Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Big Apple Promotion for The Queen’s Blade


Fantastic news! Apple’s Australia/New Zealand merchandising team has done it again! It has included The Queen’s Blade in a front page – at the top of the page – promotion featuring emerging fantasy authors.  I'm one of only ten authors to be featured and four of the others are Smashwords authors! The other featured Smashwords authors are James Maxwell, Dionne Lister and Joseph Lallo. Congrats to all of them!

The promotion started earlier today in Apple’s Australia and New Zealand stores and runs two weeks.  Check out the promo (the feature opens in iTunes) http://bit.ly/1e62TFa

A little while ago Mark Coker (founder of Smashwords) blogged about the promotion at
http://blog.smashwords.com/2013/11/four-smashwords-fantasy-authors_26.html

This is so amazing. I’m overjoyed to receive this kind of promotion from a huge online vendor like Apple iBookstore. I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: I love Apple! It is without a doubt the most progressive of all the major online retailers, taking the initiative when it comes to promoting indie authors and thereby broadening the range of e-books for readers the world over. Thank you Apple!

Saturday, November 23, 2013

Emails Lost!


I’m sorry to say that some of the people who emailed me asking for updates on new book releases will not receive a notice about When Angels Fall because I’ve just discovered, whilst sending emails announcing it, that Hotmail has been deleting my flagged emails. I really thought emails that were flagged as important wouldn’t be deleted, but, alas, I was wrong.

In future, I’ll move requests for updates into a separate folder so they’re not deleted – as I’ve done with those I still have – but for those who asked for updates but didn’t get an email about When Angels Fall, I’m so sorry I wasn’t able to let you know. Please email me again at demonlord07@hotmail.com so I can save your email for the future. Adding addresses to my contact list doesn’t really help, because I need to know whether you wanted to be informed of any new releases, or only in a specific series.

Alternatively, all updates are announced on my site: http://www.tcsouthwellbooks.com/, in Facebook https://www.facebook.com/tcsouthwell and in Twitter by @TCSouthwell.

Saturday, November 16, 2013

When Angels Fall at Amazon

Due to the fact that Amazon doesn’t do pre-orders, When Angels Fall will only be available there on the release date – November 26th. It will, however, also be available on that date at Smashwords.com in Kindle format, so there is that alternative for Kindle users. I do prefer to sell via Smashwords.com, and it might be a choice you would want to consider because, although I’ve done my best to keep Amazon in line, they keep jacking up the book prices, so you may very well find them cheaper at Smashwords.com.

I object fiercely to Amazon's price gouging, and they keep the extra profit as well as paying a much smaller percentage to the author. I have to keep going there and doing a price check – where people can show that the books are available cheaper elsewhere – so they reduce the prices, but if they jack up the price of When Angels Fall as soon as I publish it, I won’t have had time to force them to reduce it. So, if you’re a Kindle user, there is a choice, and I highly recommend Smashwords.com. Books are available there in every known format, as far as I’m aware, and it’s the place to discover new talent.

Thursday, November 7, 2013

5 Quotes for all Writers to Live By


1. “You fail only if you stop writing.” ~ Ray Bradbury

2. “Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.” ~ William Wordsworth

3. “Our words must seem to be inevitable.” ~ William Butler Yeats

4. “The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say.” ~ Anaïs Nin

5. “Substitute ‘damn’ every time you're inclined to write ‘very’; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.” ~ Mark Twain