New-world Devilry and 2016!!

As a business owner, I often ask myself how we can improve our products, connect with a bigger audience, and increase sales. Of course, having a good product is only half the battle, people must know it's out there. Online markets are controlled and driven by Facebook and Amazon. Success blogs - How I quit my job after my book sold 350, 000 copies in one weekend - are as ubiquitous as get-rich-quick schemes. We all know this, yet this is the world we live in, and as publishers and authors are forced to face. In fact, for all its devilry, it knocks the socks off the old-school industry with its close-knit community of publishers and agents bent only on breaking a certain type of 'new' author and continually rehashing old ones. I like Googling Black Crake Books to see what's happening out there, and when I receive notification that someone in Germany or Australia is reading Three Journeys to Patagonia or Boathouse to Botswana, I am thrilled, even if I have only earned two dollars. It's all about persistence and self-belief.
For the new year we have several big things planned: First, we are going traditional and printing tree books to go into book shops; I know, call us old fashioned!! Second, we are going to raise our international profile by visiting book fairs in Europe and elsewhere; if you are interested in buying foreign rights for any of our titles please get in touch. Also in the pipeline are a poetry-only imprint, and a new Oxford/Botswana female detective novel.
Have a wonderful end-of-festive season and a Happy New Year!! See you online in 2016...NRHG XXxx

Freedom to write purely for fun...

Oxford and Maun author Nick Green says he has written the books he was destined to write and now has the freedom to write purely for fun.

The six titles to his name, of which Tezcatlipoca's Dream - A Mexican Novella is the latest offering, marks the end of a twenty-five-year struggle with the pen which has seen Nick deliver one prose poem and collection of short stories (Warriors), two travel books (Boathouse to Botswana and Three Journeys to Patagonia), one novel (Yellow Dress), and one non-fiction narrative piece which is a must-read for any expats in Southern Africa, entitled King of New Beginnings.

Yet to be confronted by viral sales, or dare-we-suggest fame, Mr Green spends his time as a camp manager deep in Botswana's Okavango Delta where as often as not he is to be found serenading guests on guitar or regaling them with stories from a successful and varied career in hospitality.

Happily married to a beautiful Zambian bride named Princess he is busy working on a detective novel set in England and Botswana and a follow-up to Yellow Dress where the action takes place in the high Andes.

I for one wish him every success!!

Nick Green's books can of course be found at www.blackcrakebooks.com or you can just go straight to Amazon's Kindle store.

Don't forget to leave a review if you are lucky enough to buy and read one of Nick's soon-to-be classics.

Happy Christmas xXXx

 

Hearts and Bones - the rebirth of the Mexican novella

As part of my degree in Latin American studies I wrote a thesis on how expat authors writing about Mexico respond to the previous generation of expat authors’ books as much as they do to the country and the people themselves; the whole process perpetuating a lot of myths.

I wrote to Allen Ginsberg who confirmed that he and Jack Kerouac and Burroughs had all read Under the Volcano before they headed to Mexico, and I also wrote to David Markson, another American author (and only man – I discovered – to have known both Kerouac and Lowry) who sent me a signed copy of his Mexican opus, Going Down.

Twenty years later, Tezcatlipoca’s Dream, is my contribution to the genre. You can read excerpts here and on the website www.blackcrakebooks.com

If you like what you see, please go to Kindle Scout and vote for it so that we stand a chance of receiving a publishing contract with Amazon, here’s the link 

https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/TK862O4M3FN8

If we don’t win, TD will be launched online (Kindle) and later as a POD paperback before Christmas.

Muchisimas gracias

Henry

Best BCB Openers...

What's your favourite Black Crake Books opening line?

A warrior stands at the top of the steps and breathes deeply – Warriors

You are probably not overly familiar with Wisconsin, Nick? – Boathouse to Botswana

Dirty grey clouds scudded high up in the sky, assembling in black masses – Josie

Speak of Africa to anyone who has known her and at once a wistfulness invades their voice – My Forever Heartache

Beyond the open sash window the distant hum of an electric lawn mower – King of New Beginnings

Night fell somewhere in the desert south of Santiago – Three Journeys to Patagonia

The lack of oxygen to Walter’s brain was enough now for his body to start spasming – Yellow Dress

Boom! The sixteen canons on land signalled farewell to all those at sea – Tezcatlipoca’s Dream

Man is born free and is everywhere in trains – Notes from Overground

Kindle Scout Campaign

Dear Readers

Please help Black Crake in our campaign to win a publishing contract with Amazon for our latest release Tezcatlipoca's Dream - A Mexican novella by Henry Green.

All you have to do is follow the link below and nominate it, but don't stop there, tell all your friends and share the link on social media. Together we can get it into the Hot and Trending list and win a contract. Your reward should Henry win? A free copy ahead of publication.

Many thanks in advance
Black Crake

https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/TK862O4M3FN8

Boipuso

Happy Independence Day Botswana!! Enjoy FREE books the whole of next week; just check out the Kindle store...

Tezcatlipoca's Dream

Check out the cover for my new Mexican novella, Tezcatlipoca's Dream...designed as always by my friend Andy Meaden!! Thanks Andy