A new light, a new release: a brand new world!

 After a long pondering and fighting all the possible hesitations, I did it. I have searched and found a translator for my books. The first market I wanted to try, is the one I am more familiar with, the Italian market.

This means that I am proud to announce that the first book of the trilogy has been translated into Italian and has been published yesterday, 25.2.2020.

My biggest hesitation, so far, was due to two factors: the fares and the alternative solutions to a royalty share.

Unlike the audiobooks, where the royalty share is controlled and limited to a certain period, the translation market is wilder and less regulated. In this case, I preferred to keep all the rights and search for a translator who could have taken the job and was flexible enough to accept various payment plans. 

I am not a widely successful author who can afford to have a substantial cut on the royalties. At the point where I am now, I prefer to pay upfront but to keep the ownership of the title, after all already Amazon is having a 30% on the sales, and cutting the profit further for a translation and then audiobook means not having a margin for living out of my craft (unless I'm as successful as Stephen King).

The task seemed to be almost impossible until I found the person I was looking for. The first book is doing fairly well, and I hope the Italian audience will like it the same way the anglophone audience did, so please join me in keeping the finger crossed for this trilogy in this new market I'm dipping the fingers into.

I was so satisfied with the first book that I decided to have all the other books of the series translated. I have received the first part of the second book, and I'm extremely satisfied with the quality. I know you will wonder why I didn't translate the books myself, saving money. 

The reason behind my decision to hire someone else to take care of this job is time. I really have no time to take care of marketing, day job, relaxing, writing new books, updating social media and website. One thing I can do is checking the translation received and confirm the great value I've received.

But here is the cover of the translated version:

And if you like to read in Italian, here's the link to Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08XK6H3QP

With this great news and having found back my writing mojo, I'm going to wish you all a great weekend.

To err is human

Oh well. I guess I am not the only one who has passed through this step. I still consider myself a beginner in the publishing industry, and this kind of mistake is easy to make.
What I am talking about is the re-issuing of the second book I have ever published, "The Ghosts of Morgan Street."
In the beginning, I gave the editing work to someone who had great feedback about her turnaround times and quality of work. Particularly the latter impressed me, so without even caring about the price, I chose her.
Now, and only now, I start to reconsider that the job was not done correctly. Particularly after having found a new editor who did a fantastic job with Aquila et Noctua, I decided to give her the task to re-edit the work.
Better later than never.
Anyway, I am considering to go through all the other books, including the trilogy, and see how can I improve them.
Of course, there couldn't be any re-edition without dressing the book for the party with a brand new cover. That was perhaps another problem that could have resulted in poor sales. Using the blessed time of being alone for the whole week in the house, I put myself to work. Then, with the help with the best purchase ever, a drawing tablet, I started to combine, cut, draw, and color, until I could reach a satisfying result.
Of course, you would like to see it, and here it is:

It is nothing fancy; actually, I kept it as simple as possible, making it more compliant with the standard for the genre, psychological thriller.
Any feedback is welcome.
The re-release will come in the following week, so it's a good time to stay tuned and hope for the best.
So another thing I have been learning is the importance of not just choosing a good editor, but the one that can work with the kind of issue that most likely is affecting your writing.
For example, my problem is not being a native speaker and finding a person who is qualified for editing works of people who have English as a second language, is critical.
Every writer has a particular issue, whether it is a problem of plot holes, stilted dialogues, or anything else, finding the right editor is crucial.
Of course, this means also going through a list of wrong editors. So far, I changed four editors before finding the right one. Therefore, if you are in the same situation as I am now, and are wondering whether your editor is the right one, I suggest following more closely what the readers say and how do they react to everything you are publishing. They are, at least from my point of view, the best channel to understand whether what you are doing is right.
That said, I wish you all a great weekend and see you next week.

change of hat let's talk about next releases

Image by prettysleepy1 from Pixabay 

And here it is the moment when an author starts to think about the marketing and the best way to bring the novel to the shelves of the public.
Yes, it is the planning for the release day. My book is under editing already for one month, and I am wondering whether it will come back this month next month or next year.
Bets are open. One thing I love about my editor is the care she puts on the job, and I am really satisfied with the results. What I like less is that she tends to disappear until the first round of corrections is done.
The fact that she has disappeared since more than one month can be a good sign or a bad sign, or no sign at all.
For me, it is always a nail-chewing time.

Image by photosforyou from Pixabay 

That is me waiting for news LOL!
Nevertheless, this is perhaps the best time for me to tell you something about the next release. This is the final book of the series Deadly Deception, and it will close the mystery around the research of Dr. Wright and his team.
In this book, we will meet old friends from the previous books so we will know what happened after all to Ethan Jackson and how his relationship with his girlfriend has developed, we will also meet the intriguing Sabina LaMotte and the deceiving Gabriel Garcia-Mendez together with the shy librarian Laura Jefferson.
Together with them, we are going to meet someone new, we will find new friends and of course new victims.

We will follow the investigations of the strange couple Lieutenant Jonas Avaliani and Detective Justin Sheen, and they have some news to share with us, besides the investigations for the missing people.
I will bring you back to Tbilisi, a city I really liked for its vibrant culture and strong character.
The end… Oh-boy it holds some extra chills and Deception will turn indeed Deadly!
So, did I get your attention?
Stay tuned because I plan very soon to start revealing my cover… piece by piece MUAHAHAH.

I wish you a great weekend, don’t forget to have fun!