Happy Christmas

It’s that time of year again when we all put smiles on our faces and go around wishing people Happy Christmas. Wouldn’t it be lovely if we greeted people constantly with smiles on our faces and were all nice to each other all the time? Well, for all of you who drop in on my blog page, I want to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I probably won’t be blogging again until the New year because of my own commitments and the fact that I am still battling with the task of building my new website. There’s just enough time to tell you that five of my six titles will be free on Amazon over the Christmas period. I hope you feel like downloading one or two and perhaps letting your friends know. But that’s it now; have fun and enjoy the festivities.

Amazon Daily Deal 19th. Dec.

THE BOY FROM BERLIN by Michael Parker, Amazon Daily Deal for today, the 19th. at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009R6A26U/?tag Check it out and please share with your friends. Thank you

Building Plans

A Time For Giving?

So December is upon us and we turn our thoughts to giving. I am thinking about giving some titles away this month, but instead of using the Kindle Select programme, which I will be doing over the Christmas period, I am considering a Kindle giveaway. But this time I may ask for something in exchange, a promise: one where the recipient promises to post a review on Amazon for me. You may wonder why I’m asking for something in exchange, but it’s quite simple; I have given several paperbacks away through Goodreads and have only picked up one review. I must admit it was a three star review, but it was a review nonetheless. There’s another reason for this as well: I’m hoping to gauge the response I get to my posts. It’s a bit like radio and TV competitions. They are used to calculate how many listeners/viewers are tuning in. It’s not rocket science really: if the response is poor then the producers need to come up with something people want to listen to and watch. So it is with my blog posts. I have very little idea just how effective I am, and judging by my low sales figures, I know I need to change the way in which I network socially and hopefully improve my sales figures. I’m also thinking about developing another side to my blog postings in that I might use a dedicated website just for blogs and social contact. I have read a great deal from many sources on how to reach out into the book world and attract readers. I must admit that I believe word of mouth is the best way for indie writers like myself. It’s a long road to walk on but once established it could reap dividends. So, for those of you who check my postings from time to time, keep an eye open just in case I do make that leap into the unknown. Wish me luck!

Ranting &; Writing

Has anyone noticed how nasty the world is these days? It’s so depressing reading the banner headlines of the newspapers, and seeing TV reports of corruption, riots, suicide bombings. Football in UK is disgracing itself with racist chanting and thuggery on the terraces. Chelsea football club accuse a referee of being a racist, with absolutely no proof whatsoever, and then refuse to apologise when the accusations are thrown out by the police and football’s governing body, the FA. In Italy the so-called Ultras attack a group of British fans with iron bars and knives for no reason other than they were Tottenham supporters. The Egyptian president is claiming more draconian powers for himself, Europe is crumbling and America approaches a fiscal cliff that can only be stopped by the two opposing parties agreeing in Congress, but they won’t come together for political reasons. Poor old Joe Public, what’s he going to do? What can any of us do? Nothing really, other than hope and pray that God will raise up true statesmen who will knock heads together and bring some calm and peace to this world.

So, after that little rant, what next for Michael Parker’s literary progress? Not a lot at the moment. I am working on my 1984 hardback, THE SHADOW OF THE WOLF, which I hope to have ready for Amazon in the New Year. I did hope to have it finished by Christmas, but looking at my ‘social’ calendar, it seems unlikely. I will be doing some promoting over the next few weeks because I am planning to put my titles on Amazon Select for the Christmas period. Hopefully this will give my rankings a lift as we go into 2013. My books are currently abseiling down the rankings cliff with little sign of recovery, and unless I pull the proverbial finger out, the slide will continue.

I know it’s natural for writers to believe in their own work, and I’m no different. I genuinely believe that I am a good wordsmith, a good story teller, and believe my books should reach a wider audience. Unfortunately for me, and hundreds like me, I am caught in what has been loosely called the ‘literary slush pile’. And one of the several problems we have to contend with is reviews. Not so much the lack of them but the way in which they are engineered in order to persuade the unsuspecting reader that a particular book is worth reading. I downloaded a Kindle book last week because the author offered it on Twitter and Goodreads. The ‘reviews’ were good and made the book look promising. It was a first novel too. I decided to buy it because it was a first timer, remembering how I was when I had my first book published. I struggled with the book, which was supposed to be a thriller. It was formulaic, the punctuation was appalling and it was like a clone of fast acting, best-selling thrillers. I gave up halfway through. And this is the trouble: my kindle books will probably be ignored by a lot of readers because of the number of times they have fallen for the ‘review’ and the spiel that has been printed alongside the glossy jacket. I can only rely on word of mouth and keep plugging away in the hope that my name and my titles will se the light of day. Wish me luck!

Promotion and Recession

In the never ending quest for success, recognition, popularity and sales, the author group I belong to, Acclaimed Books Ltd., is still searching for the Holy Grail. We’ve tried a number of things, none of which have really helped to push the boat out, but we have been trying. And you can only fail if you don’t try. So we are exploring new avenues, one of which is a kind of e-zine; a magazine on line. We still struggle independently of course; all trying to attract readers to our titles, but our collective conscience is beating steadily alongside those independent promotions. With luck we will have come up with that one idea that lifts us up closer to the top of the pyramid.

I will be promoting five of my six titles around Christmas on Kindle Select. Why only five? Because No.6, THE BOY FROM BERLIN, is still under contract to my publisher, Robert Hale. They have released it as an e-book, so my promotion for that is simply a side-show to whatever promotion my publisher comes up with. For the other five though, I may try a blitz approach at Christmas and put them all on a freebie on Amazon’s Select programme.

 I haven’t got any further forward with my podcast recording of HELL’S GATE, but that isn’t an immediate problem. When our administrator at AB.c, Peter Lihou comes up with a test version of the e-zine, I expect we’ll all pile in and get our recorded word on-line. I’m looking forward to it. This is one of the plus parts of being an indie writer; trying different ways of promoting, which means a ‘hands on’ involvement. And the results could be attributable to the amount of effort I put into it.

I expect to be getting on with preparing SHADOW OF THE WOLF for Amazon. It means copying the book using a scanner, and then tidying it up and saving it as a Word document before converting it to Kindle. It could be a long process, but as it’s a relatively short book, about 190 pages, it’s up to me. I am thinking of increasing the word count as I go through the book, simply to give my readers a bit more for their money. Not too much though; I might spoil the flow.

I won’t get a great deal done tomorrow because of some work I have to do at our church (technical stuff), and I’ve no idea how long I’ll be there. Tomorrow morning we are visiting a sick friend, which will take up most of the morning. Oh, and because the chemists are on strike here in the Alicante region of Spain, I will be queuing up at our local chemist who is due to open for one day tomorrow. This is what recession does to countries. Here in Alicante, the chemists haven’t been paid for the medicines they stock since April 15^th. It’s a scandal. And I have to say that there’s no doubt that the political leaders who are responsible for this have been paid their salaries. See you next week!

Another String to My Bow

There are days when you get so busy you forget to do the things that could be important. And writing a weekly blog is important because there is always the chance that you might strike a chord with someone, which could lead to an improvement in your name as a writer and consequently your sales. I’ve been learning to record myself reading a section from HELL’S GATE today. This is because of a plan we have at Acclaimed Books to launch a magazine next year. This will be for a trial of three months, and hopefully we will be able to serialise our books during that time. The plan is to podcast a chapter each week. In my case I will be reading from HELL’S GATE. The trouble is; I don’t like the sound of my own voice, and I don’t think I want to go through the expense of paying a ‘professional’ to do it for me. But anyway, it will be a bit of fun and I will be learning another technique and adding another string to my bow.

Last week I was pleased to see THE DEVIL’S TRINITY on Kindle, which gave me six titles on Amazon. This title though will be available on other on-line outlets. I am particularly pleased with the book jacket, which my son Terry designed for me. There is something about a design that immediately catches the eye and draws a potential reader to the book. I believe my son has a creative skill and I’ve always been well pleased with the designs he has come up with for my books, and I think this one really is the business.

I met up with Nik Morton today. Nik is a prolific author and editor. We usually meet up for a coffee about once every three months. Nik writes Western novels mainly, but also pens thrillers. All his Western titles have been published by Robert Hale of London under the name of Ross Morton. For those of you who like this genre, why not give Nik a look? You can Google him. Or catch him at www.freewebs.com/nikmorton

One thing all of us indie authors hope for of course is good sales figures. I check my rankings each day on Author Central and get a lift when I see my rankings rocket upwards. It is usually the sale of only one book that achieves this, but it always puts a smile on my face. At least my rankings aren’t in a continuous, downward spiral. I’m hoping that with six titles on Amazon now, I will be picking up more readers. And today I laid the first stone for my next title (already in hardback), SHADOW OF THE WOLF. Might have that ready by Christmas, but probably will see it out in the New Year.

And one other, small project I’m on is preparing a sermon for a small church up the coast from here at Pilar de la Horadada. I’ve preached there several times before, and I’m looking forward to November 25^th. when I’ll be there again. Wish me luck!

Begin again

Bonfire night in UK. I can remember as a young boy in London making a ‘guy’ and taking it out into the streets with my brothers and friends asking passers-by for a “penny for the guy”. What money we collected would be spent on fireworks. All that effort eventually going up in smoke. I can’t imagine allowing all the energy I expend in my writing to go up in smoke, although I sometimes wonder what makes a writer do the metaphorical equivalent. When I see my efforts disappearing without trace, I tend to be a little philosophical about it and accept that it is part of a writer’s lot: not always getting the success he or she hoped for or expected. When I had my first novel published in 1980 by Macmillan of London (one of the big, publishing houses), I thought I had made it: I was going to be a full time, best-selling author. Now, many years later I find myself still spending a great deal of time as a writer, but still not hitting the heights that I once dreamed of. But I’m not disheartened, and in fact I believe that there is more to come for me, providing I can establish a readership among the on-line readers who search the categories for their kind of novel.

I am currently reading a 50 page booklet (PDF) about selling eBooks. It’s about marketing and promotion, and what you need to do in order to avoid the many traps that inexperience brings. And I don’t mean inexperience in writing, but in marketing and promotion. A year ago I embarked on a campaign, if that’s the right word of blogging and social networking. I read all the right articles and a couple of advice books, but realized after several months that I was pouring my energies into a big, black hole. Now it looks as though I am about to renew my efforts as I bring my latest offering, THE DEVIL’S TRINITY to Amazon and other, on-line outlets. And coupled with the launch of THE BOY FROM BERLIN this month as an e-book by my publisher, it will mean I will have six titles of mine available. I still have two titles to go, so maybe that readership I long for will now start growing. Wish me luck!

After the Promotion.

The free run for HELL’S GATE has now finished, and I’m waiting for Acclaimed Books Ltd. to let me have the download figures for the promotion. My results were encouraging judging from the information that was available on Amazon and Author Central. The title went up into the top ten (free) in the two categories, Historical, and Action & Adventure. Overall the title topped out at about 250 in all Kindle books. The important aspect of free promotions is the resulting sales figures that generally follow after a free run. It sounds like a contradiction, but it happens. When NORTH SLOPE went on a promotion earlier this year, it had almost 40,000 downloads and something like 6000 sales that followed. There was also a knock-on effect for my other titles. But unfortunately the Kindle bubble has burst, and now the results, for almost all the authors using the Kindle Select promotion, have tailed off dramatically. But unless we promote this way, we are unlikely to achieve any significant sales without spending heavily on promotion and marketing, which carry no guarantees anyway. What I’m after, apart from the obvious, is to establish a readership, which I can only do by having my titles permanently available on Amazon at a reasonable price, and hope to pick up good reviews. Even then, good reviews don’t always guarantee sales. The reason for this, I believe is that there are a lot of writers who cajole, persuade, and act duplicitously in conjuring up five star reviews in order to persuade potential readers to buy their books. I have fallen into this trap as a reader, downloading books that have had some sterling reviews only to find that the books are rubbish. But I have also persuaded friends, as a writer to put good reviews on Amazon for me. I believe in myself though, and I’m sure all writers do. So it behooves me to establish a readership through the slow process of building trust: trust that the reader has in my work.

Another title of mine that I have a great deal of faith in is THE BOY FROM BERLIN. This will be available on Amazon and other outlets as an e-book in November. It is being released by my publisher, Robert Hale, and will also be available as a Harlequin paperback in January. The hardback was published a year ago (2011) and picked up by Harlequin very quickly. They will also be publishing THE EAGLE’S COVENANT, but I will be releasing that as an eBook probably next year. So, there will be plenty there to form the basis of a readership, and I live in hope that the fruits of my labours will become apparent in the not too distant future. Wish me luck!

A Good Start to the Week

A Good Start to the Week

This is the week that I hope to get my name higher up the author rankings and to lift my book sales. Thursday is the day that HELL’S GATE is going free on Kindle Select, and it is this that is to be the driving force that, hopefully, propels me upwards. But I have had a good start to the week. This morning I checked my book sales rank on Amazon’s Author Central. It’s a kind of novelty thing really because my sales are pretty low, along with my author rank. I only ever check my kindle books, and occasionally my paperbacks. I NEVER check my hardback sales because no-one buys them anymore. But today my hardback novel, THE THIRD SECRET shot up the rankings by over 4 million. Why was that? Probably because someone, somewhere bought a copy (I love them already). It put a big smile on my face. It usually languishes at about 5 million, but the graph showed a steep rise to somewhere around 460,000; a rise of over 4 million. I’m hoping this presages my HELL’S GATE results, which goes on a free run this Thursday (October 25^th) for three days. The only way authors like myself can promote their work if they are not prepared to pay out for advertising, is by hard work on the social networks and by blogging. But the essential thing is to establish a readership; people who like what they have read and want more. I do have a worry, and that I hope whoever bought the book realises that the book is available as a paperback, but under the title, ROSELLI’S GOLD. Perhaps the buyer wanted the hardback as a gift for someone.

So what now? I have spent some time putting out the usual notices on FB and twitter, plus using this blog to let people know about the promotion. I have already posted about it on the Kindle forum, but it seems to be slowing down there for some reason. I am also in the process of editing THE DEVIL’S TRINITY after an extensive proof reading session. It’s amazing how many errors you find, even though the book has already been edited as a hardback. But I always say it’s down to the author to ensure there are no errors in the book. I hope to have the Kindle version ready by the end of the month, but can’t send it to Acclaimed Books yet until my son, Terry comes up with a book jacket for me.

There are always highs and lows in the book world, and today I’m on a bit of a high (not too high!). Hopefully I’ll be even higher when I see the results of my promotion coming in early next month. Wish me luck!

Kindle Gen and all that

I’m finally having some success with my upgraded Windows after some teething problems. When I learned that my file converter, mobi pocket would not work with Windows 7 I had no alternative but to try Amazon’s Kindle Gen. For those who haven’t yet tried but need to, prepare for the worst. I did manage to convert a Word document to kindle, but not quite the way I had envisaged. And in fact it was much easier than having to load html codes into a Word document and converting through mobi pocket, but I didn’t use KindleGen. If anyone wants to know how I achieved that, please contact me through my web page or this blog. I’m now in the pre promotion period for HELL’S GATE (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008N3MT6E). I’ve already logged on to various websites and attached all the necessary information. I’m looking forward to seeing how my results pan out, particularly since Amazon has introduced an Author Rank on Author Central. It’s really just something else to fret over, but writers being what writers are, particularly indie writers, I’ll keep watching my rankings in the hope that they will rise to the top of the pyramid. My best rank at the moment is in the Action & Adventure category. It nudged 730 a couple of days ago, but my overall rank, for all books is way down. It’s good fun though. I think the secret to selling books, apart from having a major publishing house behind you, is to keep up the supply and keep your name in the forefront of the reading public’s mind. Next month (November), I should have THE DEVIL’S TRINITY available in Kindle and paperback. I will also see my latest novel, THE BOY FROM BERLIN being released in Kindle, but that will be by my publisher, not me, because they still have the e-book rights. It will be followed in January with the paperback being released by Harlequin in North America. And if I’m really good, and work hard, I might even get all of my books out by January or February. Then my readers will have a lot of choice, which is one of the keys to becoming an established and successful writer (relatively speaking). Wish me luck!

Another Plan Gone Bust

So much for my plan to get cracking with THE DEVIL’S TRINITY. I upgraded from Windows Vista to Window 7 only to find that my HP scanner/printer needed a driver download to function on this system. Having duly downloaded the driver from HP, I discovered that it does not work in the same way as it did on Vista. I tried contacting HP but it’s all about FAQ’s now. Once upon a time you could get hold of a technician (I did that when I first bought my HP Photosmart), so the result is that I have had to abandon the project until I can come up with an alternative. I have an idea what I will do, but something else has turned up to thwart me too: my Kindle conversion software, mobi-pocket will not work on Windows 7.  It appears that Amazon have bought mobi-pocket and substituted it with their own ‘Kindlegen’ version. All this is progress designed, I believe, to capture the market and make it difficult, if not impossible to keep up without spending more money. I must admit that it never occurred to me that an upgrade to the next version of Windows would result in the loss of two software functions (scanner and mobi) that I have been using happily and with complete confidence.

One thing the upgrade will not prevent is my intended promotion of HELL’S GATE. I have a free run beginning on October 25^th. for three days on Amazon. This is for all Amazon customers of course, and also those Amazon prime members will be able to loan it from the Amazon library. Like all promotions, I need to spend time on this and if I do it right, it will give my name a lift and hopefully help to sell not just HELL’S GATE, but my other titles as well.

There are signs that Amazon’s Kindle Select programme is running into the buffers, which means less sales for authors like me, unless I can establish myself as a reliable writer. It has been said on the Kindle forum that Amazon are using their algorithms on the higher priced books in order to generate sales of those books. I have stated earlier in my blog posts that I believed that publishers would eventually restore the status quo and turn the book pyramid back up the right way. This would mean the so-called slush pile would be back at the bottom. Seems like Amazon are edging that way. Not that there’s anything wrong with their business plan; it’s just means I have to sell more books and then I can edge my prices up. Would I do that? Probably not: if I’m selling lots of books, why should I?

 

Back In Harness

Well, I’m finally back in front of my PC after six weeks. Four of those weeks were due to our holiday in UK and Australia, but the last couple has been because my PC has been in the ‘menders’ for an upgrade and a hard drive replacement. I didn’t know I had a fault on my hard drive until the technician told me he was having trouble because of corruption on the disk. I must admit that my PC has been playing up of late and I realise now that it was only a question of time before it crashed completely. But now I’m almost back in full flow. I had to do some installation of my own like Skype, MS Word etc., and I also had to change the keyboard language because mine is Spanish. You don’t get to do that every week, so it took some time figuring out how to do it. There was also the problem with passwords for websites I had been using for about four years. Some didn’t recognise ‘gmail’ because I had originally registered in ‘googlemail’. Then I had to trawl through my ‘book of passwords’ (how many of you have those?) in an effort to get logged on. On two occasions I had to ask for a new password. But I’m back and raring to go. The four weeks away was great, and it was a joy to see our son and his family in Australia who we haven’t seen for about six years now. I didn’t get much time to spend on the web while I was away, but that was deliberate on my part, otherwise I might have spent an inordinately long period in from of a terminal with an impatient wife leaning over my shoulder.

Since being away, my book sales have dropped off dramatically. I suspect this is because I haven’t been promoting them and generally making a nuisance of myself on other websites. But I will be pushing HELL’S GATE which goes free on October 25^th. for three days. Between now and then I shall be putting the word out in all the usual places. I will also be giving away three copies on Goodreads once I have changed my ‘signature’ for the book because it has a new jacket. I see the coming four weeks as something of a proving ground for me. If I am right about my falling sales, then I should see a marked improvement by the end of the month.

Another project which I will be picking up again is the work I’m doing to get THE DEVIL’S TRINITY out on Amazon. I’m about one third of the way through, and would like to have that available by the end of this month. Might take a bit of doing though. So, much to do and much to hope for. Wish me luck!

Tying up Loose Ends

My viewing figures are going up. When I started this blog in October last year, I had about two readers. One of those was me and the other was one of my sons. I don’t know which one because I have four! They probably arranged to read my blog weekly, one at a time. But now the figures are creeping up and have reached as high as thirteen. Not massive by any means, but as the old saying goes: Big oak trees from little acorns grow. My wife and I are off to Australia in five days’ time. We’ll be visiting one of our sons who lives out there with his family, and we’ll also be calling in on some old friends in Adelaide. On the way over it’s a shopping trip at Singapore and on the way back we’ll have a look at Bangkok. We’ve got two friends staying at the house to look after the dog and cat, so we can feel relaxed about that because they have done this for us before.

So where does that leave me and my writing? Well, I’ve just had my HELL’S GATE paperback launched on Amazon, and will be running a little promotion campaign while I’m away. I don’t intend to push it until I get back from our trip. In the meantime, I’m preparing THE DEVIL’S TRINITY for publication. I have to scan the book because I don’t have the original file anymore. It isn’t too much of a problem, just slow, that’s all. I should have that ready for Acclaimed Books by the end of October. My son, Terry will be doing the jacket for me of course. At the moment he’s working on a revamp of the HELL’S GATE jacket. That might be ready before I leave, but it’s not that vital that he has it finished before I go.

I came to the conclusion that my priority for this year is to have all my books available on Amazon by the end of 2012. If I can manage that, then I can get on with my latest novel which is lying around gathering dust at the moment. The one book I can’t prepare myself is THE BOY FROM BERLIN, because Harlequin have the paperback rights to that and Hale, my publisher has the eBook rights; that will be available on Amazon in November. And although Harlequin will be publishing THE EAGLE’S COVENANT, I have the eBook rights to that. And that’s already been prepared for Amazon. So, with luck and God’s good grace, all my books will be available by year end.

I’ll try and slip in a short blog before we leave on Friday. Happy reading.

Milestone

Milestone

I like to think that there are points in your life that can be singled out as a milestone. Most of us have them; they mean a great deal but would not necessarily be significant to others. The milestone for me today is that I have just downloaded my re-edited Kindle version of HELL’S GATE. Why do I consider that a milestone when the eBook has been available on Amazon for about a month now? It’s all about personal, professional pride (hopefully), and the fact that I have managed (I hope) to have a book on Amazon without any flaws; no typos, no grammar mistakes and no howlers. I wouldn’t let the POD file go up to Amazon until I was satisfied that it was as perfect as I could get it. The re-editing for that took me through five editions before I was happy with the result. The kindle re-editing was a joy too because I had finally got the hang of editing the html file with mobi pocket, doing the search and find, closing the gaps etc., spotting the slight errors in the html codes until finally I was happy with the finished product.

So why, you ask, should all this have such significance in my literary life? The answer lies in the fact that my previous kindles and POD books all had flaws in them that could have been prevented. It was all my fault and it has cost me money to have the editions resubmitted, most of which had to be done two or three times. It’s all part of the learning curve, but the big cost to me was the bad reviews. Even though my three novels picked up some cracking, four and five star reviews, the bad (and sometimes vitriolic) reviews about the typos and poor editing have left a scar across my reputation on Amazon as a reliable writer, in terms of editing etc. The only way back from this is to rebuild my reputation, and this can only be done by very careful editing, proof reading and attention to detail. To that end I propose to launch HELL’S GATE on to the reading public when me and Pat come back from our holiday in Australia and the Far East. I have begun that, in a small way by paying for a couple of weeks advertising on KotC, which I presume means ‘Kindle on the Cheap’, to be run for a couple of weeks in September.

I have a lot of faith in HELL’S GATE. It’s what I call my ‘masterpiece’. At least, that is what it would be if I was a painter, but beauty, as they say, is in the eye of the beholder. So I’m hanging my reputation as a writer on to the views of the reading public. It’s a terrific read and would probably appeal to fans of Wilbur Smith. So, the book is out there, not expensive and available now. Have a look, see what you think. I’m pinning my hopes on this one. Wish me luck!

Square Eyes!

North Slope finished its free run with a free download of about 4700. I won’t know the final figures until the end of this week when Acclaimed Books (AB.c) publish them for me. Then I’ll be interested in my post-promotion sales figures. I have been working on HELL’S GATE (Hale, 2007), proof reading and copying the file on to a Createspace template. This will be converted by AB.c to a PDF file, which, if there are no problems, will mean the paperback will be available by the end of this week. I have great hopes for this book. It is set in British East Africa in 1898, and is inspired by true events there: the building of a railway line from Mombassa to Lake Victoria by the British, and the problems caused by the politicians of the day, and the sheer, physical endurance of the men who worked on the line. Terrific stuff. It’s a must for Wilbur Smith fans, believe me. I have also been scanning pages from THE DEVIL’S TRINITY, which could be available by the end of the year. It’s another thriller that was published by Robert Hale, and now that I have the paperback rights, it will go on Amazon. I used to have the file on disc, but I’ve lost it, or thrown it away. Never throw your discs away! I’ve also been busy arranging our trip to Australia and the Far East. We’ll be visiting our son who emigrated out there with his young family about seven years ago. Stephen is in the Royal Australian Air Force. He’s a Flight Lieutenant Air Traffic Controller. His wife, Lisa works as a local school assistant. She’s a qualified teacher but prefers the hours that her current job gives her. Their eldest boy, Sam is a member of the Australian swimming squad and is currently at Auburn University in Texas on a swimming scholarship. Jake, their second lad is studying medicine at Sydney University, while their third boy, Jamie is still at school but training hard in the pool hoping to emulate his eldest brother. Been glued to the box every evening watching the Olympics. I always feel sorry for those who don’t quite make a medal after all the years of hard work they’ve put into their sport. But failure is something most of us have experienced. But then failure isn’t really that; failure is when you don’t even try. Keep the faith!

Fonts Before My Eyes

Busy again. Where does the time go? I’ve been working on THE DEVIL’S TRINITY, scanning each page and compiling a Word doc. which I will be formatting for Kindle and a POD version for Amazon. I wrote this book five or six years ago and had it published in 2008. Recently I submitted it to Harlequin at their request, but they decided not to publish it. This has given me the opportunity to publish it myself in Kindle and paperback. Hence the work I’m doing on scanning the book. There have been interruptions of course, so I’m a long way from finishing it. Over the weekend we went visiting our friends down at Arboleas in Almeria. We visited a couple of good restaurants and went for a stroll round Mojacar village high up in the hills behind the main town. Yesterday I received the proof copy of my latest Amazon novel, HELL’S GATE. I’m glad I asked for a proof copy because this one needed some corrections. The problem cropped up somewhere in the transition from Word format to PDF format. But in the end, it’s my responsibility to ensure the final version is 100% correct, so I have no-one else to blame but myself. Just means more work and more expense. The re-edit is finished now and hopefully it will soon be available on Amazon. The Kindle version is there now. Another part of my busy period has been planning a holiday. We’re off to Australia in September to see our son and his family. We’ll also be visiting friends and taking in some of the Orient. Should be away for about four weeks or so. I have put NORTH SLOPE up for a free promotion on Amazon. It will be available on July 26/27. It means more promotional work and hoping I’ll be able to lift my public name. It’s in need of a lift right now because sales are falling off and need a fillip. I’m hoping that being part of Harlequin’s client list will enhance my name and produce more readers for me. I can live in hopes though, can’t I? Wish me luck.

Proofs and Publishing

Another busy week for me as I worked my way through Word files and Kindle formats checking that nothing has gone wrong (again). This is all the result of painful experiences as a result of failing to ensure that the finished product I send to Acclaimed Books for publication on Amazon is 100% accurate. All authors have to take responsibility for the book they present to their readers in order to avoid critical reviews and subsequent loss of readership. That’s the reason I’ve been busy. I pulled A COVERT WAR off Amazon because of typos and grammar errors, and re-edited the Word doc and Kindle file. I scrutinised everything before satisfying myself that the work was error free (if that’s possible) and asking AB.c to restore the books to Amazon. Also during that time I have been reading HELL’S GATE in Kindle, which I have prepared, looking for that elusive error that the keenest of reader will spot. Often the mistakes are quite small, like a space after a hyphen (fast- reader). It’s irritating, I know because I get irritated whenever I come across mistakes in other writers’ works, and believe me, there are plenty, and not necessarily the unknown writers. But I have had to put that on hold because AB.c has sent me the PDF file for A COVERT WAR. This needs to be checked before submission to Amazon. Another aspect of preparing a book for Amazon is the book jacket, and together me and my son, Terry have been putting together ideas for a suitable jacket. Usually I give Terry an idea of what I imagine the jacket would look like. He then comes up with jacket number one, and we go on from there. It’s usually something like No.8 before we agree on the jacket. I’m pleased to say that we are finished with that and the .jpg file is in the AB.c dropbox ready for processing. And in amongst all that I have been in to my local church (TCF) working on a faulty alarm system, trying to figure out why I can’t do what the manual tells me I can. The trouble with software programmes is that they are fairly straightforward to the guy who writes them, but when a willing soul tries to interpret the inner workings of the system, it’s as clear as mud! I did manage to leave the system in a workable condition, but it now needs the expert to dive in. I had a piece of excellent news today: Harlequin Books who are publishing my latest hardback novel (THE BOY FROM BERLIN) in paperback, have agreed to publish another of mine, THE EAGLE’S COVENANT. Great news indeed!

How Busy?

I have just finished re-editing A COVERT WAR because of some reports of typos etc. in the Kindle version. One of the problems with reading reviews that complain of typos is that you have no idea where those errors are because you have assumed, wrongly, that there was nothing wrong with your work. So after being told of a particular error by a friend of mine, I set about comparing the Kindle version to my original, hardback copy. I won’t go into details; suffice it to say that it was a proverbial bloodbath. Mercifully, the majority of typos (and I do mean ‘majority’) were simple mistakes which most readers would ignore. For example: Prime Minister should be spelt with small case letters unless the term is used as an address to the PM himself, etc. etc. My next task is to convert the document to kindle format. Meanwhile my two books that were on promotion, A Covert War and Roselli’s Gold seem to have performed well. I ended up with about 4500 free downloads, which lifted both books right up to the virtual top of their categories and into the top one hundred briefly. I won’t know until tomorrow how well the paid sales have done. What I’m hoping for (unless the books go viral!) is to maintain my previous average of 25 books per day, and perhaps even exceed that. My other project; bringing HELL’S GATE to Amazon is going well. My son, Terry has come up with different concepts for the book jacket design, and I think we are getting very close to a decision about that. I have proofed the Word doc., but that will need to be converted for kindle; something I’ll get on to sometime next week. I’m very keen to get this novel on to Amazon because it’s one I hold very dear. If I was to eulogize about it, I would say that if I was a painter, this would be my masterpiece. It has a real, special place in my heart and I’m really looking forward and hoping that it will be well received. I also hope it will show readers that I can turn out a good read, and that I am not a formulaic writer. I am hoping that HELL’S GATE will be ready by the middle of August. The reason it will take that long is because I intend to ask for a proof copy before submitting the Kindle version. I don’t want any mistakes this time.

Books & Baptism

All quiet at home now; no potential buyers looking at the house. Maybe tomorrow! We’ve kept on top of the kind of jobs that people do when they are selling their house, but it can become a little tedious when you are going over the same patch in the garden that you weeded just a couple of days ago. I’ve been painting parts of the house that needed it and trying not to get carried away. One job I finished today, which has nothing to do with selling the house though, was the proof reading of HELL’S GATE. I’ve been using my large print edition as a comparison to the Word doc I have on file, which makes life easy because the book has already been professionally edited. My next step is to convert the document to a format that will be the basis for the Createspace file that will be prepared by Pete at Acclaimed Books. I will also be converting the document to a Kindle file, which will also be forwarded by Pete to Amazon. But all that will have to wait until my son has completed the book jacket. He has done three of mine now and I believe the results stand up against the professionals. Another job I’m on at the moment is promoting my two e-books that are going on a free promotion this weekend; A COVERT WAR & ROSELLI’S GOLD. I have forty sites where I can promote my free books, but most of them have to be on the day the books go free. I’m thinking of pushing Roselli’s Gold next month too; maybe get some reviews from genuine book reviewers. For some reason the book isn’t selling as well as my other two e-books. The problem with promoting books is the amount of time spent on the web at different websites while not knowing if you’re at the right place or just somewhere that absorbs free review copies like blotting paper absorbs ink. I seem to end up ‘researching’ the websites as though I’m about to write a novel about them. Perhaps I should! I know I could end up paying for advertising if I’m to get anywhere with my efforts, but it might pay dividends. We went to a baptism service at our local beach on Sunday afternoon. Our church has these about three times a year. They are usually well attended and often we find that the Spanish are curious and stand and watch. Sometimes they join in the singing. We have song sheets which we hand out, and the service lasts about thirty minutes or so. It’s very laid back. We sing a couple of hymns up at the back of the beach. There is a small hummock there beneath two palm trees. Our Pastor stands there with his guitar, reads a short scripture and off we go, singing. We jokingly refer to this as the Sermon on the Mount. Then down to the water’s edge and those who have chosen to give their lives to Christ are submerged by the pastor beneath the surface. He says he has never lost one yet; they always come back up! Next week I hope to see some results from my promotion and maybe hear something from Harlequin about the books of mine they have that they are assessing. Fingers crossed.

Twice Read!

I am now entering that quiet period with my book sales, which is what I expected. After the flurry of movement following a free promotion on Amazon, the sales figures are fading away. I will be promoting A COVERT WAR & ROSELLI’S GOLD again at the end of the month and will be hoping for better, and I would like to think that my sales figures will continue on an even keel for much longer. It’s a truism that writers have to sell themselves rather than their books. Sounds like something of a contradiction but it has been advice that’s been coming at me from the web for some time now. It’s a catch 22 situation: how do I promote my books if I have to promote myself first when no-one has heard of me and has no idea what I’m like as a writer? But I’ll continue pushing to push myself and my books. Last Tuesday I met an elderly gent who has packed a lot into his life. He’s 87 and lives out here in Spain. He’s a retired architect and the builder of some amazing, model railway layouts and scale models of everything to go with them. He has two track layouts: one in his garden and the other in his shed. Judging from his work I would say he was a perfectionist. (He is also a pianist). He read my first novel, NORTH SLOPE followed by THE BOY FROM BERLIN, my latest. He read them both TWICE! He said they were so well written and enjoyable that he had to read them again. When I get unsolicited reviews like that from strangers, it lifts my spirit and gives me enormous encouragement. Incidentally, this man asked to meet me, so it wasn’t a chance meeting. We’ve had a good week on the non-literary front. Over at friends on Tuesday for a meal and a game of cards; always a good laugh. Following day it was our friend’s birthday, so a little celebration ensued. Thursday was our house group meeting. Friday we visited our sick friends at Casaverde. Saturday we went to a wedding blessing at our local fellowship here in Spain. And on Sunday I was preaching over at the small, Christian fellowship in Pilar de la Horadada. Not forgetting the football either; all in all it’s been a good week. Oh, and my book sales are averaging 37 per day at the moment. This will probably tail off as the month goes by, but hopefully my promotion slot will change that. And I am currently proof reading HELL’S GATE. Always busy! Last thing: this morning we had a lady and her young daughter round to view the house. They are from Hungary, I think. She liked what she saw and is looking at others in the area. Her husband comes over from Hungary at the end of the month, so if she comes back for another viewing hopefully she’ll like it enough to persuade her husband that he likes it enough to part with the money. We have our fingers crossed, but we’re in God’s hands.

The Doll Makers: a tortuous route to publication – A Guest Blog from Penny Grubb

The Doll Makers: a tortuous route to publication – A Guest Blog from Penny Grubb

What Was Your Week Like?

I’ve had quite a full week this week. One of those when looking back says a lot about how busy but enjoyable life is for me and Pat. Played snooker with my friend Ricardo on Monday. Used to be Tuesdays but it had to change. I lost! Tuesday was a trip to the doc for prescriptions, then out for a quick shopping trip. No, that’s a lie; Pat was with me so it took forever! Wednesday was a normal day which gave me the chance to work on my sermon for Pilar church this coming Sunday (17th). Thursday was a change for us. Pat went to Benidorm with the church; took her friend with her (retail therapy). I went to the church and did an electrical job in the ladies loo that needed doing. Had the place to myself so was able to get the job done. I have another one to do but that can wait for now. Friday I met my author friend, Nik Morton for a coffee, an update and a chat. Nik gave me a copy of his latest Western, OLD GUNS, published by Robert Hale (same publisher as me). He writes Westerns under the name Ross Morton. Why not try him out if you like western novels? He’s on Amazon. We had our two friends over for the weekend (Brian & Pauline). They turned up Friday afternoon with their little dog, Casper. Good weekend too. Went down to Guardamar for a stroll along the beach and round the park. Very pleasant. Saturday we went to Cartegena. What an interesting place that is. Went round the Roman museum and walked around the excavated ampi-theatre. Bags of history there. Saturday evening out for an Indian at the Punjabi in Los Montesinos. Sunday I went to church but Pat went out with Brian and Pauline. Me and Brian even managed to watch a couple of football matches on TV, and I was also able to catch up with the Danish Speedway Grand Prix on Sunday afternoon. But I was still able to keep track of my progress in the literary world. Harlequin will be publishing THE BOY FROM BERLIN (paperback) in America and Canada in January 2013. They aren’t interested in two of the four books I sent to them because they don’t suit their imprint (wrong time periods), so I have begun preparing HELL’S GATE for POD and Kindle on Amazon. I have a particular pride in HELL’S GATE; a novel that has brought me comparison with Wilbur Smith. It is set in British East Africa in 1898, and inspired by real events there. I’m getting quite excited about the project already. And the progress of NORTH SLOPE & A COVERT WAR after the promotion has been good too. I managed to raise my average sales to 45 per day for the first nine days in May. I’ve no doubt that the average will taper off, but with more strategic promotion later in the month I may be able to get it back up. So all in all a good week. I hope it continues.

Celebrations

Good weekend for the British and the Commonwealth: the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. I can remember as far back as the Coronation (well, before that actually), but the celebration day that sticks in my mind is the Silver Jubilee. That was in 1977. I had left the Royal Air Force the year before and we had settled in the small village of Colkirk, near Fakenham, Norfolk. We had gone along to a meeting in the village hall and ended up volunteering to help with the organisation. It was our way of getting to know the villagers. It was a great day with fun and games on the village green followed by a barn dance in the evening. Great fun and happy memories. Me and Pat watched the celebrations this weekend on TV. It was a bit sad not being in UK because I know we would have got involved in something. At the moment we have the front of our house bedecked in bunting with the cross of St. George and Union Jacks. There’s something especially rewarding about being patriotic in these times of global meltdown and hardships; a kind of a sense that we are all in this together. I’ve used my free time as well to get down to some more work on my manuscript and also to keep an eye on how the book promotion was going. Although I don’t have the exact figures yet, I managed to achieve a total of 19000 free downloads for both books, NORTH SLOPE & A COVERT WAR. The sales figures that Acclaimed Books provided for the period ending in May showed that my average sales had increased from nine e-books per day to about eleven. That was the figure achieved for the three days following the end of the promotion. Both books made it into the top 100 in the Kindle store, and achieved the top end in their specific Kindle categories. The figures showing on Amazon pages indicate that the books are both holding their own although they are now slipping down the rankings. I will have a better idea when I see the sales figures on Friday. I’ve asked Pete of Acclaimed Books to put ROSELLI’S GOLD on two days free for me. Hopefully this will attract more sales and put my averages back up. Happy days!

On The Up!

Great news today: NORTH SLOPE has reached #1 in the Action Adventure category on Amazon in the free Kindle store. If this was related to sales I could retire! Oh, I am retired. But never mind; this could influence my paid sales figures when the promotion finishes. My other e-book on the promotion, A COVERT WAR is not doing badly either; it has reached the #5 spot in both Spy and Action categories. The influence of Amazon’s Kindle Select programme on book sales has been the source of much talk lately; some good, some not so good. I have just read an article that suggests the Amazon KDP bubble will burst and Amazon will let it die slowly because on the unreal (and unhealthy) affect it is having on real sales and the big hitters. I think we’ve always known this will happen. There’s no way the big publishing house will allow this to go on and I expect them to find a way of restoring the status quo and re-establishing the pyramid where their top authors sit astride the colossus while we bottom feeders sink slowly away into our digital slush pile. But by heck we’re having fun, and long may it continue. Business this morning; handed our income statement in at the fiscal reps office. Come Friday we’ll know how much we have to pay the Spanish tax man. We all know he’s broke, just like the rest of Europe, so let’s hope the bill isn’t too steep. One thing though; I doubt if it will be as high as the UK Inland Revenue would charge. The IR managed to give me the wrong tax code this year and have changed it to the right one. No real damage done though because I don’t pay tax in UK. Getting back to book promotions, I think I need to increase my Twitter savvy, and how to use it effectively. I have Tweet deck, but it annoys me every time it tweets at me. What must it be like for someone with thousands of followers? Surely they don’t have the Tweet deck switched on? I’m off now; going to learn more about marketing, promoting and selling books. I’ll probably leave this blog alone for a week now unless I have something really bright and startling to report. (Like a million paid downloads?)

Promotion day is getting closer and I’m pulling out all the stops to push my books. If I can get my rankings up, then good sales figures will follow, I’m sure. I’ve announced the freebie promotion on twenty two websites so far. I have a few more bases to cover and then, hopefully, I can sit back and watch the figures rise. I live in hope anyway. We went over to Torremendo last night for a meal with a couple of friends of ours, Stuart and Sue. Torremendo is a quaint little village close to Lake Pedrera. There’s a good size ex-pat community and it seems like a friendly place. We enjoyed a good meal at a local bar, a beer and a good chat. Stuart has bought all my books, which I sign for him. There’s a saying: ‘Friends want to read your books. Good friends want to buy them’. How true is that? We had two people come and look at the house on Tuesday. Nothing has come of it so far, but you never know with these things. When we sold our house in UK before coming to Spain, the young couple who bought it showed no inclination at first, then about a week or so later we received an offer from them. The downside of getting your house ready for a viewing is the amount of cleaning you feel compelled to do. The house looks spick and span, ready for inspection, then nothing. But that’s the way it is. Went to the funeral of our good friend, Doreen yesterday. She died peacefully last week. She was eighty one. There was a good send-off for her at our church here in Torrevieja. The book group I’m with, Acclaimed Books Ltd (www.acclaimedbooks.com) has a link-up with Moston Author Promotions. They have a good looking website at www.bestbooksbulletin.com. It would be worth having a look there for good quality books and authors. All are available through Amazon and other on-line booksellers. Don’t forget, my free promotion is starting this Sunday: A COVERT WAR and NORTH SLOPE are available free on Kindle for three days. That’s it then; now I’m off to do some promotional work.

The sharp-eyed among you will notice that I missed my Thursday blog posting. The reason for that is because we had to visit a couple of sick, elderly friends. Normally we see them on Friday, but circumstances forced us to change the day. Thursday morning is our House Group meeting so that didn’t leave much time to think about blogging. I have spent a great deal of time sitting in front of my PC lately. Much of it has to do with promoting and checking up on my e-books, looking at web sites, dealing with my own, everyday things that are part and parcel of life. I am also in the middle of preparing a sermon for Pilar church this Sunday. That will be my fourth visit this year. So all-in-all I have been fairly busy. I’m not complaining though; life could be worse. Thankfully I’m ‘gainfully’ employed in my retirement, and I don’t mean working for a living, and content with what I’m doing. I received an e-mail from my publisher to tell me that the e-book version of THE BOY FROM BERLIN will be on sale this coming November. The price will be higher than that at which I sell my books, but as a publisher they have to reflect the commercial price of paperbacks against which the e-book will be competing. I haven’t heard from Harlequin about their plans for THE BOY FROM BERLIN. Maybe I’ll chase them up next month. I want to know the publication date and also what, if anything, they plan to do with the four books I sent them. Don’t forget that two of my e-books are available free on May 27/28/29. A COVERT WAR and NORTH SLOPE. Both good thrillers, different settings, different genres. I’m hoping that this promotion will give me a bump in my sales figures once the promo is over. As well as the sales figures, another very important aspect are reviews: I need lots of them. Naturally I would like good reviews, but I have to understand that people have different tastes and may not like my work, but so far the majority of reviews on Amazon for me have been very good. Hopefully there will be more.

Sad day today for me. Two deaths that have left me feeling down in the mouth. The first one was the tragic death of Lee Richardson, one of the top Speedway riders around today. Former World Under 21 champion and Speedway Grand Prix rider, captain of Lakeside Hammers. Only 33 years old. I know motor sport is dangerous and claims the lives of many young people, but it is so poignant when you feel you know the man. He was my favourite rider and I always enjoyed watching him race. He will be sadly missed by his fans in UK and Europe. He was killed last night racing for his Polish team in Poland. A sad, sad loss. The other death was that of a lady friend of ours, Doreen Bagnall. She had just come out of hospital after falling and breaking her leg. Last night she felt unwell and died. Most unexpected. In the midst of life…. Not a very uplifting blog today, I know, but you can only go the way your heart directs you. I would like to write about the great things that are happening in my book life, but in that direction I need patience. I also need to get my promotional hat on properly and make sense of where I post my book promotions. It’s all rather haphazard at the moment, but my colleagues at Acclaimed Book are putting together something that might help us all to co-ordinate our efforts. For those of you who don’t have swimming pools in your garden, I’m sure you will be interested to know that mine is U/S at the moment. I have to fit a new control valve but need a few seals that aren’t generally available, so I’ve got to innovate and scratch around for some alternatives. I know: serves me right for having a swimming pool! More later.

Today is the start of my Goodreads giveaway. This is where I offer three of my books to Goodreads readers who will put their names down for the draw. The offer ends on May 26th. and the three winners will each receive a copy of A COVERT WAR. This will be followed by a three day, free promotion of the same novel, but in e-book format. The idea behind this ‘scheme’ of mine is twofold: I will send each winner another book to go with mine. It will be a top author for each one. The winners can do what they like with that extra book, but for me it is essential to my slipstream marketing campaign. The follow up free download promotion will enable those who missed out on the draw to download the e-book for free. Anybody will be able to do this regardless of whether they are members of Goodreads or not. The result, if all goes to plan will be that a significant rise in the rankings which should generate subsequent, paid sales of the book. I will also be putting NORTH SLOPE up for free on the same dates. It’s all very subjective and could end in dismal, and costly (not too much) failure. As a result of my ‘scheme’ I have to concentrate a bit on promotion. The trouble is, there are so many sites where I can promote my book without having to pay that I could spend several hours a day traipsing round the Net. That way I wouldn’t get anything else done. I’m still battling with my current manuscript and keep changing parts of the storyline. If I ever get this one finished I will probably hate the book. But that’s not fair: I’m not that kind of writer. I love all my books, which is natural because I’ve sweated so much over them and waited so long for success. Well, my kind of success! My current rate of progress should see me finish the manuscript by the end of the year. Yesterday, as I walked into my church, one of the ladies there asked me if I was writing another book. I said I was and asked her why. She told me that her friend has read all of mine and she enjoyed them that much she can’t wait for my next one to come out. Wasn’t that nice? I treasure little gems like that. So, I’d better get cracking. Trouble is; we’ve got guests coming in about an hour’s time and I’ve got to take the dog out. Wish me luck!

Had a good weekend down at our friends place in Almeria. They live in a small pueblo just inside the Andalucian Province set among the hills. The local town has a large ex-pat population with the inevitable mix of languages around the markets. We had dinner at a Spanish restaurant overlooking the hills. The view was terrific even if a little dampened by the heavy rain clouds. There was a family of Spaniards who were having a confirmation party. Lots of music, lots of children and lots of noise. The dining room had to be cleared before the evening diners could sit down. The meal wasn’t exceptional, but I’m not a fan of Spanish cuisine anyway. The following day we went down to the coast to a small place called Villaricos. It’s along the coast form Mojacar. Lovely setting and not too lively. There is a small marina there, some bars and a lovely walk along the sea front where a great deal of money has been spent. Sunday is market day, but it seems to be less obtrusive than some of the markets we’ve been to out here. Me and my mate sit and have a coffee while the ladies wander through the stalls. My wife said she would have a holiday home there if we could afford one. I know we don’t need one because we live in Spain. But if we didn’t, and we wanted a home in a little gem of a place, then Villaricos would be it. Had a very smooth journey home on roads that were practically empty. Motorway almost all of the way. Not having been on the computer since Friday meant I had a lot to catch up on. One piece of good news was that Createspace, who publish for Amazon in USA will now be publishing for them in UK as well. This is good news for us at Acclaimed Books. More later.

We are basking in sunshine here on the Costa Blanca while the rest of Spain gets rained on. But Spain needs the rain probably more than UK because it is going through the worst drought for seventy years. One of the reservoirs up north is that dry a whole church has been uncovered. It’s a truism that there is enough food and fresh water on this planet for everybody, but there does seem to be an unhealthy imbalance along the way. We’re off this weekend to visit our friends in Almeria. I believe it’s raining down that way, but we can’t let that spoil our visit though, can we? I’ll be taking a copy of my latest book, THE BOY FROM BERLIN for them. My mate doesn’t read though, but his wife does and she thoroughly enjoys my books. Trouble is; she’s isn’t computer savvy so can’t put good reviews on the web for me. NORTH SLOPE is now back on Amazon Kindle. The paperback will be there shortly. I’ve learned a huge lesson from the problems I’ve had with the editing issue. I know I must be pin-sharp when it comes to proof reading my own work in future. It isn’t just the poor quality that results from that, but also the poor reviews that are posted on Amazon. So far NORTH SLOPE has picked up 26 reviews, and most of them are four and five star; enough to swamp the editorial reviews. I checked out my author profile page using Amazon’s URL today. I had to put in the ASIN number for ROSELLI’S GOLD. Terrific page. Trouble is; they have about four books with mine that aren’t written by me. So what’s the point of putting in Amazon’s ASIN number; a direct reference to the book when they add others to it? I’ve contacted Amazon and hopefully they will be able to resolve the issue. We were supposed to be visiting two elderly folk from our church this afternoon who are in a care home, but one of them had a fall and is too unwell to see us. This means I have a couple of hours spare, so I’d better get on with writing. More work on my next blockbuster? That would be good. See you next week.

Today, ROSELLI’S GOLD goes free on Amazon Kindle for two days. The change in sales rankings is quite dramatic when a book goes ‘free’. Although the e-book hasn’t been sold but given away free, it climbs up the rankings according to some weird algorithm that Amazon use. My book has already shot up to 9229 in the rankings from its very low ranking yesterday of about 60,000. In the UK it has climbed into the top 100. If it keeps climbing, then on Wednesday, when the book is no longer free, it will remain with its rank number for about forty eight hours. This usually results in some impressive sales compared to the period before it went free. I began ‘pushing’ the free promotion (as we are advised to do) about a week ago, and according to the sales ranking the book immediately plummeted to a very low rank. I suspect that this was because readers stopped buying it because they could see it was about to be released free. My total e-book sales for USA and UK this month (April) has reached about 750. It will be interesting to compare the results at the end of May to see if my free promotion has done the trick. It’s been a dramatic weekend for sports freaks in UK (and elsewhere no doubt). For me it’s about football, snooker and speedway. The football has provided some dramatic results in the Premier league and the Championship. Congratulations to Reading and Southampton. Tonight is the critical derby between the two Manchester clubs. Today Roy Hodgson was announced as the only candidate approached by the FA for the job of England manager. Not my choice, but good luck to the man. Saturday evening was the Polish Speedway Grand Prix. Fantastic battles there too: Well done Chris Holder. Hard luck Bomber Harris: he never got started really. And of course, while all this is happening, there’s a World Snooker Championship going on too. Oh, we were supposed to go away for the weekend but it was cancelled Friday morning. Unfortunately our friend was taken ill and spent the night in hospital. He’s out now but still not too good. We are hoping to go down there next weekend.

Temperature and tempers

Weather is warming up. The rest of Spain is getting rained on hard, and a friend of mine was stranded at Bilbao because the ferries were cancelled as a result of the strong winds. He should be away by now though. Here on the Costa Blanca and elsewhere along the Mediterranean Coastline the weather is fine. I got my knuckles rapped for a reply I posted on a forum (Amazon). Someone wanted recommendations for military thrillers and the like. I recommended A COVERT WAR. Seems I broke the rules: authors weren’t allowed to promote themselves on that particular site. Trouble was; the response I got from the person who used a pseudonym was quite pointed. Accused me of being unscrupulous, sleazy and other unmentionable things. Anyone would think I’d been found guilty of posting some child porn on the web, whereas all I did was respond innocently to a perfectly straightforward question. I deleted the post, but why couldn’t my mistake have been pointed out to me kindly rather than using colourful prose? I’ve asked Pete Lihou (Acclaimed Books) to put NORTH SLOPE back on Amazon. It’s been my most successful POD and Kindle so far. Hopefully it will continue to soar now that the errors have been eradicated. Four days now until ROSELLI’S GOLD goes free. I’ve got my fingers and toes crossed for this one. Tomorrow we’re off for the weekend visiting friends in Arboleas. It’s a small town about ninety kms. from Almeria in the province of Andalucia. We visit them regularly and they come up here as well. The good thing about these visits is that we can take the dog with us. Poor cat has to fend for himself for a couple of days. We have a neighbour popping in to make sure his food bowl is full. It has never been a problem in the past, and he hasn’t complained yet. Back on Monday and another squint at the sales figures which AB.c will post tomorrow evening. More then.

Monday Blues?

Monday morning again and time to get on with the work that needed doing around the place. I had to move the car so I could get a long ladder up against the house wall to remove a dud battery from my alarm box. Then a quick clean around the pool followed by some weeding. While I was buzzing around the place, the song title; “I Don’t Like Mondays” came into my head, and I thought of the irony of life that was entwined around that song. Bob Geldoff wrote the song after a high school girl in America shot and killed her school mates. When asked why she had done such a terrible thing she said, ‘I don’t like Mondays’. Bob Geldoff and the Boomtown Rats went on to fame and fortune, and Bob got a knighthood out of the work he did with the United Nations. All this because he wrote a song that opened doors for him. But the tragic irony is that other lives were changed too, but in a more dramatic and tragic way.

My Monday morning ended up in a less dramatic fashion, but frustrating for a while because the car wouldn’t start. I had to call the RACC out. Once upon a time I would have dived under the bonnet (‘hood’ to my American readers) and sorted the problem out myself. The mechanic duly arrived armed with his computer and diagnosed the problem in about five minutes: it was air in the fuel pump. Ten minutes later he was on his way and I was able to get off into town and buy a replacement battery for the alarm.

Seven days to go and ROSELLI’S GOLD goes on a two day, free promotion. Hopefully this will lift the book up the Amazon rankings and result in sales. So those of you who haven’t already read the book and have a Kindle; keep an eye out for it and get downloading. Better still, why not buy a copy? See you soon!

Who's Sorry Now?

I’ve been reading a whole lot about e-books and the effect they are having on the big publishers, how Amazon are playing dirty and what the big guns must do to offset the ‘damage’ being caused by the digital age to their profits and their muscular control over the world of publishing. Five years ago I was in my publisher’s office in London where John Hale told me that the publishing industry is controlled by the big five conglomerates covering America, United Kingdom, France, Holland and Australia. He told me there was no chance of my books (hardback) being published by the paperback imprints (houses) because I wouldn’t make them any money: fact of life. I was an unknown quantity, talent and good penmanship didn’t come into it. I remember contacting the producer of the Richard & Judy book show on Channel Four. I was told that if I wanted to get my books published I should get a copy of the Writers’ and Artists’ Year Book. I didn’t want to know that seeing as I was an established writer. After reading an article about four years ago where the woman in charge of paperback imprints claiming she wanted more British thriller writers, I contacted her. The reply from someone else was almost exactly the same as that from C4. I replied, pointing out that I was already published and received a further reply from another woman with exactly the same answer. Now Amazon is giving free reign to writers like me and thousands of us around the world, the big hitters are hurting and crying. If they hadn’t operated such a closed, old boy shop and been more amenable to approaches from us bottom feeders in the literary fishpond, they might not be weeping so much now.

I will be putting ROSELLI’S GOLD on a free promotion on April 30th. for two days. With luck this will lift me in the Amazon rankings and result in more sales. Following that, sometime in May I will be promoting A COVERT WAR and putting NORTH SLOPE back on Kindle. And Harlequin now have four of my novels, none of those on Amazon, which they are reading with a view to assessing their potential and making an offer for the paperback rights in North America. I would guess that they might like two of those, but whatever happens, those four books will be available eventually, in paperback and e-book to the buying public. And with no thanks to the UK paperback imprints. Wish me luck.

Mad, Mad World!

Monday again, beginning of the week and nothing has changed in this world that shows the human race is improving. The Norwegian nutcase goes on trial claiming self defence as his reason for murdering over 70 people. Meanwhile around the world the suicide bombers are murdering others again. And the Press are reporting the slaughter in Afghanistan as the beginning of the ‘shooting season’. Season? Do they think this is something like the beginning of Grouse shooting? And another kind of carnage continues: that of the slaughter of horses in the name of sport. I think it’s time for the authorities to give a closer look at how the Grand National is organised with regard to the care of the animals. And the South American summit of Presidents has actually suggested the legalisation of drugs! At least Obama turned them down. Probably because the CIA would lose some kind of control in America’s so-called Colour Revolution that is being carefully orchestrated in Latin America and elsewhere. It’s the ‘same old, same old’ as folks might say.

No great changes in Michael Parker’s writing journey still. I’ve decided to re-write my latest story but still can’t get myself organised. My days get filled with other things and this gives me reasons for not getting on with my research and pen pushing. I find myself reading reports on South American summits and wondering why everyone else is crazy except me. My book sales have tapered off, but that’s no big deal really. I will be putting ROSELLI’S GOLD on a free promo for two days at the end of this month. Next month it will be A COVERT WAR, followed later by NORTH SLOPE (newly edited!). I expect that to lift my sales somewhat. I am still waiting to hear from Harlequin with respect to the planned paperback imprint of THE BOY FROM BERLIN. That’s something else to look forward to.

Next big thing on the horizon is tomorrow: we take the cat to the vet for his yearly vaccination. That's a saga in itself. Always fraught with pain and suffering (that’s me and Pat). The cat doesn’t like it either and lets us know it. And we have to clean up after him. Why do we have pets?

Unlucky for Some?

I didn’t realise it was Friday 13th, but here in Spain the Spanish do not consider this to be an unlucky day. I don’t know what date their unlucky day is, but I know it falls on a Tuesday. Do I believe in Friday 13th. being unlucky? Nope! But we all have good and bad days, and today I’m having a good day. Went shopping this morning and bought a new washing machine. I didn’t choose it; I just tailed along with Pat and produced my card when she had made her choice. We went to about five shops before ‘our’ mind was made up. This afternoon we will be visiting some sick friends: an elderly couple who are now in a care home. It’s a Spanish kind of care home, not like you find in UK.

I exchanged e-mails with a writer in Australia yesterday. She wondered if our publisher accepted manuscripts by e-mail or was it necessary to send the typed version still. She wasn’t keen on the idea of paying for the cost of postage to London while she considered the book business seemed to be going through a major upheaval. I suggested she sent her manuscript because of our publisher’s connection with the public libraries and the amount of business they do. If you have faithful readers borrowing your books on a regular basis, then you owe it to them (and to yourself) to keep the titles coming. My library statements for the last two years showed that there had been over 6000 loans in 2010 and the same again in 2011. While not comparable to the top novelists, it means I have a large band of followers and I want to keep my supply of titles up for their sakes as well as mine. So I urged the lady in question to bite the bullet and send the MS.

The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed that I have missed a day between posts. Normally I post on a Thursday, but for some reason I forgot everything about my blog yesterday. I could make the excuse that I was working on my latest novel, which would be true. Trouble is; I didn’t get very far. I also had to make a couple of corrections to my e-book and its original Word doc. It’s all done now and hopefully I won’t be asked to re-edit again.

Next week I will be asking Acclaimed Books to put A COVERT WAR up for a free promotion on Kindle select. This will be at the end of the month followed by a two day promo for ROSELLI’S GOLD. Then NORTH SLOPE will go back

Good Weekend

The last few days have been full and thoroughly enjoyable. Being Easter, it meant a couple of visits to our church on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. But on Saturday we were there for a wedding blessing. Two of our members, getting on in life and both widowed (or would that be ‘widowered’ if you’re a man?) decided to get hitched. They married in Gibraltar to make it legal and then had a blessing in the church. About 150 people came including their respective families. There was a buffet lunch laid on too. Following the service on Sunday a lot of us went to the Country Club restaurant at Campoamor for an Easter lunch. That was good too. After that it was home for the football on TV!

I have been giving thought to my latest manuscript and am about to tear it up. Well, most of it. After chatting with Pat it looks like I’ve saddled myself with part of a story that is at best quite pointless. But being a writer, I should be able to make something of it. However, I need to give it serious thought before I do anything drastic. I could plough on and make a pig’s ear of the whole thing, but I’ll have to see.

I heard from Acclaimed Books the other day that Amazon has withdrawn the Kindle version of NORTH SLOPE because of the editing issues. Ironically I had just submitted a re-edited version but it seems it arrived too late for Amazon to act on it. As a consequence of that I have decided to withdraw the POD version until I have sorted out some Q & As with Amazon. I expect to have them both available again in the near future. Writing can be very rewarding, but it can also be very frustrating. Have a good day!

Busy Weekend

Big weekend for Christians around the world, remembering the sacrifice Jesus made for all of us on the cross. It wouldn’t hurt for non-believers to empathise and understand the powerful message his sacrifice sends. How much happier and content the world would be if the message sunk in. Me and Pat will be at the Good Friday service tomorrow and again as usual on Sunday. This morning we’ll be meeting with others at our house group, and no doubt there will be a lot of chat about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Since Monday I have spent a couple of hours at the church doing some electrical work. I think my bones are complaining more and more as I shin up ladders and crick my neck when working on ceiling fittings. Doubly hard when you wear glasses and have to screw your nose up to keep the things lined up on the job in hand. I have more to do next week, and yesterday evening at church one of the ladies asked me if I would put a light up in her house next week. I agreed of course, although I usually tell people that I don’t take on electrical jobs anymore because of my age and the fact that I have a false hip, which gives me jip after a couple of hours work. I’m OK with emergencies when someone has a problem that could leave them without power, but then it’s usually a rare event and often with elderly people who have no idea about electrics etc. The lady who has asked me to put a light up has recently suffered from cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy at the moment. I couldn’t refuse, could I?

I parceled up four of my books yesterday for Harlequin to read. I’ll post them after the bank holiday weekend because I don’t fancy the idea of the parcel spending Easter in the sorting office. I reckon that Harlequin will probably agree to publish two of those: HELL’S GATE, and THE DEVIL’S TRINITY. And although some of you reading this might think these are religious books (because I am a Christian), that isn’t so. Look them up on my website and you’ll see why. It would be terrific if Harlequin like what they read and agree to publish all four, but I’ll have to wait and see. Wish me luck!

Back to writer's block

Busy weekend for us. Saturday we had an AGM at the church, followed by shopping. Yesterday I was preaching at Pilar de la Horadada, the small fellowship where I have preached a couple of times this year already. It’s always nice going over to Pilar because we know quite a few of the people there. After the service we went for an Indian meal. Pat wanted Chinese but was outvoted. The AGM at our own church marked the end of my tenure on the church council. I am now a free agent except that I am still on a couple of rosters: locking up and reception desk. Oh, and I have to go in this week to put a ceiling light up in the children’s crèche. The current light is considered unsafe. Still involved though, eh? And at home there has been the usual activity on the PC checking my book sales and re-editing etc. The bubble has burst at Amazon’s Kindle Select, and now my recent promotion has subsided into normal, bite size portions, unlike the mega sales I had with NORTH SLOPE. I managed to complete the re-edit on the Kindle version of NORTH SLOPE, which I had to do. It took a great deal of time and much angst over the problems I encountered. However, thanks to the diligent involvement on the part of one of our Acclaimed Books colleagues; Brian in Australia, I was able to finish the edit and resubmit it to AB.c for publication again on Amazon. Big weight off my shoulders.

So what now? Back to house and garden maintenance. This morning I trimmed a messy ivy bush and dumped the cuttings in the garden skip provided by the council. Did a bit of a tidy up in the garage, and now I have some free time. This means I can get back to my manuscript and try, try, try to overcome a massive case of writer’s block. I’m also expecting to hear from the sales rep at my publisher’s. He’s the chap who teed up the Harlequin sales for me. I need to know what else Harlequin want with respect to my current titles. I can provide four out of the six that they have asked for, but I don’t where I have to send them. No doubt he’ll let me know. More later.

She Who dares!

In these dark times of recession, we rely on entrepreneurs to help lift us out of the financial doldrums and turn our economy around. A lot of us rely on the big guns like the manufacturing industry and financial services (they got us into it in the first place), but there are the small outlets and businesses who need a pat on the back for facing the problems and getting on with it, recession or not. My daughter-in-law, Bryony has been in book-keeping for many years and is now branching out on her own. She has been employed as a book-keeper for a small company which now has to close down. However, they have asked her to continue looking after the books for as long as she can until the axe falls. In the face of this, Bryony has invested a small sum in setting up her own book keeping business. She is extremely well qualified and hopes to attract small businesses to her website with a view to doing business with her. I think she deserves a great deal of credit for doing this, and would ask anybody out there who could do with some help in this direction to have a look at her website: www.oakleafbook-keepingservices.co.uk. I wish her all the best and lots of luck. She’ll need it!


Are things changing on Amazon? There is dissention in the Kindle Select ranks over the way in which Amazon uses algorithms to decide rankings and consequently sales. It’s all very confusing to someone as simple as me, but I can only go by what posts are appearing on the Mega Thread forum on the Kindle site. A month ago everything in the garden was lovely: writers were jumping through hoops (including me) over the free downloads and subsequent ‘paid sales’. Now there are a lot of disillusioned writers complaining that Amazon have not been straight with them. There are those who are actually planning to pull their books from the KDP programme. I get the feeling that Amazon is so big and unwieldy now; it has conceived and bred its own, almost unmanageable problem child.