This is immense news for my author career, as well as being an amazing personal accomplishment that I probably was distantly dreaming of 20-odd years back, when actually writing and publishing novels seemed very far away. I gulped down Michael Marshall Smith’s novels back then: Only Forward, Spares and One of Us. I loved them. Re-reading them recently, I’ve come to realize how much his work has influenced my own writing. Soul Jacker definitely owes a debt to Only Forward. There are certainly similarities – in tone at times, in world, in the concept of hacking into a mind/dreams. So …
Michael Marshall Smith’s ‘Only Forward’
I first read Only Forward 20 years ago when I was 18, shortly after it came out. Now I’m 38 and just reread it, and it blew me away just as much as it did back then. For a debut it is phenomenal. For any book it is phenomenal – there is just SO MUCH STUFF in it, all of it cool, fascinating, prescient – I highlighted a section and got my wife to read it too and it made us both smile – about a tablet screen that shows where you are on a map and gives you directions …
Writing Update 2019 week 11 & 12
Another 2 weeks gone, and I’ve been hard at work setting up my: website book pages newsletter automation and special offers for backmatter signups. I was also lucky enough to get that awesome blurb from Lisa and Pat Mills. So what else has been going on? I’m in the run up to tomorrow’s US 99c Bookbub on The Saint’s Rise. Today it’s a BargainBooksy promotion. For the past few days I’ve been ramping up my Facebook ads- $70 today. I also set up AMS and Bookbub ads, but they don’t spend… I hope today it sells 100 copies. Well below …
Finished new goodie bags for subscribers!
I mentioned earlier I was going to add new bonus art for subscirbers to my email newsletter list, at the end of both Soul Jacker and The Saint’s Rise. I did it! It took ages. I made them with the benefit of some templates, some photoshop work by yours truly, and by sticking in some of the artwork I’ve had made for both series over the years. PLUS – I have an artist now working on a map of The Saint’s Rise, which will go into that goodie bag, then some schematics for Soul Jacker, which will go into that …
Soul Jacker review from Pat Mills!
I am over the moon – having just secured a blurb review of Soul Jacker from my first established author in the SF space – Pat Mills (and his wife Lisa)! Pat is considered the godfather of British comics, and created 2000AD which was where Judge Dredd got started! Awesome. I am tickled pink. Here’s the full blurb: “Superb – a Fantastic Voyage into the soul. Grist has produced a taut, clever cyberthriller that messes with your mind. Blending hard science, metaphysics and high-octane action, Soul Jacker had me gripped from the start. If you’re a fan of Stephenson and …
Sweet new book pages
Phew, spent a good few hours today micro-managing the Soul Jacker trilogy book pages into existence. They look about 10x cooler than previous book pages I’ve made. At some point I’ll get around to doing this for all my books. New style: It looks cool and it works really nicely on mobile as well – which is how most people will see it, if they click through from their ereader. Old style: There’s not really any ‘style’ here, it’s just straightforward. Not cool in the slightest, and not intuitive on mobile. Having the book on a black background makes it …
New newsletter giveaways
Since I started out writing I’ve been giving away a free book as a gift to get people to sign up to my newsletter list. Has it worked well? I have no idea – I have no stats on this, but I’m not sure it was ever all that likely to work. Why? I always gave away a book in a different genre. When people finish my fantasy books, they get offered The Last, a zombie apocalypse. Same for when they finished Mr. Ruin. It’s a different thing. I always gave the same book! So even if they are finishing …
Writing Update 2019 week 9 & 10
Another two weeks gone by, and it’s looking like that’s my natural rhythm for these updates. Lots of things going on as ever these days: I got 2 Bookbubs! I finished up my Facebook ads experiment (unsuccessfully 🙁 ) I wrote about my Soul Jacker promo plan In overview, I’m still buzzing with the Bookbub promotions. I haven’t done any pre-promo for The Saint’s Rise yet, which is in 2 weeks, so I will get on that tomorrow. Rather, I’ve been busy setting up the Soul Jacker promo – and putting final touches to the text of book 1. It …
The Anomaly by Michael Rutger – book review
For 20 years I’ve been reading books by the author variously known as Michael Marshall Smith and Michael Marshall, beginning with his sci-fi triumvirate of Only Forward, Spares and One of Us – three mind-slappingly entertaining thrillers – and moving through his Straw Men series as well as various creepy standalones. Now he’s writing under a third pen-name, Michael Rutger, and the first book is The Anomaly. As soon as I saw it, I picked it up. I still have those early MMS SF books on my shelf, despite having lived in Japan for 10 years – I took them …
Soul Jacker art + promo plan
I thought I’d be done with all this Soul Jacker editing by the end of January, freeing me up to get on with my thrillers, but the vicissitudes of merciful fate have conspired to make the Soul Jacker launch a #prettybigdeal. It launches March 31 at 99c. All of April will be promo time: I have the Bookbub after 3 days, multiple other promo sites already booked in (including Robin Reads, Fussy Librarian, Bargain Booksy, Booksends and others). I’ve got potential blurbs from famous folks coming. I’ve got NL swaps underway. I’ve got art and targeting for FB and AMS …
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