Monday 16 December 2013

REBELS & DESPERADOS -the 1st review

As an independent writer, I live for moments like this- the first review of REBELS & DESPERADOS.

By Jim Fraiser

It’s 1888, when a delicate peace exists between the Confederate States of America and the United States of America, the latter having been vanquished in 1863 after a Rebel victory at Gettysburg. CSA President James Longstreet manages a Confederacy that has freed its slaves, annexed California and taken north Mexico by force, calling it State of South Texas. Britain, still at war with France, controls Canada, except for a lawless region including Alberta, Montana and several other American and Canadian states. This area is called the Disputed Zone, or the Cauldron, a haven for outlaws, desperados, rebels and renegade Indians.
If this wildly creative setting is not enough to grab your attention (it certainly caught mine!) then the unique plot certainly will. It concerns the meanderings through the aforesaid hostile territories of CSA secret agent and train wrecker “Black” Judah Lee, his “dark angel” whore Bella, his compatriot Big Drake and Drake’s bigger wife Carmen, and Lee’s would be nemesis, soldier Lawrence Thorenson. Of course, the Mounties, Pinkertons as well as Confederate and American troops are hot on Lee’s trail, as he pursues a secret CSA mission. Along the way, there are shootouts, brothel sex (described once as “riding a wild bronco through a volcano”), elaborate duels, train and bank robberies, and much more wanton sex. Raunchy Western humor abounds, as with a character’s comment, “I’d f**# a snake if it had ears,” explaining that the ears would give him something to hang onto!
Injected into the fiction are historical characters such as Longstreet, his Vice President Nathan Bedford Forrest, and former CSA Generals Jubal Early and George Pickett, who wage one of this ebook’s most intriguing duels. And there’s the Confederate battleship, Jefferson Davis.
The body count and carnage are prominent characters in this wild shootout, and the dialogue is as salty as that of any other book ever written. But the action is non-stop, the story riveting, and the weird mixture of alternate history and western story such that I read the whole thing through in one sitting.
There are even accompanying maps and wanted posters to augment the wild men and often even wilder women. A few mis-steps occur to be sure, e.g., rare editorial lapses and the fact that Bedford Forrest was never such an elegant speaker. But this is fiction, after all, and alternative historical fiction to boot.
If you like a really wild west, a plot that moves like a nuclear locomotive, and well-drawn, bizarre characters mingling with real-life ex-Confederate generals, this is the story for you!


http://www.amazon.ca/REBELS-DESPERADOS-REBEL-EMPIRE-STUART-ebook/dp/B00FRKG91C/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1387232829&sr=1-1&keywords=rebels+%26+desperados

Wednesday 4 December 2013

An Indie writer- rants!!!


An Indie writer- rants!!!

There is no doubt that the advent of the internet has made self publishing for independent writers a new reality, however it's not always the easy and simple process its cracked up to be.

Publishing on Amazon Kindle direct- is very straight forward, as long as you've built your TOC- table of contents correctly. Amazon is more complicated if you have any images contained within the text.

My big hassle with Amazon was working out how to get paid. It was a nightmare that took weeks and dozens of emails to resolve. All the problems were related to electronic payments. Part of it was my fault, the rest I lay at Amazon's feet. These issues have now been resolved and I actually get paid for my work.

Smashwords is slightly more challenging and time consuming. I first uploaded my new ebook REBELS & DESPERADOS in early Oct. It sat in their queue for ten days, then was rejected for TOC problems. Funny the TOC worked fine at Amazon. They allow you to remove the TOC and their meatgrinder process will build one for you. OK, I did it again, and another two weeks for it to be reviewed and approved. Finally the book is approved and they begin to send it out to the vendors, such as Barnes & Noble, Apple, Sony and KOBO.

The book slowly begins to appear on the individual ebook vendors sites. After three weeks- while it had been sent to Kobo, it never actually appeared on KOBO for sale. Then I discover you can now self publish directly on Kobo and eliminate Smashwords as the middle man. Kobo uses a process called -Kobo Writing Life - very straight forward, my book was available within 24 hours of the upload, So why bother with Smashwords, hmmm, good question.

http://store.kobobooks.com/en-CA/ebook/rebels-desperado

Next it's interesting to compare book sale numbers. My book sales on Amazon outsell all the other ebook vendors combined  by a 5 to 1 ratio. Pretty clear to see where the money and exposure  is.

Since Smashwords will only pay me via Paypal it creates a whole new problem. Since my Smashwords sales are low, the quarterly payment is always just under $15. Guess what. You cannot make a withdrawal from Paypal for less then $15. So in effect I can never get that money.