Fake Reviews
Reviews, I often say, are important. I encourage reviews – even bad ones. However…. Yesterday, I happened to be on amazon and noticed a new review for my latest little ghost story book. Two stars and the text ‘Rubbish’. Yes – that was it. I clicked on the reviewers id and discovered that in one day the ‘reviewer’ had reviewed tens of Kindle books in the supernatural category. Several of mine and many of other authors in the genre. There was an intriguing pattern too. Book upon book by me and others all given one or two star reviews with a single comment – Rubbish. However, one author in the genre was the exception. All of his books were 5-star and marked excellent. Some, but not all, were also ‘verified
Read More »Audio, Audio
As a writer who publishes his own books, any way to get to an audience and make additional sales is of value. About 6-months ago I thought I would have a shot at audiobooks via ACX – Amazon’s audiobook platform. Today, I sold my 500th audiobook! I am reaching a different audience using the audiobook as well and I do think that is helping book sales generally. I am on for a record year and currently have 4 books in the UK supernatural top 50 including an audio book! The ACX program is a bit rigid but it is quite easy to navigate. Firstly, you sign up for your account and then you identify your books – those you want to create audiobooks with anyway. Then, you look for a
Read More »The Last Observer Revisited
The Last Observer – my foray into the novel or rather novella. A story in which I tried to explore the idea that nothing exists unless it is observed by a sentient consciousness. My hero, Stanley, was a man who read anything and everything in so doing, developed his imaginative faculties to such a degree that he in essence became a magician, able to create reality simply by imagining it although he didn’t know it. He was inadvertently dragged into a plot to reimagine the world by a group of evil magicians and was rescued by the hero – Edward. I re-read it recently and I still think its a quite good and certainly worthy of a read. I have also been working on a follow up on and off
Read More »New Interview
A new interview with Jim Harold for his paranormal podcast is now out….. Find out about my haunted life!
Read More »The Pink Bus And The Blue One Too
A little while ago, I put out a book of short stories called The Pink Bus. I think it is some of my best work to date, I had it nicely edited by a wonderful editor (Alienora Taylor) and on the back of a big hit in Your Haunted Lives (still riding high), I sat back and crossed my fingers. Despite a good give away, the book sank without trace. I was gutted. So, I thought I would try an experiment. We took the content, changed the cover and title and even the author name and re-issued it. The giveaway was better and my unknown pen name sold a bunch of books. It’s not a huge hit but its doing alright. So, what did I learn? I’m not sure. Was
Read More »Seeking Support
Crowd funding is all the rage these days it seems. So why not seek some crowd funding for my activities I thought and the more I thought about it, the more it seemed like a good idea. So here it is… Why not support me and my writing and blogging activities with a small monthly donation to the cause? Just $1 , $5 or $10 a mont is all it takes and you can sign up here. So what do you get for your hard earned cash???? For $1 per month – If you support my activities for $1 per month, I will invite you to my private FB page at The Haunted world of G. Michael Vasey. Here you will get previews, free stories from my books, discussion and
Read More »Review, reviews, reviews
I am always grateful for a review. They are the life blood of writing and writers. However (Yes, gripe following….) Could someone tell me why people request free books – any free book it seems, and then write a 1-star review saying “This was not my cup of tea”. To me, this is like kicking a gift horse well and truly smack in the mouth! You asked, you got, it turns out it wasn’t what you expected or it’s not the genre for you – so don’t leave a shitty review! I think I was brought up a certain way and I would NEVER accept a gift and then criticize it if it was say, women’s shoes! I would simply find them a more suitable home and be grateful someone
Read More »I don’t Get It!
There are many things that I simply don’t get. Selling books is one despite trying very hard this last three years or so to figure it out. Can anyone answer these questions? 1. If you have a hit book why does the next book that you write not sell? Yes, Your Haunted Lives has been in the top 10 in supernatural in the UK and in the US for around 3-months yet The Pink Bus (a book I think is my best work to date), isn’t selling at all. Is it about title or cover? apparently not, for I also put out the Pink Bus under another name with different title and cover with the same result. 2. Why can I not create a brand? I have strove to create
Read More »RIP The Pink Bus
The world of writing puzzles me a lot and hence my fascination I suspect. As of today, I have a #1 bestseller and several other books in the top 50 of one category or another. I even have a fast selling audiobook hit as well. Given that, you might think that a new book of well written, thoroughly entertaining, well edited short stories on the theme of life after death and what happens when we die, would have a great chance of taking off….. Well, after 3 weeks, I am forced to conclude the The Pink Bus is hereby dead. Just like Monty Python’s parrot. RIP The Pink Bus. Strange, as I really think its my best work to date as well….. Hopefully, the audiobook version will sell a little.
Read More »Don’t Quit Your Day Job
The book writing business is one of those where a very small proportion of authors make any money. The rest of us hope for pennies and must remember to stay focused on the day job if we are to eat. As of today, I have written some 27 odd books across a wide range of topics and my experience to date falls into several buckets as follows; Published by a publishing Company Some people prefer to be ‘properly’ published. I have several books that were properly published by a publisher and my experience is that for someone starting out, it simply doesn’t make much sense. Some publishers will ask you to help ‘pay’ for putting the book out and yes, I have done that. I will never recoup that investment. Others
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