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News: Audiobook update

6/4/2015

My Audiobook Narrator:
Michael Page

Michael Page

I am delighted to announce that this week, Michael Page, an award-winning narrator, will begin work on the audiobook of The Heiress of Linn Hagh. I have heard a sample of Michael reading the novel and I loved his voice; his ability to age it for older characters and - most importantly - his wonderful Northumbrian accent. Apart from the awards Michael has won, which I have listed below in his biography, he has also narrated several Ian Rankin 'Rebus' novels. I'm thrilled to have such a prestigious narrator and never dreamt that signing with Thomas and Mercer would move me into this league. I am so looking forward to the publication of The Heiress of Linn Hagh on June 9th.

Michael Page has been recording audiobooks since 1984 and has over two hundred titles to his credit. He has won several AudioFile Earphones Awards, including for The War That Killed Achilles by Caroline Alexander and The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch. As a professional actor, Michael has performed regularly since 1998 with the Peterborough Players in Peterborough, New Hampshire. He is currently a professor of theater at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he lives with his wife, Jane, and two daughters, Camilla and Chloe (when they are not away at college). He has a particular interest in Shakespeare and Eastern European theater and travels frequently to Hungary and Romania.

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News: Amazon Publishing to Take over Detective Lavender series

11/11/2014

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MY self-publishing ADVENTURE

Two weeks ago, I had an incredible experience.

I was head-hunted by Emilie Marneur, the Senior Acquisitions Editor, from Amazon Publishing. She wanted my Detective Lavender Series to publish under their Thomas & Mercer crime fiction imprint. She had read ‘The Heiress of Linn Hagh’ and loved it. She wanted to know if there was any chance we could work together on the series. After some discussion, she offered me a jaw-dropping deal in order to take over the books. I know that it was jaw-dropping because my mouth couldn’t formulate words properly when I phoned my sister immediately afterwards.

Needless to say, I am absolutely delighted. Stunned, surprised and shocked. But absolutely delighted.

I live a quiet life in a sleepy North East fishing village where nothing ever happens. As a rule, Senior Editors from major publishing companies don’t just materialise unbidden out of the autumn mist and offer Marske residents amazing publishing deals.

After we had discussed the deal and I agreed to sign up with Amazon Publishing, I asked Emilie how she had heard about me. Why had she picked out me from the hundreds of thousands of self-published authors on Amazon? She just laughed, kept her secrets and said she had ‘special antennae.’

‘It must be their website algorithms,’ my brother, the IT specialist, suggested later. ‘Their computer churns out the sales numbers. A piece of paper containing details of the sales of ‘The Heiress of Linn Hagh’ will have landed on someone’s desk and set a chain reaction in motion. ’ He is probably right. Emilie seemed to know all about me, my publishing history and my sales before she contacted me.

So what is my publishing and sales history? What is so special about ‘Heiress’ that it attracted such esteemed interest and I received this amazing offer?

As some of you may know, this time last year I was unhappily locked into a miserable contract with a small, traditional publisher of historical fiction. In the twelve months that Knox Robinson Publishing owned ‘The Heiress of Linn Hagh’ they priced the eBook at $12 and only sold 38 copies. I regained my publishing rights last Christmas and self-published ‘Heiress’ in February, priced at a more sensible $2.99. For the first two months, I made a handful of sales.

In April, the eBook sales in the USA suddenly started to take off. This happened while I was away on holiday in Turkey and I’m still not 100% sure what the catalyst was which kick-started my sales. However, I think it may be something to with a favourable review I received from Cathy Cole, one of Amazon’s Vine Reviewers. I had randomly contacted Cathy through her website when I first published the novel to ask for a review. I had no idea that she was a Vine Reviewer for Amazon at that point. In fact, I had never heard of the program and had to research it later. All I knew was that Cathy was kind lady, who liked my novel. I now realise that she must have a big group of followers in the States. I came back from Turkey to discover that Cathy’s review was up and that ‘Heiress’ was suddenly selling about ten eBooks a day in America on Amazon.com. And most importantly, it now had a low rank in the Amazon sub-category: Historical Mysteries.

I immediately put the price down to $0.99 in order to make it more attractive and to try and to keep the momentum going. I was desperate to keep the eBook visible in those rankings. I really do believe that being visible, and staying visible, in a popular Amazon sub-category is the key to success.

I only had eight reviews at that point so I scrabbled around to get a couple more reviews on Amazon.com (not easy when you’re a Brit and most of your family, friends and fans are on this side of the pond.) Once I had ten reviews, I entered ‘Heiress’ into an Ereader News Today (ENT) promotion. It worked. I sold 200 copies of the eBook in the States. Thanks to this promotion, the ranking stabilized – and rose further. To my delight, dozens of new and positive reviews also began to appear. It seemed that the Americans couldn’t get enough of my Regency mystery set in rural Northumberland. I was over the moon as the sales steadily rose. After such a slow, frustrating and disappointing start with my previous publisher, ‘Heiress’ was finally being read – and enjoyed. It wasn’t about the money at that point. I was simply elated that after all those years of hard work and frustration my precious novel had finally found an audience.

Gingerly, I edged the price back up to $2.99 but the book remained in the top thirty of .com Historical Mysteries throughout the summer – sometimes reaching the top twenty. On one hot, giddy day in August, I sold 130 eBooks. Or rather, on one hot, giddy NIGHT I sold 130 eBooks. Because of the time difference between the UK and the US, most of my sales are at night. I go to bed and when I check my sales first thing in the morning I’m often hundreds of dollars richer. It’s definitely the best way for a woman to earn money while lying on her back.

Conscious that my reviewers were asking for more stories, I turned my attention to my other novel and a short story I had lying around about Detective Lavender. I organized editing, proofreading and book covers and published them both in August. They also started to sell well in the States, in the wake of the success of ‘Heiress.’ I have now sold nearly 13,000 eBooks since April – 99.9% of these are in the US. Paperback sales have also taken off. Recently, my royalty payments have been higher than the salary I received when I was teaching English at a British Secondary School.

So yes, my brother is probably right. An Amazon computer must have highlighted the fact that a lot of royalties were being paid to a small, middle-aged, ex-teacher in the remote north of England for her historical whodunit. This set off a chain reaction in Amazon HQ which resulted in Emilie’s email and the offer from Amazon Publishing. I’m meeting her for lunch in London next week and will grill her again to try to get to the bottom of this. I may be small but I’m determined, and the mystery writer within me is desperate to confirm my suspicions.

Do I have any doubts about signing up with Amazon Publishing after my previous bad experience with a publisher? No, I don’t. I expect the two publishers to be poles apart. Even though I know that we will have to sell twice as many books in order to maintain my current level of income, I am confident that the Amazon marketing machine can do this. I look forward to ditching the administration, formatting and constant sales promotion which go with being a self-published author and becoming part of a team again. All Amazon want me to do is write a book a year. Bliss. I have a good friend who already works for the Thomas & Mercer imprint and he can’t praise the company highly enough. Apparently, they are brilliant to work with and involve their authors at every stage of publication, from book cover design through to the editing. I have complete confidence that with the Amazon marketing machine behind it, my Detective Lavender Mystery Series will sky-rocket and reach thousands of new readers that I can’t reach myself – especially in my home country where I have sold diddly squat.

And after all, that is why we have that compulsion to write, isn’t it? To tell our stories to as many other people as possible. I feel incredibly lucky that I have been able to realise my dream and I hope that this account of my experience helps somebody else to realise theirs.

‘The Heiress of Linn Hagh’ will be published by Thomas and Mercer in June 2015 and three months later in October, they will publish the second novel in the series: ‘The Sans Pareil Mystery.’

Buy ‘The Heiress of Linn Hagh’ on Amazon.com

Buy ‘The Heiress of Linn Hagh’ on Amazon.co.uk

26 Comments

Virtual blog tour commences

3/12/2012

1 Comment

The View from Here online literary magazine has published my article on 'The Frustrations of Plotting Crime Fiction.'

If you are interested in writing crime fiction, or who just wants to know how I wrote The Missing Heiress then please feel free to check it out... oh, and please leave a comment on the page.

The View From Here Magazine

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'Seeking Our Eagle' Published

9/8/2012

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New Book Published!

I am delighted to announce that my latest book, Seeking Our Eagle, is now available to buy in paperback and eBook format.

Seeking Our Eagle is the second book I have written about Jamie Charlton and the Kirkley Hall robbery. This time it is the story behind the story. In Seeking Our Eagle, I explain how we uncovered a Regency convict in our family tree, and then turned his sorry tale of injustice into a historical novel.

After the book launch of Catching the Eagle in 2011, the interest in the background to the novel took me by surprise. Newspapers, radio, magazines and even a TV station all wanted to know how Chris and I had discovered our unusual skeleton in the closet.   Genealogy groups, libraries and local historical societies invited me to appear as a guest speaker at their events. I soon realised that there might also be a wider audience for this extraordinary story and decided to write a complimentary factual book, called Seeking Our Eagle, which mapped our genealogical experience, the social history of our Charlton ancestors and my creative journey into fiction.

I like to think of Seeking the Eagle as a semi-autobiographical romp through the centuries. It explains how we chased Bad Granddad Jamie (four times removed) through the dusty records and the even dustier Northumberland lanes. It also shows how we learned about the devastating impact of World War One on our ancestors; the role they played in the Railway Boom of the Victorian era and how our family was torn apart by dissension in the late eighteenth century. The Charltons were ordinary people but many of them were caught up in extraordinary events.

I warmly invite you to join myself and Chris, as I take you back to the beginning and show you how we embarked on our remarkable journey of discovery.

'Seeking Our Eagle' is available from amazon as a kindle eBook Price: : £3.06. Please use the link below.

'Seeking Our Eagle' on Kindle

* * * * *

Paperback: £8.99

20% savings! Ends Friday, 10 August 2012.

Buy a paperback copy of 'Seeking Our Eagle' from lulu.com @ a 20% discount.
Simply click on the link below and use the code: ASTOUND20 to claim your discount. (Code is case sensitive.)
But hurry, offer ends Friday, 10th August!

'Seeking Our Eagle' in paperback

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'The Missing Heiress' to be published by KRP

14/6/2012

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SECOND NOVEL TO BE PUBLISHED BY KRP

I am delighted to announce that my second novel, The Missing Heiress, will be published by Knox Robinson Publishing on December 6th 2012. It is the first in a new series of Regency mystery novels called The Detective Lavender Series.

Set in Northumberland 1809, The Missing Heiress is a spin-off novel from my first book and features two of the minor characters: Detective Stephen Lavender and his good-natured sidekick, Constable Woods. Their first case in the series takes them back to Northumberland to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a beautiful heiress.

Detective Stephen Lavender was a real historical figure. One of the first principal officers with the Bow Street magistrates court in London, he became the Deputy Chief Constable of Manchester after the formation of the police force by Sir Robert Peel. Landowner, Nathanial Ogle, called Detective Lavender up from London to solve the mystery of the Kirkley Hall Robbery in 1809 (the subject of Catching the Eagle. )  Ultimately, Lavender was the man who placed our ancestor in the dock. But we don’t hold that against him.

I loved creating the characters of Lavender and the comical Constable Woods when I wrote my first novel, and I quickly decided that that I didn't want to let them go. The strong personality of the intelligent detective became one of my favourite characters and the dialogue and rapport which developed between him and his fictional assistant was great fun to write. I felt that I had created a winning duo of crime fighters.

I’ve always enjoyed a good mystery. In fact, many years ago I wrote ‘Murder Mystery Weekends’ for Raven Hall Hotel and won a Yorkshire Tourist Board award for them. Last year, the first seeds of a plot for a whodunit began to germinate in my head. Before I knew it, I had a Regency mystery to solve and as far as I was concerned there were only two policemen in England who could crack this case. I sat down at the computer and The Missing Heiress was born.

Writing Heiress was fun. It slid off my keyboard like silk and I finished it in ten months. Because it is pure fiction,  I never felt constrained by historical fact and it was an unfettered pleasure to write. I particularly enjoyed creating the female characters in The Missing Heiress. My first novel was dominated by men because the historical records decreed it so; they dominated the crime, the investigation and the ensuing court cases. In Heiress I created a diverse range of women from the delightful young maid, Anna; to the mysterious gypsy girl, Laurel Faa Geddes and the intelligent Katherine Armstrong. I loved breathing life into these women and hope that I gave them a significant voice in this book.

The Missing Heiress is already available to pre-order from amazon.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Missing-Heiress-Detective-Lavender-Series/dp/1908483709/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1339439394&sr=1-1

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'Paperback writer...'

7/6/2012

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'Paperback Writer...'

'Paperback writer, paperback writer.
Dear Sir or Madam, will you read my book?
It took me years to write, will you take a look? '

Guess which Beatles song keeps running around my head this morning?

Yes, it's happened. The paperback edition of Catching the Eagle is now available to buy on amazon and from The Book Depository, The Guisborough Bookshop and selected branches of Waterstones. Price £12.99.

The Daily Mail gave it the thumbs up back in January....why not take a look yourself?

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American Amazon jumps the gun...

30/10/2011

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American Amazon jumps the gun...

I feel I ought to let everyone know that amazon.com in the United States of America have been very, very naughty. They have ignored my publisher's embargo on releasing Catching the Eagle before 8th December. It is now available to buy in the USA on the Amazon.com website.

http://www.amazon.com/Catching-Eagle-Regency-Reivers-Charlton/dp/1908483032/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1319987765&sr=8-1
...
If you live in the states and are interested in buying a copy of the hardback novel for Xmas presents or personal pleasure, then this is your chance to get in there before the Brits. We got the Harry Potter books before you did - but you can get Catching the Eagle first. Likewise if you have any American friends or family whom you think may be interested in purchasing a copy then please forward the news.

And please don't forget to leave a review on the Amazon website once you have read it... ;)

I am slightly bemused by all this and have been warned that Amazon.co.uk may follow suit. It is completely out of our control. We just have to go with the flow. Amazon seem to be a law unto themselves. Nothing changes at the UK end as far as I am concerned - the book launches etc. will commence as planned. I am hoping for a silver lining out of this confusion. Hopefully, we will get more sales as the next couple of months are the biggest book buying months of the year... :)

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The Sweet and Sour price of fame...

29/10/2011

2 Comments

The Sweet and Sour Price of fame...

I was really touched earlier this week by the excitement of the librarians in my local community about the forthcoming release of Catching the Eagle. I'm still recuperating from minor surgery and was getting a bit of cabin fever, so I decided to bimble into the village and call in at the library to ask a random question about Public Lending Rights.   The next thing I knew, my details had been taken along with a handful of my promotional postcards.

Emails must have been flying around the county that afternoon because within 24 hours we had a phone call at the house, asking if I would talk to a readers' group in Skelton in January. There could be about 35 people present and they intend to sell tickets for the event. Naturally, I said 'yes' and just asked for my petrol expenses to be covered. However, as Skelton is the next village along, it is probably bit mean to be asking for even that.  I am acutely aware that the library service the length and breadth of Britain is suffering dramatically under the government cutbacks; it feels right to try and help them in someway.

I love libraries and I am quite nostalgic about them.  Mum and Dad used to take us every fortnight to Oakwood Library in Leeds to get an armful of books. This was a popular family outing, no one seemed to bother back then about a teenage girl helping herself to books from the adult section - even the racy ones. I usually came home with armfuls of historical fiction (especially Jean Plaidy)  and I also remember a series of saucy historical romances about some heroine called 'Marianne' who had quite a thing for pirates. ;)

On a more sour note this week, I have noticed a new arrival on Catching the Eagle's Amazon book page. (Yes, I check it daily - the novelty has not worn off yet. :) Apart from Amazon, some bookseller in Florida is now also claiming that he has my novel in stock and for a cool £30+ he is offering to sell it. This of course, is a complete lie. The book is not available to buy yet (although it can be pre-ordered through Amazon or the Knox Robinson Publishing website) and any poor customer who is taken in by this add is going to be sadly disappointed; they won't get the book before anyone else.

Fortunately, this seller has had a lot of poor feedback and anyone who bothers to check this out before ordering should be warned off. I spent sometime trying to work out how to leave a cross message but yet again was baffled by the technology and backed off.

Beware: there's some wrong un's out there. :(

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THE EAGLE HAS LANDED...

26/10/2011

4 Comments

THE EAGLE HAS LANDED...

I am absolutely delighted.
Last week we recieved the first pre-publication copy of Catching the Eagle. I have actually held my novel in my hands and it is a wonderful, wonderful feeling.

The book is longer and slimmer than I imagined and the pages feel lovely and smooth. Everything about it from the cover to the font looks enticing and professional. Even my photo on the fly sheet is not too frightening for small children.

At the moment, we have only the one precious copy and it is sitting up on my bookshelf where I can see it at all times when I am working at my desk.

I cannot put into words how delighted I am - and as soon as I find where the kids have hidden the ruddy camera, I will photograph it and post pictures on here. :)

P.S. The camera finally turned up - in a safe place. ;)

One happy lady with her novel

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Launched on the Publisher's Website...

8/8/2011

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Launched on the Publisher's Website...

Yeeey! I'm officially launched on the publisher's website.....happy dance. :) Click on the link below to see my profile, mug shot and a sample chapter of Catching the Eagle.

http://www.knoxrobinsonpublishing.com/authordetail.php?id=45

Very exciting. Strangely enough, the thing that gives me the greatest thrill is seeing the ISBN number of my forthcoming book.....how unreal is that? Little, old me has got an ISBN number!

Happy dance again..... :)

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News: Audiobook update

My Audiobook Narrator:
Michael Page

News: Amazon Publishing to Take over Detective Lavender series

MY self-publishing ADVENTURE

Virtual blog tour commences

'Seeking Our Eagle' Published

New Book Published!

'The Missing Heiress' to be published by KRP

SECOND NOVEL TO BE PUBLISHED BY KRP

'Paperback writer...'

'Paperback Writer...'

American Amazon jumps the gun...

American Amazon jumps the gun...

The Sweet and Sour price of fame...

The Sweet and Sour Price of fame...

THE EAGLE HAS LANDED...

THE EAGLE HAS LANDED...

Launched on the Publisher's Website...

Launched on the Publisher's Website...

Archives

Categories

My Audiobook Narrator: Michael Page

MY self-publishing ADVENTURE

New Book Published!

SECOND NOVEL TO BE PUBLISHED BY KRP

'Paperback Writer...'

American Amazon jumps the gun...

The Sweet and Sour Price of fame...

THE EAGLE HAS LANDED...

Launched on the Publisher's Website...

Archives

Categories

My Audiobook Narrator:
Michael Page