Skip to main content

Posts

Right Palm, Left Foot

 This is a novella, just 20k words. I am sure, you will find it fast, gripping, satisfying. Walter has terrorized the villages and towns around him. However, an unknown shooter not only takes on Walter's boys but also hurts him despite tight security around him. And the shootings have a pattern: they smash the right palm and the left foot of the target. While trying to hold on to his turf, Walter has to face his son's questions about his past including killing his own wife. Who is the elusive shooter? How does Walter deal with his present, and his past when he is exposed? How does his son deal with him? Right Palm, Left Foot is an action-filled  novella with an ending that is bloody but satisfying. Right Palm, Left Foot is available as ebook on Amazon for $2.98. The purchase link is here:  Right Palm, Left Foot by Mony de Panja

Amazon KDP or Draft to Digital or Smashwords: which is the best for self publishing

 For self publishing, there is no bigger name than Amazon. Its KDP (Kindle Desktop Publishing) platform allows authors to publish their books for free - and in paperback as well as kindle ebooks.  Amazon KDP is marvelous as far as its approach to book publishing goes. It is thoroughly professional in all that it does about a self published book. Thanks to its wide publicity, a great number of budding authors know how to publish free on Aamazon. In fact, many who do not see much luck in publishing through mainstream trade publishers dream of becoming an author through Amazon KDP. Step by step handholding: It has a simple workflow starting with submitting the book's metadata (e.g. title, edition number, author name, description, etc) and ending with pricing and publishing the book. And then marketing it.  Making a cover for you: If you cannot make a cover file yourself, use its intuitive tool. It is not too simple but you get a hang of it by trying it a few times. There is ...

How to sell my books? Difficult for self published authors.

New and struggling self published authors keep this or similar questions on Quora and other forums: How do I sell my books ?  I have given the short answer already: selling a self published book is difficult. Yet, everything is not lost, as I will discuss later. First let's face the facts. One. If you are an author, chances are that your passion is writing, not marketing and sales . The ones who produce books that are not half as good as yours end up making money while you do not make much sales if you solely depend on the strength of your book's content.  Two. Even if you put some money aside for book promotion, the money soon evaporates without much gains. Most promotions on media, social media and electronic bookstores such as Amazon and BookBub result in big figures (impressions, etc) but hardly any sales.  Three. While the indie author is there alone, there are big book marketing services , book promotion services, resellers and publications that are busy selling bo...

Book review of Court of the Grandchildren

Court of the Grandchildren by Michael Muntisov and Greg Finlayson is a thoroughly readable book, like a pleasant journey all through. Set in not so distant future (2059 AD), its characters and setting are relatable.  It deals with human emotions in an era of omnipresence of artificial intelligence and human like robots, which are much more precise and capable than humans. The bonding between the young lady, Lily, and her great grand-uncle in his 90s who is connected to her by his AI care-giver just for giving the permission for euthanasia death to him is nuanced and it develops over the length of the novel. Lily's great grand-uncle, David, happens to be a key figure in taking climate related actions in his heydays. Through him and his submissions before a court to decide on climate matters, the book is a commentary on the climate change actions being taken today, and their likely impact on the future generations, which we tend to ignore in the present. It draws attention to t...

Book review: Camsterdam by Simon Fidler

Camsterdam: How I got Caught in the Crosshairs of the War on Terror is a book written by Simon Fidler as his first-hand account of pervasive surveillance of citizens by intelligence agencies. It exposes a scary prospect when an innocent citizen's joke about the country's Prime Minister is not liked by an operative and she wants to fix him. What she has to do is just to get the guy's name included in the list of persons with terrorist connections.  What Simon shows in the book is universal; it is not limited to some rogue or autocratic countries but even the most liberal nations, and it happens all the time - irrespective of whether the country is being ruled by a Gandhi or Mandela or by an Idi Amin or Kim Jong-un. In fact, in Simon's case, it happened in "the mother of democracy", Britain. The problem is that when you give power to a human, he/ she will abuse it (unless they are ethical to the core, but in that case either they will not pick up such a professi...

Revenge fiction: Redemption of a different kind

Hi friends, I have published another novel , Revenge , through Amazon. It is a piece of literary fiction. The story is set in a hill state of India and Delhi. An innocent village boy goes through lots of problems and finally becomes a rich and powerful man. The trauma of his childhood and poverty-filled youth haunt him while his ambitions and values do not leave him. Things turn topsy-turvy when a public officer forces him to remove the top floors of his dream building project. He decides to take revenge for the officer's action in a brutal manner. He takes revenge, but not the way he had planned. The book is available in paperback and Kindle formats. Click here to visit the book page on Amazon: You can read part of the book on Google Books too: Revenge novel

Rhymes and riddles from 'The illusion'

When good guys and bad guys enter the new layer, they act according to their intentions on the earth. The inhabitants of the layer are also divided into two distinct races, who even have their own suns! They side with one of the earthling groups. In the days that follow, bad guys and their aligned race wreak havoc on the good ones. Some of the good ones slip to yet another layer where a highly intelligent but unseen one shows them the happenings on the earth and the second layer and gives clues about how to win the battle and go out of the layers. The clues are in the form of rhyming riddles and clues. Some are like these: Bad to worse/ It mutates./ Retaliation/ Further rakes. Good one caused/ Futile fusion./ Bad one cursed/ Even illusion Past uneasy, / Next unnerving. / Sand of present,/ Most deserving.   Life he gave/ So to save./ The last of all/ From the grave./ Wins the one/ Who is brave.