Journeymen Part Two

After a few weeks of pottering about after launching DLF I've started on my fifth novel - the one that isn't about slimming!  The new book is the second in the Journeymen series and picks up just after where the epilogue to The Journeymen ended, four years after the events at Jodrell Bank.  I'm not going to go into a lot of detail about the starting point as that would potentially spoil the ending of the first book for those who haven't read it yet.

In the new book takes a more global look at the secret world of Journeymen, Sons of Arlgon, colonists and, of course, the ever suffering IBs.  The uneasy balance of power between the Journeymen and the Sons has tipped in recent years to the point that the Sons are running for their lives - and mankind is about to take a turn for the worse as a result.  The tasking is nearly at an end and the Journeymen have more or less decided that they don't need to pander to the colonists anymore - there's a new world order coming that doesn't involve the historical heads of state. 

With the world poised to shift to a new autocracy something has to be done, and men have to stand up to be counted.  Watch this space for more details...

I Know You Are Out There - Sort Of

I've got to be honest, I assumed I was blogging to myself.  All the author sites say you have to blog (and use social media, la, la, la) to penetrate the market.  Anyone who knows me will realise that the social media pitch is unlikely to warm my heart - I do have Facebook and Twitter accounts but not for the reasons recommended.

To be fair, I tried for a couple of years to promote the concept of anti-social networking: I suggested www.getoutofmyfacebook.com and www.twatter.com, but nobody signed up - which is an indication of success given the remit, I guess.  In reality, once I'd gotten over the successful rejection of my anti-social networking ideas, I did sign up to FB (as it appears to be called in the hip posts), but mainly as a way of sharing photos of holidays and my daughter's wedding etc.  I signed up for Twitter because I heard a radio article that suggested that the good names were going fast - I was probably quite an early adopter but I've only used it about ten times.

But I decided to give the blog thing a go.  As I said above, I assumed nobody actually read my blogs and as a person who wouldn't look for or read other blogs it isn't surprising.  However, after writing a recent blog I found out that people are stumbling across the blog.  In the last month the stats are:

UK = 11 reads (probable some of mine in there)
US = 9 reads
Russia = 2 reads
Singapore = 1 read
Ukraine = 1 read

Additionally, but not in the last month, it seems that I've had quite a few visits from Canada too.  What has prompted me to record this data and post it is that over the last week I've seen an uptick in sales on the amazon.com website (as opposed to amazon.co.uk, which is actually quite flat right now).  I feel that it is quite difficult to stumble across books on the amazon sites so am amazed and flattered that people are spending their 99 cents (plus tax) on my wares and if you are one of those people then firstly I thank you and secondly (probably should be first actually) I hope you enjoy your read.

I don't know who you guys (and gals) are, or if you actually linger long enough to read my blog, or if you contemplate buying my books (plenty of links on earlier blog posts if you're interested).  If you do pass through my blog, please feel free to post a comment, if only to say you were passing through; or email me on raysullivan.novels@yahoo.com.  If you are spending your time perusing my blog and perhaps browsing the blurb on my books I'd love to hear from you.

I Don't Do Slimming Books

Two days after publishning DLF I looked on Amazon and found a fifth book published by Ray Sullivan - Parallel Lives, The Journeymen, Skin, DLF and a new one called fantastic methods for becoming slimmer.  The new book doesn't have a cover, is only 35 Kb in size (about a tenth of the size of most normal books), is priced way higher than any of my books (£3.44) and has a small amount of blurb.

Although it is irritating to have to share an author name I just shrugged and got on with life.  Then the other day I tried searching the Kindle Store for books beginning with 'Fantastic Methods' and found 8 almost identical books (in size, title, price, date published) but with eight different author names, including my own.  When I looked up the individual authors I found that they had books published on a variety of topics but all with, for example, a cover image.

I complained to Amazon that this was a little suspicious and suggested they investigate.  So far I'm on round two and they don't see anything strange - they believe the book is legit and published by Ray Sullivan, acknowledging that it is a different Ray Sullivan to myself.  Currently I've replied suggesting that if someone published a similar book claiming to be a 'J K Rowling' they would take it a little more seriously.

Anyway, just in case you look at my book listing, I don't write books on slimming!