Books

Books
Books written by Ray Sullivan

Thursday 27 February 2014

Assassin Available for Pre-order Soon

My latest novel, Assassin, is nearing completion and I'm expecting it to go on pre-order soon.  The ability to place books on pre-order is a new innovation for self published authors, a service that only the publishing houses enjoyed previously.  Of course all self published authors beat the drum ahead of launch date, but in reality this has always has a whiff of vapourware about it.  However Smashwords, the distributor of my books to Apple, Barnes and Noble and Kobo has introduced a pre-order system that the big ebook providers have agreed to.

So how does it benefit you and what does it mean to me?  Well, for the majority of authors, including myself, it probably doesn't provide much of a benefit.  It does allow pre-orders to accrue until launch day and on that day all the pre-orders are counted in one lump, which may just raise the visibility of the book a tad higher than without it.  It also allows the book to be previewed in advance of the sales period, giving readers a chance to think about it before it arrives.  It does provide a structure for the final edit - that is a job that can always be postponed due to other commitments if we're not careful, but a real deadline, well for a completer like me that's the kind of stress that helps.

For the reader, well, it allows you to think about a book and still be the first on the block to read it.  Probably not the highest priority for many of my readers, although I do have a loyal core of you that do seem to buy every book I write.  For those who like to think they are helping their personal favourite authors, it's a chance to help elevate their profile to let others know about them.  It's also an opportunity for authors to reward the loyal and one way that is suggested by Smashwords is to provide those who email evidence of a pre-order the opportunity to receive a promotional code to obtain an existing book from the canon for free.  I'll be looking into that as a tool.

So what's Assassin about?  Well, it's a return to the multi level novels I wrote in The Journeymen and Skin, that is, it has two stories spread over two time periods interwoven with each other.  It's set in the not-too-distant future, in a UK that has temporarily suspended democracy as part of the ongoing war on terror, being run by the congress.  It starts during the fledgling congress period at the time of the worst terrorist attack ever to hit mainland UK, a defining moment that reinforces the stance of the government and oscillates between then and events at the time of the fourth congress.

John is an engineer who falls victim to the terrorist attack that destroyed the Queen Elizabeth the Second bridge and almost killed him.  While being debriefed by congress agents his family is targeted by a mysterious person known only as Morris, a journey that results with John becoming a gun for hire, a dedicated killer known as the Assassin.  He finds himself holed up in a beach hut in Cornwall during a terrible storm with a beach bum who discovers John's secret.  They are destined to spend the night stuck in each other's company while the storm plays out and John decides to tell his story of how he came to be the Assassin as a way of proving he means his co-resident no harm.  Except his resident isn't all that he appears to be and unknown to John there are a couple of congress soldiers staking out the hut, intent on killing one of them and capturing the other.

As the night progresses, John's tale of his past unfolds as the present develops, and we find ourselves living his story alternately through his eyes and as a remote viewer.  Needless to say there is a lot of action throughout the book and the dénouement, currently being crafted, is packed with two concurrent storylines that lead to resolution of the past and the present.

Assassin has been a long time in development, having been started back in 2006 and worked on between other writing projects since.  It was born out of events at that period when the UK and US governments both sought to extend the war on terror in part by curtailing civil liberties, moves that were roundly resisted by many people.  While the menace that terrorism presents has necessarily resulting in a natural curtailing of our liberties for the greater good, some of the proposals seemed so at odds with what we regard as democracy it looked like we could end up as totalitarian as the states we aim to resist.  This book in part looks at what could happen when that battle is taken so far as to remove democracy, and the distorted world it could create.  It's not a political statement, nor a libertarian rant against anti-terrorist policies, but it does aim to make the reader consider these in passing.

There will be more information about Assassin and its release date in the near future, as well as excerpts from the book as a taster.

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Monday 17 February 2014

Amazon Price Madness

Anyone who self publishes through Amazon or Smashwords will know that the responsibility of setting the selling price is theirs.  It's a challenge for us Joe Averages who have managed to write a story from one end to the other correctly formatted for multiple reading devices, create a cover that looks professional and write a descriptive blurb (probably harder than the actual book for many of us) before we get to this stage.

Marketing is a black art, in my opinion.  I've worked with marketers in the past and I can confirm that science has no place in their deliberations.  However they must know something, must apply some formulaic process to their craft because when they get it right, they get it very right.  Of course, when they get it wrong their products sink without trace so we don't see that side too often.  Their failures are hidden.  Like I said, art, not science.

However, unlike the big six publishers and the shrinking number of small independent publishers, pricing is one of those things the self publisher has to sort out him or herself.  Opinions are freely available, I'm probably about to impart a few of my own at no cost in a few lines.  Mark Coker, the CEO of Smashwords, is a marketer from another age and imparts his analysis on eBook pricing.  He notes, and to be fair he is in a good position to analyse trends, that free books are good sellers, if lacking in revenue, $0.99 tend to do OK but it isn't until you price above $2.99 that sales take place.  Actually, from how I read his figures, $0.99 might need to sell more to make the same money as higher priced offerings but are more readily bought anyway.

The big insight Mark brings to the table is that the $1.00 - $2.98 range is in essence the ebook dead zone. Now, against my better instincts, I pitched my books above $2.99 for a while and sales plummeted.  My take is that I am not a well enough known writer for people to invest $2.99 in speculatively - and to be fair I rarely pay more than £0.99 (about $1.30) for books myself.  In fact I don't think the absolute value is the important bit, it's the fact that 0.99 in whatever currency you deal in that is psychologically relevant.  It's a candy bar price, a cup of coffee in a coffee shop that pays its fair share of taxes (excludes Starbucks and their fancy priced lattés, then).  The way I look at it, I'm more than happy to take a chance at £0.99 on a book as long as I get good vibes from the blurb but I'm reluctant to spend much more unless it's a book I really want to read.

So after trying Mark's advice for an extended period I reverted to my instinct and priced my books at 0.99 in whatever currency they were sold in where possible.  In fact this is one area that Amazon should have an advantage in as they allow me to price my books individually for each region with the exception of a couple of areas that have to be linked to the US dollar price.  In contrast Smashwords only allows one price, so that is set at $0.99 and is converted locally - such as in the UK - to the exchange rate, sort of.  I say sort of because if you peek at the Kobo UK pages for my books you will find they vary from £0.62 to £0.75, despite all being listed at $0.99 on Smashwords.  I suspect they were converted at different exchange rates on different days, then frozen.  Whatever, I'm not too hung up on the price, I have a wish to make it affordable and accessible to anyone who wants to buy my books.  If I sell small quantities then the price isn't going to make that much of a difference to my lifestyle, and if I do sell a lot then, well, a lot of $0.99 sales equates to that change anyway.  Hence I'm keen to keep my prices keen, if you get my drift.

So what's my beef?  Well, I've had a reasonably good week this week, for reasons I don't understand.  It's not like I've been promoting or even blogging and my blog hit rate has been OK but subdued due to the lack of entries.  On Smashwords I've seen a lot of activity across all the seven books and a reasonable number of 20% downloads.  I can't tell where the interest comes from, whether the downloads are unique individuals or even if they convert to a sale later - I suspect some people surf Smashwords for potential purchases but buy from Apple or B&N later.  On Amazon I've experienced sales across the planet, from home in the UK, across the US and even in the Far East.  Even paperbacks have sold, and I really cannot keep a lid on those costs, much as I'd like to.

Anyway, I took a stroll on Amazon to see how my books looked and to see if any new reviews had been loaded.  In the UK they are listing my books for £1.02 - it seems a ridiculous price to pitch at, but I suspect the notorious UK Value Added Tax, which is applicable to eBooks but not printed matter, is to blame for the £0.03 increase from the price I stipulated.  But in the US I note that my books are listed at $1.68.  I can't see any reason for this price - it's not the price I stipulated, it doesn't really net me much in the way of extra royalties when a book is sold and it pitches my books smack bang into the dead zone.

I've never found Amazon responsive to enquiries about how they price my books, so I haven't chased them on this. However I have had experience of how they react when they find out that a book is being sold elsewhere cheaper from when I ran a limited free ebook promotion.  They won't let me list for free (unless I sell my soul to them), but Smashwords does, which means Apple, B&N and Kobo do by default.  When I ran that promotion the word got out and Amazon started to give my books away as a price challenge for at least a month longer than the promotion ran - thanks, guys.  If you've been looking at my books but think $1.68 is a little steep, then I agree.  Challenge Amazon to price match their competitors.  Or buy your Kindle compatible version from Smashwords.  It saves on emails but unfortunately adds an extra step in the loading process.

For those in the UK, you can shave a quarter off the price by going through Smashwords, and don't worry about my royalties - a much larger slice of anything you pay in the UK ends up in the author's pockets, so generally we're happier anyway.  I would recommend shopping around for any book you fancy unless it is already discounted - don't assume ebook prices are fixed.  They are, but not in the traditional meaning of the word.

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Visit my Book Website here
Books
        Visit Project: Evil Website here                                        Visit DLF Website here

        Follow me on Twitter  - @RayASullivan

        Join me on Facebook -  use raysullivan.novels@yahoo.com to find me

Sunday 9 February 2014

Sony Exits eReaders and eBooks

The ebook phenomenon was created by the Gutenberg Project, by all accounts, way back in the late eighties/early nineties.  As a project it has been very successful and introduced the world to a natural evolution of reading.  However it took the likes of Sony to turn this pioneering work into the industry it is today.

Sony took a leap of faith, created superb electronic devices  and an eBook store at a time when it was far from clear that there was a market for this.  And to be fair they created what could only be described as a niche product, bought by a few, coveted by many, myself included.  The reality is that the early eReaders were expensive, and that was a deterrent to many of us to buying one.

Then along came the big A, who managed to popularise the eReader and eBooks as no one else had, achieving economies of scale coupled with their marketing capabilities. Sony had a few choices at this point and history will probably show they tried several avenues.

Initially they tried to compete with Amazon on price, but instead of re-engineering their product line to produce less expensive devices they kept on building high quality products, just with less features. It was never going to appeal to the consumers who now had a choice of products, and it didn't work for die-hard Sony fans either.

Over time they have seen their market presence stagnate as Amazon's rockets.  What should they have done? Well, in my opinion - and if you delve through my blog posts over the last few years you will find I've been quite consistent on this - they should have met Amazon head on with full featured devices manufactured to a lower price point. Sure there would have been a reduction in the life of each device, but the speed of change in the technology and the industry means we all change our devices fairly regularly anyway. And Sony had an ace that should have given them the edge - they stayed with an industry standard format - EPub - that Amazon shunned.  Books bought for the Sony or other EPub compatible devices could be legitimately shared, whereas Amazon have forged a singular path that benefits only themselves.

So Sony have announced that they are ceasing production of eReaders - itself not a surprise as I have been forecasting the demise of the dedicated eReader for some time - plus they are exiting the eBook world as well.  They are closing down their eBook store and transferring their library to Kobo who is continuing to remain a thorn in the side of the big A. I guess that without the hardware business the eBook side didn't make sense to a manufacturing company like Sony and by all accounts their sales only account for about 2% of the total market share anyway.

Nonetheless it is a sad day for the industry, but it is a decision that probably makes a huge amount of sense for Sony and maybe, in a perverse way, it will help make the industry stronger by being more focussed on a smaller number of manufacturers.  Only time will tell.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------                                                         
Visit my Book Website here
Books
        Visit Project: Evil Website here                                        Visit DLF Website here

        Follow me on Twitter  - @RayASullivan

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Saturday 1 February 2014

What Next - Sat Nav for the Internet?

An amateur graphic designer - not sure if that means unqualified or just unemployed - has drawn up a map of the internet.  It's not the first attempt at this and almost certainly won't be the last, but the man, Martin Vargic, has used an interesting approach to the subject.

Most previous attempts have focussed on the topology of the network, almost impossible today given the world wide distribution and the peer to peer contributions. In fact there are suggestions that the internet is like an iceberg, with the 'visible' net, that which can be found by search engines such as Google forming the tip. I'm not sure what the rest looks like because it isn't visible, but it's reasonable to assume the security services, military, governments et al have extensive hidden parts of the network for obvious reasons. So too does the business community - my online banking, for example, is only just submerged and hopefully only visible to me and my bank. The rest of that bank should be submerged way deeper again.

martin-vargic-top-500-websites-map

Then there are the shadow organisations, the ones opposing the law enforcement agencies and the secret services as well as the illegitimate commercial ventures. In short, the criminal and terrorist rings that move stolen goods and money around or plot to terrorise you and me. They appear to control a significant chunk of this hidden internet.

If we ever find out where it is hidden it should be easy to recognise, judging by announcements made recently by he British Prime Minister David Cameron. He has vowed to search every corner of the hidden internet to find and eradicate the bad guys. Noble, worthwhile and very generous given he's supposed to be running the country as well. At least his insight indicates that the hidden internet contains vertices, which are conspicuously absent from Martin's map, so that should be a giveaway.

What Martin has done, and very skilfully it has to said, is to create a faux map containing two continents, the old world and the new world. The old world contains the likes of Microsoft and Apple, while the new world contains social networks like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Google and, well, Google (to be fair Yahoo does occupy an outpost of the new world and therefore, by default, so does Bing). In a suspiciously pointy southern sub-continent there is a region labelled internet crime. Perhaps that is the door to the hidden internet? Is there a sat nav provided for this virtual map? There are parts of this map I'd like to avoid.

Assuming Martin's analysis is a reasonable representation of the internet and that the online equivalent of tectonics prevails, we should see the collision of the old and the new world sometime, probably in our lifetimes thanks to Moore's Law and the internet corollaries, and a new new world emerging. Perhaps the collision will seal off the hidden internet, or at least the bits most of us could live without, which would be rather unfortunate for my alter-ego B L O'Feld. Of course, if anyone could turn colliding continents into a business opportunity, it would be him.

The map is a creative way of looking at what now surrounds us, permeates every crevice of our lives and in many ways is the real world. It probably isn't complete, but then again what map is? And it probably will look very different this time next year given the rate of internet change. Martin may have created a new internet profession, populated at the moment just by him. Maybe that should occupy part of the new world hinterlands on his first update. I suspect he could be very busy.


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Visit my Book Website here
Books
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Netflix at High Noon

High Noon, the classic cowboy film, epitomises the ultimate showdown. It's ironic that the leading provider of streaming films and TV programmes is squaring up on the virtual high street flexing its fingers above the pearl handled pistols of public opinion.

Facing Netflix are the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) that it streams its content down. It is thought that streaming content accounts for about one third of all bandwidth in the US and some ISPs have been rumbling that they want a slice of the fiscal action resulting from all of this activity.

Or in plain English, they can see a successful business using their infrastructure as a conduit. Netflix wouldn't exist without the ISPs, they point out, which is a truism. Perhaps they have themselves picked up the odd customer by the utility that Netflix has provided, is another. In fact, the rise and rise of bandwidth is only just keeping pace with the continually rising usage of bandwidth by consumers. However this general uptick in utilisation along with the reciprocal rolling out of faster and deeper networks appears to be symbiotic at the least.

So the suggestion that companies that absorb large amounts of bandwidth should compensate the ISPs or face losing access to north American ISP subscribers has rankled Netflix. They are defending the concept of net neutrality, a concept that has been embedded in principle since the dawn of the internet age.

Of course the net has been robustly exploited for gain since the beginning of internet time, and you could argue that is what Netflix has done, having shed its DVD mailing service long ago in support of internet streaming. But it is supplying what people want and that is why they in turn are shelling out significant sums of money each month for access to faster broadband. The ISPs woo us with offers of faster access and unlimited downloads (subject to fair usage limits, so strictly not unlimited in any sense of the word) and we change sides based on the best deals available. To try and leverage extra cash for buying what they offered to snare our business is disingenuous to say the least.

Netflix are squaring up to the ISPs like the town Sheriff facing down the bad guys, calling on the good people populating the internet to back them. I'm up to join a posse, and have a virtual neckerchief at the ready. I only have one question - how come High Noon isn't available for streaming on Netflix? Some familiarisation training would be handy right now.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------                                                         
Visit my Book Website here
Books
        Visit Project: Evil Website here                                        Visit DLF Website here

        Follow me on Twitter  - @RayASullivan

        Join me on Facebook -  use raysullivan.novels@yahoo.com to find me