Seeing is Deceiving is now live in paperback. As in, you can buy it. Right now. And apparently have it in your hot little hands by Wednesday, at least here in the US, with Prime, etc etc.
It’ll look something like this. Trust me, it’s big
Damn, Amazon is on a tear. Trying to impress someone?
Anyway, you’d think after doing this for so long I’d know all the stuff but no! This being the first time I’ve actually had a paperback of a book available/submitted at the same time as the ebook, it’s the first time I’ve found out that the paperback can get processed this quick and can go on sale earlier than the pre-order!
I say that was ‘quick’ because between the time I uploaded the file and I had finished with the paperback version, voila! The pre-order popped up. Pretty quick, Amazon. In, uh, stark contrast to me.
Click here to buy Her Substitute (Amazon US, Kindle)
… or if you prefer, in PDF format over at Gumroad for the same price:
Click here to buy Her Substitute (Gumroad, PDF)
Your choice!
The physical, honest-to-God real book version is coming very soon. It’s ‘publishing’ on Amazon right now (after some sort of weird glitch last night) and should be online in the next day or so, so hold up if you want that. FYI – it’ll be $14.99, which is obviously higher. Turns out actual physical trees, printing, shipping etc are involved in that production. But I’m sure it’ll look absolutely lovely on your shelves.
Please remember the ebook prices are for the first month only. Come March, the PDF version will be removed as I put the book into Kindle Unlimited for at least three months. (So, if you’re wanting to read it that way, you’ll have to wait. But why wait? It’s like, the price of a cup of coffee.)
And next? Yes, reviews
If you enjoy Her Substitute, then I would be absolutely indebted if you could leave a review. Especially if you are outside the US – believe it or not, it’s taken me years to realize that there are separate reviews for sites like Amazon.co.uk… so I need reviews in my home country, fellow Englishmen!
In the first month, I’ll do something special for my favorite review. I have no idea what. Something nice? Anyway, if you do leave a review, let me know somehow via comment or contact page, I care not.
More importantly, let me know what you thought! Us writers crave feedback.
Finally, I have to thank Vic one more time for letting me romp around in his plot and with his characters. I deeply appreciate it. I also deeply appreciate the other person in my dedication… but they can read that for themselves.
Just pushed the button on the print-on-demand paperback for Her Substitute…
Her Substitute – publishing the paperback
Should – fingers crossed – be live tomorrow along with the ebook, or if not, a day or so later. Let’s hope!
If you pick up the paperback, please send me a pic – would love to see it in the wild. (Come to think of it, I’d be happy to see pictures of your Kindle or your phone or whatever with the book on it!) In theory it should look something like this render…
Other stuff: I removed the password protection from the second extract, so if you aren’t a newsletter reader (or even if you are) it’s open to you now. So go peek, unless you want to read the book un-spoiled.
The non-Amazon version of the book will go online sometime tomorrow, probably. It might slip to Thursday. I have some big stuff going on tomorrow, but I’m going to try really hard to get it done. Fingers crossed.
Hello folks! Sorry I went a bit quiet. Been fighting off a cold this week, which is terrible timing. With less than a week to go before Her Substitute arrives, I wanted to answer a few questions and give you a few details. Let’s go!
Her Substitute is launching at a reduced price
Short version: Her Substitute, in eBook form, is going to launch at $4.99. On March 1st or thereabouts, that’ll go up to $6.99. Get it first and get it cheaper by pre-ordering today.
Longer version including a lot of thoughts on pricing and how much you mean to me, dear reader, over here.
Her Substitute is launching in Kindle, paperback and PDF/epub formats
This is really good news if you hate Amazon, you hate DRM or you hate electronic doohickeys. While you can’t pre-order, on or around Feb 1st (it depends on a few things), Her Substitute will have a paperback version available through Amazon for $14.99, and a bundled PDF and epub version for $4.99 through Gumroad (link will be available Feb 1st).
The PDF/epub version is perfect if you can’t use Amazon, don’t want to use Amazon, or want to read on an alternative e-reader to the Kindle. The paperback version is perfect if you don’t want to rely on batteries or screens, or just want to touch – ahem – something with your hands that feels… good.
However…
The PDF/epub format will be available for a limited time
The reason A Lie Within A Lie isn’t in PDF/epub is because it’s enrolled in Kindle Unlimited, which is Amazon’s quite frankly sneaky way of getting self-pubbed authors like me to keep our stuff in their ecosystem. The way it works is, while a book is in Kindle Unlimited, members of that service can read the book for free. I get paid based on how many pages are read. Over time, that amount adds up pretty nicely, while over time generally the ‘real’ sales for books go down.
So, after probably a month or two – I’m not going to set a date on this yet, I’ll see how sales are – I’ll be removing the epub/PDF versions from Gumroad, and putting the book into Kindle Unlimited. I will give everyone a heads-up on this, don’t worry, but it makes sense to me. Am I wrong? Let me know, or more obviously, buy from Gumroad. If the sales are high I’ll reconsider.
Now, what else. Oh yeah.
I’ll have extracts from Her Substitute available here this weekend
… and they won’t be the extracts that end up on the Amazon page (which is the first 10% of the book) or from parts of the story you might know, if you originally read Vic’s wonderful original. Nope. New stuff. Aaaaannd…
… there will be an additional extract for newsletter subscribers
I know. Ain’t I a stinker? Look, it’s not like I’m bombarding you with email (er, let’s not dwell on that too much) but if you want to read an additional extract before the book’s out, then hey. Subscribe to get it, is all I’m saying.
The newsletter with the additional extract will go out sometime late Sunday. So, you know, get on that.
Hello all! Long time no see. Not that I can see you. You get the idea…
At long last, the paperback version of Practice to Deceive is finally available. It’s a real book! Since I first got my proof copy last summer I made a few minor changes – improving the book’s layout, and tweaking the cover a little bit. I’ve updated all of the imagery you can see around the site, and of course the new cover is on Amazon, both in Kindle and paperback formats, and over at Gumroad as a PDF.
As I think I mentioned before, by necessity the paperback costs more than the Kindle version – $14.99 for US customers. That’s because the cost of print-on-demand printing is obviously higher than the cost assigned to a Kindle book. Hope you can understand. As it is, it feels pretty competitively priced; it’s an almost 400 page book, after all. Having seen the proof myself, I can vouch for it being a high quality finished product.
So, if for whatever reason you’ve been waiting to buy Practice to Deceive in physical form… now’s the time to pick it up. If you do, please send me a picture of the book. (You don’t have to be in the picture!) I’d love to see my words in physical form out there in the world.
More news soon. Just wanted to get this out in the world!
I have birthed something into the world. Three years late, mind you. The pregnancy was a bitch… yes, I finally got my first proof copy of Practice to Deceive. It’s a real book! Holy cow! Here it is…
It’s a real book! Practice to Deceive on my desk.
It’s pretty surreal to hold something like this in your hands. I mean, I designed the thing from front to back, so it’s not like it was surprising, but there’s a big difference between a design on your monitor and a real-life thing you can hold, that has weight. It’s funny, without really planning for it, it’s pretty much exactly what I’d expect to see on a store shelf (not that I ever will!) in terms of size and weight. It feels… right, is all I can say.
Back cover. I wrote a blurb and everything. There’s even a legitimate bar code!
This is a proof copy for a reason, of course – to check for mistakes. While the text is fine, there are a few minor tweaks I’m going to do. I’m pretty proud I managed to get all the pages in the right order the first time, frankly! It looks pretty readable, although you can take a peek at the interior below and let me know if you think otherwise. Of course, increasing the font size increases the page count which increases the cost, so I’m trying to avoid that if possible. I’m actually going to reduce the margins a little bit, it’s pretty spacious in the interior, so I may be able to increase the font a little bit.
The cover turned out pretty well, I think. I did take Liz Rees’ advice (I think it was Liz, anyway) and changed the logo to be lighter. I need to do the same on the spine, it’s hard to see. Overall the book is a lot darker, color wise, than I guess I expected. I chose a matte finish too, which probably darkens it a little bit.
Inside the book. I used Garamond for the main typeface.
Anyway! There you go! A real book! Now I know how to use Createspace for this, I’ll be adding paperback versions of A Lie Within A Lie too, which shouldn’t take as long as I have all the files and so on that I need.
After I’ve resubmitted the changes I need to make to Practice to Deceive, I’ll be able to put it live in Createspace, which will make it available for sale on Amazon and other places. I’m not sure what the final price will be, but I hope it’s not too high – however as with all print-on-demand titles, it won’t be that cheap. (No economy of scale for printing costs, you see.)
If you buy a copy I’d love to see it on your shelves, or in your hands, or on your desk or whatever. I’ll let you know when it’s live and available to buy, of course.
At long last, the paperback version of 
