Without Reproach by Anthony James Barnett

Published by: Libros International

Genre: Fiction

Price: £7.99 ISBN: 978-1905-9882-59

WHAT IS YOUR BOOK ABOUT? Hi June, WITHOUT REPROACH started life as a mystery. Jenny, a young English woman, inherits a share in a hacienda and riding school from a Spanish artist. The only trouble is she has never heard of the guy, never been there and is not related to him. On her first visit to the hacienda, she is horrified to find a painting of herself in the nude. The story hinges on her ordeal of finding what has gone on and why, and of fighting off the other beneficiary who wants the hacienda for himself.

Although I wrote the book as a mystery, the media made meat out of it by calling it a 'Steamy Novel by Local Grandfather' http://www.euroweeklynews.com/news/5952.html and it has been categorized under romance with Amazon, so what do I know? There is 'steam' in it, but it happened, rather like life, because of the circumstance, not because of contrivance.

WHY DID YOU WRITE THE BOOK? Wow, a good question. Why does anyone write anything? Since 1994 my short stories have been published in magazines, summer specials, international competitions and broadcast on radio. Maybe I thought it was time to branch out.

WHERE DID YOU GET YOUR INSPIRATION? I had a glimmer of an idea when someone in the newspaper was reported as inheriting money quite unexpectedly, and I wondered what would happen if things were more mysterious.

HOW DOES YOUR BOOK DIFFER FROM OTHERS THAT ARE SIMILAR? Well .. I now live in Spain, and am familiar with the places I've written about .. But, perhaps playing on the media response, I'm a grandfather of eight who's written a 'Steamy Novel'. Wrinklies aren't supposed to know about sex are they?

WHY DID YOU CHOOSE POD? I didn't. The publisher accepted me, and they happen to have chosen POD as the means of printing.

WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF THIS PRINTING METHOD? The advantage is books don't sit gathering dust. They're printed as and when required and don't need a substantial investment to get under way. However the book isn't in the public's face, they can't pick it up and browse, so it can be a big disadvantage. Realistically though, the chance of having a début novel on bookshelves is very remote so maybe it isn't such a disadvantage after all. The unit price is certainly higher, so that works against POD.

HOW DID YOU MARKET YOUR BOOK? There has been no publicity budget, but my publisher has placed it in every major on-line store in the world and others seem to have 'jumped on the bandwagon'. I've been amazed to see WITHOUT REPROACH in places such as Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Japan, China, France, Sweden, Germany, Italy, USA, Canada, and of course the UK.

WHAT WAS THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE YOU HAD TO OVERCOME? I think publicity was, and still is the biggest challenge. I thought writing the book was all an author had to do. Wrong! Unless you're a big name, you have to "sell" yourself and your book to the world. If you don't, your book won't move. You have to be very active.

WHERE CAN I GET A COPY OF YOUR BOOK? Crikey, June, I've seen it on so many different sites it's impossible to include them all. Here's a selection:-Amazon USA Amazon UK Kalahari S/A Seekbooks Aus The best thing for me was a couple of weeks ago whilst idly checking the sites. I came across Amazon Canada and found WITHOUT REPROACH had hit the Best Seller list for some reason. It made number 56, which for me was incredible. It only lasted for ONE DAY but it had been there. I have no idea how or why, and it will probably never sell another one in Canada, but I love them for it. I just wish it could have stayed.