Saturday 28 February 2015

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!

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