Revised Chronicles paperback now available

chronicles of marsh small version

This was embarrassing. I looked through the paperback edition of Chronicles of Marsh when it arrived in late October last year, and didn’t spot any problems. Imagine my shock and horror when I read through it before finalising Princelings Revolution and found several chapters with many of the paragraphs misformatted.

chronicles of marsh small version

Technical difficulty – seeing the editing box

It was all down to the need to format the paragraphs individually, in my paperback publishing system. If you want indented starts or a line between paragraphs you do it manually. Tedious but simple. Blurb has made many improvements to its BookWright interface over the years, but the font on screen is around 8pt, and you can’t enlarge the box. I’ve tried, including using the accessibility features.

Generally speaking, I can scroll down a mass of text and see where a paragraph ends. Then tab, and scroll on to the next one. I was either tired, or suffering visibility problems, because I missed a lot of them – mostly when the paragraph ended at the end of a line. Equally disturbing were the tabs in the middle of paragraphs. I’d obviously thought the end of a sentence was the end of a paragraph.

These are understandable mistakes. What I can’t understand is first, why I didn’t see this when going through the online proofing tool, and second, why I didn’t see it when I got the paperback in my hand.

Excuses

The only excuse I can offer is the stress of moving. I uploaded Chronicles on 2nd November. We were trying to complete the legal stuff (I desperately wanted it completed by 25th in order to qualify to vote in my new constituency). Eventually we completed on 13th December. First one hitch with my buyers, who were allowing me three months free tenancy, and then with my solicitors simply seeming slow. I think once Chronicles was out in all formats, I got on with the moving stuff.

But failing to check is no excuse. Unfortunately, Blurb will not adjust the book without issuing a new ISBN, so I’ve been through the pages on here changing the ISBN for ordering. The old version is now not available, but Amazon will probably continue to list it forever – but I did change the book information to say it was withdrawn, so I hope that helps.

Buy the paperback!

The Ingram distribution system is now rolling out the new version (ed 1.1) to all bookstores. It will probably show at Amazon, B&N, etc in a few days although up to six weeks is possible. You can order it by its new ISBN 9781715725402 at your favourite store. Sorry about that.

If you’ve already bought the paperback, it’s readable. But if you want to exchange it, let me know, including an example of an obvious formatting mistake (page number), and I’ll send you the new version via Book Depository.

Princelings Revolution Launch Tour – starts today

The Princelings Revolution Launch Blog Tour starts today with the cover reveal on my blog.

I’ve had to be careful about not showing the cover publicly until now, because I didn’t want to spoil the surprise. I expect people have got used to the ‘holding’ cover which Dani did for me last October, soon after finishing the Chronicles one. I’ve had the general idea for some time, even before finishing the book, but Dani gave it wings! Literally, as it happened!

I love the way she wrecked the castle, although I had to get her to go further and rip off the banners flying from the turrets! I copied her changes to make the last picture of the castle for the chapter illustrations.

But now we’re all ready to launch. The ebook is loaded on most of the websites, and I hope the paperback gets onto the online store files before the launch too.

The Blog Tour

I’m very grateful for everyone who responded to my call for bloggers and tweeters and any other way they would like to get involved with the launch. Officially the tour lasts for the duration of the Giveaway: 15th September to 23rd October. The generic link is to this blog, and the banner on the front page here links to this post. So anyone wanting more information can check out the tour stops here, and enter the Giveaway here as well if they wish.

This is the current schedule (may be updated).

and one to look out for on November 18th, a party with Patricia Josephine on both our blogs!

The Giveaway

If you meant to enter the giveaway or lost track of it, you can enter or catch up with it here. Entries close 11.59pm New York time on 23rd October 2020.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Buy The Book

Amazon~~~~Apple iTunes B&N~~~~Kobo~~~~Smashwords

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Princelings Revolution is finished!

Princelings Revolution, book 10 in the Princelings of the East series, is now complete. The cover is finalised, the illustrations are finished, and the editing done (although there is always some more fiddling one could do with it).

Book 10 pre-draft

The Cover

The one I’ve been using as the draft cover is roughly the same colour, but the final version is so much better! There will be a cover reveal some time in September. I’m hoping a few more people might want to join in with the reveal, so you aren’t getting a sneak preview now!

The cover is dramatic and mysterious, I hope! Just like the book. So you can judge a book by its cover!

The illustrations

I always start the chapter illustrations thinking ‘why did I give myself all this extra work to do?’

Several times during the process I think that again, and think I’ll never be able to produce a half-=decent drawing to illustrate X happening.

The process, roughly, is that I list the chapter headings, and their subheadings (which are a real help in this process). Then I go through jotting down ideas for what might be suitable subjects. Some are self-evident – locations, castles. Others are difficult, especially where nothing much happens visually but a lot happens in terms of plot! I usually have to find some sort of motif for those.

This year I asked my beta readers what they thought about my recycling images that have appeared in previous books. I’ve reused several pictures, some maybe too many times without an update. Some of my early drawings really show their age–and I’ve redone most of those I’ve reused. It’s good to know that ten years experience has improved my skill level!

There are 22 chapter illustrations this time. 18 have been newly drawn, or severely updated, on my iPad. Four are being reused as they are: two from Willoughby’s book (7), one from Princelings of the North ( 8), and one from the very first book! And I have at last done a completely new version of the Inn of the Seventh Happiness. It was a hard, intricate drawing before, and that hasn’t changed. It’s very difficult not to let it look messy. But I’m pleased with the results.

Here are a few teasers for you. There are three more in Jemima’s project update (click here). I’ve used the bridge there too, because I like it!

So, now to put everything together and upload it to the various ebook publishers.

Help needed!

If you’d like to help with the launch by posting a cover reveal, or a launch post on your own blog, please let me know in the comments below. All helpers will get a space in the Rafflecopter Cover Reveal will be mid-September, and launch date is 1st October. I’m doing a guest post on 7th October as part of the launch. I can do interviews, too. Whatever you’d like, in fact!

Pre-Order the book

Book 10 of the Princelings of the East series – Princelings Revolution – the final book in the series, is on schedule for publication 1st October 2020.

The planes are crashing, the people are angry at the changes and shortages. King Fred puts democracy to the test and finds it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.  There’s an organised anti-monarchy group called the Causists, and they are spreading false information which the people seem to believe. Things are bad—but they are going to get worse…

Will he even keep his head, let alone the promise made to Lord Mariusz at the start of the whole shebang?

The ebook is now available for pre-order a very special price at iTunesB&N, and Kobo. This special launch price is only for a few weeks. It’s also on pre-order at Amazon! (who might price-match, but I have no control of that).

Pirates Ahoy! Review copies available!

princleings and the pirates audio

The Princelings and the Pirates is now out on Audiobook!

princleings and the pirates audio

Check out the following estores:

If you don’t have a preference, I will only comment that the price on iTunes looks very competitive!

Can you do a review?

If you’d like a review copy, please email me for a code via the contact page, letting me know whether you want a UK or US version. If you are elsewhere and can buy from Amazon/com, try the US code. This code uses a specific web address for download; you do not need to be an Audible member, or log in anywhere. All reviews are gratefully received.

Talking of reviews, I also have review copies (uncorrected, and at present unillustrated) for Princelings Revolution. If you could read and review it for October, please contact me as above.