Stephen Lean

With the current trend of indie authors heading into self-publishing, there are many “specialists” now jumping on the bandwagon and offering to “convert” your manuscript for not a lot of money.

Because of this, those writers and self-publishers looking to outsource this part of the process should make a point of getting to know what they’re actually paying for. There is a whole world of difference between ebook “conversion” and ebook “formatting”. Read more »

The first two stories in the ‘Dangerous Playthings’ series are now finished and you can read them for free!

They’re approximately 6500 words each and you can see a synopsis of each one on my short stories page.

I’m currently working on the third one and there are two, possibly three, more to come after that.

Then I will be combining them all into a collection which will be for sale on Amazon Kindle, and once that’s done there’ll be a paperback version as well. Phew!

If you would like to keep up with future releases, please subscribe to the newsletter over there on the right, or the RSS feed up above it.

There’ll be some more free stuff to come for all subscribers but at the moment I’m working flat out on the stories so you’ll just have to trust me on this. Have I ever lied to you?

Just had to take a screenshot of this:

I know, I know, but a bit of self-promotion is allowed occasionally, surely? After all, I am a self-published author. Who else is going to do it?

Here’s a little bit of advice you may be interested in if you produce any form of viral marketing publication. You know the sort of thing: ebooks, pdf reports, courses, reviews, etc.

Never use any link inside the content that you can’t control or change later.

You should always use redirect links from your own domain when putting any kind of link inside your ebook or publication. Most people will insert their affiliate link for a product or service inside their ebook that they are hoping readers will click on and earn them some cash. Read more »

Have a good one, whatever you’re doing. (Canon G10. Settings? Haven’t got a clue, it’s a point-and-shoot!)

As you may have noticed, this blog has a completely new look. I’ve been thinking about changing it for quite a while now as the web never stands still.

So I did a search for 2012 WordPress themes and found this one. I wanted a theme that utilised up-to-date technologies, like HTML5 and CSS3, but also I just loved the simple and traditional look and feel of this one. What do you think?

There’s a link in the footer if you’d like to see more. Want to know the best bit? It’s free!

Here’s another very short short story for one of Chuck Wendig’s Flash Fiction Challenges.

Chuck’s brief was simple: “I want you to tell me a story in five sentences. (Yes, a complete story.) No longer than 100 words total.”

Deadly Night-Girl

If you look really hard she still retains a certain glamour, but only on a good day.

In a previous life she had it all; she was an A-lister, she sparkled, turned heads, broke more than a few hearts. Now there are only memories; and needles; and the stale-piss stench of the cubicle.

A liquid jewel pops out of her vein, an HIV ruby pooling at the exit of the thin steel lifeline.

She’s well past caring about how she looks but she covers her arms carefully, in her line of business it makes the punters nervous.

Here’s my contribution to Chuck Wendig’s ‘flash fiction challenge’. The brief got my writerly juices flowing, it was as follows:

Go to Your Favorite Music Player. Dig out your digital music collection.
Hit SHUFFLE, then “Play.”
Meaning, let a random song come bubbling up out of nothing.
The title to this song is the title to your story.
Use the song for inspiration, too, if you feel so inclined.
Let’s tighten up the word count a little, too –
You only have 500 words this time.    Read more »

Are you an ‘Internet Marketer’?

Congratulations! You’re part of a huge movement, the 99% of wannabes who will never make a dime!

You’ll just keep flitting from one ‘money making’ scheme to the next, all the while overdosing on daily emails from all the ‘gurus’ out there trying to bleed you dry with the latest must-have ‘guaranteed-income-for-doing-fuck-all’ crock of gold. (Or is that crock of shit?)    Read more »

I watched a bit of this absolute fucking mind-numbing garbage last night and was going to do a rant about it today.

But then I was on Twitter and I saw a link to the article below on justpaste.it and decided that it said everything I was going to say. Only more so, and from an insider’s point of view!

So I’ll reproduce it verbatim below and just let you draw your own conclusions:    Read more »