The Press is doing very well at the moment, so we'd like to take this opportunity of thanking all our readers for their part in making that happen. Having crunched a few numbers, we can report that November 2011 - although not over yet - has so far been our best trading month ever, with cumulative sales over our three platforms (our website, Rainbow and AllRomance) already 25% up on our previous best month. This is wonderfully encouraging, and we're beginning to feel that we may be around for quite some time after all.
We can also report steady progress on our forthcoming titles. Of our two books for 1 February, one has been with its proof-reader for a while now and the other has just been handed over; they both have covers, so very little remains to be done on either of them now. We have also made good progress on one of our titles for 1 May; it has a cover and is being edited at the moment. We have not yet made a definite decision about the second book for 1 May - there are two contenders, both in similar almost-completed condition, and we're waiting to see how the respective authors get on over the next few weeks before we come to any firm conclusions. Further down the line, we have items on our spreadsheet listed as 'new Adam Fitzroy project' (which sounds like a Sixties pop group to us), 'new Chris Quinton book' and 'new one from Julie Bozza' ... just so that you know everybody is still scribbling away busily; it gets quite addictive, after a while, and we don't think we'd know how to stop now even if we had to!
Anyway, our best seller this week has been GHOST STATION, with an average response time of five hours 17 minutes. We may be slightly biased, but we don't think that's at all bad...
Sunday, 27 November 2011
Sunday, 20 November 2011
New review of 'Ghost Station'
Reviewer Sirius at Jessewave seems to have a penchant for Adam Fitzroy's work and has now reviewed GHOST STATION most flatteringly:
While it is first and foremost a spy/thriller, there is also a secondary tender love story thrown in, which to me it was very believable and pleasant. I enjoyed every second of this romantic element and watching our protagonists grow significantly closer to each other over the course of the story, but it did not overshadow the fact that guys were working and doing their jobs.
While it is first and foremost a spy/thriller, there is also a secondary tender love story thrown in, which to me it was very believable and pleasant. I enjoyed every second of this romantic element and watching our protagonists grow significantly closer to each other over the course of the story, but it did not overshadow the fact that guys were working and doing their jobs.
Year Two Week Twenty-Nine
Delightfully, and to no-one's great astonishment after the recent stellar review, our best-selling title this week has been Jane Elliot's END OF THE TRAIL. Other books may be selling in smaller numbers at the moment but it's been a pretty steady week generally and we've achieved an average response time which at 5 hours, 35 minutes we're reasonably pleased with.
Plans and preparations are going ahead for future titles and we've made significant strides on at least four of them this week - books that we intend to publish in February, May and August next year (although the final running-order has not yet been agreed upon).
One definite non-starter, however, will be the Olympics anthology which is now officially cancelled. We had a few vague expressions of interest from people but no actual enthusiasm or substantive proposals for stories, so we've come to the conclusion that perhaps it was a project too far for our authors; they obviously prefer to do their own thing, and who can blame them when it generally turns out so well? We hope no-one is deeply disappointed by this decision; we suspect not, however! It's not as if we didn't have plenty of other books in the pipeline, after all!
Plans and preparations are going ahead for future titles and we've made significant strides on at least four of them this week - books that we intend to publish in February, May and August next year (although the final running-order has not yet been agreed upon).
One definite non-starter, however, will be the Olympics anthology which is now officially cancelled. We had a few vague expressions of interest from people but no actual enthusiasm or substantive proposals for stories, so we've come to the conclusion that perhaps it was a project too far for our authors; they obviously prefer to do their own thing, and who can blame them when it generally turns out so well? We hope no-one is deeply disappointed by this decision; we suspect not, however! It's not as if we didn't have plenty of other books in the pipeline, after all!
Monday, 14 November 2011
New review of 'The Valley of the Shadow of Death'
Julie Bozza's THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH has been reviewed today at the MM Good Book Reviews website. Amongst other things the reviewer, Pixie, seems to have become very enamoured of Angelo:
This is a well written book that has a very good story-line and plot. Angelo is the guy that I fell in love with in this book. He just seems to live life to the fullest, embracing his love for Josh and just going with it without procrastinating about how soon it is or the fact that the man was straight.
This is a well written book that has a very good story-line and plot. Angelo is the guy that I fell in love with in this book. He just seems to live life to the fullest, embracing his love for Josh and just going with it without procrastinating about how soon it is or the fact that the man was straight.
A conversation between authors
R. A. Padmos set out to interview Julie Bozza recently, but it turned into more of a two-way conversation. The result has been published on their two blogs (linked above) and is absolutely fascinating. We here at mega-headquarters have thoroughly enjoyed reading it, but we're a little nervous too; if ever they get together and chat in person, will anybody else get manage to get a word in edgeways?
Sunday, 13 November 2011
Year Two Week Twenty-Eight
Another thoroughly successful week, we're delighted to say! It's beginning to feel as if we've really made it at last, through the tricky part of setting this Press up and getting it going, and have now fallen into a modestly successful groove. In particular we're very pleased to have the final drafts of our two titles for 1 February release already to hand, enabling our loyal proof-reading staff to work on them at their leisure over the winter. There are also more projects in the pipeline than we can ever hope to shake a stick at, with most of our existing authors already beavering away on new titles to set before you in due course.
Our top seller this week was Julie Bozza's THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH, with Jane Elliot's END OF THE TRAIL, once again performing strongly, pushing it all the way. Average response time was pretty creditable at two hours 45 minutes - not at all to be sneezed at, we feel.
The only slightly depressing item to report is the lack of enthusiasm following our call for stories on an Olympic theme. It seems that, on the whole, writers and readers are not inspired by thoughts of the Olympics, and with that in mind it's likely a decision will soon be made to cancel the project. This is therefore absolutely the last invitation to contribute to our Olympic anthology; if we receive no more positive responses within the next seven days, we'll formally call proceedings to a halt and concentrate our energies elsewhere. If there's no interest at this stage, there's unlikely to be any market for it either; therefore we'll redirect our efforts towards books that are more likely to find a ready audience - although we still believe that it was worth a try!
Our top seller this week was Julie Bozza's THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH, with Jane Elliot's END OF THE TRAIL, once again performing strongly, pushing it all the way. Average response time was pretty creditable at two hours 45 minutes - not at all to be sneezed at, we feel.
The only slightly depressing item to report is the lack of enthusiasm following our call for stories on an Olympic theme. It seems that, on the whole, writers and readers are not inspired by thoughts of the Olympics, and with that in mind it's likely a decision will soon be made to cancel the project. This is therefore absolutely the last invitation to contribute to our Olympic anthology; if we receive no more positive responses within the next seven days, we'll formally call proceedings to a halt and concentrate our energies elsewhere. If there's no interest at this stage, there's unlikely to be any market for it either; therefore we'll redirect our efforts towards books that are more likely to find a ready audience - although we still believe that it was worth a try!
Sunday, 6 November 2011
Year Two Week Twenty-Seven
A very gratifying week all round, with our new titles doing very well through the website and some of our previous titles making a splash all over again courtesy of our partners AllRomance and Rainbow. Indeed, RAVAGES is currently at number six on the Rainbow bestseller list, so congratulations to R. A. Padmos for that!
Closer to home, the top seller from our own site this week was Adam Fitzroy's new book GHOST STATION, just one copy ahead of Julie Bozza's THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH, with Jane Elliot's END OF THE TRAIL thundering up into third position as a result of the recent excellent review.
As you can probably imagine we've been kept very busy filling orders this week, but we're delighted to say that our average response time has been a keen three hours and 18 minutes. Go us!
Closer to home, the top seller from our own site this week was Adam Fitzroy's new book GHOST STATION, just one copy ahead of Julie Bozza's THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH, with Jane Elliot's END OF THE TRAIL thundering up into third position as a result of the recent excellent review.
As you can probably imagine we've been kept very busy filling orders this week, but we're delighted to say that our average response time has been a keen three hours and 18 minutes. Go us!
Wednesday, 2 November 2011
Interview with Adam Fitzroy
A little incestuous, we'll confess, since they've known one another since God was a lad, but Chris Quinton has interviewed Adam Fitzroy here to mark the publication of GHOST STATION. We're bound to admit that we here in the office agree with Adam 100% about the necessary role of cats in the creative process!
Tuesday, 1 November 2011
New review of 'The Valley of the Shadow of Death'
Phew, we're having a busy morning! The first review of Julie Bozza's THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH has reached us already - courtesy of The Romanceaholic who received an advance copy and has a lot of very positive things to say about the book:
The angst and tension caused by Carmine’s double crossing his boss/best friend was wonderful, and the courtroom drama a delight. The romance that was developing between Josh and Carmine was intense and angst-ridden due not only to the stress of the undercover operation, but because Josh had previously considered himself to be heterosexual, and as such was struggling with embarrassment, confusion, shame, anger, lust, guilt, developing emotional feelings and fear for Carmine’s life.
Carry on, Julie, you must be doing something right!
The angst and tension caused by Carmine’s double crossing his boss/best friend was wonderful, and the courtroom drama a delight. The romance that was developing between Josh and Carmine was intense and angst-ridden due not only to the stress of the undercover operation, but because Josh had previously considered himself to be heterosexual, and as such was struggling with embarrassment, confusion, shame, anger, lust, guilt, developing emotional feelings and fear for Carmine’s life.
Carry on, Julie, you must be doing something right!
Our new titles go 'live'
Well, as of just over half an hour ago our two new titles, GHOST STATION and THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH are now available to buy through our online shop - and we're very impressed that one eagle-eyed customer, presumably hovering over her keyboard at the crack of dawn (not unlike ourselves, in fact!) managed to get her order through within the first ten minutes. That's true dedication, and we cheerfully salute her for it!
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