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.