My Kickstarter Failed

This is what I learned I ran my first ever Kickstarter from 9th July to 9th Aug. I wanted to raise £3400 for my new series, Arabian Dreams to print 100 copies of the special edition hardback and to pay my artist and editor. After 30 days, I managed to secure 43% backing, with £1465 […]

21 Days of Kickstarter

There’s about 16 days left and the panic is starting to set in. I’ve been at 30% pledged for the past few days and the marker isn’t moving. I’ve tried boosting my campaign videos on YouTube. I’m getting lots of views but not many click-throughs and no backers. I’ve LinkedIn. Lots of impressions, fewer engagements, […]

Seven Earths Publishing

Its not enough for me to just write a book, self-publish it and move on to the next one. I want to build something more sustainable. I understand that my readership is out there but they just don’t know it yet. I have to reach out to them through the screen and the page so […]

Day 8 Kickstarter Diary

The Kickstarter campaign launched this morning (10th July 2026). The campaign was actually approved on Tuesday evening, so I activated the prelaunch phase. It seems people tend to keep their projects in prelaunch for quite a while to gather support before they actually launch their campaign. I’m working to a tight deadline, so delay the […]

KICKSTARTER Diary Day 5

I got a response from Kickstarter today. Embarrassingly, I got flagged for AI use. So today’s lesson is to make sure to disclose when you have used AI. I used Gemini to produce mock-ups of what the books may look like, using the artwork produced by my artist daughter, who currently goes by Velenyx on […]

Arabian Dreams Kickstarter Diary Day 1

Today is a big day. I’ve just finished shooting and editing my Kickstarter project video and have uploaded it to the page that I have created for my Arabian Dreams Kickstarter. The aim of this diary is to make notes and share my experience of running a Kickstarter with my readers. It took me a […]

Covers Revealed

The last time I released a book was 14th June 2014. Since then I’ve been absent from the fiction market. A lot has changed. I changed careers, went back to uni to retrain as a teacher/lecturer and completed a Doctorate in Education. Now, 12 years later I’m finally looking to release not one, but two […]

February 2026

January seems to be the longest month of the year. Fantasy&Faith Season 3 launched and so far I have interviewed M D Ndogo, Dan Hanly, Umar Ditta, Tanweer Dar, James Barclay and Anna Smith Spark. I’m interviewing Adrian Tchaikovsky this week and J E Hannaford next weekend. I have a few more in the pipeline […]

World Fantasy con 2025 special

I headed down to Brighton and Hove on Thursday to attend the opening evening of World Fantasy Con 2025. I got stuck on the M25 with everyone else, but managed to reroute and arrived by 2.00pm. After getting situated at the Mercure Brighton Seafront Hotel, my wife and I had a bite to eat at […]

Fan Fic Collab

M Carmel is the author of the Arkavian Intelligence Services series. Earlier this year we agreed to collaborate by producing a piece of fan fiction based in each other’s fictional worlds. J M would write a story set in the world of The Changeling King, focusing on Det. Karen Rainbow’s catholic roots, and I would […]