I actually wrote this blog post this morning. Since then New Zealand, Christchurch, has been hit with another swarm of earthquakes. Big ones too. I actually felt the ominous sway of the 5.8 and later 6 quake but was on the bus when the following two quakes hit. Both in the 5’s and all four quakes were shallow, 10km or less. There’s no such thing as a good time for big earthquakes, but I can’t think of a worse time. My thoughts and heart are with Christchurch at the moment. For anyone wanting to see the latest updates, our national news site Stuff, www.stuff.co.nz is pretty good.
And here is the post I wrote earlier, I know there are readers out there waiting for this update, I’ve been getting the emails ;p
Awakening is doing really well currently and I’m quite excited! The first feedback is good and I look forward to both books climbing the charts at Amazon. Currently Awakening is in two top 100 lists in the US and three in the UK. Now just to get it on the overall top 100 *grin*
As I mentioned in my last post I’ve made the decision not to publish through Smashwords. I find their ‘meatgrinder’ (the ebook converter they use) to be messy and a major pain in the arse and then the payments issue on top of it was it for me. But of course this means my books aren’t distributed to Barnes & Noble, Sony and Apple. Because I’m in NZ I can’t sign up with Pub-It that B & N has set in place which pretty much left me screwed.
So I have been a busy little bee, researching away and I believe I can set up a PayPal button on this blog so that people can purchase my books here! I’ll offer them in formats compatible for all other e-readers so that no reader will be discriminated against *grin*
I will still continue to publish them on Amazon, but after trialing the Amazon Kindle Select, briefly, have decided that part is not for me. This won’t mean anything to most of you, but for other indie’s curious as to my decision – I didn’t like that I wasn’t allowed to distribute my own book as I liked. I’ve made the decision to be an Indie author and I’m sticking by it (unless I’m offered some horrendously massive payment in exchange… and even then, I’m reading the contract well! ;p) and I don’t want to allow Amazon any extra rights over my work.
I’m really excited about being able to offer my books on here and I’m hoping that I’ll have the button up by Boxing Day, a slightly late Christmas present for some readers *grin*
Have a safe and happy Christmas everyone and please, no matter where you are in the world, have a survival kit and emergency plan for your family. You never know when a disaster will strike.
Take care all!
Nic

Stay safe and keep us updated on your trials with e-publishing. I'm learning the process myself.
Yes, just heard about the earthquake over at Christchurch. Oh dear! 🙁 Please everyone there take care.
Good luck with your amazon adventures! Yay for you! HAPPY CHRISTMAS!! take care
x
Good luck with publishing your book!
Hope you have a safe Christmas.