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Apple iPhone / iPad users - Can you help? (Ether Halloween contest)

edited October 2012 in - Resources
Hello, any iPad / iPhone users out there!

I'm hoping some of you will help me with my story, Hotel Subterraneana, which is one of the pieces in the Ether Books Halloween Contest. This isn't a judged competition - the winner is determined by the number of downloads each story gets.

The Ether Books app is available free from iTunes, and the individual stories are free as well. So all it will cost you is a few moments downloading the app and finding my story in the "Halloween Contest" section. And in return, you'll have my undying gratitude!

The story itself is more in the sort of "Twilight Zone" mould than gory horror or ghost story. It came second in the monthly Writers' Forum competition a year or so ago, so it has some 'pedigree'.

Here's my home-made promo poster for the story:

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/A5_dhoyCQAEqNcu.jpg


If you don't have an iPhone / iPad, but you know somebody who does and who'd like a free Halloween story (or as many as 60!), please pass this on.

Thank you.

Comments

  • No takers? I hope I've not crossed any lines by posting this. Apologies if I have.
  • I'll happily download this tomorrow, once I've sussed out how to do it. :) One of my favourites in your anthology, so no lines crossed for me!
  • Thanks, Debby. Much appreciated! I was just a little concerned as it's been a long time since I've posted anything that's got absolutely no response. Always a bit alarming.

    I tried downloading the app and story yesterday on a friend's iPad and it was all pretty straightforward. Good luck and thanks again.


    If anybody is interested in this story, but wants to know a little more, here are a couple of extracts from what Sue Moorcroft said in her "Competition Round-Up" column in Writers' Forum when it came second in their monthly competition:

    "Hotel Subterraneana is a particularly good example, with lively writing and some admirable descriptive passages towards the end, which really drew me in."

    "Dan has given us a masterclass on how to make description leap from his imagination to that of the reader."


    *puts Own Trumpet back in its case, promises not to blow it again for a long time*
  • Good luck with it.
    I stick with a simple phone that doesn't do all these exotic things...
  • Downloaded last night. Good luck!
  • Thanks, Carol. I must admit I'd got to the point where I thought almost everybody owned an iPhone except me. This competition has revealed that's far from being the case.

    Thanks again, Debby. I owe you one!
  • danfango - what is really interesting is that at www.alfiedog.com we sell the stories in three formats (one being epub - suited to Apple products) and it is hte epub that sells the least.
  • I'd love to know if that is true right across the market, Mutley. Having played about with my friend's iPad I found it very impressive but perhaps too heavy for sustained reading - it's like holding a large hardback book. It was one of the original iPads, and I believe newer models are lighter, but I think the Kindle or one of its ilk would still be what I'd go for if paper books became a lot harder to get hold of.
  • I didn't see this thread before, Dan. I'll ask my OH if he'd be willing to download it - but it's not a genre he normally reads.
    Love the cover by the way - and good luck with the competition.

    (I hate these comps that rely on the 'public' - it seems so dependent on whether you've got enough friends willing to vote for you rather than the quality of the writing. I've just entered one myself, sort of against my better judgement... sigh) :)
  • Hi, Claudia. If your other half would be prepared to download the story, that would be great. The way the competition works, I don't actually need anybody to read it - it's just the downloads that count. This for me is the biggest flaw in the contest; it would be great to think the best story would win, even if it still relied on a public vote. But then, who's to say what the 'best' story is?

    For me, this contest is an experiment into promoting an individual story in a new (for me) medium. The story has proved itself by winning a prize at Writers' Forum, so I'm happy that I'm promoting something with some worth. I haven't set my heart on winning, but if I can get a decent number of downloads without annoying anybody too much I'll be satisfied.


    So far it's been interesting to note that Facebook has generated the most interest in the story, with writing sites second and almost nothing from Twitter. At the beginning of the year I ran a competition to promote my anthology - it needed people to look at the contents page on Amazon and solve a sort of code - and the situation was the other way around. I got loads of entries via Twitter (and lots of new followers), a little bit of interest from writing sites, and zilch from Facebook. I'm sure there is a different dynamic at work in each of the various social networks, and this kind of exercise is a useful tool in trying to understand them.
  • I've downloaded it and intend to read it!
  • Thank you, BG - I hope you enjoy it!

    I've just found out I'm currently 2nd on the leaderboard, so a huge thank you to everyone who's downloaded it so far.
  • Today's leaderboard has been published and I'm still clinging on to that Number Two spot - thank you very much to everybody who's downloaded the story!

    If I was further down the list I would probably give up at this point, but as I'm so close I've got a bit obsessed about it. It's now a point of honour, too - the story that's been at the top of the list since the very start of the contest is (according to the synopsis) about "barrying people alive". Barrying?

    So c'mon, folks - download Hotel Subterraneana and share the scare!
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