…That Other Man, scribbler, Eric J. Gates, lets me onto his blog page again…

My Guest: Seumas Gallacher

My Guest this week is a familiar visitor to this blog, well, he’s got to hang out somewhere I suppose, and he’s also a serial… writer, and that’s the very subject he’s going to broach today. Ladies and Gentlemen, the inimitable…

Seumas Gallacher

…this writing gig can be a really series business…

…eight years or so ago a bunch of fictional characters decided to become squatters in my head… Jack Calder and the team from International Security Partners (ISP) just simply moved in, set up house, and have remained resolutely unevictable ever since… there have been times when the noise ‘upstairs’ amongst what’s left of my wee grey cells has caused me serial insomnia… but by and large, I’ve grown accustomed to their cerebral presence… and I must confess, along the way over the eight years, through Master Calder and the troupe, I’ve learned some stuff…

 

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…I’ve learned to stand up tall and call myself a writer… and I tell everybody else who wants to listen, ‘If yeez write at all, then yeez are a writer’… none of yer ‘aspiring writer’ nonsense…

…I’ve learned patience… a hitherto unknown trait… sequential efforts in producing wee crime fiction masterpieces have instilled the realisation that a book takes whatever time it decides to get it finished… trying to rush to ‘The End’ is 99.999999% likely to detract from the quality of yer WURK…

…I’ve learned that, just as in real life, (whatever that is), characters grow from book to book when yeez produce a series… development of their ‘isms’ is gradual… blurting their entire life stories into two or three paragraphs is not conducive to reader enjoyment… 

 

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…I’ve learned that books don’t sell themselves… the present-day scribe is obliged to be a part of the modern WURLD, including the SOSYAL NETWURKS… and it’s no use being active for just a couple of weeks before each launch yeez bring to the marketplace… building the relationships on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and whatever else yeez fancy as yer eChannels of choice is a constant must… and it begins even before yer first literary baby sees the light of an Amazon Kindle day…

…I’ve learned that whatever the old adage says that ‘yeez can’t tell a book by its cover’, unless yeez invest in excellent (not good, but excellent) artwork for yer books’ covers, yeez are putting yerselves at a disadvantage versus all the other promotional and advertising din out there…

…I’ve learned that sharing with the rest of the global diaspora of authors has unbounded benefits… an inexhaustible source of real pals exist on the web… they help with getting the news out about yer novels, and likewise, there’s real joy in introducing their books to a broader market… 

 

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…I’ve learned that writing a series is not as easy as yeez think… for this scribbler, it’s important not to fall into the trap of ‘formula story-writing’… readers demand fresh narratives and thoughtful writing each time they pick up a different title with your name on it as the author… even the readers’ fondness for familiar characters will fade quickly if the twists and turns in the plot become predictable… I’ve learned to surprise myself in that respect, which is more likely to please my readership…

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…I’ve learned other important things… to enjoy what I write… no needless deadlines… savouring the crafting and sculpting of the latest book… to get immersed in a positive way with the blogging… to make time for my author pals on the web… to support new writers, especially self-published, by downloading at least one such new writer each week… to write reviews for these books… these are the life blood of any author, but even more so for those starting out…

…and I’ve learned to say ‘Thank You’ to great guys like That Other Man, Eric Gates for hosting me so frequently and for helping boost my sales through his tireless efforts to help others… thanks gazillions…

…see yeez later… LUV YEEZ!

Bio:

SEUMAS GALLACHER escaped from the world of finance eight years ago, after a career spanning three continents and five decades and started to write crime fiction as a pastime.

His first four crime-thrillers, in what has become the ‘Jack Calder’ series, THE VIOLIN MAN’S LEGACY, VENGEANCE WEARS BLACK, SAVAGE PAYBACK and KILLER CITY have blown his mind with more than 90,000 e-link downloads to date. The fifth in the series, DEADLY IMPASSE, was launched in September 2016. When he reaches the 100,000 sales/downloads mark he may indulge an extra Fried Mars Bar to celebrate.

When Seumas isn’t pounding out heart-stopping crime thrillers, or appearing as a Guest here, he can be found on his entertaining blog

http://seumasgallacher.com and here:

Twitter:   https://twitter.com/seumasgallacher

Facebook:   http://www.facebook.com/seumasgallacher

Email: seumasgallacher@yahoo.com

Thank you, Seumas, for allowing us to see how all the hard work that goes into providing readers with great, fast-paced novels such as your Jack Calder series (I read the latest recently and it’s the best yet – readers, don’t miss it!) can also show an old dog like yourself a new trick or two. Best wishes for the new book.

Eric @ www.ericjgates.com

…thanks gazillions, Eric… see yeez later … LUV YEEZ! 🙂

ALL MY BLOG POSTS ARE FREE TO SHARE OR RE-BLOG SHOULD YOU SO WISH—BE MY GUEST!

…an ol’ Jurassic Scots self-publisher goes back to the future…

…my great author pal, Eric J Gates, features yours truly on his blog :

My Guest: Seumas Gallacher

My Guest this week started his writing life as an Indie then signed with a traditional publisher, something many independent authors dream about. Yet the story doesn’t end there. Ladies and Gentlemen…

Seumas Gallacher

BACK TO SELF-PUBLISHING…

NON, JE NE REGRETTE RIEN…

…yeez put yer self-publishin’ bloke in… yeez put yer self-publishin’ bloke out… in, out, in, out, shake it all about…

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…in the past two or three weeks, several fellow authors have been in touch asking why I’ve reverted to full metal jacket self-publishing… during 2015,  Crooked Cat Publishing and I shared the delight/burden of bringing my Jack Calder crime thriller titles to the marketplace… now we’ve agreed to an amicable parting of the ways, and close writing pals are interested in how that decision was reached… ‘quite simply and painlessly’ is the correct answer… but let’s backtrack a wee bit… and a closer look at why, with 80,000+ downloads up to until a year ago, this ol’ Scots Jurassic author should have joined up with a publishing house in the first place… for six years, many of yeez will have been following my journey on the solo trail… developing my market base… ‘building the platform’… honing my marketing and promotional nous… connecting with so many great pals in the quill-scraper universe…

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…and LUVVIN IT!… however, as so many of yeez Lads and Lassies of Blog Land will have experienced yerselves, there are only, sadly, 24 hours in every day… and I could have embraced two or three times that had they been available… I reckoned that the download history up until then would have justified at least a glimpse from the elusive large publishing moguls… nada, nil, zilch, nix, none… the opportunity arose to partner up with Stephanie and Laurence Patterson… the prospect of eBooks linked to follow-on print copy production was attractive (and still is!)… and, importantly, getting my WURK into a broader range of distribution outlets than my then only channel, the Great God Amazon Kindle… the aforementioned promotional weight would be shared, (and only ‘shared’—I fully understood upfront that regardless of whether yeez are self-published or ‘housed’, an author must still do the lion’s share of the marketing stuff)…

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…at this point, let me say I met with Steph and Laurence over dinner in Edinburgh, and they are splendid hosts and good people… so why part company?… what happened?…

…it’s more a case of what didn’t happen… the avenues to markets was indeed widened, and my books did become available through the likes ofSmashwords and others… but resultant sales were a fraction of my expectations, even on, and I s’pose , especially on Amazon… the over-all total sales across all my titles actually dropped… blame?… no blame… just a realisation of a business truism… selling books in the modern publishing environment is a matter of focus… literature has become more commoditised than ever before… forget the red herring argument of Print versus eBooks… both are formidable forces and both streams will remain gigantic markets… concentrated product flows in the form of more books per day coming to the ‘online shops’ as well as the continued supplies from the print publishers make it increasingly difficult to be ‘heard above the noise’… consider then the good Crooked Cat folks… they have contracts with almost a hundred authors, some with multiple titles… and with the best will in the world, it is impossible for any house to give as much focus

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(there’s that WURD ‘focus’ again) to an individual writer as that writer should be capable of applying himself/herself… many of my Cat pals will be happy with that status, and not everyone wants to be anything more than an author… and correctly so… chacun a son gout… not so Master Gallacher… and here we come to the real, fundamental reason for the separation… I yielded that in-depth involvement in every part of my ‘business of writing’ which drove me for the initial stages of my embryonic novelist career… simple things like not seeing the day to day sales figures online from Amazon… these necessarily switched to the publisher… I missed not so much the addiction to tracking these hypnotic figures, (which is an issue, despite my protestations to the contrary!) but more pertinently, lacking the knowledge of which titles were flagging versus the others, so that I could divert promotional activity toward the hind markers… prior to Crooked Cat, I utilised a cover artist friend in the Philippines and was comfortable with that… this changed to a cooperative process with the publisher… no problem in that in itself, but I missed working alongside my pal on that creative side… the re-launching of the first three books and subsequent de novo launching of the fourth fell into the publisher’s schedule… although they accommodated these in early course, it still didn’t feel the same as when I could launch any time I was ready… not quite typing ‘The End’ and ten minutes later a new masterpiece appearing on Amazon Kindle, but yeez get the picture… I’ve been involved in commercial and financial management all my working life and it all boils down to my personal need and choice for as much control of my own business destiny… so, in summary, let me not discourage anyone from approaching and staying with Crooked Cat Publishing… Steph, Laurence and I are on good terms and will hopefully stay that way for a long time… the many friends acquired in their stable will also be permanent pals, as long as they continue to be able to translate my Glasgow version of English… and oh, there’s no earthly reason not to buy my books!…

Bio:

SEUMAS GALLACHER escaped from the world of finance seven years ago, after a career spanning three continents and five decades.

As the self-professed ‘oldest computer Jurassic on the planet’, his headlong immersion into the dizzy world of eBook publishing opened his eyes, mind, and pleasure to the joys of self-publishing. As a former businessman, he rapidly understood the concept of a writer’s need to ‘build the platform’, and from a standing start began to develop a social networking outreach, which now tops 25,000 direct contacts.

His ‘Jack Calder’ crime thriller series, THE VIOLIN MAN’S LEGACY, VENGEANCE WEARS BLACK and SAVAGE PAYBACK have blown his mind with more than 80,000 e-link downloads to date. His fourth, KILLER CITY was launched in August 2015.

He started a humorous, informative, self-publishers blog three years ago, never having heard of a ‘blog’ prior to that, was voted ‘Blogger of the Year 2013‘ and now has a loyal blog following on his networks. He says the novels contain his ‘Author’s Voice’, while the blog carries his ‘Author’s Brand’. And he’s LUVVIN IT!

When not penning his humorous blog or writing nail-biting, action thrillers, Seumas can be found here:

Blog:    http://seumasgallacher.com

Twitter:   https://twitter.com/seumasgallacher

Facebook:   http://www.facebook.com/seumasgallacher

Email: seumasgallacher@yahoo.com


Thank you Seumas for showing us that the boundaries that appear to exist between Traditional Publishing and the Indie route are not as insurmountable as some would have us believe. Best wishes for your novels and looking forward to Jack Calder number 5.

…thanks for letting me loose (again) in yer nice blog play-pen, That Other Man… see yeez later… LUV YEEZ!…

Here is a great interview with Eric J. Gates (Blogged by ‘AuthorsInterviews’)

…great, absorbing interview from the splendid ‘Authors Interviews’ blog, with a witty and superb crime writer, my pal, Eric J. Gates… (despite his references to me! )…

authorsinterviews

Name  Eric J. Gates

Age Old, yet younger every minute I write.

Where are you from

In a land far, far away, there’s a small village populated by diminutive folk. Well just as you come to the crossroads before that, take a left. It’s a place where cats have been known to vanish, leaving just an enigmatic smile and, just over the river, there’s a city where a race called Beatles have been rumoured to originate.

A little about your self `ie your education Family life etc  

I led a nomadic life from an early age, due to constant moves with my Father’s job. In fact I thought my best friend was a camel, until someone explained that was my younger brother. The constant uprooting also meant changing schools and friends every couple of years – you know that old joke about having your lunch wrapped in a…

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…Written Acts of Kindness Award… step up, pal and Author, Eric J. Gates…

…this ol’ Jurassic is not short of hundreds of great friends from the wunnerful global scribblers family… ergo, easy to pick candidates for the Written Acts of Kindness Award… but none will argue with my choice today, great pal and fellow quill-scraper, Author, Eric J. Gates…

…when he’s not hammering out terrific crime thrillers of his own, he sum’how finds time to support his fellows online… without my bidding, Eric picked up on the re-launch of one of my wee babies recently and proceeded to blast it out on all the channels known to Internet Man, and prob’ly a few others into the bargain… and it’s not the first time he’s done that… he keeps popping up on my blog and lends his wit and humour with ease… a true friend, and worthy recipient of the Award… well done, That Other Man…

…yeez are well recommended to follow Eric J. Gates

author of
Suspense Thrillers with a touch of Strange

Latest: Outsourced
What’s the deadliest gift a fan could send to a
novelist? And if that fan was a professional assassin?

the CULL- Bloodline, the CULL – Bloodstone, the CULL – Blood Feud (the CULL series books 1-3)

FULL DISCLOSURE, Leaving Shadows and 2012,

and the non-fiction
How NOT to be an ASPIRING Writer

available AMAZON (paper & e-book) and bookstores worldwide.

check out  http://www.ericjgates.com to read extracts and discover the inside secrets…

…yeez’ll also find him on Twitter: @eThrillerWriter  and on his Blog http://my-thrillers.blogspot.com/

…That Other Man, the rules for passing this Award on are very simple:

1. You are welcome to give it out as many times as you like, but it is only to be given to a maximum of one person per blog post. If you wish to give multiple rewards, please space the blog posts so the sincerity is maintained.
2. Introduce the person; say how they encourage, help or inspire you; then link to their work and/or social media profiles. There may be a specific post you wish to link to which helped you. It’s up to you.
3. Please publicise your award post to Twitter or Google Plus using the hashtag #writtenkindness so that others can find and follow the award winners.

This award is open to anyone to use. You don’t have to receive it, in order to be able to give it. Once you have received it, it isn’t obligatory that you must pass it on.

…see yeez later… LUV YEEZ!…

ALL MY BLOG POSTS ARE FREE TO SHARE OR RE-BLOG SHOULD YOU SO WISH—BE MY GUEST!

…it’s a matter of a smatter of patter from Guest Blogger, Eric J. Gates… enjoy… #TBSU…

…one of the nicest men I know, with the capacity to deal with folks who may not be so nice, is martial arts expert, and superb author, Eric J.Gates… I am well aware of the lurking humour that abides in that crime-novelist’s literary armoury… in this sparkling Guest Post, yeez’ll readily see what I mean… let the chortling commence… the floor, the walls, and the ceiling are yours Maestro…

 

The perils of writing a Guest Post… from Eric J Gates

As usual, I find I’ve been outwitted! There I was, quietly hiding behind my keyboard, when Seumas appeared and asked me for a guest post for his blog. I was feeling a little lazy and decided to use my ingenuity to thwart the erstwhile petitioner. “Alright, That Man,” I said. “If you can guess how many coins I’ve got in my pocket, I’ll do a guest post.”

Now, just in case there’s someone out there who doesn’t know, Seumas is a canny Scot and his response was not long in coming: “If I guess right, yer’ll do the post and I get to keep one of the coins.”

This was too easy.

“Look, laddie,” I said, “if you guess right, I’ll do the post, and you can keep both of them!”

So here I am

What I didn’t expect was that the post had to be written in situ. For the Greek scholars amongst you, that means in Seumas’ writing pad (photo on right). So I hopped onto a plane, drawing strange glances from the crew, until I told them the ticket said it was a one-leg journey, and here I am in Abu Dhabiland.

My first culture shock was at the airport. No taxi rank; or rather there was one, but no taxis. Just one flea-bitten camel. Now I’ve heard a thing or two about camel’s bad tempers, and I’m old enough to have seen that Swatzen, Swurtzen, Shortzen (oh dammit!) Arnie’s Conan movie, so I asked the man alongside if his camel bites. He assured me it didn’t, so it was much to my surprise the bluddy thing took a nip at me when I got closer. Of course I recriminated the man. His response: “That’s not my camel!”

Finally made it to my meet with That Man and he was a little surprised I’d brought my furry foot-warmer with me (it’s a West Highland Terrier and I thought I might need a translator). “Ay, that wee animal dunna look too good,” pronounced Seumas. “Let’s take him to the vet’s.”

So we parked the post and made our way to the local veterinary office. They had warned me the Emirates were expensive and high-tech, but what happened took me by surprise. The vet lay my dog on the examining table then disappeared to another room. He returned a couple of minutes later with the scrawniest feline I’ve seen in a while. He placed the moggy on my hound and it proceeded to walk all over the inert form of the poor creature. After a short while, the vet grabbed the tabby and disappeared again, only to return with a sheet of paper. “Your dog’s dead!” was his verdict. “Here’s the bill.”

I looked at the bottom line on the sheet: 3000 United Arab Emirates Dirham! I looked at Seumas aghast. “3000 AED, that’s aboot 830 dollars,” he announced, though when he used the abbreviation, for a second I thought he was talking about Improvised Explosive Devices (it’s the Govan accent, laddie).

The vet just nodded, before adding “that’s 100 Dirham for the visit and 2900 for the CAT Scan.”

Chastened by my loss, we adjourned to the laddie’s writing corner.

I had no idea what to write for the guest post. “That’s easy, man,” prompted my host. “Tell us why you wanted to become a writer?”

I thought deeply about that for at least two seconds before replying. “When I was a lad, I wanted to write stuff the whole world will read; stuff that will move people on a truly emotional level; stuff that will make them scream, cry, howl in pain and anger!”

“And?”

“I started writing error messages for Microsoft.” I responded.

“Be careful what you wish for,” said Seumas sagely. “Then what?”

“Well, it all started with a dream. I dreamt I died and was given the choice to go to Writer’s Heaven or Writer’s Hell. Not being clear about the choice, I said I wanted a peek at both places before I decided. I got taken to Hell first: row upon row of writers chained to their desks as they scribbled page after page, year after year. Then I was taken to Heaven: row upon row of writers chained to their desks as they scribbled page after page, year after year. ‘I can’t see the difference,’ I said. Well, Saint J. Peterson, my guide, cleared it up for me in a heartbeat. Up here, he said, your work gets published! Then he added, ‘with my by-line’.”

Well things went downhill from there on. I scribbled this piece and Seumas said his Publisher would give us a ride back to the airport, but I’d have to share the car with his previous guest, a writer from a central-European country. On our way there, the vehicle in front skidded and toppled over. We all rushed out to help but that turned out to be a big mistake. You see, it had been transporting a pair of huge Bengal tigers to a private zoo. These broke free and the male, always the more aggressive, pounced on Seumas’ other guest and swallowed him whole. We all scrambled back to the car and locked ourselves in until the Police arrived. Then our driver wound down his window, pointed to the tiger and told the cop what had happened. Much to everyone’s amazement, the policeman drew his gun and shot the female tiger.

I was shocked and looked to Seumas for an explanation.

The wise ol’ Scot just nodded and clarified everything in a concise question.

“C’mon, laddie, would you believe a publisher who told you the Czech was in the male?”

 

..thanks for the post, Master Eric… and so yeez will know the range of this man’s talents, here’s a coupla links to show yeez the lad’s ability to write in more than one JONGGR…

‘The CULL – Blood Box’ (Boxed set) Global Amazon Link : http://authl.it/B00KFN3HK2?d

‘How NOT to be an ASPIRING Writer’ Global Amazon Link : http://authl.it/B00HUYT7IK?d

 

..now don’t mess the man around, just start following his stuff :

check out  www.ericjgates.com to read extracts and discover the inside secrets…

follow Eric on Twitter: @eThrillerWriter  and on his Blog http://my-thrillers.blogspot.com/

[Eric J. Gates @ www.ericjgates.com]