Thursday 22 March 2012

"THE BOY" IS #21 IN THE OLYMPICS LIST!

Wow- I checked out Amazon just now and found these figures, for The Boy with Two Heads. It is number 21 in the top hundred best-selling books about the Olympic Games! (and 65 in the Greek top hundred!) Well done Julia!

Sunday 11 March 2012

AMAZON ISN'T EASY!

I talk to Amazon a lot- by email, by live chat, and even by phone. They are always charming and polite and promise to do something. However, getting something changed on the mighty Amazon is like swimming through treacle, or as an acquaintance whose word-hoard I envy, once said, "It's like pinning jelly-fish to clouds."

I have had two problems with them recently. One concerns the fact that they list The Boy with Two Heads as out of stock, when we know that people have ordered it from local bookshops, and we ourselves have a (rapidly diminishing) pile of copies. They also say they don't know who the publisher is. Well, durr- they've been talking to me! Me- the publisher!

However, it does say that The Boy with Two Heads is #31 in Books > Sports, Hobbies & Games > Other Sports > Sporting Events > Olympic Games
Yay!- it's in the top 100 already (or in a top 100) and this is in spite of the fact they say it's "out of stock."

The message is- don't be put off, order it anyway, and we hope and believe you will enjoy this lively and gripping new read.

The other problem is potentially more serious. When you search for Carla Nayland's Paths of Exile on Amazon.co.uk, you will not at first see this striking cover,
but the one that went out of print some time ago. You can still find the Trifolium Books 2011 edition, but t you have to expand the information in the formats box by clicking on the + sign. Obviously, I would prefer that you buy Trifolium Books' edition, but not just because it's got a handsomer cover, and a better layout, but because I will be able to pay royalties to the author. As the publisher of the earlier edition, Quaestor 2000, has ceased to trade, I have no idea who now receives the profits from any sales, but I guess it won't be the publisher, and I know it isn't the author!

So the message here is simple too- if you want a copy of this gritty and gripping book, buy either the edition on the right, or the Kindle version of the same edition.

Amazon I hope will eventually get the message that they should not be selling out of print POD books!

Tuesday 6 March 2012

THE BOY CAN NOW BE ORDERED ON AMAZON


The Boy with Two Heads by J M Newsome

A time-slip novel about the Ancient Olympics

ISBN: 978-0-8568104-4-1


According to Amazon, The Boy with two Heads is out of stock, but I've got a stack of them and sold a couple within half an hour of unpacking the boxes! Also according to Amazon, the publisher is unknown. Here in my small corner I am jumping up and down shouting "It's me! It's me" but evidently they haven't heard me. I shall put them right, just as soon as I have finished writing this post, but in the meantime you can order from Amazon, or any bookshop for that matter. What their listing means is that they have had the information from Nielson that the book is published. However, what really tickles me is the assertion that you there is a "used" copy available- the mind really and truly boggles!

As Amazon hasn't managed to come up with a cover image yet, here is what they look like:


The bright blues of Greece make an interesting contrast to Cumbria's greens

A stack of copies with Trifolium Books' Head Office in the background



 Just in case you can't see the fells clearly, this is what they looked like in the sparkling early morning light: 


About the book


It all starts in Athens.
In 432 BC, they think Themis is dead. Suzanne, who is on a school trip in 2010, is drawn through thousands of years to keep him alive. Will Themis’ destiny be death or glory in the Games of the 87th Olympiad? Will Suzanne regain control of her life, or will her mind be occupied forever by the past, while her body lies in hospital in present-day Cumbria?


“This book transported me effortlessly back to ancient Greece, vividly evoking its sights, sounds and even smells. And I found that young people’s issues have hardly changed in 2,400 years!”
Marion Clarke, fiction editor

“A wonderful story which brings the ancient Olympics to vibrant life and links them to contemporary young people. You can almost smell Greece, and there is a lovely equivalence of teenage feelings and humour, then and now. I couldn’t put it down and didn’t realize how much I had learnt until after the enthralling climax.”
Philippa Harrison, former Managing Director of Macmillan and Little Brown UK

Read more about this novel on the author's blog: