…it started off as just writing a coupla sentences 8 years ago… look what’s happened!…

Seumas Gallacher’s fifth book, Deadly Impasse was published. Check it out, folks!!

Seumas Gallacher

…I s’pose it’s the kinda thing that happens when a few snowflakes roll into a snowball and it goes on a roll, gathering more and more as it  goes along, and ends up as an enormous avalanche… writing… the mystical allure that is the scribbler’s art… the indescribable sensation of birthing yer own wee literary babies… releasing them as fledglings into a huge WURLD of their peers… books, novels, tomes, volumes… Master Gallacher‘s own experience is par for the course, as many of my fellow authors have shared… it started off as just writing a coupla sentences 8 years ago… look what’s happened!… the germ of an idea for a story triggered the Jack Calder series… the characters appeared, and then they basically took over the whole deal… spontaneous committee meetings in my head sprung up, comprised of the men and women who populate the series… and to heck…

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…for me, a real bucket list needs contain only one item…

This blog post, written by our friend, Seumas Gallacher, tells us, what his bucket list contains – and I found it so emotionally touching, I would love to share it with as many people as possible. This is one reason we love Seumas! Thank you for these powerful words!

 

Seumas Gallacher

…many of yeez lovely people are aware that my youngest sister succumbed to cancer a couple of days ago… she is not the first person ever to pass that way, nor will she be the last… during the course of our lives, very few of us will be untouched by some sadness or other… that is the way of things… I have no wish to belittle the suffering and anxiety that affects not only the patient especially, but the immediate family and friends on such occasions, but I truly believe these can be used as positive triggers… for a start, for those of us remaining to be grateful for whatever we do have… and I don’t mean tangible stuff like bling, property, and the trappings of wealth… look to yer friendships, the close buddies, those who are there for each of yeez regardless of time and circumstance… the real support…

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…Authors …there be lies, damn lies, statistics and Amazon book review numbers…

GREAT advice from Seumas Gallacher on Amazon, new authors, statistics, lies and a few more interesting numbers. Thanks so much Seumas for all your advice!

Seumas Gallacher

…those of yeez who have graced this blog with yer readership over the last few years will know I like to keep tabs on some of the things I believe an author, self-published or otherwise, should be aware of… for we scribblers, reviews are as lifeblood… sum’times precious, sum’times soul-destroying, sum’times illuminating, sum’times damning, often constructive… but let me warn yeez, they are never, never, never totally accurate…  there be lies, damn lies, statistics and Amazon book review numbers… be that as it may, over the last eight years or so, my four titles of the Jack Calder crime thriller series currently with the Great God Amazon have performed thus in review terms :

…the summary covers all of the titles’ reviews from the Amazon pages since day one of publishing on there…

…I’ve only tracked the four principal markets, Amazon UK, USA, Canada and Australia, although…

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…Authors–caveat emptor re book-selling websites–the final report makes for sorry reading…

Seumach Gallacher tells us about the results of his tests on paid book-selling websites. Thank you very much for sharing this with us, Seumach!

Seumas Gallacher

…I promised yeez a round up summary of my recent dabble with book-selling websites… and the final report makes for sorry reading… let me back up and explain for emb’dy coming in fresh to this… as a self-published author, I’m always keen to find and develop non-spamming channels to help sell my wee literary  masterpieces… Aunty Internet is full of enterprising offers, at a cost, of course, with various claims of daily email shots to anywhere up to 120,000+ readers, clustered in genres, in order ‘to target and maximise your sales to these avid followers’... well, in good ol’ Scottish vernacular… BORROX!!… here’s the score:

Website ONE:

Paid US$ 15—Result 2 sales

Website TWO

Paid US$ 16—Result 2 sales

Website THREE

Paid US$ 50—Result 1 sale

…impressive, NOT… in truth, I hadn’t expected massive downloads from this, but the sheer sparseness of the returns is mind-boggling… and…

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…authors, the lowdown on book promo sites… honest feedback from an ol’ Jurassic Scots scribbler…

 

Seumas Gallacher shares his valuable opinion about book promo sites. I would say this is a huge MUST-READ for newbies like me!! Thanks so much for this, Seumas! You rock!!

Seumas Gallacher

…I promised yeez a wee while ago to revert with the success or otherwise of dabbling in the ‘give-us-yer-money-and-we’ll-get-yeez-gazillions-of-sales-for-yer-masterpieces’ websites… I’m never averse to trying new (for me) channels and avenues for prospective book sales, and am currently giving this field a whirl… early returns are disappointing so far… let me recap :

All the sites require titles ALREADY to have been reasonably successful, with a certain number of reviews rating at least 4-star or above…

All the sites require a significant discount to normal pricing.

Website 1…

Paid US$ 15 for a one day exposure for one title in a list of prob’ly around 40 or 50 others, with the title remaining on their ’trailing list’ for a further unspecified period…

Email list (they claim) is 35,000

Result: Sales for the period through this channel  — 2 copies only…

Conclusion– A waste of this author’s time and money…

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…Authors supporting other writers online… and why this ol’ Scots scribbler does it…

Seumas Gallacher writes about authors supporting each other online and why he does it. It’s a great post and I therefore would love to share it. Enjoy the blog post!

Seumas Gallacher

…there’s an uncanny parallel that exists between the community of ants and the community of online scribblers… the incredible mutual support and encouragement to their respective members… one of the important elements (at least, important to me) that I always include when answering Q and A online interview queries regarding how to be successful on the SOSYAL NETWURKS as an Author, is to give of yerself to other Lads and Lassies of Blog Land… the friendly mention on Twitter or Facebook… the HONEST review on the Great God Amazon pages and Goodreads (but only if the review rates 4-stars or 5-stars– I feel compelled not to publish the review if I warrant it at 3-star level or below)… inviting Guest Posts, and writing Guest Posts for other blogs… being part of the fabulous global diaspora of like-minded spirits… it never fails to lift me up… but what started…

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‘…they made me an offer I couldn’t refuse… I try to get out, but they pull me back in…’ (Author Seumas ‘Corleone’ Gallacher)

‘…I need help… my characters are hard people, capable of doing ‘dark things’ ‘ (quote by Seumas Gallacher)
You know me… I cannot resist lending a helping hand if another author is asking for it. That’s one of the reasons why I shared this blog post. The other one is, that I find Seumas Gallacher just a unique very interesting character and personality – and an extraordinary writer!! Enjoy the post.

Seumas Gallacher

…there’s an insidious literary force at WURK that permeates the grey cells of lots of Authors of my acquaintance… fellow scribblers will be well-accustomed to the Midnight Mental Mafia Machinations Syndrome… that strange affliction that creeps into yer head just as yeez try to get to sleep… yer latest masterpiece-in-progress’ Dramatis Personae (fancy WURDS for ‘cast of characters’, Mabel) just refuse to go away… when yer eyelids are drooping and the fuddlement of slumber sets in, these inhabitants of yer embryonic novel kick on into the night shift… the endless nocturnal cerebral committee meetings start… yer subliminal being is usurped by main character after main character screaming at yeez to ‘do this, do that, change this, change that, say this, say that’…

…and yeez wake up in the morning already drained and exhausted… the thoughtfully-planned narrative yeez had in mind has been hijacked and hijeaned, depending on…

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