Author? Books On Amazon? Did You Know…?

In common with many writers, I have books listed on Amazon. Also, in common with other authors, I attract readers by presenting links to my books on various social networks. There is, however, a real problem with this as far as Amazon is concerned. Any link will lead readers only to one specific amazon site - .com, .co.uk, .de, etc.

This means potential readers have to either do a search on the appropriate amazon site for their country, or – holds up hands in horror! – pay extra postage for the books to be delivered overseas. Let’s face it, we want readers spending their hard-earned cash on books, not postage. Of course, in the case of an ebook, readers can only purchase from their home Amazon site.

It would be really useful if a single link could enable all your readers to find you at their home site, wouldn’t it? Well, help is at hand. Such a site exists. And – wait for it- it’s FREE!

I was recently on holiday in Santorini and kept in touch through my iPad. One of my contacts on Twitter complained that a link took him to the wrong Amazon site and suggested I try Booklinker.net.I wasn’t keen to explore during my holiday and, in any case, the iPad, useful as it is, is no substitute for the desktop iMac with all my links, pictures, contacts and other settings easily available, so I decided to wait until I returned home.

A busy week later, I explored the site and discovered I could very easily set up a universal link to my Author Page at Amazon. Try it here. However, when I tried to set up links to my books, I seemed to get nowhere. This, it turned out, was due to my idiocy. But a simple exchange with the site’s helpful ‘Contact’ service soon resolved my problems. You’re presented with two screens. The first requires that you enter the link to your book from the Amazon.com site (just copy and paste). The second allows you to type in the short name for the link you wish to develop. E.g. http://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Faith-Stuart-Aken/dp/1849233144/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1382367245&sr=1-1&keywords=Breaking+Faith+stuart+aken  becomes http://mybook.to/breakingfaith  (By the way, you need only enter the initial link as far as the end of the unique number: e.g. http://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Faith-Stuart-Aken/dp/1849233144/) I have now successfully set up universal links for all my books.

The outcome is that I can now place quotes from books and reviews on social networks and attach a single link in the knowledge that it will lead to the Amazon site appropriate to the reader. What’s more, I’ll know how successful each site is for my books as the Booklinker site does a count of clicks on each link.

It really is FREE. The site works on the basis that they get a small commission from Amazon for each book bought through the links; the author loses nothing and gains a simple and effective marketing tool.

Try it. You’ve nothing to lose and a great deal to gain.

Right; now I’ve got to sort out the links here on my blog and remove all the extraneous ones to the different Amazon sites. A tedious job I’ll have to do just once but one that I expect to make life easier for both me and my potential readers. Everyone wins!

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Want a 10% Discount off a Kindle?

If you live in the UK and you’re thinking of buying any of the Kindles on offer through Amazon, let

me know and I’ll send you a coupon that will give you 10% off the device you buy.

BUT I have only one to give away. And I’ll need your email address, as I have to forward the email I received from Amazon to you.

SO, first come, first served.

Respond to me here.

Just to let you know this has now been claimed. Enjoy your Kindle, Haylee.

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The Light Keepers, by Mande Matthews, Reviewed.

Described as a prequel to ‘ShadowLight’, this short introduction to a fantasy world came to me as a free

download for my iPad via Kindle. A prequel is designed to tempt a reader into trying the book or series of books that follow it, of course.

This is a story set in the dark and cold of Scandinavia, with references to some of the myths of that part of the world. The characters are intriguing and compelling, which is always a good start for me: I love character-driven fiction. Straight away, I was curious to know what happened to them. There are, of course, elements of the story that remain unexplained, but these didn’t get in the way of my enjoyment. Instead, they leant mystery and layers of fascination to the story, making me want to know more.

The events, and conflicts, both internal and between characters, drive the story at a good pace. The language is clear and well-chosen, matching the environment in which the tale takes place. There’s clearly an element of magic, though this is never referred to as such, in the text. Some hidden and unexplained power, at war with another, darker power that is introduced skilfully, drives the actions of the characters.

So much fantasy makes stars and heroes of male protagonists, that it’s refreshing to read a story in which the true heroes female. Here we are introduced to strong women, albeit under the protection of an alpha male. But the women have their own strengths and idiosyncrasies that allow them to be depicted as independent and brave; qualities that lead the reader to want to know more about them and to follow them through the story.

I said at the beginning of this short review that the purpose of a prequel is to persuade the reader to read the book or books following it. Did this one do that? Absolutely. I will read this series in the future. Not immediately, because my ‘to read’ list is too long to be added to at present. But this is a fantasy I shall come back to; of that I have no doubt. Recommended.

The Gordonston Ladies Dog Walking Club, by Duncan Whitehead, Reviewed.

An unusual title for an unusual book. I was unsure what to expect from this book, which as I write this, has been listed as a finalist in the 2013 Readers’ Favourite annual International Award Contest in the humour category. There’s certainly an element of humour in the story and its presentation, and I did laugh out loud quite a lot whilst reading. So, I wish it well in that contest. Comedy isn’t noted for its ability to travel, so my enjoyment of the humour, as a Brit, suggests this one has managed that trick rather well.

If I say that the book is a ‘light’ crime novel, you might get the idea that it is a different type of book than the one I actually read. There is a deal of the minutiae involved in the lives of the many characters, all of whom are well drawn. Lots of detail and some repetition that describes the people and their lives; many of which are about to be changed. Superficial appearances are shown to be misleading. Love and lust are interchangeable for some of the protagonists here and the element of cheating is not uncommon, giving the whole community a slightly seedy feel.

I found myself rooting for some characters, only to discover in later pages that they weren’t the innocents I had first taken them for. The pettiness, selfishness, ambition and deceit of the characters come across well, so that their ultimate fates, initially apparently unjust, become almost desirable.

There are several surprises along the way in this well-plotted novel. I found myself quite convinced I had the identities of villains and victims sorted early on, only to discover that clever wording had fooled me. I enjoyed the read, even if it was a little longer than might have been absolutely essential. I suspect that the inclusion of so much detail was a way of conveying the very ordinariness of the lives that were introduced, only to then prove that these lives were, in fact, not at all ordinary. A good read that I recommend.

May Was a Maybe Month.

It was supposed to be the start, the beginning of the full time writing life. But life has a way of getting in the way of ambition, doesn’t it? Retirement exposes all those domestic tasks that you intended to complete one day. And I’ve been doing some of those. Coupled with the freedom to do what I want when I like, comes some good weather at long last and I felt unequal to allowing the gardens to become even more like jungles for lack of opportunity to care for them. Hedges, bushes and lawns all trimmed and no longer capable of secreting tigers or bears. One of the things I’d decided some time ago was to replace the car when I retired. So, I’ve prepared the old one for my daughter as her first vehicle; she learned to drive in it, so it seems sensible to let her see it through its final few years until she has a job and can afford to replace it. I tend to do a fair bit of research before I go out spending any reasonable quantity of money and, let’s face it, a car is hardly a small purchase, even if it is a used model. So I’ve spent quite a few hours online discovering the most reliable, economic and efficient models before making a selection. I pick up the replacement car on Tuesday.

All the foregoing is, of course, by way of an excuse for not having done much in the way of writing.  I’ve managed to write and post 7 pieces on here. Read and reviewed 3 books, and reviewed on TripAdvisor the hotel, restaurants and holiday cottage we visited whilst away for the week of my birthday.  Posted an album of edited photos of the holiday on Facebook as well. Four times I’ve researched and updated the Writing Contests page. I’ve prepared and published Heir to Death’s Folly on Smashwords, so it’s now available for any ebook format you care to select for it. It’s a good horror read, by the way. It was previously only available on Amazon’s Kindleplatform, as an experiment to see whether or not concentration on that outlet would make any difference to sales. It didn’t.

Setting up and getting used to the iMac took some time, of course; in fact, I’m still learning as I go along. And I had to suspend the touch-typing lessons, as the software I had wasn’t suitable for the Mac. (I’ve subsequently sold that, and much of the old PC stuff, on eBay – another time-consuming process). I’ve managed to return to the touch-typing just this week and caught up with where I was when I abandoned it, so that’s a positive. Oh, and I did manage to edit a short story in time to submit it for a contest, so not a complete failure.

The chart of time spent, as you’ll notice, is no longer in the form of a pie – too tempting when you’re trying to lose weight. No, actually, I thought the bar chart gave a better idea of the real differences, except I notice that I've managed to include a label in the graphic. Sorry, no time to undo that now. Also, adding up the percentages seems to make the sum rather greater than 100%! Clearly, I'll have to examine the new Excel in Office 2011 that I bought for the Mac and see where I'm going wrong! Oh good, more distractions!

The chart, explained:

'Writing' - initial creation of stories, blog posts, reviews and longer works.

'Editing' - polishing of all written work to make it suitable for readers.

'Research' - discovery of info for story content, market research, contests and blog posts.

'Reading' - books and writing magazines.

'Networking' - emails, Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+activity.

'Admin' - story submission, blog posting, marketing, organisation, learning to touch-type, and general admin tasks.

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