Apologies for not putting out an Efanzine post lately, but most of the happenings in Ashbeck have been behind the scenes.
In two days time my charity DI Frank Lyle fan fiction Alternate Voices will be released.
I have been working on advance publicity and getting the paperback ready. This time I used Createspace and it has been a steep learning curve, but at least they check the files properly and the proofs are relatively inexpensive compared to Lulu.com who charge the earth and check nothing. You can even approve an online proof. Lulu sadly are not capable of such technologies yet. Of course you can pay Lulu.com to have it professionally edited and formatted but at rates precluded by an office cleaner’s salary, especially if that office worker also wants to eat that month.
I view the day with both excitement at the release and sadness given that I remember the death of my partner, David, seven years ago. I know where he has gone of course, given that I’m a Spiritualist, but that doesn’t mean the loss of a loved one is pain free, in fact far from it.
The anthology is to raise money for the work of Macmillan Cancer Support who provide practical help and support to people living with cancer in the UK as well as their carers and families. There is information about the charity in the back of the anthology and you can also visit Macmillan online
Due to the problems of not being able to use Amazon’s pre-order feature I have had to publish early in case of technical glitches and it is now live BUT I would like to ask readers not to purchase this book before Wednesday. The release date was chosen for a reason.
Alternate Voices is available to pre order from Nook, Kobo & Apple.
Alternate Voices - Kobo
Alternate Voices - Nook
Alternate Voices - Apple
It is expensive but please do remember that the royalties have to be split between 7 authors and a charity.
You can read brief bios of the contributing authors at the end of their stories but my good friend Tricia Drammeh is running a series of articles and contributor interviews all this week on her Authors to Watch blog.
Juliet's Alternate Voices interview
Tricia's Alternate Voices feature
You can also join in with the launch on Facebook.
You can participate in the launch event
You can like the official Alternate Voices page
You can join the Alternate Voices Supporters group
The official launch statement will be posted on my website on Wednesday.
As I may have said before I am slightly disappointed in the non participation of several authors I know, after all I was not asking them to take part during National Novel Writing Month, and if you’re stuck with your own work in progress it sometimes helps to write something else and take a break from it. However the 6 other authors have done themselves and DI Frank Lyle proud and it’s been extremely interesting to see what other people do with your own characters.
I am indeed blessed to have such quality stories and I’m especially thankful to Caroline Lee, who painstakingly produced black and white sketches for each story, which readers will be able to see for the first time when they buy the book. I am not displaying any of them here. Caroline’s story, Angels & Demons, made the best use of my characters and used a rather macabre method of murder, which I would never have thought of in a million years. Hopefully this will be a tantalising tit-bit to encourage people to buy but given that it’s a charity project to help others I sincerely hope that people will buy even if they have never bought and read a book by any of the featured authors before.
I look forward to seeing you all at the Facebook event. If you share or tweet this post please use the hashtag #AlternateVoices.
In two days time my charity DI Frank Lyle fan fiction Alternate Voices will be released.
I have been working on advance publicity and getting the paperback ready. This time I used Createspace and it has been a steep learning curve, but at least they check the files properly and the proofs are relatively inexpensive compared to Lulu.com who charge the earth and check nothing. You can even approve an online proof. Lulu sadly are not capable of such technologies yet. Of course you can pay Lulu.com to have it professionally edited and formatted but at rates precluded by an office cleaner’s salary, especially if that office worker also wants to eat that month.
I view the day with both excitement at the release and sadness given that I remember the death of my partner, David, seven years ago. I know where he has gone of course, given that I’m a Spiritualist, but that doesn’t mean the loss of a loved one is pain free, in fact far from it.
The anthology is to raise money for the work of Macmillan Cancer Support who provide practical help and support to people living with cancer in the UK as well as their carers and families. There is information about the charity in the back of the anthology and you can also visit Macmillan online
Due to the problems of not being able to use Amazon’s pre-order feature I have had to publish early in case of technical glitches and it is now live BUT I would like to ask readers not to purchase this book before Wednesday. The release date was chosen for a reason.
Alternate Voices is available to pre order from Nook, Kobo & Apple.
Alternate Voices - Kobo
Alternate Voices - Nook
Alternate Voices - Apple
It is expensive but please do remember that the royalties have to be split between 7 authors and a charity.
You can read brief bios of the contributing authors at the end of their stories but my good friend Tricia Drammeh is running a series of articles and contributor interviews all this week on her Authors to Watch blog.
Juliet's Alternate Voices interview
Tricia's Alternate Voices feature
You can also join in with the launch on Facebook.
You can participate in the launch event
You can like the official Alternate Voices page
You can join the Alternate Voices Supporters group
The official launch statement will be posted on my website on Wednesday.
As I may have said before I am slightly disappointed in the non participation of several authors I know, after all I was not asking them to take part during National Novel Writing Month, and if you’re stuck with your own work in progress it sometimes helps to write something else and take a break from it. However the 6 other authors have done themselves and DI Frank Lyle proud and it’s been extremely interesting to see what other people do with your own characters.
I am indeed blessed to have such quality stories and I’m especially thankful to Caroline Lee, who painstakingly produced black and white sketches for each story, which readers will be able to see for the first time when they buy the book. I am not displaying any of them here. Caroline’s story, Angels & Demons, made the best use of my characters and used a rather macabre method of murder, which I would never have thought of in a million years. Hopefully this will be a tantalising tit-bit to encourage people to buy but given that it’s a charity project to help others I sincerely hope that people will buy even if they have never bought and read a book by any of the featured authors before.
I look forward to seeing you all at the Facebook event. If you share or tweet this post please use the hashtag #AlternateVoices.