I am going to shamelessly plug myself this week. But why write a blog if you are going to be shy?

I thought I’d finished writing my story The Scholar & The Black Spider six months ago, but every time I looked at it I saw that it needed a wee tweak here and there. But that could go on for ever.

So I thought… let’s move on

I started to investigate publishers and agents, and saw that there were many hoops to jump through. I suppose I already knew that, but I hadn’t considered just how much extra work would be needed. Write a précis, send your CV and a sample chapter or two, fill in a questionnaire… And then, you will not hear anything for ages. And then, it will probably not be the news you were hoping to hear. Or maybe they’ll say, “Hmm… it’s not bad, but could you just drop this and add that, and write another 15,000 words,” etc. What does success look like anyway? Do you really want to write a book a year, devote yourself to writing, and go on author promotions? I don’t really think I do.

A chance meeting last week with an ex-colleague encouraged me to look at Amazon’s Kindle website. I did, and have decided to take the self-publishing route. What the hell.

It’s not as if I was ever expecting to make money

Preparing a manuscript for an e-book and creating a cover is pretty straightforward (though preparing a paperback is much more complicated, so I haven’t done that – yet). It’s a free service, although Amazon isn’t doing it out of the goodness of their corporate heart. (I’d be very surprised if they have one.)

And here it is to download from Amazon. If you haven’t got a Kindle you will still be able to download the app to read it on other devices.

For the present, at any rate, it is **free** to download. That is to allow my friends – and I shall soon find out who they are – to read it and write a review. Please do! And remember to put the kind into kindle.

Here’s the “product description”:

Over-educated, under-employed and with a vague feeling that there has to be more to life, retired accountant Max Bennet’s chance encounter with a beautiful Italian socialite leads to secret trips to Portugal and Morocco — followed by an unexpected contract to deliver a prestigious lecture on medieval art. But is it all too good to be true? What are the Materazzi family up to? And how is he going to keep his dodgy dealings from his razor-sharp wife? Our man is soon out of his depth.

It is just a bit of fun, a mystery farce really, but at least I have now written and published a book, born entirely from my imagination. Will there be a second one? I have been writing another for a while – off and on, mostly off. At the current rate of progress I might finish by Christmas. But probably not.

And here is the download link again

Enjoy!