Good morning, friends and fans!
Welcome to a “Peek Into My Week”, a behind the scenes look into the (I hope) noteworthy events in my life – April 25, 2022!
Here then, are some things that happened in my life this past week:
News About Writing & Publishing:
KDP “Help” Desk Escapades!
Last week, I spent most of my time preparing myself for the lecture I presented on Wednesday evening – and fighting with the help desk of KDP! The most difficult thing about this for me wasn’t the two issues I’d logged calls about, but the runaround I was given by a multitude of KDP help desk operators! They couldn’t do this, they couldn’t do that, and at one point, they didn’t believe I was the author of a certain academic paper AND the book version I was publishing! To make matters worse, they wouldn’t even tell me WHAT they wanted me to send them as proof – and even copies of my ID book, original manuscript documents in Word format wouldn’t do! Every time I asked, the operator refused point blank to tell me what they wanted me to send them as proof – like it was “classified”, or I was asking them to give away the Colonel’s “secret recipe” or something like that! In the end, after three completely unhelpful operators (or bots, I’m sure) and about ten email relays, something I said in an epic rant appeared to have satisfied them that I was who I said I am, and the eBook version of the book in question was finally approved!
It seems that KDP’s “help” desk have a policy to annoy and obstruct authors to the point where veins bulge on their foreheads and they lose their fucking shit before eventually being slightly useful. While my move to KDP was generally a good move for the sake of my publishing future, I fear that dealing with their staff will probably shorten my life! Anyway, most of the issues I was having with KDP appear to be resolved for now – until next time.
Fixing My Future Publishing Channels
As we speak (or as I speak and you read LOL) I’ve just sent an email to my local, South African publisher about getting a release so that I may go ahead to publish new titles on my own, under the same conditions as my pre-existing books. My reasons are as follows:
- Currently I’m unable to publish a number of titles at or nearing completion, due to the exclusivity clause of the contract I have with them.
- The quite understandable delay in having my already existing books republished through them – editing and the like, takes time, and while I wait for them to catch up and release new works in the already established series, I’m essentially losing money since I can’t sell these on my other platforms.
- Their distribution and reach is far smaller than originally advertised – aside from listing books on their website and in their newsletter, there appears to be no other real internet or real-world presence for titles listed with them. I understand that a lot of this is out of their hands and probably due to the effects of the COVID pandemic, and that there is still the possibility for growth, but in the long run, restricting new works exclusively to them will limit their availability to my fanbase, and also my income from prospective sales.
I’m not asking to take these books away from that publisher, I’m just asking to be allowed to also continue publishing them on my own overseas as I already do with the others. I will let you all know what the outcome of this matter will be, soon.
As an added note – especially for any authors out there considering signing with a small press, this is the very last time I ever sign on with another small press. I’ve been with three in the last eight years of my writing career: The first one was appalling, the second was astonishingly brilliant, but the owner died – leaving me with a mass of obstacles to overcome, and without being nasty or overly critical, the third one simply isn’t quite measuring up to my expectations either.
Great Feedback From A Reader!
Moving on to what the readers say, it’s always nice to see positive reviews about my books, and especially so from readers! The following review was emailed directly to me by Dave Duran on Friday:
AWESOME and unbelievably real
“I haven’t given a book review, although I have read more than a hundred, maybe two hundred. But this [“Blachart”] is the first sci fi action book that made me feel like I was there with these characters. It was AWESOME and unbelievably real to me. Thank you and keep up the good work! Dave” – Dave Duran, fan mail, 22 April 2022.
All my reader comments are linked to from this page if you want to have a squizz.
Another Model Build – But Of A Different Sort!
My wife and partner in all things weird and wonderful recently introduced me to the world of Mine Craft gaming. Building all sort of wonderful things is part of the game, and so over the weekend I decided to have a go at building a full-size model of a loderunner from my Galaxii universe! Of course there are a lot of limitations on the game – everything is cubic and looks rather 8 bit, but the game is well over ten years old now, and even more popular than it was when it was new! There are no sci-fi control panels and other bits of décor provided, so you have to be inventive. Even so, I sat down on Friday afternoon and started tinkering… It felt like just a few hours later when I’d built the ship from the tip of the bow right up to the midships – and decided to call it quits for the night… only to discover that it was already 2:30AM! The worst part is that I wasn’t even really tired!
Anyway, here are a few screenshots of how the build progressed from the beginning, to a few interior shots of the corridors, the bridge, Captain’s cabin etc. I’m quite happy with the whole thing – and even though it probably won’t really fly (or even move) in Mine Craft, it really brings something to life that I’d only imagined in the realms of my novels!
I’ll show you more next time!
Lecture For The Desmond Tutu Centre For Religion & Social Justice
Last Wednesday evening I delivered my lecture to University of the Western Cape Phd students and staff as an invited guest academic for the Desmond Tutu Centre for Religion and Social Justice. The topic of the lecture was the academic paper I wrote for the Alternative Religions Forum in 2013, “Satanism: The Acid Test“, and was performed remotely via GoogleMeets. It was the first time I’d ever used this platform for video conferencing, and believe me it was a bit stressful! The lecture itself went off very pleasantly and it was a very friendly, interesting group of peeps! Above is the poster for the lecture FYI.
It having been a windy, cold and rainy weekend here in Port Elizabeth, where I have cultivated the hobby of watching birds fly backwards, I wish you a better week than the last one!
As always, I’ll keep you posted about any further developments.
Cheers!
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All material copyright © Christina Engela, 2022.