Hi there all! Just a quick note to let you know that my book: Police Don't Move! is now available at the reduced price of $6.99 on   iBook   and   Kindle

Thanks so much for your feedback over the months, I really appreciate it!

Cheers Nick

A Really Nice Review

Hi all!

Got a great boost today when I saw that the union representing all the police in Queensland reviewed Police Don't Move! in their monthly magazine. Even better was the fact that they seemed to have liked it a lot. All 9000 or so sworn officers in the state, + some civilian staff and retired officers get this journal, either mailed to them, or downloadable from the union's website.

Here's a link to it if you want: http://www.qpu.asn.au/journal/current

I had a bit of a search on Kindle today and was surprised at how many serving and retired police around the world are writing books. Some are about a single significant case, while other cops do as I did and write about the more memorable/interesting/funny jobs they remember from their time on the road.

I've put together some links to these books, as I like to feel I am supporting fellow cops who take the opportunity to write ... and as well as that, it's perhaps good Karma!

So here ya go:

True-Police-Stories-Orleans-ebook

True-Stories-Policemans-Notebook-ebook

Police-Stories-Strange-Unexplained-ebook

Police-Crime-999-Officer-ebook   ... and I just could NOT finish without giving you yet 

another link to my book:

Police-Dont-Move

Have fun reading your way through these, and see you all again soon.

Apples iBooks Now Has my Title

Apple Releases Police Don't Move!

So another biggy today. Apple iBooks picked up the book and it's nice to see that they have it at the lower price of $9.99.

Here's a link to it on iTunes 

Or of course for you iPhone and iPad users, just search for - Police Don't Move! - on your device.

Geopricing

It is really interesting for me as a first time book writer to see how the retailers release books at different prices depending on where the customer is searching from. For example Kindle has had the book @ $2.99, $11.99 and $9.99 in the few weeks they have hosted it! When you look at their outside of the US sites, and do a currency conversion, you can see that it again differs in price. 

You would think that unlike a print and ink book, an ebook could so easily be sold at a set price - no matter where you were shopping from? 

For you other authors out there; do you see the same 'geopricing' policy used with your work(s)?

Kobo Releases the Book

Well another milestone day with Kobo releasing the book. You can find it HERE 

...and click the book picture to order it on Kindle

New Release on Kobo

I still feels a touch weird to see my work out there and available on the internet! The sales on Kindle in the few days since release have been very encouraging, and the reviews have been as well. 

Interestingly Kobo have elected to price the book at $7.99 which is less than on Amazon's Kindle. I wonder if the bots at Kindle will see this and reduce their price as well? 

If any seasoned authors have had experiences with ebooks, retailers and pricing - please chip in and let me know all about it.

Amazon changed the Link to my Book!

I'm awful glad that I'm the patient type! Soo, my ebook: POLICE DON'T MOVE! was released on Amazon a couple of days ago. I busily took the URL and spread it out there for all the right marketing reasons. Then 2 days later, what does Amazon do? They change the URL for the book, leaving all the interested parties with a 'not found' screen. AARRGGHH!

Obviously I have now retraced my steps and am getting the new link spread all about, but what a nuisance.

And so with great fanfare (again), here is the link to buy it

Has this happened to any other authors out there?

Ebook Published on Kindle

A big day today with my very first ebook appearing live on Kindle! A big surprise is that Kindle had elected to price it at $2.99. They are actually taking a fair hit here, as I supply it to them at a higher price. I have heard that they do this from time to time to ensure that they have the price edge on their competitors.

Up to them I guess - they'll be paying me the agreed price whatever.

And ... without any further ado, here is the link to the book on Kindle; 

POLICE DON'T MOVE!

My publisher, Bookbaby tells me that the book will be available on the other chosen readers;

Apple ibooks, Kobo, and a few others.

If you have friends that you feel might enjoy a fairly light true crime book, feel free to pass the link on!

... and of course, if you read and enjoy the book, please know that you're welcome to post a comment here, or a review on Kindle.

BookBaby has my Manuscript!

Well yesterday was a biggy! I finally submitted the manuscript for the true crime book - POLICE DON'T MOVE! to my chosen publisher; Bookbaby.

I had a good look around online, and amongst a crowded field, I went with BookBaby. I liked the fact that they charge upfront, and in turn they don't hold onto any of your sales income. No, I do not have any commercial relationship with them - I'm just a new and expectant customer.

In an early sign of professionalism, they managed to find and fix a typo I made in the submission form. Instead of the sub-title reading; 'well sometimes we do', I spelt the 2nd word as 'sonetimes'. How dumb! But as I said, BookBaby picked it up and corrected it.

Which famous author once said something along the lines of; 'Authors don't finish their books - they are simply abandoned.' Well whoever it was, they were spot on. I went through several phases of 'no not yet - I can fine tune this book some more', and 'perhaps I should proof read it again.' Then after much hesitation the moment was at hand, and with a few clicks of a mouse - it was gone. Off into the hands of a publisher in faraway Oregon.

So now what? Well some more promotion efforts I guess and then, after a bit of a break, a brand new book!

Ebook Royalties - a New Battleground?

As the time to publish my ebook draws near, I have been looking at the royalties offered by the big names in the ebook reader market.

Amazon's Kindle store is the definite industry leader, with around 70% market share. Interestingly they also have one of the better deals for authors. Provided that you price your ebook between $2.99 and $9.99, they pay back 70% of the sale price in all of their major markets. While this $10 ceiling has angered a lot of established authors - used to selling a heap of printed book at well over double that; it remains the equal best royalty deal out there. There is a slight annoyance though. Kindle tends to charge customers in smaller markets a hidden 'delivery fee'. Hidden? Well they say it's free, but they add anything up to $2 onto the agreed cost of an ebook, and then the customer gets it electronically delivered 'free'. Not my idea of free - yours?

Apple's iBooks comes in next with around 15% of ebook sales. They also offer a 70% give back to the creator of the work. They take their time with publishing though, with a lag time of around 3 weeks from submission to availability in the iBook store. In contrast Kindle promises a turnaround of just 3 days.

The remainder of the market is basically split up amongst the other known electronic reader distributors.

Sony with a small percentage of the market elect to retain 50% of the sale price of the books in its catalog. It would be interesting to hear their justification for keeping half of the books gross price - simply for hosting it on their site. I do not believe I will release my ebook with them, and I believe from what I read, that I am far from alone. Barnes & Noble with a similar market share also think it reasonable to snatch 50% as a commission. Nope, not them either.

Lesser known players like Kobo and Copia currently match the big guys and return 70% of the sale price to the author. Finally an outfit called Gardners manages to split the difference by offering a 60% return to the creator.

So from what I have learnt so far, for around 90% market penetration, and a 70% return of the sales price, it is advisable to go with Kindle, Apple, Kobo and Copia.

What do you think? I'd welcome feedback from both fellow writers and avid readers.

Pecking typos out of my True Crime manuscript - Is this writing, I ask?

Well writing my book did seem like some hard work. Some long sessions tapping away at a largish chapter left me brain and finger sore. Re-arranging paragraphs and sentences; and then arranging them right back again, was - for me - strange and arduous duty. (Yep it's my first book).

Now with the manuscript - for all intents and purposes - done, I am into the pre-publication error pecking phase. Now, I realise that actually writing the book was a comparative breeze! I get to a certain point each proof reading session, where all the words - and particularly all the punctuation - turns into one nauseous spiraling river of letters and symbols before my crazed eyes.

Hmm, time for a break!

Coffee and fresh air done, I  return to the coalface - determined to press on - seeking out and murdering rogue spelling that spellchecker breezed right over; finding and fixing the my very own tortured punctuation. Why did I create so many? I feel at times like I wrote the darn thing in Latin, and am now converting it one line at a time, to English.

Who was that famous writer who said something very wise along the likes of: 'Authors don't finish a work - they simply abandon it'?

Well I truly get him; I really do.

Share with me your proofreading agonies - go on, make me feel better will ya?

The emarketing knowledge J curve!

Boy, getting my head around all this pre book launch marketing stuff is doing my head in!

As you can see above, I got the cover art back for the book. I love it, but what do you think? I am going through the manuscript right now, pecking out typos and correcting punctuation. Not the world's most interesting task is it?

Love to hear from true crime fans out there, as well as other true crime authors. Going off to soak my typing finger in Epsom Salts!

Welcome to my new blog!

Hi, Nick here.

I have gone out of my comfort zone with this blogging stuff. I know, I know, that sounds pretty weird considering I am in the process of publishing my first ebook; unsurprisingly called: Police Don't Move!

When I began that process of writing the book I had no idea how I would market it, I'm not sure what I was thinking really - perhaps all the information overload about writing, editing, publishing, ISBN's etc, consumed what space is in my brain, and I thought that marketing the work would somehow happen like magic. Sigh.

Here is a fairly unattractive picture taking up the spot where the cover of the book will go (umm, can you go back in a post and mess with things like that??). Well anyway if possible, this is where the cover of the book, Police Don't Move! will reside.

Well if it turns out that I cannot go back in time and replace this image, then go ahead and have a laugh at a complete blogging newby at work. 

Well the above concerns proved redundant as I figured out I can in fact edit the image. Yeah, all good.

So this is the cover of the book, fresh from the designer. Thoughts?

So what is Police Don't Move all about? 

This is a book about my experiences on the road as a uniformed operational constable in the Queensland Police Service (QPS). I did all my operational service in the city of the Gold Coast; Queensland’s second largest city and the premier beach playground for Australians. 

I began my life as a cop rather late in life, being admitted to the Academy in Brisbane at the age of 35. Before that I had been a bit of a ‘jack of all trades’ really, with over a decade in the hospitality industry, several fascinating years working as a casino dealer, running some hotels and other businesses with my wife of the time, and finally into banking and insurance – dreary stuff, that.

I had previously gone a long way down the police recruitment road at the younger age of 22, and had actually been accepted as a recruit. But with the immaturity of youth, I succumbed to the offer of a raise and a promotion at my hotel job when I gave them my notice; so life and work went on police free for over a decade. The decision to re-apply came in a period after a separation when I found myself drifting in life as it were. By then laws had by then changed, allowing people of any age to apply, as long as they could meet the physical and medical standards. It was on my second go, and after some more tertiary education that I succeeded, and there began seven months of training at the academy. Now this could possibly support a book in its own right, as we raw recruits battled with the impossibilities of criminal legislation; half killed ourselves on the running track, gym and pool, and generally allowed ourselves to be transformed from civilians into a kind of law enforcement pupae.

And so there began the most fascinating decade of my life without a shadow of a doubt. It was also when I had the privilege to meet and work with some of the finest people I have ever known – the officers and staff of the QPS. 

As you will find, the chapters in this book are mainly episodic in nature, in that each one covers a particular job or shift. The jobs are real, but the names of everyone (aside from myself) have been changed, as have the street and business names. As is the bent of authors, these chapters are not necessarily in chronological order, and as I served at six different stations on my initial probationary year, before being stationed at one, there is somewhat of a mix of locations and themes. Some chapters are, I hope, amusing, while others fall into the categories of mad, bad or sad – or a combination of it all. That parallels the job of course. As a general duties drone, you typically begin each shift without the slightest idea of what you may face – and that in itself is both one of the joys … and one of the perils of that role. 

Due to stress related injuries, I was removed from operational duties after six years, and spent a further four years acting as firstly a police prosecutor and then as an intelligence officer. After almost ten years of service I was medically retired due to injuries – mostly psychological – and that, as they say, was that.

So, dear reader, enjoy the rollercoaster ride as we find ourselves immersed in all sorts of bother, meeting all manner of folk and trying to make sense of the impossibly senseless.

When? 

I believe that I will be able to send this manuscript off to the publisher around about mid February, and so all being well, it should be published and available on the above readers a short time later - say late Feb, early march 2013.

Over the coming weeks I will post a sample chapter or two so my dear followers can get a feeling for the style and content. 

Until then, I have an appointment with another keyboard as a chapter beckons!

Cheers Nick