Practice to Deceive: now half-price

Last summer (which in my brain, means summer last year, not the summer that finished a couple of months ago) I published Practice to Deceive via Amazon and Gumroad.

To my surprise and continuing warm feelings, people bought the book. I got some really nice emails. Some very nice Amazon reviews. I felt glad that people were digging it, and it was very validating to see the small payments I'd get from Amazon and Gumroad.

I also felt, after a decent amount of research, that I priced the book fairly at $8.99. It had taken up the better part of 2013 in terms of my writing; it was over 400 'real' pages in length (almost 130,000 words) and frankly... $8.99 ain't a lot. A month of Netflix or World of WarCraft. I was worth that, right? I knew I wasn't going to get rich, but I felt that if you picked up my book in a bookshop and saw $8.99 on the back, it wouldn't break the bank.

A year and a bit later, I'm changing my tune. Tomorrow (or whenever Amazon catches up) I'm dropping the price to $3.99. (The price is actually already changed on Gumroad - which sells the PDF version, if you hate Kindle - to $4. Yes, I know it's one-whole-cent more. I like round numbers where it makes sense.)

Why? The short answer is: the wacky pricing models on the Kindle store. Basically, there's no real market for 'higher priced' books. In a store where the slimmest of pamphlets (seriously - I'm talking about 15 page books here) can be priced at $2, a book at $8.99 in the land of the blind is king. Or something. In other words, I'm just too expensive. The casual buyer will just pass the book by and go look for something cheap to get their rocks off to. Why risk it, right?

So, there you go. It's cheaper. If you ever wondered "Should I buy it?" you're now able to get a full novel, packed full of the sexy disguises, kinky masks and the hot sex I love to write... for about the price of a decent latte.

(And yeah, I'm not going to $2.99. I have some standards, dammit. I'm worth the extra buck!)

To everyone who bought Practice to Deceive to this point: I want to say a sincere and honest thank you. You're all amazing people who made me believe that yes, people would pay to read my work, and I really, really appreciate it. Feel free to lord it over the latecomers.

If for some reason you've never heard of the book, or me, or are wondering "Why the hell is he going on about book pricing?" then feel free to read a few excerpts here, and then forgo that latte for one day, and buy my book instead.

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!

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...!