Troubleseeker in Review for Kindle Scout Publishing

The third Troubleshooter installment "Troubleseeker" is now through the month long public scouting period at Amazon's Kindle Scout program. It is a strange feeling to give your works out of your hand for a while, not thinking about it. The next book is in the works and I almost had pushed Troubleseeker out of my mind. But then the "It's over" email came in and I checked the stats for the scouting period. Look not as promising as the "Five for Forever" period.

The hours in hot & trending were about the same, but "Five" had more double the view numbers than Troubleseeker. I like the series tremendously, as it is a very versatile and creative universe for me. But the reception so far for the Troubleshooter books had been more than luke warm, and of course I need to ask myself "Will there be another step forward in the series?" Or do we call it quits and concentrate on other projects? I have ideas for at least three more Troubleshooter novels, so writing them is not a problem. But the positioning is an issue right now.

All right, let's see where Kindle Press's review will lead us. A few more days then I will know.

Five for Forever, now available on Kindle

Now, that was a journey, coming to a start. My first romantic comedy is now live on Amazon, available as an eBook on Kindle since today. The print version is one step behind, but should also be available in a few days. 

My homage to the great movie "Notting Hill", just with kids involved. It is great to see it coming to live, being developed and improved, and then on the digital shelf. 

End of today saw the book ranking at #1500 in the romantic comedy genre. Come on! This can get better. 

28. June - Five for Forever Release date!

After a long wait, about 4 months of processing and editing —while I have already almost finished the next book—Five for Forever will be released on Amazon for the Kindle Platform and in parallel the reworked print version. This marks the next stage in the collaboration btw. Kindle Press and me, "It's live baby!"

Mark down June 28! Kindle preorders available. Updated print version of the book, available, too.

Kindle eBook preorder is available on Amazon.

Print available around the same time (no preorder)

Wordsmithing — from good to great...

Five for forever, my latest novel is out "ad-interim" as a print version on Createspace.com. The eBook version will be exclusivly available on Amazon.com's Kindle Press publishing house. Which brought me—for the first time in my life—a royalty advance, and a second round of editing service for free.

I had given the manuscript already to an online editing service, where I got a good compromise between cost and delivery. I had thought the editing already pretty solid, but the editing service of a publishing house brought it to a different level. Alone the experience and learning from that one second excellent edit gave me so many improvements to my own writing filter.

Let me give you three examples from what the editor improved, apart from spelling, grammar, or wording changes:

Point of view crosscheck: Each chapter of Five for forever is told from the viewpoint of another main character. I usually had a mix of dialogue and thoughts, where the thoughts usually commented the spoken word or action.

Consistency: My main female character Louise comes from simple upbringing. A few paragraphs later I described the same upbringing as a mix of poverty and violence. Daaat, buzzer noise! Was her upbringing just poor, or was also violence involved.

Readability: The main male character Rick's kids have regular names like Charles or Britta. Real life gives those kids nicknames or abreviated names. Charles is called Charlie and uncool Britta might become Bri. Even though this might reflect real life, the editor reminded me of a great writer's truth: a story is not real life, it is a story written in an intellectual abstraction on paper (tree-based or silicone-based). So the law 'Do not to confuse the reader' trumps the law of social interaction: stick with one name throughout the book, the nicknames only are accepted in extreme emotional situations or to make a point.

All extremely good advice! I love it! (Although I hate the editing process as such)