Looking Ahead

As the old year succumbs to Father Time, so we all look
forward to what the following year might hold for us all. I’m no different and
tend to feel a sense of optimism as the New Year approaches. This time last
year I was in the middle of chemo therapy, living in Spain and wondering what
the future held for me. Now we are living in England and I have no worries
about my condition. We are settled into our new life and I have great hopes for
my continuing progress in the book world. I have a 30 day promotion with IBD
(Independent Book Authors) for my title, The Eagle’s Covenant, beginning on
January 3^rd. This is a low key, low budget promotion, but it’s a
promotion at least. Second week in January I will be meeting up with the Chindi
Authors (www.chindi-authors.co.uk) who I hope will teach me a lot about
promoting and marketing my books. I also have plans to continue publishing my
titles on Amazon under my name as publisher. At the moment they are published
by www.acclaimedbooks.com.
This is a ‘collective’: a small group of writers from all over the world
publishing under one heading. We are all “directors” of this group but in
reality the bulk of the work is done by Peter Lihou, the CEO of the outfit. (He
pays our royalties!). Although I will be removing my books from Acclaimed Books,
I will still remain a member of the group. But although I will be fully
independent, I still have a publisher at www.halebooks.com (Robert Hale Ltd) and
Harlequin Books in Canada www.harlequin.com. So I have a lot going
for me and titles out there over which I have no control.

My current work in progress (WIP) is back on the shelf
again, but simply because of the Christmas period and all that it entails. I
have been learning Scrivener and have been putting my WIP there. I’m a long way
from being competent at it, but once I get back into some sort of groove in the
New Year, I’m sure things will take off. I am also learning Photoshop with a
view to buying the software. This is something I need to do if I am to
republish my own titles as an Indie on Amazon. It’s more for CreateSpace than
the e-books. I’m using the 30 day trial at the moment. I also want to trim my
social networking and rationalise it somewhat. By that I mean the use of
Twitter, Goodreads and other associated network forums and sites. It can be complicated,
time consuming and pointless sometimes, but I do need to understand the why and
wherefore of web marketing etc. Pinterest is another which I am told is the
No.1 site for promotion (Free). If I could afford it, I would use BookBub: it
does what it says on the tin and is a great source for writers.

Well, I knew what I was doing this time last year and I
wonder what I’ll be doing this time next year. With luck I will have established
myself as a favourite among readers of my genre,
and have a better grasp of how to manage myself. But we are all in God’s hands
and only He knows what’s in store for us. I do hope that all the readers of my
blog, and my books, whatever your beliefs, have a wonderful, happy 2015. See
you all next year!

The waiting game

No internet today because
we are waiting for a carpet fitter. This meant emptying the lounge and dining
room, hence no router plugged in. It’s amazing how, in today’s world, being
without Wi-Fi tends to render one helpless for a while. So, waiting for the
carpet fitter to arrive meant I could finish my current reading: Lamentations
by C.J.Sansom. This is an historical novel, a best seller, but one that a
Goodreads search could not find. I tried twice because I wanted to leave a
review for a quite outstanding novel. Perhaps Goodreads were ‘wireless’ too!

I’ve begun distributing
my bookmarkers to the family who all seem quite happy to pass them around their
social circles and leave them in bars and restaurants. I’ve distributed a few,
but not as many as I would want. I think it’s because it isn’t something I am
used to doing, or maybe I don’t get out much! 
But I’ll persevere.

And on the subject of
perseverance: I am still struggling to get my book jacket uploaded to
CreateSpace. Not being a dab hand at this kind of thing, I have to use the
subjective approach. I’m getting closer and hoped to have had it uploaded today
if it wasn’t for the carpet fitter. Maybe this evening. Needless to say I did
not work on my current novel last week. I do have excuses, mainly down to
other, unavoidable commitments. I suspect it will be after Christmas before I
can crack on with it.

I had a nice surprise
last week: my title, The Devil’s Trinity,
shot up the rankings after a small promotion. It reached 469 in the thriller
category and managed to sell about 40 copies in one day. For me that is a major
step up, particularly as it was wallowing at the bottom of the swamp. The sales
have tailed off now, but the promotion with Choosy Books cost me $9.99 was a
worthwhile investment. It was a one-off deal the company offered. I’ll go with
them again. Lot cheaper than BookBub, but not with the same results.

I read last week that
Amazon are now third in the top 100 book sellers. Smashwords are second. I
forget who came top though. I also read of the problem Amazon’s new Kindle
scheme is creating for the top writers. If I lend a book from Amazon’s library,
the writer gets a set royalty, and it is the same value for an unknown writer.
Whereas a purchased copy of the top writer’s novel would yield a higher royalty
compared to the cheaper, unknown writer. It doesn’t affect me because none of
my titles are in the Amazon library programme. Not that it made any difference
to me when my books were enrolled: I never made more than a couple of dollars
in a year anyway.

So I press on and look
forward to calmer times when I can get down to serious writing and promotion.
The carpet fitter is due in a hour, and the store just phoned to say that the
furniture will be delivered on Saturday. We’ll have a totally new front room
and dining area then.

Once again, wishing all
my readers a merry Christmas and a Happy New year. See you all in 2015.

Making progress and meeting other authors.

I made some progress last
week with my manuscript, but it was more of a reviewing of my work and learning
to put it on Scrivener at the same time. It will take a while yet,
notwithstanding the fact that Christmas will get in the way. I’ve no trouble with
that. After all; Christmas is to be enjoyed and used as a time to forget the
pressures, whether self-imposed or not, that we all have to endure throughout
the year. I also resurrected my attempts to get an acceptable, book jacket
uploaded to CreateSpace for the paperback version of The Eagle’s Covenant. I’m still struggling with that, but I will
persevere.

Last Friday I met a local
author, Christopher Joyce, in Chichester. Christopher is a founder member of
the Chindi Writers group, www.chindi-authors.co.uk. This is the group of
self-published writers I mentioned in my blog last week. I missed them last
Monday, so caught up with Chris at Carluccio’s in town. I was encouraged by
what he had to tell me, particularly in the way the group promote themselves
publicly. They are not a collection of writers who meet to praise each other’s
work, but use their collective skills to bring their books and their group to
the public. This week they have a stall open in Chichester promoting their
books and providing help, advice and encouragement to whoever wants it.

I’ve noticed a movement
in my book sales on Amazon over the last couple of weeks. Nothing dramatic but
certainly an improvement on November. There won’t be much more now until I
begin pushing the boat out in the New Year. Hopefully my efforts will yield
some positive results. Maybe my bookmarkers will help too. I sent 100 out to
our youngest son in Australia. Some of those will go to America and hopefully
nudge people over there into looking at my website and checking out my titles.
My eldest son, whose job takes him all over the country has promised to put
some about. He’ll be receiving his quota shortly. One of our grandsons works in
Scotland, running his own business, www.brokenblonde.com and often meets up with
people who might be interested, so he has agreed to help. And so it goes on.
Whether it will make much difference remains to be seen, but I live in I hopes.

This week will be a
mixture of visiting family, shopping, decorations (putting up) and all the
usual things that we fit into the build-up to Christmas. Then it gets manic.
Lovely! If I don’t get round to publishing my blog next week, although I will
try, I want to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Active again.

I decided to write my blog a little earlier today
because I find myself making excuses for not getting the entry out on a Monday.
Last week has seen more activity in the promotion and marketing effort I’m
putting to my books. One major achievement for me was the production of one
thousand bookmarkers. I designed them myself, although I listened to
constructive criticism from family and friends, and had them printed at a small
printers in Bognor. I picked them up last night and am delighted with the
result. Why a thousand? I want to distribute them in places where people will
pick them up and maybe look at my website, find out who I am and perhaps buy a
book. I plan to use my family in this (they already know), and expect the
distribution to cover about six areas in UK, couple of places in Sydney and
one, at least in America. This isn’t about distributing leaflets and flyers,
and sticking them under car windscreen wipers: it’s more of a kind of
subliminal advertising. It isn’t something that has been suggested to me; quite
the opposite: I dreamed this one up on my own. Bookmarker advertising isn’t
new, I know, but with luck I can get a kind of placement advertising simply because
my bookmarkers will be found in unexpected places. I hope so, anyway.

I have also cranked up my promotion for The Eagle’s
Covenant. I have had four, five star reviews posted on Amazon, but there has
been no quantifiable result in the numbers I’ve sold, so just how effective
those reviews will be I’ve no idea, but I’ve decided to concentrate on pushing
the title until well into the New Year.

Another step in getting myself known among the community
is to go to a meeting of the Chindi Authors Group. This is a group of Chichester
Indie authors who meet once a month in Chichester. Their aim is to help each
other with promotion and to generally encourage each other. I will be there on
Monday evening and I hope I can learn something from them and perhaps help
anyone there to learn from my experience as a long time writer. I’ve looked at
their website and seen the good reviews their books have attracted on Amazon.
Earlier this month they had a seminar in the Chichester library where about
seven of the group were doing a Q & A session. There were quite a few
people there in the audience. It’s this kind of event that can only help
writers like myself to become established in the local, book loving community,
and I hope we can all profit from this.

I began tentative steps with my dusty, old manuscript
yesterday. Having now purchased the Scrivener programme, I began using it
yesterday. I will be compiling my research material into separate sections
first. Then I will begin reading through my manuscript to bring my mind back to
the place I need to be with regard to the story line and character profiles. I
expect to be entrenched again by January and push on from there: hopefully
completing the novel by the summer. Wish me luck!

Slowing down towards the end of 2014

Once again another gap between blogs. No excuse, but
then I don’t have a great deal to say at the moment. I have been brushing up on
my Scrivener project. This is a writer’s work tool to help in the building of a
manuscript. It’s extremely useful and popular with a lot of writers. I’ve just
about worked my way through the course, but have promised myself to go through
it again. It’s not a long course, and the project is loaned on trial for thirty
days. That’s thirty days that are not necessarily consecutive. Theoretically
you could download one page a year for thirty years; not that it would be much
help. I will purchase it once I have grasped its finer detail and got used to
the way it which it functions. It isn’t expensive either. I plan to read
through my manuscript from the beginning and use that to get my thought process
back on track with the story line, and to build it with Scrivener. I can see
Christmas interfering with my plan, but I do intend to try.

Next week, December 1^st. I plan to visit the
Chindi writers group. This is a group of local authors who meet in Chichester
once a month. Their aim is to help fellow writers in the group in any way they
can with promotion and marketing ideas, and generally to encourage each other
in their work. I’ve looked at the group’s writers on the web links and can see
that they are all similar to me in that they are ‘indie’ authors and all have respectable
reviews. I’m looking forward to it

I have received a couple of five star reviews for The
Eagle’s Covenant, which
I hope will give it a kick start. When I removed it from Acclaimed Books and
published it myself on Amazon, I lost all the reviews. It has been a pain
trying to build it up again, so hopefully the five star reviews will be a great
help.

Coming towards the end of 2014 will see me (and Pat) regarding
the year as one of the most traumatic in our lives. I battled chemotherapy and
the subsequent problems associated with that. We sold our house and moved into
rented accommodation in Spain, and then moved to England where we are happily
settling into life here and enjoying every minute of it. I will be having my
next session of treatment, my first in UK, at the local hospital in Chichester
tomorrow, and this will continue for another eighteen months. I’m looking
forward to 2015 and the hope that my progress, both in my health and my writing
will be upward, fruitful and positive. I have a marketing idea for my books which
I hope to have ready before Christmas, and will explain more once I have it up
and running.  I have my December 8^th
promotion coming up and the hope that this will boost my rankings. Let’s hope
so. Wish me luck!

As You Were: back to basics.

So where was I? I missed
last week’s blog post, but have no real excuse. Maybe it’s just a case of
getting back into the swing of things. I’m slowly getting my writer’s head
back, and have started promoting again. Over the last month or so, my rankings
on Amazon have dropped away steadily, and I can only put that down to the fact
that I have been pretty lax in that department. Mind you, my rankings picked up
a couple of days ago. I think that was because a small promotion I had planned
kicked in on November 1^st. I’ve submitted another for December 8^th.
with BookSends. I’m also in the process of working on a project that might help
to increase my sales, but more about that in future blogs.

Because we have moved
into a new address, there has been a lot to do, not the least getting the spare
room ready for me to use as a study. Last week I bought a work desk at IKEA,
the flat pack people. It meant redesigning the spare room, but now I have my
desk (work station) set up and I can knuckle down to some serious writing (if
time allows!). Although I haven’t been putting pen to paper for quite a while,
my manuscript has never been far from my thoughts, and I keep making changes:
none of which have been written down. I sometimes see things on TV, or in the
paper and think of how I could use the idea in my story. Then I bin that because
it would detract from the way in which I write and create my characters. I keep
promising myself that I will rationalise that way in which I work, and try to
set goals throughout the week, but one of the penalties of writing for a hobby
and trying to live a normal life, is that no two days are the same. Plus there
are demands made on me that have to be attended to. So that’s my excuse.

It’s getting close to
Christmas which means a lot to most of us. It means we’ll get busier because of
the way in which we view the festive season. But one thing on the horizon for
me is that my next book, Past Imperfect,
should be on its way to me from my publisher. Publishing date is January, and I
usually receive my advance copies ahead of the date. Although I read the book
last month (the galley proofs), I will read the hardback with a great deal of
enthusiasm and sheer joy, like a kid with a new toy, because that’s how I am
with my books. I think is must mean I still have a measure of disbelief that I
actually made it as a published writer — a traditionally published writer at
that — and to hold the finished article in my hands fills me with a sense of
achievement.

However, after all that,
I think I have made a decision (my wife says not) to finish writing and
concentrate of promotion and marketing the seven titles I have on Amazon. I
will have two others of course: The Boy from
Berlin, and Past Imperfect, but
the rights of those two belong to my publisher. If I complete my current work,
I will offer it to my publisher. If she turns it down I will publish it myself.
This would mean I would have ten titles in print. Not bad for a boy who never
knew he would one day become a fully-fledged author. Wish me luck!

A&E and brain dead decisions

Bit of an eye-opener today at St. Richards Hospital in
Chichester. I had to pop in to A & E in the hope that they could ‘flush’
the catheter in my chest, which has to be cleaned out every four weeks. I was
also waiting to hear from my doctor about an appointment with the hematologist
to continue with my cancer medication (not chemo). Within five minutes of
walking into A & E I was being seen by a nurse. She contacted the cancer
ward and I was passed on to a hematology specialist nurse. Lots of questions of
course, but amazingly she told me her department had just received my documents
(I had passed them on to my doctor about a week ago), and her boss had asked to
see if she could locate this ‘Michael Parker’ who needed attention for the
catheter and further medication. And there I was walking into A & E. I was
examined by a doctor, weighed, blood pressure taken and had my catheter flushed
out. Oh, and they gave me a cup of tea (and Pat). Within two hours of walking
into the hospital we were walking out again. Job done. One hour after arriving
home I received a phone call with my appointment for my next medication in
November. I couldn't fault the treatment, response and professionalism of the
nursing staff, and the cleanliness of the clinic where I was treated. But here’s
the rub: the politicians; the men in suits who know what’s best for us, want to
close the unit to save money. The nearest unit then is about twenty miles away.
In the other direction it’s the same. So there would be a forty mile separation
between units. And all this on a major trunk road that is choc-a-bloc with
traffic during rush hour and holidays.

Changing the subject, I’m still a long way from
knuckling down with my writing. There’s no real excuse, but moving house and
settling in, redecorating, furnishing, sorting out all the minor details etc.,
does cut into the free time. And when I do find myself sitting in the chair
watching TV, it’s too late to think about creativity. Maybe next week, I keep
telling myself. Maybe. I must do better. Wish me luck!

Almost back in business

Its three weeks now since I wrote my last blog entry and
a great deal has happened in that time. Most of it, probably all of it, has
been to do with re-inserting ourselves back in the British way of life, and
what a pleasure it has been. This doesn’t mean that our previous Spanish way of
life was inferior to what we are discovering over here in England, but it’s all
so ‘user friendly’, if that’s the right way to put it. No doubt a major element
of that is the language and how natural it all seems to us. There’s no need to
continually translate as we go along, and dealing with officialdom and
bureaucracy has not been the drama we thought it might be. We’ve completed the
major purchases that were necessary: park home, car, TV and TV license, suite
of furniture and assorted bits and bobs, and have dealt with learning our way
around Bognor and the local area. We’ve been to two churches but will continue
looking until we find one in which we feel “right”. We attended one this
morning and was amazed when they announced a coffee break twenty minutes after
the service started.

So what’s the plan now? For me it’s all about getting
back into the swing of writing while getting on with the jobs that need doing
around the home. Two days after arriving here, the proofs of my next novel
turned up. I was expecting them, but because there had been a delay in
receiving them (my decision), I had to crack on and read them through. They are
now back with my publisher. The book is due out in January, and the e-book will
be released in February. Something to look forward to.

I also need to get back to my marketing and promotion
work. It’s amazing how disconnected I feel simply by not being involved in
pushing my current Amazon titles. My sales have dropped considerably while I’ve
been ‘off the air’ for three weeks, and I really need to get back into that
area as soon as I can. I have one or two marketing ideas up my sleeve, but not
being an expert in that field, I will have to rely on my very subjective way of
promoting myself. Wish me luck!

Back to the future. Where do we go from here?

This could be my last
blog entry for a while. This time next week we will be travelling up to Bilbao
to catch the boat back to England. Technically we’ll be homeless until we have
handed over the money for our Park Home at Pagham (West Sussex). It means no
Wi-Fi for a while, but like a lot of people of our age (me and Pat), we have
travelled thousands of miles over the years without Wi-Fi, mobile phones,
tablets, laptops and all that modern paraphernalia. We will still have our mobile
phones with us of course, so we won’t be completely isolated. Something we
noticed when we travelled to Australia a couple of years ago was the fast
disappearance of public call boxes. No doubt they will become a thing of the
past. As technology moves forward and leaves the past behind, a lot of us mourn
the passing of the old days but would probably not welcome them back. I would
not like to go back to writing novels on a typewriter, even with a correction
ribbon in place. And as for carbons: God forbid! But thinking back to the
tapping rhythm of the typewriter keys and the zip of the carriage return, I
harbour a kind of masochistic desire for those days. I think it’s because it
made the acceptance of a novel by the publisher a rewarding triumph after the
drudge of bashing away in a lonely corner somewhere. Modern indie writers
cannot possibly know that feeling: they can never live the sheer joy of
receiving the acceptance letter from the publisher. Publishing a novel now is a
fact of life that turns us all into writers. Anybody can pen a story, good or
bad, and publish it in Amazon. They become instant writers. Just add water and
stir. There’s a kind of metronomic output with some of the writers I’ve come
across on various forums. They promote their next series of first time novels
that they have yet to complete and invite readers to log on to their blog and
sign up for the newsletter, behaving like established writers. And it’s all
down to modern technology. So what’s the next step? Who knows? But the fun, the
joy and, (dare I say it?) the creativity needed to produce quality will be
missing, and this can only be to the detriment of the published word. One day
youngsters will seek instant gratification through apps on their mobiles and
tablets, apps that will be produced by wizard technology that probably doesn’t
exist yet, and books will confined to the dusty shelves of old houses and
bookshops. So when me and Pat are finally settled in our new home at Pagham, I
will get on with writing and publishing on Amazon because that’s the only way
to go for so many writers today. Unless I manage to get my novel finished and
accepted by my publisher! Wish me luck.

Amazon or traditional: which way?

Two weeks today and we’re off to UK. After all the
moving around over the years this will be our last move. (I won’t include the
ultimate one that we all have to go through). We will be settled in Pagham and
looking at a change in our lifestyle after seventeen years in Spain. Apart from
the small sacrifices that are necessary when moving house, one part of my
routine that is on hold at the moment is my writing. Although I still have
times during the day when I could sit down and write, I find my creative flow
is impeded because of other things on my mind. Some writers might say that this
is a poor excuse. If I was writing for a living I would agree, but I’m not;
it’s only a hobby. So the tools are put away and the ideas will continue to
germinate in my mind until they can take shape and form once I am back into a
routine.

I’ve been giving a lot of thought lately to the prospect
of my next book — the one I am supposed to be writing — and whether I should
offer it to my publisher of go straight to Amazon. The reason I am in a bit of
a quandary over this is because my next book, Past Imperfect, is due out in
January in hardback, and I am looking forward to holding it in my hand and
giving myself a gratuitous pat on the back. Having your work published by a
traditional publisher is still no mean feat these days, and it is still nice to
think of myself as being traditionally published.

But there’s another reason (maybe a ton of them) why I
am considering this. Because I am from the old school of writers who have gone
through the mill of finding a publisher or an agent — rare as hen’s teeth for
many wannabe writers — I have a soft spot for the old way. But as pleased as I
am for what I have on Amazon (eight titles), and have sold reasonably well, I
now feel that Amazon are moving the goalposts and making it more difficult for
writers like myself who do not have a series of books to offer in box form.
They have also introduced KDP Prime service for authors whereby they can have
up to ten books available at once on a loan basis. This shift in the way they
encourage readers means it offers quantity at a low price. I could say quantity
against quality, but that has to be the opinion of the people who buy books.

I have had some fun with my books on Amazon and enjoyed
good results from time to time, but my rankings almost always sink back to the
200,000 mark after a promotion. When I see my rankings shoot up, it brings a
huge smile to my face, but I know it’s only a sale of maybe one or two books.
If I have the quality that readers want, then my rankings would be a lot
higher, and in a more permanent position. The only way to do that is to build a
readership, which is an antediluvian concept from the time before Amazon and
the closure of many public libraries. I am failing to do that and wonder why I should
add another title to my list on Amazon. Would it make a heap of difference to
my position there? Probably not. So for that reason I think I would prefer to
see another hardback of mine sitting on the bookshelf next to my other nine
titles. My immediate problem of course is to finish the book and offer it to my
publisher. She may not like it, which means I will have to resort to self-publishing.
I will continue to battle against the odds of course. I will carry on promoting
and marketing my books and looking for ways to open the flood gates, but at the
moment I am swamped, like thousands of us, by the other indie writers all
competing for the same bit of space. Wish me luck!

PC, Proofs and Publicity

I’m back with Andy MacNab after wasting time on other
‘polished’ thriller writers. MacNab’s writing is so clever that you forget that
he was basically a foot soldier who we tend to regard as brawn over brains. But
taking into consideration the considerable skills and bravery required to be a
member of the Special Forces (SAS), it makes you realise just how clever these
men are. With MacNab, he has added powerful storytelling to his CV. Imbedded in
his writing is the colloquial, non PC jargon of servicemen and women, probably
the world over; and it sits very comfortably with his style. I’ve just finished
Firewall and am now reading Aggressor. I have read two of his other titles.

I mention the non PC writing because the editor of my
next novel, Past Imperfect, took exception to the descriptions I used when referring
to a black character of West Indian origin in my book. Black skin, white teeth
in the dark kind of stuff. I was told that in today’s PC climate it would
probably be better to come up with another choice of words so as not to give
offence. I had no argument against that because changing a couple of phrases didn’t
impact on the story. But if I had been one of my publisher’s top authors,
someone like Andy MacNab, would it have made any difference? I don’t think I
would have been asked to change anything.

I’ve done virtually no work on my current WIP since my
last blog, and, no, I can’t blame Andy MacNab; it’s more to do with learning to
improve my social networking skills. I am currently learning a little more about
Pinterest and how to make good use of it. I still have a problem appreciating
just how powerful it can be, and do ask myself why isn’t everybody else on it
if it’s that good. But I’ll try. At least I have learned a new skill, and that
is making bookmark sized quotes for pinning. All I need to do now is find the
right targets. Ironically, I dismissed a young lady author several months ago
who explained on her website how she had made huge sales of her books simply by
using Pinterest. She explained how and offered to help anyone who was
interested. I couldn’t be bothered: for me it was just another Amanda Hocking
success story that only happens to the few. Perhaps I should have taken more
notice.

I did play around with my website (www.michaelparkerbooks.com),
looking to see if I could improve its appearance and attractiveness. Perhaps
give it a bit of zap. But that will come in time.

As we get closer to leaving Spain (three weeks today),
so my days are getting fuller leaving me little time to work on WIPs and social
networks. My wife is very busy arranging our ‘going away party’ at church (this
Wednesday), and naturally I am involved. She is doing the bulk of the planning
and cooking, while I chauffer her around and generally act as a sounding board
and general dogs body when needed. She feeds me too! We have different lunches
planned (too many for the waistline really), appointments to keep and important
processes to remember. The calendar is just about full and that more or less
puts paid to creative pursuits like writing and social networking. But why am I
keeping up with this blog? Well, it’s in the hope that one day someone other
than a spammer will read it and make a comment. It would be inspiring to know
that there are followers out there, even if it’s only a few.

My book sales are maintaining their one a day average,
which I have to admit is promising. Maybe one day I’ll have them up to two a
day. Then I’ll get really excited. If they went stratospheric I think I’d go
pop.

Oh yes; another strange one for me. My publisher
contacted me last week to say that the proofs would be sent to my West Sussex address
(we haven’t got there yet) and could I return them reasonably quickly. I had to
remind them that we haven’t moved yet, so in the end it was agreed to send the
proofs once we are back in UK. But physical proofs? I used to get galley proofs
years ago, but for a long while now it has been digital proofs, PDF style. I
must admit I prefer the idea of a physical copy; it makes it seem nearer the
day. So, something to look forward to on my return. Wish me luck!

Which Lottery are you in?

Life is a lottery, so
they say, and there’s no question that some people draw the winning ticket and
others do not. Sadly, most do not. What we have to look at, as Eric Idle’s song
tells us, is to always look on the bright side of life. So drawing away from
the daily horrors of this world; horrors that are constantly in our newspapers
and on out TV screens, I want to talk about another kind of lottery: producing
a best-seller; a book, naturally, seeing as my blog is connected to the written
word.

Yesterday, Amanda
Hocking’s name came up in a forum post. Amanda is a self-published author and
now a wealthy woman because she cracked it: broke the million sales on Amazon.
She did that within about two years I think, but don’t quote me on that. Today I
read in the Mail on Sunday of another writer, Andy Leeks, who has cracked it.
He has sold over 40,000 e-books and is quoted as saying it was easy to publish
an e-book. And he’s dead right about that: it is. But it isn’t easy to reach
sales figures that put you near the top of the Amazon best sellers list. Andy
was soon selling 500 books a day, but he didn’t manage this by luck; it meant
hard work after the book had been published. He handed out leaflets on his
train journey to work each day because his book was about commuters. It’s
called ‘As They Slept’.  How many of you
would be authors have done that? I haven’t, but my excuse is that I live in
Spain and none of the passengers would understand my leaflet. What a poor
excuse. But there’s a simple truth in the way in which Andy went about part of
his marketing: start local! If you have a book available on Amazon, make a
start with a Press release and get yourself in the local newspapers. Have some
bookmarks printed with your details on and leave them lying around at strategic
points. Ask the local library if you can do this. There must be many ways in
which you can begin a ‘local’ campaign.

You might be formulating
a question for me: if you’re so clever, how come you haven’t done this? Well,
living in Spain doesn’t help an English language writer like me, so I’ve had to
rely on promotions through the web. But next month we will be back in England
permanently, and I hope to begin a local campaign of my own, once we have
settled in. It will cost me time and money, but the length of time and the
amount of money I spend is down to me. Meanwhile I have another promotion
purchased for the month of November. This is for my thriller, The Devil’s
Trinity.

I am making slow progress
with my current WIP (work in progress). The working title is ‘The Gatekeeper’.
Whether I’ll keep that or not remains to be seen. But I have reached 50,000
words and can’t afford to give it up. I did it last year with this WIP, and
wrote a romance instead. That will be out in January, published by Robert Hale,
my London publisher. I won’t get much done now on my WIP because we are now
into the last four weeks of our tenure in Spain, and the social diary is
filling alongside the appointments we have with bureaucracy in order to legally
extricate ourselves from the Spanish authorities. All good fun. And I’m still
on medication for my cancer, but only medication; the chemo finished five
months ago. Wish me luck!

When a glut can spoil the whole barrel

I sense a slowing down of indie book sales; not just
here in the Parker household, but generally across the whole spectrum. I could
be wrong and way off beam, but I have read opinions on the web from people
working at both ends of the publishing industry. In the continuing battle
between Amazon and Hachette, a claim has been made that they are each trying to
eliminate the other. This sounds like one trying to gain a territorial
advantage over the other. The product, i.e. book sales, is being spread too
thinly. I also read yesterday of a publishing company laying off staff and
generally rearranging the furniture because of the sales drop off they are
experiencing. But their genre authors write mainly erotic romance, and it is
there that I suspect the underlying malaise in sales can be found. Since Fifty
Shades of Grey took the world by storm, a lot of writers (hacks?) jumped on the
bandwagon and wrote steamy novels. The result meant the genre was over
populated and effectively sewn up, leaving little room for writers who were
more or less mainstream in this area. Their world has been overtaken and their
market ruined.

It isn’t just the implied overstuffing of that genre
that leads me to think the indie business is going down the tubes for many, low
ranking authors: I believe most of the other genres are suffering too, and the
mainstream publishers are reasserting their dominance. They are responding to
the challenge and reducing their prices, offering quality against quantity; and
once again leaving the low cost indie writer, particularly writers without any
backing, floundering deep amongst the bottom feeders.

Another problem for the writers who publish a book and
hope to see it do well, is the advent of box sets. Just over a year ago I
purchased a box set of nine thrillers. Each one was purported to be a gem: top
of the genre stuff by established thriller writers. I think I read one, got
half-way through a second and realised I’d been sold a dummy. How much did I
pay? $0.99. I won’t buy any more and yet see a definite explosion of box sets
(and not just books by the way).

So what does the future hold? Which is the best way to
sell a book? Well, think about the old days when we had book stores and libraries.
You could go in, browse, flick through the pages and make up your mind. I know,
they exist still but not in the same quantities as they used to. And they exist
on line I hear you say. But how many allow you to browse the entire book? It
should be technologically possible to block several sections of the book while
it is being looked at. The Amazon ‘Look Inside’ facility comes close, but never
enough. So we need some entrepreneur to come up with an on-line library that
stocks quality authors in all genres giving the reader an opportunity to browse
and buy. Would it solve the indie road block? I don’t know, but I would like to
see some significant change where the good stuff comes to the top. An unanswerable
puzzle.

Five weeks to go now and me and Pat will be heading back
to England for good. I hope to reinvigorate my writing career and have some
ideas running around in my head. Finishing my current WIP would help. Wish me
luck! 

Puzzles, chaos and planning.

n the midst of all this chaos is a writer trying to sell books. I have a book promotion running with Best Indie Books for my novel, HELL’S GATE, but how successful has it been up to now, or will it be? Well, it’s been running for a couple of weeks and I have sold zero. I suppose it all comes down to marketing again. Without a professional approach, or at least a pseudo professional approach, I suppose my sales will reflect my ability as a market man and not the quality of the book. So now it’s about a plan, and this is something I have to leave on the back-burner until we are settled in UK again. I need to bear in mind that the weeks leading up to Christmas, and the few days after, are a good time to promote. So once we have arrived in UK, and I can sneak into my room without my wife knowing, then I can bury my head in promotional work. But it’s not all about paying for an advert to appear on someone’s website: it’s also being able to get the best out of social media marketing. And if, like me, you are a bit of a web dummy, there will be plenty of hurdles to overcome, and most of them will have you calling for help. For example: I tried to download a social media app for my other website (www.michaelparkerbooks.com), hosted by Wix. The e-mail advertising the app came from Wix. When I was asked to enter my e-mail address in order to download the app, I was told that I wasn’t recognised on their system. So how did they manage to send me the e-mail in the first place? But it might be that I have misunderstood the process and hence the need for professional help. I’m waiting for a return message now from Wix.
My next difficulty is trying to upload a book jacket to CreateSpace for my title: The Eagle’s Covenant. This is a book that was available on Amazon kindle and Createspace, but because I have taken over the rights for this book, I have had to renew the files. So what’s the problem? I used the original jacket file; one that was used by Createspace, but now they tell me it is unacceptable because there is a bleed problem or something, and I have to adjust it. I’m struggling to do that, and no doubt will have to ask my son, who designed the original jacket, to help me out. All this takes time and often sees me sitting in front of my laptop for hours. And have you noticed how the experts respond when you ask for their help? If it isn’t a list of FAQs that they encourage you to search, it’s an explanation of how to achieve what you want that can only be deciphered by a university graduate or a ten year old grandson or grand-daughter. One day I will be master of all this. I may not be able to sell any books, but as sure as the sun rises I will be able to use the social media like a pro.
I often smile at my own disingenuousness (is that a word?) when it comes to competing with my fellow peers in the book world. I thought a blog tour would be a good idea and signed up for one until I discovered I had to read someone’s pornographic romance. I pulled out in the nick of time, particularly when I realised I would have to read the book, promote the author and only get a mention myself. So it has to be a case of back to the drawing board and think seriously about spending some money and giving books away. I’ll do that when I’m back in UK. Now, where was I? Oh yes; back to the plan. Wish me luck!

Hard work, talent and a lot of luck

Last week was quite an eventful one for me and Pat,
although not from a writing perspective. We purchased a park home at Pagham in
West Sussex, and will be returning to England on October 1^st. permanently.
We have seven weeks to go and I know my writing will take a back seat during
that time, even though I will make some inroads into it. The four days we spent
in England were hectic, but fruitful. Bit like bringing a manuscript to
fruition.

Someone spoke to me today saying she didn’t know I was a
writer: a real, live one at that. I told her that we are all writers now. All
that’s needed is a manuscript, converted to Kindle and published on Amazon. But
I’m about to put my foot into what might be a contentious point of view and say
that a lot of so-called writers don’t belong in that category. They are simply
filling Amazon’s store with a load of cheap dross. Amazon doesn’t care; after
all, they’re making money from those inferior books. Traditional publishers
will publish a poorly written book if it’s written by a top author because they
know they can clean up the manuscript and sell it. So where does that leave
writers like me who write for a hobby and believe they are worth a higher place
in the Amazon rankings? Living the dream, I suppose like the rest of them. I
can only increase my readership by promotion and marketing, and then hope that
those who read my books want to read the others. But a handful of people
wanting to read my books doesn’t mean I will soar up the rankings and become a
‘name’ overnight.

Over the last couple of years I have given away books on
Goodreads, promoted on Amazon and enjoyed some kind of success that has been a
direct result of the promotion. After that it has all died down. To continue
that moderate success I would need a permanent promotion and the money
necessary to keep the promotion going. But the truth is; my books only sell
while I’m pushing them. I have a plan though (we should all have a plan!). When
we are settled in England, I will try to build my readership from the inside
out. By that I mean I will try to spread my name around Pagham, perhaps by attending
writing groups, sourced through the local library; use local newspapers for
adverts perhaps at a low cost; sell my books at small, country fairs and
gradually expand that way. Or perhaps I could do it the quick way: I’ll murder
somebody and become infamous. I could even write the novel. Now there’s a
thought. So for any of you budding writers out there reading this blog, understand
that there is no easy way to become a best-selling author. It’s all about hard
work, talent and a lot of luck. Wish me tons of it!

Understanding what sells.

What is it about a title that intrigues people? Last
week I included the phrase, Bodice Rippers in my blog title. Over the last few
weeks on Goodreads, my blog has been read by an average of 1 (one) over several
weeks. This is worked out by the number of zero reads and the occasional two.
Suddenly interest has shot up to eleven readers. Where have you all been?
Perhaps I should title this entry as fifty shades of grey, and see what
happens. Maybe I’ll go viral!

I saw a post on Facebook that referred to self-published
romance authors — first timers as well — who had leapt into the best-selling
category on Amazon; sold millions of e-books apparently. It got me thinking:
Romance is definitely the best selling genre in the book world. Most people,
particularly women, like a good tear jerker. Must have a happy ending though
even though the happy couple were beset with impossible problems during the
story. So why don’t I jump on the Romance bandwagon and write a bodice ripper?
Perhaps me and my wife could act out a couple of trial scenarios, just to
capture the realism. Trouble is: she’s seventy two and I’m seventy three, so we
may have a problem there; the story wouldn’t get very far. But it’s definitely
worth a thought (the story, not me and my wife). I’m in the middle of a
thriller at the moment, but a lot of stuff is getting in the way of me cracking
on with it. Coincidentally, I stopped writing this particular story last year
and penned a romance. It’s called PAST IMPERFECT and will be released in
January by my London publisher, Robert Hale. Will it sell? My record with Hale
(eight titles to date) isn’t very good. They will keep the e-book rights of
course, but maybe I can persuade my publisher to let me have the paperback
rights; then I can publish it with Createspace. We’ll see.

Looking at my rankings each day as I do, is like riding
a roller coaster: the rank goes up and down like saw teeth. I can always see a
positive response to any promotions I run, even if they are low cost and only
run for a day. Earlier this week I reached 1400 in the Action & Adventure
category, and about 1600 in the Thriller genre. Not bad when I’m usually
wallowing in the 100,000 range and lower. Each upward step means sales, and it
would be cheaper to buy my own books and bump my rankings up rather than pay
for advertising. The trouble with that though is that it isn’t readers who will
be doing the buying. But I’ll keep on and hope that I can attract readers to my
website, my books and my style of writing.

We’re off to England on Monday, so today, Saturday, I’m
getting my blog out early and making sure I’ve all the necessary bits and
pieces done by tomorrow evening. We will be going to Pagham in West Sussex to
look at some park homes. We visited the site last May but didn’t have the time
or opportunity to view the homes that were for sale. This time we will see
about half a dozen. Whether we’ll buy one during this visit remains to be seen,
but it would be great if we saw what we wanted and could afford it.

Another event that will happen tomorrow is that I will
be preaching at our local, Christian Fellowship here in Torrevieja. I will be
giving a personal testimony about how God has made such an impact on me while I
have been going through my cancer treatment. Although my cancer was diagnosed
last year, 2013, the signs of God’s involvement began in 2008. Long way back?
You just never know, unless you look and listen, how much God’s presence makes
a difference. The testimony will be broadcast on the church website during the
week. You can find it at www.tcf-spain.org

My next promotion, hopefully, will be for ROSELLI’S GOLD
with BookBlast (Booksends) if they accept my application. Wish me luck!

Body Scans and Bodice Rippers

Good news: my scan results showed I am now clear of
tumours. Remedial medication has started and so have our plans to return to the
UK. After three hours on the drip my next appointment is 23^rd.
September. I told my specialist here in Spain that we planned to return
permanently after that. I will carry on with the treatment once we’re back in
England. The change in our lives means we can plan ahead. I have also knuckled
down and made headway with my WIP (work in progress). I am about half-way
through (45000 words), but I cannot say the end is in sight because I am still
struggling with which direction I want to go with it. I think it’s extremely
unlikely that I will have made much more progress before we return to UK
because all the other diversions (excuses) that will be coming up. Perhaps I
should say it will be done by Christmas.

I seem to be getting some positive signs as a result of
my promotions this month. I’m not exactly soaring into the best-seller ranks,
but my rankings have responded with sharp increases (followed by falls),
lifting me up to the top 2000 in the thriller category, and about an average of
30000 or so in the kindle e-book store. Each rise is followed by a fall, but
there is an impetus there that is measureable. If I didn’t promote, I wouldn’t
see any reaction.

I have almost completed my website: www.michaelparkerbooks.com
I do intend to keep dressing it up from time to time. One of my sons tells me
its lacking something. But the essential information is there, and hopefully
potential readers will be satisfied with that. I will keep my other website live
www.michaeljparker.com
until I am completely happy with the work I’ve done on mine. One thing I do
need though is widgets. At the moment they are linked to the Wix pages, so I
must get busy and check out the right links.

I often read of other writers who appear to enjoy a good
connection with their readers. They talk about keeping their fans up to date
with how the latest WIP is progressing, and giving them advance warning of book
releases, signing sessions etc. Oh, and blog tours. I signed up for a blog tour
last week but realised I had wandered into something that wasn’t really my cup
of tea. I had to accept an ARC (Advance Reader Copy) of a novel and pick a date
when I would appear on the blog. I was invited to interview the author in
return for a small promotion for me. Nothing wrong with that, you say, and I agree:
no problem at all. The trouble was; the novel was a romance with a strong sexual
content. The book jacket of a man and woman semi naked on a bed gave the game
away really. I’m not into that kind of book; never have been, never will be. I
felt that to go ahead with the tour would make me feel like an interloper, and I
would be well out of my depth. And let’s face it: what would a hard-boiled
thriller writer want with mixing with bodice rippers? By the way; just to show
I have nothing against the writer whose blog tour I thought I would be involved
in, her name is Sherri Hayes. Her book is called, Crossing The Line and will be
available in September on Amazon. I’ve had to eat humble pie and pull out of
the blog tour. Perhaps I should stick to my own kind of bodice rippers. Wish me
luck!

Things done and things to do.

I had my scan last Tuesday.
No dramas there and back home in time for lunch. Wednesday we picked up our
friends, Kath and Don, from the airport; back home in time for lunch. Thursday
was different: we drove down to Alfoquia in Almeria province to visit more
friends; Ray and Lynn. Spent a few hours with them and had lunch in Albox, then
departed for a small village up in the hills called Los Colorados. This was
where our niece, Becky was on holiday with her husband Jason and daughter Lox
(Lauren). We haven’t seen Becky for about ten years, so it was a wonderful
opportunity to see her and chat about all sorts of things. We left there early
evening and arrived home, no, not in time for lunch, but in time for bed! The
remainder of the week was normal of course: back to shopping and writing.

I had a book promotion last
Monday with BookBlast (Book Sends). I could tell by the change in my rankings
that the promotion was successful. One earlier than that also resulted in a
positive rank change. I’m in a transitional period at the moment (in more way
than one) and am in the process of transferring my titles from Acclaimed Books
Ltd. to my own account on Amazon. To date I have published THE EAGLE’S COVENANT
on Smashwords and uploaded it today on Amazon with my name as publisher. I
withdrew all my titles from the Kindle Select programme because it was of
little use to me and prevented me having the freedom to market and promote my
books in the way I felt was more beneficial to me; bearing in mind that I am
not a best-selling author. For
that reason I have no interest in Amazon’s new initiative: Kindle Unlimited. Now
that I have joined
Smashwords, my titles that are with them will also be available on Sony, Nook,
iBooks, B&N, Kobo, Scrib’d and Overview. I intend using their marketing
tools. At the moment THE EAGLE’S COVENANT is listed as free on their current
promotion which expires July 31^st. I probably don’t have enough of a
name with them (if any), but at least I was able to catch the tail end of the
promotion.
Hopefully I will have another of my fiction titles with them soon.

So what’s next? Well,
tomorrow is D-Day in more ways than one. I have an appointment with my
specialist and should be getting the results of the PET scan I had last week. Depending
on what she has to say, we will either be making plans to return to UK or
bedding down for the long haul in Spain. Wish me luck!

Branching out and looking forward

I didn’t get to the scan; it was postponed at the last
moment. I’m on my way there tomorrow. Results to come next Tuesday 22^nd.
So, what have I been up to? I had a weekend in UK; travelled over there to see
the British Speedway Grand Prix at the Millenium Stadium in Cardiff. I always stay
with our son, John and we go together. It’s nice in that it gives me a lot of
time to be with my boy; something most fathers treasure. I certainly do. The
speedway was good too. The trip back from Bournemouth with RyanAir was one of
the best I’ve had. My flight was the only one out which meant the airport was
virtually empty. We left on time and landed ten minutes earlier than expected.
Before leaving UK I took the family out for a pub lunch. Nice one just outside
Bournemouth airport called The Curlew.

On the book front, I have a promotion going today for    THE DEVIL’S TRINITY. It will be free. At the
moment it is on www.digitalbookday.com as well as Amazon. I’ll leave it on free
for a while; see how it goes. I haven’t sold any of that title for several
weeks, so it needs a bit of a lift.

I have also started a new website through the web builder
WIX. I have been trying to build a new site with the help of our son, Terry,
but it got too complicated in the end. Eventually we decided to go with WIX.
Within ninety minutes I had almost completed the website and couldn’t believe
how simple it was. I will be going public with it later this week, once I have
played around with it.

My next step in the book game is to load THE EAGLE’S
COVENANT on to Smashwords, and then Amazon. I have had the book on Amazon for a
couple of years now, but it has always been under the publisher’s name of
Acclaimed Books. I will be listed as the publisher, which gives me hands on control
of price changes and promotions etc. Eventually I will have all my titles with
me as publisher. If I can do this right, have a manageable website and a good
marketing strategy (I live in hopes), then I should be able to enjoy the kind
of sales figures I see with other, more successful writers. Wish me luck!

Keeping the balls in the air.

I’m off for a scan tomorrow, Monday. Before last week
I’d never heard of a PET scan (thought I’d misheard the word), but since then
I’ve seen it mentioned several times and have even spoke to people who have had
one. I will get the results in two weeks’ time when I see my specialist. On the
book front I’ve just had a three day promotion for ROSELLI’S GOLD. I won’t know
how successful it has been, but I expect to make at least one sale out of it;
maybe more. I have a promotion scheduled for a week tomorrow. This one is for
HELL’S GATE, which I believe is probably my best book, although of all my
titles, NORTH SLOPE sells consistently more. My current project is slowly
taking shape, but I have other diversions coming up. On Friday I will be
heading off to UK for the British Speedway Grand Prix at Cardiff, returning
Sunday. It means I will miss the World Cup final, but that’s something I have
to put up with. I will also be setting up a Smashwords doc for my book, THE
EAGLE’S COVENANT. It will be free of Amazon’s clutches after the 21^st
because that is the date the Kindle Select programme finishes for that title. I
have had all my other titles taken out of the Select programme in readiness for
publishing them on Smashwords. I will still keep them on Amazon, but with
myself as publisher. Once I have THE EAGLE’S COVENANT re-published on both
sites, I will run a promotion for that. It’s an excellent thriller, even if I
say so myself. And even though I wrote the story several years ago, my forecast
about Europe was quite accurate. I sometimes wonder if it’s because the story
is set in Germany that it puts a lot of English and American readers off.
German police procedure may not be everybody’s cup of tea, but there’s a
similarity between all police organisations that readers will recognise.

One of the Facebook sites I follow, a site populated by
writers, I have noticed a fair amount of Sci-Fi, paranormal titles, fantasy and
YA. Naturally there are thrillers and romance too, but I do wonder if I’m in
the wrong game and should be writing about blood sucking vampires and men from Mars.
I couldn’t imagine trying to dream up a storyline that stretched fiction beyond
its natural limits, but then I suppose any fiction can be construed as Sci-fi
because that’s what it amounts to: it’s all make-believe. Might be fun trying
one day. Wish me luck!

Wasting time, writing time and party time.

Well, I wandered up another cul-de-sac by attempting to
use Scrivener. There’s nothing wrong with the programme, and I can see how it
could be a very useful tool for many writers, but for this writer it proved to
be a little too cumbersome. Trying to learn the simple use of just a couple of
its features meant that I would spend more time clicking through tabs, files
and links in order to get to elements of my manuscript that I would otherwise
have to hand and therefore easier to access. So it’s goodbye Scrivener and
welcome back pad and pencil. No, I don’t write by hand, but I build a
chronology as I write, and this is open all the time I’m writing so I can refer
to earlier points of the story if I need to. I jot down my chronological
progress by hand and complete the chronology at the end of my writing session.
It works for me, and I’m happy with that.

I’ve made reasonable progress with my MS, and have
reached 38000 words. There have been diversions along the way of course, and I
have finally caught up with a lot of material I had written earlier. Needless to
say I have changed a lot of detail and even now I know of an area that I have
to go back to in order to correct something. I have also been keeping my eye on
the progress being made by my non-fiction book, A WORD IN YOUR EAR. I have put
it on Smashwords and each day I check its progress. Remember: this book was not
written to make sales, but as a legacy (if that’s the right word) to our four
sons. I don’t think any of them believed their dad could actually become a born
again Christian, and on top of that end up preaching. Anyway, the amusing thing
about its progress is that I have sold one book (I bought that) and have had 56
sample downloads so far. These are people who are curious about the book and have
downloaded the first 15%. I have now upped that to 25%. The fact that none of
them were intrigued enough to buy the book (it’s only 99 cents) doesn’t worry
me because it was never meant to be an informative, religious work; simply an
anecdotal account of my conversion to the Christian faith. But what excites me
is that when I eventually get my fiction titles on Smashwords, I’ll be able to
monitor the sample downloads and maybe adjust my book promotions accordingly.

I read a linked piece on Facebook a couple of days ago
that poked fun at the traditional publishers and laughed at the expected
collapse of traditional publishing as on-line publishers like Amazon increase
their volume of indie authors. It saddened me to see intelligent people behaving
like a bunch of jeering schoolchildren over the (hoped for) demise of traditional
publishing. It hasn’t happened yet, and I don’t believe it will. I have a great
deal to be thankful for because John Hale of Robert Hale Ltd., a London
publisher, has published seven of my eight titles. I have a ninth due out in January.
This has given me a wonderful experience in the literary world; one that I may
never have had. I am now on Amazon as an indie publisher and enjoying an
extended life in book sales. But what the critics of traditional publishing
forget is that there is an enormous amount of dross being published on Amazon
and posing as creditable, literary work. It drags most of us down whether we
are any good or not, and makes it very difficult to establish a readership
without pouring a lot of money in promotion and marketing. If the traditional
publishers do eventually go to the wall, it will be because of market forces,
and nothing else. But I can’t see that happening; not for a long time yet.

On the domestic front it has been a good week too. Last
Friday our church house group met for our usual, weekly meeting, and this was
followed by a pool party. It was a lovely day; very hot, and there were about
twenty five of us there. I spent about two hours chatting with a couple of guys
who had led interesting lives. Neither of them were members of the church, but
husbands of two of our lady members. One of them had worked in construction all
over the world, and the other had run his own business as well as being a
successful band leader. On Saturday we had a big do at our church. It was
billed as an old time musical night, but was in fact a secret birthday party for
our church elder who was ninety that day. I sang a duet with a mate of mine. We
did the Flanders and Swan song: The Gas man Cometh. It was all amateur stuff of
course but we had a terrific night. And that morning my Pastor phoned me and
asked if I would like to preach sometime. I was delighted because I didn’t
expect to be standing in front of the church bringing God’s word again, bearing
in mind that me and Pat are planning to return to UK as soon as I get some kind
of clearance from the hospital. I had a blood test last Friday and will be
seeing my specialist on Tuesday. No scan yet, but maybe she can hurry something
up. Then we’ll now. Wish me luck!

Walks and work

It seems to have been a week of long walks for some.
Metaphorically the England football team began their long walk back home from
Brazil to the UK, while me and Pat have been stretching our legs walking around
Alicante and Torrevieja. The other kind of long walking I’ve been doing is with
my fingers over the keyboard as I battle with a trial on Scrivener, but more
about that later. Last Monday we went into Alicante and wandered around the
shops. It hadn’t been part of our plan, but we went to Elche hospital to jog
their memory about my forthcoming MRI scan, only to be told that my name wasn’t
in their computer. So a trip to Alicante ensued followed by a great deal of
walking. Putting the car into the garage for a planned repair and service meant
most of the day, unexpectedly, being stranded in Torrevieja, so we bit the
bullet and wandered around again. Market first, then the sea front and some
time in town. Made it back in time for the Italy Vs. Costa Rica game, which
Costa Rica won and ensured that England would begin their long walk home. As a
result of our peregrinations and other things, we have eaten out three times.
Not bad you might think, but we don’t really need all those calories, even if
we do burn some off with the walking.

On the book front; I’ve been getting some heartwarming
comments about my non-fiction book, A WORD IN YOUR EAR. I never intended to
publish this book to earn money and get good sales figures, but with
compliments flying around, who knows? Which brings me on nicely to Scrivener.
It’s about books of course. What, I hear you asking is Scrivener? Well, it’s a
programme designed to help writers, not just fiction writers, to build their
work in an easily manageable way without having to switch from one document to
another and searching through research data that usually goes missing when you
most need it. It comes highly recommended, and already I can see what a
practical and helpful tool it is. But will it suit me? Perhaps not at this late
stage of my writing career. I have the programme running on a 30 day trial. It
means 30 days of use, which could be 30 months if you only use it once a month.
I’ve been working with it now for about three days and hope I can get used to
it enough to make up my mind about buying it. It’s not expensive, but it may
not be necessary. I worked my way through the very informative tutorial. It
took me about three hours or more and, like a lot of these ‘simple’
instructions, I’m still confused. But I’m getting there. Hopefully I’ll crack
it before my thirty days are up. Wish me luck!

Losing discipline and the plot

Most writers, I would
imagine, have a set routine for their writing process. Any haphazard approach
would almost certainly result in a disjointed piece of prose and cause the
writer many problems during the re-write. I find myself in that position, and
have done for several months now. I could blame the house move, the chemo
therapy and even put it down to an enforced change of lifestyle now that we are
living in rented accommodation. But that would be a hatful of lame excuses for
not doing what I should be doing, and that is writing. But like anybody with a
creative gift, I have come up with another excuse: I have been trying to upload
my latest non-fiction work (A WORD IN YOUR EAR) on to Smashwords. I managed to
upload the book and even bought a copy, but the problem came when trying to satisfy
the criteria for inclusion into the Premium Catalogue. I’m getting closer with
each revision of the file, and am now waiting for the vetting process to finish
for my latest attempt. I had problems with the book jacket initially. This took
umpteen attempts before I finally got it right. Once I have completed the
process and my book is available for wider distribution, it will give me the
confidence I need when I begin to upload my eight fiction titles. That process
will begin during July, and hopefully I will have them all there by the end of
the year. So until I can find a clear run, my current work-in-progress novel
will be sitting on the back burner.

Last week, apart from the
foregoing, our life whizzed around the car being repaired at the dealer’s; a
practice session with my friend Dave for the contribution we will be making at
our Old Time Music Hall
event at church next week (we’ll be singing that well known Flanders and Swan ditty:
The Gasman Cometh. Should be fun); hospital appointment; church; a beach baptism; game of snooker and, oh yes — the World
Cup. I’m full of excuses! That’s creativity for you. I couldn’t do anything yesterday because I took Pat into Alicante for a
look round the shops. Today? Well, apart from writing up and posting my blog, I
have a game of snooker to get through.

Another string to a successful, self-published author is
promotion and marketing. This is something I dabble with, and have promised myself
that I will get to grips with this aspect of publishing in the near future. My
son, Terry, has been helping me create a new website (which means he has been
doing most of it), but now he has sold his house and will be moving south to
England, so that part of the plan has been put on hold. I can’t expect him to
continue with the development until he is settled in his new home. By that time
me and Pat may be in the fortunate position of being able to return to the UK,
which will stop me from doing any meaningful work on writing and promotion. See
how easy it is to be creative and come up with excuses? Some of you may ask: do
you really want this, Mick? Well perhaps I should be happy with nine novels in
print (after January 2015), but I wouldn’t mind a tenth! And if I wasn’t
writing, what else would I be doing? But like a racehorse with a good track record,
I’m worth a bet that I will finish the course. You watch! Wish me luck.

Spelling & PC

During the week I received the first edited draft of my
latest novel from my publisher (Robert Hale Ltd.). It was a case of reading
through the comments and observations and replying without actually making any
changes to the draft. Two things struck me about it: spelling and PC. I have a
decent vocabulary of words I can spell and have rarely struggled with that part
of the English language. But I was constantly corrected for spelling words like
‘realise’ and ‘organise’ with the ‘s’ instead of the ‘z’. Realize and Organize.
This is an American way of spelling those words and others similar to them. It
doesn’t bother me if my editor wants me to spell the American way, but I have a
feeling that in the literary world, these kind of spellings are the rule rather
than the exception. No matter though; my book is now on its way to the printers
for typesetting.

PC? Not a personal computer, but political correctness.
I was reminded that my use of the word ‘black’ when referring to the features
of a Jamaican character in the novel was probably not acceptable in today’s PC
climate. You have to ask the question: who brought PC into this world? If a
black man tells me I am white, is he a racist? No, of course not. But if I tell
a black man he’s black, am I in the wrong? According to those who drive this
absurd notion into all corners of our lives, I am. But what about porn? And I
don’t mean the top shelf magazines either, but the racy, raunchy muck that lurks
between the covers of a novel. And the gangster novels where no two sentences
are complete without a string of awful swear words. If you were to parse those
books and take out everything that would normally offend someone if they heard
it in the high street, the book would be as thin as a newspaper and wouldn’t
sell. But use of the word ‘black’? My, my!

I’ve been trying to launch my non-fiction book, A WORD
IN YOUR EAR, on to Smashwords. I intend putting all my novels there eventually.
It’s easy. So easy that I have struggled manfully to get an acceptable book
cover uploaded. I have managed to get my book on to the Smashwords website,
complete with jacket, and have actually purchased a copy (e-book). But in order
to get the book on to the Premium Catalogue, which is the route to all the
other sellers and bookshops, I have to do something else to my book jacket.
Trouble is: I don’t what it is I have to do. All I am told is that there is a
problem with the cover. It might be missing, corrupt or not big enough; take
your pick. I still haven’t figured it out. I’ve e-mailed Smashwords through
their help page. Hopefully they’ll come up with an answer, but I’m not holding
my breath. I’ll keep on trying anyway. Wish me luck!

Where am I going now?

Suddenly it’s June and we’re approaching the half-way
point of 2014. I know what I’ve done with my half so far: spent most of it
battling cancer and letting Pat do all the packing for our planned house move.
Now we’re settled in our rented accommodation, we are itching to go back to UK
permanently, but have to wait until later this year. It gives me an opportunity
though to push on with my novel, the prologue of which you have all seen now. I
hope I can have it finished before our move back to England takes place. Most
writers will know and understand the problems that come with crafting a novel,
and I wouldn’t be the first to admit that the characters often lead you into
situations that leave you wondering how you managed to run up that cul-de-sac.
But it happens and often means that you haven’t got a clue about where you’re
going and how the whole thing is going to end, which about sums up my
predicament at the moment. I see so many different ways in which I can take the
story, but there is always the problem of bringing the plot back to the dénouement. Trouble is: I don’t know how
that going to finish either.

So why do writers (not all of them), punish themselves
with the self-inflicted problem of writing? It’s a bit like character I suppose:
you can’t help the way you are and you can try to change if you think it will
improve you. I can’t help writing. I’ve given up many times but there’s always
a plot line running around in my head, so it’s a as natural as drawing breath
almost. If I was a painter, or artist as some would prefer to call it, I would
have a studio full of paintings; probably none of them framed (maybe one or
two) and still be working on my next masterpiece. Would I change it if I could?
I don’t think so. Writing has opened up a world for me that I would have been a
stranger to otherwise. It has been of enormous benefit to me when I have prepared
sermons as an occasional preacher at my local, Christian fellowship here in
Spain. I tend to approach sermons from a different angle to your usual Sunday
preacher; much like a writer crafting a novel with a twist to it. You can read
evidence of that in my non-fiction publication, A WORD IN YOUR EAR. It’s an anecdotal
account of my conversion to Christianity since retiring to Spain to enjoy the ‘good’
life. I sometimes wonder if our four sons think that me and their mum have
screwed up with that particular change in our lives, but the alternative could
have been a very boozy lifestyle of which I’m sure they would not have
approved. The book, buy the way, is available on Amazon in kindle and paperback.
Might be worth a look. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00I1FCA0Y/?tag

So what’s ahead in the Parker household? More writing.
More hospital appointments. More hope. More wondering. But we’re happy, and
that’s a good medicine. Now back to the drawing board. Wish me luck!

Back in Harness

We’ve just arrived back from a very enjoyable trip to
UK, happy now that we have chosen an area we want to go back to when we finally
return to the UK later this year. It will be Pagham: about six miles south of
Chichester in West Sussex. It’s an area we are familiar with, and close to
family. Not too close though. We can’t do anything until my specialist at the
hospital gives me the good news about my treatment, but now at least we can
talk more positively about where we’ll be living and know that we are both
happy with the idea. While we were home we were able to see our eldest son’s
new house and enormous garden (half an acre). The work he and his wife have
done in the ten months or so they have lived there is nothing less than
inspirational. Vince works away from home all week, and Jackie works full time,
but they have managed to turn and overgrown jungle into something to delight
the heart of all gardeners. And it isn’t finished yet!

We also spent a long weekend with two friends of ours
who moved back to UK after seventeen years in Spain. They live in a park home
at Ruskington, near Sleaford. It was a nice relaxing weekend and not having
seen them for about eight or nine months, it gave us a good opportunity to
catch up.

I hadn’t planned to spend any time on the PC while away,
except to check e-mails etc., which is why my blog is well behind. I have
thought about my next book of which you have all seen the prologue now. Any
bright ideas out there about where I might go with it? I intend throwing myself
into this project now that I have a lengthy road ahead of me, but my target is
to have the book complete within six months. And one thing I must make sure of
is that there are no mistakes or typos in it. The eagle eyed among you (my wife
included) will have spotted the mistake in my last blog entry. Despite reading
through carefully before publishing, I managed to say that “I am now 100% fit”,
whereas I should have said, “I am NOT 100% fit”. Its amazing how one letter can
make a world of difference: something all writers should be aware of when they
are reading through their proofs. I can say that because I’ve been there and
got the T shirt.

I am also hoping to have my revamped website up and
running fairly soon, but it involves a little more web design before I can
unleash it upon the unsuspecting public. More care too on how I promote and
market my books is part of the plan for the immediate future. I will also be
re-publishing my novels. It’s all part of the plan to take control of my own
affairs. Once again I will have to convince myself that the titles are typo free.
This means proof reading again before they go to print on Amazon. Some of you might
question this, but I recently read HELL’S GATE and found some mistakes: nothing
to spoil the story but enough to make me shake my head in despair. Proof
reading, you see: most important. Wish me luck.

Having a Break

We’re heading to UK on Friday, so will not be spending
much time on the PC or my blog, if any. I certainly won’t be writing, and
sometimes I wonder how I’ll manage to get back into it when we return. Whenever
I’ve been asked advice about writing, I’ve always recalled that Churchillian
statement: ’Never Give Up’. And that old, J.B.Priestley nutmeg about applying
the seat of one’s pants to the seat of one’s chair. It will be time to follow
my own advice. We can talk all we like about writers’ block and plot building,
research etc., but in the end it comes down to prevarication, or dithering
perhaps is a better choice of word. One sound of piece of advice I’ve come
cross is to simply write and not worry about the final result until you start
editing and getting the second draft prepared. I can’t use my struggle with
chemo as an excuse because it’s now eight weeks since my final dose. I’ve had
two subsequent medication sessions since then, but these are meant to improve
my system. I must say I have felt a marked improvement, and other people see it
in me too, but I also have to guard against complacency because I know I am now
100% yet.

Me and Pat are looking at our trip to UK as a welcome
break after the last, traumatic six months. We’ll be seeing our eldest son’s
new home for the first time. My elder brother is now living at a different
address, and two friends of ours, Brian & Pauline are living in UK after
about 17 years in Spain. We will also be travelling down to East Sussex to
spend a couple of days looking around, figuring out if we can afford to buy a
park home there. We’ll be in UK for ten days all told, and we are really
looking forward to it.

Getting back to the struggle to write; I thought it
might be interesting at this stage to put feelers out to my numerous readers
about the direction in which I should go with my novel. Bear in mind though
that I have completed a great deal of research and piled in about 40,000 words,
but I decided to let you all have a taste of the opening prologue; just to get
your thoughts on it. Here goes:

Charlie Picket woke but did not open
his eyes. He felt the dubious comfort of the hard mattress in the motel room
pressing into him, but preferred it to the squalor of the Mexican prison he had
just left. He hadn’t planned to stop on his way to the American border, but the
long drive had proved wearying, and he had finally succumbed and pulled over
for the night. He was in a small town called Los Montesinos, somewhere between
the desert jail that had held him and the border crossing at El Paso. The motel
looked like a dump, and there was nothing he found in there to change that
impression. The room was squalid, barely furnished and prompted thoughts of a
quick, morning departure barely minutes after he had stretched his weary body
out on the iron bed. But he needed something to eat before giving in to sleep.

There was a taverna
opposite the motel, its flickering, neon sign struggling to light up the
parched ground as darkness fell. Only the sound of music, faint but clear, gave
it life. Picket hadn’t eaten for several hours as he pulled into the motel, and
the thought of a meal and a drink to chase it down seemed to make up for the
paucity of life around the small town. Perhaps it was because he hadn’t eaten
for so long or had a beer for several weeks that he stayed too long in the bar.
The music was good, the guitarist accomplished and the señoritas happy to flirt.
Picket was an attraction some of them found hard to ignore, and he would have
been pleased to accommodate them, but he didn’t want to end up in some dried up
river bed with his throat cut. So he kept them at arm’s length and took comfort
in the ambience and the drink; so much so that when he stepped out of the bar,
the night air seemed to floor him. He staggered back to the motel room and
after clumsily undressing he collapsed on to the bed with the thin sheet pulled
over him.

He opened his eyes
and could feel the throb of pain beneath his skull. His bladder was full and he
had an erection that a cat would have found hard to scratch. He lifted his head
from the pillow and stared up at the sunlight filtering through the yellowing
curtain hanging loosely over the window. He groaned and laid his head back down
again, wanting the pain to go away and more sleep to come. But the nagging
pressure in his bladder forced him to push himself up on to one elbow and take
stock. He remembered where he was and groaned as the thudding inside his head
increased and the nagging discomfort in his bladder urged him to get out of bed
before he pissed himself. He pushed himself up on one arm and sat like that for
a while, his head drooping from his shoulders and his arm trembling slightly as
it supported him. The bed sheet slipped down to his waist. He grabbed at the
thin edge and was about to pull it off when he saw her.

‘What the f….!’

The expletive died in his throat as his
eyes fell on the young girl. She was sitting on an upright chair in the corner
of the room, barely three feet from the end of his bed. She could only have
been about twelve or thirteen; no more. She was wearing what looked like
pyjamas and was barefoot. Her hair was dishevelled and her pyjama top was torn
and stained with mud. But it was her small feet that drew Picket’s attention:
they were covered in blood. And she was sitting there as though she belonged,
holding a gun and pointing it straight at him.