Alex Beecroft - Guest Post

At my very first UK Meet, Alex Beecroft took the time to sit with a newbie author, one on one, and share with me some of her wisdom. That was nearly six years ago and we're both still ticking along, with slow years and busy years. And this year has already been a trying one for many people, including Alex. I'll hand you over to Alex to explain...

The life of an author is surprisingly light on writing at times. I haven’t written a word since before Christmas. Part of that was because I’ve been editing three books back to back – Pride of Cygnus Five, the third in my space opera trilogy, Contraband Hearts, the second of my m/m romances set in Porthkennack, and Murder of a Straw Man, my first attempt at a cozy mystery (published under a new pen name.) All of which are now finished and either already published or soon to be out.

The second reason I haven’t been writing, though, is that a scandal came upon my publisher, Riptide Publishing, and in response to the public outcry, they gave all their writers the chance to take back the rights to their books (except for the Porthkennack ones.)

It seemed to me that the right thing to do was to take my rights back and publish the books myself. So for the past few weeks I’ve been reformatting my manuscripts for Amazon’s KDP publishing page and Draft2Digital who handle distribution for all the other formats of ebook.

This has involved making new cover art for them all. And in some cases, where Riptide - for example - released Sons of Devils and Angels of Istanbul as two volumes, when they were written as one long book, sticking the two halves back together and releasing an omnibus version.

On the 31^st of March, I finally got that all finished and the ebooks re-released. Paperbacks still have to be set up, but that’s a long, complicated job, and I’ll do it slowly, starting from today.

Trowchester Blues

Michael May is losing it. Long ago, he joined the Metropolitan Police to escape his father’s tyranny and protect people like himself. Now his father is dead, and he’s been fired for punching a suspect. Afraid of his own rage, he returns to Trowchester—and to his childhood home, with all its old fears and memories. When he meets a charming, bohemian bookshop owner who seems to like him, he clings tight.

Fintan Hulme is an honest man now. Five years ago, he retired from his work as a high class London fence and opened a bookshop. Then an old client brings him a stolen book too precious to turn away, and suddenly he’s dealing with arson and kidnapping, to say nothing of all the lies he has to tell his friends. Falling in love with an ex-cop with anger management issues is the last thing he should be doing.

Finn thinks Michael is incredibly sexy. Michael knows Finn is the only thing that still makes him smile. But in a relationship where cops and robbers are natural enemies, that might not be enough to save them.

~

"Finn's belief that "if the heart is going to err... It's surely always best to err on the side of love" underlies an entertaining,emotionally satisfying mix of intrigue,mourning, adventure, comedy, and romance." - Publishers Weekly review of Trowchester Blues

You can get that here

Wish me luck with the new phase of my writing life as an indie-writer-and-publisher. I have the feeling that I’m going to need it!

Thanks so much to Lillian for having me on your blog! *HUGS*

Alex

Edited: 25/4/18 (Remove reference to free book, now no longer available for free.)