This Writing Life

Novellist Ian Hocking: accidentally best-selling since 2011

Category: publishing

★ Signed by Kneerim & Williams

Well, spin my nipple nuts and send me to Alaska if it’s been almost two weeks since I signed with the Kneerim & Williams literary agency. What? Me? A literary agent? With my reputation for going-it-alonery? But I am two-and-twenty, gentle reader. What happened was: Just prior to Christmas, I found myself corresponding with a [...]

★ The New Statesman on Déjà Vu Sales

A heads-up from Ben Johncock tells me that no less than Nicholas Clee has been writing in the New Statesman about the transition from tangible to electronic books. (I’ve been struggling to find an official link to the piece; here’s an unofficial-looking one.) It’s fair to say that Nicholas Clee is traditional in his perspective. [...]

Guest Blogging Part II: Ebook Sales Data

In the thrilling sequel to yesterday’s blog post over at Scott Pack’s blog, I’m back with some data about sales and income.

★ Ebook Q & A

M’colleague Matt F W Curran recently sent me some questions about my adventures in the ebook trade. I thought my answers might be useful to others, so I’ve posted them here. Did you e-publish via an e-publisher? No, I decided that it would be best to control the process myself. One of the more frustrating [...]

The Digital Peninsula

Lee over at the Digital Peninsula writes: No, not that Hocking. I’m talking about Ian Hocking. He’s a science-fiction writer, when he’s not a psychology lecturer. He nearly gave it all up. It’s true. I nearly did. [the] industry now needs to understand they’re not just competing with each other, but with every author, published [...]

Brass Tacks on Déjà Vu and Flashback

Did I mention that I’ve been gate-crashing Scott Pack’s blog with some stats on my how well my books are selling? Your friend and mine, Scott, left me a message at our usual dead drop – behind the third cervical vertebra of the diplodocus in the foyer of the Natural History Museum. In somewhat breathless [...]

In Which iBooks Are Like Buses

A couple of months back I tried to publish Déjà Vu for iBooks via Lulu. It didn’t work so I gave up in disgust. Then I tried to publish it with Smashwords. It didn’t work there, either, so I gave up in disgust. All the more perplexing for me, then, that there are now two [...]

★ Flashback

It’s been five years coming, but my novel Flashback, sequel to Déjà Vu, is now available in the Kindle store. The price is £2.13 in the UK and something approximating that in the US. To be honest, this is a little more expensive than I intended. I was – and still am – aiming for [...]

Déjà Vu Spreads

I’ve spent the last few days preparing Déjà Vu for publication on Smashwords. This company provides electronic versions of books. Whereas Amazon only supports the Kindle (fair enough), Smashwords is a one-size fits all solution. Whatever your ebook reader, you’re likely to find a format that works. Here is Déjà Vu’s Smashwords page. This might [...]

Flashback: The Blurb

Flashback, sequel to Déjà Vu, is on schedule for publication next month. I’m currently working on the blurb – the catchy description you typically find on the back of the physical book, or in the Amazon description in the case of an ebook. I’m not sure whether it’s good or bad. All I know is [...]