Twin Eagles Publishing

I have seen the future of online publishing ... and it came in a most unusual form.

Sports Illustrated.

Their new online magazine will be a fully interactive, video enhanced, live game broadcast version of the existing paper magazine.

Think TV + sports stats + fun game interactivity and you just about have it.

I'm not a big sports fan but when I saw a short clip online of what they were planning to do I suddenly thought of Kindle and the future of online publishing.

It has to go beyond print on screen. 

What about a novel written with background music, or a horror novel with creepy sounds, or even sudden, almost subliminal, creepy pictures that flash on the screen when you turn a certain page.

Imagine comic books online, graphic novels in brilliant colour ...

And remember the old hyper-link programming that was the foundation of the original internet ... this has to be incorporated into online books, but with links to all sorts of different things. Imagine a who-done-it that gives you links to real places where clues are to be found. (Mystery writers, I think you have an absolute gold mine here.)

And what about a feature where readers could instantly send a message to the author. (Not all authors would like this, and I'm sure the nuisance factor would be high, but if you wanted feedback, what better way to get it than when the reader is actively involved in the book.)

Mark my words. The future of online publishing will outstrip Kindle so quickly that it won't know what hit it. 

This is not to say that Kindle isn't a kind of cool thing to carry around, but it's kind of like having an iPhone that only gives you text.

Any other suggestions? How would you design the ultimate online experience?

I have a strong feeling that book publishing as we know it, has changed forever.

As people become used to looking for books on Amazon and other online sources, and print on demand technology becomes more sophisticated, the dinosaur publishers and chain megastores will have to adapt or die.

Sure I still like wandering around Chapters or Barnes and Noble, but it is more like walking through a museum than an active exercise in book buying. Since I am interested primarily in metaphysical books, those stores rarely have anything that strikes my fancy.

For me, a small publisher, print on demand is the holy grail. For the author too, the rewards are potentially much greater.

The only thing I'm not too keen on is Kindle. I don't like the way Amazon can erase stuff on your Kindle without any notification. One day it's there, the next it's gone.

C'mon Apple, let's have your version.

Finally after a number of false starts we have a perfect proof of Dolores' book The Singing Stones. It will be available on Amazon in a week or so. Keep your eyes peeled!

Volume two (The Hill of Dreams) will follow, in 2010 (if all goes well). Volume three (The Ring of Swords) will arrive in 2011.

This is an extraordinary event, and should not be confused with an ordinary book launch. Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki has over 40 years of practical occultism under her belt and everything she writes and speaks is imbued with her practical experience.

You might think this is "just fiction" but nothing could be further from the truth. The book is an imaginative re-working of the Arthurian tale, but with a twist that brings it right into the present.

Rather than re-hashing the past, she is re-invigorating the now.

Move over Potter, make way for the real magician.

I had hoped to have Dolores' book, The Singing Stones, available for her US tour but unfortunately the proof came back from the printer full of weird typos, little rectangular boxes with a diagonal X in the place of every "ff" of "fi" in italicized paragraphs. So words like office or finger looked strange indeed.

The cover was a bit dark for my liking, so I changed it a bit to account for the differences between my monitor and the actual printing process.

I'm hoping to receive the final proof this week. If everything is okay the book will be available a couple of weeks later (hopefully by the end of September.)

Almost twenty years ago my first book was published by a friend who was starting his own publishing company. The company was called Bibliotek Books and I was flattered that they should think my paltry offering worthy of publication.

In my eagerness to become an author I mistakenly signed away my copyright. I didn't think so at the time, but the wording on the contract (as my "friends" informed me, once the book became a success) meant that they owned the copyright.

Advice to any author ... never, never, never give away your copyright. It's all you have.

It's been a while since I posted, but I have some good news ... (psst don't tell anyone I told you) but Twin Eagles is going to publish Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki's first fiction novel, The Singing Stones!

This is a new working of the Arthurian legend, seen from the present and told by a master story teller, who is also a well respected occult scholar.

More news to follow ...

Time to move on ... can't keep griping about missing out. Still plugging away with my writer's group fine tuning the book. It has helped immensely having other people willing to listen.

I've got another unpublished book, a memoir from the time I started a ballet company in Vancouver (1971 - 1973). I finished it a few years ago but I wasn't really happy with it then, so after a couple of tries I gave up sending it out to publishers.

It definitely needs a rewrite.

So it appears (I went on the discussion board) that I am not the only one to experience this little "mistake". It is quite obvious that this is a cheap marketing ploy by Amazon to get people to purchase something. I am disgusted!

Not only that but it appears that only people in the USA will be able to download and read the excerpts. How the heck are we supposed to be able to compare and learn if we can't read what the competition wrote?

Bah, humbug ...!

Adding insult to injury ... received this missive from the contest organizers. Apparently my pitch was so abysmal I didn't even make it through the first cut ...

W Paul,

We mistakenly sent you a message on Monday stating "Your Excerpt was reviewed by two Amazon Vine Reviewers, however, and their feedback will be made available to you via your CreateSpace ABNA Dashboard in the coming weeks." 

We regret to inform you that based on reviews of your Pitch, you were not selected to move forward to the Second Round (Excerpt Review) of the contest. You will therefore not have reviews of your Excerpt posted in your CreateSpace ABNA Dashboard. We sincerely apologize for this notification error and regret any confusion it may have caused. 

We hope you will accept a $5 electronic gift card which you can use for any Amazon purchase along with our apology. To use this gift card, place items you wish to purchase in your Amazon cart and begin checkout. Before you click "Place your order", enter your gift code (listed below) in the space provided and $5 will be credited towards your purchase.

Gift code for  W Paul Blakey:
SZWW-HYP793-P5YV

Sincerely, 
ABNA Admin Team

Go ahead, use the gift code if you want to, I don't want it.

The cut off for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award was today - from the original how many thousands to 500.

Anyway, this is what I received this morning ...

Thank you for participating in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. We received thousands of submissions and were impressed with the incredible talent and creativity demonstrated by participating authors this year. We were therefore had to make some very difficult decisions. We regret to inform you that you have not been selected to move forward in the contest.  

Your Excerpt was reviewed by two Amazon Vine Reviewers, however, and their feedback will be made available to you via your CreateSpace ABNA Dashboard in the coming weeks.  You will receive an e-mail from CreateSpace to let you know when these reviews are available.

Best of luck with your novel, 
ABNA Admin Team

I'll be interested to see the reviews, but I have to tell you, this hit me hard. Even though I suspected I would not make the cut (given that every agent I've sent the book to has turned me down) it still hurts.