Archive for Historical Novels
Ebooks are here to stay!
Posted by: | CommentsNow halfway through our 2011 Christmas Craft Show season, I can safely say that ebooks are here to stay … I actually love them myself and who would have thought!!
We are getting so many requests as to whether our books are available on ebooks (they haven’t had time to read our info sheet yet) or they have noticed it and comment that they will definitely be buying them on Kindle, Kobo, Sony, iPad or their Smartphone. So many options now. I’ve also been able to adjust Robert’s thinking that this is a good thing … except for one thing – we have lots of books in the basement to sell so we’re a long way from switching totally to technology!
With so many books and so many readers that live at a distance from us in the Pacific Northwest in British Columbia, this is definitely the way to go. From our sales reports and the cheques coming in, I know how popular eReaders are first hand. If we can get readers to purchase many books instead of just one (due to their meeting us at a local market then not purchasing again due to high shipping costs), we can only be winners.
A fantastic bonus of ebooks is the ability to make the print larger … far easier on the eyes than using a magnifying glass for those with vision issues. I demonstrate my Kobo’s varying font sizes at the shows and people are amazed. I think we should be selling ereaders too!!
The other bonus for us is that our books will be available to an international audience even when we can no longer sell our paper books at markets. Of course, we’ re hoping this day is a long time in the futu
re, but what do we know!
So please pass the word to all your ebook reading friends who love good historical novels, and we thank you 
What is Historical Fiction?
Posted by: | CommentsWe are constantly amazed when people ask, “What is a historical novel? Is it non-fiction?”
The easy/quick reply is: A novel is always fiction, but a historical novel always contains some component of history.”
According to Wikipedia … “Historical fiction tells a story that is set in the past. That setting is usually real and drawn from history, and often contains actual historical persons, but the principal characters tend to be fictional. Writers of stories in this genre, while penning fiction, attempt to capture the manners and social conditions of the persons or time(s) presented in the story, with due attention paid to period detail and fidelity.“
My love of historical fiction began in my mid-20s, then fast-forward 25 years or so to 1990 when I decided to research my family history and discovered my own fascinating links to ‘real history’… Scottish history in particular. This began a new and extremely heightened interest in historical novels, especially those set in the UK and Australia.
I was not to know at the time that in 1998 I would begin a new career as a publisher and that the books I was to publish and later co-author, would be … historical fiction! To date (2011), through our company, Whitlands Publishing, I have published 10 novels for my husband, bestselling author J. Robert Whittle. The first of these was a novel set in London, England during the Napoleonic Wars Lizzie: Lethal Innocence. Lizzie quickly became his first Canadian Bestseller. His fans reacted so loudly to this book, wanting to know what happened to Lizzie next, that it soon had a sequel and another until there were four books (Lizzie Series – shown at left).
Whittle’s fans were instrumental in persuading him to next write yet another historical novel series set in our local area of the Pacific Northwest in Canada and the USA. The first novel was Bound by Loyalty. This series became so popular it exceeded the popularity of the Lizzie Series. This bestselling Victoria Chronicles Trilogy is set in the Pacific Northwest (Canada and USA) and years later, we are still having to reprint due to its popularity.
Family Novels by J. Robert Whittle
Posted by: | CommentsI seem to have been forgetting that my focus here is to sell books, so this post is for you if you haven’t discovered our fabulous books, which are amazingly read by all ages. Now, you might say that is a rather unique idea … novels that can be read by old and young alike, when did that last happen
? Well, there once were the classics which are making a comeback due to ebooks. I think our series will be classics one day, especially Lizzie.
A few years ago the idea caught on again and someone came up with the unique slogan “family-friendly” books and movies. We were ahead of our time we found, but we made a success of it beginning in 1998. We have 3 Canadian Bestsellers and 2 Gold-Medal IPPY winners and many thousands of copies/per book (paper) sales to show for it.
Our novels keep almost everyone entranced save for a few people who require blood to be running in the street and children being molested to keep their interest. The oldies (parents/teachers and older) are extremely happy with our stories as they have NO sex, NO gratuitous violence and NO swearing (in Victoria Chronicles); only 1800′s-style sailors’ cursing in Lizzie Series, and certainly no horrid ‘modern’ cursing in any of them.
My husband has a remarkable imagination but he doesn’t swear so why should he add it to his books? (My first husband only cursed when he watched hockey on TV but this husband doesn’t watch much hockey, thank goodness! I warned him I would divorce him if he did!!) He comes from a family of 10 kids and he was the oldest guy. So, for the record, Robert also hates hearing news of terrible things happening to kids, hence he doesn’t write in that style either.
You just have to experience one of his books to see how great they are (that’s what our fans say in their reviews) … and they are now available as ebooks, so no excuse not to be able to find them or afford them anymore!!
A New Beginning
Posted by: | CommentsWelcome to my newly formatted website … now a blog. I will have some fun putting this together as time goes by but for now we are under construction as I learn how to put things where I want them.
I have several other blogs but this is the first fancy one which I can dress up (format) to my heart’s content! I’ll introduce you to some of the other things we do in our spare?? time and what I/we did in the past. As always, however, I must remember that I am actually working because this is all so much fun for me I sometimes forget the working aspect!
So I’ll just remind you that our main website is still BestSellingBooks.ca aka JRobertWhittle.com
This is where you will find all 10 of my talented and handsome husband, J Robert Whittle’s amazingly popular books which remain my focus and will for many years to come. Many of our novels are set in the area where we live – Victoria, BC and the beautiful Pacific Northwest. Robert still sells the books at Bastion Square and I am still publishing, producing and looking after the websites.
From the time we started writing/publishing books in 1998, our original website morphed into different things and finally ended up as our Indie-Publishing Blog Of Books, Marketing and Self-Promotion Blog with tips and links for self-publishers (the old terminology). I will eventually incorporate that blog into this one as I rarely have time to post there anymore, but that’s in the future.
If you don’t know about our books these bestselling (3) and award-winning (2) novels are the product of my husband J. Robert Whittle‘s amazing imagination and natural talent which we fortunately discovered in 1995. The books are only available through our website, craft shows and craft markets in British Columbia, Canada and a few select local bookstores in Victoria, BC and Vancouver Island. Phone calls are also welcomed (250-477-0192) and we encourage local residents or visitors to phone us and make arrangement to either pick up books (save shipping charges) or we will deliver for a much smaller fee.
To find out more about us, how I met Robert (his Bio) and why we do what we do, read both our biographies. When I published the first of our books in Dec. 1998, weren’t we surprised when people wanted more!
