The Whole Gamut Publishing

Can you spare five minutes? First of all, a big thank you to everyone that left a review or rated The Pink Herring – I really appreciated the feedback. I’m lucky to have a very good average rating for the book (4.75 out of 5 stars) for the forty or so reviews I’ve received, but this represents less than 5% of the total books sold. It might not seem like much but the average on Amazon is just 1.5% per book sold. 

What competition? Last month, I opened a competition to give away three copies of my book, The Pink Herring . It was a competition with a difference - the prize wasn't for the applicant, it was for them to give as a present for someone they thought would appreciate it.

What's on offer? As we head into the festive season and work on my second Shaun Young novel, The Nor'easter  comes to a conclusion, I'd like to offer three people the opportunity of receiving a signed copy of my debut 5-star novel, The Pink Herring  (reviews can be found here .)

For the first three months, I published The Pink Herring exclusively through Amazon's Kindle Unlimited scheme. It remains available through Kindle as an ebook, but it has now been published as an ebook on...

Tom & Corrin meet for the first time at the party - even the Ray-Bans were a match Are we really just six steps away? There have been many reports that support the concept -  science  papers, Microsoft adding weight to it, not to mention a game called The Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon where inebriated students try to link him to another actor through their co-stars in six steps or less.

Pink Herring   ©   Simon Royer - Natural History in Art I've heard of a red herring, but what the heck is a pink herring? After setting the title of my book, The Pink Herring , I did some research on the use of the term. The results were sparse, but very surprising.

... and I'm falling helplessly down it . So, I published The Pink Herring at the end of March intending to spend a small proportion of my time on marketing activity - the majority devoted to working on the next book. Two months on and guess what? I have managed the exact opposite of that proportion...

Well, this was a first for me. Tonight, I was invited to be the star attraction at The Blackrock Bookies, an Irish book club hailing from just outside Dundalk, County Louth in the Republic of Ireland. The members include,  From left to right:   Anna Capplis , Grainne Hoey, Ruth Sands,   Margaret Moynihan , Patricia Keenan, Michelle Reidy . Missing from the picture are Anne Donaghy and Brigitte Nelson .

Following feedback from some early customers , it was becoming clear that not many people could see that the front cover was actually a canal bridge at night. After speaking to Tim O'Rourke, he suggested a change to the cover that more closely followed other books in my genre. Tim suggested a variant of the lady in bed that appears on the new front cover which I bought from Shutterstock. I went through a similar process of editing the picture to give it a dark, pink-red sheen and added my brand of titling.  The original cover depicts a scene towards the end of the book; the new portrays the start with the original now on the back. I think the finished article looks good and a quick straw poll of random reviewers confirmed it. Let's see if I makes any difference to sales... Please feel free to share this - go on, hit the button of your choice...

This was a trailer I made for the book launch. This was my first attempt using iMovie which is an excellent tool for novices such as myself. What do you think? Please feel free to leave a comment or share this post - go on, hit the button of your choice...

I wrote this article for LinkedIn to explain how I got into writing fiction after taking what turned out to be rather a long sabbatical from the corporate world...

And here it is folks! Wow, to actually hold it my hands -  this is a very special day. The quality is surprising good for a print-on-demand product. The pages are well printed and have a nice feel to them - the page turn is easy and pleasant to the touch. The cover art is terrific, front and back, and the book has a weight to it, making feel like the substantial tome that it is. It may be childish and probably won't last, but I can't stop putting it in my bookcase along side my literary heroes. Heaven... Please feel free to share this - go on, hit the button of your choice...

Check it out... Finally, the day comes to let it loose upon the world . I have spent a few days sorting out the Word formatting for the eBook and the paperback and a few more getting the cover art correct for them both. Like anything in life, it's all part of the learning curve; once in it should stay in and makes things easier the next time around. I can't tell you how great it feels to actually see your work up for sale on a platform as huge and professional as Amazon. The process of signing up and getting everything uploaded has been fine.  I didn't need to use a helpline as it was all pretty straightforward. The difficult bits are choosing price, keywords and making the decision to actually do it. I ordered the paperback as soon as it was live, which was actually a few hours before the eBook was ready. Apparently, it will arrive the day after tomorrow. Can't wait... Please feel free to share this - go on, hit the button of your choice...

The final cover. I had a clear vision for the cover art. I wanted the book cover to reflect a scene from the story, towards the end where things take place under a canal bridge.

Today, I received back the eagerly awaited second editorial review from Janet Laurence. I love reading the overview first, to see where I've done good, but is always followed up by the but...

Finally, I said enough is enough and called the latest update to my manuscript Final 2nd Draft. That's it, for now... I decided over the summer to take Tim's advice about self-publishing, having heard another horror story from a friend's wife who'd gone the traditional publishing route and desperately wishing she hadn't. By taking this decision though, means that I need to ensure the finished article is as polished as it possibly could be. To that end,  I contacted Janet Laurence who did such a fantastic job the first time around and she agreed to take it on again. The manuscript has grown in size to 125,677 words and ground an extra couple of chapters but it is far, far better read. Having acted on all the feedback I had from the first draft, The Pink Herring now reads like a professional novel and I am even more proud of it. Let's hope Janet thinks the same...

Having sorted out what I need to re-write , I decided to head down to France. Mum and Dave were back in the UK leaving the house in Beaulieu empty and ready for a writer in residence. I drove down on the 23rd August into blisteringly hot weather. After about 12 hours I reached the house, via the local Super U to pick up some food and drink, and the temperature was still in the high 30's. Mum and Dave's place is in central France, in the middle of a rural district. It's picturesque and quiet, apart from the odd tractor trundling by. The silence is uncanny. Nothing, no sound at all. After the first day I realised that this was not true. There were no artificial sounds, just the glorious sound of nature.  The view from the back porch is stunning - vast open skies that seem to go on forever. If I can't get inspired to work here it will be because I'm simply overwhelmed by the stunning beauty of the place. I soon found a routine. I rise...

With the first draft completed, I turned to the business of getting the book published.  I'd done a lot research about the best route to go, but with the rise in the number of writers generally, finding a publisher was not going to be an easy task.

Lynda and Tim O'Rourke A few weeks back, my daughter Rachel mentioned that her friend, Joe, had a father who was a local independent autho r , Tim O'Rourke . Joe kindly offered his father's services to me, through Rachel, should I need any advice about self-publishing. Are you kidding? Of course I'd like to meet him.

My good friend, Charles Ricketts, agreed to read The Pink Herring and give me some critical feedback. I've known Chaz for over 30 years and we share a love of reading, particularly science fiction. He has pointed so many great books my way over the years: