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