A number of weeks ago I promised to discuss how I was going to market my new scifi book, Battleframe, as a case study for any online business. To make it a little harder I’ve decided to not spend any cash on advertising other than from what my book brings in….this will mean that I’ll need to do some creative thinking.

Friends and Family
When launching any new business the first port of call is to sell your product or service to friends and family. Some people feel a little guilty about doing this but I personally believe that if you’re part of a family then you need to support one another.

For example, my brother launched a wine importation business and I was one of his first online customers. So in launching Battleframe I contacted my family and hit them up to buy my book!

Wider Business Contacts

Each one of us has developed a network of colleagues that are just looking for an excuse to help you out. When you’re launching a new business or product this is the group that will cheer you on and often provide some very sage advice.

One of the great things about the Internet and the domain industry is that over the last fifteen years I’ve developed a huge network of friends all over the world. I count them as friends because I would like to think that our relationships have transcended just business.

So what have I done so far? I’ve let everyone that pays attention to my linkedin, facebook, google+, twitter and my blog know that I’ve just written a science fiction book. The result is a lot of congratulations combined with some sales.

I must admit that the flood of good will towards me has been really humbling. I would really like to thank everyone for their good wishes. Thank you, thank you and thank you yet again!

  After nearly 2 years of writing, rewriting and correcting I’ve finally published my debut science fiction book, Battleframe. It was an incredible experience clicking a button and then a few minutes later seeing it appear on Amazon! It was almost like Sheldon and Leonard in the sitcom “Big Bang Theory” when they published a paper together!

For all of you that have been wondering what the book is about here is the synopsis.

Battleframe

Resource rich planet Alpha Three becomes the focus of a galactic wide conflict. In the midst of a remorseless Scourge invasion a lone human battleframe pilot, call-sign Whizzbang, strives to find and rescue his closest friend from the invaders.

With the extermination of the human colony seemingly inevitable, Whizzbang's squad of veteran pilots struggle to turn the tide of the war. Just when he thinks they may have a chance, members of the squad begin vanishing before his eyes and the odds of winning the battle become slim to none.

The mysterious nano-robots, unknowingly developed by an alien intelligence, appear to be all that will enable humanity to survive the onslaught. But all is not what it seems as the micro-machines begin to dramatically transform Whizzbang's friends in astounding ways.

Safe within his command dome, the enemy General plots on how he can cover the world in the enigmatic Barrier, a force that kills humans in seconds. It is then that Whizzbang discovers that the Earth may be the next Scourge target.

Book one in the “Mindwars” opens with our galaxy in turmoil and humanity on the brink of extinction.

The plot is fast paced, has lots of action and the novel has a number of twists and turns that I hope really keeps the reader’s attention. I couldn’t resist using the call-sign of “Whizzbang” in the book!

I must admit that there is a certain amount of trepidation in releasing something that you’ve been working on for a long time. If you don’t like it then please go easy on any hate comments…..but if you do like it then cheer me on to release book two as soon as possible! A great comment on Amazon would be awesome as well :-)

I’m also releasing a lot more free content on my website at http://michaelgilmour.com for registered users. So far, I’ve added a map of the world plus a floorplan of a key location. You can also get access to the forum area to ask questions about characters, the plot, setting etc.

Battleframe is available in both ebook and paperback formats. Feel free to click here to purchase a copy. Don't forget to tell your friends about it as well :-)

I want to take a moment to thank all my friends from around the world that have inspired me to keep on writing. If it wasn’t for you and your kind thoughts then I’m not sure if I would ever have completed Battleframe. So thank you one and all.

I would also like to publicly acknowledge the tireless work of my team of beta-readers/editors. They are Roselyn (wife), Timothy (my son), Ray (father) and Laci (best friend). They made suggestions to improve the characters, tightened the plot and made the world of Alpha Three an exciting place to visit. More than that….they fixed a lot of my Engrish. ;-)

I hope that you enjoy reading Battleframe as much as I did writing it.

Cheers!

I’ve finally completed the final rewrite of my debut science fiction book, Battleframe, in the Mindwars series. I’ve paid an editor to read the manuscript and mark any obvious errors. This should be completed later this week.......so hopefully it won't be long until I have my finished manuscript ready for publishing. Hooray!!!

My wife, Roselyn, happening to be sitting next to me at the time I and I turned to her and said, “It’s finally done.” I don’t know who was more relieved, her or me!

It’s been a twenty month journey getting to this stage and it seems that the last 10% of the book has been the hardest and most time consuming to complete. For those of you that are wondering, Battleframe is around 110,000 words....it's a decent size.

So what has to happen now? After the editor comes back with any fixes (hopefully not too many) I’ll use a standard paperback template provided by Create Space (an Amazon company). I’ve already purchased my ISBN numbers so I’ll add them to the document for the electronic and the paperback version of the book.

I just have to clean up my biography, rework the blurb on the back and ensure that the artwork is good to go for the cover. I think that there will only be a few tweaks here and there for these items.

Once the book is actually published I need to update my Amazon author profile, website (michaelgilmour.com) and let everyone know that it’s available. I have a very modest marketing campaign ready to go and with any luck I’ll get a few positive reviews.

OK, here is the shameless plug…..I would like to encourage everyone to please sign-up to michaelgilmour.com and participate in the forum. You can ask questions about me, the book, characters, plot or just about anything! The more the merrier. I’m also making available restricted content of maps, diagram and sneak previews for anyone that signs-up.

Fingers crossed that the editor won’t be too horrible to the manuscript. Cheers!

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Michael Gilmour has been in business for over 32 years and has both a BSC in Electronics and Computer Science and an MBA. He was the former vice-chairman of the Internet Industry Association in Australia and is in demand as a speaker at Internet conferences the world over. Michael is passionate about working with online entrepreneurs to help them navigate their new ventures around the many pitfalls that all businesses face.