Family Fun

April 4, 2015

Having survived the April
fool gags and not fallen for any of them, I am now looking forward to making
real progress in my own ‘fool’s paradise’ of promotion, publishing and
marketing. I managed to upload a book jacket and interior file to Ingram Spark
— this was for The Devil’s Trinity — and thought I’d done this successfully,
only to be knocked back when my cover jacket was rejected because of a size
problem. But fortunately (I hope), we had a family gathering here yesterday,
and our number two son, Terry, who designed all my book jackets, was on hand to
help me fit the jacket into the Ingram Spark template. Why are easy things so
complicated? I won’t know yet how successful that’s been, but I’ve already
spent money without seeing a final result.

The family gathering was
lovely: three of our sons, two of their wives and our eldest grand-daughter.
Fitting eight people round our small dining table was a little problem, but we
overcame that and spent a few hours chatting, eating, drinking and generally
enjoying each other’s company. Our youngest son couldn’t be there because he
lives in Australia, but we did think of him. One thing I always enjoy when our
boys got together is the banter between them. When they start reminiscing about
their youth, they reveal secrets that youngsters don’t share with their
parents. Me and Pat have big smiles on our faces while it all goes on. We join
in of course, but sometimes it’s difficult to get a word in edgeways. After
living in Spain for seventeen years and being limited when it came to family
gatherings, it was an absolute joy to have them all here.

But now they have all
departed and it’s back to some sort of normality, and for me that means more
writing and learning. I’m pleased with the gradual increase in my e-mail
subscription list. I’m picking up at least one a day and have reached 31 so
far. I know it doesn’t seem a big deal, but two weeks ago I didn’t have a
subscription list. I’m hoping the growth will be exponential, and I can enjoy
having a big list. One day maybe.

Another glimmer of light
in the long tunnel is I am picking up followers every day on Twitter, and two
or three a week on Pinterest. I am also seeing a slight shift upward in my
sales figures: nothing spectacular; but encouraging signs for me. The free
downloads of The Eagle’s Covenant continue, and have reached about 5000 now. I
think this may be where I am getting the interest developing in my other
titles, and also picking up the subscribers because of the offer I make at the
front and back of the book. Anyone reading this blog who may want to see what
the offer is can actually see it using the “Look inside” facility on Amazon. In
fact, you could click the link without downloading the book. But to save you
the trouble, here’s the link: http://eepurl.com/bgYKMj.
If you click on that, you’ll be straight on to my offer.

So what next? I am in the process of reviving my Scrivener
project for my next novel. I’m using an instructional video by Jason Hough on
You Tube. It’s called Scrivener Boot Camp, and well worth a look for wannabe
writers. Perhaps I will get my novel finished before the end of summer. Wish me
luck!