Taekwondo, Dead Man's Eye, concentration and a guest blog

Well my son and I took our latest Taekwondo grading yesterday, for our red stripe belt. Won't know how we did until next Friday, but I think it went well, apart from the aches and sprains I have this morning. I was sweating buckets during the sparring, but as I was the oldest person grading, I have an excuse.















It's great to see that people have been purchasing a copy of my novella, Dead Man's Eye via Amazon. On Amazon.co.uk it even managed to give me a nose bleed when it reached number 10 in the Kindle horror charts, so thanks to everyone who bought a copy. I really appreciate it. By the way, the price on Amazon.com is now only $0.99 (£0.70 on Amazon.co.uk):

Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com

On the writing front I've been making progress with my latest novel, even though there are a few sticky patches (and no, that's not a sexual innuendo). One problem I have is concentration, as I'm easily distracted by wanting to surf the net, check emails etc, so something that's helped in this respect is a free app called Focus Booster, which is basically just a countdown clock that you have to work to: http://www.focusboosterapp.com/

And lastly, for anyone interested I have a guest post up at the following blog. Hope you check it out: http://darlynandbooks.blogspot.com/2011/02/guest-post-author-shaun-jeffrey.html

The Philosopher's Stone

A few more bruises have been added to my collection, but my son and I received our Taekwondo blue belts on Monday.

For those who have been following news about The Kult film, the director Kip Shelton has been posting a journal about the progress, which makes for eye-opening reading. You can read it here, and then click the other links that continue the journey: http://gharialproductions.com/the-kult-directors-journal/

And for anyone in the Nantwich area of Cheshire, the Nantwich Bookshop now has copies of my books with my spidery scrawl inside, so you can check out the book that the film’s based on.

Now as a small press author, promotion and the selling of books is one of the hardest things. I’m competing against thousands of other authors. To give an idea of how vast the market is, I recently read that in 1975 there were 3,000 publishers in the United States. Today that number has grown to 200,000 publishers made up of large, medium, small, as well as print on demand companies. Together, they put out 560,000 books a year of which approximately 295,000 are self-published. So as you can see, competition is fierce. But what’s the best way to reach your target audience?

Of course having books in shops helps, but that’s not always possible with small press books as the shops won’t stock them, preferring to stick with the major publishers with whom they have a tried and tested relationship.

Now I’ve tried most things that I can think of to promote my work, from adverts to message boards, and I’ve had numerous good reviews, but I just haven’t hit upon what I call ‘quantity x’. Now ‘quantity x’ is a magic formula, a metaphorical philosopher’s stone that occurs when there’s an increased awareness in an authors work, and everything seems to fall into place. Like the alchemists of old, I’m still searching for it, but if anyone can give me some clues …

Kult auditions and kicking ass.

Well it’s the first of The Kult auditions this Sunday (May 16th) and I’m looking forwards to seeing who lands the roles, and whether any of them match the descriptions I had in my head when writing the novel. Of course having a film made of my work is a dream come true, and not something I ever really imagined would happen. Now I’m getting fed up of pinching myself, and I have the bruises to show for it. Or perhaps those are from Taekwondo, the latest grading of which I took last Thursday with my son. If we passed – results on Monday - then we’ll be blue belts (4th Kup). Obviously being 7 years old, my son is a hell of a lot more flexible than me, but I’m getting there, one creaking joint at a time.

Writing wise, I’m working on a screenplay with the writer of The Kult screenplay, Danielle Kaheaku. It’s a departure compared to what I’m used to writing, but it’s interesting to try a different format.

And finally, had a couple of great reviews for Deadfall this week:

http://www.horrorworld.org/reviews.htm (scroll down)

http://www.famousmonstersoffilmland.com/book-review-deadfall-by-shaun-jeffrey/

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7540697-deadfall