You can preorder The Shetland Witch now

It will be an ebook and a paperback ...

Good news for faithful readers! The Shetland Witch has done so well in Substack that I’ve decided to go to print. I’ve been working with Jane Cornwell, a Scottish designer and illustrator I’ve worked with before, and she has done a lovely cover for The Shetland Witch. I’m waiting for final checks on Shetland dialect to be completed, and then Jane will set the text in layout and I will fuss about with proof files.

This will be a self-published book, but as I am a publisher by trade I hope I know what I’m doing. The Peachfield Press is my self-publishing trading name, so look at the new website for information.

Although I am naturally more inclined to print with a trusted bricks and mortar printer, at the moment I can’t afford to do that, so I’ll be using Amazon KDP as an all-in-one print and ebook supplier and distributor. The Shetland Witch is now available for preorder on Amazon as an ebook: rush to place your order here!

The link for the paperback of The Shetland Witch will be posted in late July. Both versions of the novel will be published and released on 9th September 2024.

And, excitingly for non-paying subscribers, the two Shetland Witch novellas, In Achaea and Mrs Sinclair and the Haa, which until now have only been available to paying subscribers, will be published together on 9th September as a separate volume. I’ll be posting the links for both the ebook and paperback for those in August.

If you signed up as a paying subscriber before 31st May 2024 I’ll be sending you a free copy of the paperback The Shetland Witch as part of your subscription. You’ll get a separate post about that later on.

That’s the businesslike bit done.

It would be very American to say that I’m wildly excited about this. I’m not American, I don’t emote like that. But I AM pleased, and relieved, and quietly happy that I’m doing this myself. I feel validated as a writer that hundreds of readers are enjoying reading the The Shetland Witch. I have no idea how many of you will actually pay to buy the ebook or paperback: that’s my risk. But I think it’s worth a try.

You can help me with the marketing: if you know a reviewer or book blogger who could be interested in reviewing The Shetland Witch, send me their contact details and I’ll send them an advance information sheet. If you’re a bookseller and want to stock the paperback, let me know.

I intend to continue releasing all the novel’s episodes until it ends, which will probably be sometime in mid-2025.

Until the next time!