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.