Kindle battles

I learned more about working with html and Kindle over the weekend, and should now have enough information to complete the Kindle conversion of ROSELLI’S GOLD. I’m quite keen to get this one out on Amazon because readers will now begin to look at their Christmas reading plans, and hopefully they will include my work. I’ve edited the keywords and tags on my three PODs on Amazon. According to a very helpful blog post I was pointed to last week, there is a way of directing potential customers on to your books by clever use of the tags and keywords. It’s all very much of a learning curve for me, but hopefully as time goes by I will see some real benefits.
I have a moan though about Amazon’s pricing. I reduced the Kindle version of A COVERT WAR to 99 cents in USA, and 85p in UK. But when I log on to Amazon’s page, it is shown as $3.45. I found out that it is because I live in Spain and my IP address is read my Amazon’s software meaning that I can’t purchase the Kindle at the low price. Something to do with income tax. What twaddle!
Had a surprise last week: an old, Merchant Navy colleague contacted me through my web page. Just to say hallo really. I had seen his name on a web page that had a history of the ship I was on, the Chusan. Saw his name there and added a comment. Once we paid off from the ship in 1959, we never saw each other again. He lived at Ongar, and Pat and I went to see him during one of my shore leaves.
Weather’s great here at the moment, but no sunbathing for me; I’ll be busy working on ROSELLI’S GOLD. Wish me luck!

Getting it right

Yesterday was a fairly busy day for me, what with church business, shopping and a long attempt at producing a Kindle version of my novel, ROSELLI’S GOLD. I achieved some kind of result, but not good enough to release it on Amazon. Thankfully I have some knowledgeable friends at www.acclaimedbboks.com who were happy to come to my rescue, and now I have enough information to feel confident about producing a satisfactory Kindle version. It’s an undeniable fact that a lot of Kindle books are produced badly, with no attention to detail at all. I have seen this even in Kindle versions of top authors’ novels. I believe that any writer who values his or her product must have the last view, as it were, before the book goes into production. Any mistakes are therefore down to the writer and not the production team (or software programme used in e-book publishing). I had to withdraw my last Kindle book, A COVERT WAR because of a technical problem that was down to me because I had let the file go to Amazon without checking it. In the end I had to do the conversion myself before I could let it go back on sale. That took a lot of time and trouble because I had never worked with html codes before.
I’m thinking of putting ROSELLI’S GOLD on Goodreads giveaway, but with my book I will include a best seller. This way, if I give away three books, I will have to purchase three best sellers (all different) to go with mine. The result would be seen on Amazon as two books purchased together. Hopefully this will persuade any potential buyers of said best sellers to consider my book as well. It’s called ‘slipstream marketing’. I just hope it works because it will cost me a few bob. Wish me luck!

Time to Kindle

Spent some time over the weekend learning how to convert a Word document into an HTML for conversion to Kindle. I used a three page short story and managed it after about three attempts. Later today I hope to begin on ROSELLI’S GOLD and successfully convert that. Once it’s done, I’ll send it to Acclaimed Books who will forward it to Amazon. The paperback version is now available on Amazon.com, and should soon be available in UK.
As it’s only about eight weeks to Christmas, I need to think about a campaign so I can persuade book readers to buy my novel as a present for themselves or their friends and families. I don’t need telling that promotion and marketing needs money: a lot of it. So mine has to be low profile and aimed at waking up the reading public to the potential in my work. I’ll probably start hitting the sweet spot this time next year!
My other diversions this weekend have included a swimming pool pump, which seemed determined to cause me problems and money. I think I have finally cracked it, and at the moment the pump is cooperating. I have also had problems with our alarm system at church, and today had to order a particular battery for it. It’s just another diversion away from what I really want to do, and that is to write. And read. And watch a bit of TV.
But back to the present and my blog. I’ll be posting this in three different locations, doing some more networking and then putting it all aside as I get on with my Kindle-isation (a made up word, that) of ROSELLI’S GOLD.

Now For promotion?

My third Paperback, ROSELLI'S GOLD is available on Amazon. I've ordered a copy so that I can check it for errors. I did get a proof copy, and needed to make a change to the second page where a huge chunk of text had been left out, but that was my error; nobody else's. It always pays to have a proof copy; never go straight into production. Apart from publishing it in Kindle, which I intend to do, I have to make a decision about how to promote and market the book. I have to crack the American market to make it in the literary world. I have one or two options open to me, but inevitably they cost. The question is: how much am I prepared to spend on a project that may not even pan out. Once I've recieved my copy from Amazon, I'll make a decision, but if anybody out there has any bright ideas, please let me know.
Yesterday I spent some time with a colleague who has been invaluable to me in the research I'm doing for my next manuscript. It will be set in Mexico and USA, involving some of the facets of life that we know of through the media, but some elements that we hear very little of. I picked up some useful stuff yesterday. I hope I can make good use of it. Meanwhile, let's hear it for THE BOY FROM BERLIN, soon to released on to the British public in hardback by Robert Hale of London.

Surprise, surprise!

When I got back home from our weekend away, I checked my inbox and forum posts etc., and then checked my book sales on Amazon’s Author Central. My Kindle sales are very poor, and I have no way of knowing how my paperback sales are until I receive an update from Acclaimed Books Ltd. but imagine my surprise when I saw that I had sold one copy of my hardback novel, THE THIRD SECRET. The reason for my surprise was that I had sold one just seven days earlier. I haven’t sold any of those books for over two years, and didn’t expect to sell any more. That’s the main reason why I have brought the book out in paperback. I have re-titled it ROSELLI’S GOLD, because I believe that it stands a better chance in the market place under that title. But when I saw that I had shifted two books in one week, I got quite excited. Big oak trees from little acorns grow, as the old saying goes. Not that I expect to set the world alight with my hardback, but it could augur well for the paperback. I hope so because it’s a terrific story and has been well received from almost all of the people I have met who have read it. There are some excellent reviews on Amazon too, so why not have a look? The paperback should be available any day now in USA. The UK version will take a little longer. I now have to give some thought to getting it out on Kindle.

Interview

My interview on Morgen Bailey’s blog appeared today. You can see it at http://wp.me/p18Ztn-11j. I thought it was a good interview; said a lot about me and, hopefully will spark some interest in me and my work.
I’m hoping that sometime over the next week or so, I may be able to improve my profile and connection with the reading public as a result of Morgen’s interview and one or two other things I’m hoping to try. It’s a veritable minefield out there on the web, and novices like me sometimes find themselves terribly exposed.
We’re off for the weekend so no more posts until much later.

Keeping an eye on things.

Had to visit the eye specialist today. She’s keeping an eye on me (no, it isn’t a pun). Like a lot of people my age, I’m suffering from degeneration of vital parts of the body. Today I was told my eye is now ‘Perfecto! Muy bien!’ She’s Spanish. Anyway, I soldier on.
Yesterday was traumatic because I had my e-mail address book hacked. So apologies to all those who received the scam e-mail offering to make the readers a shed load of money. I had to change my password to get back into my account. In fact I’ve just broken away from this to edit my address book and print out a hard copy.
I managed to get a little more work done on my novel last night. Although it wasn’t much, probably about 300 words, at least it was progress of a kind. I won’t be doing any more until next week because we are going away for a couple of days; see some friends.
I’m still waiting for ROSELLI’S GOLD to appear on Amazon. When it’s there, I’ll get on to transcribing it into Kindle format. Must try to do that before Christmas.

Tuesday.

Last night I managed to get some more time on my book. I’m still tossing ideas around in my head about which direction to take and which characters have earned a bigger role in the novel. Carmen keeps knocking on the door. We’ll see. This morning I got on with work of another kind: re-pointing my front wall. Oh yes, yesterday I receive my royalties statement from Hale in London. For those of you who believe writers earn a fortune, cop this: £16.00 That’s after tax. So, as they say; ‘don’t give up the day job’. Not that I have one.
My next POD novel, ROSELLI’S GOLD is now available on Amazon (well, almost). The price has been set by Createspace, and we’re ready to roll. I have great hopes for this one, but then I had great hopes for all my books. What author doesn’t?
I contacted an editor a week ago at the Mail on Sunday asking if she would be prepared to have my next book, THE BOY FROM BERLIN reviewed in her paper. No reply yet. I’m not expecting one now, but that kind of thing happens in this game. You just have to expect it and move on.
This afternoon I’m playing my mate at snooker. We’ve been meeting up once a week for about five years now. I think I have the edge over him, but he might disagree. Great fun though. Hopefully I’ll get some more work done on my manuscript. Time to go.

Monday once more.

Needed an annual blood test. Made a mistake and booked an appointment for this morning. Surgery was packed. Why is it that surgeries are extra busy on a Monday morning? I should have booked for Friday. Carried on with re-pointing my front wall. Poco a poco as they say in Spain. Now on to other things. I managed to write about 300 words last night for my next novel. Lost interest because it was late, but at least I had put something down on paper. More to do this afternoon. A member of our Acclaimed Books group lost his temper over the weekend and ‘blew up’ because of an extremely bad review for one of his novels. I’ve read the book and gave it a good review as did other people. I sent this particular colleague a reminder, in the best possible taste I hope, that if you are going to put your work into the public domain you have to be prepared for some reviewers to lambast you. Seems that this particular reviewer did more than that, which is why the man got so upset.
I’m looking forward to making progress with the book. But at the moment I’m more than looking forward to seeing ROSELLI’S GOLD become available on Amazon. And, of course I am keen to see my next novel, THE BOY FROM BERLIN here in my hands sometime within the next month or so. Publication date is set for December. Wish me luck.

Busy, busy

Had a busy day yesterday; problems at church with an alarm system, then the phones started playing up. Had to make two trips down there but unsuccessful. Next week maybe? The trouble with unexpected problems is that they interfere with your plans, right? And that is the same with characters that creep into your fledgling story and insist that you take a different direction. I’m in the process of writing THE GATEKEEPER. This is a working title by the way, and I needed to transport one of my characters a thousand miles away so that I have him somewhere that would help lead me on to another, intrinsic part of the story. So I introduced the daughter of my main character’s boss, and had him accompany her on a plane journey to Mexico City. There was to be no other reason for the two of them to be together. Now I find that this woman, this Carmen, is demanding to be part of the story. And I can find a use for her too.
I had a smile on my face yesterday when I saw that Stephen Leather is now following me on Twitter. For those of you who haven’t read any of his thrillers, I urge you to do so now. He’s a terrific writer, has written twenty five novels and is probably in the top ten in my opinion. Maybe even higher. What can a man like that learn from someone like me? Who knows, but it’s nice to think he remembers me. I interviewed him recently on-line and will be publishing that interview on Acclaimed Books soon. Keep an eye out.

Why This Blog?

I have a blog on my website, www.michaeljparker.com, as I do on Goodreads. No one comments or posts on these two blogs, so I wondered if it was because I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to 'blogging'. (Or should that be 'bloggin'?) I decided then that if I write a blog post as a word document each day, then copy and paste, I will be able to manage the three blogs and hopefully learn more about getting my name out there. I must admit I get quite confused when I see how well established some people's blogs are, particularly when they claim only to have started recently. I've been trying now for a couple of years without success. So, this is a new venture for me, but I must start enlarging my profiles on the various social networks I'm on, and point people to one of my three blogs. Wish me luck! Oh, and if you read this, just post a comment, will you? That will give me hope.