This afternoon I'm uploading my 4th novel, HOUSE OF SILENCE to Amazon where it will be sold as an e-book for Kindle. I think it will take 2 - 4 days before it's ready to buy. You can download Kindle for PC, iPhone and iPad. (I'm afraid I don't know if you can read it on Nooks or other devices. I'm at the limit of my techie knowledge with a Kindle!)

This is a novel I completed 3 years ago and for which I've been unable to find a publisher. The reason given most often by editors for their rejection was that they didn't know how they would market the book because it belonged to no clear genre. I'm publishing it myself because I'm convinced my readers will enjoy it. I love it and it's possibly my current favourite of my novels.

I thought you might be interested to browse the new pages on my website...

http://www.lindagillard.co.uk/houseofsilence.php


This is the "cover blurb" for the book...

"My friends describe me as frighteningly sensible, not at all the sort of woman who would fall for an actor. And his home. And his family."

Orphaned by drink, drugs and rock n’ roll, Gwen Rowland is invited to spend Christmas at her boyfriend Alfie's family home, Creake Hall - a ramshackle Tudor manor in Norfolk. She's excited about the prospect of a proper holiday with a proper family, but soon after she arrives, Gwen senses something isn't quite right. Alfie acts strangely toward his family and is reluctant to talk about the past. His mother, a celebrated children's author, keeps to her room, living in a twilight world, unable to distinguish between past and present, fact and fiction. And then there's the enigma of an old family photograph...

When Gwen discovers fragments of forgotten family letters sewn into an old patchwork quilt, she starts to piece together the jigsaw of the past and realises there's more to the family history than she's been told. It seems there are things people don’t want her to know.

And one of those people is Alfie…

And this is the cover...

I was going to preorder it but it isn't available yet. I will keep checking back, as you know I am excited to read anything you write!!! I have loved all your books and I very much doubt this will be any different! Can't wait!!!!

I've downloaded it to my Kindle today from Amazon.co.uk -

Can't wait to start it this afternoon

HOUSE OF SILENCE is now on sale in the UK (currently #308 in paid for Kindle books!) and the US version is "publishing" (ie work in progress), so my US fans shouldn't have much longer to wait.

I've discovered you can also download Kindle for Mac, Android and Blackberry. Hope that will include a few more of you.

The excitement on my FB page is wonderful to behold. A lot of happy fans. I've been really touched. Just hope they love the book. If my instincts are sound, they will. I threw all my usual tasty ingredients in to this one but was light on the salt and spice.

Linda

I vow to check back every single day until I can get it! HMPHHHH, I wonder if I can order it from the UK site???

Well apparently not as I don't have an Amazon UK account so I will just have to be patient.

Do any Tech Gurus know if there is a way to download it to the Nook? I'm going to call customer support but they confuse me more sometimes. I need a person to say "press this" and "click and drag it here".

HOS is now available on the US Amazon site.

http://www.amazon.com/HOUSE-OF-SILENCE- ... _rhf_p_t_1

I had just checked an hour ago and it wasn't!

Oh fun maybe I was the first in the US to buy it!

Got it! And a few other books while I was there.

Thank you thank you Lynn for the text. I got on my phone and ordered it to go to my Kindle since DH and I were out for the evening. I am so excited to get it and Linda - it was such a steal! I feel like I should send you more money...

Thanks for the kind thought, but don't worry - I am making much more out of the e-book than I made from conventional sales. I get 70% of the price - considerably more (more than double) than I made from a sale of one of my books in a book store or online.

I know that's hard to believe but that's because most readers don't have any idea how little publishers pay authors! The lion's share of a book sale goes to the bookseller. Most of the rest goes to the publisher. A tiny amount (about 50p with a £7 pb) goes to the author. If I had priced my e-book at 99p in the UK I would still have been making more money per copy sold than I made with my pbs!

So enjoy HoS with a clear conscience, Tink! I'm happy with the price. And I'm very happy that I'm not earning money for a middleman.

What I need you all to do for me, if you will, is talk about HoS, in person and online, so that sales will continue after this initial peak brought about by all my lovely loyal fans buying copies. HoS still stands at No 1 in the Movers & Shakers paid-for e-books and it was there all day yesterday. I really, really hope this comes to the attention of some of the many editors who turned down HoS because they couldn't see how to market it.

I'm sure you were.

I plan on telling everyone I know. I may even gift some copies!

It's been brought to my attention that some readers (not all) are unable to read a few lines of the book. It seems to depend what device you are reading on, but the lines also seem to come and go! I am livid about this and Amazon will feel the might of my wrath today , as the doc we uploaded was perfect and very carefully proofread.

The missing lines are in Ch 3 and they are all italic. Some readers say they are there, but white!

The missing lines are

Confirm Xmas arrangements with A (on Viv's To Do list)

and later

If you your lips would keep from slips,
Five things observe with care:
Of whom you speak, to whom you speak,
And how and when and where.
If you your ears would save from jeers,
These things keep meekly hid:
Myself and me, and my and mine,
And how I do and did.

which comes at the end of Ch 3 as the text of Hattie's sampler.

Fortunately neither of these omissions prevent you from understanding the story. I just hope no more turn up.