Email From A Vampire, by Nigel Cooper (Book Review)

This story's plot was very good. Original too, I thought. A vampire sends a journalist an e-mail out of the blue, promising to share his life story with her. It takes her a while to come around, but she eventually does, and starts publishing his story. Other things start happening, involving more vampires showing up. I enjoyed it.

I was going to mention that the writing needs some serious work. That, although good, the book was easily skimmable and could have been half the length without losing any substance. That there's plenty of redundancy, loads of tell and very little show, and a gross overuse of exclamation marks. Those things were going to drop my rating to three stars.

And then I read the final chapter. Wow. I don't want to give it away, but that final chapter was so unexpected, so mind-blowing, so (relatively) well-written that it's hard to believe it came from the same author as the rest of the book.

If you love vampires, but don't want them to sparkle, or if you're tired of the parnormal fantasy fodder of today, when vampire-meets-girl and they proceed to screw each other's brains out for the remainder of the story, you should pick up this book.

About the Book

Love, desire and a trail of cold-blooded murders ...

Tania de Pré is an ordinary journalist looking for her next big story. But when she receives an email from the mysterious, erudite and deeply sensual Tristan Syhier Burnel - a man alleging himself to be a thousand-year old vampire who wants her to publish his life story - she is plunged into a world of murder, intrigue and overwhelming sexual desire.

Teaming up with DI Maldini and his CSI team, Tania and Tristan find themselves on the trail of a malevolent bloodsucker, who will stop at nothing to ensure that the secrets of vampirism remain underground ...

Dark, stylish, romantic and sexy, Email From A Vampire will do for London what True Blood did for Louisiana.

Buy the Book

I Broke Kobo With Memoirs of a Guardian Angel!

The pre-order of Memoirs of a Guardian Angel went live on Friday afternoon. It was hectic for me, as I got together all my marketing material and blasted various Facebook groups with the announcement. I posted it on my Facebook Author Page and my Twitter account, and hurried to get my website updated.

I even posted a Facebook Ad, using the following image:

And then I tried to forget about it, went to go watch some TV, and went to bed.

That was the plan, anyway, but naturally, I couldn't stop checking my rankings.

Then, while I was on Saturday, the most amazing thing happened. I looked at Kobo, and Memoirs of a Guardian Angel was suddenly #1 in both its categories, and #2 overall!

What's more, when I looked at Kobo's homepage, and scrolled about halfway down the page, I saw "Coming Soon in eBook". And there was my beloved book, second on the list.

On Sunday morning, my wife was checking on her cellphone, and found the following:

Yip. Not only was Memoirs of a Guardian Angel now the top book on Kobo's "Coming Soon" list, it had suddenly become the #1 book in "Trending Now", with prime visibility on the homepage!

I still don't know how that happened, because I've never trended that high on any store, in the history of my self-publishing career. 

The rank has obviously slipped quite a bit by now, but by writing this blog post and sharing these screenshots, I have firmly established this moment as the first time in history that any of my books have ever cracked the number one spot, anywhere.

If you'd like to take a look at Memoirs of a Guardian Angel, and maybe buy a copy for yourself, click here to see it on Amazon, Google Play, or Kobo. I'll be putting the price up every week between now and launch on 6 April, so the sooner you decide, the cheaper it'll be.

Memoirs of a Guardian Angel: It's Cover Reveal Time!

I got the cover design for Memoirs of a Guardian Angel back from my artist, and I've been dying to share it with you. Here it is:

What do you think?

The image has now been updated on the Goodreads page too, so please click through and share that link with as many people as possible. And, if you'd like to read it when it comes out, would you mind clicking "Want to Read" on Goodreads?

That will help Goodreads to start noticing the book and recommending it to other members.

I'll keep you updated. Pre-order coming soon! :-)

Getting a South African ISBN for Memoirs of a Guardian Angel

I'm about to release my seventh fiction book, entitled Memoirs of a Guardian Angel, and up to now, I've been relying on the free ISBNs generated by Smashwords (for the e-book) and Lulu (for the print versions).

The problem with that is twofold. First, those ISBNs are American ISBN numbers, which means that, even though I'm South African, books with those ISBNs are listed as being published in the United States. The second problem is, because those ISBNs are actually owned by Smashwords/Lulu, those companies are listed as the "Publisher" when someone looks them up.

That second part isn't that big of a deal for e-books (readers seldom actually look up ISBNs in the global registry), but for the print versions, it can be a big problem because the "Publisher" is listed as "Lulu" at retailers it's distributed to.

Obviously, as self-publishers, we don't want that. We are the publishers of our books, by definition!

Although it's rare, I have seen other self-published authors talking about getting their own ISBNs, so I thought I'd research it. I found this post by Dave Henderson of MYeBook, entitled How to apply for an ISBN in South Africa - Everything a self-publishing author needs to know,

I thought this was going to be complicated, but it wasn't. I e-mailed Kholofelo Mojela on a Sunday evening, and by mid-morning on Monday, I had my ISBN! She was very helpful, and directed me to the National Library of South Africa, where I will need to e-mail a copy of my epub file once it's published. And it's completely free.

When I do the print version a couple of months later, I'll follow the same process, but this time there'll be a nominal cost involved, because I'll have to have a copy printed and posted.

So there you are. South Africans. If you've been scared of doing this, don't be. It's super-simple.

In case you're wondering, the ISBN of the epub edition of Memoirs of a Guardian Angel will be 978-0-620-78888-5.

Do You Want to Review Memoirs of a Guardian Angel?

In case you didn't know, I have a new book coming out in April, called Memoirs of a Guardian Angel. If you haven't done so yet, click here to read the first chapter, free.

When the book launches in April, I'd like to get a few reviews up on Goodreads and one or two retailers as soon as possible. Preferably on launch day.

Are you up for receiving an advance copy (called an Advance Reviewer/Reader Copy in the industry) to read and review?

The book you receive will be ready for publication, except that there's no cover yet. I will be revealing that very soon, though. Although it's considered to be fully edited, some minor issues may have slipped through the cracks. If you find any while you're reading, I'd appreciate you letting me know.

Your review doesn't have to be a positive one, just honest. If you read the book and don't like it, I'd still appreciate you posting what you thought.

It also doesn't have to be an essay--although it can be as long as you want to make it. Even a sentence or two, saying whether you liked it or not, would be just fine.

If you're interested, please click the checkbox below to confirm that you want to receive an e-book copy, and that you won't be a dick. A form will pop up where you can enter your e-mail address, and pick the format you'd like your book in. Then click "Subscribe" and follow the instructions.

Please only subscribe if you really think you'll be able to finish the book by April, and you'll be able to post your review on Goodreads and at least one retailer (e.g. Amazon). You only need to write your review once, of course; you can copy and paste it wherever else you want to post it.

I'll be closing submissions this Friday (9 February 2018), at which time I will send an e-mail to all the subscribers with the links to download the book in your preferred format, and further information.

Note that even if you're already signed up to my regular newsletter, you have to sign up to this list separately. The information I'll be sending is exclusively for you as an ARC reader, and I won't be sending it to my regular list.

It would mean a whole lot to me if you'd be willing to help!

Sign-ups are now closed.