Books update

Okay, I had a few days of rest after Treeskull Stories. I have the author copies packed and ready to send tomorrow.They should arrive before Halloween so those authors can get them to friends/relatives/random strangers in time. I just hope none of my stories come true this year.

I have dealt with a small flood in the house (the little drain outside can’t cope when it really pours and it blocks easily) and have done a bit on my own books.

‘Jessica’s Trap’ has been out of contract with the original publisher since April, and since that publisher changed hands, over two years ago, I haven’t seen a penny in royalties. I am therefore re-releasing it under the Leg Iron Books banner and all I need is a cover image. The other one, ‘Samuel’s Girl’, will be out of contract in November. I’ll have that out in time for Christmas because it just needs a cover too.

The covers have to be themed since the third book in that group, ‘Norman’s House’ ties the two together. It’s completed but needs work so it’s on the back burner still. There are a few more Romulus Crowe books in process too.

The prices for those two will be around half of the previous publisher’s prices. ‘Jessica’s Trap’ will be around £5.50 – £6 as opposed to the nearly £12 it struggled with before. ‘Samuel’s Girl’ retailed in print at £14 and I’m confident I can cut that at least in half too. No middlemen, you see? And I don’t have to pay for cover art because I’ll make my own.

The one I can’t do cover art for is the co-authored hard science fiction ‘Inside Outside’ but hopefully I have someone interested in helping with that. It has spaceships and armoured scorpions, I have no photographs that would work on that level.

Meanwhile I have a few more quick ones. Hugo Stone has now cut ‘Cultish’ by almost a quarter so it’s a faster-paced story and shorter, therefore cheaper. It won;t take long to replace the current version so if you want a copy of the unedited Big Tome of Deranged Filth you’ll have to be quick.

I have a book translated from Dutch into French (Es-Tu Là, Allah?) by Dirk Vleugels. Obviously I can’t do much editing so it’s mainly format and send. He has provided cover art, and the artwork on ‘Cultish’ won’t change so no messing about with images for those.

‘Han Snel’, the artist biography in Dutch, will be put out in a bigger format. Apparently the arty types want that and it really won’t be too hard to do. Might have to boost the picture DPI to allow for bigger sizes but it should be okay.

Mark Ellott is putting out all the Morning Cloud stories in one volume. Including a new story that will also be in the Christmas anthology. He has also already done the cover art so that’s another quickie. It’ll also be easier to classify as a Western book. The anthologies are a challenge in classification terms.

Al;l these should be ready to go before Christmas and there’s a Christmas anthology building up too.

Longer term, I have a novel by Lee Bidgood (who was in the Treeskull Stories) which looks like being a very good one. I’d like to get that done by Christmas if the workload allows but no promises. If not, it’ll be early in 2018.

There is much to do, and I have several of my own still to finish, but I’m still open to new stories.

If you have one, send it in. Any genre as long as it’s a good story

And not written as if you let a blind dyslexic seal loose on your keyboard. There are limits…