December 16, 2013 I’ve just finished reading a thriller by a top author and found myself disappointed with the way in which he elevated his two main characters to an almost Superman and Wonder-woman level. Why so? As a writer myself, I do try (hopefully) to give my characters a vulnerability that is natural in a human being, which I believe is only fair to the readers. If I fail to do that I can then make them do anything without any apparent difficulty. How often have you read of a character who manages to slip through a locked door because locked doors were no problem for a man with his skills? I have lost count of the number of cheap, $0.99 thrillers I have downloaded from Amazon on to my Kindle only to be thoroughly disappointed by the cheap tricks the writers use to get their heroes out of scrapes that would prove impossible in normal circumstances. I think all of us know that when we watch Bruce Willis’s character, John Maclean, we are watching pure escapism. The same for Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo, and Arnie Schwarzenegger’s host of tough guys. I have failed to complete the majority of cheap Kindles downloaded on to my PC. One writer who stands out for me as a real trier when it comes to building that normal vulnerability into her main character is Carmen Amato. She writes of a female detective working in a strong, macho environment in a Mexican police station. She is good at her job but suffers all kinds of insults and indignities from her male colleagues. She rises above it to compete successfully, but she doesn’t slip through locked doors or beat macho men senseless because she is the main character. This is a tribute to Carmen Amato’s strength in her writing. I wish other so-called thriller writers would use their imagination and not invent heroes and heroines possessed of magic qualities that leave me shaking my head with disappointment. On a personal level, for those of you who follow my blog; I have had my second session of chemo and managing to keep upright. I am also toying with the research I used for a thriller I had planned to write last year but binned it for a Romance which will be published next year. I hadn’t planned to do any more writing for a while because of my treatment and because we are preparing to move out of our house into rented accommodation prior to handing over to the new buyers. But the old habit has kicked in and I am digging into my research and thinking of new ways in which to change my plot. No real hurry but I know that I can’t sit around doing nothing about my writing. Wish me luck!

December 9th. What a week it’s been: promising all the way. I started getting to grips with my new laptop and Windows 8 (still don’t like it) and learning how to get on without my old PC and monitor. But that’s what happens when you sell your house and want to go back to UK. During the early part of the week I received my free copies of THE EAGLE’S COVENANT from Harlequin Books. The paperback was released in North America in November, and I can now say I have two books with a traditional publisher across the water. I then received a request from my publisher (Hale) for a synopsis and blurb for my latest novel, PAST IMPERFECT, which I expect to see published next year. The synopsis was easy because I already had one prepared, but the blurb was so difficult. Describe your book in 150 words with enough impact to grab a reader’s attention and make them want to read your book. No doubt when I see the finished article in print I’ll see how I could have done better. Aren’t we all like that though? On Friday our son, Terry and his daughter, Gemma, our eldest grand-daughter, came over to see us for a couple of nights. It was great having them here, and just the tonic to help the battle (with cancer). Terry has designed all my book jackets. We had a chat about redesigning THE EAGLE’S COVENANT because of its lack of sales and very dark jacket. The jacket for the Harlequin book is very light and miles away from anything I would have considered. But that what professional jacket designers do. It’s on the back-burner for a while; probably until the New Year. After taking our son and grand- daughter back to the airport, we managed to get along to church: first visit for three weeks. We enjoyed that immensely.

The Waiting Game

At last my latest novel is on its way. I finished my read-through after Pat had gone through the manuscript with her red pen; then sent the final doc. to my publisher. I offered to send it in hard copy (double spaced), but she was quite happy to receive it as an e-mail attachment. Now it’s sweaty palms time: I’m wondering if she will like it enough to make me an offer, or if she will reject it out of hand. It’s a completely different genre to my usual stuff, and now I keep thinking of improvements I could have made to elements of the story. I find myself thinking how boring the beginning is, and then tell myself not to be so stupid; it’s the way I meant to write it. And so the mind games go on: all I can do is wait. I’ve got plenty of time to do that as well: I’ve got nothing to do. No, that’s not exactly true: I have plenty to do, but my day feels empty because I’m not working on a novel. Pat says I should start another. The truth is, I already have one half completed, but I need to completely restructure it and start at the beginning. I keep mulling ideas over in my head, but I’m not coming up with satisfactory synopses.

Another reason for not getting down to more hard work is the fact that we are waiting for some people to let us know if they would like to buy our house. Four people (two couples) viewed the house several days apart. Each couple wanted a second viewing which meant four viewings. Then they had to meet up in UK to discuss it. Today, Monday, is when we expect to hear from them. (Well; this week). If they make us an offer we are happy to accept; we will be shifting into panic mode and my writing will go out of the window until we are safely back in England. Meanwhile life goes on and there’s nothing we can do other than wait and hope. Perhaps we’ll be home by Christmas.

Incidentally, the title of my novel is PAST IMPERFECT. I know it’s the same title as a book by Julian Fellowes (Downton Abbey), but I had the title in my head almost from the word go. I’ll ask my publisher’s opinion on this if she agrees to publish. I know titles are not copyright, but sometimes a big selling author can get in the way. That’s the reason I changed one of my book titles from THE THIRD SECRET to ROSELLI’S GOLD. Wish me luck!

Fulfilling Week

It’s been quite a week, one way or another. Having finished and read through my manuscript, I printed it out (double spaced) for my wife, Pat, to do a read-through. By page two she was happily wielding the red pen and completed the MS by the end of the week. I value her contribution because she sees many things that I don’t, which is an enormous help. I began my read-through yesterday, Saturday, and hope to have it completed by the end of this week. Then it will be sent to my publisher. If she rejects the book, I will publish it myself on Amazon, but probably under a pseudonym. The reason for this is because it is written in a totally different genre to all my other books.

I had a nice surprise come through the post when my royalty statement appeared. The sale of THE BOY FROM BERLIN e-book had gone above 1700 for the six months from January 1^st. For me this is a staggering amount and actually supports the argument, in my case, for sticking with a traditional publisher. Hopefully this will increase the sales of my other titles. Oh, and before anyone asks why I will self-publish my latest book if it’s rejected, the reason is that I would almost certainly not find another publisher, and at my age I would be wasting my time doing so. Amazon is the quickest way for me.

On the domestic front, we had a second viewing on our villa during the week. There is now a wait until the clients return to UK, but they have promised to let us have an answer within a couple of weeks.

Friday morning I was at hospital for an appointment. This was followed by a prayer meeting at my local, Christian Fellowship. On Saturday we attended a lunch with Adrian Plass; a minister who is probably as funny as any of the top comedians you would watch anywhere; either on TV or live. Not one swear word (naturally) and he had us all in fits of laughter with tears rolling down our faces. A very funny man and, a brilliant wordsmith: he has published many books.

Another passion of mine is speedway, and on Saturday night it was the Polish Speedway Grand Prix from Torun. I watched it on Eurosport. It was the end of the season and an English rider by the name of Tai Woffenden won the world title. Point scoring is achieved throughout the year. Brilliant night and smiles all round.

So, my week went well. Now I will get down to the third read through of my manuscript. Wish me luck!

First Draft

Made it! I finished the first draft last week: 98,000 words. I did promise myself I would have a break before beginning the read through and edit, but I started reading it a couple of days ago. Pat asked me this morning if I was pleased with what I had written and I found myself hesitating before I could answer. Does that mean I’m not happy with it? Who knows? I have to go with my instincts and my self-belief. In a TV interview (it can be seen on my website) I claimed that a writer should be able to write anything. I did say that it might not be very good if said writer had to write in a genre in which he or she wasn’t use to, but the prospect shouldn’t faze them. I can only describe my latest work as a mixture of romance, mystery and intrigue. It’s a two-fold story in which one is interwoven with the other. One story spans a number of years while the other spans just a few months. There is an element of violence that would stop it from dropping neatly into the romance category, although I believe a lot of romance readers would put up with the bad bits because the good bits are, well, good. Oh, and there are opportunities to shed a few tears (for the girls). But, and it’s a big but, whatever I or Pat (she will be reading the manuscript for me) think about it, the one person who has to like it is my publisher. And there’s the rub: I write thrillers, and she may not like me diverting from that. If the book is rejected I will publish it on Amazon. And this is the beauty of writing today; the fact that a rejection doesn’t mean that your book will never see the light of day. Hooray for that! So what now? Well, I will press on with the read through and have the MS ready for Pat by the end of this week, providing I don’t come across any major problems.

On the domestic front, readers of my blog will know that we are trying to sell our house. Today we have a viewing. This will be a ‘third’ viewing. The first couple liked the house after two viewings but they could not make an offer until their relative sees it (half of the money). It will probably be a week before we know one way or the other, but if we receive an offer we are happy to accept; it will mean we’ll be on our way back to UK. But first things first: sell the house. Oh, and get the book finished. I don’t think the two projects will clash, although our tempers might become a little frayed. Watch this space. More next week!

Getting Close

I’ve reached 92,000 words of my next book and am getting close to my target of 100,000. With luck I should have my first draft finished by the end of the week. After that comes more hard work. And for any of you who read my blog and are thinking of writing a novel, simply because thousands of writers are at it now and publishing on Amazon, think carefully of what you’re letting yourself in for. Preparing any book means research, which can mean a great deal of writing and time spent before putting pen to paper. Depending on whether you work for a living or are retired, there’s the prospect of having to knock out a weekly target. Mine wasn’t set in stone but I like to think I could manage 3000 words a week. Sometimes I manage more, sometimes less. Over the last four weeks I have pushed myself and added about 7,000 words every week. What next? Now I have to go through my work line by line and make corrections to the grammar which includes spelling mistakes, punctuation etc. and the biggy of them all really: making sure my timelines are right, my characters remain the same age throughout the story, I don’t have someone living in a bungalow one minute and a house the next and the hero actually ends up with the right heroine. There are so many hurdles to cross that it makes you wonder why we write. After I have corrected my work, I will print it out, double spaced and my wife will read through it with a red pen. No doubt she will find errors and point out where I have misunderstood a woman’s intentions or something equally absurd. But the point about this example of which way I’m going is to show that I’m still a long way from finally producing a novel that I’m happy with (are we ever happy?). Then I have to send it to my publisher, and if she likes it, she will make me an offer and if I accept, the book will be passed on to the professionals for editing and proof reading. Phew!

I find I tend to get a bit insular when I’m closing in on the end of the book. I make excuses to myself for not doing those jobs that require my attention, and I neglect other pursuits like reading or playing my keyboard. I try not to but my focus does seem to be drawn away from everything else. I don’t miss my sport on TV though. Saturday might was the Scandinavian Speedway Grand Prix won by Niels Christian Iversen (brilliant rider), and this afternoon, Sunday, was the derby football match between Manchester City and Manchester United. City won 4-1. Oh, and there’s speedway tomorrow evening on TV, then football again on Wednesday evening. It’s a good job I only write during daylight hours. But first things first: Let’s see if I can finish my first draft by the end of the month. Wish me luck.

One more thing: if you check out my website, you find that you can click on the jackets of three of my titles currently on sale at $0,99. A good buy.

A Different Kind of Week

No writing to speak of this week because we spent four days in Valencia. My wife has been there a few times, but this was my first trip. It’s a lovely city; very clean and well cared for. The tourist attractions are plentiful which was the reason for our visit. The highlight of the trip for me was the Bioparc: a zoo in which the animals are virtually behind glass. It gives the visitor the chance to literally walk among the animals. We also visited the Oceanograhica which is a huge aquarium. Once again a wonderful exhibition but like most aquariums (aquaria?) they are all very similar. The dolphin show was good. It always amazes me how those creatures can interact with humans and how they can identify commands which are usually just small sounds and hand slaps.

Although I haven’t written anything this week, thoughts of my next book and the progress I’m making haven’t been far away. I am currently at about 85,000 words and hope to reach 100,000 by the end of this month. With the advent of Amazon publishing there is no longer the worry that my book will be rejected by my publisher which would leave it gathering dust on some literary agent’s shelf. As an established writer I know I can publish on Amazon and enjoy seeing my work in print. Naturally I would rather my publisher do the work for me and produce a splendid hardback novel for me to gloat over, but we’ll have to wait and see on that one.

Nothing else to write about on the book front other than the slow sales I’m experiencing with my titles. No doubt I’m one of several hundred thousand writers in that position, so I wish you all a lot of luck. More next week.

Pulp Fiction

During the week I came across a post on one of the author websites that I visit every day in which the lady author stated that she had published five novels during 2012. I can’t remember if she claimed to have written five novels in that time, but the fact that five of her books went live during that time got me thinking: what has Amazon led us into? Once upon a time it would have been a work of supreme effort to achieve that, but now it seems a common occurrence among some of the writing fraternity. I have to ask myself the question: are they any good? But does it matter? The advent of Amazon has removed the myth and mystique that used to surround a writer. Now we are all authors. Whether we are good or bad; it matters not. In a way that lady’s output diminishes the value of being a writer when I think of the hard work and hours of writing and editing that used to be the norm; for most of us anyway. Jeffrey Archer writes his first draft in longhand. After that there are usually another two drafts before being offered to his publisher. This comes after the research of course. John le Carré would write about a million words and discard over 50% of them. Jilly Cooper bashes away on a typewriter. All of these are world-wide best-selling authors, but I think they would shudder at the thought of their profession being sacrificed at Amazon’s altar of pulp fiction. Ghost writing is a lucrative profession, but it is pulp fiction nonetheless. Matt Lynn used to ghost-write military thrillers for Random House: the kind that sell by the ‘truck load’ in his words. Those writers write to a format in which creativity takes a back seat to the formula. In their own way they have talent, but they hide it behind the name of someone who ‘sells’ books. Eventually they usually give up hiding behind a ‘name’ and write books for themselves just as Matt Lynn did. I think Amazon has opened the way for a lot of good authors. It has also opened the door for the bad ones too. It doesn’t matter to Amazon: their remit is to sell books, which is what they do and do well. But it allows people to force feed the market and devalue the art of writing.

Words and Wealth

Another month begins and I hope to make more progress with my sales and with the word count for my current mss. Although my book sales are not meteoric, I have seen the increased figures for August published on Novel Rank (not entirely accurate), which is always good to see, and I have increased my word count to 76000 words. If both those figures remain on an upward trend, I should get past the one hundred for sales and reach 100,000 word count by the end of the month. But when things are going well, there’s always something cropping up and getting in the way. Last week I had a medical problem that needed sorting out, and as a consequence of that I have spent more than a few hours in waiting rooms. I still have a way to go yet, but I’m expecting to be out of the woods fairly soon. Its times like these when I think of people who cannot be in my position because of constant ill-health or financial problems. My life ticks along fairly evenly: no dramas. I mix my time between my hobbies and pursuits (I like football and speedway), my church, reading and watching TV. I’ve seen statistics that put me and my wife in the top 5% of the world population when it comes to health, wealth and happiness. By my own standards I am definitely not wealthy, but compared to a lot of people I must be. But what constitutes wealth? An income that covers your bills for one. It doesn’t have to be an enormous income so long as you have sufficient. A holiday once a year? Well, I’m retired and live in Spain where the sun is virtually guaranteed all year round, but yes; we do go on holiday. Last year we went to Australia, dropping in at Singapore and Bangkok. This year we spent time in UK. Next week we are having a break in Valencia with friends. And the other thing for happiness is, of course, good health. I admit that good health is relative: I’m not as healthy as I was in my twenties, but I mustn’t grumble. And I have a loving wife and we have God in our lives, so it can’t be bad, can it? Getting back to the book sales, I believe it’s all about promotion first then sales to follow. This month I kick off with a promotion for ROSELLI’S GOLD. This will be with the Kindle Book Review. I can only gauge the success of that promo if I see an increase in the graph when I check my Amazon sales rank. So what next? Well, I must keep my head down, keep writing and get to that target of 100,000 words. But even then I won’t be finished because I will need to read it through, edit it and then pass it on to my wife who will read it and point out all the mistakes I’ve missed. What would I do without her? Wish me luck!

Progress Two Ways.

Almost at the end of the month and my word count had reached 67000. By the end of the month I should have managed 70,000. But thereby hangs a dilemma: I’m making such good progress that there’s a danger I might go over my projected target of 100,000. It might seem silly to say that, but my publisher usually wants between 60 – 100 thousand words. That would mean either a rejection or a suggestion that the novel be cut. Like most writers, having penned all those words over a long period and then re-edited, the last thing I want is to have to cut again. Stephen King said that the second draft should be the first draft minus 10%. It might be tongue in cheek advice, but could be necessary nonetheless. I know where I’m heading with this book and have resolved one or two sticky problems that I have to face — well, that my characters have to face — and I can see that I’m in danger of over-running. I could look at it like a football manager who says he’s happy to have too many good players to choose from; he’d rather that than not have enough players. I’m also looking at a way of improving my promotion methods. It’s all a bit crazy at the moment, but I see positive movement in my rankings followed by drops, then a surge again, and I realise that I am not keeping my eye on the ball. I currently have three of my titles outperforming the others (seven with AB.c), but only two of them have been promoted very recently. The third was promoted over four weeks ago, so maybe that’s a knock-on effect. I would like to think that readers like my work and download my other titles. I am also picking up moderate reviews (17 to date) bringing me an average for one title of four stars; this is for a title that hasn’t been promoted for a while. So I am going to devise a plan (like Baldrick in Black Adder, I have a cunning plan) that tells me which titles to promote, where and when. Oh, and how much to spend! One thing I have admitted too is that I don’t have much of a clue when it comes to promoting myself, but there’s nothing like stumbling along to help climb the learning curve. One of my colleagues on Acclaimed Books (Peter Lihou) has marketing in his blood and seems to be doing quite well with his titles. But budgets come into it as well, and I try to stick to a percentage of my royalty income which at the moment is quite small. But I have to remember that this is a hobby and as much as I would like to make a huge success of it, I won’t break the bank trying. Besides, there are more important things in life. Wish me luck!

I've been away!

For some reason, and I don't know why, none of my blog posts have reached this blog. I need to keep an eye on it. Anyway, for those stalwarts among you who look in on my blog from time to time, here is my last post from August 19th................................ I’ve seen various articles recently about the rise and fall of the e-book, and the return to the top of the pyramid of traditionally published books. Each article presents a reasonable and credible discussion on the merits of each process, and for indie authors of a nervous disposition it means the end is nigh! Apart from the famous and the infamous, to be a successful writer you need a massive slice of luck, and there’s nothing truer than that old saying: luck is when opportunity and preparation come together. How often have you heard someone say that it’s taken them twenty or so years to become an overnight success? And one famous golfer said that the more he practices, the luckier he gets. Napoleon once said ‘I don’t want good generals, I want lucky generals’. But if the luck comes your way, you need to sustain it with a quality product, and for a writer that means talent. I can honestly say that I have never been taught to write: all that happened was that I studied English language from junior school up through senior school, which helped me with my spelling, my grammar and also, if ever I needed it, how to summarise. But probably the one thing that has been a constant guide and a hard learning curve has been rejection. That more than anything helps a writer to produce a story that might be acceptable to a publisher, but it doesn’t teach a writer to write. When my first book was published in 1980 (NORTH SLOPE), it sold 2000 copies in its first year. It didn’t go into paperback, and the following year my publisher dropped me. This was another rejection of course. I published that title last year on Amazon and sold something like 6000 copies in less than six months. But I was riding on the Amazon Kindle revolution which has dropped off dramatically now, and so have my sales. The luck was with me then and I hope it continues, but I have to admit that I’m still working on it, still writing and still trying to promote and market my work. So as the e-book market drops away and it is, believe me, I am back in a parallel, literary world to the one I have inhabited for most of the last thirty years, fighting for recognition. But the big guns are fighting back and restoring the publishing pyramid: big boys on top, bottom feeders at bottom. The difference now of course is that success is down to me and will come depending on how hard I work and how lucky I become. Wish me luck!

My latest guest blog at Jill Edmonson's blogspot.

Sasha Jackson Mysteries: What Makes an Author by guest blogger Michael Park...: What makes an author? And why so many?  By Guest Blogger Michael Parker When I look at other writers, they always seem to be succ...

Busy Times

The week zips by when you have a lot to do, but so does the day. This morning I took my wife to the doctor. Then I went up to our local hospital to chase up an appointment I needed but hadn’t received. Spent about an hour and a half in there and achieved little. Dash back home for a dental appointment, then a short break before my weekly snooker match with my mate, Ricardo. Now it’s early evening, I’m fed and watered and getting down to the business of writing my blog, a bit of keyboard practice and then an hour of ITV4’s highlights of the Tour de France. There, I managed all that without mentioning Andy Murray and the British Lions. Definitely a good weekend to be British. Pity Lewis Hamilton couldn’t contribute by winning the German F1 GP.

So what else have I been up to? I’ve added more words to my latest novel. I’m now up to 19500. I won’t be writing today though, but because I don’t stick to an average amount per day, I’m under no self-imposed pressure. The aim is to reach 100,000 words by the end of the year and hope my publisher likes it enough to make me an offer. Of course, in this day and age of indie publishing, if my MS is turned down I can at least publish it myself.

The eReader News Today (ENT) are posting my novel A COVERT WAR as a ‘Bargain Book of the Day’ today. That will be on for 24 hours. I think this is an excellent way, and not costly, to publicise my work and get my name further out into the public domain. The price has been dropped to $0.99, and that will be held there for perhaps a day longer than the promotion. I won’t know for a little while how well the book sold, but ENT usually contact me within a week asking for their money: a percentage of that day’s sales. Perhaps by next week I will know how well or badly I’ve done.

It’s difficult to know which is the best way to go to promote my books. If I wanted to spend a lot of money I could reach further out into the public domain, but that wouldn’t guarantee my books would sell. Although the process of building your name can be slow, once it has taken off, the overall affect could be dramatic. But in order to do that I would need to have good reviews and make the readers feel confident that in my books they will find the escapist entertainment that satisfies their quiet moments when all they want to do is to curl up with a good book. I hope I can do that. Wish me luck!

Cheques and Specs

Giveaways and New beginnings

Harrier Jump Jet

I did something during the week that I’ve rarely done before, and that was to enter a short story competition. I’m not a great believer in short stories because to me they are more or less like and extended joke with a punch line at the end. There’s very little room for all the artistic merits about building characters, drama, mystery etc., but I succumbed this time with a story of a flight I once took in a Harrier jump jet. I was fortunate enough in 1996 to be in the back seat of a Harrier GR7 with my son, Terry in the front seat. We flew from his base in Lincolnshire to Norfolk where we flew over my house. Then we did an about turn and went across country to Wales to fly through the valleys in a mesmerizing display of speed and consummate skill. (By my son: not me!). It was amazing to see the walls of the valleys flash by as we headed towards a dam on which we would be doing a simulated bombing run (probably the most ‘bombed’ dam in UK). It was incredibly exciting, and on the return trip across England I was allowed to take the controls. I flew the Harrier briefly and performed a barrel roll. The jet reacted like it was on rails. When we returned to the base where my wife was waiting with our three other sons, Terry did a fly-by and then put the Harrier through its amazing ability to hover and rise up and down like a lift. Before the sortie finished, Terry turned the aircraft towards his mum and dropped the nose in a bow. My wife said her heart was in her mouth as she watched the jet almost stand on its nose with her husband and son in the cockpit. It all ended well and afterwards I was presented with a framed, signed picture of the jet in which I flew. It was certainly an unforgettable day. The short story I’ve submitted is almost exactly how the sortie panned out except I have liberated the truth and added some spine tingling dog fighting in there. Whether the story, titled ‘SORTIE’ will win or not isn’t really important, but it has been gathering e-dust in my computer files and needed an airing. Wish me luck!

Webinar and spelling

It’s been quite a week one way or another. I finally managed to get on with some writing, or rather, catching up with what I had managed in the past. I’m putting together a kind of family saga, but with a difference. I’ll be running two stories in parallel; both of which are connected, but not that it’s entirely obvious from the outset. More astute readers may catch on early in the book, but I intend something of that nature to happen to all the readers as I will be dropping clues left right and centre. The story will not be a romance, per se, but will include elements of a thriller and a mystery (hopefully). I don’t know how long it will take me, but my track record says at least a year.

Readers of my blog will know that I try very hard not to read my reviews. I make a conscious effort to avoid them. But unfortunately I came across one yesterday, quite by accident in which the reviewer gave me a two star rating and a dressing down for spelling. The date of the review was June 7. It took me a little while to figure out how on earth I can be accused of poor spelling; something at which I am extremely competent. Then it occurred to me that the reviewer was almost certainly complaining about the English spellings of many of the words used in the book. Just a few lines up from here is the word ‘centre’. This is spelt correctly according to the Oxford English Dictionary, but the American word would be ‘center’. The review told me more about the reviewer than the book. I believe the majority of American readers accept the English spellings in much the same way as the majority of English readers accept the American spellings. Let’s face it: the story matters most, not whether centre should be spelt that way or the American way.

I sat in on a webinar last Saturday. It was a power point presentation given by Jim Kukral of the Author Marketing Club. It was a helpful presentation on how to sell more books on Amazon. I found it interesting and helpful. There were a couple of ideas which I will probably follow up (when I have time). But for now it’s back to my own version of promotion and marketing and how to sell more books on Amazon. Wish I knew!

One for the weekend

Bargain Book
My latest addition to the Amazon kindle ranks is THE EAGLE'S COVENANT. I have reduced the price to $0.99, and will keep it low until the end of June. This is a modern thriller set in modern Germany. The two main characters are Joanna Schiller - the young, English widow of Hans Schiller who was heir to the colossal, Schiller corporation - and Conor Lenihan, ex IRA, ex SAS and a killer. Events bring these two together after Joanna's newborn son is kidnapped by a terrorist gang of whom Lenihan is a member. If you like police procedures, blackmail, cyber warfare and covert figures in the world of politics and business, this is  one that will fit easily into your weekend read. You can check it out at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CJZE6Y0/?tag

Back to Work

Back in harness again and looking forward to getting on with my next novel. This will be a ‘composite’: a mixture of two books written a long time ago but never having seen the light of day. The whole project has been growing on me for some time. I had started another thriller last year, but the advent of Amazon Kindle and indie publishing, along with the fact that I had levered the paperback rights to my books from my publisher meant that I spent most of the year working in that direction. As a result the thriller was put aside with the intention of taking it up again once the Kindle projects were out of the way. I did actually begin again, but then picked up the other project and mulled that over. Eventually it was obvious to me which story I wanted to complete, so the thriller will not emerge for a long, long time.

Mine and Pat’s trip back to UK last week was essentially to see the British Speedway Grand Prix (for me) at the Millennium stadium in Cardiff. I go every year with my son, John. This year we added on a few days and spent a bit of time sightseeing, shopping, family visits and looking round park home sites. We found a site in East Sussex which we both like. Once we have sold our house here in Spain, we’ll be bound for that county to rent and then, hopefully to buy a home on the site.

No startling news on the book front. This is another month so another book will feel the weight of promotion. It’s THE EAGLE’S COVENANT’s turn to be dropped in price. It will be $0.99 for most of this month. I have asked ENT to post it but there’s no guarantee they will pick it up. The last two promotions with ENT were very successful, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed for this one. I will also be giving away five copies of SHADOW OF THE WOLF. These are available in the ‘Giveaway’ comp. on Goodreads. Plus – I will be giving away three kindle books on Momma Says Read. So, let’s see what happens. I’ll keep my fingers crossed and hopefully my readers will wish me luck.

Positive Results

Almost at the end of the month and the end of a book promotion that has achieved some positive results. I had a bargain book promo on eReaderNewsToday (ENT) for ROSELLI’S GOLD. It sold 141 copies that day. There was also a trickle follow on of sales following the promotion, but I did keep the price down to $0.99. It was put back up today. Next month I hope to promote THE EAGLE’S COVENANT with ENT, but I will only know if they have picked it up when they contact me. If I don’t hear from them, then it won’t appear on their bargain deal pages.

I have sent two copies of THE DEVIL’S TRINITY to two lucky prize winners in the ‘Momma Says Read’ book competition. Hopefully the winners, both of whom live in America, will put a review on Amazon for me. I have entered another ‘giveaway’ on the same site; this time for three eBooks. And I have offered five copies of SHADOW OF THE WOLF on Goodreads giveaway.

Overall I’m pleased with the positive effect I’m getting through these promos, and hopefully it will mean my readership will grow. One thing that comes home to me quite forcefully is the need to keep on promoting and pushing my name and books into the public domain. It isn’t easy when all this is done on a limited budget. It would be possible to spend more than I earn, which would be counterproductive of course. But I imagine that if I just relied on good fortune and did nothing for my books to sell; they would disappear without trace.

We’re off to UK tomorrow for a week, so I’ll have limited on-line time. It might do me good to stay off it for a while. The main reason for the visit is to go to Cardiff for the British Speedway Grand Prix. If you haven’t a clue what I’m on about, then there’s no point in trying to persuade you what a fantastic sporting event it is: the biggest speedway event in the world.

Oh, another promotion I’m doing next month is HELL’S GATE, but more about that nearer the date. It all means keeping busy even though I still have a book to write.

No blog next week because I’ll be in UK. Catch up with me in a couple of weeks’ time.

Price reduction

I have just persuaded my publisher to reduce the price of my book, THE BOY FROM BERLIN. This is the only title of mine on Amazon to which I do not have the rights. The price is $4,99 (£3.30). It has been released as a paperback in America by Harlequin Books, so I have great hopes for it. The link is http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009R6A26U/?tag

Short blurb: Secrets lurk around every corner as Gus Mason strides towards the Presidency of the United States of America. And from the Nazi death-camps to the steps of the White House, Gunter Haman and Jacob Demski, heir to the Jewish mafia empire, unravel a mystery that threatens the very fabric of the American way of life. However, as Lieutenant Amos, a Newark Police Officer, investigates the supposed suicide of a local senator, his investigations lead him deep into the corrupt world that inhabits the underbelly of American politics and closer to the truth. 

Indie or not?

THE EAGLE’S COVENANT is now available in paperback in Europe only. I ordered a copy for my son, Terry because he designed the book jacket. I always send him the books he’s designed so he can scrutinise the results. I have also ordered some copies for myself and will no doubt buy more at some future date. I can’t release this book in America because Harlequin Books have the English language rights over there, and will be releasing the book in November this year. This means that all my books, eight in all, are now available on-line and in paperback. Now I have to concentrate on promotion and marketing for a while. Anyone know a shortcut to success? Let me know if you do.

There has been a lot of talk on the web for some time now about the conflict between self-publishing and mainstream. No doubt the big five (or is it six?) will not be too worried. I can’t see the threat of indie publishing making a hole in the main industry, but what I do see is the huge increase in digital sales, which will force the giants to get thoroughly involved. And once they do that, they will try to dominate the market again, by hook or by crook. But the advantage that the indie writers have is price. As an example, the rights to my eBook, THE BOY FROM BERLIN belong to my publisher. The price is currently around $9. It is languishing at about 1,000,000 in the rankings. This almost certainly means that it isn’t selling. Even Dan Brown would have trouble selling an eBook at that price. My eBooks are priced at $2.99 and from time to time I drop the price or have given them away free. It’s about flexibility and trying to gauge the right time to promote with a price change. I have an author friend who managed to free herself from her publisher’s contract and is now selling about 1000 eBooks per month: something her publisher was never able to match. So for indie writers, their future is in their own hands, and if they are happy to build a readership gradually, and by that increase their sales, they will never need to consider mainstream publishing.  

Ups and Downs

Some people have good and bad days. Me? I have good and maybe not so good days. My week began on a good note because ENT posted my bargain book deal (ROSELLI’S GOLD), which resulted in 141 sales. There is usually a follow on effect from this, and my other title which was a bargain deal (THE DEVIL’S TRINITY) is still selling; something it was failing to do before the daily deal was posted on ENT. My not so good moment came when I realised that I was in a quandary about a decision I’d made earlier about which story to write. I’d decided that my thriller set in Mexico had to be set aside for another, totally different genre novel that had been running around in my mind for quite a while. I made some good progress on that, but pretty soon my thriller was knocking a hole in my head demanding to be put down on paper again. So I picked it up and dusted it off, but even now I’m not so sure. It’s known as ‘dithering’.

We attended a funeral later in the week which was a ‘not so good’ day. It was for an old chap from our church. We’d been visiting him and his wife for a couple of years. His wife died last year after a long battle with the big ‘C’. He succumbed eight months later. He was 89.

One of the elements of successful sales is good book reviews. But reviews do seem to be as rare as hen’s teeth. I keep putting out feelers, offering both print and kindle files but still have to see results. By that I mean people who have asked for a copy getting back to me. I don’t expect a five star review just because I have given a book away, but an e-mail to say the review has been posted would help. Trouble is I don’t like reading my reviews, but if I’ve asked for them I really have no choice.

I am about to publish THE EAGLE’S COVENANT in paperback for the European market. I can’t put this on Amazon.com because Harlequin Books have the English language rights to the book throughout The United States, the American territories and Canada. They will be releasing this in November. So the book will appear soon on Amazon.co.uk as a Createspace paperback.

Time now for other things like work around the house. Have to keep on top of it because it’s on the market and we want to sell and go back to UK. So maybe while I’m plastering, painting or weeding, I’ll be having a ‘not so good’ day. Wish me luck.

Bargain Book

ROSELLI'S GOLD a bargain book deal today on ENT. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0069TYFK2/?tag

Catching Up

Late today; should have posted this yesterday. Had some good news over the weekend: my bargain deal, THE DEVIL’S TRINITY, was picked up by ENT, and the result was 122 sales that day. Compare that to an average of one sale every two weeks and that’s a huge result. It lifted the book from about 350,000 in the rankings to 1200. It also reached #34 in the Action & Adventure category. There’s usually a follow on effect, although I’m not expecting too much. The ranking is now falling away as expected, but it was great to see it up there with the big boys.

My latest title to go on Amazon is THE EAGLE’S COVENANT. I will be getting round to some promotion later this week. I did plan a paperback giveaway, but then realised that I can’t because Harlequin Books have the paperback rights for North America. They will be publishing the book in November, so I will have to wait until then before giving copies away. However, I will be exploring the possibility of releasing the book in UK, because I still have the rights there. Just something else to think about.

I have been giving some thought to the way in which I put myself about on the various social networks, knowing that the sole reason for me using them is to promote my books. I think it’s time to consider the old saying: “less is more”. I think I need to bite the bullet and dump some of those networks that I use but never see the benefit. I believe Goodreads is probably the way to go, along with Twitter and Facebook. Trouble is I really only see family and friends on FB. And Twitter? I always feel as though it’s a complete waste of time considering the enormous number of tweets that flow through my account each day, and that’s with about 700 followers. Who reads them? Perhaps I’m doing something wrong. I have used a website called Fiverr. I was able to tweet through them to about 100,000 tweeters using someone else’s tweet account. I paid five dollars and had tweets going out about my book for a week.

I’m now working on another book. This will not be a thriller, but as I am under contract to my publisher, she will get first refusal once it’s finished. I’ll leave you all guessing as to what kind of book it will be. All I can say at the moment is that this is one that I wrote several years ago but never offered it up for publication. Even now I’m not sure I’m doing the right thing. I dropped all my latest research and 30,000 words for a thriller set in Mexico because I couldn’t get this novel out of my head. And being a writer, as most writers will know; once you get an idea stuck in your head, and it won’t go away, you have no excuse but to get it down on paper. So, maybe this time next year I will have another title to publish on Amazon. Wish me luck!

Weekend Read

Latest Release
My latest Kindle title, THE EAGLE’S COVENANT is now available on Amazon (both sites) at $2,99. Check it out at htttp://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CJZE6Y0/?tag

Bargain Book

I have been promoting one of my titles, THE DEVIL'S TRINITY since dropping the price two weeks ago to $0,99, but very little happened. Then yesterday ENT picked it up and posted it as a bargain, daily deal and bingo! sales started climbing. I was looking at a sale of about one or two as a result of the price drop, but just a small ad (free) for a day on ENT and I have a big smile on my face. It reached #34 in the Action & Adventure category, and at the time of writing it is beginning to fall away. But what the hec: a nice little surprise for yours truly. Why not check it out athttp://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A40ZUWE/?tag ?

The Ups and Downs of My Book World.

Life is full of little surprises, and none of us are immune to them. My last post included a piece about a young, lady writer I joining Acclaimed Books and hoping to publish a collection of quotes that made people happy. I had passed on a recollection of something that had made me happy and included in that was a reference to my church here in Torrevieja. I subsequently learned that any reference to God, church or religion of any sort was not welcome, and would be edited out of any quotes she received. As a result of this I withdrew my submission. The young lady is free to publish what she wants within the bounds of decency and law of course, and I now doubt if I would have recommended her to AB.c had I known earlier of her stance on a subject that is close to mine and many people’s hearts. I did say to her when she approached me about Acclaimed Books that I would be quite happy to help her if she needed it, but it would be hypocritical of me now to help her produce a book in which those beliefs I hold are rejected. So that makes my position an unhappy one. I have always been disposed to offer advice to ‘wannabe’ authors, and have had the pleasure of pointing people in the right direction many times. Now sadly I have to face the other way, and that is one of those little surprises I never expected.

My three day promotion of SHADOW OF THE WOLF finished on the 20^th. of this month, and my download results were poor although not unexpected. I ended up giving away 700 copies. Now I have to wait and see if there is a sales bump as a result of the rankings I attained during the promotion. I reached #3 in War fiction and #75 in the top 100 thrillers. The day after my promotion my rankings had plummeted to over 367,000. This doesn’t auger well for future sales, so I just have to hope that those people who downloaded my book for free will like what they read and buy some of my other titles. Lots in fact!

I am currently working on THE EAGLE’S COVENANT and have converted it to kindle format. I’m busy proof-reading it and hope to have that finished by the end of the month. The paperback version will be published in November by Harlequin Books. Hopefully by then there will be some decent reviews on Amazon for Harlequin to include in their promotion. Wish me luck!

Quotes

More Promotions

I have a lot of thinking to do about the way in which I will go with respect to my writing. I am currently working on a project which could take all of this year to complete. This isn’t a problem as any writer will know, but I keep getting distracted by wanting to turn my attention to other projects like book promotion and marketing etc. I also have another title waiting to be published on Amazon. This is THE EAGLE’S COVENANT, which was published in hardback about four years ago by my current publisher, Robert Hale, and is due for publication in paperback by Harlequin in November. I have the rights to the e-book, and all that needs to be done is the conversion to kindle format. My son has finished the book jacket, so what am I waiting for?

I have also received an ‘offer’ through the contact page on my website to promote my books ‘in perpetuity’ etc. giving me the chance to raise my rankings to the highest places, pushing my books among the high rollers etc. Do I sound cynical? You bet I do, but there are some pretty good statements included in the promotion blurb. I did say recently that the only people making money among the indie writers populating the bottom of the kindle pile are those people offering to make your book a success for a price. But without some kind of professional push and effort, my sales will probably continue to languish among the bottom feeders until I’m that old it won’t make any difference to me whether I make it or not.

So what do I do? Blow $250 on a marketing campaign orchestrated by someone I have never heard of but promises much? Or do I rely on my own efforts and continue to sell one book a day (my current sales on Amazon)? I’ve been promoting the hell out of THE DEVIL’S TRINITY, but no-one is taking any notice. Pity because it is an exciting read. It has picked up a couple of reasonable reviews, so I can’t complain.

Today on the home front, I have the pool men in. (Swimming pool). They are giving it a ten year overhaul. They turned up this morning mob handed at 8-30, ready to go. They’ve been jet spraying the empty pool, repairing broken pieces, cleaning here and there. They had the sand filter out and replaced the sand and fitted a couple of new valves. It should look like a brand new pool once it’s all done. I don’t use it much. My wife spends most of the summer swimming. Me? I think I swam twice last year, and only because I was bullied into it. I’d much sooner be writing.

We had a young lady join our Acclaimed Books Group this last week. Her name is Clare Lawrence, and she is compiling a book of quotes on “What Makes You Happy?”. She wants 365 quotes for her book so that she has one for every day of the year. If you feel you would like to contribute, please contact Clare at any of the following links. Thank you.

Clare Lawrence.

clare_bean3@yahoo.co.uk / clare21@live.com

:https://www.facebook.com/clare.lawrence.184 

https://www.facebook.com/clare.lawrenceii 

https://www.facebook.com/TheWhatMakesYouHappyBookProject

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Clare-Lawrence-Author-III/196401540488536

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Clare-Lawrence-Celebrity-Journalist-II/158561497563297

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Clare-Lawrence/443166629059252

https://twitter.com/#!/

https://clarelawrencecelebrityjournalist.wordpress.com/ 

The Other Side of Life.

Shocking news yesterday. Pat and I had just come back from church when we received a phone call from our neighbour to tell us that our Vet had murdered his wife. This was the Vet who came to our house four weeks ago to put our dog, Lucy down. We have used his practice for a few years now and he has operated on our cat and dog, plus giving them the usual vaccinations etc. The shop, which is in a local village, was always busy with a mixture of Spanish as well as ex-Pats. The vet’s daughter ran the shop. She was always there with a smile on her face, and always remembered your pets’ names. They rescued lots of animals, and it wasn’t unusual to see a dozen or so puppies or kittens in their shop, happily playing with toys, unaware of their own fate. They are an Argentine family, and have been in practice her for a good number of years. I think probably everyone who used the surgery were very happy with him. Then this: such a tragedy. He is now in custody, the practice is closed and I wonder if it will ever open again. We no longer have Lucy, but we still have Treacle (our cat), so we’ll be looking for another practice.

On the book front, I can now see my way clear to get down to some writing. I have a short story to finish, then I’ll begin on my next, full length novel which I hope will keep me occupied for a while. If we sell our house, that will be a major disruption because we will be returning to England.

I have been promoting SHADOW OF THE WOLF, which will be free on Amazon April 18/19/20, and I have also paid for retweets for my book, THE DEVIL’S TRINITY. It’s amazing how you can misjudge the potential of your own books. I thought this one was a must for the American market, but I have only sold about five or six copies since it was released a few months ago. One of my better sellers is NORTH SLOPE. This seems to sell slowly but continuously. Maybe it’s because it has 43 reviews to its credit, and most of them are four star. I’m still waiting for someone to review SHADOW OF THE WOLF. Hopefully it will happen. I’m confident it won’t be panned (fingers crossed). Wish me luck!.

Two Kinds of Promotion

It’s April Fool’s day today and the beginning of a month where I have high hopes of getting my title, SHADOW OF THE WOLF into the spotlight. I intend putting it on the Kindle Select promotion for three days: 18/19/20. It will be free of course and I’m hoping to pick up some good reviews and, naturally, some sales after the promotion. It’s always a risk, giving away your books for free. If you get a high number, it means that readers have picked up your book for nothing and may not even bother to read it (it happens). And you think of how much you could have earned if those downloads had resulted in sales. But you have to sow in order to reap, and maybe a substantial number of those who read my book will realise that I’m worth keeping an eye on. It’s always necessary to promote the title, and this can be time consuming and sometimes a complete waste of time, but it’s a necessary evil. I started my campaign yesterday, posting on about eight sites that want notification of your free titles well in advance. Some won’t even look at your book if you don’t have a certain minimum number of reviews for it. It’s a bit of a chicken and egg argument: how can I get reviews if I’m not prepared to give free copies away?

Another problem I have with SHADOW OF THE WOLF is: how do I categorise it? It’s a war story, but not about battles between two opposing armies. The story is set on a remote island off the north coast of Scotland in 1943: a defunct whaling community where the young men are away fighting a war. The old men and women are at home living a relatively, peaceful existence, knowing there’s a war on but not experiencing the horror. Then suddenly they find themselves under the heel of the Nazi jackboot. I could categorise this under ‘Mystery’ because there is a mystery to be solved. ‘Thriller’ because any story involving soldiers and innocent civilians has the DNA thread of excitement and fear running through it. Or I could call it ‘Action & Adventure’, which would also satisfy the description. But however I describe it, the book is one of my best and worth keeping an eye out for.

I have another full week ahead of me, what with an Easter soiree with friends, promotion and all, and it keeps me away from writing. But I do have something else to occupy me this week, and that is preparing a sermon for next Sunday at our local fellowship here in Torrevieja (www.tcf-spain.org). Our Pastor is away for a couple of weeks and it’s down to me to bring the word to the congregation on Sunday. Some people say that because I am a writer it gives me the ability to write a good message. I say that I’m in God’s hands when I set out to do my research and it’s Him who fills the pages with text. Perhaps I should ask for guidance when I’m writing and when I’m promoting. Wish me luck.

To Sell or not to sell?

It’s been quite a week, one way or another. It began with my birthday, which is always nice and seemed to get busier from then on. I’ve had little opportunity to write and find myself wondering if and when it will happen. The new jacket design for my novel, HELL’S GATE was submitted to Amazon and hopefully this will help to draw potential readers to the book. I have tried to attract book reviewers for my latest Amazon publication, SHDOW OF THE WOLF, but it is proving to be extremely difficult. I have asked for book reviewers on about four different websites, and have only received one response. Ironically it was for a print copy of the book, rather than the .mobi (Kindle) or PDF files I offered. The book is on its way to a young lady in America, and I hope she enjoys it enough to put a review on Amazon and other places.

Last Sunday afternoon a couple of people turned up at our gate and asked for details about the house (it’s for sale). We invited them in and they stayed for about an hour. They came back yesterday and this time stayed for three hours. They have shown a keen interest in the villa, but have two others they also like. They left us with a promise ringing in our ears that they wouldn’t keep us waiting. If they like our house and make an offer we are happy to accept, we could be back in UK in a couple of months. No doubt my next blog entry will tell all. I’m doing some odd jobs around the house: jobs that have been needed and one of those was to empty the swimming pool. A pool company will be coming in the week after next to overhaul the pool and bring it up to tip-top condition.

I have another busy week coming up, and one of the projects I have is to prepare a sermon for April 7^th at my local, Christian Fellowship, TCF (www.tcf-spain.org). Once I have that out of the way I can get on with other d-i-y jobs and, hopefully, get back to my writing.

So, as life keeps me busy and there’s always something to do, I will keep on living in the hope that I can put another novel on Amazon. I’m contracted to my publisher for my next, full length MS of course, but I still have one more title to which I have the e-book rights, and I expect to be releasing that later this year. The title is THE EAGLE’S COVENANT, and it will be published in paperback by Harlequin Books. I may wait until nearer Harlequin’s publishing date before releasing the e-book. Wish me luck!

Birthday Boy

It’s a special day today because it’s my birthday: 72 years old and (hopefully) still going strong. Birthdays are special to youngsters but the wonder disappears as you get older. Then as you reach the autumn of your years they become important again. Perhaps it means I’m like a kid because it’s my day today. We have some friends coming round this afternoon for a chat, a drink and to bring me a little gift. When we were younger our friends would probably have met me down the pub and we would have had a blast. Yes, I must be getting older. I can look back on some of my birthdays with a smile on my face. My 21^st. was celebrated at a friend’s home in Carterton in Oxfordshire. We were both twenty one that day. My 40^th? Can’t remember that one. I probably had a ‘Life begins at Forty’ party. My 50^th. was the day I planned to play a song on my keyboard. My son had given me his old keyboard and I set about learning how to play it. I was geared up for a song, but no-body wanted to listen. Perhaps they knew something about my musical ability that I didn’t. It was a good party; held in our house at West Winch in Norfolk. My 60^th. found me in Spain and what I can remember about that is that we celebrated in a restaurant and them went next door to a bar where St. Patrick’s Day was being celebrated. I remember wearing a funny, green hat. My 70^th (slowing down now) was a meal with friends, paid for by me at a restaurant, which was actually next door to the pub where I’d had my 60^th. Sedate affair that one, but enjoyable none-the-less. But let’s face it: birthdays are special, and it’s nice when people put a smile on their face for your benefit and mean it when they say “Happy Birthday!”.

And now for an update about my book titles. I have replaced the book jacket for HELL’S GATE, and modified the Kindle file slightly. I couldn’t figure out why the book wasn’t selling as well as I had expected, but the more I saw the jacket on Amazon, the more I wondered if a change was needed. Time will tell of course. My latest offering, SHADOW OF THE WOLF, seems to be refusing all attempts as persuading reviewers to look at it. I have advertised (unpaid) in several places asking for reviewers, but no-one seems interested. Perhaps it’s because it’s a war story. I’m trying slipstream marketing with this book. I have slipstreamed THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL SOCIETY (Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows) together with RACHEL’S SHOE by Peter Lihou. Any readers of my blog who would be interested in reviewing it for me can contact me through this blog or through my website. I will send a .mobi or PDF file to the first, five people who request it. Why not have a look? Go on; it’s my birthday!

A Day of Mixed Emotions

Today is Monday and because it’s the beginning of the week it means different things to different people. In our household today it is a sad day because we are waiting for the vet to come to the house to put our lovely dog, Lucy, to sleep. Lucy is thirteen years old, an Alsatian Cross and a dearly loved pet. We found her in the garden of a holiday home where she had been dumped as a puppy. I brought her to the house and gave her a bath. I can remember how she looked, how she smelt and how nervous she was. We had another dog at the time: a cross between an Old English sheepdog and a black Labrador. She was called Missy and took Lucy under her wing. Missy lived for another couple of years and now we find ourselves going through the same scenario: calling the vet in. Someone asked why we pet owners put ourselves through this each time, but I suppose there’s no answer to that. We love animals and having them as pets around the house seems a natural thing. Ironically today is our cat’s birthday. Not that he knows that. He is fourteen years old today. He loves the dog and we wonder how he will react when the dog is no longer here. Men can be more stoical about these events, and I am fairly relaxed about it. My wife will be in bits when it’s all over, and I can understand that. But my apparent indifference is really only on the surface: I shall be upset when it happens and will miss our Lucy when she’s gone.

On the book front, today I will be linking up with Peter Lihou of Acclaimed Books to begin a campaign whereby we hope to increase the sales of our own books, released through the Acclaimed Books website and through Amazon. I have worked on-line with Pete for about five years now, and have met him once. I will be promoting my latest paperback/kindle novel: SHADOW OF THE WOLF and Pete will be promoting his novel, RACHEL’S SHOE. It will be a ‘slipstreaming’ promotion and hopefully will lift us both up in the Amazon rankings. Naturally we also hope for a knock-on effect with our other titles. You can see these books at www.acclaimedbooks.com and also on Amazon.

So, it’s a day of mixed feelings for me: excitement at the prospect of beginning a campaign and sadness at the loss of a faithful companion.

Ever Changing

It’s been quite a week since last Monday. We had four enquiries about the house. Two of those resulted in viewings: one lady from Hong Kong, and an English couple from Switzerland. The other two enquiries were by phone. The first viewing came fifteen minutes after the agent turned up at the gate asking if we would agree to his client having a look there and then. The second viewing was planned for Thursday, but while we were out shopping on the Wednesday, the agent rang to say he was at our gate with the client. The agent had managed to get the date wrong. So it was a quick dash back to the house. Nothing came of these two viewings or the two telephone enquiries, but that’s part and parcel of having your house on the market. Had a builder round to give me a price for a job that I wanted doing but didn’t really want to pay out for, but in the end it will add another plus to the house. This month will probably see the swimming pool emptied and given a facelift. I have the quote I want and once the pool is empty, the pool men can come in and get on with it. There are always jobs that need doing around the house and garden of course, but why do they all come at once when you want to sell your house? There have been other disruptions too during the week. Nothing dramatic, but it all interferes with my writing and my attempts to promote myself. During the week I put SHADOW OF THE WOLF on the market (Amazon) and was delighted to find that I’d sold two copies within a couple of days. Why delighted? Because I hadn’t got round to promoting it other than to forewarn any potential readers that it would soon be available. So hopefully some of you have been keeping an eye open for my books as they come on to the market. I have asked my four sons to buy a copy (Kindle). It will add to their inheritance I tell them. Only one response so far, but I’m sure the others will fall into line.

Another element of being a published author that we don’t shout about too much is when our books get ‘remaindered’. That means the publisher has no further use for the stock of unsold titles and more or less dumps them at a rock bottom price. One of my titles, A COVERT WAR (hardback) has been remaindered, and the copies I ordered for myself have just turned up at the gate by courier. Fortunately the book is still available as a paperback and Kindle, so it’s not all bad news.

But now it’s a case of looking ahead and pushing my name and my books, trusting my readers will help to promote my name out there because they enjoy my work. Wish me luck!

Wartime Thriller

The latest addition to my Amazon titles is SHADOW OF THE WOLF. This went on sale six days ago and should be available as a paperback within a few days. This is a World War Two story set off the north coast of Scotland on a small island called Cape Wrath. The island folk find themselves under the heel of the Nazi jackboot as Admiral Dönitz's naval storm troopers search for a missing U-boat captain and the secrets to Britain's centimetric radar. Learn more at http://www.amazon.com/dp/BOOBK79Y9A/?tag

Looking Ahead

Just had a weekend away from broadband, PC’s et al. We visited friends in Andalucia and had a pleasant time travelling around, looking in at the markets and visiting a delightful little spot called Villaricos on the coast. Even though I was nowhere near a PC, I still continued to write in my head. Do all writers do that? When my wife catches me daydreaming, she insists I am writing my next novel. She’s not far wrong; I’m usually sorting something out that I can use in my books. There’s one thing I cannot do though (amongst others), and that is to find some way of promoting my books so that they catch the eye of the reading public. I have dropped the price of the last book I published on Amazon: THE DEVIL’S TRINITY. I had it priced at $4.99 when it was released as a Kindle last October/November, working on the premise that readers will go for a higher priced book rather than the lower ones which often contain so much rubbish. It didn’t work: my title just languished in the very low ranks. It was during this period that my latest novel, THE BOY FROM BERLIN (my publisher still has the rights to that) was reduced in price on an Amazon Daily deal. It sold 1700 copies in a day at £0.99p. Once that price was restored to about £5.50p, the sales died away. And that was in the UK only. Imagine how well it would have done had it been available at the low price on Amazon.com. Anyway, I have reduced the price of my title and hopefully it will result in sales. I did drop the price of HELL’S GATE to a minimum, but the sales were disappointing. It just goes to show that without a strong campaign behind you, there’s little chance of achieving much. But I will keep on trying. The latest addition to my books on Amazon will be SHADOW OF THE WOLF. This is a war story of about 60,000 words in length, so it will not have a high price tag. I’m hoping for a lift because of this. One of my sons believes this is the best book I’ve written, but time will tell of course. Incidentally, my latest hardback, THE BOY FROM BERLIN, which did so well on that daily deal as a Kindle, is now available in paperback. This is from Harlequin Books who have the rights to North America and Canada for this title. Once again I hope this will give me a lift. Who knows? Wish me luck.

One Star Reviewers

What makes a good, book reviewer? And why can some of them be so wantonly damaging? As a writer I know I should listen to the advice about book reviews: don’t read them! From time to time I sneak a look, and sometimes I am delighted with what I read, and sometimes I am disappointed. It serves me right for looking. But I believe that a book review can say more about the reviewer than the book itself. A professional reviewer (one hopes) will give an opinion about style, quality of the writing, content and anything else they wish to say about the book. But I don’t think they would ever make damaging comments about the writer, who they have probably never met, because that would damage their own integrity as a book reviewer. Writers deserve to be criticised if they are sloppy and careless, but the majority of writers probably believe they are creditable and their work deserves some kind of recognition. If you’re a pulp fiction writer, knocking out stuff as a ghost writer, you would probably not have a great deal of interest in the quality of the writing so long as it sticks to the required style and pattern, and meets the publisher’s needs for that particular market. And if a reviewer decided to insult the ‘named author’ of a ghost written novel, they would be very wide of the mark. But inevitably we’re all in the mix together: writers good and bad, reviewers good and bad, and the paying public. But what has happened now that Amazon has burst the publishing bubble? Readers are invited to review books they have read and award a rating. It’s nice to get five stars of course, and really anything from three stars is good. But when some pumped up, self-important reviewer slaughters a writer and awards a one star review, it drops the average that appears alongside the book on the Amazon page, and all because the reviewer believes he or she is qualified to make an informed opinion not only about the content but about the writer as well. The reader of this blog will gather, by now, that I have been subjected to what amounts to a personal attack because the reviewer did not like my work. Unfortunately it goes with the territory, but I do wish reviewers would stop and think that reviews are not to be trifled with: they are an important guide to how well or how badly a book has been written. Slagging off the author simply shows what kind of person you are: not very pleasant.

Bargain Daily Deal

Daily Deal at http//www.thebookawards.com HELL’S GATE. $0.99 & £0.77 Today only. Also on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008N3MT6E/?tag. Historical Novel about British & German colonialism in British East Africa 1898. Political intrigue, slavery, romance and building a railway line across the Rift Valley.

Bargain Book

My historical novel, set in British East Africa in 1898 will be on sale at $0.99 in USA and £0.75 in UK for one day only on February 15th. This is being promoted by http://www.thebookawards.com and is available through their store or on Amazon. Fans of Wilbur Smith would probably like this tale, which is about British & German colonialism, slavery, political intrigue, romance and a railway line. You can learn more at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008N3MT6E/?tag It's worth a look.

Juggling My Hats

How did I miss posting last week? Perhaps I’m running out of things to say on my blog posts. But if I did that, then there would be no hope for me as a writer trying to contact his readers and anyone else who likes my work. So what have I been up to? Well, I finally completed my final read through of SHADOW OF THE WOLF. I increased the word length from 55,000 to a little over 60,000. This just scrapes in then as a novel. The final read through was done prior to copying it to a Createspace template, which will be sent to Acclaimed Books Ltd. This is the group of which I am a member and one of the ‘founders’. I like that word. Actually it’s a group of six authors who publish their work through AB.c. Makes things easier for people like me who live outside the USA and have to deal with tax laws etc. Anyway, I’m digressing. It was important for me to complete this, and to have it ready for my son to complete the book jacket. He always does a superb job. My next task is to convert the Word file to Kindle. This will then be forwarded to AB.c for submission to Amazon. Something else that has also imposed itself upon my time is my other ‘job’. Those of you who have read my author bio will know that I am a practicing Christian and worship at an English speaking fellowship here in Spain. The church is called TCF (Torrevieja Christian Fellowship). I was asked to bring the message (sermon) last Wednesday, and it took me a while to prepare it which of course meant I had to leave my book preparation for a while. The sermon was titled “How much further are you prepared to go?”. If any of you out there would like to hear what I had to say, have a look at www.tcf-spain.org. I promise you the sermon was well received: an absolute belter in fact. I wish my books could be as well received as that. So, after this I will get on with the Kindle conversion and then, hopefully I can begin (again) my next novel. This will be for my publisher and hopefully I will produce something that will be acceptable (there are no guarantees in this life!). So that’s it then. Wish me luck!

Daily deal

On the 15th. February my historical novel, HELL'S GATE will be a daily deal on www.thebookawards.com and will be available on Amazon.com and .co.uk at the low price of $0.99. The story is set in British East Africa in 1898, and is inspired by events that took place in that protectorate where British colonialism vied with Imperial Germany in the neighbouring protectorate to establish a foothold in Uganda. The story includes everything: romance, polticial intrigue, slavery, heroism etc. Why not have a look on Amazon and put a note in your diary? You can see the book at http:/www.amazon.com/dp/B008N3MT6E/?tag

Who's Lazy

There was a link on Facebook yesterday to an article written by the best-selling, crime writer, Sue Grafton. She had caused a stir by accusing indie writers of being lazy. It seems she had to withdraw the accusation because of the reaction from the public. It made me wonder what must have been going through her mind when she said that, and would she have said that before she became a published writer. The old saying “struggling in a garret” comes to mind when I think of people like myself who wanted to write but could never get off first base because of the hurdles that always seemed to get in the way. For most of us, no doubt, it was having to work for a living before getting home and cracking on with the novel. Then there was the problem of convincing a literary agent that your work was worth considering. And then of course the battle to find a publisher. How many of us have received rejection after rejection, not because we were not any good, but because of the system? I would think it would be a very high percentage. And getting a book published is not a guarantee of success either, which means it’s a case of back to the drawing board and on the treadmill again. But what about the best-selling authors? I’ve lost count of the times I’ve read the credits in the beginning of the book where the writer acknowledges the help (without them I could never have written this book) that reads like a who’s who of the publishing world. Compare that to the working man or woman who cannot get on with their book until the kids are in bed or the housework is done. To call indie writers lazy is an insult. No-one can produce a full length novel by being lazy. There was a mention too (somewhere) of using a professional editor to ensure the book is fit to be published. Has anyone seen the fees these editors charge? That’s why indie writing is a bit like do it yourself: you do it on the cheap. But if the talent is there, if you have the gift, a publisher will pick you up whatever the state of the grammar and punctuation, make no mistake about that. So I would say to people like Sue Grafton to whom the article was credited, come down off your hobby horse and take your mind back to the days when you didn’t even have a novel in print. That’s what the indie writers are doing all the time. Well, most of them.

Keeping up the Struggle

A good many indie writers like myself are struggling to sell their books and consequently build up a readership, which I believe is the key to establishing yourself as a writer. I received my public library statement last week, and it tells me that my books were loaned out about 4500 times. Some may say that this not a lot, but the previous year my loans figure was 6000. I know a large number of public libraries have closed in UK, which I think is so sad, but it’s an inevitable sign of the times as younger people turn more to electronic entertainment and celebrity culture. When I think of my figures, I can see people searching through the library shelves and picking one of my books up as soon as they see my name. I used to do that when I visited the library: as soon as I saw a Hammond Innes novel, or Nigel Tranter, Alistair Maclean and a host of others, I would grab the book from the shelf and jealously guard it until I had finished making my choices. There are other elements to selling books of course, and here I’m thinking of reviews and catching the public eye. Reviews can be lifting, but they can also be damaging, and one thing that authors do not like is for a review to be personally damaging, rather than expressing an opinion that he or she simply didn’t enjoy the book. We have all experienced differences of opinions in life, and know that sometimes words are spoken that are simply not true. I was called “lazy” by one reviewer. I wondered if that person really understood what a writer has to do to produce a book. In my case it usually takes about a year. This includes research of course, which is time consuming and often I find myself reading stuff that I later reject. Then the act of sitting down and writing follows, and this can be tedious at times, even stultifying and no fun. Other times it can be enjoyable because the words seem to flow on to the pages like a flood. But I am not lazy, and no genuine writer deserves to be called that. And after all that work you find that a literary agent or a publisher doesn’t like it and so it goes on; rejection after rejection. I am fortunate because I have a publisher and a contract. Providing I produce a manuscript that my publisher thinks will sell, and remember: my publisher knows I have a bunch of people who will read my books, which increases the chances of sales, then I have a result and possibly an extension to my book contract. I enjoy writing. It isn’t a chore for me, nor is it a career; it’s my hobby. And so I will go on writing, publishing my books on Amazon (once the publisher has given me the paperback rights) and feel genuinely optimistic that there are readers out there who find that I am a writer who knows how to tell a story: a good one.