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!