Wrapping up.

6
December 2015

Three
weeks to go and Christmas Day will be a memory. For the majority of us a happy
one, but for many around the world it will be the opposite. Hopefully those of
us who can will bring some light into the dark world of the less fortunate. We
are halfway through putting up the lights in our house. It’s amazing what
baubles you find when dragging the decorations out of the loft or wherever else
they are stowed for the year. But how do you choose a suitable present for the
person who has everything (so they say!)? A gift voucher seems like a good
idea: a little impersonal, but practical. Or a book. Now that’s an excellent
idea. And you can buy Amazon gift vouchers for that very purpose. Not that I’m
extolling the virtues of Amazon here, but it might help to give my books a lift
in sales.

So
what have I been up to on the book front? Well, yesterday I was in Chichester
at 6.30 am helping to set up our Christmas Market stall. This was for the
Chichester Independent Writers (CHINDI). We got off to a good start for day
one, selling about forty books. We’ll be there for five days. If we could hit
forty a day, that’s a lot of books. Pity we can’t have a permanent stall in the
city.

Last
week my wife and I did a kind of round-robin, travelling up to Norfolk and
Lincolnshire: getting the visits in before we ran out of time. In the meantime
I had ordered a few more books, including my ‘early years’ life story. That’ll
be fun. I have also been keeping an eye on my Facebook advertising campaign. It’s
interesting to see how the click rate varies between ads (I had two). I’m down
to one ad now: that’s the Kindle Scout campaign. If you want to nominate my
entry, please click the link https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/1TW0QYIN2N95B

I’m
in a ‘flat’ period as far as my writing goes, mainly because I’m waiting for the KS campaign to run
its course. After December 13^th. I’ll know. I plan to launch the
title in January, and in the meantime I’m figuring out a new jacket and
practising my Photoshop skills. There will be no more blog entries now until
January unless something totally unexpected turns up, but meanwhile I wish all
my readers a Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

Days and times to remember

November 22, 2015

I’ve just typed the date in and realised it’s the day my
father died in 1955. (22-11-55). I was fourteen at the time. I sometimes wonder
what affect it had on me as a teenager. I do remember one night, it was late,
and me and my mates were slowly making our way home from somewhere, when one of
them said: “My old man will kill me when I get home.” My immediate thought was
that I had no “old man” to go home to. I know my time at school was affected by
his death because I went downhill, academically, after that. Got into a lot of
trouble along with the bunch of school mates I hung around with. We were always
getting caned by the headmaster. I dropped four class grades from A down to D.
I wanted to leave school so I could help my mum with the finances, but the
headmaster talked her out of it. So I stayed on and failed all my GCE exams,
leaving school with no prospects and little to offer any employer when it came
to brains. But like a lot of youngsters, the brains were there: they just
needed stimulation. I found that in reading and writing. It’s a great way to
educate yourself, particularly if you can learn from life’s experiences too.
And so I went on to become a happily married man with a lovely wife, four sons,
ten grandchildren, two great-grandchildren and a writing hobby that has so far
produced ten books. I have not achieved financial success through my writing,
but success is not necessarily measured in financial rewards. When I look back
over the last twelve months, my writing has occupied a great deal of my time
and brought me a lot of pleasure. There has been some angst in there too, with
which my wife would agree, but as we approach the end of the year, I believe I
can see a clearer path for my books.

Last week I enjoyed the CHINDI writers’ OBL at Chichester
and know that we have events in the pipeline for next year. I have almost
mastered the art of self-publishing. By that I mean the submission of book
jackets and interior files to Amazon etc. I don’t have the artistic skills to
create dazzling jackets, but I can accomplish an element of creativity by perseverance
and unlocking the potential I had as a sixteen year old leaving school. Failing
that I can always twist my son’s arm and get him to do the jackets for me.

Last week I wrote a piece here about Kindle Scout. I felt
inspired but since then have come to realise it’s a little bit of a sales pitch
from Amazon and certainly akin to a lottery. The more tickets you buy (the more
nominations you get), the better the chance of winning the prize. I have read
of a couple of authors who are treating it as a massive campaign. One writer is
throwing the equivalent of a web party every day just to increase her chances
of getting a result. Me? I’m letting my FB advert do most of the work for me,
although I am plugging it on Twitter and FB. Here too, by the way. So why not
nominate me? The link is — https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/1TW0QYIN2N95B

Once my Kindle Scout campaign
has finished, I will set about launching the book (A Dangerous Game) if it hasn’t been taken up by Amazon. I’ll be
offering it to my subscribers at a launch price of $0.99 (£0.75) for about one
week before putting the price up to the standard $2.99. I will also be using
Facebook to advertise it. And I hope to have the paperback ready as well,
although the jacket design may take a little bit of time. Then it’s back to the
pen and the beginning of another thriller. Wish me luck!

Two Events, two different outcomes

Looking at the last paragraph of my last blog, I mentioned the
Remembrance Day service and how killing should be confined to the pages of
fiction. On Friday well over a hundred, innocent people were murdered in Paris
by Isis jihadists claiming their right and responsibility is ordained by god. I
use the small case to spell god because my God is a God of love, and love
cannot harbour violence: He abhors it.

Back to the world of fiction. Last Friday our CHINDI group enjoyed its
One Big Launch — the OBL — at the Pallant Suite in Chichester. It was a great
evening where nine of us launched our latest books. We laid on entertainment, a
bar and a snack buffet. The evening was rounded off with a 30 minute gig from
Lara King: local singer and comedienne. We all sold books: some doing better
than others, but overall it was a good experience and encouraged us to think
and plan for next year. I had ordered books from Amazon, but they failed to
appear. Fortunately I had a few I was able to offer, backed up by some other
titles.

During the week I entered my latest, unpublished manuscript into a
Kindle Scout campaign. I have 30 days in which to persuade people to nominate
my book, A
Dangerous Game. If my campaign is
successful, I will win a contract with Amazon and all those people who
nominated me will receive a free copy (eBook) from Amazon before the launch.
The benefits outweigh the disadvantages in my case, but I have nothing to lose.
I hope I can persuade you to vote for me by clicking the link:

https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/1TW0QYIN2N95B

I have sent
e-mails to all my subscribers, advertised on FB and Twitter, and hope to
achieve at least a reasonable pile of votes. If you click the link, I will be
eternally grateful. I’m up against some pretty stiff competition, but you never
know —  he who dares?

Having
completed the book and entered the competition, I am now in a kind of limbo. I
want to start my next novel, but I know I have to spend a little more time on
promotion and marketing for A Dangerous
Game. Whatever the outcome, I expect the launch to be early next year.

As we get
closer to the end of November, so the thought of Christmas becomes prevalent in
our minds and our planning. Our calendar is getting fuller and we will be
spending some time away on family visits, shopping trips and a few days in
London during the run-up to Christmas: which brings me back to those murdering
terrorists. It would be easy to cancel our London trip and the two shows we
have booked, but that would mean the murdering cowards are winning the battle.
Whatever the cost, we must not give in to them, and hope that our politicians,
the leaders we voted in, will have the guts to introduce measures that will
offer us more protection instead of the useless sound-bites they spout. We need
statesmen like Churchill and Roosevelt, and only then will we stand a chance of
defeating the enemy.

Ups and downs and a little poser

Nov. 8th. 2015

It’s been
ups and downs for me this week. I received my copy of Past Imperfect from
Ingram Spark and was very disappointed with the result (the jacket). Unfortunately
I didn’t keep a copy of the digital proof, so have to accept the final product
as my responsibility. I decided I couldn’t use the book for my launch on Friday
13^th, so I ordered 25 copies from CreateSpace. It’s now six days and
they haven’t e-mailed me to say the books are on their way. It’s unlikely they
will arrive by the end of the week now. I live in hopes but am expecting to go
to the launch party with eight copies. Hardly the stuff of competency.

On the up
side, Pat has finished the read through and I have completed my manuscript. I
knocked up a book jacket and sent it our four sons for their comments. I also
gave it a new title: A Dangerous Game. I expect to use
the jacket for the e-book, but will ask our son, Terry, to do the paperback for
me. That way I might avoid the problems I experienced with Ingram Spark. I hadn’t
made up my mind when to launch the book, but Amazon may have made up my mind
for me. I received an e-mail from them today inviting me to try Kindle Scout.
The idea is that I submit my MS plus jacket, blurb etc., to them. If they agree
to put it into the Kindle Scout project, I will go into a contract with them
with certain guarantees and get a $1500 advance. I will be given thirty days to
persuade all my social network contacts and friends to “select” my book. At the
end of 45 days I will either have a contract with Amazon or be on my own. And
because I had been thinking of a launch in January, the 45 day period fits in
nicely without really disturbing my plans.  So I could be going that route within the next
couple of days. I’ve nothing to lose anyway.

My permafree
title, The Eagle’s Covenant was on promotion last Tuesday with
Kboards, and I have seen an upswing in the downloads. Hopefully this will
increase my e-mail subscription list.

I have also placed
an advert on Facebook. This is more of a trial for me. I’m hoping to become
more proficient and release a decent advert in the New Year, perhaps to coincide
with the launch of A Dangerous Game. So far my advert has reached 10,000 people
and had 50 clicks. It doesn’t seem a lot, but it means that fifty people, since
last Monday, have looked at my website: that’s fifty more than might have done.
Maybe I’ll pick up more subscribers, more sales. Who knows? We all live in
hope.

And today we
went to a Remembrance Day service at our local church. We remember fallen
comrades and family members and know that for our tomorrow they gave their
today. It beggars belief that mankind has never learned from the horrors of war,
and will continue to go with the slaughter. Far better to confine the killing
to the pages of fiction. Would we be so lucky?

In my wife's hands now.

Nov. 2^nd. 2015

Well, I finally made it: finished the edit of my WIP and handed it to
my lovely, patient wife to read through. I printed the manuscript out double
spaced, which makes it easier for Pat to make her red line entries. She comes
up with some remarkable insights at times, and I’m beholden to her for taking
on the job. Next step will be to edit the MS again, before thinking about a
book launch. But before I can do that, I need a jacket. Fortunately I have
persuaded our son, Terry to take on that task. He designed all my other jackets,
so I’m confident I’m in good hands.

I had a problem last week with Lightning Source. After uploading my
corrected, interior file for Past Imperfect, I found a blank page in the
digital proof. Although IS wouldn’t acknowledge it at first, they eventually admitted
causing the problem by reloading the previous file: the one with the blank page
in it. I was finally able to approve the digital proof and order a copy last
Thursday. I am expecting it today. If it is better than the paperback I have
from CreateSpace, I will order twenty copies or so for my book launch on the 13^th.
I have several to hand but don’t expect to sell too many at the launch. But I’m
sweating on that single copy to turn up before I can do anything.

Since writing my last blog entry, I have sat in on a webinar with Mark
Dawson and Nick Stephenson, learning about Facebook advertising. Although the
facts and figures produced by these authors are mouth-watering, I still see
other authors complaining of their disastrous FB campaigns where very few books
are sold. I expect I will aim my advert at potential subscribers, and by that I
mean advertising my permafree novel, The
Eagle’s Covenant. If I can attract a large number, then they will benefit
from my second, free novel, The Devil’s
Trinity. And if any of you reading this blog have not looked into my offer,
why not do that now? By downloading the permafree book you will have a thriller
that has attracted plenty of reviews and is currently averaging 4 stars. Why
not try it now and pick up a second, free book?

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LZRKJ4O/?tag

This evening I am off to the CHINDI meeting where we’ll be planning our
One Big Launch and the Christmas market stall. There has already been an
invitation to produce a book event at Worthing Library next year, and we are
also planning an event with other writers’ groups. Plus we have an event
pencilled in for the Chichester Festival. I’m sure there will be more to come.
You can check out our website www.chindi-authors.co.uk
and learn more about what we do and where we’re at. So on the whole, I think
that with what’s coming and my own plans, the literary future looks a little
brighter. Wish me luck!

Mixing it with books and people

October 25^th. 2015

An end to an eventful week in which I made some progress
with Ingram Spark, my current ‘work in progress’ (WIP) and more or less being
forced to buy a few copies of my latest paperback as a ‘fall back’ position.
I’m trying to achieve a successful upload for my paperback with Ingram Spark,
and I’m hoping I can use their print copies for my book launch in November.
Without going into details, I have had technical problems, which took a long
time to sort out, but now I am waiting for them to let me have a look at a
digital proof copy. If it looks OK, I can order one and, fingers crossed, get
more sent before November 13^th. If it looks unlikely, I’ll order a
quantity from CreateSpace in UK.

I have ordered postcards from Vista Print. These are the front and back
of my book. I’ll put these around the room when we have our book launch on the
13^th. Should be here this week. Tomorrow evening we have a rehearsal
for the book launch at Woodies in Chichester. That will be fun, but absolutely
necessary to make sure we get things right on the night. After last weekend
when we had the W4W event, I have more confidence in CHINDI’s efforts to
promote our books.

As for the WIP, I have edited about 2/3 of the MS. According to my
software programme, I have analysed 1.4 million words, although I have only
edited 62000 in reality. It feels like it sometimes, but with luck I will have
completed the edit by the end of this month, then I’ll print it out for Pat to
read through. I have also come up with an idea for a book jacket. Once I’ve
finished the WIP, I can begin on that. If I can crack all the minor problems, I
expect to be close to a book launch in January. By then I’m hoping to have
mastered advertising on Facebook, and will spend something on that. If I get it
right, it should give my sales a real boost.

Last Thursday I gave a book talk at our local, cancer drop-in centre at
Tavern House in Chichester. I sat with about six people and talked about books,
how to publish them and the problems that can be encountered as well as the
ease with which we can all become published writers these days. I like to think
I encouraged them. I know they were there because they wanted to listen to a
chat on writing. Three of them had actually put pen to paper but had never
believed they could get anything published, or that it was worth even trying. I
changed their minds on that score. I won’t be back at the centre for at least
eight or nine months, if I’m invited of course, so I’ll never hear how much I
influenced them. I did tell them about our OBL on the 13^th. A couple
of them seemed interested.

Tonight (and again next week), there will be a webinar with Mark Dawson
and Joanna Penn on Facebook advertising. If you can believe everything you hear
about FB advertising, then this time next year I’ll be a millionaire. Wish me
luck!

Happy Times

October 19^th. 2015

Three weeks now since I wrote my last blog entry and a lot of water has
passed under the bridge since then. Two weeks of those three we spent in Spain,
visiting our old haunts and seeing a lot of our old friends. The majority of
those were at Torrevieja Christian Fellowship (TCF), while others were close
friends of ours outside the church. It was great to see everybody and an
absolute joy to share our time with them all. I picked up a chest infection
while we were there, and am now on anti-biotics. Hopefully it will soon be
gone. When we got back it meant a lot of catching up to do on-line and dealing
with stuff that couldn’t be sorted in Spain. But a big event we had to look
forward to was a weekend raising money for the charity Words for the Wounded.

Words for the Wounded was founded about four years ago by the
best-selling author, Margaret Graham. Patrons of the charity include Julian
Fellowes (Downton Abbey) and Paddy Ashdown (former Liberal Democrat MP) The
idea behind it was to help authors publicise their work while raising money for
the wounded servicemen. The charity is fairly well established now, and almost
all the money raised goes to the servicemen.

The event kicked off at Woodies restaurant in Chichester where a lunch
was held together with the opportunity to buy books published by the Chichester
Independent Writers (CHINDI). All the authors donated a large percentage of
their sales to the charity. Margaret opened the meeting with a brief summary of
how she founded the W4W and also something about herself. There were about
fifty people there. After lunch the main speaker was introduced. This was
Elizabeth Buchan, a Sunday Times best-selling writer and a member of the Costa
Book Awards judging panel. Her talk was funny, entertaining and packed with one-
liners that resonated with all of us.

In the evening we had a party at a local pub in Chichester where more
money was raised with donated prizes being raffled. This was well attended. And
the following morning, Sunday, we had a ‘Book Swap’ breakfast at Carluccio’s in
Chichester. This went down really well and many of us managed to sell some
books, (me included!) The whole event raised £903 for the W4W charity: a
magnificent achievement and a feather in the cap of two of our CHINDI writers,
Jane and Chris for organising and managing the event.

Having almost reached the end of the year, CHINDI still has one more to
go: the One Big Launch (OBL). This will be another fun evening of entertainment
and books. Nine of us are launching our latest paperbacks. Should be fun. It
has been a massive learning curve for me and other members of the group. No
doubt we will have learned a great deal which should stand us in good stead for
next year. Meanwhile it’s back to reality and more writing. Wish me luck!

The good and bad of editing.

September 29^th.

Nothing last week, which was deliberate because I had little to say.
This time there’s more but then no more for a while because we are off to Spain
for a couple of weeks. The promotion for Roselli’s Gold with ENT went well. I
sold 87 copies on the day of the promotion, and a few more after that. Not a
huge amount, but at least the royalties will cover the cost of the promo. I
shall be going quiet while in Spain, but when I get back, there will be some
catching up needed. My permafree novel, The Eagle’s Covenant is still
attracting downloads, but the average is around sixteen a day. Still OK, but
could be better.

Last week I downloaded AutoCrit: a software editing programme. I find
it very useful and annoying at the same time because it points out all the
places in my narrative where I could improve. So far I am about one third of
the way through and have edited something like 30,000 words. The statistic
showing on the AutoCrit record says that I have examined over one million words
so far. It looks a lot, but imagine what figure it will have reached by the
time I finish the edit. Once that is done, I will print the manuscript off for
my lovely wife to read through. She will use her red pen to point out my errors
and I will then go through a final edit. Should be finished before Christmas.

I have had to jog the ear of Ingram Spark because they forgot to process
the file I uploaded to them. It is now in ‘premedia’ and I should know by the
end of the week that it’s ready for printing. I’ll be in Spain, but at least I
can order a copy so that it is here when we get back home. Once I’m happy, I’ll
order about twenty copies for the CHINDI’s One Big Launch in November.

I’ve been delivering brochures for our ‘Words for the Wounded’ event in
October. I’m looking forward to that because it will be a good opportunity to
be in a place where I can meet people who want to be there, listening to
authors and, hopefully, buying their books. Mine too! It will be helpful as
well, because if I sell more than just one book, it could give me an indication
of how many I will need in the run-up to Christmas.

For those of you who haven’t already done so, why not have a look at my
permafree book, The Eagle’s Covenant? http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LZRKJ4O/?tag There’s another
freebie inside. See you all when I come back from Spain.

A Good Week

September 12^th.

It has been a good week on both sides of the coin for me, both domestically
and literally (book-wise). Medical stuff started the week off for me on Monday:
dentist for a small filling in the morning, and in the afternoon my bi-monthly
visit to the hospital for my cancer maintenance jab. That evening I was at my
book writers group, CHINDI for a pretty full meeting. Two more new faces to
remember now and at least one of them will be joining the group permanently.

On Wednesday I went across to Petersfield for a book launch. The writer
was a local man, Ron Jameson, 93 years of age and proudly launching his second
novel. I met Ron a couple of months ago to talk about his experiences in Kenya.
He had written a novel set there, called Whistling Thorn, and I had written
Hell’s Gate which was set in the same place: the Rift Valley. It gave us common
ground and much to talk about. I also met two people who had been at the Monday
meeting. But one fairly important chat I had was with the owner of the bookshop
where the book launch party took place. He gave me an insight into the other
side of marketing and promotion from a book seller’s point of view.

Friday was an opportunity to spend a day at Goodwood in West Sussex. It
was the Goodwood Festival. It goes on for three days and is all about the
forties and fifties, classic motor racing, aeroplanes from World War Two, Rock
n Roll, and dressing up in the fashions of that era. It was a terrific day out
and good weather to boot. We will go again next year.

I made progress with my current WIP: actually finishing the first,
80,000 word draft. Next step is to complete the re-write, which I have started.
I made an important decision about that too. I have been giving a lot of
thought to the cost of proof reading, editing and jacket design, and wondering
if it really is worth the outlay. I would probably never recover the costs
anyway, and I’m basing that honestly on my track record as a self-published
writer. To produce a paperback book would cost about £1000. The sales return on
that would probably earn me a tenth in royalties. As for eBook sales, I would have
to pay promotion costs to achieve significant sales, so it wouldn’t be cost
effective either. You might say this means I have no faith in my ability, but
that isn’t true: I know I am a good writer, but so are hundreds of writers out
there competing against the likes of me! It’s all down to luck. And if I did
hit the big time, I wouldn’t give a second thought to the publication costs; I
would hand it over to the professionals straight away.

I have just approved the latest upload of my paperback, Past Imperfect,
to CreateSpace. I received a copy of my earlier attempt, and although I couldn’t
fault CS, I wasn’t happy with the finished product: hence the upload. That
should be available in about four days’ time. I’ll order a copy, see what it
looks like and, if I’m satisfied, I’ll order another twenty copies or so for my
book launch party in November with the CHINDI group.

And to finish off a good week, I e-mailed all my subscribers to let
them know Roselli’s Gold was available at a low price for a promotion, and sold
seventeen copies. When I see an average of two a day, that figure of seventeen
is like a huge leap. It certainly put a smile on my face. Hopefully the
promotion on eReaderNews tomorrow will bring me an even bigger result. Wish me
luck!

Down to the Roots

September 5^th.

I look at my diary for the past week, and the pages are
blank. I sit here and wonder what exactly I did during those blank days. Well,
the truth isn’t always revealed in the empty pages of a journal; my week was
full and, in some way, successful. My sales continue to hold up on Amazon, and
the downloads for my permafree title continue averaging around 30 per day, and
my subscribers list increases daily. I finished my paperback, Past Imperfect and uploaded it to
CreateSpace. Today I ordered a copy
and, hopefully, I will be happy with it. I was also able to make great strides
with my WIP. I’m inching closer to finishing the first draft. Once that’s done
I can do a complete edit, re-write and have the manuscript ready for Pat to do
the first read through. I wish I could do that as quickly as I wrote those
words, but it’s likely to take me very close to Christmas before I can say I’m
happy with the finished article. Oh, are we ever
happy with the finished article?

On the domestic front I was able to get out into the garden
and cut the lawn because the rain had held off for a day. We had two friends;
Sandra and Ken, from Spain visit us on Wednesday evening. Had a lovely time talking
about all sorts of things, including Jesus and Christian fellowship. They left
about midnight. I told Pat I would wash the dishes before we went to bed. She
stayed up with me and it took us about half an hour before we were done. I
suppose we should have sat down and had a glass of wine then, but the evidence
of the empty bottles and the lateness of the hour made us decide against that.
Lovely evening though.

Back on the book front, I have spent a few more dollars on a
book promotion. This time it’s for Roselli’s
Gold. It’s always something of a dilemma for me: choosing which book to
promote. But I should look at all my titles with the same view: they are all
worth promoting. Being a member of about three writing groups on-line, I see
all sorts of advice about promotion and marketing. Some
are spurious while some appear to achieve seriously good results. And
then you consider the minutiae and realise that the success is generally in the one or two per cent of the group, while the
rest of us still struggle to get our heads above the parapet.

I began watching a video on how to sell, promote and market
your indie book, and make money. Everything I see and read is like wandering
over old ground: I’ve done it all and am still doing it, but my results pale
into insignificance compared to the statistics published by some of these
successful writers. I don’t doubt the claims because often they are backed up
with total sales figures, but the implication is always there that you can do
exactly the same. How I wish that was true, but it won’t stop me from trying.

Back to another kind of reality: my wife has just asked me to help her
with the weeding; so I’ve spent the last hour out in the garden.

One dilemma I have is what to do with the book I’m writing at the
moment. I’m not contracted to my publisher now, but I do have direct access to
her, and can send her the MS for her consideration. If she is happy with it, it
will go into hardback and I won’t have to bear the cost of jacket design, proof
reading and editing. But I won’t have the rights to the e-book either, and it
will take about fifteen months before it is published and reaches the on-line
outlets. On the other hand; if I publish the book myself, I can have it on-line
within a matter of weeks once I am happy with the finished article, and
possibly start earning royalties. But then I would have bear the cost of
editing etc. My gut feeling is to go with the latter, so whatever I do: wish me
luck!

Pillars of the Earth and other works

Looking back over the week, I can see I’ve been busy but I can also
remember how much rain there has been. Monday was torrential. Tuesday we went
on a coach trip to Salisbury and it rained there as well, all day. We went into
the cathedral. It was the first time for me, but this is the 800^th year
of the signing of the Magna Carta (1215), and I wanted to go into the cathedral
and get a sense of the history behind our heritage. While I was in there
admiring the huge structure, I thought of Ken Follet’s book, Pillars of the
Earth. It took about 38 years to build the central section of the building so
it could be consecrated and used, but about another 60 years to complete the
whole thing. Absolutely magnificent.

I had a couple of promotions on this week: Hell’s Gate and North Slope.
Unusually, I didn’t see much in the way of results. I had a small shift in
daily sales but the figures soon dropped.

I’m making progress with my WIP. I’m inching my way to a climactic
ending (hopefully). I can’t see me finishing the draft before I go to Spain in five
weeks’ time, although I could just about scramble it in. Then the hard work
begins again as I go through it with an editor’s pencil and re-write it. I’m
looking at Christmas as the target to finish.

I received my proof copy of Past Imperfect from CreateSpace. It took
about two weeks to arrive. It’s not bad, but I need to make a few changes. I
checked the jacket against the cover I had prepared, but for some reason it
doesn’t look the same. I went back to the digital proofer, and sure enough, the
jacket CreateSpace produced is the one I sent them. So I’m scratching my head
and wondering if I made the mistake. There are a couple of typos inside that
need sorting out, so I’ll get those finished and send the updated files away
for printing. Or I may just rely on the digital proofer. Once I’m happy with that,
I’ll have the files printed by Ingram Spark, but with the ISBN changed for the
Nielsen number.

I sent five copies of The Devil’s Trinity to the Legal Deposit as
required by law and a copy each of that and Hell’s Gate to the British Library.
It’s all pay! Hopefully I’ll earn some of that back in royalties.

My subscriber list continues to climb. I’m up to 364 now, having just
added ten new names. At my rate of increase, I would expect to hit the 1000
mark by this time next year! Hopefully the rise in names will increase more
rapidly and I’ll reach that figure by Christmas. I think the promotion I did
this week probably accounted for the increase of ten in one day; usually it’s
about two or three. I have read of spectacular rises among a few of the writers
I meet on a particular Facebook group I’m with. Amazing results achieved simply
by following the same advice I am following. One guy achieved 3000 subscribers
in about two months, and notched his sales up to around 100 a day from about
one or two a week before joining the group. My results could be said to mirror
his, but although they probably started out like that on day one, his figures
left me standing still. I am pleased for him and it gives me the encouragement
to press on and not panic; I’m sure it will come. Wish me luck!

Project planning

My week kicked off with another kind of project which meant a brief
survey and a trip to B&Q (our major, D-I-Y outlet in UK). We are planning
to change our kitchen round a bit and will have an electric cooker & hob
installed in place of our gas cooker. But because we have no dedicated circuit
for an electric cooker, yours truly has to put one in. It isn’t beyond my
technical capability, but physically I’m getting too old for what we often
referred to “house bashing” in the trade. B&Q couldn’t provide the right
materials, so I bought them from an electrical supplier. I’m halfway through
the installation, too old or not.

Monday evening was the night of our monthly CHINDI group meeting. We
managed to get through a great deal of planning, with quite a schedule leading
up to Christmas. I enjoy being part of this proactive group, even if it means
getting involved in a ‘hands-on’ way and bringing stuff to the table. We are
preparing for a charity event where we raise money for the charity,
“Words4Wounded”. I don’t have much involvement in that other than to turn up,
bring friends with money and my books.

We are also planning ahead for our ‘One Big Launch’. This will be a
book launch by eight of us in the group, bringing our latest, self-published
titles along. There will be a lot of time and effort invested in this, and
although we are only at the early planning stage, there is already a growing list
of things to do, including my own tasks.

On the home front, apart from crawling around beneath our Park Home
getting covered in cobwebs and banging my head, I have made real progress with
my book jacket. I have to admit though that I was going nowhere until our son,
Terry, got involved. Having designed all my paperback jackets he had decided to
leave this one to me. But when he realised I was struggling, he came up with
the goods. I am in the process of uploading the files to CreateSpace. I’m
holding back on the cover file for a day or so, just in case I want to make one
or two tweaks. Next week should see the finished article.

Another surprise during the week: I received an e-mail from the Legal
Deposit Libraries asking for five copies of The Devil’s Trinity. This is
something that is required by law and I have an obligation as the registered
publisher of the book to send them. I also have to send one to The British
Library. This will be a requirement for all the titles I self-publish with a
Nielsen registered ISBN number. Such is life in the book world.

So next week, hopefully, I will be able to knuckle down and crack on
with my WIP. This is something I promised myself (at the beginning of this
year), I would have completed by June. But other things just got in the way.
Wish me luck!

A Thai curry with books

August 9^th

Began the week with a Thai curry at a local Thai restaurant in
Chichester. It was with the CHINDI authors. There were seven of us there, and
it was great to talk about books, writing, self-publishing, ‘do’s and don’ts’
etc. A lot information flowed around the table and it meant I picked up a few
tips. I thought I might have found myself a reasonably priced designer to help
me with my book jacket. One of the writers there uses her for all his jackets.
I checked her website out and was well impressed. Unfortunately she was unable to
take me on because of her current workload. In a way it helped me knuckle down
and get on with Photoshop. I have managed to make good progress and believe I
am a lot closer to having a finished design very soon. That doesn’t necessarily
mean I will have created a brilliant jacket, but at least it will be a measure
of the progress I’ve made. Once that’s done and the book is complete, I can get
on with my WIP.

Apart from spending hours in front of my computer gazing at free images
on Pixabay and coming up with nothing, I have managed to make inroads into
other jobs that need my attention, not least sorting stuff out in the garden
for Pat and also doing a little survey, a technical one, into how easy it will
be to install a cooker circuit into our Park Home. At the moment we have a gas
cooker, but Pat wants an electric one. I agree with her, but the house doesn’t
have a cooker circuit installed. This might sound odd, but when I contacted the
manufacturer and spoke to the chief engineer, he told me it wasn’t unusual because
the spec for the house when built would have been for a gas installation only.

Last Tuesday we took Pat’s small, roll-top desk over to a second hand
furniture shop and left it there to be sold. We bought a bookcase which now
resides in my room in place of the desk. Naturally it is now filled with books,
most of them mine, but I do have a shelf with signed books. They are all,
almost, unknown writers who I have supported when their books have been
published, but a couple of famous names reside there: Spike Milligan and Dick
Francis. The value of a book is increased by the author’s signature, so I’m
told, which means that all mine or worth more than their retail price. I wonder
by how much though?

My book sales on KDP are managing to keep above the flat line at the
bottom. At the moment I am averaging about two sales a day. I get quite a lift
when I see three or four sales in one day. It helps when the figures flat line
for a day or two. My subscriber list continues to grow and has now reached 338.
I think this is the reason for my sales figures. I will continue promoting my
books of course; it wouldn’t do to rely on a hope that people will buy simply because
they have subscribed. I have a promotion coming up for Hell’s Gate: 25/26^th.
August. Next month I will try a Facebook campaign. It could be good. Wish me
luck!

Winning the Battle

I’m making progress this week with Photoshop. I am gradually figuring
out which tool does what and the importance of working with layer masks. One of
the downsides to watching help videos on You tube is that you often see a
screen, or an action that you can’t replicate. I watched as one photograph was
merged into another with a very simple, sliding action. I tried it and failed.
I watched that section of the video repeatedly, but it didn’t happen for me.
Oh, I have the latest version of Photoshop by the way. In another the guy
pulled down a window to disable an application, then reinstated it. I pulled
down the same window but the application wasn’t there. It’s frustrating, and
forces you to try things that aren’t part of the plan. But eventually, some
things begin to make sense and I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. I
currently have the makings of a book jacket, and hopefully I will have the
finished article by the end of the coming week. Once I’m happy with it, I’ll
set about publishing Past Imperfect.

Yesterday my radio interview on Angel Radio Havant (101.fm) was aired.
Me and my wife sat listening to it recalling things from our past as I went
through the years and selected songs that meant something to me. At the end of
the show I left a hardback copy of my latest novel so that the radio station
could offer it as a prize. I would like to think the show will bring some
reaction from listeners wanting to know more about me and my books, but I will
have to wait and see.

This morning (Saturday) we went across to a local town called Barnham.
It was to visit Pixie Flowers http://www.pixieflowers.com/ where the
owner, Pam was opening her shop for the first time. She is developing an arts
and craft side to the flower business, and that included books from my writing group,
CHINDI. I went across to offer some support and also to buy a bunch of flowers
for Pat. We spent an hour wandering around Windmill Village, where the shop is
based. It was a pleasant day: sun was shining. Lovely.

Those of you reading this blog who are writers too, will understand
what writer’s block is like. This is something I’ve been suffering from for a
few weeks now on which way to take my latest thriller. Well, last week, during
the night, I lay awake for a while thinking about the story and bang – the ending
came to me. Now, when I have finished the Photoshop project, I can get on with
my WIP. Looking ahead at my schedule for the month, I believe I can see a
reasonable period of relative calm, which means I could finish two projects: my
latest, self-published paperback, and my current WIP. Wish me luck!

Building blocks

July 25^th.

The interview on Angel radio went well. I don’t know when it will be
live on air, but it will be shared around on my blog and other social media.
Monday evening was a photo shoot with the CHINDI group. It was quite an event
in a way. The shoot was supposed to be organised in such a way that we all knew
when we were due to have our pictures taken. In the end it was a glorious kind
of melee where we all had individual shots, then a cluster of group shots. The
event lasted about an hour or so and, had we not all been responsible adults,
it could have turned out to be quite an evening considering we were in a pub. I
told the photographer that my facial shots often show up my dodgy, front tooth
(it’s getting old!). He told me not to worry; he would sort that with Photoshop.
By the way: have you noticed how ‘Photoshop’ is now a verb? I’m practising my
skills with it, but more later.

The only medical appointments me and Pat had this week were at the
dentist, so a little more free time than usual. I managed to get my lawn cut in
between the rainy spells, and Pat found more stuff to plant in the garden. We
paid my younger brother a visit. He is virtually housebound, so it helps to pop
over there for a chat. His wife is always pleased to see us.

Another visit, but this time two of our friends, Ray and Lynn, from
Spain. They came over on the ferry, landing at Portsmouth late evening. We gave
them a bed for the night so they could continue their journey to Manchester the
following day. It was nice to see them and it gave me an opportunity to chat
about my books. Not too much though; just enough.

But visits and seminars wasn’t the only thing that took up my time;
battling with Photoshop consumed a large part of it. Having completed the edit
on my book, Past Imperfect, the next
task was to create a jacket. To say I’ve been tearing my hair out would be an
understatement: but it is such a complicated piece of software, it is very
difficult to understand everything it can do and how to do it. I have used
several, You Tube videos to learn about working with layers etc., but the
biggest problem is the actual design. Not being terribly artistic in that
department, I am dipping my toe in the water and hoping for the best. I could
employ a professional, but I have another seven jackets waiting in the wings,
so the overall expense could be quite prohibitive. The reason for this, by the
way, is because I am re-publishing my back-lists, using my name as publisher. I
have completed two so far (didn’t need PS for those), and have the rest to do. And
because I have just received the UK paperback rights to my last two books from
my publisher, it has added to my workload. I’m not complaining though: at least
I have plenty to keep me out of mischief.

My Mail Chimp subscription list grows daily, which is a positive. I
haven’t reached enormous numbers but have gone past the 300 mark. Next month I
will have to send them all something. I don’t know what yet, but I do want to
keep them onside. If any of you reading this want to add your name to my list,
please click the link: http://eepurl.com/bgYKMj And sometime this year I might even get
back to working on my latest novel. Wish me luck!

Stepping Stones

July 19^th.

 

Good week last week: I’m actually making progress! Received
confirmation from my publisher that I now have the UK paperback rights to my
last two novels, Past Imperfect and The Boy from Berlin. I have completed
the edit on the first of these, and now have to embark on the daunting task of
creating a presentable book jacket. The promotion I ran for A Covert War yielded reasonable results.
I managed to sell 42 books last week, which is a huge increase for me.  Naturally it’s all about getting my name out
into the market place at the moment; not just selling books.

Our week began with a trip to Bath in Somerset to meet up
with our grandson, Sam, who is over from America on an internship for six
weeks. It was great to spend time with him, take him out to lunch and just be
in his company. We haven’t seen him for about six years. Monday was taken up
with a hospital appointment for me. Tuesday was the promotion day. Thursday was
different: I went along to a drop-in centre called CancerWise. This wasn’t
because of my on-going treatment, but because it was suggested to our writer
group, CHINDI, that we might be able to do something for the charity. I spoke
to the manageress and explained that essentially, we want to sell books, and it
would be a bit churlish of me to pretend that we could offer them something
when the truth is that there is an ulterior motive. So I offered to come along
to the group on my own and give a talk on the writing process, the value of
spending time doing this, using it as a therapy and anything else that might
crop up during the talk. And I would come as a writer, not as a snake oil
salesman trying to flog the CHINDI group to them. Naturally I would be happy to
do more than one chat, but then it might be reasonable of me to hope they will
buy my books.

For the last four weeks, the CHINDI group have been
supported by Kim’s Bookshop in Chichester by displaying several of our books in
support of the Chichester Arts Festival. It was another way of getting our name
out to the wider public. I picked up the books and was pleased to find out that
we had sold more than half of those displayed. Maybe next year, if we do the
same again, we’ll sell all the books.

Tomorrow I’m off the Angel Radio in Havant  (101.1 FM) for an interview. Being a local
lad, there should be something of interest in my life to prick somebody’s ears.
Naturally I’ll plug my books and the CHINDI group if I get the chance, and I
will also be leaving a copy of Past
Imperfect for them to give away as a gift. They will also be playing a selection
of music I’ve chosen from the 1950s. Should be fun. I don’t know if the
interview will be live, or recorded, but if I get a CD from them, I’ll post it
on my website. Wish me luck!

Meeting People

July 11^th.

It looks like I missed a week, but lots have occurred which kind of
diverted me. Hospital appointments get in the way. So essential of course, but
they do take up a lot of time. Last Monday I went into Chichester and
introduced myself to the Waterstones manager. He was very pleasant and didn’t
throw me out of the shop. I was able to talk about CHINDI, the writers group I
often mention now. He said he wouldn’t be averse to doing a book launch, but
would have to vet the book beforehand. I thought this was reasonable because I
doubt if he has any say in the matter if it’s a top-line writer with a book
launch. It’s a step forward for us, and a connection: so important too.

I also ventured into East Wittering along the coast from where we live,
and spoke to Lindsay, the owner of Kings Bookshop there. She was happy to talk
about our books and book promotions; so another contact has been made which
should help to spread the word about our writing group. I know it’s always the
aim of a writer to sell books (usually), but for the moment it’s all about
building relationships with people in the book world.

I took the plunge and asked my publisher if she could give me the
paperback rights to the last two novels she published for me: The Boy from Berlin and Past Imperfect. She has agreed to give
me the UK rights, which I am really pleased about. It means now that I can
publish those two books without having to worry about editing and
proof-reading. Well, not quite. At the moment I am going through the edited
manuscript of Past Imperfect and editing my Word doc. So I suppose it is a form
of editing. However, the book jacket will be different. I can’t use Photoshop
properly, but I have watched a training video on using Microsoft Word, and I
think I might just be able to cope. Time will tell though. With luck I can have
the book ready by the end of August and follow that up in September with The
Boy from Berlin. I’m quite excited about this development because our CHINDI
group are holding a big launch day in September, and hopefully I’ll have at
least one, new title to offer.

On the writing front; I have reached 68,000 words and changed the plot
line of my WIP. It was the only way I could see myself making progress. I still
have a mini mountain to climb, but hopefully I will get there in the end. At
the moment I am planning to offer it to my publisher. If she turns it down then
I will publish it myself. But that will incur costs: about £1000 if I’m brave
enough. Might have to give that some thought though.

I received an e-mail today from a young woman Pat and I met while we
were on our Alaskan cruise. Her name is Julia, and she was with her friend,
Mary Beth. They sat at our table and we talked for about an hour and a half.
Pat and I were really pleased to get Julia’s e-mail. Naturally we will stay in
contact through Facebook and perhaps the occasional e-mail.

I had a bit of a lift this morning with my KDP sales report. I usually
average about one sale a day, but because I e-mailed my subscribers and told
them of a forthcoming promotion for A
Covert War ($0.99), I sold nine books yesterday. Small numbers indeed
compared to a lot of Amazon authors, but it brought a big smile to my face.

Tomorrow, Sunday, we are off to Bath to see our grandson, Sam. He is in
UK on a short internship from his university in America. He lives in Australia,
and we haven’t seen him for about six years, so this is a great opportunity to
catch up with him, take him out to lunch and learn more about his hopes, his plans
and his ambitions. We are really looking forward to that. Should be fun. See
you next week.

Cruise Control

June 30^th.

It all began in Juneau; panhandle capital of Alaska. That’s where my
first novel, North Slope, opened. And
that’s one of the reasons we wanted to cruise Alaska: to see just what it was
like. Although my book was published thirty five years ago; a curiosity about
the country has always been part of mine and Pat’s life. Pat’s more so than
mine. As an author, I suppose it’s natural to forget about the places in which
the stories are set, but for Pat it meant so much more: her husband’s first
novel. So we set sail, not like the gold diggers of the nineteenth century, but
like modern day pioneers, well cossetted on our magnificent cruise ship, the
Ruby Princess and headed north to Alaska. And what an amazing place it turned
out to be. What helped me was that I started reading James Michener’s book
about Alaska; it’s history and the gratuitous violence from settlers, fortune
hunters, pirate sea captains and other so-called entrepreneurs that coloured
and stained the birth of a magnificent country. But as they say: its all
history now. We saw huge, snow-capped mountains, glaciers, floating ice: some
as big as a small lorry. We didn’t see any whales but could have done if we had
gone on a whale watching cruise as some of the passengers did. We met some
lovely people, had a lot of fun, walked our legs off and just soaked up the
history and natural glamour of the place.

One thing I didn’t do was write; it was the furthest thing from my mind
really (metaphorically speaking). I kept an eye on my book sales though until I
lost the Wi-Fi connection to my phone. After that I didn’t worry too much about
whether I’d sold a book or not. But now we are back in harness so to speak, I am
about to catch up with most aspects of my literary world, not least putting
another promotion in place. I also have to make contact with Kim’s Bookshop in
Chichester where she has on display several books from the CHINDI group: the
local writers group of which I am a member. I will be taking a couple of my
titles in with me to replenish any of mine that have been sold.

This coming weekend we are off to a wedding. We’ll be travelling up to
Norfolk on Friday, returning Sunday. Hopefully after that I will then be able
to settle in to a writing routine and make progress with my latest book. I’m
65000 words in so far, and still don’t know how it will end. That’s probably a
good way of writing a thriller. We’ll be seeing some old friends of ours who
were our neighbours in Spain for about eleven years. They moved back to UK last
year, so we’ll have a bit of catching up to do. We’ll also be seeing another of
our Spanish friends, Kath & Don, who we’ve known for about seventeen years
now.

Along the domestic front are the usual hospital appointments, dental
appointments, gardening to catch up on and a host of other things that most
people deal with during the normal, everyday lives.

On the book front; my subscription list is still growing. It is now
about 265. My free title The Eagle’s
Covenant is still downloading daily. The average has dropped to about sixty
a day, but it still manages to pick up excellent reviews. I won’t read my
reviews, of course, and I do know that not everyone will like my style of
writing, but my average rating for that book is still holding 4 stars; so I’m
happy with that.

Next thing for me to do is download the photos of our holiday from the
camera to the PC and put some of them on Facebook. Oh, I almost forgot: on the
day we boarded our cruise liner, the Ruby Princess, we wandered around the ship
to familiarise ourselves with everything. We found ourselves in the Wheelhouse
Bar; an English pub. It was empty which gave us a chance to look around the
place. On the walls were a lot of pictures in frames: all neat and tidy. But
there was one picture that stood out. It had pride of place and was larger than
the others. It was of an old ship. When I saw it, there was something about the
single, yellow funnel that stood out. I went over to it and couldn’t believe
it: the ship was the Chusan. This was the ship I had served on in 1958/59 as a
steward. I got so excited, I was like a school kid. Naturally I took several
photos of it and will be posting the best one on FB. It brought back so many
memories of my time as a merchant seaman and my travels around the world as a
young lad. Great stuff! See you all next week.

Time for a break: cruising away from choppy writing hang-ups

June 17 2015

Tomorrow we are off
to Alaska for a seven night cruise, flying from Heathrow to Seattle. Three
nights in Seattle and then board the Ruby Princess on Sunday. Am I looking
forward to it? Well, it’s a long way to go for a week’s cruising, but I’m sure
the trip will be enjoyable. Not so sure about the 13 hour flight. We’ve done
the 24 hour flight to Australia, which was a pain. Always is when you fly
economy. We did fly business class once. What a difference, eh? Can’t do that
again unless I sell more books or win the lottery. But selling books is
something of a lottery: some writers crack it, others don’t. My sales have
increased slightly to about 3 a day. The average is probably slightly below
that, but who’s going to argue? Since starting my subscriber campaign with
MailChimp on March 14^th. I have seen a steady increase in the
subscription rate and the daily sales. I now have about 216 subscribers, and
all the time that figure keeps increasing, I can expect, hopefully, an increase
in my sales. But how do I keep the faith with all of them? There is a great
deal of advice on how to sell and increase your reviews out there on the web.
The trick is to pick the right one. When we get back from our holiday (we also
have to travel up to Norfolk for a wedding) I hope to be able to knuckle down
and start promoting as well as finishing my current WIP. I have reached 63,000
words and am now at that big hurdle known as writer’s block. The problem isn’t
really finishing the story, but making it as intriguing and fast paced as you
can without just tapering off to a kind of ho-hum so what ending. I’ve managed
to put three of my characters into a situation that I never intended should
happen, and that has kind of thrown me a curved ball: where do I go from here
and what do I do to get these characters back in line? Ah, but I’m the creator
of this intriguing piece of fiction, so I should have no trouble continuing
with the story and taking any path I choose. I could even re-write the whole
thing, but would that solve my problem? Believe it or, I began this book in
2011 — four years ago. In that time I have shelved it, written a full length
novel (Past Imperfect) which was published in hardback and Kindle this year,
had cancer, gone through chemo therapy, sold our house in Spain, moved into rented
accommodation and finally arrived back in England eight months ago. And now I’m
struggling with a WIP that my common sense tells me I should have thrown in the
bin four years ago. But writers aren’t sensible people, otherwise they wouldn’t
write. So why do I do it? Because I’m a romantic; I’m a story teller. I’m still
a kid who makes up stories. And that’s the rub: I can’t stop myself. I will
carry on until I drag myself over the finishing line with a completed novel in
my hand and wonder why I ever doubted the process. Wish me luck! See you all in
about a month’s time.

Measured Progress

June 6^th.
2015

Where did
the week go? Ever felt like that and wondered where it all went? Monday began
with a hospital appointment for Pat, but that evening I went to a meeting of
the CHINDI group to talk about our writing, our promotions and the forthcoming
events that all help to get us out into the public domain. You can read about
the writers group and the work they do on their website http://www.chindi-authors.co.uk. The next, forthcoming attraction for us is the Festival of
Chichester. This is a celebration of the rich and varied talent that can be
found in this ancient city. The festival covers all aspects of the arts and
gives people like me an opportunity to showcase our talents. (I do have some, I’m
sure!)

I’ve
managed to add a few more words to my WIP, and have increased my word count to
just over 60,000. Being over half-way is something of a bonus for me because I
began to doubt whether I would ever get there. It won’t increase by much more
over the next couple of weeks, and then there will be a pause because we are
going on a two week break cruising Alaska. We fly into Seattle for a few days
and then cruise for seven nights. Back to Heathrow twelve days later. Then a
wedding, but that’s in July.

I am
managing to sell a few books. Not many, but I am averaging a little over one a
day. This is more than I managed in the early part of the year. I put all this
down to the course I’ve been doing with Nick Stephenson and having a
subscribers list courtesy of MailChimp. If I can keep it going and supplement
it all with promotion, I would hope to improve my sales figures progressively
and with a good rate of increase. We’ll see.

I keep an
eye on my sales rank on Amazon daily, and have seen it taper off slowly to well
below 400,000 over the last few weeks despite the fact that I was selling books
on KDP (Amazon). I contacted them and asked why my sales rank was falling and
ignoring the fact that I’m selling? I received a text book reply from them
which told me nothing, but when I checked my rank after that, it had rocketed
to under 60,000. And I had no sales that day! Makes you wonder just how
efficient Amazon’s algorithms are. Or perhaps someone in the office felt sorry
for me and pushed my rankings up.

I’m still
battling with self-publishing. My latest print book came from Ingram Spark and
it was a total disaster. It was uploaded during their Spring event, which meant
publication was free. I have had to upload again, but this time it will cost
me. The annoying thing is that when I looked at the files I used, they are not
the ones Ingram Spark used. Now, you might think I’ve got it wrong, but this
happened a couple of months ago with another title. When I complained they told
me they only print the files uploaded by the customer. Can’t argue with that,
of course, but there is no redress if you know that the error is theirs. One of
the joys of self-publishing, I suppose. But I’ve uploaded the “correct” files
and have had to pay $50. I probably won’t even sell that many print books to
cover the cost. Why bother? Because I’m still in the game and like what I do.
Wish me luck!

Round Up!

May 29^th. 2015

In the last two weeks
I’ve seen much of the countryside, blocked motorways, new family members and a
small rise in my book sales. We travelled up to Norfolk to meet up with our two
great-grandchildren, Harrison and Archer. Archer was born in February but we
hadn’t been able to see him because he lives in Cyprus. Harrison celebrated his
third birthday while we were in Norfolk, but we lived in Spain when he was
born, so this was a first time for the two little ones and me and Pat. It was a
great weekend which also included our eldest son, Vincent’s retirement from the
RAF. After the long weekend we travelled up to Ruskington in Lincoln to spend a
bit of time with our two friends Brian and Pauline. Oh, and the dog, Daisy,
their new Chihuahua. We brought them down here for a week and then drove back
home with them. On the way back the following day we crawled round the M25.
During the week we went to Arundel where some tosser clouted my car in the car
park. No telephone number left for me, just the prospect of a bill to get my
car repaired. Why are people like that?

I’ve kept a sneaky
eye on my book sales while we’ve been away and am pleased to see my average
just going over one a day. No big deal you might think, but a sale is a sale.
My subscriber list has grown steadily and at the time of writing has reached
145. I will begin promoting again, but first things first; I need to get on
with uploading a book jacket for Ingram Spark: they rejected the one I thought
would be fine. My ability with PhotoShop is limited, so that means a teeth
gnashing time trying to adjust the size of the jacket spine lettering to fit
the template.

I have been getting
on with some side issues with the author group, Chindi (Chichester Authors). I
picked up a display rack from a firm way out in the Hampshire countryside when
we were travelling back from Lincolnshire. The sign on the roadside said “Wriggley
Tin”. No, that wasn’t the name of the company, but it was the right farm track
we needed.

I’ve been giving a
great deal of thought about my writing process and the direction I’m going. My
instincts tell me to keep going; keep plugging away. But as time goes by I seem
to be losing the will to follow those instincts. A couple of weeks ago I spent
a bit of time with a bookshop owner in Petersfield. He used to work in
publishing and advised me not to drop my publisher in favour of self-publishing.
He said I was fortunate to have a publisher. And considering the time, effort
and cost of producing a paperback, I do wonder if it’s worth the effort. I can
produce an eBook no trouble at all, and it costs very little: beans in fact. If
I stay with my publisher, and providing she likes my next offering, she will
produce an eBook anyway. I can concentrate on my own paperbacks and hopefully
rely on sales of my traditionally published work on Amazon.

Looking ahead (but
not too far), we are off on our cruise round Alaska in three weeks’ time, then
a wedding in Norfolk early July. I should have a clear run until our visit to
Spain in October, so perhaps I will have something to offer my publisher. We’ll
see. Wish me luck!

There's got to be a book in there somewhere.

May 10^th. 2015

I’m still on that learning curve, but slowing down a
little. I know I will not make my own, self-imposed deadline of June to finish
my WIP, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles. I have so much to do alongside
the creative process, and not just promotion etc., but also work around the
house; trips out, essential business. All part of life’s rich pattern really.
Well, my life.

I’ve scheduled a book promotion for Monday 11^th.
This is for A
Covert War, which is picking up some good reviews
incidentally. It’s always a chore trying to choose a title to promote because I
feel they should all be promoted. I have tried to set myself a monthly budget
for advertising, but sometimes the price is too high. I have studied Facebook
advertising, and intend to use that sometime. The results can be good with FB,
but I need to make sure I know what I’m doing. I did think about advertising my
latest book, Past
Imperfect, but the price on eBooksToday was a
little high. The point about this book and promotion is that my publisher has
the rights still. If I promote, I’m not treading on anyone’s toes, but there’s
always the chance that my publisher is planning something. No, I don’t think
so, but you never know.

With my other hat on, I am putting something together for
the author group, CHINDI. This is to do with getting our books into a bookshop
during the Chichester Arts Festival in June. I have secured one shop, but
getting into others is like looking for hen’s teeth. I contacted four shops.
Two have failed to reply. One replied and said that self-published authors don’t
sell unless they have a promotion to back them up. One shop replied and showed
some interest. I will be calling in on the owner next week.

I did make a little progress with my WIP, but not a lot. I
had a problem with Scrivener that left me dangling a bit, but a word with their
support team and I received a reply from the designer himself. It’s more or
less sorted now, but these delays can be very frustrating, particularly when
you’ve found a window of time in which you can sit down and write.

On the family side, we spent a day with our second son, Terry.
He and his wife are buying a new-build up at Horsham; close to Gatwick airport
where he works (he’s a commercial airline pilot). Horsham is a lovely old town,
and it was nice to wander around with Terry and have lunch with him.

The following day, yesterday, we were over at our third son’s
place to celebrate his wife’s birthday. Me and John played snooker. Pat and
Bryony shopped. We arrived home in time to watch the VE celebrations on TV.
Great day all round.

This morning we chatted with son number four (Stephen) in
Australia. Skype is a wonderful thing for families who are separated by
thousands of miles. Oh, and Pat spoke to our eldest boy, Vincent on the phone
too. So there you have it: all the boys in less than seventy two hours.

I don’t expect to be writing up a blog for a couple of
weeks now because of family commitments that will take us away for a couple of weeks.
Hopefully when I return and put pen to paper, I will have more to say about how
successful I have been with my promotion. Wish me luck!

Technical and all that

What's PDF/X-1a:2001 got to do with it? Read on.

May 2^nd. 2015

When it comes to a learning curve, most of us have to
struggle. But when the advice comes in unrecognisable instructions, the
struggle takes on an unseemly desperation to make an advance up the learning
curve, knowing you’re not going to make it. And so it was when I tried to
upload a book jacket to Ingram Spark. It was rejected because of colour issues
along with the need to select something like CYMX and ensure the image
resolution was 300 ppi etc. etc. But! All this could be resolved simply by
saving as a default setting of PDF/X-1a:2001. And that, as they say, was where
it all began. Sounds like the opening line of a mystery, doesn’t it?

So what did I do? I did what anyone in desperate need of
help: I Googled PDF/X-1a:2001. And there it was: an explanation as clear as
mud. Several in fact. So I floundered and tried other ways around my problem,
but to no avail. Then, quite without warming, and not in the mood to do battle,
I chanced upon something in Photoshop called Adobe Presets. What was this, I
wondered? Could it be? You bet it could. There, nestling in this drop down
window was the PDF/X-1a:2001 in the smallest of fonts as though it was afraid
to show itself. I did a quick scramble, whistled up my book jacket, saved it
with the default setting and successfully uploaded it to Ingram Spark. So why
didn’t they suggest that in the first place? Probably because we are all
expected to be computer savvy. Fat chance! But its another piece of the jigsaw
in place and another hurdle I should be able to get over without a second
thought. Fingers crossed.

I’ve had a busy week with a mixture of gardening,
publishing but no writing. Try as I might, I am still finding it increasingly
difficult to make any headway with my current novel. I have prepared North Slope and Shadow
of the Wolf for publication on Amazon. At the moment
both titles are available on Amazon, but under the publisher name of Acclaimed
Books (AB.c). I have asked Peter Lihou, the CEO at AB.c, to de-list those two,
which means I will then be free to publish them with me as publisher. This
brings all my seven titles under my account with Amazon. Now I can begin to
handle the books, change the pricing, promote etc., without having to ask Pete
to do this for me. This was a long standing arrangement: something I intended
to do once we had moved back to UK from Spain.

My e-mail subscription list is growing, and hopefully this
will help propel me to bigger and better things in the book world. For anyone
reading this blog who might want to download a free copy of The Devil’s
Trinity and join my subscription list, the link
to obtain your free copy is http://eepurl.com/bgYKMj

Apart from the literary world, I have dug up a quantity of
soil in our garden to remove the weeds so we can lay turf down. I purchased
this today, and also laid in some lawn edging to tidy up the lawn edges. I also
bought a patio set. I changed some light fittings for Pat and put up a couple
of hanging baskets. The garden will look great come the summer but I doubt
if  I’ll have my book finished by then.
Let’s hope so. Wish me luck!