There’s been a lot of debate recently about how people comport themselves online. There are stories of teachers losing their job for complaining about students, other people losing jobs for complaining about said job, or their boss. Lovers discovering spouses and vice versa. Seriously, it’s a minefield out there. But that’s just life. I’m...
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Books By Alan
Click on book covers for reviews, previews and purchase options.
RealmShift
A race against time and the Devil
"RealmShift is phenomenal. If it’s not already on your bookshelf it should be."
MageSign
Believe in the blood 
"a gritty tale of blood rituals, mystery, and mysticism… grabs hold of the reader and doesn’t let go"
The Darkest Shade Of Grey
You can tell the story.
"...stunning supernatural noir..."
Ghost Of The Black
"Everything about it is bang on"
Write The Fight Right
“The best way for a writer to learn what’s really involved in brawling, short of going down the pub and starting something.”
Marketing
Don’t be a dick online
New Age Of Publishing – Guest Post 8 – Shane Jiraiya Cummings
Here’s another in my series of guest posts discussing the changing face of publishing. In this one, dark fiction author Shane Jiraiya Cummings talks about his ‘grand experiment’. He’s decided to leap with both feet into the ebook self-publishing world and make the majority of his previously published work (and a couple of new...
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Book trailers – wank or worthwhile?
The title of this post says it all, really. I’ve been keen to have a book trailer for RealmShift for ages but just not got around to it. Recently I decided to make it a priority and started looking into it more seriously. And that made me wonder – would it really help to...
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New Age of Publishing – Guest Post 5 – April Hamilton
My new publishing series continues today with a post from April Hamilton called “How Meaningful A Metric Is Your Book’s Amazon Sales Rank?”, which is, obviously, all about the sales rank on Amazon. It makes for some pretty interesting reading. Check the links is April’s bio at the end, as there’s some good stuff...
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New Age of Publishing – Guest Post 4 – Chuck McKenzie, bookseller
My posts about the new age of publishing continue apace. This time I have a post that I think is awesome. Chuck McKenzie is a great guy and a personal friend. He’s also a writer but, more importantly in this context, he’s a bookseller. One of the traditional, old-school kind that sells actual paper...
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New Age of Publishing – Guest Post 1 – Angela Slatter
Over the next few weeks I’m going to host a handful of guest posts from writers, publishers and booksellers talking about the new face of publishing. The world is changing and all aspects of writing and publishing are being affected by the increased digitisation of all aspects of the craft and business. I thought...
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Advertising in ebooks – an inevitable outcome
I made a passing comment on Twitter yesterday that led to some heated discussion. My comment was this: Ebooks will soon carry links, photos, video, etc. They will also, in order to really monetize the medium, contain ads. Which I followed with this tweet: Your ebook will start in 60 seconds, after these messages...
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Cheap books or surviving business?
I recently posted about how Aussies can get great prices on books right now because the Aussie dollar and the US dollar are at around 1:1 for the first time. Chuck McKenzie, recently wrote about how cheap online stores are a real threat to bookshops. He cited my post in his own. Chuck’s a...
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You have to dream big
I’m a big believer in reaching for the stars. If you only ever have mediocre dreams, you’ll probably only ever have medicore results. I firmly believe in working your arse off and holding onto those dreams of great success in whatever it is you want to do. If you don’t have faith in your...
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Dymocks Southland Bestselling Horror Titles for October 2010
Things like this make me inordinately happy. As you’ll know from previous posts, I attended a group signing at Dymocks in Southland on Halloween. Here’s the proof that in-store signings are still relevant, as well as a lot of fun. That particular store releases a monthly list of bestselling dark fiction titles. The list...
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Book Depository – free shipping worldwide
I want to make sure that everyone knows about this latest online book store called Book Depository. Why is it so special? How does great prices and free worldwide shipping grab you? Online bookstores are fast becoming the preferred shopping venue for book buyers, especially here in Australia. We’re very lucky to live in...
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While you wait for book three, authors die!
The title of this post is slightly sensationalist, but in a literary sense it’s actually very true. I mentioned recently that I’ve finally started reading A Game Of Thrones, which is the first book in George R R Martin’s A Song Of Ice & Fire series. This comment lead to a few discussions in...
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BOFF and a free book
If you’re a regular around here you’ll know that I periodically post a bit of free fiction under the Friday Flash banner. Friday Flash is the brainchild of J M Strother. His idea was that every friday people post a piece of flash fiction (1,000 words or less) on their websites and share said...
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RealmShift special on Kindle
If you’re a Kindle owner and haven’t read RealmShift yet, my publisher (Gryphonwood Press) is running a special offer at the moment where the book is available for just US0.99c from the Amazon Kindle Store. Its usual Kindle price is US$2.99 so it’s a pretty good offer. I think the special is only going...
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Baggage anthology from Eneit Press
Baggage is a new anthology of short stories, published by Eneit Press and edited by Gillian Polack. You may remember Gillian being mentioned on here before – she was kind enough to officiate for me at the book launch of MageSign late last year. This anthology that she’s put together is a pretty awesome...
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The Word
Welcome to the website of author Alan Baxter.
I write dark fantasy, sci fi and horror, ride a motorcycle and love my dog. I also teach Kung Fu, hence the Warrior Scribe tag above. A friend once referred to me that way and I liked it, so it stuck. Learn all about me and my work by clicking About Alan just below the header.
Our world is built on language and storytelling. Without stories, we are nothing.
The Word is a place to learn more about me, my stories and the words of others. Click the links along the top for all kinds of stuff, search the sidebars for loads of other stuff, click on book covers for reviews and previews, enjoy the blog and don't be shy to share your words, in comments or send me an email:
alan [at]alanbaxteronline[dot]com
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