Access Denied nominated for 2017 Readers Choice Awards

Posted on 20, November, 2017 by David E. Gates

I’m so excited because my book was just nominated for the 2017 Readers Choice Awards! Please vote for it at www.tckpublishing.com/readers-choice-voting. It’s on page 6 – click on the book title to vote!

The title that gets the most votes wins so please take just a moment to vote for it.

When you’ve nothing left to lose, what else can you give?
The incredible true story of a lie, love and loss.

If the measure of a good book is its afterburn, Access Denied is a great book.

Thought-provoking, honest, extraordinary, revealing. A true story of a discovered lie and the fallout that followed. A damning indictment of the Child Support Agency and Family Courts.

A quite extraordinary true story.

“Thought provoking but brilliant read.” – Vanessa
“I couldn’t put it down!” – Lisa Roberts (CSA Rip-offs Support Group)
“A well told, quite extraordinary true story that stays with you.” – Jane Austin
“Amazingly jaw dropping story!” – Linda Conlon
“Captivating Story.” – Lanre Oke

Available at all good online bookstores including Amazon and Smashwords

My poem, The Magic of Mushrooms, wins runner-up!

Posted on 10, November, 2017 by David E. Gates

My entry to the Grow Wild competition, a poem about fungi, was selected as a runner-up!

You can read it at here.

https://www.canva.com/design/DACaXHnBJww/svFxtkUgeGrOojSGlWLDMg/view?website#page=7

The poem itself will be included in my next anthology of short-stories and poems to be released next year. My current anthology, First Words, is available at all good online bookstores.

The Wretched makes the semi-finals!

Posted on 2, November, 2017 by David E. Gates

My horror novel, set in Portsmouth, called The Wretched, has made it to the semi-finals of the AuthorsDB 2017 Cover Contest!

I still need more votes to get it to the finals… please vote HERE

To BUY, you can find it in Paperback here on Amazon and in all eBook formats at Smashwords and all other good online bookstores.

David E. Gates to appear at Chandler’s Ford Book Fair on 28th October 2017

Posted on 14, October, 2017 by David E. Gates

I’ll be attending the Chandler’s Ford Book Fair on 28th October 2017, promoting my work and selling my books. Come along and meet me and say “hi”. There will also be FREE GIFTS for those that make a purchase. Look forward to seeing you there.

For more details, go to https://www.facebook.com/chfordlives/

Your HORROR Novel has been voted best to read on the Novel Festival site!

Posted on 17, September, 2017 by David E. Gates

Have just received the news that my horror novel, The Roots of Evil, has been voted best to read on the Novel Festival site!

https://novelwritingfestival.com/2017/09/16/best-of-horror-gothic-novels/

I am so amazed that my first horror novel has been recognised in this way. I feel truly humbled but very, very proud.

You can buy The Roots of Evil by David E. Gates in paperback and eBook formats from all good bookstores.

Festival for Poetry publishes my poem, “Vape Away”!

Posted on 10, September, 2017 by David E. Gates

Festival for Poetry promoted my poem on their social networks and will make sure it’s read right away by 100s of people.

“Terrific poem.” They said.

You can read it here.

A selection of poetry, short-stories, scripts and other works is available in First Words by David E. Gates. It’s available in all eBook formats from Smashwords and Paperback from Amazon and other bookstores.

Access Denied – Reduced Price for eBook

Posted on 20, August, 2017 by David E. Gates

“I haven’t reacted to a book like this since reading To Kill A Mockingbird.” – Simon Arnold.

For a very limited time, my first book, Access Denied is available at a very reduced price of $0.99 from SmashWords. Normally $3.99, this is a chance to get the Number 1 Bestseller by David E. Gates for less than a dollar! Available in all electronic formats from:

Buy Access Denied

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/589941

When you’ve nothing left to lose, what else can you give?

The incredible true story of a discovered lie and the fallout that followed.

If the measure of a good book is it’s after burn, Access Denied is a great book. Thought-provoking, honest, extraordinary, revealing. A damning indictment of the Child Support Agency and Family Courts.

With 100% positive reviews, this is a must-read book!

“Thought provoking but brilliant read.” – Vanessa

“I couldn’t put it down!” – Lisa Roberts (CSA Rip-offs Support Group)

“A well told, quite extraordinary true story that stays with you.” – Jane Austin

“Amazingly jaw dropping story!” – Linda Conlon

“Captivating Story.” – Lanre Oke

Please leave a review after reading. Thank you.

Amazon search goes from bad to worse.

Posted on 10, August, 2017 by David E. Gates

You may recall I previously wrote about how god-awful Amazon’s search is. I wrote here about how it doesn’t find “David E. Gates” and here about how it associated works by another author on my audiobook page to me.

If you want an indication of how crap Amazon search is, try this: Pink, the female rock/pop artist, has a new song out today called “What About Us”. However, you wouldn’t know that from a search on Amazon:

Not one result for the artist’s new single! I have written to Amazon, several times, about this because it is beyond absurd. They’ve done nothing in the months since I highlighted the issue to them. They say they can’t change it but it’s clear they can because they changed it earlier this year and made it worse than it once was.

Amazon – are you listening?

Audible says I wrote these books! But I didn’t!!

Posted on 26, June, 2017 by David E. Gates

You may recall that, back in May, I wrote about Amazon’s god-awful search engine issues which would not reveal any of my books despite putting “David E. Gates” in full in their search windows.

Now, it seems, Audible have a similar, but strikingly WORSE issue. If you look up my audiobook, Access Denied, it shows “More from the same Author” beneath my book, detailing a number of works relating to religion by an author called “David Gates”:

Now, ordinarily I’d welcome any additional cross-referencing and exposure I could get. But, in this case – because I’m an atheist – I don’t want to be associated with any religious works.

I contacted ACX, the people “behind” Audible and they gave me the following response:

“The “More from the Same” section on the Audible
website is an Audible feature for which we have little information or
insight. From what we’ve been told, the results in the “More from the Same”
section are related to a smart search function and relates products based on
keywords and other factors. If someone has the same name as you, you will
most likely find their works listed as well. Similarly, this other
individual will have your product showing on their book page which will give
you additional exposure as their listeners will discover your content as
well.
Since this is a smart search type of function it is an automatic
process that cannot be manually manipulated. Unfortunately neither ACX nor
Audible have the ability to manually add or remove products to the ‘More
from the Same’ section. We have expressed concerns to Audible regarding this
search functionality and hope to see this addressed and improved.”

I wasn’t happy with this. It’s not exactly a “smart” search if it reveals the wrong items is it? I requested the issue to be escalated. After some to-and-fro where I was given a number in the USA to call (which would have been prohibitively expensive) because the presumption was I was in the states, they directed me to Audible who, in turn, re-directed me BACK to ACX. I finally got an answer which indicated they hadn’t even bothered to read my original complaint! They said:

“To be honest, I didn’t see the initial issue that you presented to us until
you requested that someone assist you. I looked back and found that you are
trying to find somebody to fix what shows in the “More From the Same Author”
section of your title profile. There isn’t anybody that you can speak to to
have this section corrected. I reached out to Audible’s metadata team to see if this could be corrected.
Unfortunately, Audible’s metadata team let me know that they don’t have
control over the “More From The Same” section. It’s a website issue that
they hope to fix down the line. Currently the “More From The Same” section
is controlled by a general search. The algorithm will try to determine the
best matching titles based on that search. It’s possible that the algorithm
will choose to display only one entry, whereas sometimes the search will
yield two or three entries. It will also choose names that are similar. This
is all at random.”

I wrote back to them stating that their suggestion that I wrote those books was libelous and potentially damaging to my reputation. The response was unreal:

“My name is Jemal, ACX Support Supervisor. I appreciate your patience as I researched your escalated concerns related to the ‘More from the same’ feature on our site. I reached out to the appropriate department internally and I was informed that the ‘More from the same’ search feature is a code that cannot currently be manipulated to change the options associated with your name, unless your name changes (i.e. David E.G., D.E. Gates). You also have an option to go by a pseudonym if you feel that your reputation is at risk.”

So, because they won’t fix their search, the best suggestion they come up with is that I should change my name? Utterly ridiculous! Would they suggest Stephen King change his name? Of course not. They’d fix it pretty quickly I’d imagine! My response bore my frustration:

“That is an absolutely ridiculous suggestion. As is the suggestion that you cannot manipulate the code so it reflects the actual author of the book rather than a random search. I work in IT and know that any code can be manipulated or changed. I would suggest you escalate this further to your developers.

My name is my brand and I shouldn’t have to change it because your crappy system cannot work out the difference between the actual author and one found through a search of similar words.

Maybe you can change the words “more from this author” to “more from authors with similar names?”

Either way it’s farcical. Imagine if you wrote a book and created an audiobook from it and then somebody with a similar name created an audiobook about something you found extremely distasteful and that was suggested as one of your titles? How would you feel given the days and hours you invested in creating the book and the audiobook only to find that it was cross-referenced with something entirely inappropriate?

No other company has such a woeful return of results as is demonstrated by Amazon’s search algorithm. As I said previously Apple and Smashwords get it right every single time. So should you.”

I’ve been informed that this has been re-escalated, but I don’t hold out much hope. It’s a shame because previously ACX/Audible have been fantastic in their customer support.

I’ll keep you posted though I doubt anything will be done – it hasn’t with the Amazon search issue despite me writing to the Managing Director.

Another poem selected for The Poetry Festival!

Posted on 6, June, 2017 by David E. Gates

Another of my poems, called “Outrunning The Rain” has been selected for The Poetry Festival.

The organisers said “Terrific poem. We just promoted your poem on our social networks and will make sure it’s read right away by 100s of people.”

Outrunning The Rain is a very personal acknowledgement of the feelings I have felt when at my lowest point and the way I try and deal with them.

My previous poem, Terminators, appeared on the site earlier this year and was also published at the Wildsound Festival Review and has been promoted at the Best of APRIL 2017 NEW poetry of POEMS from around the world.

Outrunning The Rain will be featured in an upcoming collection of short-stories and poetry by David E. Gates.

David’s previous collection, First Words, is a unique collection of more than 40 previously unpublished poems, short-stories, scripts and film reviews and is available in paperback and eBook formats from all good online bookstores.

	David E. Gates on “You’re Next…
	Elena Cole on “You’re Next…
	Kymber Hawke on Review: Alien: Romulus
	David E. Gates on Review: Alien: Romulus
	Kymber Hawke on Review: Alien: Romulus

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