Wednesday, 21 September 2016

My very own Bookstore


A little while ago I discovered a new start-up that call themselves HummingbirdDM.

  • They have created a customisable retail outlet for anyone to sign up for. 

It is an eBook and audio book store which supplies content from all the big publishers like Penguin, Simon and Schuster etc, all the best-sellers in digital format delivered by a free app to your device.

  • The store owner: you, will earn money from the sales of books via your store.

The front page is customizable by you, the store owner or you can ask the friendly guys at Hummingbird to assist you. Hummingbird provide regularly updated streams of best-sellers which you can use for your default front page, or you can select the genera you like: Romance, mystery, non-fiction, westerns... the choice is endless.

  • They also offer the opportunity for writers and authors and the creators of audio books to upload their works to the retail database and have an opportunity to sell to readers, also. 

I decided to join them as I like the idea of earning money from selling books and also I like to be able to expand the markets and retail outlets of my own books.
You get a good chunk of the retail price when books sell via your store. Their contract is written in clear language and appears to contain no 'gotcha' clauses so I can recommend them for that reason alone.

  • How do I get paid?

If you are in a country outside the USA (like me) You may like to try Payoneer as your bank account to receive your income. This link will earn us both money and get you signed up to the best way of receiving overseas funds I have yet to discover. 
Check this opportunity out, I think you may find it exciting.

Publishing Alternatives

Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing
has benefited many authors, but now many small scale authors are beginning to suffer from Amazon randomly cancelling their accounts. Amazon, instead of finding and deleting the accounts of click farm scammers, is removing the publishing accounts accounts of hundreds, maybe thousands of small self-published authors who, at one time or another, actually had a book or two bought by a scammer click-farm account.

Some people I know who have had this unfair deletion of their accounts and books by the retailer have despaired and quit writing and publishing altogether.

This causes me sincere frustration and I’ll share with you my reasons why.

Part the First:
Over the past 50 years and more, professional publishers worldwide have packaged and sold books by millions of authors in different ways, depending on where in the world the sale of the books were made. Global book sales areas and pricing were tightly controlled.

Many books available in the USA were not (and never will be) for sale in most countries around the world. Those that are, frequently sport a different title, new cover art, a different price and at times a different publishing imprint/publisher title and even a different author name.

Kindle Direct Publishing is set up to allow this custom to continue. Any author can publish as many versions of their book as they want with as many cover art designs as they want, under any pen-name they want, in any language they get translations for and they may conveniently select specific countries for these particular versions to be sold in at individually designated prices on page two of the KDP publishing page, the pricing page.

THIS is what this pricing detail for regions is all about. Hands up if you have never used this feature.

Now the fact that most self published authors fail to take advantage of this opportunity to diversify their book offerings and to focus more appropriately upon book packaging customs, marketing and memes of one country over another is their fail.

Big publishing houses do this all the time, it is standard publishing practice.

Part the Second:
The second aspect of the equation is this: KDP have cancelled your account in your author name or your publisher name forever. So you can never self-publish again, right?

Wrong.

If you have one or more series of books now is your opportunity to diversify your offerings and reconsider your written assets now your mind is freed from slavery to KDP. 
What written assets do you have? 
How might you best release them to the readers, now that you have them all available at once? 
Do you have short stories that add content to a novel? 
Poems and songs to add? 
What about images? 
What about picture books and elegant printed books to accompany the eBook? 
How about mixing up the order of the series? 
Republishing using themes or common character links. 
What about writing one or two linking books?

Usually a writer will publish a series of books piecemeal as they get written, it’s only after the fact you can look back and say, 'Golly, I’ve got a series of five books there and the covers don’t match, and one cover is really actually crap and I never liked it, I just had to rush into print that week and didn’t get around to getting another cover made for it and it’s never sold as well as the other four….'

Now you can get a cover artist to make series covers for them all, covers that make them look like a series, covers that are beautiful. Covers that feature your new pen name and new titles for the books. The content is the same, you are re-packaging your IP, your precious content can be on sale and sold in new markets.

What new markets? You may bleat, where? KDP did everything for me, I don’t want to have to think!

Here are your opportunities to grow and spread your wings to make your books available for sale worldwide and you can even get your book back into Amazon.com.

What’s that? How? Why? Where do I sign up?

Part the Third:
There are some people with their heads out of the deep sands of KDP who are looking around at the other opportunities the digital publishing world has to offer. I have friends who have made a lot of money in the iBook store, or on Google Play, for instance. I have heard of many other opportunities for authors to sell their books. There is evidence that Kobo sales are picking up as Kobo has risen to become second largest retailer of eBooks. 
So how do you get into these markets and then find your way back into the beloved folds of Amazon.com?

First of all be prepared to plan your marketing strategy the way an international publisher would.

I regard all the different eBook retailers as separate countries. This is because not many readers have more than one eBook reader or device. Most people read on their kindle or kindle app, their kobo, or kobo app; on their iPad using the iBook app or using their eBook reader app of choice for android devices.

I’m not a typical example as I have and use both a Kindle and a Kobo. I also use Calibre and the Kindle app. I use the iBook reader on my phone for epub files. I’m a reader, writer and publisher, so I think I’m a little different than most book readers.

Separate access and aggregated access to these different markets is available and as you will see, Kindle is only one retail country. It is a retail country which does not sell to all nations in the world and sells only to people who have credit cards: The fact is, that alone severely limits the numbers of customers KDP can provide to you. Amazon’s service areas and terms (Credit Card only) limits the number of people who can see and buy your book.

The book retail countries:
In each of the following you can publish with a different pen name, different book titles, new beautiful covers and different key words in your metadata. This is not illegal, you own the rights to your book, it is absolutely normal in the publishing world to repackage books in this way for different markets. If you search for classic novels like Pride and Prejudice for sale you will find dozens of editions simultaneously for sale from dozens of publishing imprints, some owned by the same publisher.

1. Streetlib.com  Based in Italy, this book aggregator distributes your books into Amazon KDP, Google Play, the iBookstore and Kobo. Also into foreign language library and ebook sales services like Tolino. Their interface is a bit clunky but is improving all the time. They may be all you need to rescue your future as a writer from the trash can. Streetlib.com  
NB: it's probably a good idea not to distribute books with the same author and title or publisher name as the account which KDP just deleted… just saying… but you may not be noticed, so test the water.




5. Smashwords.com (distributes to the iBookstore and others) If you are using a book template, all Smashwords needs you to do differently is bookmark your chapter headings instead of style theme chapter headings.

6. Draft2digital.com also distributes to the iBookstore and other systems.

7. http://hummingbirddm.com/  Join this new start-up to set up your own international bookstore with your own books and audio books for sale as well as hundreds of thousands of big publishing house's publications for sale alongside yours. 
Earn income from the books you sell which you get to choose what features in your bookstore. Then you can link to the bookstore on your website, your blog, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, your YouTube channel and so on. The bookstore comes with it's own audio book playing and book reading mobile app. It's pretty cool.
Here's a link to My Bookstore so you can see what one of the hummingbird book stores is like. 

Audio Books:
The latest audio and video market which pays well, (perhaps better than ACX (Amazon) or iTunes does and it wouldn’t be hard to do that) is YouTube. Since Google has started paying content providers, all you have to do is get your views and subscribers above a certain level and you will receive payment for your customers listening for free to your full length audio book. As an example the rather good full length audio book of The Martian is on YouTube. Anyone can listen for free and the content provider gets paid while you watch the ads.

Part the Fourth:
Money: I recommend Payoneer as a great way to get paid from these markets. The service provided by Payoneer gives you a US bank account number (or European account number) and payments made appear on a personalised Mastercard which you can use at home to pay for any services you would normally use an EFTPOS or credit card for. Costs $29 U$/year and you get $25 bonus cash the minute your balance goes over $100. This is my Payoneer affiliate link: sign up using this and we both earn $.

Part the Fifth:
Marketing:

“Because my KDP retail links are cancelled all my existing FB pages/tweets/tumblr/Instagram/ Google+/blog posts/blog links – waah everything is useless that I set up for my marketing!”

Yes, that’s true. Be a phoenix and rise from the ashes as a bird better equipped to fly. Unpublish/hide your blog posts until you can update them, ask bloggers who are hosting guest blogs to unpublish them for the moment and once you have your new published book links, simply re-write all these promotional materials with the new sales links in them.

Discoverability: by Kris K Rusch Discoverability Marketing series by a Mistress of writing and great information about being a professional author.

This series is well worth you perusing for gems: Just realise that Ms Rush is not likely to have her KDP account summarily cancelled, so she is writing mainly for people who are aiming to market in the US KDP market. Although I believe she does sell her books wide. You will need to extrapolate her very valuable ideas to include the rest of the world in your packaging and book marketing planning.

Remember that while this is a lot of work, it is work that you have done before. Plus it is getting your books in front of new readers who have never found you before and who will eagerly read you.

Amazon have done you a favour, this time you have a chance to start over new and fresh and not mess up your book release timing. This time you can set up your marketing well, find new beautiful covers, write new professional blurbs and have fun with your book release program.

Go forth into the world: have an exciting time and make money selling your books.

Tuesday, 23 February 2016

Indy 500 writer

Introducing David Turner, Television Producer and abiding fan of the Indy 500, a spectacular sporting event which celebrates their 100th race this year.
I am assisting David to produce a series of books about various aspects of the Indy 500. So check out his profile on Amazon.com 

His first book, tips and travel guide to the Indy 500 is available now for all race fans and newbies alike to enjoy.



Award winning TV Sports director and producer David Turner has a lifetime of travel in his job as Television Producer and director for TVNZ and now his own production company.  Adding ‘Author’ to his many talents in this series  he shares with  you his experiences from attending the Indy 500 a dozen times; 20 years of attending  the Olympics and Commonwealth Games; The Americas Cup, V8Supercars and so much more.
Some of the awards David has collected over the years:
v  2001 Qantas Media Awards: winner best sports coverage, executive producer V8 Supercars NZ.
v  2002 Academy Film and Television Arts: winner, director America's Cup campaign 2001-02.
v  2004 Qantas Media Award: winner, executive producer V8 Supercars best live sports production.
v  2004 NZ TV Guide: winner, producer best sports show on television.
v  2005 Qantas Television Awards: winner, executive producer V8 Supercars NZ production best sports.
v  2007 Qantas Television Awards: winner, director live coverage 32nd America's Cup Valencia.
v  2007 NZ TV Guide Winner: Peoples Choice Awards, producer best sports show on television.

Sunday, 17 January 2016

Six free internet services that really work to market your service or craft

Marketing is one of those words that when I first heard it, my mind went blank and I thought, "How will I ever understand this word?" 
In the past few years I have studied marketing, seen social media at work, observed people I know and myself spreading information about good things or tweeting to organisations and placing one star reviews about services and products which are lacking. 
Here's my five ways that work to market your service or craft in your locality.

  1. List your business on Google Maps so that people doing a search in your locality will see your business pop up in their searches. It's free and Google Maps are far more searchable than Facebook or the Yellow Pages
  2. Join your local Facebook Groups - buy sell and swap or similar and in hobby areas that interest you. Interact with people, post interesting things for your potential customers to enjoy. Be yourself and always have your business offering there, available but not too much in anyone's face.
  3. Put your business on Yelp - and ask your customers to place feedback and testimonials about you on your business page.
  4. Start a blog and write about what your customers are seeking, write about your life and post videos and podcasts about the authentic you which is what you are really offering people.
  5. If you create hand crafted items Etsy.com, Ebay and your local auction websites as well as Facebook Groups are a great way to get word out about your creations and allow people to buy them.
  6. Tweet and post on Facebook not only about your offerings but about you, your life. Use other social media platforms too, Take videos and put them on your YouTube channel, photos on Instagram, Vine videos are short and fun too.
Last of all enjoy yourself - nothing dictates that life must be serious. What would your life be like if you let it be easy?

Found value in this post? Do Check out our BOOKS! There's so much variety there's bound to be something you will just love.

New releases
Lone Wolf

Announcing publication of Broken Wolf

Exciting News! the new author in our Kiwi Liaison Group, C K Raine is launching her new MM Shifter HEA romantic thriller on 1 February.
Amazon Pre-order link
She says
Dear friends and wonderful readers, Broken Wolf is now available on pre-order. Delivery 1 February. This HEA MM shifter romance has a twisty plot and some hot yummy shifter lovin' too. Marco The Hammer, fighter in the underground black internet Fight Night circuit is a lonely gay shifter with a secret superpower. He’s hired to compete in a special Fight Night with a very special opponent and audience, so special that his life is in danger. Trident Pack are seeking the ‘broken wolf shifters’ they have heard rumours of on the black internet. Will Marco find true love with his fated mate who is involved in solving the mystery of the broken wolf shifters, or will he become the forever slave of a rapacious undead entity? Trident pack take you on another exciting ride through the world of wolf shifters and passionate thrilling MM romances. "I was awake until after 1am reading your story because it HAS a good story line and awesome sex scenes because of who the characters are... If you did not have that it would just be a gay romance." Nerissa Reader Review.
 Buy Broken Wolf




Saturday, 16 January 2016

A human being should be able to...

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

Robert A. Heinlein

So how are you doing with this? If I get enough answers and questions I will share how many of these things I can do... of course all my characters can do everything. 


Tuesday, 6 October 2015

Stand alone romance novels:- I know you will enjoy them

I realize a lot of readers love series novels. The longer the series the better ... sometimes. It's so disappointing when you read a series and find that the quality of the books deteriorates the further into the series you get.
My feeling is that there are a lot of stand-alone novels which are great reading and we have published some. I am going to blog about them over the next month.

My three romance novels published by Penguin 15 years before 50 Shades of anything was popular. They weren't a series because the publisher didn't want a series. 

"Read this is if you like sexy arousing, disturbing, female oriented, true to the the emotions fiction. The writer is awesome so please look her up. The fact is this was just so close to the truth for me. I know those emotions, I have felt them and lived them. You can read this book if you are either shallow or strong, but i recommend it to anyone who has lived, laughed, loved and suffered." Kindle review

"I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone looking for a spicy read that has a decent story line." Kindle review

"This book delivers the same steamy style that Harlequin romance was once famous for. Good sexy scenes wrapped up in a dramatic story told from a woman's point of view. I bought this for my girlfriend and she loved it so much she bought the other 2 novels by this author. Good reading for a plane ride or a Sunday afternoon." Kindle review




I'm sure you will enjoy these novels, for a long time they were best selling books in New Zealand and Australia. There are various cover versions around and Avocado is perma-free on Smashwords and in the Ibookstore. 
Avocado only 99c

These novels have their own dedicated pages in this blog, check out the samples posted there or use the previews available on Kindle and Smashwords. 

Tuesday, 7 April 2015

What I learned about comedy writing from John Cleese

What I learned about comedy writing from John Cleese, 

the Big Cheese of British Comedy

I enjoyed Mr Cleese’s recently published semi-autobiography. Here is an interview with him after the book came out
While Cleese's book isn't a guide on how to write an autobiography or how to have successful relationships it contains some marvellous gems about writing comedy which I would like to share with you.
  • In professional writing he encourages:- ‘If you kept at it, material would always emerge; a bad day would be followed by a decent one, and somehow an acceptable average would be forthcoming.’
  • ‘Always put the key funny word in a sentence at the end of it, as this will give it maximum impact.’ Hmmm worth reviewing our sentences in the light of this observation.
  • State of mind in writing comedy is important too and I read with delight the obvious - to those who have suffered from this - ‘The more anxious you feel, the less creative you are.’
Cleese’s Two Rules of Writing Comedy.
  • ‘First rule: get your panic in early. Fear gives you energy, so make sure you have plenty of time to use that energy.
  • Second Rule: your thoughts follow your mood. Anxiety produces anxious thoughts; sadness begets sad thoughts; anger, angry thoughts; so aim to be in a relaxed playful mood when you try to be funny.’

Yet what is truly funny? John Cleese worked on a lot of projects in radio, TV and film. The groups he worked with created what became famous comedies with varying types of humour. 
It’s fascinating and frustrating when he says ‘We all felt that about twenty percent of the show was comparatively weak, but there was constant disagreement about which twenty per cent that was.’ - huh. 
So professional actors and comedy writers can’t agree on what is the most funny - and what is the most fail - what hope do we, as beginning comedy writers, have of truly being humorous?
Sense of humour differs markedly from person to person. While in an audience we may be carried away by the laughter of people around us laughing; yet sitting alone in front of the TV or a movie we might laugh somewhere different in the story.
  • This is why I find ‘canned laughter' false and weird. It’s being commanded by an audience to laugh where it’s not natural for me to laugh. I don’t respond well to that kind of push. Other people like to feel they are laughing with the crowd. Incidentally the history of ‘canned laughter’ is an interesting one and here's where you can find out all about it Canned Laughter History
AJ Burton and I have spent a lot of time over the past two years crafting ‘The Hoodle’ a werewolf parody. When there’s just the two of you on your own laughing like loons over jokes of your own devising you really don’t know if anyone else will share the joke.

Like John C, AJ has done most of the actual physical writing of this novel; but, without having myself and others to bounce his jokes off and create situations which we deemed hilarious (as John Cleese did with his long term writing partner Gra - Graham Chapman) - the book would have been a weaker parody, less confident, with fewer characters and situations.
The simple truth is, as can be seen in the credits of any comedy, a comedy partner or team will devise insanely funny ideas together, which one person on their own could never do.
I don’t feel we wasted the many pleasant hours we argued, laughed, drank bottomless coffee, building jokes as wobbly as Jenga castles and doing our best to write them down to create the hilarious antics of Jake and Hemi as they try to destroy The Dog Who Must Not Be Named, before he destroys them and their friends.
Contact us for help with your comedy writing or publishing on Skype
ChristineLeovLealand or email quintessence.publications *at* gmail.com


Thursday, 12 March 2015

Bilbo Baggins begins writing his Red Book: There and Back Again



This video excerpt from LOTR sums up what writing feels like to me. It's messy and cozy, you are writing about what you love, you get interrupted. The help you rely upon isn't really helpful. Once the book is done, you have achieved something amazing but then what do you do?
Have one or two people read it, as those few friends and family read Bilbo's There and Back Again - or do you want more people to read your work? Maybe make the writing available so as many people as read Lord of the Rings could read your book?
If you would like that and know you need help - talk to me.
QP Publishing Coaching is my contact.
My team and I can provide you with solutions which will delight you, won't cost the earth and will help you get you writing career out of The Shire and into the Wide World where other people who are just dying to read your stories are waiting to find your book.
PS. I live only one hour from Hobbiton.

Tuesday, 10 February 2015

I adore hand made books


TeoStudio Vintage Journals

Hand made books are on my mind and this post shares some links to hand made book sites that I really like.

I was eight years old when my mother taught me how to sew folded pages into a book. I then sewed a cover for the book from cardboard covered with my favourite fabric. The book was then filled with my pencil handwriting - I wrote a precis of the book, A Horse and his Boy by C S Lewis - then my favourite book.

Today there are wonderful papers, threads, cover fabrics and paints, hot glues and findings which mean that anyone wanting to make their own books has a lot of help - yet there are books hundreds of years old which were made only with natural materials of cloth, paper, leather and animal glue.

Why bind books by hand?
Printed books where the covers have deteriorated can be given durable covers - Aren't there some wonderful books in paperback that fall apart so quickly? They can be saved by binding with hand made board, cloth or leather covers.
Binding your own books is a very satisfying hobby and can make you money.
Hand made blank journals are a delicious treat to write poems, experiences, stories and thoughts in - something for your grand-children to inherit.

Pinterest has amazing information and images check out THIS  for
just a little taste.

Teo Studio make hand made books of a high quality with leather covers. I chose them at random - as excellent practitioners of the book binder's art.


Leather is wonderful. I've got a Kobo with a leather cover, how delicious it is to hold - and via smart technology the cover turns the device on and off when I open and close the cover.
Leather bound books are just as lovely as an ebook reader, whether the book is an old classic you have printed by Createspace.com and then bind a leather cover on yourself, or a book you wrote that you bind, or have bound; all leather bound books are precious.

Etsy.com is a terrific place to buy hand made books and journals. You could buy a different item for every one of your friends and family and still have more to discover.
Om Mandala Book, meditation book, handmade book, yoga book, mantra book, hindu symbol, spiritual text, sacred text, handmade paper, OOAK
OM - meditation book.
NB some links will expire as the books are sold.

Do you own a hand made/hand bound book? Would you like to?
Have you made your own bound book?

Thursday, 11 December 2014

20 years of Publishing Experience and Flying Pigs

I've done it! I've jumped off the cliff!
The number of people I've met recently who have written books, magazine articles, poems and journals which they can't publish because they don't know how to has pushed me over the edge.
I also feel very edgy when someone says, 'Oh, my mum wrote books, they were in a box under her bed. We threw them away when she died.'
That kind of thing causes me to want to tear my hair out in frustrated desperation - why? 

Because I believe with all my heart that these words should be read by readers, not kept in boxes, on old cast-away hard drives, in dusty laptops and thumb drives hidden away in mouldy handbags in an attic or garage.
The families of writers usually do not know that the copyright or IP of any written works, art works or photographs inherited by them upon the death of their parent or grand parent is their property and that copyright will last for 50-70 years after the death of the creator of that work. 
That means there is plenty of time to publish the work and earn from sales of that work.

My goal in future is to share the 20 years of publishing knowledge I have with as many writers and their families as I can. 

So that books which would never otherwise be published can be put in front of readers as ebooks, as print books, and the writers can be celebrated for the talent they had - of being able to put one word after another in a coherent stream. 
To help I have a new website which is going to be built in a gorgeous Wordpress style by Jocelyn Mozak http://www.mozakdesign.com/ 
The new site is at http://quintessencepublications.com/

There I will blog about how to publish your book and how to integrate Social Media so you can have a marketing program for your book that will outstrip any marketing plan that a legacy publisher might have for any but the biggest bock-buster novels.
My new QP blog will feature all the books on this site and a fully featured shopping cart so you can buy our books direct from the authors.
We will offer signed digital books and signed hard copy books too.
I have people ready to format books, make covers and edit new writing. All the online retailers are waiting to sell your book. 

In 2015 I also have this goal of being more organised. 
No doubt you heard that pigs are flying this Christmas season? No?
I've got flying pigs all about the place - they eat the cat food.  

Contact me if you are interested in what we can do for your unpublished book, or the book that grandpa was working on up until he died. 
I can also help you escape the huge scam that is Author Solutions. 
Let's have some fun publishing wonderful words.

Friday, 31 October 2014

Five things you don't know about me - the author.

I'm a writer. The lives of writers are supposedly different from those of the average Jane Dow so for your amusement here are some things you don't know about me.
  1.  What my writing desk looks like.

My clean tidy desk - allegedly a century old former Fleet Street London journalist's roll-top oak desk - ready for nanowrimo and the creation of a new novel. It already has dents from blocked writers foreheads hitting the wood.

       2.
I'm the kind of botanical nerd who can tell you what this flower is and the name of the tree it is on - and if you can eat the fruits of this tree. 
So what is it? A New Zealand species of tree Fuchsia. It has papery reddish brown bark which has been used as notepaper and could probably be used to make hand made books if you cared to collect enough of it. 
The ripe greenish red berries are delicious if you beat the birds to them. If you eat enough your tongue may feel numb for a while.

      3.  As well as loving creating books I am also a practical engineer and help in our Harmonic Damper Remanufacturing business making rubber parts in jigs like this. These rubbers are for 1950s Buicks.

     4.  My ideal cafe scene includes my journal - currently this hand crafted notebook with the cute textured knitting effect for the cover, coffee and a sweet cake - like crunchy Ginger Crunch - if I can find some made with crunch and not squidge.


     5.  What my ancestors look like. I often wonder what it was like for Mr and Mrs Reid when they arrived in Akaroa, New Zealand in 1835. My earliest migrating ancestors must have had a hard life in the remote South Island of New Zealand. A land of birds - unfamiliar birds with no animal life at all. Thickly forested, rugged and with little food and only the furniture and medical supplies the early settlers took with them, their lives must have been unimaginably hard.

Saturday, 4 October 2014

Kiwi Liaison Book Bundle Launched

Hello everyone, we proudly announce the launch of our Kiwi Liaison book bundle.
Catherine and her friends - what lovely looking people they are too - shot the cover, modelled for it and also made the cover design for us.
PJ made it into a steamy 3D hot pool experience.
AJ is the worker in the engine room, he does as he is told so you don't need to know what he did. Shovelled some coal, most likely.



Amazon Kiwi Liaison

Librio Kiwi Liaison

Google Play Kiwi Liaison

Kobo Kiwi Liaison

Nook Kiwi Liaison


Below is a list of the books we included in our book bundle for your enjoyment complete with cover art and blurbs.

 Mistress Z - A compilation new work and poems from published collections Restraint and Absence.
“Restraint sends wave after wave of unrushed, sensual ideas and images over the reader, who is transported into a realm of deep sensuality, passion and desire.” Jess C Scott, Author
“A breathtakingly eloquent collection of verses and prose. They take the mind and the body to magical and vulnerable places that only few can get to on their own. A truly seductive read for one, but best shared with two.” -Ms. Quote, author and blogger

Seeking Angel - Detective Bull Protettore seeks Angel, missing; believed to be in the company of a secretive bi-sexual Dominatrix. Discover how Angel is the clue which leads Bull and his partner Tommy to the serial killer who is terrorizing NYC. Bull and Tommy are in a race against time to unravel the twisted ropes of the truth to exact justice and revenge.

“I truly enjoyed reading this book mainly because the characters weren't perfect. They all had their own little quirks and issues that made them seem so real. It actually felt like they could walk off the page and shake your hand. I would definitely recommend this book to my friends.” Amazon 5* Review


Avocado

Dawn and Stuart, each running away from the past meet in the Bay of Islands, a NZ tropical beach paradise. They flirt but the past keeps them apart until Stuart uses his shaman skills to bring them together. Or was it the way Dawn uses the avocados from the tree growing beside the house which broke the ice?

“This book contains some of the most well written, sexy smut I've ever read, the characters and the story can stand on their own. I absolutely love this book, and whilst I rarely openly profess to enjoy such saucy literature, I regularly find myself recommending this book to friends. It's moving, emotionally and sexually. Enjoy!” Amazon 5* review
“So many genres collide here to extreme effect. Romance, erotica, family, culture, place and more. It makes for an intensely human book. The characters don't arrive, they feel like they have been there forever. If you don't know your cultures, Kiwi, Aussie, Indian, Rastafarian, this will encourage you too read about them. The sex scenes are tender & endearing,and no I'm not going to tell you about the avocado. I admire the way the author gets into the skin of her characters, really making them flesh with a combination of reality and myth. This is educated erotica, superb.” Amazon 5* review


The Finest Line

When potential Olympic gymnast, Mairead Kavanagh wakes up in an Australian hospital after a drug and alcohol binge, her ordeal has only begun. The police are waiting to interview her over the death of her friend Joshua Mason who has plunged to his death from the balcony on which she was found.
Frightened and a long way from her home in New Zealand, she has no one to turn to until the arrival of the one man who has intimidated and infatuated her more than any other.
James Vaughn has been her chauffeur and body guard for five years and the only person who has been able to subdue her. An ex soldier of the British Army, James is composed and disciplined, unlike his boss’s daughter who seeks constant excitement which sometimes can prove dangerous.
Forced together until he can get her home, the barriers of their relationship begin to break down. Mairead fears her attraction to him stems from the strange desires that she has fought to suppress. As their relationship blooms, her happiness is short lived because of another man who knows a terrible secret about Mairead. Now she must choose between the two men, one whom she loves and the other who can destroy her life.

“The Finest Line by Catherine Taylor is the first in a truly excellent and authentic trilogy exploring myriad facets of domination, discipline and masochism while never departing from a heart-warming and deepening love story.”- Kindle Book Review

I really enjoyed this book. It was very interesting and kept drawing me back to it every time I put it down. The writer does a wonderful job with the characters, you fall in love with them and hate them too. Very well written. Highly recommend this book to anyone wanting a romance with a little spanking twist!!” Kindle Book Review

About the Authors

PJ Bayliss has been writing poetry within his personal memoirs for many years, but has only recently turned his attention towards creative writing. Following the success of his Kindle poetry books he plans to publish two poetry books in print editions before he releases a series of romance novels under series title "Chemical Romance" in early 2015. @PJBaylissAuthor on Twitter

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Catherine Taylor has a passion for the art of telling a good story, whether it be in film or book. Her life has revolved around theatre and movies, through acting, production and scripting for both. Much of her life has been devoted to social work, but she has pursued other ventures, including a business in Gothic merchandise. These days she prefers to spend her days writing and spending time with her husband of thirty years, their four children and two grandchildren. @NZEroticAuthor on Twitter.
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A J Burton is a retired policeman, harness horse trainer, gibstopper and small block farmer. "I have loved reading since I can remember. I have owned horses, dogs, and cats since I was twelve years old. I enjoyed the bush, surfing, snorkeling, rugby, and judo and now in my retirement I enjoy fishing on the family boat. I am married with four boys and one gorgeous grand-daughter." Follow @bullburton on Twitter

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Christine Leov Lealand is a keen 'prepper' and ‘burner’ (Burning Man) loves the outdoors, is a blue water sailor, historian, belly dancer, adventurer and lifelong reader. At five years old she decided she had to be a writer. Christine is CEO of Quintessence Publications and finds it takes up all of her time. Too frequently she has to stop editing, writing and book cover buying to hurriedly feed her husband, Zulu the cat and three fat chickens. @loveleov on Twitter

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Tuesday, 2 July 2013

Which kind of English do we choose to write our novels in?

Upon waking this morning I noticed a comment on my blog. It was an unpleasant opinion about my writing quality and grammar from a fanfic writer somewhere in the Colorado Mountains.
Now lots of people have opinions about grammar and rarely are those opinions expressed in a positive way.
However this comment illustrates the problems that authors face today when writing fiction for an international audience.
Which kind of English do we choose to write in?
US usage is very different from English usage elsewhere in the world yet American Grammar Nazis no doubt believe that their grasp of their language is the only valid option - particularly if they have never travelled outside the USA.
UK English speakers and writers think similarly, yet their grammar usage and spelling is very different from US usage. US vs UK usage
Europeans, South Americans, Indians and Africans all have local customs when it comes to English expression and how to write the language.
In the US there are reports that English is diversifying, rather than consolidating as a language. Personally I love the languages of Baltimore MD, but I'm sure if we were able to read a book written in this sub-dialect few people would think it was spelled well, demonstrated excellent grammar or was especially understandable - 'ain't nuthin' is one of the memorable phrases I came across there.
In New Zealand we have our own well established idiom and slang which is different from everyone else. There is even a large NZ English dictionary. Australians who are our closest neighbours geographically and linguistically have different ways of using slang and English and a more American way of spelling. Fiona Lake's excellent take on Australian vs US English

AJ and I went to a lot of trouble to write The Secret Empire in US English. Which is our very general understanding of US English given that we are not native speakers, nor have we spent a great deal of time on US soil learning the language as spoken and written. Our understanding was supported by MS Word which has it's own opinions on US English usage.
No doubt the offering at http://www.grammarly.com/ could assist us as it checks grammar ONLY in US English.
However creative writing is not catered to by 'for business' grammar checking facilities. Try putting one of Robert Frost's poems through grammarly!

My current work in progress I'm writing in UK English - a language I feel more confident using.
Are these efforts to write in English from other places on the planet a waste of time?
Am I guaranteeing that I'm going to be 'wrong' all over the world?

My erotic novels are best-selling novels originally published by Penguin and written in NZ English which people here seem to enjoy. Would it be best to stick with our language - since it is what we know best and to hell with the rest of the world and how they use English?

There seems to be a tendency for US English speakers to critique writers whatever their nationality and declare that those writers use the 'wrong English' whilest ignoring the fact that the rest of the world don't have the opportunity or indeed the desire to learn US English usage.

I think that the dismissal of 'Indie Authors' as people who don't edit their novels could be in many cases a lack of understanding of the differences in English usage worldwide.

Personally I enjoy diversity in language and embrace all dialects of English with tolerance. I'm not going to critique someone because they don't write in my dialect.

Which English language dialect do you think works best for international novels?

Tuesday, 21 May 2013

What's Up? Armageddon Con

Yes I have not blogged in an age but I have really good reasons: like I painted the outside of my large wooden house over the summer and winter is for writing - right? 
Here in New Zealand we had an awesome summer - otherwise known as a drought. So I was able to take as much time as I needed to get the house weather proof for another ten years. This is great as our last summer was so damp as to be a slightly warm winter but with more rain! 
I have fallen in love with Joel Friedlander's MS Word templates and used one to format The Secret Empire as a print book on Create Space - You can find it here https://www.createspace.com/3987047

I ordered my first consignments of The Secret Empire to take to Armageddon in Hamilton a city about an hour drive away. The finished book is a delight to turn the pages and enjoy the professional layout of the words on the page, the running headings look great and my hand drawn maps printed really well in black and white.

@bullburton A J Burton @jaycuejay and I will be at a little stall at Armageddon con selling and signing our books! 

As well as printed books we will be selling and giving away ebook cards with links to Smashwords.com coupons for ebook downloads. 
I'll report back to you about the success of these cards. We are really excited about the con and hope to meet dozens of eager readers keen to discover new New Zealand authors.
A J says he's in trepidation about the whole concept but he will be shoe-horned into a marvelous costume and I predict he will enjoy himself more than he thought he could.

Tuesday, 11 September 2012

Announcing Publication of The Secret Empire

AT last! 13 months from when we began to write this exciting Steam Punk Historical Romance set in Atlantis here it is!

We have aimed to give readers a delightful fast paced read - Wilbur Smith style.
A mysterious and scientifically advanced society lives a sequestered and pampered life in the brutal bronze age on a hidden archipelago of islands in the central Mediterranean Sea. 
Atlantea is a xenophobic Steam Punk empire, where science rules and steam and electricity are in ascendance. Their navy are equipped with steamships and cannon, charged to protect the technology and racial purity of their empire with homicidal ferocity.
Klaus Meinbach is one of their proudest scions, captain of the battleship Heiglund and the most eligible bachelor of the fabled city of Atlantis.
A late summer storm brings the Heiglund to a foundering Greek merchant ship and the surviving crew are taken prisoner. 
Among them is Helena of Delphi, a proud and beautiful young priestess of Apollo. She is horrified to discover they are to be enslaved or murdered by these uniformed men unless she can persuade the handsome stern captain of the ship to spare her and her crew.
When Captain Meinbach discovers the bewitching foreigner may be of Atlantean blood his mind is made up. He will request the Atlantean genetic purity courts grant his petition to grant Helena citizenship.
Klaus and Helena share danger and adventures on land and at sea as they fight to save Helena's life. 
Klaus is forced to make a terrible choice between duty to his country and love for his woman in the courts of Atlantis. Which will he choose?
Reviews:- 
“Oh.... I so love your new book. Started reading this afternoon and almost swore when a friend interrupted me. As soon as he was gone, I was back reading and didn't stop till finished. Haven't eaten tea yet. (9.30pm) Enjoyable reading. Loved the descriptiveness of everything. Gave my imagination clear views of the ship, characters, mountains etc, and I'm sure I've met the male judge before. Laughed out loud when the scheming mother was thinking of the hero, while screwing him. Your knowledge of sailing really enhanced the story for me, as well. I really enjoyed reading it. So thanks again.” Review by Jeanette Currie.

“Thoroughly enjoyable” Colleen Pearson.

Contains mild sexual references, no cursing and little bloodshed.


Sunday, 22 January 2012

ASTRIDE Ch 7 male strippers:- Honest NZ Erotica XXX rated


Chapter 7 Ladies’ night Part 1 - Anne and Tina watch male strippers strut their stuff

‘Hey girl! There’s a ladies’ night on downtown in the pub. Wanna go?’
Anne sighed; Tina was trying to get her out on the town again. ‘You know that I can’t get time off, Tina. I could ask mum if she’ll come round and look after the kids for the evening but she’s working this week. Why would I want to go to a ladies’ night? What would it do for me?’
‘Awwww . . . well.’ Tina seemed to be inventing a good reason, ‘I know you haven’t got a lot of experience of men and it’ll be an opportunity for you to get a good look at some spunky naked blokes. Hell, it might turn you on to men again. It’s been a whole year and a bit now, hasn’t it? You’ve had enough time to get over Joe, surely.’ Tina was wheedling now. ‘I’ll talk to your mum, ask her myself eh?’
Anne groaned, imagining Tina persuading her weary mum to look after her kids one just more time.
‘If your mum agrees to babysit will you come with me?’
‘OK, I’ll come. But only if you shout me. I haven’t got any money at all. I don’t even know how I’m going to keep Sara at school, I’m that short of cash.’
‘OK, OK, I’ll shout you too. I really want you to come with me, I need the company. So I’ll phone your mum now, right?’ Tina sounded delighted. Anne was smiling in resignation; just as well Tina had a good job and could afford to take her out.
Anne and Tina lined up with dozens of women outside the pub, waiting to get inside to see the show. Anne felt nervous and slightly embarrassed at the thought of seeing nude men, or almost nude. She suspected that when it came down to it she wouldn’t get to see any cocks. No lovely erect penises on display.
She had loved Joe’s cock. Sometimes when he was asleep she would gently reach over and hold it as he slept. She loved the silken feel of that special skin, so different from the rest of his body. She loved the beauty of Jamie’s tiny erection too. Anne blushed and looked at her tatty trainer-clad toes.
Tina was babbling on about the men in the programme. ‘I saw that one, calls himself Gary, last year. He’s a real spunk. You’ll think so too, Anne, I promise you.’ Anne looked absently at the photograph of the glossy, muscular, grinning strippers. She thought of her mum, back at the cottage, reading the kids a goodnight story. It felt entirely too wicked, like she was shirking her duty as a mother, standing here waiting in line to watch a bunch of blokes strip their clothes off for the enjoyment of women.
She shivered, rubbing her cold hands up and down her upper arms to try to warm them. It was embarrassing to think that she’d only ever seen one nude man in her whole life and there was no chance that Joe would ever have stripped sexily for her enjoyment. His idea of alluring was to sniff his armpits and growl inarticulately before grabbing her and pushing her down on the bed.
Ann thought about the strippers; they must be different. Maybe they were blokes who liked women, who wanted to show off for women and give them the gift of a fit, muscular, rippling body, an enthusiastic smile. Give back to women the possibility of having a lustful desire for men when most of them were used to their men dressed in checked bush shirts, ripped jeans and underpants full of holes. Oil-soaked overalls, grubby jerseys and beer-flabbed bellies were what a lot of these women were going home to later tonight. Lucky me, thought Anne. Just a safe cosy empty bed to climb into and the kids again in the morning. She sighed.
Tina looked relaxed. Chewing gum, hanging out in her high heels, fishnet tights, leather miniskirt and crop top. She looked rather stunning. ‘Why are you dressed like that?’ asked Anne when Tina picked her up. ‘I’m OK in jeans and this top, aren’t I?’
‘Yeah, course you are! I have plans,’ Tina said determinedly. ‘My main aim is to get laid tonight.’ She grinned as she drove them into town and parked near the pub, refusing to answer any of Anne’s questions. She had a heavy leather handbag which she plonked on the ground at her feet with a clank.
Inside the pub the women were drinking. Some were having more than a few. Almost everyone was talking loudly, preening, highly excited. There were odd couples who stood around quietly, not looking the part. Middle-aged girlfriends just waiting for the show, Anne thought. It took an hour of drinking to get the women warmed up until at 8 pm the organisers turned all the lights out for ten minutes or so.
By the time the act started Anne was almost dying of excitement. She rubbed her hands together but the chill wouldn’t go away from her nervous skin. Tina turned and smiled at her friend, her lips glistening and her teeth a greenish white in the exit light - then she suddenly leaned over and kissed Anne on the cheek and laughed, exhilarated.
‘Thanks for keeping me company, Anne,’ she said. ‘I was a bit nervous about tonight.’ It seemed like all the audience were laughing, breathing deeply, anticipating the men, the sex, the clothes – the excitement, the fulfilling of a fantasy of lovely sexy muscular young men performing for us, just for women. Instead of us performing for men.
The first guy to leap onto the stage was dressed as a matador, swinging his cloak, with music which started out in a boring classical style. As the music gradually hyped up he paraded up and down with two other guys in leotards gyrating their bodies beside him. Gradually he began moving faster, spinning on his high Spanish boot heels. It seemed to Anne that his clothes began slowly and then swiftly to move, to leave his body, as the music got louder and more and more heavy and modern. By this time he was down to his rippling glossy muscles and G-string; tantalising us, having us on, grinning with those lovely white teeth as he played all of us like a female piano. Our acreage rising and falling with his presence, his closeness to us, that sweet mysterious bulge in his groin – at the last Anne and Tina were screaming and holding hands, pressing thighs vibrating to the male.
Pumped up with the music and the sight of a perfect male body rutting, showing off, shamelessly strutting his sexual self and loving us. It was his love that had us loving him. The smell of sex was in the air as he ran down into the audience. A contrast to the women seated there, with his slick brown skin, long dark curled hair and stripped muscles. He reappeared having picked up a woman out of her chair. We gasped as he carried her in his arms up onto the stage. He was talking to her, we couldn’t hear his words but when he set her down she stood behind him and began to run her hands all over him while he undulated and purred all round her. She seemed to be almost fainting from happiness and embarrassment. As Anne watched the woman violate ‘Aaron’s’ perfect spotlighted body with her hands she could feel the energy of all the other women around her, radiating: ‘I wish I could be up there in her place. I’d do that better than her. Ohhhhh now if it was me . . . I’d die if that was me . . .’
Anne’s body vibrated to her core, she’d never been this turned on before. She longed for and simultaneously dreaded the possibility that one of the strippers would choose her and carry her up on stage. Everyone would see her dull scrappy hair and tatty gym shoes then. But she wouldn’t care. She’d get to touch him, smell him, talk to him and hear his voice. Just the thought of it made her tremble uncontrollably.
As each man did his performance – riding in on a Harley, pretending to be a private detective or Cark Gable, acting out every romantic fantasy Anne had ever had and more – she became more and more aroused, restless, feeling nervous, out of control. Jailed by her circumstances. She secretly wished that she could ‘get laid’ tonight like Tina. But what was Tina going to do to get her man? She shuddered to think.
During the interval Tina sat beside Anne, sipping wine. ‘Anne?’ she said thoughtfully. ‘You’ll have to take my car home. Don’t worry about me, I’ll get a taxi.’
‘Why? Aren’t you coming home with me?’ asked Anne, wishing she had the same autonomy. The show was running later than she had expected and she had promised her mother to be home by 11 at the latest. This was worse than being a teenager, being a mother responsible for little kids. Tina shook her head and grinned, shifting her heavy bag further under her seat.
Anne took a gulp of wine and shifted uneasily in the hard chair. Her body tingled from the accumulated sight and sound of men, men and more men. Plus the tension, the hot sexual tension of a big room full of sexually aroused women. You could smell the lust radiating from their bodies. What must it be like for those men up on stage, parading around, the focus of all this sexual desire?
‘No. I’ve seen who I want and I’m going to have him. Tonight. Soooo’ Tina paused, then grinned. ‘I don’t think I’ll be done with him before you have to be home for the kids. I know I won’t be finished by then. We may not have even begun.’
‘Is it – Gary?’ asked Anne tentatively. He had been on twice in the first half and she remembered his stocky muscular body clearly. Especially when he had ridden onto the stage in the saddle of a huge black and silver Harley. Wooah! Did he know how to strut his stuff?
‘Yeahhhh,’ said Tina with a low sigh of satisfaction. ‘I want him and I know just what he likes.’ She sounded intense and husky.
Anne was bewildered. ‘He was very sexy but – how do you know you can have him? Won’t there be other women who want him too?’
‘Oh yes. Heaps probably. But that won’t stop me,’ said Tina, leaning back in her chair and stretching. ‘Oh God! I’m so horny – aren’t you?’
Anne blushed. ‘Yes, I suppose I am,’ she admitted reluctantly. ‘But I wouldn’t want one of those strippers – no way! They must have dozens of women every week. I wouldn’t want a guy like that!’
‘Depends on what you want him for,’ Tina said with a wolfish grin. ‘I want Gary for sex – the way I want it.’ She sipped her drink. ‘I’m going to get it too, I can just about taste it.’ She looked longingly in the direction of the stage. No, Tina, she told herself, now is not the time to go man-hunting. But after the show guess who will be elbowing her way backstage? The lights dimmed, the music pumped up the volume of a rock’n’roll rhythm and ‘Dwight’ leaped into the spotlight dressed as Lawrence of Arabia.
Anne watched, her fingers pressed deep between her thighs. She gently rocked back and forth to the beat of the music, the strides of the stripper’s body, the lights strobing through the audience. Exquisite sensations ran through her body. She felt awake, alive for the first time in years. Ecstatic without being able to say why – just that she was enjoying every moment of this show; and as Lawrence of Arabia slid off his many robes, unveiling his polished exquisite body, she allowed her fingers to press deeper into her crotch.
Compressing and rocking where it felt the best......