love the books you write ^_^

Despite my horrible cold I managed to upload another chapter (23) for my Merlin and King Arthur adventure yesterday. It's been a busy old week, but hopefully by the end of this coming week all the chapters will be uploaded and the book will be ready to go on "sale" - free of charge, obviously, since it's fan fiction. It's been a great writing exercise, allowing me to write from different points of view, shifting the action to lots of different locations. It will stand me in good stead when I sit down to write my own 13-part Merlin epic series of fantasy books...provided I live that long!

Before that, as the lovely illustrator Sarah Chipperfield keeps reminding me, must come the publication of our Early Learners book about a little blue alien, the Flippety Floppet, and the second book in the Linus Brown series, Linus & The Blarney Stone, which continues the adventure of Linus and his leprechaun friends. This time the action will shift from rural Lincolnshire to Ireland, with a brief stop-over at the National Leprechaun Museum for some hilarious encounters between "real" leprechauns and those imagined by the Irish Tourism Board.

Well, I couldn't have wished for a better start for my 2nd promotional adventure with Copromote on behalf of Linus & The Leprechauns! Here are the stats: in the first 24 hours 18 Copromoters retweeted my original Tweet, giving me a boost of 1,800% and a reach of 129,640 Twitter followers. I nearly run out of credits though, despite having squirrelled away 132,000 credits or so to start off my latest campaign. This really means that I either have to save up 200,000 credits for any future promotional boosts...or go the professional route and pay $49.99 a month to have unlimited boosts and a starting "capital" of 200,000 credits each month.

I've yet to sort out all the various "author pages" I get with the new platforms that I was given via Draft2Digital and it will be interesting to see how, if at all, my Copromote boost will impact on sales via those platforms (my boost is about publishing via Scribd.com, the world's largest virtual library). If the sales figures warrant it, I shall certainly consider spending $49.99 each month. Will keep you posted...

Incidentally, I used Draft2Digital to enhance distribution beyond what Bookrix offers to authors. As of today, Linus & The Leprechauns is also available at Page Foundry:

http://www.inktera.com/store/title/bd37192e-bd38-423a-ab80-eace9ba805ad

The first 9 Copromoting heroes have already retweeted by Twitter announcement of the new sales links, so just as well I stocked up on credits!

Yay! Linus & The Leprechauns is now also available at Scribd, Tolino and 24Symbols: Yay! https://www.scribd.com/book/294393044/Linus-The-Leprechauns-1-1

https://www.24symbols.com/book/x/x/x?id=989393

I've yet to complete my author pages at these venues, but it's great to see little Linus Brown spread his wings a bit more. Have started a new Copromote boost on his behalf, this time with just about 132,000 credits to my name, so I don't run out so quickly. Will keep you posted how well it's going this time round - or not...whichever happens.

I have started sifting through the various Bookrix groups I'd signed up for - where there are members constantly posting their religious messages, I'm taking myself off the membership. This is the only author/reader platform I've ever come across, where bible bashers seem to have invaded a large part of the community and, instead of keeping their beliefs to themselves as they should, are forever posting about them, no matter what the subject matter under discussion within the group. This isn't a platform for religious book publishing - start your own, if that's what you want. Given that this platform is open to people from many different beliefs and religions, I find it positively rude that a large number of Bookrix Americans, yes you, be named and shamed, think they can forever post about their personal relationship with god here.

Have already managed to upload 20+ chapters of my fan fiction book "Let The Questing Begin!", which is based on the BBC hit series "Merlin". I've long wanted to write my own take on the Arthurian legends, but felt I needed a bit of practice first with respect to writing from multiple points of view. This was such a fun project - I only had to worry about characterisation for the fictional people I had added to the "Merlin" world, not the main protagonists, since they were "given".

I've got a couple of chapters left to write (started already), then this can go out as a "freebie" book. I don't really care if there's a "market" for it here on Bookrix, a rather lame community which I'm rapidly losing patience with. I know that there were lots of Twitter and Wordpress fans of the show who devour fan fiction, so it's worthwhile turning what I've written into an ebook for their sake.

Here's one for young readers: The Literary Review is seeking readers/reviewers to enhance their author review service through the voices that count: YA readers who review books aimed specifically at their age group.

http://www.literaryfictionreview.com/

"Seeking Young Readers to Review Young Adult Novels

Literary Fiction Book Review is passionate about supporting young readers. Through our growing Young Adult and children's book review program, we seek to promote works of literary excellence for the younger reading generation. In this regard, we are also seeking to empower the voice of this demographic through posting reviews written by young adults between the ages of thirteen and seventeen. If you fall in this age group, if you love reading, if you would like to receive free novels and support talented YA authors, if you would like to see your own review published online at LFBR, please apply here."

The Literary Review's author services are as follows:

"Exciting New Submission Policies
We are thrilled to announce our new Literary Fiction Book Review submissions policies. We will now be offering a free review service to qualifying works of literary fiction. While there is a $10 processing fee to apply for a review, the review, and the website page built to accommodate it, are offered to our authors without charge. We are fervent believers in honest and carefully-constructed reviews and keen to separate our services from the review-for-hire organizations that seem the prevalent option for writers today."

Please remember that this site is for "series" authors only, writers who are capable not only of actually completing a book and sending an edited and proofread manuscript, but also authors who can take constructive critiques in their stride and aim to better their writing via reviews. No arrogant prima donnas convinced their writing is perfect need apply.

So there we are, another year, another royalty dollar! If whatever happened to you last night or whatever you discovered when you woke this morning, bleary-eyed and in an unfamiliar place, has inspired you to write another short story, here's the world's richest short story contest for you...there's plenty of time to perfect your plot, characterisation and pace...don't forget to follow the submission guidelines, use the spell checker and get somebody to proofread and edit the thing before mailing it to:

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/public/stefg/

The Sunday Times Short Story Contest is the world’s richest short story competition, with the winner receiving £30,000 (US$45,000). In 2015 the prize was won by Yiyun Li for her story ‘A Sheltered Woman’. The winner of the 2016 Sunday Times Short Story Prize will be announced on 22 April 2016 and entries for the 2017 prize are expected to open in July 2016.

Wishing you all a very Happy and Successful New Year! May the writing muse never leave you, if you're a writer, and may you never run out of books to enjoy, if you're a reader!