The award-winning original "stray" is back with his new book, a series of short stories
I thought I'd planned out the marketing campaign, website redesign, and everything else with military precision. I had, but someone else doing their job to perfection, did speed things up somewhat. A huge thanks to KDP. An hour after hitting the publish button, the ebook was live with the hardback and paperback following very shortly afterwards.
It's very rare for things to run so smoothly, but KDP were superb in November with "It's A Stray Dog's Life 2", and outdid themselves this time.
It's been a fun book to put together, all caused by me sitting in a coffee shop in Turkiye. A man was walking around the coffee shop clearly not realising someone else spoke English. His persistent, "Just get on the plane with the diamonds", played straight to the writing part of my brain. Whether he was up to no good or not, we'll never know.
That brief moment, set me on a course of writing a series of short stories purely based on what was on my mind on a given day. It's why you'll go through a series of genres. Some will make you laugh, some cry, and, hopefully, some will make you think.
I also designed the cover. It would look even better, but I couldn't afford a good looking model, so you'll have to put up with me on it instead.
You can buy the book in hardback, paperback, and ebook from Amazon. It will be in other bookshops over time, but it always takes a little while for everything to filter down.
I'm also lucky enough to have been sent a photo of one of the first deliveries of the book. It's really very emotional seeing the book out in the wild as it were. Thank you so much for sending it and making me smile a lot.
I still have a little work to do, such as the website redesign, which forms my next job. There's also a lot more writing coming soon, and a few surprises as I team up with some exciting partners over the next few months to bring you some really cool ways of interacting and opportunities to get your hands on exclusive material.
You can also see some of the videos on the Maximilian Sam YouTube channel (just click the icon at the bottom of the page).
The Stray Army Shop
One partnership I'm extremely happy with is our new merchandise shop. Spreadshirt has been amazing in taking the designs are providing a whole range of merchandise. There'll be more coming too, so keep your eyes peeled for everything from posters to t-shirts, from mugs to dog bandanas. I know the merchandise is good with good delivery as a friend sent this lovely picture of their first order.
More Work To Do
It's time to go and walk the dogs and then get back to doing some writing. Many of you will have seen a few articles I've done on Watford Football Club for the DNSYE Podcast. They've been superb to work with and there'll be more articles coming soon. So give them a follow on social media (Twitter: @DNSYE_podcast). They really are very very amusing.
I'll leave you with a little anecdote from the week and why i think I've found the perfect stray dog. Mum and Dad decided they needed a long walk. The shops they needed are about 2 miles away. Hiking there and getting the bus back seemed like a good idea. It was until Tinker decided she was coming too. She walked all the way there with them. She never went near the road or caused any problems. She didn't even have a lead. It made coming back on the bus impossible, so Dad walked back with her. She did take a break to go for a dip in the sea, but was as good as gold on the way back too. She seems to have the best traits of every dog I've known all rolled into one. A truly special dog.
See you all next time,
MaxS and The Stray Army
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