Now is the time for... reviews!

I thought I was being so clever by putting A Lie Within A Lie up for pre-order! Buying myself all that extra time. Which is why my body decided to contract flu, keeping me bed-ridden for a few days and effectively losing me all that time I had stored up.

Well, shit.

That also slowed down my rollout/building for the new GhostlyWriter.com - but it's coming, honest! (Have you given me your email over there? It'll be worth it.) And God willing, even if it looks a bit crap at the edges, it'll be live on Thursday too.

But that's not what I'm here to talk about!

Right now ol' Ghostly might well be on your mind. You might even be thinking nicely about me! Which is lovely. But thinking about me don't pay the bills! (Nor does selling books, yet, but one day....)

While you're thinking those nice thoughts, however, you can channel them in a productive and really, really helpful way! That's right, you can write a review of Practice to Deceive or Her Smile, or even both, over on Amazon!

Why does this help? Well, Amazon is all about algorithms. Books with more reviews get seen more often! If those books get seen more often, I might make more sales! Which means I get to buy that gold-plated horse I've always wanted. Did I say horse? I meant mask. Did I say gold? I meant, uh... water? Whatever's cheap.

I know for a fact that waaaaay more of you have bought a book (at least dozens!) than have left a review. And I know that it's a hassle and a chore, but it really really helps me.

So while you're waiting for Thursday: write me a review! I'll remember you in my will.

And hey if you write reviews maybe I'll even have something to give you when I'm rich and famous.

A Lie Within A Lie release date....

... should be April 14th. This is Part 1 of A Lie Within A Lie.

The book's going through Amazon's clearing process now. Assuming it doesn't get flagged, it'll be live for pre-order in a day or two.

Edit: They're quick. It's live now for pre-order.

Why pre-order? It gives me another 10 days to continue edit Part 2, so that hopefully part 2 comes out soon(ish) after Part 1...

Also worth noting: A Lie Within A Lie will be Amazon-exclusive for 90 days (at least). That means if you're a member of Kindle Unlimited you'll be able to download and read it free (yes, I still get paid, but it's based on you reading rather than a flat fee). After 90 days I will probably shop it elsewhere.

I'm still planning a paperback, by the way, but I've not done that before so I have to learn the process.

Last but not least... now is as good a time as any to mention that ghostlywriter.com is a thing that exists.

EDIT: There might be some confusion so to be completely clear. A Lie Within A Lie: The Singer - which is Part 1 of the complete story - is out April 14th.

A Lie Within A Lie: The Spy is Part 2, and that'll be out... when it's out. (About 40% done editing. It's about twice the size of The Singer....)

Title reveal, possible publication and more

It's the last day of March! Dammit, better give you an update. I'll try to make this quick. Especially for whoever left a 'Dull' reaction on my last post... ya dick.

Title!

The official title for what was long known as 'The Babysitter' is.... A Lie Within A Lie.

(I know, a little pretentious sounding, but what can you do? I love this title. I'm not going to call my books 'Seduced by a Masker' or 'My Wife, The Man' or something. I have some principles! I shall take them to my pauper's grave!)

There's two books, as I've said a few times before. Book one is subtitled The Singer. Book two is subtitled The Spy. Figure that one out.

Release?!

Good news! Book one is done. Like, done done. Like, Kindle-ready-done. Like, I could put it live on Amazon this week... done.

Bad news! Book two is not done. And book two is twice the size of book one. Like, 100K words. So it's taking a while to edit! I am ploughing through (roughly one-third done) but it's taking time.

So here's the question to you: do I...

a) Release A Lie Within A Lie: The Singer ASAP and leave you hanging for a bit on The Spy?

or

b) Hold off until both books are done (I hope a few weeks, max...) and then release both at once so you can gobble them up together?

or

c) Do whatever the heck I want.

Feel free to cast your vote below in comments.

Cover!

With a name, I have a cover! And I have a pretty image of said cover! So here it is. Oooooh. And yes! If possible this will be a paperback. Just think of it, right now, as a virtual one.

Oooh it's a book innit.

There's one more thing but I'm saving it. Just wanted to get this out before April 1st so you know, you believe me.

Practice to Deceive now available as a PDF

Last week I pushed Practice to Deceive to Amazon Kindle, and this week I'm expanding to PDF format via Gumroad.

PDF is a near-universal format these days, so if you have any reservations or concerns about buying the Amazon Kindle version, then this is a good alternative.

As a bonus, because Gumroad's terms are a little better than Amazon, I'm turning those savings over to you. A whole dollar saved! Yes, if $8.99 was just too rich for your blood... pick up Practice to Deceive at Gumroad for $8.

(Oh and sorry you don't get a cover embedded on that version. Had to compromise somewhere!)

Practice to Deceive (AKA Housesitting) now available on Amazon Kindle

I'm proud to say that my first masking novel, Practice to Deceive (known for a long time as Housesitting) is now available to buy for Amazon Kindle. Here's the cover art:

The book is available from just about every Amazon site - here's a few links:

Buy Practice to Deceive at Amazon.com - $8.99
Buy Practice to Deceive at Amazon.co.uk - £6.17*
Buy Practice to Deceive at Amazon.ca - CDN $8.99
Buy Practice to Deceive at Amazon.de - EUR 6,68
Buy Practice to Deceive at Amazon.fr - EUR 6,68
Buy Practice to Deceive at Amazon.co.jp - ￥ 800

You don't need to own a Kindle to read Practice to Deceive! You can download free Kindle reading apps for your PC, Mac, smartphone or tablet. (I proofread on my iPhone!) More details here. You can also download a free sample of the book (or read it online) to see if it's your kind of thing.

I will be looking into releasing the book on other platforms and formats, but for now, I just wanted to create this post to allow everyone to know the book was live and able to be bought. I hope you enjoy!

UPDATE: Practice to Deceive is now available as a PDF from Gumroad for $8. If you have any concerns or problems with the Kindle version, there's the (first) alternative!

* Sorry my fellow Englishmen, I tried to get the price to a round number but Amazon doesn't mention they add VAT to ebook prices after submission!

Housesitting is awaiting publication, and is now called...

... after much deliberation... the final name is...

Practice to Deceive

I just submitted the final 'manuscript' to Amazon Kindle Publishing. It should be live (and able to be bought) inside 12 hours or so. I'll check tomorrow, and assuming it all went well, I will update with an official BUY NOW post. However if you search for the title (or 'Ghostly Writer') you should find it. If you buy it before I make my post, I'll give you a virtual hug.

With a publication date of June 29th, I'm sure no-one's surprised when I said it was coming 'in June'  it ended up being practically the last day of June...!

BTW, I do intend to publish in other places so you have various options, but Kindle's probably the biggest marketplace so I thought I'd start there.

Feels weird to have done this! More tomorrow....

First Kindle book live (no, not that one)

I'm dipping my toe into the waters of e-publishing, and those are deep, fast-running waters. Metaphors aside, I wanted to basically try out Kindle publishing to see how the process worked. It seems to be relatively simple, so I went ahead and threw out my first 'book' (even though it's just a short story).

Some of you will have already read 'Her Smile' - it was first released when MaskFiction.com existed, so it's probably 13 years old. However, it may be new to some of you. And now you can buy it for 99c (in the US, at least) and a similar price all over the world. So click, if you're interested:

Buy 'Her Smile' from Amazon.com

Buy 'Her Smile' from Amazon.co.uk

What this means for Housesitting is that I'm one step closer to getting it onto the Kindle, at least - although that's not the only place I expect to publish it. Good news right? We're getting really close...

I will say one thing as an aside - if you do actually buy Her Smile, even if it's just to be nice or whatever - please leave a review! You can create a new Amazon account if you feel embarrassed or whatever. (I think you might even be able to use pen names on reviews.) Ultimately it'll help my sales and to get the book known. Fair warning: this is the 'mild' level of begging. When I do publish Housesitting, you'd better believe I'll be desperate for reviews...!

... so where the hell is it, then?

Over three weeks ago I told you I'd finished the first draft of Housesitting (which, day by day, is less likely to be called that, just FYI...). So where the hell is the book, right?

Well... life got in the way.

If I'd sat down and consulted a calendar I'd have realized that March was always going to be insanelu busy, and lo, it was - and even in the times/places I was hoping to sneak in a bit of editing and rewriting, it didn't happen.

Something else weird happened, too: when I actually started looking at the book, for a while, I kind of hated it. Went through a period of "What the hell have I done" and general guilt and self-loathing.

However, then I managed to get it onto my phone (via Kindle) and got it readable. And now, you know, I'm starting to see where I need to edit and how I need to tighten it up, etc etc. Which is good.

Still a road to go. But I'm about ready to get back on it. Perhaps another date will motivate me.

Market research

You may have missed my previous mention of this, so let's recap: almost any* piece of writing I release in future is going to be sold, not given away.

Thanks to the meteoric rise of ebook publishing, this is a hell of a lot easier to accomplish than it might have been even five years ago. It's almost literally click-and-publish now. That's great news for folk like me. All my efforts, all my hours and days of writing can be easily converted into a format that can be sold to you directly and discreetly. Heck, if you want a paperback book, you can get one.

Apparently though, I'm late to the party - real late. I went for a casual search on Amazon tonight and found absolutely boatloads of Kindle books with tags like 'transgender', 'crossdressing', 'erotica', 'hardcore'... and so on.

Here's what I find interesting though: a lot of these 'books' aren't even that. They're barely short stories. Many of them are less than 5,000 words in length - I've written multiple chapters in Housesitting that are more than 5,000 words in length. The first chapter is over 5,000 words! I've got transformation scenes that are almost 2,500 long!

And many of these 'books'... are selling at 99c each.

That's not my plan. I plan to complete a novel (arguably, I already have) and I plan to sell it at a similar price to what you'd pay for a paperback (of a similar size) in a bookstore. I aim to give you damn good value for money. Trust me, there's very little 'fluff' in what I'm writing.

But I'll tell you this; it's damn likely I'll put some of my earlier, shorter pieces (Beneath the Veil, Psych, maybe Her Smile) online for sale soon. Why wait? Time to dip my toe in.

I would love to hear your opinions on this. Are all of us just chumps? Should every mask fiction author be selling their work, rather than just giving it away? Let me know here in a comment or by email.

* Anything that doesn't involve characters created by others. In other words, none of my fan fiction (which is, ultimately, is what BBSSG is) will be sold.