prayer’ when the gate came in sight. Robbie also like freedom and hated it when any kind of barrier was put in his way. Still this one represented no problem; he took it in his stride and vaulted it with ease.

The train was doing about 120 miles per hour when it smeared Robbie along the track.

Title:  Stage Fright

Anxiety was getting the better of him, it brought a lump to his throat and he could feel his shoulders shake as he walked towards the wooden stage. As he climbed the steps, with his small entourage following him, he could hear the crowd cheering. His pulse was racing and he knew he wouldn’t disappoint them.

With weakening knees he was almost there, he took a deep breath and took several steps forward. This was it; he’d entered the arena for what would be his last performance.

“Stick yer head in there, lad, it’ll soon be over,” said the hangman.

I hope you enjoyed first attempts at flash fiction and if you have any comments I’d love to hear them. 

Meanwhile, if you are interested in the indie author newsletter I was telling you about here is the link. http://www.indie-book-bargains.co.uk

 

Free Book Bonanza

Giving books away might have seemed an odd thing to do a couple of years ago, but those who adopted this strategy reaped good rewards. However, the low hanging fruit have now been picked so the rewards are dwindling rapidly.

Giving away free books no longer guarantees more readers, but why? The answer is of course that so many authors and publishing houses have now jumped on the bandwagon that the free book market is saturated.

I guess the emergence of Amazon’s KDP select has had a lot to do with the popularity of giving away books because it gave authors the tools to control the price of their book very tightly over a given period. Every book that is enrolled into KDP select, is given 5 free days promotion for the period of  enrollment which is 90 days. That means that authors partaking can give their books away over 15 times per year.

So, is it any wonder that there are thousands of books going for free every day of the year? There is no doubt about it, giving books away is not nearly as effective as it used to be. So it’s no wonder that a lot of authors are taking their books out of KDP select. Giving books away for free is okay if it gains more readers, but if they are just downloading freebies, what’s the point.

The other issue is that many of the free books on offer every day are poor in terms of quality, content and size. The notion that everybody has a free book inside them and the ease at which books can be self-published has led to a free for all which isn’t good for serious Indie Authors like myself. Many established Indie Authors have taken a look at what has become a free-for-all and are distancing themselves from it. And who could blame them because the whole thing is swamped in a pool of desperation.

My view of the future is as follows. The number of books offered for free will decline over the next couple of years as authors find that it is ineffective. I also believe that the explosion of people writing books is also over. Many will have spent hours working on their first book only to find that the excitement that came from publishing it soon disappeared with the lack of sales. When, even offering a book for free doesn’t attract any readers, many of these new authors will soon be navigating a path that leads to getting rich quick. Yes I know there are many more waiting in the wings to have a go at being an author, but I expect it will be less than those that we are losing after writing their one book that failed.

That will leave a band of serious Indie Authors who are in it for the long term. These writers will have several books published in both electronic and paperback formats. They will have also maximised their distribution channels by using Amazon and Smashwords. They will probably also put books in and out of KDP select and will, where appropriate, take advantage of the coupons system on Smashwords.

It is also true that the vast majority will never get rich from writing their books, but they will carry on doing it because writing is in their soul.

M0re information on my books can be found at http://www.georgefmason.co.uk

Free Books

Hi, I saw a comment on a forum this morning that was trying to get authors to stop offering their books for free.

The reason that anybody would want to trying and stop the freebies is easy to understand and it is something I can sympathise with. The market is awash with free books and readers are becoming conditioned to reading them. After all, why would they want to buy books when every day of the week they have thousand of free books to choose from.

I suppose I’ll have to make a confession here and will admit that I am quite partial to a free book or two myself. You might think this is a bit sad, especially with me being an author, but I can’t help it. The only saving grace in our house is that my wife turns her nose up at freebies; in fact, she will have no qualms about parting with a fiver for a book that she dumps half way through.

So why are there so many free books and why are authors giving their hard work away? The answer is simple, advances in self-publishing have made it easy for anybody to publish a book. The number of indie authors has increased dramatically over the past few years and so competition has increased sharply. The only way authors can hope to find more readers in this over saturated market is to give some of their books away for free.

This was a very successful ploy to begin with, but now that more and more authors are jumping on the bandwagon the effects of offering free books is reduced.

So what can authors do about it? The person who made the comment on the forum I visited this morning thinks that if all authors stopped offering their books for free then everything would be alright.

I have to say that I like the notion, but the chances of it happening are a big fat zero. Those who stop offering their books for free will be just missing out.

I believe that this is a stage that the publishing industry is going through. Those who were offering free books and acquiring rave reviews in the past reaped the benefits. It was a bit like a gold rush, those who were in the right place at the right time got rich. By the time the rest of us picked up our picks and shovels all the best claims had been staked.

For authors, the best days of the freebies are over, but free books will be here to stay. A lot of the new indie authors will get fed up when the book they have sweated over for months sells less than a dozen copies and they will move onto other ways to “easy” money. However, for every one that throws his pen in the fire another will take is place, so get used to free books they aren’t going away soon.

By the way, my book, “No Fishing In Here: Just Shorts Stories” will be free on the 15th ,16th and 17th of November. Please dive in and fill your kindle.

http://bit.ly/I7mtVq

 

 

Two Old Farmers

It was down in deepest Somerset that two old farmers were leaning on a gate. One was chewing on a grass straw and the other sucking on a briar pipe.

“It be fine weather for tatoes,”  says farmer George.

“You be right there,” his friend Bert replies, “it do be fine weather for tatoes.”

“Dust thee remember when thee cow were eel?” asks George.

“I remembers it well,” replies Bert.

“What say they gi thy cow when it were eel?” asks George.

“I gi it some turtentine.”

“Turtentine?”

“Hi turtentine.”

A week later, the two old farmers were once again leaning on the gate; one sucking on a pipe and the other chewing on a stalk of straw.

“It be fine weather for beet,” says farmer George.

“Hi it be fine weather for beet,” replies farmer Bert.

“Dust thee remember when thee cow were eel?” asks George.

“I remembers it well,” replies Bert.

“What say they gi thy cow when it were eel?” asks George.

“I gi it some turtentine.”

“I thought that’s what thee said. Well I gave my cow some turtentine and it died.

“Hi,” replied Bert, “my cow died too.

 

 

 

Reviews

Book reviews have been in the news lately. First we had a well-known author who, it was revealed, had paid a lot of people to give his books 5 star reviews. Then we had another author who didn’t just write rave reviews about his own books, but actually made terrible comments about the work of other authors who wrote in his particular genre.

Shame on them is all I can say, but who believes reviews anyhow. I must admit that I’m a sucker for reading them before I buy anything, but I am, like most of the general public, pretty good at recognising bullshit and hype. If you assume that most of the reviews you read are probably fiction you won’t go far wrong.

So what about my own books?

Well the thing is, I don’t get many reviews. Perhaps it is all down to the type of reader that I attract, but most of them don’t do reviews. Thankfully, most of the ones I have had have been positive, but a couple haven’t. You’d think authors were made of stronger stuff but this one isn’t. Call me an old softy if you want, but when I get a less than favourable review it cuts through me like a knife especially if their comments aren’t justified.

I had one reviewer who complained that some words were missing in one of my books. But what he’d failed to realise was that because the book was set in North Staffordshire I gave the characters a touch of local dialect. That means that some sentences became clipped in order to give the book a bit of authenticity.

“I am going up to the pub,” turns into “I’m going up pub” when somebody from Stoke says it. Anyway, I didn’t want to irritate any other readers so I combed the manuscript for missing words and re-published it.

Another reviewer accused me of misplacing commas. Well, I’ve been accused of worse, but those sort of comments can play havoc with an author’s confidence. I don’t think I’m the world’s best writer and I’m sure I make a few grammatical errors, but I sincerely hope I tell a good story, that is also well written and entertaining.

They say in journalistic circles that many a fight has broken out of over the placement of commas, so why the hell should I be immune. The row about the Oxford comma will no doubt go on forever.

I have, for the record, put a couple of errors in this post and good luck to those who found them. However, if you missed them, good-on-ya, because you probably get more pleasure for reading than the negative reviewers ever will.

 

 

http://www.georgefmason.co.uk

More and more authors seem to be offering free e-books and I’m no exception. If you go to my website, the link is above, you will find details of the books that I’m currently offering for free.

However, everytime I offer a free book I can’t help but wonder if I’m losing the plot(no pun intended). Am I, and other  authors who offer books for free, doing the right thing? Will readers become so addicted to free books that it will bring about a decline in real sales?

I do expect that this is how the ebook market will move over the next few years. The only authors who will be able to sell at a good price will be the well-known names. Indie authors and new authors will have to be content with offering books for a pittance if they are going to make any sales at all.

If you are an indie author, I expect that like me, you are spending a disproportionate amount of time on promoting books when you’d much soon be writing them. And I guess that you too are offering books at ever lower prices. You are doing this to try to gain some sort of readership and there is nothing wrong with that, but where will it all end.

It seems to me that Amazon have worked it all out and have done two things to try to protect themselves. The 35% royalty rate was probably introduced in an effort to encourage authors to keep book prices up. And how about KDP select, authors like myself have joined up, not because  we are expecting a share of the lending market pot, but because in enables us to give books away for free.

It seems crazy to me that I should join a club just so that I can give my hard work away, but that is exactly what I have done.

In a nutshell, if you’ve got more that one ebook on the market, giving books away to increase readership is a successful strategy, but I can’t help but think that it will only bring short term gains.

Anyway, I would like to hear what other authors think about the subject of free books and in the meanwhile, find out about my free offerings by click. here