Free Series Starter Books

Like a lot of indie authors, I use the 'first book free' marketing strategy. They are all the first books in a series, however, so please, if you’re only looking for free e-books, don’t download mine that are free. I really don't want to disappoint people. Recently a reader emailed me to tell me how angry and frustrated she was after reading The Queen’s Blade, only to be unable to continue the series because she couldn’t afford the rest of the books. This made me feel really awful. I’m not trying to trick people. It clearly states on the books that they're the first of a series, and now I have added a disclaimer, stating that the rest of the series is not free.

I see the free books as a 'try before you buy' marketing strategy, so people don't buy books they may not enjoy and then feel cheated. Then I'm sure I'd have got plenty of emails from people complaining that they paid for a rubbish book. If you enjoy the first books, chances are, you'll enjoy the rest of the series. It's not intended to be sneaky or unsavoury; it's a way to boost my readership so I can make the books I do sell reasonably priced.

Without the backing of a publisher and the publicity it would provide, I must try to market the books myself. There would have been no point in publishing 31 books for free, from my point of view. I would be throwing away 20 years of writing, years of editing and weeks of cover design and creation, and had I charged for the first books, my sales would have been abysmal as an unknown indie author. I always recommend to up and coming indie authors who ask for advice to make their first books free to get their name 'out there' if they want to be successful. Many, who had been struggling for years making next to no sales suddenly found their sales skyrocketing once people had a chance to read their work and realised it was good. Then readers were happy to pay for more.

Many retailers encourage authors to make the first few pages or chapters of a book free as a sample, which amounts to the same thing; if you enjoy it, you'll want to keep reading. It's also like a movie trailer, which gets you all excited by how great the film looks, but you have to go to a cinema to watch it. Even a book's blurb and cover are intended to entice people to buy it. Look at it as you’re getting a free e-book, and if you enjoy it, the rest of the series is easily available and reasonably priced, too. The free e-books are: The Queen’s Blade, Demon Lord, The Cyber Chronicles - Queen of Arlin, The Broken World – Children of Another God, and Slave Empire – Prophecy. All of them are available on Smashwords.com.

Apple's iBookstore: Breakout Books features The Queen’s Blade and Slave Empire

I have just received the most fabulous news and have to share it with everyone. The Queen’s Blade and Slave Empire – Prophecy, have been selected for Apple’s iBookstore promotion, Breakout Books, a major feature that has just been launched in the US that highlights several dozen titles.

Read The New York Times coverage of this story.
 

Mark Coker (founder of Smashwords) blogged about the feature and mentioned my books. Learn more about Breakout Books 

Check out the books on the iBookstore!

Download Slave Empire

Download The Queen's Blade
 

They're both free!
 

I’m over the moon about this! I’m also gobsmacked! Thank you to Mark Coker and Apple, and, of course, all my fans who wrote great reviews and made positive comments about the books; it’s all thanks to you, and I love you so much for it! Thank you!

This is now going way beyond my wildest hopes and dreams; it’s actually hard to take it all in. I keep pinching myself so much I’m getting bruises! Yet, I can’t seem to wake up from this happy dream, and I certainly don’t want to. The emails I’ve received, about The Queen’s Blade, in particular, have been overwhelming, and I love them all.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to write to tell me how much they enjoyed the books. I love hearing that! It’s so encouraging, and it makes me want to write more books, which I intend to do soon!  So for all of you who are waiting for new books, one will be in the works in the not to distant future!

 

Interview with T C Southwell

Q. If you weren’t writing, what would your perfect career choice be?

A. I don’t know, really, since I don’t like working. It would have to be something else I enjoy, like art, or perhaps a fighter pilot, since I’m a speed freak. Of course, I’d love to be a space explorer, but that will have to wait for another lifetime.

Q.Has your motivation for writing changed throughout your career, and if so, how?

A. No, not at all. I still write because I love the stories in my head and want to enjoy them again.

Q. What is the most rewarding experience you have had and what made it so?

A. It was probably when Demon Lord was first published in SA in 2006, although that turned into something of a nightmare. The first time I held an actual copy of the book, though, was truly special. Since then, receiving my first paperback copy of The Queen’s Bladehas been even more rewarding. There’s something amazingly gratifying about seeing my book in print and showing it to my friends and family.

Q.Who are your top two favourite authors and why? Do you feel they have influenced your own writing in any way?

A. Steven R. Donaldson and C. S. Lewis are my all-time favourites, the former because his Thomas Covenant, Unbeliever series gripped me totally and transported me into his world, and the latter because he introduced me to fantasy when I was a child.

Q. When you were in school, did any of your teachers say anything negative (or positive) about your writing that stuck in your head, and how did that affect you?

A. A teacher accused me of plagiarism once because, apparently, she couldn’t believe I had written the essay she marked. I was never able to convince her otherwise, either; in those days, fifteen-year-olds didn’t argue with their teachers. So I got an ‘F’ for it, but I knew it was original, so it didn’t faze me too much. I also won a school prize for English that year, which made up for it somewhat.

Q. Do you sometimes get the impression that reviewers have written reviews on your books without actually reading the book first?

A. Yes, I’m convinced the one review I got for Demon Lord was based purely on the blurb on the back cover, since the reviewer only commented on what was in that. More often, I feel that some reviewers don’t understand the book, or see what they want in it.

Q. If you had to pick between all your characters, who would you rather have as a friend, and why?

A. I think that would have to be Sabre, because he’s got such a great personality with a fabulous sense of humour and fun-loving, helpful nature; a perfect friend. With his abilities, he’d also be mighty useful if I ever needed help! So would Bane, probably more so, but he’d be less inclined to be helpful.

Q. What’s your worst bad habit?

A. Probably smoking, but I also have oddball sleeping habits, which tend to be nocturnal.

Q. What advice would you give to any budding novelist?

A. Write books that you love to read over and over again, without getting bored with any part of them. Cut out any boring bits. Always write for your own enjoyment, and never allow anyone to influence you in a way that detracts from your stories, in your opinion. Polish your writing until it's as good as you can make it, and, of course, self-publish!

Q. What drives you/makes you tick?

A. I honestly have no idea, although I’d guess the wish to enjoy my life makes me do the things I do in order to have fun, like writing books.

Q. When do you expect your next book, (the eighth book in the Demon Lordseries), to be completed, and what adventures do you take the reader on in this book?

A. Demon Lord Book eight is coming along slowly, and I can’t say for sure when it will be finished. Bane is separated from the rest of his group when he goes to the Underworld to rescue an archangel and falls into a black trap. They end up in a strange realm where some of Bane’s powers don’t work, and all he has for backup is the crippled Majelin. Bane also discovers that archangels are even more irritating than angels.

Q. Do you foresee Mirra and Bane ever leading a normal life together?

A. Yes, although perhaps not totally normal, given his nature, but certainly a close approximation of normality, for a time, at least. Being what he is, he can make that happen quite easily, by opting out of his role as a god.

Q. Where can readers purchase your books?

A. All the e-books are available at Smashwords.com, Barnes & Noble, Apple, Sony, Kobo, Diesel, Scrollmotion, Amazon.com and Amazon.uk. They will also soon be converted into apps for cell phones. In addition, I’m in the process of converting the books to print-on-demand paperbacks, which will be available at Createspace.com.

Amazon Best of Genre: Current Epics

You may have seen this on my Demon Lord blog, but if not, I’m happy to tell everyone that two of my books are now listed on Amazon’s Best of Genre: Current Epics list. The Queen’s Blade is #23 on the list, with The Broken World sitting at #33.

This is all thanks to the dedication of my fans, the great reviews and many positive comments you've all made on the various retailers that market the books. Thank you so much! None of this would have been possible without you; you've made all my hopes and dreams come true, and I appreciate that more than I can ever say.

I’m also pleased to add that all my books are now available from Lulu.com. I’ll be listing my books with other new distributors during the course of the next few weeks, so if you have a favourite distributor I’m not already listed with, please feel free to send me your requests and I’ll see what I can do.

The Queen's Blade and other series have gained popularity in leaps and bounds, and I hope that by making them available at more retailers, more people will be able to download and enjoy them. I've made the books as affordable as possible, and the first book of each series is free, but please note, for those of you who only download free books, the rest of the series is not free. Sorry!

T C Southwell Books Now Available in Paperback

Due to popular demand, I'm making all my series available in Print on Demand (PoD) paperbacks, and I've started with my most popular series, The Queen's Blade. The first books of this series are now available to order on CreateSpace. The books will take anything from few days to several weeks to be delivered to you, depending on where in the world you live.

The paperback versions are of course more expensive than e-books, because of the production costs to involved in a printed book, but I've kept the costs to a miminum. The paperback books will suit readers who want a real book and don't enjoy reading on a PC or any of the e-book reading devices. I will eventually make all the series available in paperback.

You can purchase the books on CreateSpace here:

Book I: The Queen's Blade
Book II: Sacrifice
Book III: The Invisible Assassin
Book IV: Sacred Knight of the Veil
Book V: Master of the Dance
Book VI: Lord Protector
Prequel I: Conash: Dead Son
Prequel II: God Touched

Or on Amazon:

Book I: The Queen's Blade
Book II: Sacrifice
Book III: The Invisible Assassin
Book IV: Master of the Dance
Book V: Sacred Knight of the Veil
Book VI: Lord Protector
The Prequel I: Conash: Dead Son
The Prequel II: God Touched.

Agents and Publishers

Gosh, I am dispirited. Who would have thought that finding a literary agent is even more difficult than finding a publisher? Of course, I had an agent, but sadly she is now too ill to work, so I'm in the market for a new one. I thought the hoops publishers make authors jump through were bad, but compared to agents, they're a pleasure to deal with. Ebook publishers are very approachable and eager for new books, although, of course the market isn't large. There are, however, some print publishers who are perfectly approachable without an agent, although you have to wait months and months for a reply. I'm not talking about vanity or POD publishers, either.

Still, I have found that more publishers are willing to accept email submissions than agents! With a lot of agents, it's a snail mail query letter, with the dreaded SASE, of course, then a long wait until they decide whether or not they actually want to read your manuscript, then there's a whole formatting mission to go through, another snail mail postage - printed one side, double spaced, etc, which, I have to tell you, on a completed manuscript that's over 100,000 words, is expensive. Hell, we might as well deal directly with the publishers, since the agents are just as, if not more, picky about submission guidelines than they are.

Of course, if you don't submit it right, don't format your query letter in exactly the right terms, and send it to the right agent at the agency, your chances of your query letter even being read are slim to nil. Well, that sounds exactly like submitting to a publisher, doesn't it? Agents are supposed to be the portal through which writers find publishers, but now we need a portal for writers to find agents. A pre-agent agent. A literary agent's agent, who will help authors to find an agent, and who is approachable, easily contactable without it costing a fortune in postage, and who will format your query letter and manuscript in the method that agents like. Hang on, though, isn't that a literary agents' job, to do all that so a publisher will read your manuscript?

Just like publishers, the majority of agents won't accept email submissions, and that, together with fantasy and science fiction being niche markets that very few agents will represent, you've got maybe three agents on the planet who will accept email submssions and represent science fiction and fantasy. Well, I haven't been able to find them, despite hours of searching through agent lists and 'how to submit to agents' sites. These days, it's not about how good a writer you are, it's about being lucky enough to find an agent who will represent you or a publisher that accepts unsolicited manuscripts. I wonder how many great books will never see the light of day because of all this red tape.

So, I just don't know anymore. I will definitely keep my day job. Maybe I'll go the ebook route out of sheer desperation, although I didn't write my books because I wanted to get them published, I did it because I love reading my stories. I'd like to share them, too. That appears to be a fading dream, however. What with holding down a full time business to keep the wolf from the door, I don't have time to write or edit anymore, nevermind spend months tracking down one of those three elusive agents who will represent me without traumatising me in the process. I have to wonder if it's all worth it.

Maybe I'll just publish my books on the web for everyone to read and enjoy. Maybe the root of the problem is trying to make a buck out of my stories. Well, if I had lots of cash, I would just give them away for free. Unfortunately, in this world, you need money to survive and, having just been forced to sell my house because I couldn't afford the bond repayments anymore, only to find that I still owe the bank a small fortune, I had hoped to make something from my writing.

It's harsh, but that's the way of the world these days. Some get lucky, some fall foul of Sod's Law.

The Queen's Blade series

So, still no news from the UK publishers - about a month to go, apparently, until I can expect a response. Right now I'm editing the Broken World series, which I haven't looked at for a couple of years, and boy, does it need a lot of editing. Every time I look at one of my books, it needs more editing. It's never ending. Demon Lord, which was published in 2006, needs a stack of editing, and, since I want to publish it as an ebook soon, along with the sequel, Dark God, I have to get it right. A writer's work is never done - no rest for the wicked and all that.

So, The Queen's Blade is about an assassin, whose tragic past has moulded him into, essentially, a drunken, lying, hard-nosed sociopath - well, I expect most killers have to be sociopaths, I think it comes with the territory. Blade, however, is a loveable sociopath, not only because he's kind of handsome, but he has this way about him... hard to describe, but he's an interesting person, and, while he tries very hard to be obnoxious, somehow it never works for him. He's also inclined to help people, although he'll never admit to doing it. He's also a eunuch, sadly for him, which is part of the reason for his bitterness.

When I started The Queen's Blade, it was supposed to be about Queen Minna-Satu of Jashimari, and her tragic story of sacrifice to save her people from the cruel and savage King Shandor of the Cotti. In the second chapter, however, guess who made his entrance? I was intrigued. Blade certainly didn't fit my idea of a hero, but he was fascinating, and, as it turned out, the key to the whole series, to say nothing of the fact that his actions - killing people - affected how everything turned out. So I followed his story, and learnt all the details of his life. Amazing stuff. He's now my favourite hero, although I love all my heroes and heroines, Blade takes first prize. Strange for someone like him to be so endearing, but there it is.

To quote Blade in a comment he made to his wife Chiana in Lord Protector, the last book of the series: "How proud you must be, to have a lying, drunken killer for a husband." Well, that about sums him up, and yet, there's so much more to him. There are currently 6 books in the series, including the prequel God Touched. The first book is The Queen's Blade, followed by The Invisible Assassin, then Knight of the Veil, Master of the Dance, and Lord Protector. There may be more, too. So, that's The Queen's Blade series.