Hobson & Choi - Case Four: Blood Will Stream - COVER AND PRE-ORDER DETAILS

Hello.

After many Twitter mumblings and late-into-the-night formatting sessions, I'm excited to report that the fourth book in the Hobson & Choi series is happening! It's called Blood Will Stream, it's about the locked-room murder of a YouTuber and it should be with you on 4th October 2016, just under a year after the third one.

Which is exciting in itself, but also means another cool part of any Hobson & Choi book launch - a new cover by Design For Writers! As you can see, they've very much taken the online streaming theme and run with it.

To go alongside that, here's a nice sales blurb:

“I used to think knowing people just by online handles was totally cool, but these internet murders might be changing my mind.”

After YouTuber GrazGrim is found dead in his locked bedroom-studio, the police are ready to write it off as a suicide.

The online fandom only have one chance for justice: John Hobson and Angelina Choi, internet detectives!

But can Angelina persuade Hobson to take the case on? And will anyone like what they find?

Blood Will Stream is the fourth book in this darkly comic London crime series. The detectives are back in whodunnit territory, revisiting their love-hate relationship with the internet.

Hobson & Choi has been #1 in Dark Comedy on Amazon, broken records on Jukepop Serials and now returns with an all-new mystery never seen anywhere else!

So there we go. This is really happening. As the blurb implies, this is the first H&C book written specifically for book format, rather than forged from rewritten webserial chapters, and I think it's the best yet. Although it does mean I haven't had any pre-validation from online comments.

Still, if you want to validate me, you can always pre-order using the links below! (Seamless...)

• Amazon UK!
• Amazon US!
• Kobo!

And it's also on Goodreads here for those of you who go there. If you have a blog, YouTube channel or other book reviewing outlet and want a review copy, email me at nick@nickbryan.com and we can probably work something out.

Probably some more stuff to come - it has been pointed out that one suitable promo campaign for this book would be to do some YouTube videos, so you might get to see that over the next few weeks. You lucky, lucky people.

Now, as has become tradition, it's 3D time...

ADMINARAMA - H&C on Wattpad! Competition answer! BOOK THREE LOOMS!

Sundry bits and bobs on the blog today - might try for a full-length post in a few days, but for now, sundry newsbursts from Nick-land...

The Girl Who Tweeted Wolf on WHAT pad?

If you want to read The Girl Who Tweeted Wolf, the first book in my darkly-comic crime Hobson & Choi series, without shelling out cash, I'm currently serialising it on Wattpad, the popular story-sharing site. Plus you can read H&C old-school, serialised with cliffhangers, a format I still have a huge amount of affection for.

Chapters are going up every other day (next one tomorrow) and there's only fifteen of them, so it should be all there fairly soon. Check it out and if you have a Wattpad account and feel like throwing in a vote or comment, go for it.

Phantom of the Space Opera - Competition ongoing!

Remember my competition from last week? The one where you had to guess which chapter I wrote in the team-written book from Nine Worlds? Well, no winners yet, so because I feel like it, rather than tell you the answer, I'm going to just leave it hanging.

Once one human being (not one of the ones who has told me they got the answer in a way other than reading it) emails the correct answer to nick@nickbryan.com, I'll send them a copy of The Girl Who Tweeted Wolf, signed or unsigned as per their will. Maybe some other gift as well, I've got a few spare comics and stuff hanging around.

Once that happens, I'll post the right answer here. Check the original blog post for the full details of what that's all about.

Trapped In The Bargain Basement soon to be released!

Last and definitely not least, the third Hobson & Choi book Trapped In The Bargain Basement is finally more or less ready to be released into the community! It's taken some work - specifically, a set of rewrites so massive that I've had to remove the original webseries version from the internet because it embarrasses me.

But we have a final text, nearly a final cover, it's all very close. I'm not going to say anything specific like a date yet, but Trapped should be with you by this time next month, let's put it that way. So even sooner than that, there might be a cover reveal. Gosh.

However, if you have a blog and would like a review copy so you can post something near the release date, do email me or something and I can probably get it to you reasonably soon. If you definitely have a blog/other outlet for reviews and desperately want to cover the whole series, I may even be able to supply all three.

How To Be Number One! (In the Dark Comedy category on Amazon US!)

News that social media followers probably already know! For around a day, dawn to dusk on Thursday 12th March 2015, my self-published crime epic The Girl Who Tweeted Wolf was the most popularest, bestest book in the Dark Comedy category on Amazon US. If you don't believe me, here's a screenshot.

BEHOLD THE ORANGE STRIPE OF VALID LITERATURE

Quite cool, as the bulk of my existing readers are in the United Kingdom, so sales across the Atlantic had been quite modest until now. This is an important step in breaking America. If Doctor Who and Sherlock can do it, then so can Hobson & Choi!

Now, much as I'd love to pretend this was an entirely natural spurt of love for me, I did require some advertising to achieve this. For anyone who wants a tiny wee glimpse into the inner workings of the self-publishing DIY promotion world, harnessing the resources available to reach the very top of a fairly uncompetitive Amazon category, this is your moment.

Hobson & Choi Case Two - "Rush Jobs" - out now!

Today, my friends, the second H&C book goes forth into the world, where it hopes to be received with open arms and warm love. After meeting in the first book, John Hobson and Angelina Choi further explore the world they've found themselves in, and find it to be a strange, grim place.

So, here is a picture of the cover - for more details on the actual plot, go to the Hobson & Choi homepage, where you can also find links to buy a copy of Case One - The Girl Who Tweeted Wolf - for a newly super-cheap price.

For the new book, you can add it on Goodreads here if you so wish, and if you feel like leaving a review and/or rating there, on Amazon or on your own blog/social media, that would be pretty sweet of you. Continued growth plays a big part in helping me continue to get these out there.

Speaking of heading on out there, we're also doing the Hobson & Choi Blog Tour to coincide with the book launch - check out the details here if you want to follow along. If you follow me on Twitter, I'm sure the blog posts will also be retweeted there as they happen.

You can buy Rush Jobs in both print and digital from various venues using the rack of buttons below. I'll also be dropping off a few copies soon at the Big Green Bookshop, if you're a fan of buying things in person.

2014 - A Writrospective

Because it's a retrospective about my writing, you see? So it's a writrospective! Even if you don't care about me or my work, surely it was worth clicking on the blog post just for that pun? See diagram for more details.

Anyway. I have more or less reached the point where all my free time is booked for the remainder of the year. Might squeeze in an hour or two somewhere, but I doubt any more substantial writing work will happen before 2015 hits.

So I thought I'd take this chance, late on a Thursday night, to look back on what I did/achieved this year, in and around writing, and whether it met my lofty goals from twelve months ago. Don't worry, it won't be pure self-congratulation - I missed almost all of those goals, but not completely.

Hobson & Choi Blog Tour - Book Two Blurb + Launch Plans

It appears the launch of Rush Jobs, the second Hobson & Choi book, needs preparation. You can see an exclusive 100% real not-fake not-a-joke preview of the Case Two cover just to the right of these words. Enjoy!

But yeah, if you're someone who dislikes making Christmas plans in mid-November, best duck and cover, because we're about to talk late January 2015.

After The Girl Who Tweeted Wolf's relatively soft launch, we at H&C HQ are going bigger this time. Yes, it's a blog tour. This means that if you, the reader, run a blog about books (or something else you can easily relate back to H&C), you can host a post around the time of the Rush Jobs launch. This could be your own review of the book or a piece I've written or some combination of the two. We can work something out.

However, if you wish to be involved at all, you should register your interest by filling in the form here, which does include checkboxes to determine what kind of post you might want to feature.

Get ye applying. Your blogs won't tour themselves (because I will be doing that).

In order to get everything in order for this blog tour, we've also put the new book on Goodreads, so if you want to announce your formal intention to read it, you can do that too.

Oh, and to make the Goodreads page look less skeletal, I've released the blurb for Rush Jobs, which goes like this:

“Sometimes #crime feels like the Matrix. Or the #patriarchy or #porn. It's everywhere, even in people you trusted, and there's so MUCH of it.”
Angelina Choi returns for her second and final week of work experience at John Hobson’s detective agency, ready for anything after their first successful murder solve.
After all that online buzz, they’re in phenomenal demand. Can Hobson & Choi solve a kidnapping, play chicken with corporate crime, beat back gentrification, save a dog from drug dealers and head off violent backlash from their last case?
Or will grim revelations about Hobson’s past leave them floundering in the chaos?
Rush Jobs collects the second major storyline in the Hobson & Choi saga, #1 on Jukepop Serials and #2 in Dark Comedy on Amazon, adding brand new chapters and scenes to the case.
Also included: bonus story Infernal Accounting, exclusive to this book. An unfortunate accountant is terrified of his first day working for Rush Recruitment - but they’re only a temp agency, right? How bad can it be?

So there we go. The countdown has officially begun. Apply now to be a tour stop! And yes, the real new cover, from the creators of the first one, will be unveiled at some point. Exciting times.

The Girl Who Tweeted Wolf - NOW IN PRINT

So, after a few weeks of slow roll-out, the final step of publication is here: my first book The Girl Who Tweeted Wolf is now in print! Next time, I may try and do it all at once for maximum impact, but this time, here it is a week later.

Basically: it's a darkly comic London crime novel, the first in the Hobson & Choi series. More details about the book, along with enthusiastic review quotes and such, on our very own official Hobson & Choi homepage.

But let's cut to business in this post. Here are the buttons to buy the print book:

And, if you want it in digital, here are even more buttons...

And if you buy it in any format, consider leaving a review somewhere, they're all much appreciated.

The Girl Who Tweeted Wolf - Week One

So, it's been a week since The Girl Who Tweeted Wolf debuted on all major ebook platforms, and how has it been? Have I done anything other than check my sales stats? How good are those stats?

And, yes, the print edition is hovering steadily into existence - look, there's a picture of it off to the right next to a cup of coffee.

It's a strange experience, having work out there and in the hands of people other than me. You might be one of those readers, and if so, I hope you are enjoying it - considered doing a review somewhere?

If you're not yet a my-book owner, here's the original post with the buy links.

So, here are my observations, other happenings, a short video, a linked preview of the actual book and anything else I can squeeze in...

OUT NOW IN EBOOK: The Girl Who Tweeted Wolf - Hobson & Choi: Case One

The Girl Who Tweeted Wolf is out in ebook!

This is the first volume in the Hobson & Choi series, a crime saga with a heavy twist of dark comedy. It shows how my two mismatched detectives begin bickering, whilst also solving their first murder. This involves Twitter, a wolf and food - loads of food, in fact.

I'll include the full blurb in the remainder of this post, but for those who have heard the H&C sales pitch a bunch of times, let's cut to the all-important buy-buttons. Hope you enjoy the book, I'm very proud of it, and if you do go for it, consider reviewing it somewhere, be it Amazon, other book-buying sites, the book's Goodreads page, your own blog, social media, or anywhere else which lets you have a book-opinion.

And remember, if you've read Case One on the H&C webserial already, there is an eight thousand word book-exclusive bonus story here to make it worth your while. Print book fans - that edition shouldn't be too far away now. Proof is en route for my approval.

The Man Who Tweeted Plugs - Last Stop Before Publication Junction

The Girl Who Tweeted Wolf, my first effort in self-publishing books, emerges on Tuesday into the world of ereaders! The cover is off to the right, and if you want even more details, review opportunities and the like, this blog post has you covered.

But if you're interested in some project news, or in what sort of thing fills the days of a man when his book is on the verge of people-powered publishing, here's the latest update. Probably the last major one before releae day. Includes video content. Gasp. Best read on.

The Girl Who Tweeted Wolf - Hobson & Choi: Case One! Cover! Blurb! Release date!

So. In the not-too-distant future, the first case of Hobson & Choi, my mismatched detective duo London crime series with a darkly comic tone, will be self-publishing. I have a nice cover, a sales blurb-type-thing, a new title, a release date, and I am about to declare all of those things.

Exciting stuff. Probably best to just get on with it. First up, then, is the real meat: cover and blurb time.

Doin' HTML Till The Break Of Dawn - Technical Self-Publishing Time

I have been locked in my room at my tiny corner desk, working on the process of turning my upcoming self-published book into beautiful HTML. It has taken a long time. I can neither confirm nor deny that I was up at 4AM Thursday morning, listening to the birds tweeting outside (and, for once, not tweeting much myself) working on exciting tasks such as reinserting italics.

As you may gather from this nuts-and-bolts self-pub stuff, the day of the Hobson & Choi release is getting very close now. So close, in fact, that I may put the cover up next week, announce the title, blurb, maybe even a date. I'm 90% sure that will happen.

But for now, here's a blog post about the experience of processing a book into HTML. This is not a walkthrough, because there are plenty of those and I don't have sufficient advice to justify bringing another one into the world. The posts I used to guide me was this one by Guido Henkel, it's pretty comprehensive.