Showing Tag: " fiction" (Show all posts)

The (as yet) Unfulfilled Promise of Web Fiction

Posted by Paul Samael on Saturday, November 28, 2020, In : Self-publishing 



Why did ebooks become a thing?  Why didn’t books migrate straight to websites that you could view on any web-enabled device (let’s call this “web fiction”)?  After all, wouldn’t web fiction have been better for all concerned - avoiding the need for extra file formats like .epub or .mobi?

If you Google for “web fiction” you come across quite a few websites from around 2010, with lots of earnest discussion of its potential.  For example there’s lots of talk about a renaissance of...

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Jon Evans and the techno-travelogue thriller

Posted by Paul Samael on Monday, December 4, 2017, In : Book reviews 




UPDATE 5.2019 - irritatingly, all the links to Jon Evans' novels below were to copies available free of charge on Feedbooks, which has now shut down its self-publishing platform - so the links no longer work.  Happily though (as at the time of updating), you could still find all the novels listed below on Wattpad free of charge - the main disadvantage is that you can only read them through Wattpad's interface on a web-enabled device (unlike Feedbooks, there's no option to dow...


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Shen by Heather Douglass

Posted by Paul Samael on Wednesday, June 12, 2013, In : Book reviews 



So far in my reviews of free fiction, I’ve tended to focus more on the rather nebulous category of “literary fiction” (whatever that may be) rather than more well-defined genres like science fiction.  Heather Douglass, however, is an author with a foot in both camps.  I am indebted to Bernard Fancher for pointing me in her direction, as she had published several shorter pieces in the “literary” category of Smashwords, one of which he had reviewed.  These are well worth a read – I ...

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Faction or fiction

Posted by Paul Samael on Wednesday, April 17, 2013, In : Book reviews 

[NOTE:  Scroll down for review of Red Plenty by Francis Spufford]



While on holiday last week, I thought I would put the accuracy of my Goodreads recommendations to the test, so I chose some of the books they had suggested to me based on my own ratings of books I’d enjoyed (or not – but mostly the former).  So far, the recommendations have been somewhat wide of the mark.  Take “Ascent” by Jed Mercurio.  It’s about a Russian, Yefgenii Yeremin, who (after an appalling childhood in Stali...

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Unpredictable

Posted by Paul Samael on Wednesday, March 13, 2013, In : Book reviews 



“Unpredictable” is a collection of 3 short stories by Bryan R Dennis available as an ebook free of charge on feedbooks.com. UPDATE 5.2019 - well, not any more, as Feedbooks has closed down its self-publishing platform - but happily, as at the time of updating, you could still get your hands on a copy from the good folks at getfreeebooks.

Oh no, I hear you sigh, not another collection of short stories (e.g. see here and here for previous reviews of short story collections).  But let me ...


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The Ant Farm

Posted by Paul Samael on Saturday, February 2, 2013, In : Book reviews 

 
 
If someone had told me that I would enjoy a novel about statistics in the poultry industry and knitting (yes, knitting), I would probably have responded that I was more likely to develop a keen interest in the drying times of different brands of matt emulsion.  But one of the things I have come to enjoy about reviewing free fiction by self-published authors is the potential to be surprised – both by the quality of some of the writing and by my own enjoyment of books about subjects which, ...

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Free Book Beast

Posted by Paul Samael on Monday, January 28, 2013, In : Self-publishing 




Although there are quite a few sites devoted to indie authors, I haven't come across that many which focus on free fiction.  Free Book Beast aims to do just that - and whereas some sites seem to feature free (or low priced) books purely as a way of generating ad revenue, this one appears to be trying to provide some useful content alongside them, so I hope it succeeds.
 
I've just contributed a guest post on where to find free fiction (other than on Amazon) and where to find recommendations/rev...
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Taking stock

Posted by Paul Samael on Sunday, January 6, 2013, In : Self-publishing 
 
It’s now more than 18 months since I set up this website and over a year since my first attempt at self-publishing.  So I thought now might be a good point to consider whether it’s been a worthwhile exercise so far.

Downloads are a fairly crude measure of success/failure – but for what it’s worth, here are my numbers as at 6 January 2013:



UPDATE 8.2014:  I have now discovered that the stats from Scribd are pretty unreliable, so in the interests of accuracy, you should ignore the totals...
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Ledman Pickup

Posted by Paul Samael on Friday, September 21, 2012, In : Book reviews 



This story/novella from the extremely profilic Tom Lichtenberg is well written, entertaining and thought-provoking – and well worth a read, even if sci-fi is not usually your thing:

Zoey Bridges makes her living testing gadgets – but on this occasion, the portable device she’s been sent doesn’t seem to do anything.  She sends it back, only to discover (to her horror) that it’s got lost in transit.   She and the gizmo’s obsessively secretive designers then try to track it down - but...

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More reviews!

Posted by Paul Samael on Wednesday, July 4, 2012, In : Writing fiction 
 
Ah, reviews – they’re a bit like London buses, aren’t they?  You wait ages and then 3 come along at once.  Hot on the heels of this review by Bernard Fancher, fellow Smashwords author Tom Lichtenberg has penned thoughtful and generous reviews of both “In the future this will be necessary” and “The Hardest Word” – so my thanks to him as well as to Bernard.

I think I’m quite lucky to have started off with some positive reviews –  and I’d better just try to enjoy my current...

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Sonny's Guerrillas by Matthew Asprey

Posted by Paul Samael on Friday, February 3, 2012, In : Book reviews 

 


Scroll down for review of "Red Hills of Africa"

I've just started a new section of my website devoted to reviews of free fiction by self-published authors, my aim being to demonstrate that "free" and "self-published" do not always deserve the stigma that is sometimes attached to them.  This first review is of "Sonny's Guerrillas" by Matthew Asprey.  

UPDATE 11.2013:  Sadly, this book is no longer free - one of the perils of setting out to review free fiction is that authors who get a positive ...
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Who's the Sheikh?

Posted by Paul Samael on Sunday, January 29, 2012, In : Writing fiction 

 
 
Just published “Agricultural Production in the Sudan”, which is a very short story - at just under 800 words, it’s the closest I’ve come to “flash fiction”.  Look away now if you don’t want to know what  - or more pertinently, who - the story is about.

It was inspired by the chapters of Lawrence Wright’s book, “The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda’s Road to 9/11” describing Osama Bin Laden’s time in Sudan between 1992 and 1996.  While there, Bin Laden acquired large tracts of ...

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About Me


Paul Samael Welcome to my blog, "Publishing Waste" which will either (a) chronicle my heroic efforts to self-publish my own fiction; or (b) demonstrate beyond a scintilla of doubt the utter futility of (a). And along the way, I will also be doing some reviews of other people's books and occasionally blogging about other stuff.
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