One month after book release

When I wrote Flying from Shangri-La, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I never considered myself an author. I’m just a guy with a cool story that I put down on some pages for others to read. After I’d finished the original draft, the first people to read it were my parents. They cried. They also said it was brilliant. But they’re my parents, so they would say that. I then corrected all my spelling and grammar mistakes and got a few other people to read it. They also said it was brilliant. But they were my friends, so they would say that. So I tried to get a book agent as that’s what you do to get a book published. I wrote to dozens and dozens of them but they all ignored me or said it wasn’t for them.

That left me with self-publishing. I wanted my book to be as good as any professionally produced books, so I hired an editor to further refine the manuscript. He also said it was brilliant and only had to make sentence level edits. Finally, I got some proofreaders who were also friends and colleagues who again reckoned I’d written a very good book. After so much praise I figured that maybe I had written something people would want to read. So I paid a publisher to do a print run, hoping everyone wasn’t blowing smoke up my arse.

300 of those copies sold out in just over a week. I was blown away by the support of everyone who paid full price for a signed and numbered copy of my book. I’ve continued to sell many more copies direct to readers from this very website and in person to people who’ve asked me directly. Meanwhile my publisher continues to sell copies into the book trade for the likes of Waterstones, WHSmith and Amazon, the latter of whom have it listed worldwide which is great to see as over half of the books I sold direct have gone to overseas readers.

Book review

If you have any interest in travel, bush flying and adventure, you will love this straight-talking, page-turning, nail-biting tour of Indonesia. 

Flyer

After dozens of positive reviews on Amazon and in direct messages from readers, I was delighted to receive a review in Flyer this month. Annabel Cook’s piece on my book is a glowing recommendation which you can read here: https://flyer.co.uk/flying-from-shangri-la-book-review/ It’s been truly amazing to hear everyone telling me I’ve written something really special. The overriding comment is that it’s a real page-turner adventure book that keeps you right in the action with me throughout the journey.

If you enjoyed my book, please consider leaving a review on Amazon or on Goodreads. These really help spread the word to other potential readers.

Website Sale

As my contract with my fulfilment company finishes at the end of November, I will be running a sale on the last remaining copies in their warehouse. Signed copies will be down to the RRP of £22 and the non-signed copies will be price matched to Amazon UK which is currently £17.43. I’ll also be offering free shipping in the UK!

So go grab yourself an early Christmas present. There’s not many copies left now!