Today's the Day!

This is a big day for me. A very important day. The book is out, on Amazon, for download.

It's coming out WORLDWIDE, that is to say, you can buy it from the UK, US and European Amazon stores, which is very, very exciting. Ok, maybe I'm getting excited far too early and making a much bigger deal out of it than I really need to, but this is important to me, dammit! Let me have my moment, and then, in a week's time when the full disaster sinks in, I'll go quiet. And then never I'll mention it again. Promise.

So, what are you going to get for your money, and what do I get out of it? I suppose it's only fair, as I'm asking you to hand over your hard earned, that I give full disclosure. It's the first part of the first book, you're talking about 150 pages as written on a word processor - I honestly don't know how that equates in terms of Kindle size. I've got the free Kindle app from my iPhone, and you don't get very much on each page on a screen that size - so let's estimate about 500 pages for a phone app, 300 or so for the Kindle? Sounds a lot, but it's not THAT much. It also ends on a cliffhanger - well, TWO cliffhangers to be honest, about two of the main characters. There's also a third story strand that starts directly after the end of the first part, which will feature Freyi, a lovely young lady who is part of a group of mountain tribes people. Her story arc is the most tragic of the lot; nuff said about that at the moment, though. You can look forward to meeting her in part two.

We've agreed a price point of $2.99 in the States, and the cost in pounds and euro's will be directly linked to that. At today's exchange rate, that's about £1.89. I've agreed that 30 pence from each sale will go to The UK Cancer Trust. Sadly, me and cancer are a little too close for comfort, so this is a charity that's close to my heart. 30 pence might not sound a lot, but when you factor the costs taken by various other mediums, it's about 25% of my total earnings per book, so it's a fair sum, I think.

The purpose of this isn't to make a great deal of money - not at this moment in time, and not in this format. The purpose is to gain a foothold in the market place, a presence and slowly start to build what will, hopefully, become a full head of steam in the future, hence the low price point. Also, it's not right to charge full price for just the first part, dontcha think? ;o)

Which leads me on to the obvious point - why just release a first part and not the whole thing? Simple - I'm not happy with the rest of it yet, and it needs more work. I also think it's kind of fun to release it in two parts (maaaaaaaaaybe three, depending on size). It will, hopefully, create a sense of community, where "fans" can be a part of an on-going and developing story and will be eagerly awaiting the next installment.

The Price of Paradise is with Amazon now - I fulfilled my part by getting it to them as per the agreed deadline this morning. They're now just converting it to the correct formats, and making sure the whole thing is neither full of plagiarism or libel, and also making sure that correct DRM is added to it. Once that's all done (will be SOME point today, so I'm promised) then it will be available on their store.

I promise that as soon as it happens, I'll be back and will let you know - scout's honour. 

Thank you so much for everybody who's been asking about it, and also spreading the word, I hope you won't be disappointed when you finally get to read it :o)

Peace

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