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A free sample of the Jon Lymon novel Seller V this close to Christmas? Does that still count as Christmas coming early? I’m shocked when I return from a prolonged visit to the bathroom to find a different guy standing beside the filing cabinet with the middle drawer open. He’s smoking a pipe which is daring as smoking is banned in the apartment block. “Put that out!” I demand at high volume, but the guy’s unflustered. “Get in,” he says, pointing a long forefinger at the filin

A good few years ago now, there was I, watching the evening news, trouble in Syria and the like, then on comes an item about JK’s new book. A big close up of the cover on screen and an interview with the author.   Now, the cover’s pretty bright and I’m sure the book’s very good. I’m also sure the Potter series deserves all the plaudits it’s got.   But is the BBC news the place for this sort of thing? Is it news? Or just blatant promotion?   The Beeb is supposed to be impartia

How many new books get uploaded to Amazon or Smashwords every day?Thousands.Every single day of every single week. Thousands of books by unknowns, wannabe's, those on the road from anonymity.And every single author reckons their work has the chance of becoming the next big thing, the next number one seller. Yet 99.9% of these will sell nothing, or next to nothing, which is, like, 1, isn't it?Insurmountable odds. Ridiculous in fact.You have to be deluded to think you are goin

In the pro prologue versus anti-prologue debate which is raging precisely nowhere as far as I can see, I’m definitely on the pro side of the fence.   Many of my books have one, nay, positively need one, to set the scene for readers. Some of my books boast several prologues, one of the benefits of being self-published ie, I can do whatever I like!   But I don’t like my prologues too long. Anything longer than 5 pages and I’m itching to get to the main thrust of the action, the

Just to repeat that for SEO purposes, Jon Lymon’s new novel Dead Headz is in production. Ground has been broken on what promises to be an epic.

Having been on somewhat of a zombie book reading frenzy over the last couple of months, while writing a new book with zombies called Dead Headz, I’m in a good position to recommend a few best zombie books that fans of the genre might want to check out, if you haven’t already. And yes, this post will end with a promotion of one of my titles that heavily features zombies. This more salesy part of the post will be well sign posted.   Autumn: The London Trilogy by David Moody Now

Dear [insert name here] Sorry. Sorry for not always being there physically. And sorry for sometimes being there physically but not mentally. Sorry for trying to grab every moment I can with my laptop. Sorry for using the printer at half one in the morning. Hopefully, I'll soon be able to afford a quieter one. Sorry for regularly disappearing upstairs for short periods, or dipping my head into my phone. I'm not up to anything dodgy, just checking my Kindle Reports and D2D dash

What a way to start the working week - a free sample from Last Writer Sitting: My hair had grown long and greyer, even white in places thanks to the stresses of the year, with the luxury of a haircut something I couldn’t entertain as regularly as I used to. My daughter had offered to step in and snip, but my loyalties lay with the brilliant Lucio’s barber shop just off the high street. Cuts there gave me a rare chance to converse with fellow males away from the enclosed world

Sportsmen have long accepted injuries as part and parcel of their trade. Even touring musicians have had their fair share of incidents on stage (usually falling off it) – think The Edge and Dave Grohl in recent years.   Unlike their sporting counterparts, and to their eternal credit, neither of the above performers were seen rolling around in agony following their pretty serious injuries. Grohl, in particular, proved the legend he is by living out another showbiz legend: the

The Diamond Rush, my first novel, has built up a cult following since being published in 2012. And by cult I mean small, niche.   The early drafts of the Money Star were written while I lived in a flat above a pub on Leather Lane, the next road west from Hatton Garden. And it's on Hatton Garden, down an alleyway that you could easily walk past if you didn't know it was there, that this gem of a pub can be found if you look closely enough. Here's the view from the street. You

Fellow self-published authors generating but a handful of sales. You are not my enemy. And I am not yours.   It is those who populate the top tens and top hundreds of the sales charts that we must aim for. It is their readership we want. Authors with agents fighting their corner. And hardbacks bearing their name. Authors with readers in their thousands who default to their titles because they’ve heard of them, or they've read something by them before, or a friend has said 'yo

That’s what every self-publishing author is up against.   Because every day, hundreds upon thousands of people are uploading their novels, truly believing their work is better than everyone else’s out there.   These are books that, but for the advent of e-publishing, would have remained in bottom drawers, under beds or just as computer files in 99.9% of cases.   But now they are all out there, some with half decent covers to dress them up. Some written by people who’ve never

Before bigging up the writing in Autumn: The London Trilogy by David Moody, I’ve got to mention Aubrey Parsons, narrator of the Audible version of this trilogy whuch I listened to. He can’t half do an impressive range of different regional UK accents, an absolute necessityfor this multi-character trip through England's capital city post apocalypse.   Moody certainly knows his streets of London, like a cabbie post The Knowledge knows the streets of London. And having worked in

'If what's happening in your scene is what's happening in your scene, you're doing something wrong.' It's vital to give people something to read in between the lines. Somebody much cleverer and more successful than I once said or wrote words to that effect. And ever since, I've tried to heed them. It 's all about subtext, innit? Reading between the lines. Having two people just talking about what they're talking about doesn't make for interesting reading or viewing. There's g

A great time to read a free sample of Flying Ant Day, as I'm writing a second book set in the same world - look out for Dead Headz, in...

You finish draft number eleventy or whatever. Buy the latest Writers And Artists Yearbook and trawl through the pages of Literary Agents, trying to work out which is least likely to reject your book. Or do you? I did it with my first 3 books, but since I quite frankly couldn't be arsed. It 's not just the waiting that put me off. Three months of nothing, followed by an almost guaranteed rejection in the form of a curt, mass produced email or letter, I can handle. I'll just fi

Book Gargantuans.   Book Promoters Extraordinaire. Book Blimmin' Big Balls Agents. There are plenty of people (companies, entrepreneurs)...

A pulsing cursor on a blank screen. Fingers hovering over the keyboard. Ideas swilling around your head. Where. To. Start? Writing the...

A paper cut to that flap of skin between thumb and forefinger. An errant hair plucked from your nostril. A blunt stake driven through...

Knowing which date is best for book sales is always helpful, especially when you're deciding when to run ads. I don’t use AI in any way...