There, I did it. I didn’t expect to submit anything so soon, so early but I went and did it anyway. Anybody who follows my Facebook Page will have seen my announcement midweek, but I wanted to save writing a full blog post about it for the weekend. After getting positive feedback from three beta readers (who I specifically asked to tear to shreds if warranted) found little to complain about.

Typically feedback centred on words such as “entertaining”, “funny”, “amusing”, “absorbing” and other similar words I dearly loved to hear. They liked the mystery, the comedy and the historical elements which blend together well.

Naturally, they found some typos, grammatical mistakes and minor continuity errors but that is to be expected in a 70,000-word novel. Buoyed on by this, I submitted the manuscript to Unbound. What is Unbound? I featured it several years ago as a site of the week and it hasn’t changed since then.

A reader submits a manuscript (or an outline if the work is incomplete) including details about the book – its genre, a blurb, an elevator pitch (a single line description). It is then judged by the people at the site as to whether it would be acceptable for submission. If they think the idea would sell, it goes onto the site. That’s when the hard work begins.

It is the job of the writer at this point to crowdfund for publication to pay for the title to get a digital, paperback or hardback release onto the market. In your brief, you are required to explain what steps you will take to raise funds for your book.

I am both nervous and excited at the same time. I would be over the moon if it’s accepted. If it’s not, I will choose many other routes to get Salmonweird published. This is just the first that I felt might be worth taking a shot.

What is Salmonweird About?

This will probably not be my final blurb (it’s a bit long to go on the back of a book) but it does give the essence of the story.

DI Karl Blackman thought his retirement to the sleepy Cornish village of Salmonweir would be as uneventful as his career as a detective in Cambridge.

No chance!

He is there less than a year when ghosts start appearing in the village, forcing out the human residents. A medieval monk, a Civil War era preacher and the village’s most famous son – a pirate captain by the name of Hook Hand Harry are amongst the first. To top that, we also have the world’s worst Elizabethan poet and a 19-year-old girl who has become a little too attached to the 21st century living for her father’s liking. These are just some of the colourful characters now populating the village of the un-alive, or “Salmonweird” as the tabloid press choose to call it.

But soon, Karl has a case to solve – somebody is murdering the long-dead residents of Salmonweir. How is this even possible and why would they even want to? Are there clues in their individual histories that they are keeping quiet from DI Blackman that might point to something darker?

More information as and when I get it, bit I don’t expect to hear from Unbound for at least the next six weeks. In the meantime, I intend to work on both Dead Lock and Children of Phobetor (Romans vs Aliens).