Papillon l854

Papillon in French means butterfly and 1854 is the year this historical novel commences. The word BUTTERFLY denotes in Aboriginal – New Life. Represents – Freedom, Change, Rebirth. Profound changes of the Soul. Cultural myth and lore: honour to the butterfly as a symbol of transformation due to its impressive process of metamorphosis. Set at a time when codes of honour were mainly adhered to: Matthew Flinders, as Captain of the ‘Investigator’, met at sea, the French national ship ‘Le Geographe’, under the command of Captain [read more...]

European tax changes not as bad as predicted

Many readers were concerned that when the VAT increased on e-Books in Europe they would to have to pay more. This was not the case as retailers and publishers have helped cushion the increase in price, so little has changed. Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Kobo all based their European headquarters in Luxembourg where the VAT was only 3%. This allowed these companies to sell digital books all over the continent at reduced prices. The VAT structure changed on January 1st 2015 where the amount of tax people pay is now defendant on the [read more...]

The major publishers continue to consolidate

If you are wondering why it is now so hard to be picked up by a major publishing house, you just have to look at what is happening in the book industry. Here is an article from one of our partner companies. “The year (2014) was highlighted by HarperCollins’s $455 million acquisition of Harlequin, which was completed on August 1. While that acquisition was being finalised, a second major deal that had been in the works fell apart for HarperCollins. The maturation of the digital book market led two companies to make multiple [read more...]

US book buyers supporting US authors. Why aren’t Australians doing the same thing?

One of the things lacking in Australia is the reluctance of Australians to support our own Authors. With the advent of all the cheap books being sold in the Malls around the place for $5, even Post offices are doing the same thing: is it any wonder that Australian authors are having a bad time. What most Australian book buyers do not realise is 99% of these books are dumped here and are produced in the USA or UK, to the detriment of our home grown authors. Here is a report from one of our partner companies and what is starting [read more...]

Booksales the best in many years in the USA

A massive pickup in book sales in the USA is a great opportunity for Australian writers. With our new USA partner companies, Trajectory and Overdrive we are well placed to take advantage of the rise in book sales. It also seems like many buyers are abandoning Amazon for other booksellers in the USA, as many become disillusioned by some bad publicity. A report by PW news that book buyer Deborah Johnson at Barston-s Child’s Play – which has four stores in the greater Washington, D.C. area – notes, “People do say, ‘I don’t want [read more...]

Links in the Chain

It is 1849 and Jack Wainwright lives with his wife and son in Queen Victoria’s London. His family suddenly become desperately ill and Jack pawns his wife’s gold necklace to buy medicine. After their deaths he walks the streets looking for work and food. Starving, he steals fruit, he is arrested, and transported to Port Arthur. Oliver, a liver and white King Charles Spaniel, belongs to Miss Emma Poldark, the cossetted teenage daughter of Port Arthur’s Commandant. When they sailed for Tasmania on her father’s posting she refused to [read more...]

Coaching: How to lead

Coaching: How to lead: How Managers can use coaching skills effectively in the workplace. How can you achieve the best from your team? Do you have time to focus on the big issues? Are you doing your best to retain your talented team members? Coaching: How to lead can help empower your team to strive for their best work. Coaching is very quickly becoming the new leadership style for organisations. Coaching is a practical skill set that you can learn, but managers are often left to implement the practice alone. This book [read more...]

Kathmandu 2

A NOVEL OF ASSASSINS, MYSTICS, AND THE VALLEY OF BROKEN DREAMS The pace intensifies as Merrick and his shadowy mercenaries move to seize control of Nepal’s most priceless resource. The threat to Andrew and Kate from Merrick is greater than ever as he hunts them through the back streets of Kathmandu. Frantic for their safety, nine-year-old kitchen boy, Ashok, gets help from his teacher, Sadananda, the venerable old sadhu who has unexpected connections to military intelligence. The old man calms them with evocative tales of the [read more...]

Zoe’s Zone

What was it that kept eleven year old Zoe riding her bike along Loftus Lane to Glengarry, a farm not too far from Morset, a small country town where she was holidaying with her grandmother? It certainly wouldn’t have been sour faced Meg or her miserable husband Logan who managed the farm. More likely it was Jonah, the lonely boy who spent much of his time sitting behind his easel on the verandah, painting. "Come back to Glengarry," he begged Zoe. "I will," she promised, suspecting there was something strange going on at [read more...]

Erin’s Zone

What does eleven year old Erin tell her small brother when he says animals are talking to him. She tells him to stop being so silly. There was no way lizards and roosters could talk to him! That also included the alligator their grandmother told him lived in their well, ready to jump out to bite off his head if he didn’t keep away from it! It wasn’t as though Erin’s life wasn’t bad enough with her father risking his life fighting in New Guinea. War, Erin decided, was a terrible thing. Sometimes school wasn’t all that wonderful [read more...]