From Joey's Instagram

Something to be said about seeing your name on a paperback! Six of my eight books in paperback now with the other two coming later this year! #beingawriter #joeywrites #indieauthor #writerlife #writers #authorsofinstagram #paperbacks

A photo posted by Joey Paul (@joeybug) on Feb 6, 2016 at 9:29am PST

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Looking forward to 2016!

Happy New Year! I hope you have all had a happy holiday period. It's that time of year, having looked back on the year past, it's now time to look to the year ahead. I usually set myself goals that I'd like to achieve in my writing. So here are my book goals 2016:

->Time Sensitive Ones<-

1.  Release Dying Thoughts - Fourth Week in paperback by March 2016
2.  Release Dying Thoughts - First Touch & The Friendship Triangle in paperback by Summer 2016.
3. Release Destination: Unknown in both paperback & e-format by Summer 2016.
4. Do a blog tour for Waiting On You in the Summer of 2016.
5. Have 125 ratings & 100 reviews on Goodreads for all books combined by Summer 2016.

->General Ones<- 

1.  Organise two book signings locally.
2.  Take part in five events over the year.
3.  Do #JoWriMoGo every month.
4.  Do five giveaways on the blog/Facebook/Tsu/Goodreads throughout the year.
5.  Contact book blogs and get at least ten reviews done.
6.  Have over ten reviews on each book on Goodreads & Amazon.
7.  Finish Walk A Mile & Dying Thoughts - Seventh Death.
8.  Plan and begin books fifteen & sixteen.
9.  Write often & keep up with writing log.
10.  Take part in #NaNoWriMo.
11.  Do at least three "Questions from Readers" over the year.
12.  Keep up with contacts in the Indie Author community and make new ones.
13.  Do blog posts once a week. 
14.  Start a monthly booktube channel.
15.  Do five events of my own over the year.

I hope that at this time next year, I will be posting about all the success I've had over the past year. Do you have any goals or resolutions for the coming year? Share them in the comments below. And again, Happy 2016!

#NaNoWriMo Kinda and other news!

For as long as I've been a writer, I've always been drawn to the month of November and the great NaNoWriMo event that goes on through it. I've never taken part, mostly because I can't write that way. I applaud those who do though, and for a while I've thought about doing something to get myself back into writing consistently. So this year, I decided to do my own version of NaNoWriMo: One page of writing each day for the whole of November.

For those unaware, NaNo stands for National Novel Writing Month. The main idea is to write 50K words in a month and therefore finish a novel. Started in 1999 by a small group of people in San Francisco, it has become a massive world-wide yearly event for all kinds of writers. (More History caan be found here.) Even back before I was published, it was still this big thing that a lot of my friends did online and I always wondered if I ever would. Although I have written a novel in ten days (admittedly, it falls below the 50K word count), I have never been able to repeat that endeavour and even then, it was far from finished. Once it went through the battle to get published, editing and all, it was a good four years before I held the book in my hands. I can understand the attraction of dedicating a whole month to nothing more than getting that long thought-out novel onto the page.

My own writing has become somewhat of a career since I became indie in 2011 and went on to add seven more books to the published list. Once I realised that I wasn't going to be able to work a conventional job, it became easier to dedicate time to writing. For a while it was on the back burner because of my degree course, but having held a BA (Hons) for over a year now, I do wonder why I don't spend more time at my desk pounding out the pictures in my head for the books I'm working on. The argument can be made that given I've had three surgeries this year and am looking at a possible fourth, it's understandable that I've not written more. Yet, I still want to push myself. Even on my worst health days, I still use my tablet, and with my nifty desk and bluetooth keyboard I can easily write a page. So, that's my plan for this month.

My hope is that given we're on November 2nd and I've already written five pages and completed a chapter, I won't be coming back to this blog post in a week and telling you all I managed my set chapters and nothing more. My hope is that by pushing myself just a little to write that one page will mean that some days it's all I write and others, I keep going. It's about getting into the flow of writing and the story, something I've not been doing much of lately. We'll see how it goes! Keep track on my Tsu, Facebook and Twitter pages.

I do have some good news for you, Blackout, Lynne & Hope, Waiting On You, and Dying Thoughts book two and three are all now available in paperback! I'm hoping to have the fourth Dying Thoughts book out soon but there were some issues with the cover and my artist is working hard on fixing those now. I hope it will be by the end of the month, but we'll have to wait and see. As for the remaining two books, those are awaiting cover revamps before being released in paperback. Maybe even by the beginning of 2016!

So, here's to a month of writing!

#ICYMI Dying Thoughts - Fourth Week Release & Paperbacks!

#ICYMI Dying Thoughts - Fourth Week is now available on Amazon Kindle (US, UK)! 

Now for an update! I am awaiting the proof copies of six of my books for paperback, and as they're coming from the US, I've been told to expect delivery around the middle of September. Once they get here, I'll be able to look at them and make sure they're just as they should be. Once that's done, I'll be able to release them on Amazon and other stores. It's all rather exciting!

I was also interviewed by two lovely indie authors - Wendy Jones (interview can be found here) and Jan Raymond (interview can her found here) - who both asked interesting questions and were kind enough to host me.

I am working steadily on my current two manuscripts and am also working with my cover designer to get new covers for Dying Thoughts - First Touch and The Friendship Triangle. Once those are done and live, I'll be able to publish those two in paperback as well.

So, busy, busy, but all is well. A new school year has started and with it a new month and I'm already on the third of my normal four monthly chapters, so hopefully this month will have some added bonus ones!

As always, follow the blog or my facebook page to be kept up to date with all the news!

#ICYMI Presenting the new cover for DYING THOUGHTS - SECOND SIGHT.

Hey Readers,

I know, it's been a long time since I did an update. I have got a few other posts already written, but thought I'd do a more personal and general one about news that may have been missed in my writing posts.

Firstly: NEW COVER ART!

Now you may have noticed that over the past year or so, there have been new covers for a few of the the books released before Dying Thoughts - Third Wish. There are a few reasons for this. Firstly, me and my cover artist, B, were no longer happy with the existing covers. Lynne & Hope was the first of the older books to get a revamp, and as you can see up above, Dying Thoughts - Second Sight has just received its new cover too! The other reasoning behind this leads onto my next point...


Secondly: PAPERBACKS!

Now, as you'll all be aware, I always planned to have every book available in both e-format and paperback. It's finally happening this year! I hired a proof-reader to read the first six books and check them for any errors, and once corrected, I have been working upon the paperback covers, uploading the files, checking formatting etc. to make sure that by the time book eight - Dying Thoughts - Fourth Week - is released, I should also be able to release a paperback version of at least three other books. By the end of 2015, ALL eight books should be available in paperback. Once that's all done, I'll plan to release in paperback and e-format at the same time.

Thirdly: COVER REVEAL!

This year, I am planning a cover reveal event for Dying Thoughts - Fourth Week. It's set for the14th August at 12:00 (BST) and will run through live until around 16:00. I am hoping to be able to find three (or more) young adult authors to take over the event for a short thirty minute period, where they can do one of the games I've planned and have ten minutes to talk about anything they wish. If you're interested in doing that, you can email me at bugbooks@virginmedia.com 

Fourthly: DYING THOUGHTS - FOURTH WEEK RELEASE!

It's taken a long time to get the book ready, but I'm pretty sure I now have an actual release day. 18th September will be the day that the fourth Dying Thoughts book is released on Amazon Kindle (and hopefully paperback shortly after). I am planning a big event for that, and will try to keep you all updated as and when I have actual ideas about what it will entail. I am very busily working on making sure the editing is done by the middle of August, so that I can send it off to the proof-reader afterwards and then set it up so that it is ready to be pre-ordered by the end of August!


I'm hopeful that these events will all go along as planned with as few hiccups as possible. I promise to keep you updated, should there be any more developments, so be sure to like my Facebook page or my Tsu, and follow along here to be kept up to date and make sure you don't miss something important!