Two free books

Hi all,
Book promotion is a tricky subject. I'm afraid I'm not a sociable sort of chap so my marketing efforts are rather limited. My main thrust is via a couple of blogs, but I also rely heavily on my placing on Amazon.

In fact, I'm a bit of a nerd because every week I note the number that I'm placed for each of my books using various search terms. THis means that over the last couple of years I have been able to watch how each of my books performs, but unfortunately I still haven't found a formula that will keep me on the first page of results.

 The experts believe that having the right keywords associated with each book is essential, so in an effort to improve my lot I have purchased a couple of books on the subject and altered my keywords accordingly. Having changed my keyword three times I can tell you now that it didn't make a jot of a difference, in fact the last change made things worse.

However, I'm a gluten for punishment and I've purchased one last book on the subject. This time I have chosen wisely and hopefully it will see my books racing up the results. When choosing I used a bit of science. I read the blurb about how each Author knew the secrets of the Kindle Keywords; they all knew about Amazons special algorithms and how to manipulate it to get to the top of the pile.

I've learnt to recognise bullshit during the last sixty odd years, but just to make sure I didn't make any more mistakes I did a search on the Authors' own books. Well guess what? nearly all of these so called experts had a rating that was lower than mine. If they knew all the secrets, surely their books would be right up there at the top.

If the one I chose is any good I'll let you know.

Anyway, I have two free book offers on the go at the moment, so please take full advantage. The first book in "The Fishing Detectives" series, "Carp Rustlers is free on www.smashwords.com until the 7th of June.

On the kindle platform, "The Reluctant Pom" is free this week-end 30th and 31st of May. If you would like to know how I got on when my father dragged me off to Australia in 1967 this is an interesting and amusing read.

Here are the links  UK UK        USA USA

I hope you enjoy them. If you would like to find out more about my other books or even have a look at some of my pyrography, please visit my website.

Free BossyBoots

Hi all,
I'm a bit forlorn today because yesterday I did something foolish. If you have been following my post you will know that I have been refurbishing our bungalow for over a year. I am getting very close to finishing the job and yesterday I was taking up the hard and noisy laminated floor in the hall, so that we could have some nice cozy carpet fitted.

Anyway, while I was pulling it up I also managed to pull the muscles in my back. I can now hardly walk and its is uncomfortable to sit down. I guess I'll have to lie down on the couch all afternoon and watch the snooker. Ah well that's life.

However, there is some good news. The fact that I am laid up means that I have had chance to go onto my computer and arrange a free book promotion for this week-end.

The book is "BossyBoots" and it will be free on Amazon from Saturday 2nd of May 2015 until Monday the 4th.

More details about the book can be found here. If you down load a copy I hope you enjoy it and if you do a review would be nice. At the moment the book only has 2 reviews. One was written by a lady who enjoyed the story but didn't like the editing, which has been redone. The other review was by a man who liked it so much and raved about it in such a way it looks as if I wrote it myself. Indeed, if I had written the review myself I would have been too embarrassed to write about it is such glowing terms.

Anyway, the books is a bit different from the run of the mill stuff out there and worth a look even if I say so myself.

Crazy Paving

Hi All, For the last year I have been toiling away at refurbishing the bungalow that we moved into in January 2014. I have two rooms left to do but they will be easy compared with the landscaping that I have done in the garden.

Yesterday I finished the crazy paving so that is the last of the big jobs where bags of sand and cement are concerned. In my younger days I could carry bags of sand around without any problem but now that I'm 64 years old each bag seems to weight a tonne. I don't think the tablets that I am taking since my heart attack help either, statins seem to have an effect on my muscles.

I guess I'm starting to look a bit past my best because when I purchase the last bag of building sand from homebase, the girl on the till asked me if I wanted help to load it into my car. I guess that is milestone in ones life and a hint that it is time to take it easy and relax.

Anyway, this morning I lay in bed thinking nice thoughts about how that now the big jobs like the crazy paving were done I could rest my old bones and do a bit more arty crafty stuff. However, my dreams of relaxation were rudely interrupted by my wife as we ate our breakfast.

"I've been thinking," she said, "now that you've finished all the jobs in the garden, how about digging out a fish pond?" I don't think the female of our species likes to see a man with leisure time and it occurred to me that since I got married, my other half has thought up an endless stream of tasks for me to complete.

I haven't once and could never imagine sitting about thinking up jobs for my wife to do and perhaps that is the real difference between men and women.

Will she get a fish pond? I'll think about it.

By the way, the first of my books in the Fishing Detectives series, "Carp Rustlers" is free on smashwords.com until 4th of May. If you want a free copy details are on my website

Free: No Fishing In Here

Hi all,
I mentioned in my last post that I was hoping to make my book "Bossy Boots" permanently free on Amazon. I was under the impression that to do this I simply made the book free on Barnes and Noble, Amazon would oblige by price matching it if somebody e-mailed them to say that they'd seen a lower price. Well, I did all that and even got other people to report the lower price but nothing happened, so it was all a complete failure.

However, it did push me into reviewing who and where I was distributing my books with. I use Amazon for everything and have a selection of other books with Smashwords, D2D or both. Anyway, the upshot is that I have pulled some of my books, including Bossy Boots, out of Smashwords and D2D and have enrolled them in Amazon's "select" program, which will allow me to offer them for free for 5 days in every three month period.

To get the ball rolling, my collection of short stories will be available for a free down load for three days this week-end.

Some of the stories are sad while others are funny but they all involve emotions, including anger, denial and betrayal. So if you would like a copy, stick the dates in your diary and download a free copy sometime from the 17th to the 19th of April. I hope you enjoy its.

Perma Free

Hi all,
Giving away free book downloads seems to be a good way to let readers know about your writing style, especially if you have several books published. So, how do you go about it?

The most obvious way is to join Amazon select, by doing this you will be able to offer your book free for any five days in a 3 month period. However, this has its drawbacks, to be in Amazon select you have to make your ebook exclusive to Amazon, which means that you can't sell that book through Smashwords or D2D.

The other issue is that many books on Amazon seem to be permanently free. Because I'm a bit of a miser, when I'm looking for a new book I can't help but search through the free book offers on Amazon. Some are good and some are bad, but there are literally hundreds of them. After doing this several times over a period of months I noticed that the same books were always free, so how does that work if I only get five days through Amazon select?

I sent an e-mail and asked Amazon if I could make one of my books permanently free and they said no. So how do Authors manage to get their books on the permanently free list? Well if you have a book that is distributed through Smashwords or D2D here is how it is done in four easy steps.

Step one
Go to Smashwords and or D2D and change the price of your book to free.

Step two
Over the next few days keep checking one of the channels, ie Barnes and Noble, to see if they have made your book free. When they have, copy the URL.

Step Three
Go to your book on Amazon and in the details you will find a link that says "report a lower price" Click on this link and a dialect box will open asking for the URL of the website where you found it cheaper. Paste the URL you copied into the box and then answer the other couple of other simple questions they ask.

Step Four
Ask some of your friends to do the above just to nudge Amazon in the right direction.

Well that's the theory. My book, "Bossyboots" went free on Barnes and Noble last week and I reported it to Amazon so that they could price match it. So far it hasn't cahnged, but I gather that the process is a bit hit and miss.

If you would like to report a cheaper price for my book, here is the link and, if you've got a Nook reader, why not pick up a free copy for yourself while you are there.

Wise Words

Hi all,
Isn't February one of the worst months of the year. Spring seems almost within our grasp but the weather can't seen to get any better. Just when the sun feels as if it warm the cockles of you heart a blast of wind that could freeze a penguin's winkle hits you straight in the face.
 Still I shouldn't grumble, I have a half brother who lives in Finland and they don't get any nice weather until May and then it's down hill all the way from July.

My father, who passed away seven years ago, was born in February and, on his birthday, memories of him crowded my thoughts. He was the person who introduced me to fishing, a hobby that became a life long passion. If it hadn't been for him I would have been able to write several books on the subject.

He was also responsible for taking me and the rest of the family to Melbourne, Australia on an assisted package. I was was only sixteen years old, I didn't want to go but I thank him for the experience. Just recently I published a book, "The Reluctant Pom" which tells all about my time in Australia, a land that my father thought would be the place of our dreams, but turned out to be a place of poisonous critters. However, without my father there would have been no book.

Throughout my growing up years he would drill bits of information into my head, words of wisdom that would see me safe on my journey through life. Through the years I have been able to discard some of his opinions, but others I still cherish and indeed use them to ease my passage through life.


When I was an impressionable youngster, who still believed his father was the font of all knowledge, he was always drumming the same message into my head. The advice, he said, had been handed down from his father and would be invaluable to me on my journey through life. Here is what he said.
"Never believe what you hear, and only half of what you see."
I suppose these words sound like good advice, but be aware because they turned me into a cynic.
Then one day it dawned on me. If I'd followed his mantra properly, I would never have believed him in the first place.
By the way, if you want to check out "The Reluctant Pom" or any of my fishing books, more information about them and a free book offer is available on my website. http://www.shirewriting.co.uk/

Free Book

Hi all,
Just a quick one to let you know that I have made my latest book "The Reluctant Pom" free on Amazon.co.uk.

The offer only lasts for three days, so if you are interested in a free read grab a copy before midnight on Friday. Here is the link for the free book.