5 Star Review of Forever Horse Trilogy!

I was so thrilled to receive a lovely 5 star review on Amazon of my Forever Horse trilogy from the wonderful Pony Mad Book Lovers. It is a huge boost for an author to get such great feedback!  You can click to read the review here.

The further mysteries of author discoverability, Amazon keywords and other stuff

Just updated my keywords.  Again.  I’d tried to be clever, bunching mine together as phrases, then read that you are recommended by KDP to use single words, which maximises chances of readers finding you.  Words that communicate the following:

Setting  - eg, stables

Character – types and roles – eg, single mum, strong female lead

Plot themes – eg, coming of age, forgiveness, redemption

Story tone – eg, feel-good, emotional, dystopian

So I set to work once more, thinking about themes such as loss, guilt, and secrets that pervade my stories.  I also hadn’t realised the need to use the actual word “preteen” in the keywords to get the books listed under the 8-12 category for search purposes. 

I’ve been so busy editing and writing that I’ve not spent a lot of time on marketing and promo.  Or blogging.  Sigh.  So hard to strike a balance.  I have 2 more horse titles I wanted to bring out before the end of September (more likely October now), plus a further title end of November (horse sci-fi!) and, hopefully, a completely new story end Dec/mid Jan. Phew!  I’m enjoying writing again and get excited about all the projects ; I'm in danger of getting severe writers bum, with my limbs stiffening and head buzzing.  Friends are neglected, yoga’s gone out of the window, I forget to eat, and so many things are being put on hold until I achieve these targets.  Maybe not so healthy?

The new Gemma series is selling steadily, so I’m quite pleased with that, and Joyrider is picking up slowly.  I’m so impatient – they’ve only been out a few weeks – but I really do need to devote some serious time to marketing, which I’ve totally neglected. 

There’ll be a sneak preview of the next two covers shortly, and I’m thrilled to be working with a wonderful illustrator who is producing the image for my November release.  (More on this soon).

Now, did I actually drink that mug of coffee I made over an hour ago?  And have I left the porridge in the microwave?

How do you cope with time management?

Related posts:
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/now-you-do-see-itmaking-your-book.html 
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/now-you-see-itbook-visibility.html
http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2013/07/amazon-algorithms/

What’s in a Name?

In April this year, J.K.Rowling had published a crime novel called The Cuckoo's Calling under the pen name Robert Galbraith.

The author was quoted as saying “Being Robert Galbraith has been such a liberating experience. It has been wonderful to publish without hype or expectation, and pure pleasure to get feedback under a different name.”

The novel was apparently submitted to editors under the new pen name, and was turned down by at least one editor.  After publication, the book received great reviews but less commercial success, with, apparently, only 1500 copies sold.  

Then, the author’s identity was “leaked” via Twitter and, unsurprisingly, within hours the book had shot to No. 1 on the Amazon best-seller lists in both Britain and the United States.

Hmmm..... 

Sources: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/15/books/a-detective-storys-famous-author-is-unmasked.html?hp&_r=1&

http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2013/07/what-jk-rowlings-pseudonymous-novel.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NathanBransford+%28Nathan+Bransford%2C+Author%29

Now you see it……book visibility, categories and Amazon ranking

Yesterday I spent 2 hours checking that the categories for my kindle books were the most appropriate and this resulted in changes in most cases.  I did the same for my search words. There was a reason for this.  One of my titles is selling much better than the others.  MUCH better.  And I still don’t know why. It is certainly more visible than the others – is this because it is selling better or is that why it is selling better?  Chicken or egg?

Beware of the Horse is ranked 12,476 of all paid books in the Amazon UK kindle store, which is fantastic. This means that it ranks 32 in the top 100 kindle store/books/fiction/children’s fiction/animals, which is turn means that it shows up on Page 2 of the top kindle books page in that category. For a while it was in the top 20, so was on Page 1. 

In the US, it ranks 40 in a similar list, so still appears on Page 2 (just) and its overall ranking in the kindle paid store is 30,867.  I pretended I was a reader searching for the book and clicked on some of the search options. For Children’s Horse Books, which yields 7234 results, it appears on Page 1. For kindle store/horses it is on Page 1 in the centre of the 2^nd row. Very noticeable! And in kindle store/ebooks/teen & YA/literature/fiction/horses it is the first book on Page 1 of 266 pages. Before War Horse, which is the second book!  Before you get too excited (I did!) this ranking is in terms of search relevance (not popularity or sales!!). Even so, in terms of visibility, this is a great result.

Yay! You’d think I would be a millionaire by now (ha ha!) if you knew nothing about the publishing process and the mysterious Amazon algorithms. Clearly, I’m not – you only have to look at the overall ranking of the book in the US, ie 30,867 to realise that.  

However, it does make you understand how important the categories are.  I wondered if the fact that the book appears in the Teen and Young Adult category for horses, which only lists 263 books in this group, as opposed to 798 for children’s horse books, is significant. 

To put this into context with my other books, which I promote more actively, the rankings as of yesterday (they change hourly) in the Paid in Kindle store are as follows:

Title                                                                                  Amazon.com             Amazon UK

Coming Home                                                                        423,201                 76,745

Matty & the Moonlight Horse                                          338,972                 85,325

Matty & the Problem Ponies                                             659,019                 48,935

Matty and the Racehorse Rescue                                    727,973                 57,135

You will understand why I am so pleased about the ranking of Beware of the Horse by comparison – and the enormous challenge of selling any books at all when the competition is immense – especially on Amazon.com, which is a much bigger pool.  Since I donate my royalties from the Matty Books and Coming Home to animal charities, I have a powerful incentive to drive sales.  The Matty series was the first I published, when I still had even more to learn than I do now, and sales were steady for the first few months but are now dropping off. When I checked the categories I had selected it was fiction/general and juvenile fiction/general, which is not exactly making the best use of my available choices.  There are only 2 categories for authors to select, but there are sub categories within some of these, so I have changed to Juvenile Fiction/Animals/Horses (which I chose for Beware of the Horse) and the second is now Pets/Horses for one title and Sports/Equestrian for the others.  Phew! I will monitor sales and see if this makes a difference. 

Visibility of the titles when you put horses or ponies into the search bar isn’t too bad for the Matty series.  However, I am really struggling with Coming Home, my cat story, which simply doesn’t appear for pages when you put cat or cats in the search bar.  I’ve tweaked my search words and changed one of the categories.  But I think the main problem is the fact I don’t have the word “Cat” in the title of the book.  Realising this after publication, I added a sub-title (The Journey of Two Special Cats) which helped a bit, but I will have to change the title of the book if visibility doesn’t improve.  (It did have a sales spike, after some frenetic promotion, but unfortunately this did not last long, despite the book having great reviews).

I have more marketing ideas and plans for all the books, and it is still very early days, (I’ve not had a complete sales year yet with any of the titles so far) and I’m determined to raise lots for the charities. 

What I love about indie publishing is the fact that you can monitor your sales and if you aren’t satisfied, you can take action. It is this element of control that I enjoy, and finding ways to get round obstacles. 

Recommended reading – Let’s Get Visible: How to get noticed and sell more books by David Gaughran.  More than recommended – this book is a must for indie authors and anyone interested in marketing for writers. I refer to it constantly. 

Related posts:

http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/the-business-of-writing-part-2-elusive.html

http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/marketing-e-books-for-children-update.html

http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/e-books-and-writing-for-children.html

http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/backtracking-lessons-in-indie.html

http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/e-book-sales-growing.html

Readers: Does Size Matter?

I’ve just had another Amazon review of Beware of the Horse. The reader rated the story “very good” and liked my writing style, which makes me happy.  But her basis for giving it only 3 stars was that the book was much too short.  In fact she described it as a short story.

I’m not sure how you would define a short story but for me, 67 pages and nearly 18,000 words is not a short story.  More of a novella (according to a publisher definition this will be between 15,000-20,000 words).  The book is aimed at pre-teens and teens, and I’ve been told can be especially enjoyed by reluctant readers.  (I’ve previously had stories published in collections for reluctant readers, and most of my novels for teens are around 26,000 words).  Other reviewers have said they read Beware of the Horse quickly and commented on the length so I have revised the description to make it clear who it is aimed at and now describe it as a novella.  I don’t want my readers to be disappointed or to feel cheated. But it got me thinking.

Do readers value a book by its size?  How big it is, how thick the width, how heavy the weight, how many pages?  Of course, with e-books you don’t have this tangible aspect of book buying.  (My recent post Reading Bigger Books refers to this). Pages aren’t numbered in e-books, so how can you tell how many there are? If it’s 800 pages do you expect more than if was 200 pages? Quantity equals quality? Would you expect a book priced higher to be better than a cheap one?  You get what you pay for?  Or does that not apply to books?

It is easy with e-books to have our expectations manipulated when there are so many books for free or less than £1. Recently, the bestseller Life of Pi by Yann Martel was on special promotion for 20p (now back to £2.84).  The large publisher behind it could afford to fund this but how can smaller publishers and indie authors compete?  By lowering their prices even more?  This kind of pricing strategy will eventually devalue books completely and the wonderful opportunities offered to indie writers by the digital revolution will turn round and bite us on the bum, so to speak.    

My e-books are priced between £1.95 - £2.98. Many e-books cost just 99p.  They could have taken 6 months or several years of work to produce.  What else can you get for £1.95?  Not even a cappuccino.

So what is my time worth?  If no-one pays me, is my time worthless?  If my book is available free, is it worthless? And how much does size really matter?

Related posts:

http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/is-book-simply-commodity-should-you-be.html

http://creatabot.co.uk/2013/05/12/twenty-dollars-worth-of-art-please-by-jane-ayres/

http://www.janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/reading-bigger-books.html

http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/lessons-in-indie-publishing-free-books.html

Is a book simply a commodity? Should you be able to get a refund on a book if you didn't enjoy it?

“The Kindle Store will provide refunds for up to 7 days for customers unsatisfied with their ebook purchases.”  Amazon.

As a writer, I have made my books available for free, as many authors do, and that is my choice.  I have donated royalties to charity. My choice. Similarly, like most writers, I have worked for free, and again this has been a personal decision. I have also downloaded ebooks that were on free promotion on occasion (although I generally pay for the ebooks I read). Whether or not authors should/shouldn’t offer their work for free is another topic for debate. 

But getting a refund for a book after you have read it?  That’s a different matter.  Yes, I agree if a book has been badly formatted or is full of typos there is cause for dissatisfaction (although hopefully this should have come to light when you checked out the sample pages of the book before buying).  And sometimes you might click the Buy button twice by mistake. 

However, is it possible to abuse the system?  Amazon say that they can check for serial returners and they would certainly have the data to do this.  After all, it isn’t good business for them (or the writers, of course).  Like many authors, when I read my sales reports there are occasions when a reader has returned one of my titles for a refund.  It would be really helpful as a writer to have some feedback on why this is.  In researching this topic, one author mentioned an average figure of 2% returns. More data would certainly be useful.  

I am making an assumption that the returns rules apply because of the consumer protection law for distance selling. After all, the Amazon policy also applies to paper books, in which a reader has up to 30 days to make a return, so this is not really an issue about ebooks. However, what concerns me is the basis for returning a book. What if it is formatted correctly and well-written but you don’t like it?  Has anyone ever taken a book back to a bookshop on the basis that they didn’t enjoy it? 

Is a book simply a commodity? Can we apply the same argument to other “creative” items.  If we don’t like a piece of music we get a refund on the download or cd?  If we’ve been to the cinema and we thought the film ended badly, do we insist on a ticket refund? What does this mean for creative producers like writers and composers? Is it right or fair?

If you are a writer, reader or a creative producer, what do you think?    

For a range of viewpoints check out:

http://www.change.org/petitions/amazon-kindle-e-book-return-policy-stop-allowing-refunds-on-e-books-after-e-books-have-been-read

http://www.the-digital-reader.com/2013/04/03/theres-no-need-to-change-amazons-kindle-ebook-return-policy/

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/607956-amazon-returns----we-need-to-take-a-stand

Related posts:
http://creatabot.co.uk/2013/05/12/twenty-dollars-worth-of-art-please-by-jane-ayres/
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/lessons-in-indie-publishing-free-books.html

Lessons in Indie Publishing: Free books and the mystery of Amazon rankings

Six months ago I indie published my first backlist series (Matty Horse and Pony Adventures) and worked very hard indeed to promote the titles, especially since I donate all the royalties from this series to Redwings Horse Sanctuary.  I took part in the Amazon free promotions to gain attention for the books and encourage reviews.  I'm not sure how successful this was, but after months of work the books are selling steadily in the UK,with few sales in the US and other territories.  When the books were on free promo I contacted the various sites that will highlight this and listed the books.

Very recently, I published another backlist title called Beware of the Horse and offered it free for 2 days. I did no promotion whatsoever for this on Day 1, other than tell my partner.  To my utter astonishment, the free offer resulted in downloads in all Amazon territories (a first!).  On Day 1 the book was listed as No 22 in Amazon.com teen literature fiction e-books in Top 100 bestseller category
http://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Kindle-Store-Teen-Literature-Fiction-eBooks/zgbs/digital-text/6064561011/ref=zg_bs_fvp_p_f_6064561011?_encoding=UTF8&tf=1#2

and already has one review (4 star)  and in the UK, it made No 9 on the Kindle children's ebook (animals) category for Top 100 free bestsellers.  These categories are updated HOURLY.

I'm utterly baffled.  I should hasten to add that although listed in the best seller category the books have been downloaded a total of 255 in all territories, so not even in the 1000s.  But obviously I am thrilled that it made those lists because it brings the books to more people's attention when they are in those Amazon  categories.  Is it the cover design?  Chapter titles?

So what is the lesson I have learnt?  Well, when I started to write this post it was about the value of free promos - what is the point?  There is a thought-provoking blog post about this topic by Russell Blake over at http://russellblake.com/new-year-new-hurdles-opportunities/ which discusses how useful the KDP Select free program is for authors, and whether or not Amazon has changed the algorithm so free downloads count as even less towards ranking on the popularity lists.

"From what I can tell, free now has 5% or less of the impact on ranking than it originally did, meaning that if you don’t land in the Top 40, you won’t see any bump in sales. I believe this is because Amazon dislikes free as much as many authors do. It served its purpose, but now it’s hurting sales and has created an environment where a certain segment of readers no longer buy books they might have, preferring to download free books instead........On December 27, there were 43K books free. You’re reading that correctly. 40 might see a post-free bump in sales. The other 42,960 titles won’t, and the authors either wasted their time or saturated their own market and diminished their likelihood of selling anything."

This got me thinking.  Can you saturate your own market?  I believe you can.  Can offering free books harm rather than help actual sales?  I will be monitoring actual paid sales of my latest title with great interest.  So far, it's still in the top 40 for paid ebooks in its own category and the US sales to date are more than any of my 6 other ebooks combined.  I'm puzzled, but not complaining.  And I'd really like to know what has happened that has achieved this result so I can duplicate it!

Related post:
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/the-business-of-writing-part-1.html

Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award

So now Amazon e-books are also available in Brazil and Canada!  Publishing is certainly a dynamic industry - I wonder what 2013 will bring?

I also heard about the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award which will interest lots of writers. The link is 

http://www.amazon.com/Breakthrough-Novel-Award-Books/b?ie=UTF8&node=332264011

In a nutshell, it's an "incredible opportunity to win a publishing contract with Amazon Publishing. Now in its sixth year, this international contest promises to be the best yet. 

One Grand Prize winner will receive a publishing contract with an advance of $50,000, and four First Prize winners will each receive a publishing contract with an advance of $15,000. 

We’ve expanded the categories to include five popular genres: General Fiction, Romance, Mystery/Thriller, Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror and Young Adult Fiction."

Entries must be submitted between January 14, 2013 and January 27, 2013. The contest is limited to 10,000 entries, and they will stop accepting entries after they have received 10,000.  

Wow!  So for everyone who successfully completed Nanowrimo, this is a fantastic opportunity to edit those 50,000 words and push them even further. 

This gives me an incentive for completing Nano in 2013! 

Backtracking: Lessons in Indie Publishing Part 2 – Cover Designs

Before I launched my titles on kindle, I kept reading how crucial it was to have good professional cover designs for the book.  Amazon is my shop window and the first thing people see is the cover design.  If they like it, hopefully they click on the thumbnail to find out more about the book.  If they see it has some good reviews then they might scroll down to look at the book description.  Then, hopefully, they will click to look inside, or download the free sample.  The overall aim is to get the reader to buy – not easy when they have so much choice!  I studied best selling books, and also the popular titles in my category (horse and pony stories for teens) to see what other writers did.

I played about with some stock images myself before contacting the designer I now work with.  I’d recently had some A6 cards printed to promote my author talks and was introduced to stock photo image sites, where you pay to use an image you like.  What a revelation!  So I chose a few images I liked and then played with some typefaces.  I soon realised that I was not the right person to create the cover – and it was a lot harder than I imagined! 

The designer I chose to collaborate with was someone I had previously worked with, on other design and marketing projects, so I knew we could work together.  However, he had not designed either print or digital book covers before, so this was a first for both of us. We had a meeting where I spread out many of my existing backlist paperback books on the floor and outlined what I wanted my new covers to do, and what they should evoke.  I also stressed that I wanted the trilogy to work as a unit, and to have a recognisable “branding” which I believed could be achieved from the typography.  We looked at the stock images I had chosen, then Klaus went off and started work.

I have to say that when he emailed me the first pic, which I was first saw on my blackberry phone, I nearly cried with emotion.  I loved it! 

With the whole set of 3 titles, I especially like the way the font choice links them, and also the  silhouettes, which I had specified,  and the white constant of the orb moon and sun which also connects them.  My favourite is the 3^rd title, Matty and the Racehorse Rescue. I think the dark blue background combined with the lightning by the jumping horse, and the subtle rain beating down,  really creates the perfect atmosphere for the story.

Despite my long history of being traditionally published, I had never, for any of my many titles, been consulted about the book covers, which is standard practice unless you are a big name author.    In some cases this resulted in a cover photograph which made it clear that no-one involved in the process had read the book or been given an accurate brief, since both the horse and the girl looked completely unlike the descriptions in the book, ie your character is blonde but there is a dark haired girl on the cover, with a chestnut horse when the heroine’s horse is grey.  Some covers I had liked, but many I didn’t, and since they are the first thing people see when thinking about buying a book, you feel helpless and frustrated if you feel the cover doesn’t do it justice. I have also worked in the Sales team of a major publishing house and the sales reps, when they visited the book stores, usually sold the titles on the basis of the proof copy of the cover design before the book even existed.

So for me the most satisfying aspect of the indie publishing experience has been the element of choice and control over every aspect of the book’s production.  

What about lessons learned from the process?  We had a few issues around the resolution of the images but the beauty of publishing to kindle is that you can go back and change things as many times as you like until you are happy with the result. I have realised that there are downfalls to using stock photos.  The one I chose for the first title, Matty and the Moonlight Horse, was a horse silhouetted by moonlight.  I loved it – and so do other authors!  Only 24 hours after I had launched the book, I came across another writer who had also used the design for a book with a similar title!  I felt my stomach lurch.  Bad luck or what?  When I had calmed down and compared the two, I could see that Klaus had sufficiently tailored his design (adding and subtracting elements) to differentiate the two, but the similarities were still apparent.  Next time, I won’t be using stock photos.  I have found an amazing artist and think I will make a bigger financial investment and have original illustrations in the designs.  This, luckily, wasn’t such an issue for the next 2 titles in the series.  I had seen a photo I liked for the cover concept for Matty and the Problem Ponies, but the girl in the photo was too old, with long hair, and the horse too big.  So Klaus worked to change that.  

He says, “I think the hardest bit is finding suitable images to start with. The Problem Ponies was tricky. I think I’ve got about 40 layers in Photoshop where I've merged water and ripples and shadows and highlights and girl and hair and so on! For The Racehorse Rescue, in the end I had to find an actual image of someone and trace round freehand in Photoshop and fill with colour to make silhouette.”

Because of my strong belief in the importance of the cover design, I have given the designer a credit both in the kindle edition of the book, as expected, but also on my book description on Amazon. And everywhere else I publicise the books. I have not noticed any other writers who have done this.

(In fact, with a series of mini short story collections for adults I currently have on kindle, the business model I am using to work with the designer is a 50/50 royalty split.)

Everything we have both learned from the process should inform us when we work on the next few titles and hopefully it will result in some even more stunning cover designs, especially if we incorporate original illustrations.  I love working with a professional designer and seeing the pictures you imagined  in your head finally made real is truly thrilling.  

Related posts: 
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/taking-stock.html
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/adapt-and-survive.html

http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/validation.html
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/backtracking-lessons-in-indie.html
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/e-books-and-writing-for-children.html
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/breathe-indie-publishing-from-experts.html
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/backtracking-lessons-in-indie.html

Matty and the Problem Ponies is FREE between 7th-11th November

Just giving a heads-up that Matty and the Problem Ponies is FREE to download from 7th-11th November. 

Aimed at children, teenagers and nostalgic older readers, Matty and the Problem Ponies is the second story in a exciting trilogy. 

Matty has a new pony. 

Sweet. Placid. 100% in every way. 

Well, at least that’s what the ad said. 

Luckily, Matty likes a challenge. Which is just as well, because this will be a holiday to remember….

Now that fun-loving Matty and her intrepid teenage friends Spike, Gina and Ronnie have got a pony to share they no longer have to call themselves the Ponyless Club! The gang look forward to meeting a new member when Matty’s glamorous penfriend, Silke, comes to stay for the holidays.

Unfortunately Silke isn’t quite what Matty had expected and seems more interested in Mark, Matty’s boyfriend, than the horses and ponies! It takes a lot of Matty’s time to keep an eye on her, when what she really wants to do is help the others with Comfort, their new pony, who is not quite as perfect as they were led to believe. In fact, Comfort is turning out to be more of a problem pony and Matty’s hopes of competing in the local show look increasingly unlikely.

But little does Matty know that a twist of fate will bring her back into contact with Snowstorm, the beautiful pony that she loved and lost - and this time, Matty isn't going to lose her again. Even though getting Snowstorm back seems like an impossible dream.

Available from www.amazon.com and www.amazon.co.uk


All profits from sales of these books are going to Redwings Horse Sanctuary
                   
http://www.redwings.org.uk/

The future of book shops

A friend who has just returned from a 6 week trip in the US read my blog post yesterday http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/how-do-we-hear-about-books.html about how we find books and made some interesting observations.

"The change in the US was dramatic since I was there 4 years ago. In 2008, Borders had huge bookshops that doubled up as centres for students to write essays, friends to meet and chat over coffee etc. My favourite was just off Union Square in SF. I recall it being open until 11 pm or even midnight. It was 3 or 4 storeys high; huge. Such a lovely, contemplative and creative atmosphere. All gone. The only bookshop I saw in the States was in a small university town (San Luis Obispo) and Chicago airport.   By contrast, coffee shops seem to be doing even better than 4 years ago. In some Starbucks, there are long, old fashioned wooden tables for people to place their laptops side by side to each other. A good, communal atmosphere."

Although I have noticed how in the UK we have lost more and more bookshops overs the years (and this trend started well before the advent of e-readers) I didn’t know the extent of this elsewhere. After libraries, bookshops used to be my favourite places, yet since I began using Amazon, and especially since I got my kindle, I don’t go to bookshops very often now.  I’m reading more, though, because I can download books so easily onto my kindle.   What will happen to books if bookshops disappear?  This is currently being much debated.    So I was very interested to  come across this article in the Huffington Post, which put forward this opinion:

"Instead of killing physical books, ebooks have actually encouraged a new level of fetishization of the printed page. Beautifully made editions that sit as objets d'art on the shelf or coffee table, are becoming more prevalent.”

I know from recent discussions with a publishing consultant, who works with writers to produce indie published print books, that her business is booming right now.  And another publisher I have previously worked with is developing a range of special edition print books that can be cherished for their quality and aesthetic appeal. I’ve always believed that print and ebooks can complement each other and encourage more people to discover the pleasures of reading.

You can read the full article here – very thought provoking. 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/29/ebooks-new-age-print_n_2040602.html?utm_hp_ref=books

Related posts:
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/adapt-and-survive.html
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/how-do-we-hear-about-books.html

Matty and the Moonlight Horse is FREE to download from 19-23 October!

DON'T FORGET  - Matty and the Moonlight Horse is FREE to download from 19-23 October on Amazon.

Aimed at children, teenagers and nostalgic older readers, Matty and the Moonlight Horse is the first story in a exciting trilogy. 

Meet Matty Mathews.
Thirteen years old. 
Pony mad.
And pony-less.

Until a midnight encounter with a mystery horse. Life’s about to change for Matty …..

Available from www.amazon.com and www.amazon.co.uk


5 STAR REVIEWS!

All profits from sales of these books are going to Redwings Horse Sanctuary
                     
http://www.redwings.org.uk/

5 Star Reviews for Matty and the Moonlight Horse

Reviews are hard to get and lifeblood for a writer, so imagine how thrilled I was to read the latest review on Amazon for Matty and the Moonlight Horse, which says, 

"In this book, Jane Ayres has created a pony novel which manages to combine the best of both traditional and modern pony stories. It will appeal to a wide range of readers, both youngsters and oldies re-visiting their horsy youth. A definite cut above the average teen pony story!"

Read the whole review here - and please buy the book, which has just been reduced in price for a limited period, as all royalties go to the Redwings Horse Sanctuary. Thanks!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/B00942U36G/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1


Related posts:
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/guest-post-eleanor-mcfarlane-and-chester.html
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/interview-with-gemma-carnell.html
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/matty-horse-and-pony-adventures-on.html

A Library in my Handbag

When I was a child my favourite place was the local branch library.  It was just a five minute walk from my home and, amazingly, it is still there 50 years later when many libraries have since closed. An avid reader, I would go there after school and scour the shelves for anything about horses, ponies, boarding schools, girls’ adventures and the supernatural.

After I had read everything they had on these subjects for my age group, I progressed to the bigger central library, a huge, old building in the town, a 2 mile walk each way.  I proceeded to devour everything there.   By now, I had added horror stories, vampires and ghosts to my list.  I was allowed six books a week on my library ticket.  Only six.

Much later in life, when I went to Sussex University as a mature student, and the library there quickly became my new favourite place .  It was amazing, stunning, overwhelming.  Paradise for someone who is inspired by books, and who loves research.  When I wrote my degree thesis I got so distracted by the sheer volume and choice of texts on offer to me that my research went off on many tangents!  This was pre-internet and nowadays I would compare it to browsing on Google or Amazon.   I usually went home on the train carrying lots of heavy books, my bags weighted down.  I was only limited by the sheer physical constraints of what I could actually carry.

Fast forward 25 years to the kindle.   This neat little beast is portable, light and actually fits into my handbag.   I’m not restricted by weight, or a maximum number of books I can borrow or buy.  It offers me all the delights of my own personal library.  I can read what I want, when I want.  I can explore non-fiction, poetry, novels, stories – everything my heart desires.  If only such a thing had existed when I was studying.  I could have conducted all my research without even leaving the house!  

Related posts:

http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/on-books-and-reading-and-pony-books.html

http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/why-do-libraries-matter.html

http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/on-ways-to-read-book.html

My blog featured on Digital Books Today

I am thrilled that my post about using a kindle has been reposted on the brilliant website Digital Books Today.  
You can find it here http://digitalbooktoday.com/2012/09/23/lighting-my-fire/

Matty Horse and Pony Adventures on kindle!

I have previously posted about my Matty series shortly being available as e-books and you can now buy them from Amazon.  Click on the links on the sidebar. 


I am donating 100% of my royalties for all three books to the Redwings Horse Sanctuary http://www.redwings.org.uk/


Originally published in 1998, the first book, Matty and the Moonlight Horse was translated into Swedish, Norwegian, German and Finnish, and was later available in the USA, in paperback.   The second in the series, Matty and the Problem Ponies, was similarly published in 2000.  Matty and the Racehorse Rescue was published in 2002 and translated into German, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish.  This is the first time it has been available in the English language, and the kindle versions are the first time readers have been able to buy all three books in the UK. They are aimed at pony-mad pre-teen and teenage girls and are drawn from some of my own experiences.  

The series starts with Matty and the Moonlight Horse.  Thirteen year old Matty and her fun-loving pony mad friends Ronnie, Spike and Gina work hard at the local stables, mucking out, sweeping the yard and grooming the ponies, hoping that Miss Pugh, the world’s worst riding instructor, will allow them a few rides.

Then impulsive Matty sneaks a ride on Snowstorm, a stunning new pony who she instantly falls in love with, much to the fury of his owner, Mark, and his domineering father. Matty wonders if she will ever get a pony of her own – especially one like Snowstorm.

So the teenage girls come up with a plan – to work even harder, pool their savings and earnings and buy a horse together.

One night, when they miss the last bus home from the cinema, they take a short cut through the graveyard, which they soon regret – until, at the stroke of midnight, they have an unexpected encounter with a mysterious dark bay horse.....


The mystery, action and adventure continues in Matty and the Problem Ponies and there is more drama and danger in the thrilling final story of the trilogy, Matty and the Racehorse Rescue, also available from Amazon on kindle.

Related posts:
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/guest-post-eleanor-mcfarlane-and-chester.html
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/interview-with-gemma-carnell.html

Lighting my fire

Names matter.  They evoke, suggest, depict.  They create atmosphere and emotion.   

I give things names.  I label them.  It gives them life, personality.  My Samsung notebook is Nettie.   My red Citroen C4 is Belinda.  Don’t ask me why.  When I looked at her parked in the space outside my flat I just knew she was Belinda.  Why not a French name for a French car?  Who knows? 

I have not yet named my Kindle, however.  Because I think the name given  to my e-reader is sufficient and, actually, perfect.   I love my Kindle.  It wasn’t love at first sight, not at all.  More of a slow burner,  appropriately.  But the word, Kindle, is so apt and clever.   It suggests igniting a fire, and also kin (ship), family.  Familiar.   After initial scepticism and the assertion that it could never replace the feel, the texture of a paper book,  I now read more than I ever have for years.  I still love books, but there’s definitely room for both, as the reading experience each offers is both different and complimentary.  What is so appealing about the Kindle is the fact that you can have so much on the one device and I can chop and change between essays, novels, non-fiction, etc.  It suits the way my brain works as my mind often jumps about when I read.  At the moment, I am simultaneously reading Amazon’s free guides to publishing direct on the kindle; a novel by Douglas Kennedy called The Moment; First you write: the worst way to become an almost famous author by Joni Rogers; and a recent discovery for me, Living, Thinking, Looking: essays by Siri Hustvedt,  which marries my fascination with philosophy and neuroscience. 

This leads to the other aspect of e-readers that excites me – I can see a book on Amazon that interests me and a few clicks and seconds later, I am reading it.  I often download a free sample and then go on to buy the book.   My appetite for reading is now almost as voracious as when I was a child, which delights me greatly.  The fire has been rekindled.

Related posts:

http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/on-books-and-reading-and-pony-books.html

http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/on-ways-to-read-book.html