The Last Sunset will be our next book

Click for a much larger version of this artwork by Char Adlesperger

We’re close to opening up our next novel, The Last Sunset, to beta readers. This novel by Bob Atkinson is a time travel adventure story set in Fort William and the Lochaber region of the Scottish Highlands. It’s 1746 and the Duke of Cumberland is on his way to crush the rebellion of Bonnie Prince Charlie.

The Last Sunset is a Romance and there’s romance too, but the redcoats are coming, and not all of them are gentlemen… There are battles to be fought if the Highlanders are to survive, and blood to be spilt. Worst of all is the future holocaust that rips a hole through time. If history is not changed, the future will doom us all.

Our beta readers will be given an advanced copy of the novel in paperback or eBook to pass comments back to us before full publication. Once the book is published, beta readers will be given a copy of the final paperback, with their names in the acknowledgements.

If you’re interested in joining up, leave a comment on our beta reader post, where you can also find more information.

The Last Sunset will be published soon in paperback (available from amazon.com and amazon.co.uk), and as an eBook available through all major eBook retailers.

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COMPETITION! Win paperback copies of “The Mill”

Win a paperback copy of acclaimed ghost story novelette: The Mill

THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED. WE WILL DO PLENTY MORE, SO YOU MIGHT WANT TO SUBSCRIBE TO OUR SITE

To celebrate the launch of our paperback range, we’re giving away three copies of The Mill by Mark West.

Here’s what some recent reviewers have said about The Mill:

 “…unlike anything I have read up to now.” — The Horrifically Horrifying Horror Blog

“…amongst the very best in the ghost story tradition.” — This is Horror

 “…couldn’t put it down…” — Bookish Things

 “sharp writing” — The Horror Fiction Review

 “I had to take breaks for fear my heart would shatter.”The Book Den

The Mill is a novelette; at 76 pages of story, it’s just right for reading through in one sitting.

Now you can try the book for yourself. To be in with a chance to win a paperback copy of The Mill, simply leave a comment underneath this post and we’ll pick three names at random when the giveaway closes on Thursday, 31st May. This offer is only open to readers in North America, the UK, and the rest of the European Union. If you live further afield, then you’re welcome to enter, but we will send an eBook instead if you win.

To signal the launch of the paperback, Mark has produced a book trailer. I’m always interested to read what an author has to say about his or her own book. Now you can see it too.

For more information about The Mill, follow this link.

Good luck!

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New author and book: Philip McCormac and Bridge of Blood

Welcome to author Philip McCormac whose chilling novel, Bridge of Blood, will be published by Greyhart Press later in 2012. Set in Northern Ireland, the book is both a police detective thriller and horror adventure where priests must confront the disbelief of modern society — and their own sins — to combat the threat of demonic possession.

 

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A list of forthcoming titles in 2012

We’ve been making so many announcements about forthcoming titles, that it’s easy to lose track. So here’s a list of what’s forthcoming and confirmed in 2012 (there are several more that remain unconfirmed). There will be some eBook-only titles too, but this list contains the ones that will published in both eBook and paperback editions. Paperbacks will be available online from amazon.com, amazon.co.uk and the other EU amazon stores.

If you’re interested in any of these books, you might be interested in signing up for our new Beta Reader Program: get an advanced review copy, and when the final version is published, we’ll send you a paperback with your name in the acknowledgements. Click here for more details.

in no particular order…

Added 25 May 12: Bridge of Blood by Philip McCormac — “A police detective thriller and horror adventure set in Northern Ireland where priests must confront the disbelief of modern society — and their own sins — to combat the threat of demonic possession.”

VampCon by Armand Inezian — “There is no escape from the vampire congregation in downtown Boston. All must attend; all must die.”

The Clearing by  Thomas Rydder — “An ancient evil stalks the wooded hills of western Pennsylvania.”

Alien Legends: The Repository of Imagination by Gill Shutt — “Lose yourself in wonder at the tales of far-off worlds stored in the Repository of Imagination.” YA: Suitable for children.

Engines of Life: Stories of Evolution by Andy West — “Sense the inner workings of the Universe in this collection of novelettes and novellas about evolution.”

Unauthorized Contact: Skyfire Chronicles by Paul Melhuish — “Give Sii Terminus an order, and he’ll disobey it on principle. In this collection of short stories set in the Skyfire Universe, follow the misadventures of a younger Terminus, and travel  in time all the way back to pre-Decline Earth to experience where it all started to go wrong.”

The Reaper’s Walk: Hellstone by Don Franklin — “There’s a patch of land in Washington D.C. where nothing seems to go right. They say the Reaper can be seen walking the perimeter at night. Well, the rumors are true; there’s a curse on that land, and that curse reaches its climax… today!”

Badger’s Waddle by Nigel Edwards — “Imagine the quintessential English village: the summer fête on the green, the medieval parish church, the whitewashed cottage where a widow quietly tends her garden. Imagine this village sent up by P.G. Wodehouse, and then reworked by Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams at their most outlandish. You’re now ready for… Badger’s Waddle.”

The Last Sunset by Bob Atkinson — “It’s the near future. Even in the Scottish Highlands, there is no place to escape the nuclear hellfire. When the fabric of reality is ripped open by the nuclear explosions, people fall through… all the way back to 1746. Jacobite rebels are besieging the redcoats in Fort William, but whose side are the time travellers on? And can the catastrophic future be averted?”

Death Flu by Scott Brietzke — “When the flu came, there was no escape. Those who died, rose again as shambling parodies of life. Fleeing the zombies, Captain Repp teams up with a beautiful refugee called Sunshine. But Sunshine reveals there’s something far worse than the dead: her ex. And her ex is coming to get his girl back… Here’s Jack!

The Reality War Book2: The City of Destruction by Tim C. Taylor — “Radlan has splintered reality. Through terrible sacrifices, another human reality has stabilized, one born to war… the Reality War. But it’s a war the humans are losing. Their only hope is the arch-meddler: Greyhart.”

Books already published in paperback

Paperbacks already available from amazon.com and amazon.co.uk

The Legends of Light by Gill Shutt — “A cross between Beowulf and Lord of the Rings” (amazon.com review comment). YA high fantasy saga written in verse.

Terminus by Paul Melhuish “…the horror is more horrifying because you care about the main character.” (amazon review comment) Space Opera horror in the Skyfire Universe.

The Mill by Mark West — “…amongst the very best in the ghost story tradition.” — This is Horror Ghostly novelette.

On the Edge by Gill Shutt (novelette) — “…definitely a book that will make you think.” (amazon review comment)

The Reality War Book1: The Slough of Despond by Tim C. Taylor  “The concept of time-travel, paradox and alternate reality has always been mind-blowing and now a mind-blowing novel to live up to it.  Hollywood check this out!” —Bookish Things Time Travel adventure set in Bedford and Elstow. If you enjoy reading Stephen Baxter, you’ll love this.

Try Greyhart books in 2012; it’s shaping up  to be a vintage year !

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Announcing the Greyhart Press Beta Reader Program

Today, we kick off our Beta Reader Program. Get free paperback editions of our books as soon as they’re published… and see your name in the acknowledgements.

Here’s how it works.

  1. Put your name down to join the beta reader team for a book that catches your interest
  2. If you win a place in that book’s beta reader team, then when the book has cleared editing, we’ll send you an advanced copy of the book. We can send you an eBook worldwide, or a paperback if you live in North America or Europe.
  3. Read and enjoy the book. If you spot anything in the book that you think is wrong, make a note and tell us about it. The book will have already been edited, but we want to double-check nothing’s slipped through.
  4. When the final edition of the book is published, we will list the people in the beta reader team inside the book, and send you an eBook or paperback copy with our thanks (paperbacks to N. America and Europe only).

 

You can register your interest in the Beta Reader Program from today.

The first book we will put through this program will be The Last Sunset by Bob Atkinson.

 

The details

How do I register? add a comment to this post or to the page on our website for the book you’re interested in.

How do I qualify? we’re currently limiting membership of each team to eight people. If there’s more interest than that we will select membership at random.

Do I have to review the book? The answer is no. Of course, we’re always very grateful for positive reviews on sites such as amazon.com as it helps us and helps our authors. But that’s entirely up to you. This program is about being the final gate of quality control.

What am I looking for? Anything that sounds or feels wrong to you. Typos, grammatical mistakes, bizarre idiom, inconsistencies. Regional variations of English is of particular interest. Our authors come from a variety of countries, and some books will be written in a regional version of English that is not yours. We’re proud to be an international organisation but we do try to be aware of idioms or word choices that don’t travel well, and avoid them.

How long do I have to review the book? Watch for announcements about each book. There will be a minimum of 4 weeks between sending out beta review copies and publishing the book.

Can I also review the book and qualify for Read… Review… Repeat!  Absolutely, yes.

What if I don’t like the book, and don’t finish it? We’re sorry. Obviously we can’t guarantee you will enjoy the book. If you had a go and gave up then we will still list you in the acknowledgements but won’t send you the finished book.

What if I don’t like the book, but did finish it and did send a list of issues? Thanks for persevering. We will send you the book you tested, if you like, but we understand you might not want that. So, as an alternative, we will send you another book (existing or forthcoming) of your choice.

Just checking… when you said the program applies to Europe, does that include the UK? Yes it does. Anywhere in the EU. Although I do understand that many British people like to think of Europe as someplace foreign and far-off.

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Lowering the flag on Greyhart Press: eBook publisher… :-)

It’s just over a year since Greyhart Press opened up shop as an eBook publisher,  specialising in short fiction. It’s now time to play The Last Post and lower the flag on that enterprise…

Continue reading

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All our eBooks are available for all major eReaders… even if you can’t see them

It takes a long time for the sales data to reach us here, but we see enough to proudly say that our eBooks are selling across iTunes, the Sony Readerstore, Smashwords, and for Nooks, and Kobos too. However, about 85% of our sales come through Amazon.

You might have read bloggers and press articles about Amazon’s restrictive practices, followed by B&N’s retaliation, and a big legal accusation being raised in the States about an alleged price-fixing cartel between Apple and major publishers.  These are all signs of publishers and retailers fighting for the right to survive in the new world of digital eBooks.

Read! Review! Repeat!Greyhart Press is flexible enough to adapt and survive through this exciting time, but right now it’s primarily Amazon who are paying our bills. And so we have experimented with the Amazon Select Program with a few titles. The bottom line is that for a temporary period when first published, the books in this program are only available through Amazon.

For us, these enrolments are temporary, and an experiment. One of the reasons I decided to do this was that if you’re a Greyhart reader,  you can still get a copy of any of our books for your device even if the book is only available for sale through Amazon. All you need is to make use of our Read… Review… Repeat! promotion.

Here’s how to do it and the books that are affected.

For the sake of illustration, let’s suppose you have a Nook device, and want to buy a copy of  The First Last Robot. If you go to that book’s webpage on our site, you won’t find a B&N link; if you go to the Barnes & Noble webstore, you won’t find the book there either (not yet… it will be available later in the year). What you could do instead, is “buy” another of our books from the Nook Store. I put “buy” in quotes because you could choose one of our free books and pay nothing. Let’s assume you “buy” Quest for Elena the Fair, which is free, and is a short YA story like First Last Robot.

Then, following our Read… Review… Repeat! promotion, all you need to do is post an online review for Quest for Elena the Fair at qualifying locations, such as B&N, amazon.com, and Goodreads. Then you can claim any one of our eBooks for free. If you want The First Last Robot in Nook format, then we’ll be happy to give you that book in Nook format, even though we can’t sell you it through Barnes & Noble, while it is still enrolled in the Amazon Select program.

Normally Read… Review… Repeat! has  a limit: only the first 100 people to claim each eBook will get it for free. But we waive that limit for any eBook in the Amazon select program. Hence, even if one of our books is enrolled in the restrictive Amazon program, we guarantee you can still get that eBook for any major eReader device.

The books currently only available for sale from Amazon are:

The Reality War Book1

The First Last Robot

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Forthcoming novel announcement: Don Franklin: Reaper’s Walk

I’m very proud to announce that Don Franklin will be joining us later this year with his first novel in the Reaper’s Walk series: Reaper’s Walk: Hellstone.

Dark magic! Dark creatures! And a patch of Washington DC patrolled by the Reaper. Reaper’s Walk is dark fantasy you won’t be able to put down.

Coming in 2012 to Kindle, Nook, Sony Reader, Kobo, iTunes and paperback.

Welcome aboard, Don!

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Last chance to get your special offer pricing for Terminus

TerminusNext week, the eBook edition of Terminus goes up to full price. The paperback edition will be out too. So if you want our slice of space-borne horror, this is your last chance to pick it up for the measly 99c or 77p price.

Click here for more details.

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Congratulations to Mark West for his award nominations

A few days after the British Fantasy Society announced the shortlist for its awards this year (we didn’t get shortlisted), they posted the all the works that were nominated. Mark West was nominated for two books published last year, one of which was our ghostly novelette, The Mill

We didn’t make it through to the second round of the awards (not this year, anyway) but congratulations to Mark all the same for both his nominated books (the other one was Ill at Ease).

The Mill is proving popular, and deservedly so. It’s interesting to read review comments that say it’s enjoyed by people who don’t normally read horror. Don’t take out word for it, there are plenty of reviews of The Mill on book blog sites. The Mill hasn’t been reviewed much on Amazon but if you wanted to see what other people thought of it, you could take a look at reviews on Librarything or Goodreads.

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