Re-launch of my books

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The cover depicted here may not be what you get. Do let me know what comes in the post if you order one.

The Horsepower Whisperer and The Wormton Lamb are still available on Amazon but I am re-launching both books with new covers. This is because I have finished writing the rest of the Soul Trader trilogy and will be gradually releasing two new books that continue the misadventures of Hob the Horsepower Whisperer and his chumrades.

If anyone orders hard copies of either The Horsepower Whisperer or The Wormton Lamb, they will receive a book with the old cover until any stock is used up. Any print-on-demand orders for The Wormton Lamb with Amazon should already feature the latest cover design. This has not happened in the past. I know that a relative bought a copy of The Horsepower Whisperer from Amazon last year and it had the very first ever cover, dating back to 2008. I am now up to cover number three. I can only assume Amazon ordered a stock of my books on publication and they may still remain on the shelves of Amazon’s warehouses somewhere. The whole point of print-on-demand, however, is to not have any stock. Each book is printed on demand.

I am frankly mystified.

I have begun the updating process with The Wormton Lamb because this is a stand alone tale in which some of the characters from The Horsepower Whisperer appear. The Wormton Lamb was the difficult second book so I’m starting with that one first this time around.

I will also be offering my stories as ebooks and the process of formatting them has begun but my internet banking doesn’t currently allow international payments and that’s how I would get paid because Amazon is US owned.

My website desperately needs updating. Bits don’t work and it’s not suitable for viewing on a phone screen. It really is that old.

Also, I am finding some limitations to blogging on Blogger. There are now more user-friendly alternatives and friends who blog advise me to switch to Wordpress for instance. That process seems to require setting up a new website.

Great. Is that going to be two processes or one? Can I be arsed right now when I should be editing parts two and three of The Soul Trader trilogy and being thwarted – suspiciously as if the Mithering Brethren are at work – in offering my stories as e-books?

That is without even mentioning my plans to offer my stories as audiobooks.

For the time being, both my original books will continue to be available as hard copies. Cover designs will gradually run out and the ebooks should be easy to upload once the accounting solutions present themselves.

Switching blogs should be straightforward but I am reluctant to try it since Engine Punk has developed a life of its own beyond my publishing endeavours. There are now over 170 Vintage Things and a few Fire Drakes among them, too. The comments and interaction these blog posts have generated has established many interesting connections and the stats can be fascinating.

At least, I am not starting from scratch.

I am sending out ripples into the data sea and twitching thread of the interweb. Converting that finding my readership is not as appealing as doing the writing.


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