It would appear that what I said at the end of yesterday’s post has done some good.
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…but well worth the wait. Here is what the Flemish author of the award winning crime novel Baudelair’s Revenge – Bob Van Laerhoven, had to say about my extremely short historical novella Autumn 1066.
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As a Fleming, I knew that my knowledge of Britain’s entry into the Middle Ages was sketchy before I started reading Jack Eason’s Autumn 1066, but, after having read his novella, I must admit that it was also based on clichés and vague concepts. Autumn 1066 remedied this thoroughly. Eason has the gift of condensing and presenting historical facts in such a way that, although manifold and thoroughly researched, they hinder in no way the suspense of his war-story. Eason paints a clear portrait of the growing tensions between various factions competing for the throne, and the leaders of various armies, but also of the common soldiers, ordinary men who were forced to fight the wars of the nobility. For his vivid, and shocking, description of the battlefields, Eason focuses on two such ordinary warriors, Aldred and Cynric. When he describes the man-to-man fights and the deadly swarms of arrows, the reader can actually feel the fear and the agony of the warriors. In spite of the extensive historical background, Eason’s cast of characters, high and low, doesn’t degrade into stereotypes. They remain people like you and me, tackling life as best as they can when they are poor, and victims of greed and the overwhelming desire for power when they are rich. Writing historical fiction is all about keeping equilibrium between a passionate story and historical facts. Jack Eason has done that remarkably well.
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Hopefully Bob’s review will appear soon on all Amazon sites. So if he and Sally Cronin can deliver, why can’t everyone else who promised to write a review!
By the way, I uploaded the Kindle version yesterday at the KDP base price of US$2.99. Depending which Amazon outlet you use, determines the price you will pay. But if your quick off the mark, you will be able to get yourselves a free copy tomorrow (Friday 30th June 2017) and (Saturday 1st July 2017).
😉
I do believe Michael is feeling a touch nostalgic. 😉
I’ve been asked how my handwritten novel project was going…
Well, not that well until now!
The fact is, people get used to specific ways of working, I think. I decided to try writing a novel by hand because I felt it would allow me more freedom to work in different places, would give me more time to concentrate on a good, working first draft, and would force me to rewrite into a second draft more efficiently. I do still believe that by handwriting the draft I will end up with a cleaner manuscript in almost the same time as it would take to write on a keyboard.
My lovely Visconti Homo Sapiens: designed just for me!
However, although I did start writing by hand last year, I had to give up. I was delayed for a number of reasons. First and foremost, my great friend, Andy Setchell, had a…
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…for all the wooly-headed dreamers out there who fervently believe that giving away dozens of copies of any book they’ve written is the way to attract readers. Think again idiots! All you are doing is depriving yourselves of the hard earned pittance you as published authors are entitled to, known as royalty payments!!
Over a two day period (last Thursday and Friday) I deliberately offered my archaeological adventure for free. As a result eighty-seven tightwads/skinflints/cheapskates (take your pick) now have a copy, thanks to my generosity of spirit.
Deliberately giving away the product of a hell of a lot of hard work on your part is never a good idea.
About the only good thing I can say about the exercise is that the book’s ranking briefly improved over the two days. Back in 2012/13, thanks to selling (not giving away) slightly over 250,000 copies, it ranked in the top ten books in Amazon’s sales ranking system. No more – #220 in Kindle Store as of 0700am today. That won’t last. By tonight it will have slipped back well past 200,000…
How many of the eighty-seven free copies will be read? At best one or two. How many reviews will the giveaway result in? None. Personally I’d much rather have the one hundred and fifty seven dollars in royalty payments to help supplement my only income (my State Pension), which I won’t get…
Bah humbug
😦
