Free and Easy. #The Eagle's Covenant

February 28, 2015

Just when you think you are making progress, another
gremlin leaps into the system and spoils your day. I spent a few hours cursing
the internet last Thursday because mine was up and down like the proverbial lingerie
of a lady of the night. I took my PC into the shop who checked it there and
then and said there was nothing wrong with it. Speak to your provider, they
said. In my case it is Sky Broadband. I bring the PC home, plug it in and the
sound system stops working. It’s been perfect up to now. So there I am diving
under the desk unplugging this and that. But the PC refused to concede defeat,
which meant another trip to the shop; although not until Monday because Friday
we were out most of the day, and the shop is closed Saturday. This morning it
worked fine. I think the gremlin is laughing at me. Some might say its finger
trouble, which I accept, but it still managed to drive me up the wall. And the
internet is behaving itself too.

Last week I put one of my books — The Eagle’s Covenant —
on ‘permafree’. I advertised it and was pleased to see it rise up in the
rankings and reach No.3 in the free, political eBooks. I also made the top
1000, which is a lot higher than somewhere down around 150,000 where it usually
languishes. I can see a very modest rise in my book sales at the moment, but
I’ve no idea if its because of my keyword changes, or some readers are
beginning to enjoy my work at last. I have found though, that my modest rises
are in UK; not America. That’s still proving to be a tough nut to crack.

As part of my drive to reach a greater share of the
reader market, I am trying to put together a presentable campaign using the
email service of MailChimp. I’m finding that a little difficult and confusing,
probably because of my age, but I have managed to send a couple of test emails
to me and my wife. I have now asked my four sons to let me add their names to
my campaign. Once I am happy with the way I have set it all out, then I will
ask all my readers (!!) to sign up. But it is something of a chicken and egg
argument: if I have very few readers, how do I get to a target of 2000? (That’s
as far as I can go with the free portion of MailChimp). Wish me luck!

Selling Michael Parker and why it isn't easy.

February 21, 2015

I’m taking more faltering steps into self-publishing as
the real truth behind it all begins to unravel. Until now I have not needed to
get too involved because others have done the work for me. But like the
proverbial swan gliding around on the surface of the water; the marketing feet
are going nineteen to the dozen beneath it all while above the surface all is
calm and under control. Writing books and having them published by
professionals is fine. Going into self-publishing and having someone else do
the work for you is fine too, but when you realise that as a writer you’ll
remain invisible unless you promote yourself, then sales will be as rare as
hen’s teeth. The faltering steps I mentioned at the beginning of this blog are
mine. I am beginning to learn that my books will never sell well — never mind
my quality as a writer — unless I start looking in the right places and find
those corners where the secrets lie.

I’ve been following Nick Stephenson’s tutorial (I met
him in London a couple of weeks ago) and learning some really useful stuff, as
well as seeing how little I know. I have also been brought up short by the fact
that none of my paperbacks will ever be sold through UK retailers because they
are published by CreateSpace, a subsidiary publishing outlet of Amazon. This
means I now have to find a British publisher, or a POD imprint company who will
have established links to the UK retail outlets. ISBNs are another minefield. I
realise now that I need to purchase a block from Nielsen. This also means
having to re-publish the three titles I have currently listed with me as
publisher. My other four titles are still with Acclaimed Books, but because I
am taking them under my name again, I will need to ensure they are available
through all outlets world-wide. This doesn’t mean that my books will suddenly
appear in the high street book shops; but if ever I get the chance to sell them
that way, I have to be prepared.

Keywords and web crawlers are expressions that are now
familiar to me. Apart from a vague understanding why keywords were necessary, I
could never fully understand what all the fuss was about. After all; wasn’t my
ability as a writer supposed to do that for me? And web crawlers? Did I want
them wandering all over my stuff? I do now. Why? Because I am grasping the
nettle and understanding the game more and more. But after all that, success
isn’t guaranteed; I still need to work at it.

I did manage to add another couple of thousand words to
my current MS. I’m not whooping for joy because I have finally put pen to
paper. I know it’s going to be a difficult road ahead — it always has been —
but now it’s going to be even harder. Of course, other things get in the way of
my routines etc. Hospital appointments for one thing. Shopping (ugh!). And life
in general. I will miss the next meeting of the Chindi (www.chindi-authors.co.uk)
writers because I have an eye appointment a couple of hours before the meeting,
and I will not be able to drive because of having drops in my eyes. And missing
the meeting hurts because I believe I will benefit enormously from being a
member of the group. I know: I will also benefit by seeing the eye specialist!

But looking ahead I see plenty of positives. Perhaps at
the moment I am trying to run before I have learned to walk; and if I show a
little patience, and the effort I put in starts having an effect on my sales,
then the positives will more than make up for the difficulties (from a book
point of view) I’m experiencing now. Wish me luck!

Learning the Lesson

February 15, 2015

I seem to be increasing my work load simply by looking
into ways of promoting and marketing my books. Despite the ease with which the
methods are claimed to be, and that no technical knowledge is required, I find
myself scratching my head and wondering what I must do next; or how do I
prepare a campaign and list of subsrcibers for Mail Chimp. Do I really need
e-pub, mobi and pdf files ready to distribute to those on my subscriber list
should they ask? And here’s the chicken and egg argument: how do I get
subscribers if my standing as a writer comes close to invisible? The answer, of
course, is patience, hard work and ‘stickability’ (and the tutorials).

I’ve worked my way through the three, free videos on how
to increase my visibility, and have watched two of them twice. They are packed
with information and I expect I will be watching them again. Then there’s
MailChimp. It’s so easy a monkey could do it. I must be descended from a
different kind of monkey because my head is still spinning. Perhaps an increase
in my banana consumption might help? Oh, and I forgot Calibre: probably the
easiest way to convert documents to epub etc. Of course, there’s PhotoShop ,
which is really handy when uploading jackets to CreateSpace, particularly if
you know what you are doing. But never mind; there are always the tutorials to
hand. But what’s missing out of all this? What vital ingredient has to go into
the mix in order to make sales? That’s right: books. And writing books is what
I do best. I don’t need tutorials. I’ve been there, done that and got the Tee
shirt. But there’s not enough time of day left to settle down with pen in hand
(e-pen) and write. I use Scrivener by the way. Forgot that one. Had to use the
tutorial of course, but I managed it in the end. But I won’t give up. Once I’ve
organised myself into some semblance of order, have grasped the finer details
of marketing and promotion, and can see light at the end of the tunnel, I will
write. All I need to do now is communicate with readers. Not authors, but
readers: people who will agree to sign up to my e-mail campaign once I get it
rolling. They will receive the occasional e-mail from me letting them know what
offer or news I have. The first offer will be a free ebook in return for signing
up. They can even unsubscribe once they’ve received the freebie. But first of
all, I will be putting one of my titles out as a ‘permafree’ in the hope that
will attract readers to my list. It will be a little while yet before I’m ready
for the big ‘launch’. Meanwhile, anyone reading this blog who might be
interested once I begin, might like to let me know through the contact page.
Just think: it could be the beginning of a great partnership. I hope so. Wish
me luck!

Rubbing shoulders with the big guns

February 7, 2015

It’s been quite a week,
one way or another. The highlight though was attending the meeting in London of
the International Thriller Writers (ITW). This was for the European members,
and hopefully it will be the forerunner of many more. The ITW is really an
American organisation, and all the emphasis with regard to meetings and
“Thriller Fests” has always been American orientated. Now the European arm
finally has a real voice.

For a writer like myself:
virtually unknown and with very low sales, it meant a great deal to rub
shoulders with the big hitters on this side of the Atlantic. I used to be a
contributing editor for ITW: something I volunteered to do in the hope it might
raise my profile. It didn’t work, although I contributed about seven interviews
including C.J.Carver, one of ITW’s higher profile members. She was there on
Wednesday, and I was able to have a few minutes chat with her.

The meeting was organised
by J.T.Penn (Joanna), and Simon Toyne. Both best-selling authors. Joanna will
be one of the guests at the New York Thriller Fest this year. The other
speakers were Nick Stephenson, an Amazon top ten author, and Erin Kelly. Erin
won the Richard & Judy top book award (big here in UK), and is now working
with BBC to novelise the hit TV series ‘Broadchurch’. She currently has four,
best-selling novels to her credit. There were other writers there who have
achieved much in the book world, and I was able to speak to a couple of them.

The meeting was not about
glad handing and paying homage to the big guns: it was more of a celebration;
being able to meet as a European contingent. And there was a great deal of
information and help from the presenters on how to look at the way in which books
are marketed and promoted, and some eye-opening stuff about advertising and
promoting. I’m sure people like me came away from the meeting filled with ideas
of how to change direction with regard to ‘selling’ ourselves and hence our
books.

Nick Stephenson has a
free, on-line tutorial about raising your profile and readership levels. I had
signed up for this free course of tutorials a week ago. Imagine my surprise
when I saw Nick sitting in front of me at the meeting. Naturally I grabbed the
opportunity to talk to him. And because he was one of the presenters, I knew I
was on safe ground with his tutorial.

All in all the meeting
was a resounding success for more than just my own reasons. And as a bonus to my
good week; I had an interview published in the local newspaper about my latest
book, Past Imperfect. One of the
pieces of advice I have taken on board is to try and build a reader platform by
starting an e-mail subscription list. I will begin by offering one of my
e-books free (permafree), and build from there. Perhaps readers of this blog
will keep an eye out for my first offer and sign up. I hope so. Whether this
will work as effectively as other writers who have found success this way, I
have no idea, but I am going to give it a go. Wish me luck.

Books and Bookshops

February 1, 2015

Over the last ten days or so I have been circulating
round bookshops in the area as a precursor to my next meeting with the Chindi
writers group. I have been tasked with getting our books into retail outlets,
which is why I have been talking to the owners and managers of said shops. But
what a struggle! Two of the shops were advertising closing down sales:
“everything must go!” One was no longer in existence; another was without a
manager for several days, and the main high street chain offered some hope but
nothing definite. With one it was a case of “I’ll make enquiries with head
office and ring you back.” The other main chain offered to look at our ISBN
numbers and make a decision. So it wasn’t all a big NO, but I don’t hold out
much hope. I have still to talk to a private shop whose owner only works at the
shop three days each week. Although she was interested, her shop is so small
that she would probably only be able to fit a few titles in. I’ll be seeing her
on Tuesday with fingers crossed.

This week I am off to London for the International
Thriller Writers ‘meet up’. I’m looking forward to that enormously and expect
to rub shoulders with some of the leading thriller writers in Europe. I don’t
expect to see any American authors because this meeting is for the European
members only. I’ll write a full report on the meeting in my next blog.
Hopefully I’ll have something to write about.

And another celebration for me was the publishing of my
latest novel, Past Imperfect. The
official release date was last Friday, but already my copies and those I’m ‘gifting’
to family and friends have already reached their destinations. One of my sons,
who has only read my books and no other author, couldn’t put the book down once
he’d started. I still wonder why he doesn’t read other authors because there
are so many talented ones out there.

Back on to one of my earlier topics about publishing on
CreateSpace: I am still frustrated by my own inability to produce an acceptable
book jacket to fit the CreateSpace trim sizes. I do get there eventually, but
last week I received a proof copy of Hell’s
Gate, and decided to I needed to make a small change the interior file. I
submitted the file only to have the jacket rejected because it didn’t fit their
trim size. It was annoying because I had made no changes to the cover; only the
interior. Needless to say I have gone over the process again even though I
still am not completely at home with Photoshop. That will be three titles of
mine with me as publisher on Amazon; only four more to go. I’ll probably have
it all sussed by the time I get to the end. Wish me luck!