“There are moments in this novel that are sheer magic … ”
“A very unique and individual style, I am at times reminded of Robert Jordan’s work alongside JRR Tolkien’s but only really in passing, The Riddler’s Gift is very much on its own …”

Read the full review here

I left a full set of The Tale of the Lifesong books at Dave-Brendon’s pozzie so if you’re South African you get a chance to be epic and win a personalised signed set. Check out the new fantasy book giveaway.

Read the full interview on their website:
Enter South African fantasy author’s world of music and magic.

So this week I’ve been busy with banner adverts to go out on the Google network. In the past, people used to click on those flashing colourful boxes. Everything was interesting. Nowadays banners have become a low-impact kind of advertising, because people recognise the look of a banner advert and automatically ignore it, unless it’s really clever, compelling and eye-catching.

This is why it only makes sense to pay for banner ads when someone clicks through (Pay-per-Click). Then it doesn’t really bother me how many people have ignored the advert before I get my first click … what matters is how many ‘clickers’ go on to buy my books. So the words and images used in the advert must tie in very closely with what I’m trying to promote, or I’ll be paying for people who get to see my books and go ‘No, this isn’t my kind of thing.’ Maybe they like fairy-fantasies, or scary-fantasies … or hairy-fantasies. So I’ve done my best to focus on what the Lifesong offers and what kind of readers would like it.

First up is a series introduction, to appeal to as many people as possible. When I started the Tale of the Lifesong fantasy series I was aiming to seduce readers from beyond the narrow confines of the fantasy genre. Since the overwhelming majority of respondents to my current fantasy novel giveaway on Goodreads are women, this informed the colours I chose and the idea of ‘being swept away’ to entice readers with a romantic idea of fantasy rather than a dark and gritty style used in an advert targetted at men. I’m aware that the GoodReads site is mainly frequented by women aged 18-24, so this could account for the high number of female respondents, but I’ve always known that my readers are more likely to be female. Most of my male friends don’t read novels; they do stuff. So here’s one for the girls:

Then I needed something to promote the first book on its own. My work centres around the ideas of magic. It was always what I felt was missing in a lot of fantasy, particularly in The Lord of the Rings. Gandalf would just smack his staff down and say ‘You will not pass’ and there’d be, like, light and the Ballrag would fail, but I always wanted to know, how did it work? I mean, really, how did he do it? With this idea in mind I set out on a quest to unravel the mysteries. If you’re intrigued by the idea of magic, you’ll probably love the books, so this ad is all about the idea of having a talent for magic and holding onto it. Unfortunately the exploding sprite makes Google Adwords flag it up for ‘strobing/flashing’ so I had to pause the ad at the end and not loop it. Gee, thanks Google. Just imagine what kind of adverts we’d be getting if advertisers were allowed to flash at us.

The tone of the second novel is definitely grittier and more chaotic. It is more hard-boiled high fantasy. If you’re interested in Second Sight, you’ve probably already read The Riddler’s Gift. If you weren’t a fantasy reader before, I’ve successfully converted you! So in the final one I show my true colours:

But you’re a step ahead of the game. You know you don’t want a pile of books under the staircase, or another POD book in the sparkling obscurity of a bottomless online catalogue … you want to be on the bestseller lists. For that, you need a fantasy publisher. So how do you find one?

1. First, write up a synopsis (a summary in 2 pages), a query letter including what subgenre your novel is, like high fantasy or steampunk and a totally intriguing ‘blurb’.

2. Try to find a publisher in your own country that specialises in that kind of book and approach them. You have a much greater chance because you are a local fantasy author and can be promoted as such. Each country has a publishers’ association with a list of publishers. For instance, in South Africa, look on www.publishsa.co.za. To give you a starting point, find a book that is similar to yours on the bookshelf of your local bookstore, or online retailer. See who published that.

In smaller markets, the problem is that most of the fantasy on the bookshelves is published by UK or US based publishers. This is because of economies of scale – big markets support big publishers with big print runs leading to the cheapest end product which can be exported to small markets cheaper than any competing local products which are produced in small runs.

3. So you’ll probably have to try to get an agent in the UK or USA to get a major trade publisher there to publish you. But it’s incredibly tough to get an agent and even harder to get a publisher interested. Trade publishers won’t respond to direct queries, you have to approach them via agents. Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook is a good resource to help you find the right agent. You can also try agents listed online – google ‘literary agents’ – but beware of the sharks who are linked to vanity presses. You’ll know, because they will ask you for money.

4. If that doesn’t work, try to find a publisher in the UK or USA you can approach directly (for example, presently in the UK there’s PS Publishing at http://store.pspublishing.co.uk/ and Myrmidon Books who have a very good page to help you get started http://www.myrmidonbooks.com/resources_for_writers.html) These publishers soon get swamped with submissions, so you’ll have to dig about on the internet to find new yet reputable small publishers.

5. Send your query to everyone at the same time, you’ll only get a few replies. When someone is interested, you can send them the whole manuscript. It would then be polite to give them a month or so to consider it before moving on.

6. Rewrite the manuscript while you’re waiting – you’ll find many mistakes and typos and silly things you just don’t see when you check it over the first time. You might consider paying a freelance editor to work with you on your manuscript if you want to give it a professional polish and make it exceptional but this won’t make an unpublishable book publishable. It will just be a nicely worded unpublishable book. Your story will stand or fall on the strength of the story, not the dazzling sentence construction or perfect use of the apostrophe.

7. If a publisher takes you on, they will pay you a percentage of sales, roughly 7% of the retail price you’ll see it selling for in the bookshop. When you understand how the industry works and how many costs need to be paid before that book walks out of the bookstore (design, printing, advertising, distribution, warehousing, and the whopping 40-60% book retailer commission, etc.) you’ll know it is a fair percentage.

8. If no publishers are interested (that’s the norm for 999 out of 1000 manuscripts, so you’re in good company), you can consider self-publishing via Print-on-Demand (POD) using CreateSpace, which gets your book in front of Amazon customers, but never as cheaply as the books you’re competing against (the latest fantasy blockbusters).

You’ll still have to market it, and that is very hard, because there are millions of authors competing to be seen on the internet, including those with publishing companies behind them. To have half a chance in the marketplace, most writers need editing, cover design, book trailers, websites, blogs, and effective publicity campaigns. Given time, you’ll be able to do a half-decent job with all that. At least with POD you get your work in print and digital within a few weeks with minimal hassle and cost. That’s an incredibly cool feeling; it’s balanced by the uncool feeling when it doesn’t sell due to lack of visibility. Trying to get distribution to stores is mostly a waste of time – once you add on the retail commission your POD book will be too expensive and won’t be stocked. But with a bit of work promoting your book, you will begin to make some real sales and have real customers reading and reviewing your book. That’s an essential step in an author’s career.

9. Self-publishing with a proper printing of your book (500-5000 copies) and trying to supply the trade is not recommended unless:
(a) you are planning to start a fantasy imprint with many titles from many authors and you have many dollars and many ideas
(b) you know the people you can sell about 1000 books to directly or
(c) you have some contacts in a book trade distribution business (the guys who sell books to bookstores) who will take on your single book. If you pitch up with one book to supply them with they will turn you away – they deal with publishing companies not authors. And you’ll be amazed by how little money you have left over when you factor in all the costs. You just won’t have all the efficiencies of scale that large publishers have, yet you have to equal their final retail price or you’ll sink like a scone of stone.

To be an effective small publishing company you’ll also have to be prepared to run a business which is very time-consuming (i.e. no writing time) and you’ll require lots of other skills that have nothing to do with writing. Ask any small business owner when they last took a holiday.

10. What now? You’ve ended up here, at point ten, along with everyone else. Now you know. There’s a fundamental oversupply of people who want to be fantasy writers, and a chronically small number of fantasy publishing companies. This can’t be fixed, it’s due to the competitive marketplace, supply and demand economics. Only so many people buy and read fantasy books. The market can only support so many authors. What self-publishing is doing is putting ever more fish into the small pool of curious bookbuyers who have slipped out of the mainstream. If you’re going to be an author, you’ve got to jump into the main stream or you’ll starve. You’ll need to write another book.

But that’s what authors do.

Cynde Mitchell just rated it: I really enjoyed this novel. it reminds me a lot of the novels by Katherine Kurtz-Deryni books. I’d like to read the first one too. It was a great read and easily read. The book was extremely well written and engrossing!!!

The second review comes from my good old dad. He is super-intelligent and has read most of the books in the library, so I’m chuffed as all hell that he likes the story. A big part of Twardy Zarost’s character comes from him. He kept me guessing all my childhood … was he telling the truth, or winding me up? I think he’s telling the truth here … or is he?

Mike Hamerton rated it: It’s never too late to try something new. Forget your idea that this book is about fiery dragons, strange beasts , towering mountains or lightning strikes. When you’ve read it you will be looking for the next one! It isn’t fantasy, it’s fantastic!

The website is dedicated to reading and reviewing the very best fantasy books for children and adults (both young and old). Featuring interviews, the latest fantasy news, audio-book reviews and competitions Lee provides fantasy fans around the world with a useful, interesting and informative guide to the genre. We chatted about plotting, designing, flying … and madness.

FBR: You have an alter-ego as a paragliding instructor. Do the extreme sports influence your fantasy writing?

Well of course! Paragliding is full of maps and quests. We fly off to strange lands (sometimes that’s Essex). The perspective I get from flying helps me to view the world with some detachment, which leads to ideas of the rise and fall of civilisations, and the passage of great spans of time. The air is a beautiful realm and that stimulates a lot of creativity. There are also more obvious influences: in the Lifesong you’ll find descriptions of the wind whistling under the wings of the dragon, of riding a gyphon, of being snatched up by a winged demon, and a wizard who likes base-jumping. I also studied marshal arts for many years – I use that knowledge to understand how my characters survive in a fight. An appreciation of risk and how one can feel alive in the face of fear drive my action scenes. Years of surfing taught me to find the calm place at the centre of power; the balance point. All this goes into my writing … or at least, I understand these things and so they shape the story as it emerges.

Read the rest of this interview >

Although my books and specials are still available to US customers on greghamerton.com, the cost of international airmail makes some of the options expensive. So I’m delighted to announce that you can now buy the Tale of the Lifesong series from Amazon and save on the postage costs! See the bottom of the special deals page for details and links.

The Riddler’s Gift has been released in two parts, to make it more affordable for new readers who haven’t yet heard the Lifesong. Second Sight is in one volume, because if you have read The Riddler’s Gift, you’ll be wanting the whole of the sequel! It was also impossible to split Second Sight in the middle; the story is complex and spans more than 600 pages. The Riddler’s Gift was originally written in two parts, and so divides neatly in the middle of the story.

Brett’s writing is simple, unpretentious, and action-packed. The Painted Man is a blend of a coming-of-age tale, a monster-violence thriller and a speculation on human nature. When Brett switches from Arlen’s viewpoint and demonstrates that there is more to the story than the standard fantasy fare (a country bumpkin goes on a quest to learn magic and save the world) I know I’ll stay till the end. Although the fast-paced action is often bloody and the body-count is high, it is not slasher-fiction and so does not appal with gore. The writing doesn’t challenge the reader much—it doesn’t need to—it simply sweeps you along with the story.

Master wards:
Arlen, Leesha, Rojer: they are characterised so strongly and memorably that when we return to Arlen after a long break in the narrative, I can picture him immediately, sitting in his ward-circle. Full marks on characterisation. The three character arcs are very different stories that come together in a rollicking climax. The occasional flimsy plot mechanism weakens the spell, but the vigour of the storytelling pushes you into the new action. There are gems of wisdom that brighten the tale and increase the authenticity of the characters. By spanning many years in the character’s lives, Brett makes me feel really connected with them because I feel I’ve known them for a long time.

The question that drives the story forward so well is: how does fear make people behave? That’s what interested me throughout the book, watching the characters grapple with their fear and coming up with responses that defined their humanity. Because there is this interesting subtext, I’m engaged and want to see further examples of well-considered observations of human nature under pressure. It is a simple recipe: Brett forms charismatic leads and places various character types around them in conflict situations. This was fun to watch.

The concept of the wards and the way the knowledge of them has become scattered and lost is a great idea. You begin to feel that you must learn wards or you’ll be dead soon, so it becomes a vital lore. That the user gains power through their use is also a nice twist—usually mages are limited by something, but Arlen has great potential: only the lack of knowledge of wards seems to limit him.

Wards I wasn’t so sure about:
The premise, that bloodthirsty demons rule humanity with fear and would condemn us to become a fractured medieval society is believable, IF you can get past the demons rising insubstantially from the ground and solidifying into rabid monsters. The way the demons sank into the earth and rose again seemed unbelievable to me, I couldn’t shake the feeling they were Monty Python cardboard cut-out demons wobbling back into their slot in the stage. I’m too rational to be left without some science to justify the existence of the monsters. Doesn’t have to be true science, just believable.

The setting is nothing new and will be familiar to Terry Brooks readers (at whom the book is marketed)—a post apocalyptic world that has slipped back into a medieval existence with technology and the knowledge of it lost in the flames. It is a bit unlikely that none of the modern technology survives. Nonetheless, the historical link to the present day helps me to relate to the setting, so it’s easier to believe.

Wards that didn’t work for me:
Leesha’s story has so much sexual posturing that it becomes a little tiresome. Although it is believable that everyone would be obsessed with reproducing because humanity is clinging on to survival, it conflicts with the conservative attitudes within the villages—I think Brett could have pushed the boat out a bit further here on how the culture would change under such extreme survival conditions, given that it develops from the present day. There were also too many ‘narrow escapes’ where undefended humans dodge hungry rabid monsters. They would have been chomped.

Verdict:
The Painted Man has a flaming good concept and is great fun to read. It doesn’t have the mind-dazzling awe-inspiring impact I need for 5 stars, but it’s a solid 4 and I look forward to reading The Desert Spear. Arlen is definitely a mage to watch. I’m practising my ward-work now, just in case the demons come. You never know.