Free post-apocalyptic fiction!

My post-apocalyptic novelette The Scavenger is a free ebook on Amazon through Friday, November 27. This standalone novelette is part of my Toxic World post-apocalyptic series. So go ahead and grab yourself a copy, and feel free to share!

A blurb is below:

In a world shattered by war, pollution, and disease, a lone scavenger discovers a priceless relic from the Old Times.
The problem is, it's stuck in the middle of the worst wasteland he knows--a contaminated city inhabited by insane chem addicts and vengeful villagers. Only his wits, his gun, and an unlikely ally can get him out alive.
Set in the Toxic World series introduced in the novel Radio Hope, this 10,000-word story explores more of the dangers and personalities that make up a post-apocalyptic world that's all too possible.

Pick it up on Amazon, Amazon UK, and any other branch of the store.

My latest WWI novel available for preorder!

My latest World War One action novel, Digging In, is coming out December 5 and is available for preorder. The story takes up where Trench Raiders left off and continues the adventures of Crawford, Willoughby, and Thompson, while introducing some interesting new characters. Here's the blurb.

October 1914: The British line is about to break.
 
After two months of hard fighting, the British Expeditionary Force is short of men, ammunition, and ideas. With their line stretched to the breaking point, aerial reconnaissance spots German reinforcements massing for the big push. As their trenches are hammered by a German artillery battery, the men of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry come up with a desperate plan--a daring raid behind enemy lines to destroy the enemy guns, and give the British a chance to stop the German army from breaking through.
 
Digging In is the second in a new series of World War One action novels that will follow the brave men of the BEF through the major battles of the First World War a hundred years after they happened. The Battle of Ypres was the first of many great slaughters on the Western Front, and it was there that both sides learned the true horror of the world's first global conflict.

It's now available on Amazon, Amazon UK, and all the other Amazons. It's also available on Smashwords and will soon be at all other major ebook outlets.

Honest Numbers about an Amazon Indie Ebook Giveaway

I recently had an article published at Funds For Writers in which I give honest numbers for my Amazon ebook free promotion. Regular readers of this blog will recall that I had a giveaway of my novelette The Scavenger, set in my Toxic World post-apocalyptic series.

There's a lot of bull spread by indie writers about their numbers, so I decided to post up some honest numbers. Check out how I did here.

Radio Hope now available in print!

I just got my author's copies of Radio Hope from Createspace. They came out looking beautiful thanks to my talent brother-in-law Andrés Alonso-Herrero for the lovely cover!


Photo courtesy my eight-year-old son Julián. He took his first photos when he was three. You can see them here.

Why readers preorder books

In a previous post back in April I wondered why people were preordering my American Civil War Guerrilla Tactics, which comes out this month from Osprey Publishing. Why preorder something months in advance when doing it a week in advance will get you the book just the same? I've discovered the answer.

I went to The Gameskeeper, the local gaming store here in Oxford, to convince them to stock my book, gamers being big Osprey fans. The owner and I got into a long conversation about publishing and I brought up the subject of my preorders. She said gaming books often get very early preorders too, and it's because fans want to signal to publishers that they like a certain subject or title. They want to support the process. It's kind of like voting with your money. Apparently military history buffs do this as well.

This makes me feel good about my preorders. Some people started preordering my book back in February! :-)

Preorders On Amazon

Like all writers, I obsessively check my Amazon ratings. While these have little to do with overall sales, it's a nice indicator that you can look at on a regular basis, part of the impulse surfing that drives the Internet. One thing I've noticed is that people keep preordering my book American Civil War Guerrilla Tactics, due out from Osprey in September. Now I'm not complaining, but why are people buying a book that's not going to be published for another six months? Couldn't they preorder it in, say, August, and still get it as soon as it hits the shelves? People have been preordering my Outlaw Tales of Missouri too, but at least that's coming out next week!

I've been getting a bit behind with the blogging lately, but that's because I've been busy setting up house in Oxford. I promise to get back into gear!

My Latest Two Covers On Amazon

Like all writers, I obsessively check my Amazon and Barnes & Noble rankings, although they have little relation to total sales. Recently I got the pleasant surprise of finding two of my upcoming books now have cover art on Amazon. The image above is for American Civil War Guerrilla Tactics, my first book for the military history publisher Osprey. The cover art will actually be different than what's shown here. Each Osprey cover features a detail from one of the interior color plates, which are done exclusively for each title. Gerry Embleton, who did this image for the Osprey book Confederate Cavalryman, will also do my book, so I guess they decided to put this on until he does the paintings for my book. It has a release date of September 22, but you can make me feel good by preordering it.

The last of what I sometimes call my "Missouri Trilogy" of state history books is due to be released on March 9 by TwoDot, an imprint of Globe Pequot. It's called Outlaw Tales of Missouri and is also available for preorder.

More on Amazon

Well, it's Monday after a very long weekend, of which you can read more here. Also, it appears the Amazon story just won't go away. Now it's revealed they are in the habit of trying to get better and better deals from publishers every year, and using every strong-arm tactic they can. This hits the publishers' profit margins, which mean midlisters like me will get hit in the trickle-down effect. You can read more about it here and here, on Maya Reynolds' very informative blog. I put in my two cents in the comments section.

Online Petition Against Amazon's Monopolistic Practices

I don't plan to get political very often on this blog, but something that's been hitting the news lately makes me have to speak out. Amazon has recently taken the "buy" button off of some Print-On-Demand (POD) books on their website. They have stated they will now sell only POD books that are made through their own POD service, BookSurge. More on this move can be found here, here and here. This seems to be an attempt by Amazon to take the number one spot from POD printer Lightning Source.

This is a blatantly monopolistic practice. Publishing companies should not be forced to take a service they don't want to use in order to gain access to a retail outlet. Small presses rely on POD technology to reduce overhead, and the cost of switching printers just so they can get into the largest online retailer's website could put many out of business.

There's is now an online petition. I'm signature number 468.