NEW SUPER-SAVER E-OMNIBUS EDITION OF 'THE PETRONICUS LEGACY' SERIES

Everyone knows Cancerians aren’t superstitious, so Friday 13th of Jan is as an auspicious a day as any to proudly and fearlessly release our latest e-omnibus of three unabridged novels in a single download ... and at about 50% less than the ebooks’ combined individual cover prices.

This new BeWrite Books e-omnibus covers the first trio of books in Peter Tomlinson’s acclaimed Petronicus Legacy series. A fourth in the series – The Life of Nistal – will be released later this year.

So if you’re not yet acquainted with Peter or Petronicus, now’s the time.

This unique collection, of appeal to all ages, spans ten generations’ struggle in an unidentified land and at an unspecified time in ancient history when wisdom stands against dark superstition, courage against savage brutality, hope against almost certain defeat. It is a saga of the indomitable human spirit. 

Each book is a stand-alone novel in its own right but, as with all series, far more satisfying if read in sequence. (The individual novels are also available in paperback at all online stores.)

You can plough through the individual title notes below or skip them and simply visit the BeWrite Books store HERE and download a free mini-ebook of the e-omnibus containing book descriptions, reviews, author biography and picture, and free extracts.

These intriguing, informative, entertaining and fun mini-ebook productions that now cover all our titles – an exclusive BeWrite Books’ innovation – are proving more popular than we’d dared hope since they went live on New Year’s Day.

Author Peter Tomlinson

For those who like the details:- Author: Peter Tomlinson. Editor: Neil Marr. Design and technical preparation: Tony Szmuk. Distribution by BeWrite Books. Available from BeWrite Books itself, at all major stores – including Kindle, Barnes & Noble's Nook Store, Apple’s iBookstore, Sony, etc – and many newer, independent ebook retail outlets. Price $9.99.

As always with a new BB release, the first three to email THIS ADDRESS with the correct answer to the following question can claim a free copy in the digital format of their choice: In order, what are the titles of the novels contained in this e-omnibus edition and what is the title of the fourth in the Petronicus Legacy series to be released later in 2012?

Happy weekend, folks. Neil et al at BB

***

The Stones of Petronicus:

A new-born baby is left naked and exposed to die on a city wall while his father is hanged for petty theft a few feet away amid the cheers and hoots of a crazed mob.

Petronicus, an itinerant healer and man of wisdom, takes the babe to heart and together they begin a quest for knowledge, groping through a maze of magic and madness to find answers in the cruel and mysterious ancient world.

The boy grows to manhood in strange lands where a chosen few risk death in their search for truth, bitterly opposed by ruthless rulers and puppet priests who strive to enslave their subjects in a perpetual Dark Age of superstition and suspicion.

The heart-warming, honest but complex simplicity Petronicus and his adopted son share leave the reader wiser than when he joined them on their remarkable journey.

Not since the Fables of Aesop has a book like this been written. And Tomlinson wraps the sage advices in the tales Petronicus tells in a story as intriguing and exciting as any high-octane thriller – and with characters so real you’ll meet them time and again in your dreams … and your nightmares.

***

The Time of Kadrik:

Kadrik’s time is a terrible time. The land is ravaged by plague and famine, savaged by desperate, starving renegades, terrorized by the mysterious race of Men Half-Made, and in the grip of crippling superstition.

Here, fatherless Kadrik grows to manhood and to the chilling realisation that he – armed only with ancient stories he has committed to memory and a few shards of strangely marked broken pottery – holds the key to salvation.

In this self-contained sequel to his acclaimed The Stones of Petronicus, Peter Tomlinson sets his second tale in the saga ten lifetimes on when, after a long, dark age of stagnation, the land is in its death throes and Kadrik must break the hold of a powerful but backward brotherhood of scribes to save it.

Tomlinson follows Kadrik, with his insatiable thirst for knowledge, through a troubled young adulthood as precocious apprentice to the wise men of his community to the discovery of jealously guarded secrets ... and on a perilous mission to reveal the hidden truths that are his people’s only slim chance of survival; secrets sealed by the death of his mysterious and legendary ancestor in the mists of tribal memory.

'The Time of Kadrik' is an unforgettable journey of profound wisdom, rare courage and breathtaking adventure from a world class story-teller whose magical pen leaves a memory on each and every page.

***

The Voyages of Delticos:

They are four – the scribe, the outcast, the stranger and one only half-human. But the storm-lashed little band in its pathetic wooden boat is the last hope of a dying people devastated by plague and famine and ravaged by a desperate army of marauding cutthroats.

Delticos, Kadrik, Bantius and the Man Half-Made battle tyranny and lies, epidemic and dark superstition armed with only raw courage and the wisdom of ages to save a doomed race from extinction.

Peter Tomlinson throws us back into the mists of memory when the earth was young, yet old; simple, yet complex; gentle, yet violent, in a satisfyingly self-contained novel that is also the third of his acclaimed Petronicus Legacy series.

The Voyages of Delticos is the latest in a ten-generation saga in which sages and warriors stand shoulder-to-shoulder in a war against ignorance and savagery to save the ancient world from an eternal dark age.

A book in which not only the story and its characters are memorable, but what they say … The appendix of collected sayings that follows this novel and its predecessors is worthy of Aesop. And that, perhaps, is the real legacy of Petronicus.

NM

LAZY LITERARY LUNCHES OFF THE MENU AT BEWRITE BOOKS

The festivities are over and hangovers are hung-up until next time. And since the sparkling new BeWrite Books website went live this week, it’s been All Systems GO!

Our revolutionary Ebook-First with ready-to-go for-print files policy is already proving more popular than we’d ever expected, and our new free mini-ebooks for each BB title are doing the job we’d hoped for, thanks to our energetic, imaginative authors, in-house promotions folks and online syndication and trade press exposure.

More than 120 BB mini-ebooks went live this week, with full-color cover, book notes, author biographies, reviews and free extracts. They're there for the sharing, so spread them around, add them to blogs and websites, email them to contacts and fans. Use them as best you possibly can. We certainly will because they took Tony and the team months to compile and we ain't about to let all that effort and unique initiative wither on the vine.

There are currently more than fifty exclusive, contacted but as yet unpublished, BB titles at various stages of editorial, design and technical preparation for release as soon as possible, and new offerings are flooding in by the day since we re-opened to fresh submissions on January 1. (The first arrived at my desk three minutes after midnight in the New Year. Thanks!)

There’s never been such a thing as a free lunch. At BeWrite, we’ve learned there’s not even such a thing as free time for lunch. 2012 will see us all working harder than ever.

We’re a small pro team, as you know, so have a tad of patience to help us in what we believe is the future of the kind of publishing that matters. Please grant us the time necessary to apply ...

*Rigorous selection of potential titles.

**Editorial, cover and text design, and technical excellence.

***Blanket international marketing for effective launch.

****On-release and ongoing promotion.

*****And please do – whether a newcomer or an old hand at BeWrite Books – take time to study our new website. Pay particular attention to the lengthy but informative SUBMISSIONS section. The nifty brochure there lays the ground rules for untested authors and provides an important option to existing BeWriters.

There are more and more self-publishing 'opportunities' out there all the time if you’re in a rush to present potentially flawed mediocrity in arrogance or ignorance – some are push-button author mills playing the numbers game, others ask cash up front for dubious ‘services’ that can cost authors from hundreds to thousands of dollars, euros or pounds. They will 'publish' anything that comes their way. Make no mistake, their interest in books extends no further than bank books. Then you're on your own.

But if you want meaningful publication by an established publishing house of industry professionals that cuts no corners and asks no fees, DON’T expect instant publication at BeWrite Books. Hold your horses and work with us to make the very best of your work. It probably took years to write. Give us the time we need to get it right if we select your book for treatment and publication.

The choice is yours ... instant gratification through a sloppy rush job, or everlasting pride in a piece of solidly prestigious work, thoroughly and well treated in every way; a book for which the reader will thank you and admire you.

In 'true' publishing, a little patience is a great virtue.

We, like you, know the old story of the ‘Tortoise and the Hare’. Never forget who won!

Our motto has always been and will always be: “More haste ... more waste.”

BB will NOT contribute to the ever-growing heap of the sub-standard that once (often rightly) languished in a publisher's or agent’s slush pile but that now, far too often, sees the light of day as ‘self-published’.

We believe the reader should not break his or her heart panning a murky river for the rare chance of a tiny nugget of gold. Recreational reading time is precious. We respect the discerning reader as much as we do the diligent author.

BeWrite is about books ... but ONLY about good books.

Bear with us and raise your head above the herd in 2012.

Luck and best wishes. Neil, Tony, Hugh, Sam et al at BB

A BRAVE NEW YEAR WITH BEWRITE BOOKS

As of January 1, 2012, BeWrite Books is an ‘Ebook-First’ publisher ... lavishing the same precision, experienced and talented editorial, design and technical care on its digital editions as it has on its print books since the turn of our new millennium.

In a nut shell, print is now a by-product of our ebook editions rather than vice-versa.

This innovative shift of emphasis is not made lightly. Not by a long chalk. Not by a looong-looooong chalk, folks. We’ve been carefully and diligently preparing for its inevitability. It is also encouraged by our authors and readers.

It comes after impressively successful ebook-only field trials on some BB publications (our biggest seller in a decade is one of these recent ebook-only productions) and with a huge and independent digital distribution base we’ve painstakingly built, store-by-store, according to complex and strict individual technical requirements and legally nit-picking third-party retail contracts, over the past two years.

And it is backed by heavy financial investment in specialized technology, new and vital company registrations, retained professional services ... and sheer hard work and research by the BB team since we focused on this course in 2010.

Make no mistake; BeWrite Books is a serious and progressive house. We've always kept at least one step ahead of the game.

The result is that a whopping 98% of our readers voted with their credit cards and PayPal payments in 2011 to tell us they prefer to buy BeWrite Books in ebook formats than in paper editions.

And sales are going up, up and away. They're greater than ever and getting greater still by the month.

We won’t be pulling out of print immediately or entirely, and Ingram – the biggest book distributor on the planet – will continue to deal with our print editions, although we now find we have higher market penetration than even the mighty Ingram when dealing independently with digital.

When readers loudly send us such a clear message, we have to listen ... and our authors have to listen. We expect the public to read what we offer, so we must extend to them the courtesy of hearing and digesting what they have to say in return. Authors and readers should think of themselves as partners whenever a book is opened. Each *collaborator* merits a fair hearing. And the publisher must quickly adjust accordingly. Agreed?

So we’ve moved the goalposts. A new BeWrite Books author’s title must now prove its literary worth in ebook sales to the general reading public before we will publish a printed edition under the BB logo.

We’re putting the reader in the driver’s seat ... right where s/he belongs.

Our publishing house is now among the first – if not THE first – to retain the Old School values of what’s lately become known as ‘traditional’ publishing, but to initially apply them to ebook production.

We don't blush with embarrassment at the inexperienced self-publisher’s disparaging description of established publishing houses and their expert editors as ‘gatekeepers’. We strongly believe that rigorous selection of submissions is key and that perfect editorial and design treatment of accepted and ultimately published work is the reader’s due. We are proud to be the ‘gatekeepers’ who read and work so hard and long to filter the slush pile for quality rather than leaving that tedious job entirely to the reader, who is otherwise bewildered by tens of thousands of raw manuscripts randomly posted with the tap of a key or two at sales websites purely on the whim of their arrogant ‘authors’. Absolutely unregulated instant ‘publication’ benefits nobody.

(It must be honestly said with humility and all due honor that a very few renowned self-publishers – overwhelmingly those who have built their reputations through large and established publishers and who have the nous to expensively contract pro editors, designers and technicians – must not be written off lightly.)

We also believe that a good book is a good book, whether read on paper or on a handy, pocket- and purse-sized ebook-dedicated reading device or tablet.

Existing BeWrite Books authors and those newcomers to whom we’ve already made informal promises are not necessarily affected by our new digital-first policy and may choose which model they wish applied to their works. But if 2012’s entirely new authors don’t achieve an ebooks sales target within a year of their ebook editions release (or if existing BeWriters prefer the new deal) their print rights will be fully restored and they will be FREELY offered perfectly prepared (covered, edited, proofed and designed), ready-for-print files to use as they will as we continue to distribute and plug e-editions for the remainder of the agreement period.

We don't know of  ANY other publisher offering such a clean and generous agreement. You?

Either way, authors win through much higher royalty payments under the new deal and help BB by unburdening us of loss-making print editions (only two percent of our sales, remember, and very costly to produce and maintain where many more that a hundred titles are involved at any given time), whilst taking advantage of returned print rights and freely provided print-ready files to use elsewhere. We can also effectively and freely cross-promote digital and available print.

We firmly believe that any BeWrite author will agree that we sometimes must play hard-ball before a book is ready to run ... but we ALWAYS play fair. 

As of January 1, you'll find the same. That's when we re-open to new and unsolicited submissions, and you can access the detailed warts-n-all information you need at www.bewritebooks.com and – for some time to come – still at www.bewrite.net. (Should the website appear at all like the old maroon-colored one and without the new, grey-background banner heading similar to that you now see on this blog, please simply refresh your browser. Any hitch; just drop us a line and we’ll talk you through. You all know we're just an email away,)

We think you’ll find our new bookstore section’s presentation particularly stunning, but please do take time to read and understand the other sections, and especially the new submissions and conditions details, now incorporated in a simple, downloadable and shareable e-booklet of 8,000 words of fine detail and advice. We make no apologies for the length of this section you NEED to understand us and up-to-the-minute industry trends before trusting your valuable work to BB.

Also please note our new and free mini-ebooks to help browsers choose and authors to help us promote their work at the click of the button. Each of these small productions carries full color cover, book notes, conditions, reviews, author biography and picture and a free extract. Promo-to-go at the tap of a key. We’re about 70% of the way through the existing catalog and all titles will be covered by their own mini-ebooks by the end of January.

By the way, the new BeWrite Books website can now read your mind ... well, at least it will identify the device you’re reading on and adjust its presentation accordingly. The fancy clockwork is hidden behind the scenes. Our efforts are largely out of sight, to let the website and not the browser do the work.

Also, we’re producing a free ebook very soon to help authors help us in the major job of getting themselves and their books noticed. Obscurity is the author’s Public Enemy Number One. Please take this fact very, very seriously and join us in getting your name and your work out into the bright light of day.

And let’s hope your readers respond with satisfaction, glowing reviews, and maybe even interact by dropping a private line to their favorite BB authors. If they do PLEASE respond to their thoughtfulness and kindness with a personal note,

So here’s to a Happ-E New Year, folks.

 

Best Wishes for the best of years. Neil, Tony, Hugh, Sam

HERE'S TO YOUR B-B-BEST YEAR EVER

BeWrite Books’ team, authors and readers are of all ages, colours, nationalities and creeds. But, unlike the ‘outside’ world, we get along like one big, happy clan.

Maybe it’s our shared passion for books and the fascinatingly different characters populating them, the places and eras we're transported to, the previously unexplored possibilities and visions, that promotes such understanding and mutual respect ...

And that makes life such a wonder-filled trip for us all.

Books sans frontiers!

You’re never alone with a book. It’s a pact between you and an author and his or her support group of editors, designers and technicians.

Reading is a shared experience, an exchange of views and stories, dreams and – sometimes – nightmares. Laughs and tears come with the partnership package as in any close friendship.

When did you last close a book, then not sit and think again about the rainbow of life?

Thanks for making 2011 such a busy and interesting year for BB, folks.

In return, we’ll be presenting you with a spanking new website – chock full of surprises – early in January, and with an increased release schedule of sparkling new titles from some of the most gifted authors on the planet over the coming twelve months.

Have a wonderful holiday time with your nearest and dearest – never forgetting the lonely neighbor down the road and those millions of earth-born companions and fellow mortals to whom the next two weeks will be no more than part of a continual struggle against hunger, poverty, despair and fear.

Love, luck and very best wishes to everyone. We’ll be raising our glasses to all points of the compass when the Hogmanay bells ring in New Year in whatever time zones we find ourselves.

Neil, Tony, Hugh and Sam

HAVE YOURSELF A SCARY LITTLE CHRISTMAS

Author Alan Lewis is wrapping the parcels and preparing a traditional merry Christmas for his children. But he has an altogether different Santa story to tell the rest of us … and it doesn’t ring with jingling sleigh bells and cheerful ho-ho-hos.

BeWrite Books today (December 2) releases – in paperback and all ebook formats – Alan’s debut novel, The Blood in Snowflake Garden; the garden is the park and murder scene at the heart of a bitterly chilling North Pole where nightmares, rather than dreams, come true. Only blood stains its virgin snow.

The Claymore Dagger finalist asked himself the question all authors must: What if? And Alan, who hails from Tennessee’s Chattanooga, chew-chewed over the puzzle; what if Santa was real in another world, what if he wasn’t the kindly, roly-poly, fun-loving and generous character kids believe him to be, what if his elves were little more than slaves, what if flying reindeer were whipped to work … what if … what if?

Back cover text to The Blood in Snowflake Garden tells you what:

In an alternative universe, Santa’s North Pole City is no mere myth.

But the reality has little to do with the jolly image promoted to the rest of the world. The North Pole is a grim industrial complex where worker elves and flying reindeer rarely live happy and long lives … and where Santa Claus is a booze-sodden wreck.

Detective Max Sneed is dragged out of retirement when Vlad Volsky, Premier of gun-free North Pole City, is mysteriously shot to death in Snowflake Garden.

Prime suspect is Santa himself, suffering alcoholic depression after McCarthy anti-communist witch-hunts in his universe ban him from US airspace.

During the six months’ long polar night, Max is assisted in his investigation by visiting English journalist, Robert Watson, who struggles to resist the advances of Mrs Claus’s pot-induced horniness and is bemused by the complex social interplay between humans and elves.

Within this universe echo the events of our own turbulent sixties when the winding murder investigation becomes tangled with cold war politics, corporate espionage, bitter worker revolt and a powerful civil rights movement that threatens to destroy the fragile tinsel myth.

Author Alan Lewis

Lewis brings us a North Pole struggling to retain its image in the midst of labor disputes, volatile human-elf relations, a discredited Santa, and now the murder of Santa’s right-hand man. With a little grit and a lot of charm, 'The Blood in Snowflake Garden' is a perfect mix of mystery, mayhem and magic. Jaden Terrell, Executive Director of the Killer Nashville Crime Literature Conference and author of the Jared McKean mysteries

Fans of Terry Pratchett’s ‘Discworld’ will feel at home in Lewis’s ‘The Blood in Snowflake Garden’. Poet and author Sam Smith

Alan Lewis now lives in Nashville with his children. He authored technical guides and manuals for over twenty years but branched out into fiction. In 2006, he took the reins of a writer’s workshop where he has been striving to teach and aid aspiring authors. He also has several published short stories under his belt and other exciting projects in the works. 

His debut novel, The Blood in Snowflake Garden, was a finalist for the 2010 Claymore Dagger Award presented to the best unpublished murder mystery manuscript. It is no longer unpublished.

As of today it is available in paperback and all ebook formats for all electronic reading platforms from all major online stores, many smaller retails and direct from BEWRITE BOOKS.

Author: Alan Lewis. Editor: Hugh McCracken. Cover, text design and technical preparation: Tony Szmuk. Additional input: The BeWrite Books team. Print distribution: Ingram. Digital distribution: BeWrite Books, Canada and BeWrite Books LLC, USA.

And a personal note from Neil Marr: I wondered over this past week just how far away Alan’s ‘alternative universe’ is from our own. Maybe no more than a cat's whisker.

We’ve just witnessed a Black Friday where riots broke out and pepper spray was used by those battling for Christmas bargains in US stores. As stocking-fillers, many bought loss-leader electronic goods churned out by slave-wage Chinese workers in dismal and dangerous conditions that would shame a captain of industry during the gruesome Victorian Industrial Revolution. Credit cards were maxed out, courtesy of 'Santa the Banka' ... and the whole world now knows the cynicism behind a banker’s ho-ho-ho.

Alan’s answer to the ‘what if?’ question is pretty close to home these days, I reckon.

Find out for yourself by reading The Blood in Snowflake Garden. When you’re bursting at the seams with turkey and Christmas pud, there’s still room to feast on food for thought.

Happy weekend and best wishes. Neil et al at BeWrite Books.