I have several posts in waiting, but no time for responding. Still, this I had to share. Uh?
Apart from the weird price, my page on Amazon.co.uk shows only this cover of the print version, and shows it three times (some at normal prices), but does NOT show the internet-friendly ebook cover 
(you have to click through) . They also put books by Hilary Green (not me) on the same page. I have no idea if I have ever sold books because someone thought I was her, but I know she has had sales because someone thought she was me. Grrr.
When I can snatch time away from my desk, and the weather allows, I rush into the garden to wrestle with ivy – by far the most prolific plant in the garden. We are slowly replacing our fence (or rather experts will replace, we just do the destruction part). The need is urgent, we rather think this part dates back to the 1920s.
In case you want to know, even (niche) mainstream publishing means you spend your time at your desk organising publicity materials, mailing lists, launch parties and worrying about who you have forgotten in your acknowledgements.
Spring is coming. 
Edit – I have just had an email from the Pen & Sword commissioning editor. He asked, among other things, if Tara, Katie and the team had been in touch [not yet]. There is marketing and promotion, but apparently nearer to the release date. More when this happens.
Green Writing Room 
The Hilary Green book ‘Border Line,’ that I bought came via Amazon Australia. it has the cover of the girl sitting in the window and is the Kindle version. I managed to finally get it on my laptop but not on my kindle. The whole world of electronic media is so difficult and I don’t know how people cope without going out at night and strangle a sheep..
Gerard/Gez, if you go to the Amazon page and log in, when you see Hilary’s book on your list, you should have an option to deliver it to your Kindle. It’s a good book! I didn’t have to pay 695.93 pounds, thank goodness! 🙂
Hilary could get rich quick at that price!
I bought the Kindle version of Hilary’s book and downloaded it on the Amazon free kindle which I have on my computor and laptop. What I could not achieve was downloading it on my separate hand held Kindle. I don’t know why.
I must bear in mind the sheep solution, though it might have to be a cat round here. (Actually a cat did turn up on our doorstep asking to be let in recently. I left a message with the vet and when it reappeared a couple of days later we popped it in a basket, took it to the vet and it was, apparently, reunited with its owner… but I digress.)
Thank you everyone for your kind support of Border Line.
No sheep around. Maybe I should try a goat. Seems that the fence has seen its day, Hillary. 🙂 –Curt
Cat for me. See my reply to Gerard above. I’m not sure the fence has seen any day-light – because of the ivy – for many a year.
One of the first jobs I was ever hired to do as a kid was to pull the blackberries off a neighbors fence and build a new one. The fence looked very much like yours, Hilary. I must have been 12. My dad provided technical advice. 🙂 –Curt
I bought the paperback version of your book from Amazon.com and it does have the lovely photo of the girl in the window!
And I have had to commission several fences in my day…mostly to make an enclosure for my dog. Is your fence for keeping in, keeping out, or something else?
I’ve often wondered how much of your own promotion you must do with trade publishers…it seems to me that one should be relieved of all those mercenary parts of publishing if one has a “real” publisher to do them. I guess the world of publishing books is very much in transition from what was, to what will be.
Now you’ve foxed me. There are no printed versions with the girl, I think you nobly read this on a device.
Re publishers, Pen & Sword have a great infrastructure and a vast mailing list of military and war-minded readers and send out catalogues every quarter. I think that is it. Parties are optional, authors promote as much or as little as they see fit. I should really have got in touch with another author to find out more about how it works. P & S are selling the book because of its subject matter not the author. See Claire Fuller’s blog http://clairefuller.co.uk/category/blog-posts/ for the new novelist’s experience.
Of course you’re right. I can’t find you on my bookshelf where I keep the very few works of current fiction I have enjoyed. I did read you on a kindle-fire. I must have obliterated that fact from my mind, because I now never read in that format. Your blogging persona told me your book must be special, and so I must have made an exception…But I can still see the persons, places, things you created in Border Line…and that non-cover cover too, so it still lives as if it were on my shelf and I could reach out and dip into it once again!
You are so kind about my writing and I’m honoured that you used the dreaded kindle in spite of disliking it so much. If I ever write another novel, I will post you a copy.
Oh, and yes, there is a dog on the other side of the fence and our garden is open to the road, so would be a hazard for the dog.
Your fence is so familiar
Good old British standard laissez-faire style fence.
I was going to mention Derrick to you when I saw the photos, but I see he already spotted them! haha
I’m on my way to Amazon right now.
I think my email to you checking on the right name for the acknowledgements in my POW book didn’t get through. You are in as Gail Cox – I doubt I could change that now!
No, I never received it. What can I say, but thank you for the acknowledgement.
Without your blog about Cabanatuan, I would never have sorted out the correspondence relating to it. There are probably still errors in this section, but there was so much muddle at the time, apart from any mistakes that I have made, that this is not surprising. Your information was very helpful.
Sometimes I think chaos reigns at Amazon. Your Amazon.ca price is way too high. I’m having problems with their pricing of my book. Seemingly insurmountable “fencing” that will keep buyers out. Are these high prices just glitches? Also, I looked for a description of Border Line, but couldn’t see one. Loved your photos of the backyard fences and greenery.
Ah, the reason Border Line is such a high price in Canada is because the print version is only available in England (Threadgold Press is not international), though I think there may be the odd second-hand one floating about. The eBook is there at a sensible price, if you click on that you will get a description.
And people think writing a book is hard. Seems to me it’s the stuff that comes after that brings on the horrors.
I’ve known fences like that – only remaining upright by the ivy growing over it. Although, the current suspect is being propped up by the olive trees on the other side.
The stuff that comes after includes, because this is non-fiction, giving talks. For me this is indeed the horrors… which I will have to overcome.
Ivy on my side, giant hollies, lilacs, thorn trees, privet etc on my neighbours. Olives sound rather more beautiful.
Congrats, Hilary — I’m so glad the book is out!
Thanks, still a bit to go. It’s due at the end of June, but I can believe in it now.
It’s a great time right now. You must be excited!
I have had a little trouble akin to yours because of a US author, Roderick P Hart, who writes learned texts about American politics – though the rise of Trump might encourage him to stop this damaging habit.
And my fences are as bad. The recent storms, now with added names, massacred some of them after they’d torn my mothers roof off. Isn’t life fun!
Politics! Not too much crossover, I’d have thought. Hilary Green (not me) writes romantic sagas set in WWII from the look of the covers.
Indeed, the fun continues. The fence went up today and the roof and the floor of the mower shed are in their final months of life. Sorry about your mother’s roof, that’s not something you can pretend not to notice for ten years.
Books are getting more and more expensive, Hilary. My husband buys tarted up, hardback rubbish from the Folio Society, and then puts it in his case when he goes on holiday. Me, I just take my iPad with its Kindle app on it.
As our house is has reached book saturation point, I try and buy for my iPad mini. It’s cheaper and certainly easier for travelling – a great invention… but physical books still arrive quite regularly too.
I help restore creeks ( as a volunteer these days) and our biggest job is removal of ivy strangling the trees etc and broom.
Good luck with the book launch! (and the resultant headaches!)
That is a very good thing to be doing for the environment. I positively enjoy battling it out with ivy, and it’s good for heart health too. I am frustrated that I can tear it down from the trees on the other side of the fence, as it stops all the sun getting through and eventually takes over the trees entirely.
How odd about the Amazon business. The book jacket they’ve used is the same as the one I have, but I’m jolly glad the price I paid wasn’t quite as steep. I hope you can get all that sorted out somehow, it sounds like quite a headache. Do you know Hilary Green? It would be interesting to find out if she’s had the same problems as you have. You have a lot of ivy there, I hope tackling it is in some way therapeutic.
I’m glad you got a sensibly priced copy. I’m not going to worry about the crazy Amazon price on some odd copies. It is some online seller in the US who have got hold of one or more copies – no one is going to buy them, so it seems a pointless thing to be doing. It is still available in the UK at the ordinary price.
Hilary Green started publishing in about 2004, and I found out because someone congratulated me, thinking her first novel was my second novel. She has published lots and is an established writer. I don’t think I am a problem for her, but do know someone who bought her books thinking they were mine. It will get more confusing, because my new book is non-fiction WWII and she writes novels set in WWII. I should have stuck with my original part-name Hilary Custance, which I used for my first novel. It’s a long learning curve.
I’m sure you’ve already done this, Hilary, but I’d check who is selling Borderline at that price, because it’s not you or Threadgold. If it’s a used copy, fine, I don’t see the purpose of the listing, but if it’s new, just make sure you have no piracy issues. I’m sure it’s fine, but it’s always better to know.
Most of the authors I know who have traditional contracts, even with the biggies, are having to do the lion’s share of the promotion these days, so you’re in good company. And nice fence, by the way. It looks like how my brain feels today.
Hmm, it is being sold by Shiningstone EU aka Cletem LLC, with an address in Los Angeles. It now claims to have 3 used at £710.39 each and 3 new at £898.32 each. I know of at least 3 paperback copies in the States (but I doubt my daughter has sold hers). If they are pirating (very unlikely) they are hardly going to make a sale at that price. This outfit appears to sell everything from moisturiser to TVs (Incontinence bed pads £65.25, Men’s Hair removal Cream £402.66), something very fishy here. The other oddly priced one is from Global EU aka Anytime Bookstore LLC in Beverly Hills, 1 used £24.11, 1 new £30.14 – no one is going pay these prices for an unknown author’s book. Baffling!
Turns out I’m ahead of the game and ‘Tara(!), Katie and the team’ will be in touch with me shortly about marketing and promotion.
I know it’s probably not a major issue, Hilary, but it still sounds like fraud to me (even if they’re short selling, i.e. offering products they will only buy if they make a sale), because they are on Amazon offering a product for sale that they couldn’t possibly have access to. I’d at least report them to Amazon, because even if nothing happens, having your book on sale at that price does nothing for you. Good luck with Tara & Katie!
Always obedient, I contacted Amazon Advantage. They sent a reply which said that they run an open market place. However if I suspect that someone is offering unauthorised, recopied etc products, then I must notify them. They have also sent me a link to a Notice Form, to fill in if my intellectual property is being violated. I can’t check without spending a stupid amount of money. I’m not up for a fight, as only a juggins would buy one of these books. People are used to weird on Amazon, so probably won’t notice.
Oh the battle with ivy and fences. Your fence has done well though! Thanks for the insights into ‘ after finishing’ the book. And good luck. I will try and get a kindle app on my iPad. Prefer books for late night reading but have managed some on the screen!
I think the fence was magnificent, parts of it might even be as old as the house (1908). I know, print is best for night reading. My iPad came with a kindle app (or maybe they put it on for me in the shop…). If you are really keen, my books are also available as eBooks so you should be able to download from the iPad eBook store.
Thanks I will look there then as much easier when I’m in Spain.
How weird! I like the wild look of the garden but I understand why you want to do something with it too… Best of luck!
I agree, wild is fine (and we have plenty left), but collapsing fences are a problem.
My thoughts are a lot like your ivy…!
Very frustrating with your Amazon page. Urgh. Yes, we writers have to juggle a LOT of balls.
That’s exactly what it feels like – juggling, I suppose it keeps the brain young at least!