Amazon.ca bestseller list at 8 a.m. today….

On Amazon world-wide, TIME LOST ranked #12 in mystery bestsellers (free).

TIME LOST promotion next week

As promised, a quick heads-up: next week I’ll be doing some promotion for my new novel, TIME LOST. It will be available as a free download for a few days beginning Monday, October 8th.

I think this is the best book of the three I’ve published so far, and I hope you’ll like it. And if you do, I hope you’ll find the time to post a review online. Thanks in advance for your support and encouragement.

TIME LOST now available!

I’m pleased and excited to announce the publication of my third novel, TIME LOST. The actual book “launch” – promotional campaign, etc. – is scheduled for early October, but the book is quietly available now in Amazon stores world-wide. You can pick it up as an e-book for $2.99 or in paperback for $12.99 USD. Or you can wait for the “launch”, when it will be free for a couple of days. (I’ll let you know when that happens.)

TIME LOST was born from a chance encounter one Saturday morning in Montreal. I have a part-time job as an instructor for prospective taxi drivers, and that day a young woman sauntered into my class who bore a striking resemblance to some-one I knew from another life years ago. She didn’t just look like my old girlfriend – she talked like her and acted like her. It was uncanny. And it set me thinking: what if…

Eventually, beginning with that experience that day, TIME LOST took shape. It’s a mystery and a love story. It’s also a look back at the Sixties, which was a hell of a time to be young and alive. I think it’s the best book of the three I’ve written so far.

As you know, my second novel, FLASH DRIVE, was quite successful. More than 11,000 readers downloaded the book, and so far it’s picked up 119 ratings and 49 reviews on Amazon and Goodreads in three countries. The average rating everywhere is more than 4 stars out of five. I’m hoping this new book will also find an audience.

Because that’s what it’s about for me at this stage in my life: reaching an audience. I’m not dreaming of building a career as an author. I don’t care if I make any money with my stuff. (I’d prefer not to lose money, of course.) If I find some readers, and they write a few kind reviews, that’s reward enough.

So that’s it for me. I hope you’ll like TIME LOST. If you do, I hope you’ll find the time to post a review online. And thanks in advance for your encouragement.

Flash Drive: 123 ratings, 49 reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, 4+ stars out of 5!

I have some news about my second novel.

In the last few months I spent a couple of hundred Canadian dollars and did some free promotion of Flash Drive. The results were encouraging, to say the least:

• More than 11,000 readers in 12 countries downloaded the book.
• On two occasions, it broke into the top 100 in the Kindle store, reaching as high as #39.
• Sales have been in the double-digits since the promotion began.
• I also sold some copies of my first novel, Last Call at the Ringrose Pub.

Flash Drive has picked up a total of 123 ratings and 49 reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. The average rating on Goodreads and in Amazon stores in three countries is consistently at least 4+ stars out of 5.

Sample comments from Amazon.com:

“What a wonderful and exciting story! I didn’t want it to end. I haven’t felt that way in a long time.”

“Love, marriage, divorce, relationships, jealousy, anger, frustration, addiction – wow! The whole gamut of life spread out over a mystery, a thriller, an adventure…”

“Flat-out fascinating. Like no other book I have ever read. If you don’t read this, you have missed an opportunity of a lifetime.”

As a new and unknown author, my goal with this promotion was limited. I hoped the book would find some readers, and some of them would like it. The overwhelmingly positive response – and the extraordinary enthusiasm of some reviewers – took me by surprise. I find it gratifying and heartwarming. It has made this whole writing/publishing project worthwhile.

When you reach the end of a Kindle book, Amazon always nags you to rate your experience. If you do, you are whisked to their website and encouraged to write a review. The majority of readers don’t bother. But a few do, and I am eternally grateful to every single one of them, even the couple of negative reviewers who hated the book (they bring the average rating down to a respectable 4.5, instead of an unrealistic and suspicious 4.8).

Many thanks to everyone who has encouraged me in this authoring business over the years. Your support is precious.

“He saw her every Sunday for almost a year before she disappeared and everything went to hell.”

My second novel, Flash Drive, is now available for $2.99 on Amazon (exclusively for now). Click a link to read a preview and pick up a copy: Amazon.com, or Amazon Canada, or Amazon UK, or Amazon Australia (or find it in any of Amazon’s stores world-wide). If you like the book, please help me out, and post a review. Here’s a teaser:

Every Sunday afternoon for almost a year she strolls into the parking lot where you work and drives away in a car share. Every Sunday evening she brings it back. Until one day, when the car comes back, but she doesn’t. A stranger wearing cargo pants and an attitude shows up in her place. After he leaves, you find her bag and all her possessions in the trunk. You realize that wherever she is, she has nothing but the clothes on her back.

What do you do? You don’t know her well, but you know she disappeared. You’re afraid she’s been harmed, but no-one believes you. You think you know who’s responsible, but then that guy turns up dead.  And when the cops open an investigation, you are their prime suspect in the murder.

Erstwhile taxi driver Alex Ryan is the guy in the parking lot. Sexy bank executive Chantal Dorval is the mystery woman. Who kidnapped her? Is she alive or dead? Who killed Cargo Pants? And why? Ryan sets out to answer these questions, to find Chantal and exonerate himself. But the more he learns about her life, the more disturbing secrets he discovers, and the more suspects he turns up. And the more the police are convinced he’s guilty.

Flash Drive is action-packed and sexually-charged. It deals with contemporary themes such as substance abuse, alternate lifestyles, and social media privacy issues.  It will appeal to readers of the work of Gillian Flynn, Robert Galbraith (JKR), or Harlan Coben.

The Kindle Scout campaign for Flash Drive has ended

You’re here reading this blog post, so probably you already know that on December 18th, the Kindle Scout campaign for my second novel, Flash Drive, came to an end. Many thanks to everyone who supported the book!

Flash Drive received more than 1600 page views and spent 53 hours in the coveted “hot and trending” department, not bad for an unknown author. The whole thing was a good experience, even though, unfortunately, the book was not selected for publication by Kindle Press.

I will be publishing Flash Drive independently on Amazon sometime this year, and Kindle Scout will notify you when this happens. Thanks again to everyone!

5 Days left to Nominate Flash Drive in Kindle Scout

To everyone who nominated my novel Flash Drive for publication by Amazon Kindle Press, and to those who shared the link with your friends and colleagues – thanks for your support! If you didn’t get around to it yet, there’s still time (5 days left).

Just click here, check out the preview, and nominate Flash Drive for publication. You’ll get a nice thank-you note. And if I get published, Amazon will send you a free copy of the e-book. Thanks for your help!

My e-book publisher is going out of business

When I published my first novel in September, I used the services of Pronoun Publishing. The experience was awesome. Pronoun converted my manuscript seamlessly into a high-quality e-book, and they handled the distribution to pretty much every e-book platform around the world.

Pronoun also took care of sales, and sent me weekly reports. And the entire service was free of charge. (The only drawback was that Pronoun handled only e-books. I had to care of the print version myself.)

Some people in and around the indie author’s world were suspicious of Pronoun, saying it was too good to be true. Sadly, it turns out they were right. Pronoun recently announced that their business model is unsustainable, they will be closing up shop, and all the books they have published, including Last Call at the Ringrose Pub, will be taken off the market as of January 15, 2018.

So, regretfully, I’m in the process of looking at other options. And sometime in the next six seeks, I will be moving Ringrose over to different distributors. The book will probably be off the market for a brief period while this transition is happening. I’ll let you know.

Update (July 29, 2018) After a brief period listing the book on many platforms using a different distributor, I have recently republished the book exclusively on Amazon. It is now available to Kindle Unlimited subscribers.

My second novel, Flash Drive, has been accepted into the Amazon Scout program!

Some good news. My second novel, Flash Drive, has been accepted into the Amazon Scout program, a “reader-powered publishing platform for new, never-before-published books”. Here’s how it works. During any given 30-day period, a dedicated group of readers review all the available books on Scout and nominate a maximum of three choices for publication by Amazon Kindle Press.

The first fifty pages of Flash Drive will be available on Scout until December 16th. Hopefully, hundreds of readers will nominate the book. More nominations mean better visibility, and that means a better chance for publication.

At the end of the 30-day period, the book might be selected for publication by Kindle Press. This would be fantastic. Flash Drive would be supported by Amazon’s powerful marketing tools, which guarantees visibility, sales and reviews. It also means a $1500 US advance, and a 50% royalty rate on sales over $1500. From what I can tell, almost all previous Scout winners have done very well indeed.

Here is a link to my page on Scout: https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/2TXHUWSR8SBGH

Do me a favor: help a poor struggling author. Click on the link, check out the preview, and nominate Flash Drive for publication. You’ll get a nice thank-you note. And if I get published, Amazon will send you a free copy of the e-book.

Thanks for your help!

Last Call at the Ringrose Pub: Print Version now available

The soft cover version of Last Call at the Ringrose Pub is now available for $9.99 CDN (about $8.00 US) plus shipping. Click here to order. (You will be redirected to the order page at the printer; they will take care of payment and shipping. You’ll need a credit card or a PayPal account.)

If you live in Montreal, you can save on shipping charges by contacting me here, and I’ll arrange to get you a copy somehow.

In fact, if you promise me a review on Amazon or Goodreads, I’ll get you a free copy, no matter where you live. Contact me here.

Of course, the e-book version is still available for download on Amazon at a bargain price: $2.99, no pesky shipping charges. To pick up a copy, just click here: Amazon.com, or Amazon Canada, or Amazon UK, or Amazon Australia (or find it in any of Amazon’s stores world-wide).