Nicola Sarjeant liked an update for Murder at the Veterans’ Club

Dear friends and followers,

Over the past little while, I’ve introduced a few of the characters from the novel. You may have noticed that all of them are male. This is perhaps to be expected, given the setting: there aren’t many female members in a gentlemen’s club, I think. Today, however, I’m pleased to introduce one of the women in the novel: Martha Garrett, wife of Edward Garrett.

Ladies’ clubs did exist, incidentally: just like gentlemen’s clubs, offering the same sort of services, but for women only. The University Women’s Club, founded in 1886 as the University Club for Ladies, is still "women only" today.

In the novel, Martha Garrett mentions having lunch at the Cavendish: that would be what is today the New Cavendish Club, founded in 1920 expressly for the ladies of the Voluntary Aid Detachment, or VAD. VAD nurses were not the same as military nurses: the latter were career women with stringent medical training, while the VADs were volunteers who might have had no prior experience. There was apparently some friction between the two at the beginning of the first World War, lessening as the war dragged on.

If the Cavendish was supposed to be for the VADs, would Martha Garrett, as a former military nurse, have been a member? I don’t know, but I’m sure she wouldn’t have let a trivial detail like that stop her.

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Nicola Sarjeant followed BRUGES BLOOD - A Chandler Travis and Duke Lanoix mystery.

BRUGES BLOOD - A Chandler Travis and Duke Lanoix mystery.

Detective Travis and Sheriff Lanoix team up again when a headless torso turns up in the medieval city of Bruges.

Nicola Sarjeant liked the forum thread, change in author royalties? when?

I don’t have a lot to say about this, as I’m not much of a money guy, but I will pitch in that the changing of terms right after getting tons of people excited about the contest--and especially without any notice or announcement--definitely makes me uncomfortable. I’ve only just started my campaign, so I’m not in the same boat as some authors who have been building their following and pushing for publication for months (or even years, in some cases), and maybe we’re all wrong and this will prove to be beneficial to the entire community as a whole, but I’m probably not going to invite any friends or family to purchase my book here until I see what the real fallout from this decision is.

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Nicola Sarjeant liked the forum thread, change in author royalties? when?

This has kind of made my heart sink. I only discovered Inkshares through Geek and Sundry’s competition and over the last few days have been quietly falling in love with the whole site and concept - a site where writers can post work, support and critique each other but, unlike other sites, the site owners don’t expect to never pay for their content. In good faith, they provide a transparent path to "traditional" level publishing with a fair royalty percentage. Amazing! The perfect halfway point between old exploitative publishing and self-publishing!

But a few days ago, when I and probably hundreds of people signed up via the competition, the site information said the royalties were 50% for print and 70% for eBooks of gross receipts. Now suddenly it’s down to 35% for both and of ’net receipts’.

It’s great to hear how well the guys below have been treated and that you feel/know how much Inkshares has invested in your book and publicity (which is the one thing we can do with self-pub) but, let’s face it, writers are used to being screwed and anything over the 8-12% net contracts with their outrageous non-compete clauses is going to be lauded. This is an enormous drop and I find it hugely disappointing. The same % drop again would get us to similar levels of the current traditional publishing boiler plates.

Were the original royalties unsustainable or just not enough profit? (They are two different things.) Bookcouture, Sourcebooks and many other digital first and POD imprints are chugging along happily offering 50%...

I’ll search for other threads on this but if there aren’t any, I’d really like to be pointed toward something showing the reasoning behind the drop and particularly the change to ’net’ - ’net’ allows a certain lack of transparency and has traditionally allowed both music and literary publishers to exploit their artists by adding costs before royalty calculations which can leave an artist that’s selling well in debt to their publisher.

Before I get too far into this comp, I’d really like to hear the philosophy behind this move - and I really want to be happy with it because I’m loving the quality of the work, here - quite aside from my own project, there is so much good writing and good will - it seems a truly lovely community that deserves to be well treated.

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Nicola Sarjeant liked an update for Sync City

Greetings Jackolytes,

The copy edited version of Sync City has spent a couple of weeks back at the mothership getting its penultimate mission directives before heading back off to Girl Friday Productions to get fully beaten into shape! And this is good. This means we are making distinct progress toward bringing Jack and his ride into your hands.

There are still a number of technical areas to deal with – the cover for example – before its ultimate completion. But for now, it’s onto the marketing stage. The goal here is to get Jack and Sync City into as many hands as possible on launch day. And why do you want this? Easy. So you can look cool at parties. When some drops the fact that they have just purchased the outstanding Sync City, you can casually say “Sure, I know it. I went to school/uni/ pubs/worked/ played sport/chatted/emailed/Facebooked/Tweeted (delete as applicable) with the author. I was there from the beginning.” Automatic kudos!

With this in mind, I’d love it if you can spread the word to friends and family and have them jump on board – and who doesn’t like having cool friends and family. To do this, you need to send them to this link and have them hit pre-order (some supervision may be required). If you yourself haven’t pre-ordered, then now is the time! Sync City and a lifetime of awesomeness awaits!

Cheers,

Peter

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Nicola Sarjeant followed The Second Coming Of Hell

The Second Coming Of Hell

An end of days fantasy where the Bible is misleading Christians and the Messiah is a fallen angel in disguise! Humanity is caught in the cross hairs of their twisted plot. Can a sorceress, a vampire, and a fighter with an unknown power stop them?

Nicola Sarjeant followed ARCADIA

ARCADIA

Ten strangers must band together and find a way to defeat Suelitta before they lose what is left of their sanity.

Nicola Sarjeant created a forum thread: Keep being referred the same 3 books

I don’t know if it’s just me, but every time I get credits, I keep getting referred the same three books. As I have ordered all of these books already, it would be nice to see a variety of different suggestions. (A similar thing happens when I hit "Search" - the same books always seem to be on the top of the page.)

Is it possible to have a random rotation of books (available or in production) appearing, rather than the same books all the time? I think this would be beneficial both to the Inkshares authors and also the readers - exposing them to a wider range of books that are available.

Join the discussion

Nicola Sarjeant liked an update for Destiny Imperfect

Greetings Destiny-followers,

It’s been a little over a week since the Inkshares/Nerdist contest and I want to thank you all again for making Destiny Imperfect possible. It’s been a rollercoaster ride so far, and the best is yet to come.

I’d now like to point you in the direction of another one of the contestants. Matthew Poat put together an immense top ten performance and his book, Squids In, looks like a complete blast. I’d love to see this project come to life, and it’d be great if you could get behind this squishy cephalopod. You can find Matt’s book here. Hit the pre-order button and embrace your inner octopus!

Enjoy your weekend!

Peter

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Nicola Sarjeant liked an update for Sync City

Greetings Jackolytes,

The copyedited manuscript of Sync City has landed! This is fantastic news as it brings Sync City one critical step closer. I now need to gird my loins, park my butt in front of a computer and take on the words of wisdom passed down by the editorial gurus at Girl Friday Productions. It should be a fascinating experience.

Also, for those that missed it, Jack has a new drinking buddy! Destiny Imperfect shrugged off some awesome late competition and clung onto third place in the recent Inkshares/Nerdist contest. This means Destiny will become a fully published reality. Many Jackolytes have already hitched your carriage to the Destiny train, but if you haven’t, head over to here to check it out. We’d love to have you on board.

Have a good one!

Cheers,

Peter

like · liked by Monica and 10 others

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